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 | This page in a nutshell: One of the joys of editing Wikipedia is that you can start editing on one topic, and then, via blue links, end up editing an article on a completely unrelated topic that you know nothing about. |
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Since Wikipedia articles are full of blue links to other Wikipedia articles, this can lead to the unusual, yet arguably pleasurable experience of starting out editing an article on distortion guitar pedals, then end up, several hours later, via the serendipity of clicking on blue links, to you editing an article on a French Revolution theorist that you've never heard of.
Whoa!! Did you just enter an Alice in Wonderland-type "rabbit hole" to another parallel universe? Did you accidentally cause a little rip in the space-time continuum that opened up a wormhole to another dimension?
No. Sorry to say, even though Wikipedia is highly awesome, it does not (yet, as of January 2024), offer parallel universe-rabbit hole or wormhole travel capabilities. If you have found yourself starting out on an article on your fave subject and you ending up writing about something completely unfamiliar to you, it happened due to the serendipity of clicking on one blue link after another.
This essay will explain, giving just one example, how an editor could make such an unexpected topic transition over an editing session, without realizing it.