 | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 Screenshot of the main page on 1 April 2006 | |
| Type of site | Wiki, online encyclopedia |
|---|---|
| Available in | Spanish |
| Owner | University of Seville |
| Created by | Edgar Enyedy |
| URL | enciclopedia |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Not required (although in some events unregistered users have to register to view and edit) |
| Users | 3,921 registered users, 1 active (September 2023) |
| Launched | 26 February 2002; 22 years ago (2002-02-26) |
| Current status | Inactive |
| Content license | Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike 3.0 |
| Written in | MediaWiki, made in PHP |
Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español (English: Universal 💕 in Spanish) was a Spanish-language wiki-based online encyclopedia that started as a fork of the Spanish Misplaced Pages, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0 and using the same MediaWiki software.
History
The Enciclopedia Libre was founded by contributors to the Spanish Misplaced Pages who decided to start an independent project. Led by Edgar Enyedy, they left Misplaced Pages on 26 February 2002, and created the new website, provided by the University of Seville for free, with the freely licensed articles of the Spanish Misplaced Pages.
The reasons for the split are explained on Enciclopedia Libre. Key issues included concerns about censorship and the possibility of advertising on Misplaced Pages. Edgar Enyedy stated the main reasons for splitting at that time as:
- Perceived expectation that Misplaced Pages would soon start hosting advertisements.
- Non-English Wikipedias were running older versions of MediaWiki.
- When national groups offered help in software development and maintenance, access to the servers was denied.
- The downloadable database dumps of Misplaced Pages content were highly outdated.
- Misplaced Pages was hosted on a .com rather than a .org domain.
Post-split history
In 2011, Enyedy said that the sole reason for the failure of Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español as a long-term project was that it "was not intended to last. It was merely a form of pressure. Some of the goals were achieved, not all of them, but it was worth the cost." He further said "Nowadays, the romantic point of view is that EL survived and is still going strong." He argued that while the viewpoint is positive, it is not factual.
By late 2024 the site had ceased operations.
See also
- EcuRed – Online encyclopedia from Cuba built on MediaWiki software
- Susning.nu (former Swedish wiki)
- Baidu Baike (Chinese wiki)
- List of online encyclopedias
References
- "Estadísticas". Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español (in Spanish). Archived from the original on July 9, 2009. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
- "Lista de usuarios activos". Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
- ^ Tkacz, Nathaniel (20 January 2011). "The Spanish Fork: Misplaced Pages's ad-fuelled mutiny". Wired UK. Archived from the original on 4 May 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
- "Enciclopedia:Por qué estamos aquí y no en es.wikipedia.org". Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 19, 2007. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
- Lih, Andrew (2009). The Misplaced Pages Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia. London: Aurum. p. 9. ISBN 9781845134730. OCLC 280430641.
External links
- Official website (in Spanish)
- Old website (in Spanish)
- EL Taller — fork of Enciclopedia Libre (in Spanish)
- Alvarez, Carlos "Enciclopedias en Internet". El País. 29 December 2005. (in Spanish)
