Developer creates endless Wikipedia feed to fight algorithm addiction
During a recent Wikitok viewing, I encountered records on such topics as SX-Window (a graphic interface for a series of computers Sharp X68000), xanthocillin (“The first natural product contains a functional group of isocyanides), Lorenzo Ghiberti (Italian sculptor Renaissance from Florence), house), house), house William Wieler in Texas and the city of Krauta, Germany, none of which I knew that it existed before the session.
How Vikitok took off
The initial idea for Wikitok arose from the developer Tyler Angert on Monday evening, when he wrote on Twitter: “Madly the idea of the project: all Wikipedia on one scrolling page.” Bloomberg Beta VC James Cham replied: “Even better, endlessly scrolling through Wikipedia based on what you are interested in further?” And Angert came up with Vikitok in the subsequent post.
Early the next morning, at 12:28, the writer Grant Schatton quoted the discussion in Vikitok, and it was here that hemal entered. “I saw it from [Slatton’s] Quote Retwit: “He said to Arsa.” I immediately thought: “Wow, I can build MVP [minimum viable product] And it can take off. ”
Hemal began his project at 12:30 in the morning, and with the help of AI coding tools, such as the Claude and Anthropic cursor, he finished the prototype by 2 o’clock in the morning and published the results on X. Someone later announced Wikitok on Hacker News Ycombinator, where he He headed the list of daily news of the site.
Wikitok’s web application operating in a web browser of desktop computers.
Credit: Benge Edwards
“All this is only a few hundred lines of the code, and Claude wrote the vast majority of them,” said Gemal. “AI helped me send it very quickly and simply to benefit from the original viral tweet with a request to scroll through Wikipedia.”
Gemal published a code for Wikitok on GitHub, so anyone can change or contribute to the project. Right now, the web application supports 14 languages, preliminary viewing of articles and exchange of articles both on the desktop and on mobile browsers. New functions may appear when participants add them. It is based on a technical stack that includes React 18, Typescript, Tailwind CSS and Vite.
And until now, he adheres to his vision of the free way to enjoy Wikipedia, not being monitored and purposeful. “I have no grandiose plans about some crazy monetized hypercalcial algorithm Tiktok, ”said Gemal.“ This is anti-algorithmic, if something.“