Wikibot — A Wikipedia Articles Reader for Pc

I got this program because I had too many Wikipedia tabs continually cluttering up my web browsers. Offloading these into a separate Wikipedia-reading program has been quite helpful. As the name suggests, the app is a Wikipedia reader. Don’t expect functionality beyond viewing Wikipedia articles, although, as the feature list indicates, the app does this in some fancy ways. I haven’t found a similar application that comes close to the app on OS X. (I’ve also tried Wikipanion Plus and Articles for the iPad, and there I think Wikipanion Plus has the edge over the app.) However, images are broken under Yosemite, and there is no way to export your bookmarks. This became a problem when I switched computers; I wanted to set up the new one manually to avoid the accumulated cruft that dominated my old drive, and I couldn’t even locate the the app bookmarks file. I wound up re-bookmarking everything manually. Worringly, this application seems to have been abandoned by its developers. The company website link and the “reader support” link from the app store are both broken, the Avocado Hills Twitter feed hasn’t posted anything since May 2013, the program itself hasn’t seen an update in over a year, and the app 2 is only available for the iPhone and iPad.

I’m pre-med right now and was in need of some quick simple reference searches for everything from quick refreshment to curiosity. This app certainly does the trick. Simple additives make this app something I continually come back to. Only downside, which I hope is fixed, is the photo/JPG etc viewer. Photos are generally disproportionate and not always easy to see. Resizing and scaling is worthless. This is not a huge issue for me though. At least not yet.

Wikipedia only gets better and better. I use Britannica Online, and an online library--both of which cost over $100 for access each year. As a semi-retired theologian and writer, I have a 50+ year perspective on not only theological literature, but also philosophy and psychology--all of which I taught as at a B.A. and M.A. levels, and in field schools around the third world nations. The genius of Wikipedia is that its open source strategy which allows for a modified form of peer-review via addition to articles (under supervision of Wikipedia editors). Congratulations Wikipedia staff. The aplication has never broken down on my computers. Wikipeda is becoming well-respected in various disciplines of study, and not only at the general knowledge level. I notice Wikapedia being cited more frequently in papers that require veracity both in quotes and attributions.

This is competent dedicated Wikipedia app that’s great for storing a collection of your favorite articles. The sidebar navigation makes it easy to jump to whatever you want. But the best thing about this program is that it syncs with the iPhone app (I believe there’s no other Mac Wikipedia app that does this), and the iPhone app has been left looking very outdated for quite some time. Other developers - like Robert Chin, who works on Wikipanion - continue to update their apps regularly, while this one and its iPhone companion have generally sat on the sidelines since their initial release. I hope the developers jump back in to giving this app the attention it deserves.