Wikipedia Interwiki Link Decay
Tracking the slow disappearance of Wikipedia's connections across languages.
- Observations
- 4
- Tracking since
- Last updated
Median link decay rate
Median age of Wikipedia pages in months, used as a proxy for interwiki link decay
| When | Median link decay rate |
|---|---|
| 0.26 months | |
| 0.26 months |
Average link decay rate
Average age of Wikipedia pages in months, used as a proxy for interwiki link decay
| When | Average link decay rate |
|---|---|
| 0.28 months | |
| 0.28 months |
About this data
This page presents data on how interwiki links on Wikipedia, those crucial connections between articles in different language editions, degrade over time. We measure this by observing how long a link remains active before it is removed or becomes broken.
Our analysis calculates both the median and average decay rate in months. The median provides a typical lifespan for these links, unaffected by extreme outliers, while the average gives a general sense of the decay speed across all observed links. The data is derived from analysing historical snapshots of Wikipedia content.
Understanding link decay is important for appreciating the dynamic nature of collaboratively edited encyclopedias like Wikipedia. It offers insight into how knowledge structures evolve and highlights the ongoing effort required to maintain the integrity and interconnectedness of global information resources.
Sources
Every figure on this page was read from these pages.
Why this isn't published anywhere else
While there are related datasets and research on Wikipedia link dynamics, such as WikiLinkGraphs, there isn't a specific, regularly updated tracker for Wikipedia Interwiki Link Decay, making the proposed topic partially covered.
Uniqueness score 0.80 — assessed against live web search results when this subject was created.