Status and community news

As of Sunday, 31 July 2006, the Polish language Wikipedia contained about 255,196 articles. Of these, 170 articles (approximately 1 in 1500) are considered artykuły na medal ("Articles for a medal", the Polish Wikipedia equivalent of featured articles). Polish Wikipedia has no equivalent of good articles page in the English or Lesenswerte Artikel in the German Wikipedia yet. In addition, 143 images are considered grafiki na medal (the Polish Wikipedia equivalent of featured pictures).

The latest three additions to the list of articles for a medal are: Migration Period, Biecz (a town in southern Poland) and Freemasonry. Among images from the Polish Wikipedia probably the most noteworthy are maps, illustrations and diagrams. The latest three images that have gained recently featured status are:

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  Formosan Sika Deer
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  Yeast membrane proteins
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  Relief map of Pieniny Mountains

Polish Wikipedia on DVD

Wikimedia Polska (the Polish local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation) is aiming to publish a DVD with Polish Wikipedia content in Autumn 2006. The publication is a joint venture with a leading Polish IT publisher Helion, will strictly follow GNU FDL license, and will be available in shops all over Poland for a to-be-announced price. The DVD publication is being worked on by a group of 13 paid Wikipedia contributors and a growing number of Wikipedia volunteers. Revenue from the sale of the DVD will be distributed between Wikimedia Polska, the Wikimedia Foundation and Helion.

WikiRPG

Unlike its English equivalent, WikiRPG WikiFaktoria in the Polish Wikipedia generated much wider interest and has made considerable contribution to quality. Basically, WikiRPG is a quality drive under guise of a role playing game. WikiRPG "players" enjoy taking part in the project that they think is competitive and fun. The WikiProject was introduced into Polish Wikipedia by Wikipedian WarX and now it's run by Przykuta, who is current Game Master.

Megapanel

According to research published by Megapanel, the biggest website popularity research, on 30 July 2006, Wikipedia was the 8th most popular website in Poland in May 2006. Wikipedia's reach in the last six months is stable and shows growth compared to the equivalent results in 2005.

In the media

Several interesting news items about Wikipedia and related subjects have appeared in prestigious news outlets in Poland in 2006. The most noteworthy examples are:

• A web-based news service called Nauka w Polsce, which is a division of the Polish News Agency, published an interview with Piotr Flatau, a notable Polish Wikipedian, on 28 July 2006. Piotr Flatau is a scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. He talks about his experiences as a Wikipedian and social aspects of being a Wikipedia contributor.
• An article about the Polish Wikipedia, Wikipedia Conquers the World, was published on 5 March 2006 in the well-known Polish weekly Przegląd. The article presents Wikipedia in a favourable light and elaborates on the Polish language version of the project.
• The Polish edition of Newsweek also looked at Wikipedia as a remarkable web phenomenon in a feature called Encyclopedia without borders, published on 22 January 2006
• Similarly to the Seigenthaler hoax on the English Wikipedia, the Henryk Batuta hoax on the Polish Wikipedia was reported in numerous Polish mass media publications. Although the hoax was different in nature, the hoax showed Wikipedia's problems in spotting more sophisticated types of vandalism.