[WikiEN-l] Re: 500k press release

Fri Mar 18 06:01:42 UTC 2005

Sj wrote:

>Thanks for the feedback, Charles and Tony.  I'll make some tweaks in
>an hour or so to make sure it mentions our amazing multilingualism,
>and highlights our popularity /as a reference work/, if I can think of
>a good way to slip it in.
>
>I was planning to leave a couple days for people to set up a new
>press-log, and think about who to contact; and then send out the
>releases all at once this Sunday.  However, people are already
>starting to write about us reaching the half-million mark, not least
>b/c of Jimbo's presentation yesterday at e-tech.  See for instance the
>Inquirer:
>   http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21909
>
>What do you all think?  Should we send out press releases
>tommorrow/Saturday, to be as timely as possible?  Also, what was the
>500,000th article?
>  
>
Answers:
1. I think the press release is great work, good job all around.
2. Yes, we should act quickly. Nothing kills the media's interest in a 
press release quicker than being old news. Although news cycles being 
what they are, once we hit the weekend it won't matter that much which 
day it is, so might as well keep sending it out through Sunday.
3. Based on Alterego's calculation of the precise time (I'm not sure how 
that was determined, but I'll take what I can get), the article that's 
the closest match seems to be [[Involuntary settlements in the Soviet 
Union]]. So congratulations to Mikkalai, and of course congratulations 
to everybody who's helped make Wikipedia into a wonderful resource. Now 
we just need to go and make that into a featured article!

--Michael Snow