Encyclopedia Encyclopedia (also encyclopaedia, cyclopedia or cyclopaedia, from Greek enkyklios paideia, roughly "general education") is a large [1]book (or a series of books) providing structured summary of wide knowledge in one or many fields of knowledge (such as [2]mathematics, [3]history, engineering, general knowledge etc.), usually structured as a collection of alphabetically ordered articles on terms used in the field. Paper encyclopedias are oftentimes printed in several volumes as the amount of contained information is too great for a single book (in large ones you may even see one or two volumes dedicated ONLY for the [4]index). The largest and most famous encyclopedia to date is the online [5]Wikipedia created by volunteers in [6]free culture spirit, however Wikipedia suffers from significant issues such as [7]censorship, high political propaganda and low quality of writing, therefore it is important to also stay interested in other encyclopedias such as Britannica, Americana or [8]LRS wiki. Encyclopedias are [9]awesome, get as many of them as you can, especially the printed ones -- they are usually relatively cheap (especially second hand books) and provide an ENORMOUS amount of information, FOREVER (no one can cancel your physically owned paper book, you will retain it even after the [10]collapse when such books will become practically your only source of human knowledge). Also remember, paper books are still of much higher quality than online resources such as [11]Wikipedia -- even if they lose in terms of shear volume, they make up in quality of writing and still many times contain information that's not available online, and the older ones are more objective and trustworthy, considering the decline of [12]free speech online. Shorter articles may also do a better job at providing overall summary of a topic and filtering out less important information, as opposed to a gigantic Wikipedia article. Furthermore even if such a book isn't [13]free as in freedom, the knowledge, information and data contained in it is in the [14]public domain as such things cannot (yet) be owned, therefore it is possible to legally paraphrase the information into a new source which we may make public domain itself (however watch out to not merely copy-paste texts from encyclopedias as text CAN be [15]copyrighted, as well as e.g. the mere selection of which facts to include; always be very careful). Since an encyclopedia will typically focus on encompassing wide knowledge, as the other side of the coin its disadvantage will also oftentimes be shallowness, it will go into greater depth only on very important topics, although very big encyclopedias largely eliminate this issue and go fairly deep on all subjects; encyclopedias specialized on some particular subject can also afford to provide in-depth knowledge. { A favorite pastime of mine is looking up the same term in different encyclopedias and comparing them -- this can help get to the essence of actually understanding the term, as well as revealing censorship and different views of the authors. ~drummyfish } Great nerds read encyclopedias linearly from start to finish just like a normal book, which may help expand one's knowledge as well as ignite curiosity in new things and spot some cool interesting facts. { And yet bigger nerds write their own encyclopedias. ~drummyfish } Similar terms: encyclopedias, which also used to be called cyclopedias in the past, are similar to dictionaries and these types of books often overlap (many encyclopedias call themselves dictionaries); the main difference is that a dictionary focuses on providing linguistic information and generally has shorter term definitions, while encyclopedias have longer articles (which however limits their total number, i.e. encyclopedias will usually prefer quality over quantity). Encyclopedias are also a subset of so called reference works, i.e. works that serve to provide [16]information and reference to it (other kinds of reference works being e.g. world maps, tabulated values or [17]API references). A universal/general encyclopedia is one that focuses on human knowledge at wide, as opposed to an encyclopedia that focuses on one specific field of knowledge. Compendium can be seen almost as a synonym to encyclopedia, with encyclopedias perhaps usually being more general and extensive. Almanac is also similar to encyclopedia, more focusing on tabular data. Micropedia is another term, sometimes used to denote a smaller encyclopedia (one edition of Britannica came with a micropedia as well as a larger macropedia). These are some nice/interesting/benchmark articles to look up in encyclopedias: [18]algorithm, [19]anarchism, Andromeda (galaxy), Antarctica, Atlantis, atom, [20]axiom of choice, [21]Bible, [22]big bang, [23]black hole, [24]brain, [25]Buddhism, [26]C (programming language), [27]cannibalism, [28]capitalism, castle, [29]cat, [30]censorship, [31]central processing unit, [32]chess, Chicxulub, China, [33]color, comet, [34]communism, [35]computer, [36]Creative Commons, [37]Deep Blue, [38]democracy, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, [39]depression, [40]determinism, [41]dinosaur, dodo, [42]dog, [43]Doom (game), [44]Earth, [45]Einstein, [46]Elo, [47]Encyclopedia, [48]entropy, [49]ethics, [50]Euler's Number, [51]evolution, [52]font, [53]football, [54]fractal, [55]free software, [56]game, gigantopythecus, [57]go (game), [58]god, [59]GNU project, [60]hacker, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, [61]hardware, [62]Hitler, [63]Holocaust, [64]homosexual, [65]human, [66]infinity, [67]information, intelligence, [68]Internet, [69]IQ, Japan, [70]Jesus, [71]Jew, [72]language, [73]Latin, [74]life, [75]light, lightning, [76]Linux, [77]logarithm, [78]logic, [79]love, Mammoth, [80]mathematics, Mariana Trench, Mars, Milky Way, Moon, [81]morality, Mount Everest, [82]music, [83]necrophilia, [84]number, [85]Open Source, negro, [86]nigger, pacifism, [87]pedophilia, [88]penis, [89]pi, Pluto, [90]prime number, [91]quaternion, Pompei, [92]Quran, [93]race, Roman Empire, [94]sex, [95]sine, [96]schizophrenia, [97]software, [98]Stallman (Richard), [99]star, Stonehenge, [100]suicide, Sun, Tibet, [101]technology, Tetris, [102]time, Titanic, [103]transistor, Troy, Tyrannousaurus Rex, [104]UFO, [105]universe, [106]Unix, Uruk, [107]Usenet, Valonia Ventricosa (bubble algae), Vatican, Venus, video game, [108]Wikipedia, [109]woman, [110]World War II, [111]World Wide Web, ... What is the best letter in an encyclopedia? If you are super nerdy, you may start to search for your favorite starting letter -- this if [112]fun and may also help you e.g. decide which volume of your encyclopedia to take with you when traveling. Which letter is best depends on many things, e.g. the language of the encyclopedia, its size, your area of interest and so on. Assuming [113]English and topics that would be interesting to the readers of [114]LRS wiki, the best letter is most likely C -- it is the second most common starting letter in dictionaries, has a great span and includes essential and interesting terms such as [115]computer, [116]C programming language, [117]cat, [118]communism, [119]capitalism, [120]chess, [121]christianity, [122]collapse, [123]CPU, [124]color, [125]culture, [126]copyleft, [127]compiler, [128]creative commons, [129]cryptography, [130]copyright, [131]car, [132]cancer, [133]cellular automata, [134]consumerism, [135]cosine, [136]Chomsky, [137]CIA, [138]cybernetics, [139]cracking, [140]chaos, [141]carbon, [142]curvature, [143]chemistry, [144]censorship and others. As close second comes S, the most frequent letter in dictionaries, with terms such as [145]Stallman, [146]science, [147]shader, [148]semiconductor, [149]silicon, [150]software, [151]sound, [152]socialism, [153]state, [154]selflessness, [155]speech recognition, [156]steganography, [157]square root, [158]sudoku, [159]suicide, [160]speedrun, [161]space, [162]star, [163]Sun, [164]sine, [165]Soviet union, [166]schizophrenia, [167]set, [168]suckless, [169]shit, [170]sex and others. { This is based on a list I made where I assigned points to each letter. The letters that follow after C and S are P, M, A, E, T, L, R, F, D, G, I, B, H, U, N, W, V, J, O, K, Q, Z, Y, X. ~drummyfish } Notable/Nice Encyclopedias Here is a list of notable encyclopedias, focused on general knowledge English language ones. The most notable ones are in bold. Also check out existing encyclopedias in other languages that you speak, we can't list those here. { See also https://wikiindex.org/. ~drummyfish } name year legal status format ~articles comment legendary enc., major edition, Britannica 9th 1889 PD (old) 25 vol. one of "Big Three", partly edition digitized (archive.org, wikisource, ...) legendary enc., major edition, Britannica 11th 1910 PD (old) 29 vol. 40K one of "Big Three", mostly edition digitized (both scan and txt), PC incorrect :) Britannica nice, short descriptions, Concise 2002 proprietary 1 vol. 2000p 28K condensed from the main Encyclopedia multivol. Brit., piratable pdf Britannica online ...now proprietary online 130K bloated, high quality articles, unpaid is limited and with ads proprietary? Wikipedia alternative, [171]Citizendium 2006... (NC) online 18K censored, faggots have unclear license Chambers 1 vol republication of old Encyclopedia 2001 proprietary 1 vol. 980p multivol. enc. (going back to (new) 1800s, already PD), topic-sorted NOT TO BE CONFUSED with Collier's New 1921 PD (old) 10 vol. Collier's Encyclopedia Encyclopedia (different one), digitized on Wikisource (txt) high quality, lots of Columbia 1935... proprietary 1 vol. ~3Kp ~50K information { Read the 1993 Encyclopedia edition, it's super nice. ~drummyfish } [172]Conservaped. 2006... proprietary online 52K American fascist wiki, has basic factual errors by James Hughes, nice, quality Larousse Desk 1995 proprietary 1 vol. 800p 200K? general overviews, Reference Enc. topic-ordered { I bought this, it's nice. ~drummyfish } Domestic 1802 PD (old) 4 vol. shorter articles, partially Encyclopaedia digitized on Wikisource longer articles, one of "Big Encyclopedia 1820... PD (old) ~30 vol. Three", several editions (1906, Americana 1920) partly digitized on wikisource informal/fun/"offensive" but Encyclopedia 2004... PD (CC0) online 15K valuable info (on society, Dramatica tech, ...), basically no censorship, no propaganda Encyclopedia of 1999... CC BY-SA online ~3K focused on Marxism, quality, Marxism shorter articles alternative to Wikipedia Everybodywiki 2017... CC BY-SA online ~300K allowing articles on non notable things and people Google Knol ~2010 proprietary online failed online enc. by Google, archived on archive.org Grolier Multimedia 2003 proprietary CD Encyclopedia GNU CIDE 2012... GPL online/elec. ~123K GNU English dictionary, forked from old Webster's dictionary Illustrated kid-friendly, nice pictures, Family 1997 proprietary 2 vol. 920p 5K USA bias, piratable Encyclopedia Wikipedia fork, no SJW [173]Infogalactic 2016... CC BY-SA online 2M censorship, FOR PROFIT (you can buy article control lol), can't make accounts Leftist encyclopedia, currently [174]Leftypedia 2020... GFDL online ~200 NOT littered by SJWs, writing about all branches of the "left" [175]LRS wiki 2021... PD (CC0) online/elec. 500 best encyclopedia, focused on tech/society, no censorship Wikipedia fork, online, no SJW [176]Metapedia 2006... GFDL online 7K censorship, ATM limited account creation, "pro-European" fascism Micro$oft enc., low quality Microsoft ...2009 proprietary electronic 62K articles (errors), MS [177]Encarta propaganda (no free software etc. lol), is on archive.org New World made by some church, quite nice Encyclopedia 2005... CC BY-SA online ~15K articles (often heavily rewritten from Wikipedia) Proletariat wiki, similar to [178]ProleWiki 2020... proprietary online ~3K Leftypedia but focused on Marxism-Leninism. Simple English Wikipedia with simpler language Wikipedia 2001... CC BY-SA online 200K and simpler explanations, censored The New American 1879 PD (old) 16 vol. partially digitized on Cyclopaedia Wikisource (txt) The New partially digitized on International 1905 PD (old) 20 vol. Wikisource Encyc. The Nuttall 1907 PD (old) 1 vol. 16K short articles, oldschool, Encyclopaedia digitized (gutenberg) [179]Vikidia 2006... CC BY-SA online 4K "Wikipedia for kids", probably as censored as Wikipedia Webster's short descriptions, digitized Unabridged 1864 PD (old) paper 476K (gutenberg) Dictionary [180]Wikidata 2012... Pd (CC0) online/elec. 109M database, Wikipedia sister project largest and most famous, [181]Wikipedia 2001... CC BY-SA online 6M EXTREME PSEUDOLEFTIST CENSORSHIP AND POLITICAL PROPAGANDA, free culture Wiktionary 2002... CC BY-SA online 1M dictionary, Wikipedia's sister project, many language versions archived old Wikipedia, less Old Wikipedia 2001 GFDL online 19K censorship, https://nostalgia.wikipedia.org contains dictionary, general Pears' Cyclopedia 1897 PD (old) 1 vol. 740p knowl. maps, reference etc., scanned on archive.org interesting and useful World Almanac and 1868... some PD 1 vol. information, data and facts Book of Facts (old) from old to new age, US-centered best selling print enc., large, The World Book 1917... proprietary 22 vol. 17K high quality but for younger audience, US propaganda (anticommunism etc.) The World Book 1917 PD (old) 8 vol. 3K nicely readable 1917 Uncyclopedia 2005... proprietary online 37K parody, [182]fun enc., "more (NC) normie friendly dramatica" See Also * [183]wiki * [184]Jargon File * [185]wikiwikiweb Links: 1. book.md 2. math.md 3. history.md 4. index.md 5. wikipedia.md 6. free_culture.md 7. censorship.md 8. lrs_wiki.md 9. awesome.md 10. collapse.md 11. wikipedia.md 12. free_speech.md 13. free_culture.md 14. public_domain.md 15. copyright.md 16. information.md 17. api.md 18. algorithm.md 19. anarchism.md 20. axiom_of_choice.md 21. bible.md 22. big_bang.md 23. black_hole.md 24. brain.md 25. buddhism.md 26. c.md 27. cannibalism.md 28. capitalism.md 29. cat.md 30. censorship.md 31. cpu.md 32. chess.md 33. color.md 34. communism.md 35. computer.md 36. creative_commons.md 37. deep_blue.md 38. democracy.md 39. depression.md 40. determinism.md 41. dinosaur.md 42. dog.md 43. doom.md 44. earth.md 45. einstein.md 46. elo.md 47. encyclopedia.md 48. entropy.md 49. ethics.md 50. e.md 51. evolution.md 52. font.md 53. football.md 54. fractal.md 55. free_software.md 56. game.md 57. go.md 58. god.md 59. gnu.md 60. hacking.md 61. hardware.md 62. hitler.md 63. holocaust.md 64. gay.md 65. human.md 66. infinity.md 67. information.md 68. internet.md 69. iq.md 70. jesus.md 71. jew.md 72. language.md 73. latin.md 74. life.md 75. light.md 76. linux.md 77. log.md 78. logic.md 79. love.md 80. math.md 81. morality.md 82. music.md 83. necropiilia.md 84. number.md 85. open_source.md 86. nigger.md 87. pedophilia.md 88. penis.md 89. pi.md 90. prime.md 91. quaternion.md 92. quran.md 93. race.md 94. sex.md 95. sin.md 96. schizo.md 97. sw.md 98. rms.md 99. star.md 100. suicide.md 101. technology.md 102. time.md 103. transistor.md 104. ufo.md 105. universe.md 106. unix.md 107. usenet.md 108. wikipedia.md 109. woman.md 110. wwii.md 111. www.md 112. fun.md 113. english.md 114. lrs_wiki.md 115. computer.md 116. c.md 117. cat.md 118. communism.md 119. capitalism.md 120. chess.md 121. christianity.md 122. collpase.md 123. cpu.md 124. color.md 125. culture.md 126. copyleft.md 127. compiler.md 128. creative_commons.md 129. cryptography.md 130. copyright.md 131. car.md 132. cancer.md 133. cellular_automaton.md 134. consumerism.md 135. cosine.md 136. chomsky.md 137. cia.md 138. cybernetics.md 139. cracking.md 140. chaos.md 141. carbon.md 142. curvature.md 143. chemistry.md 144. censorship.md 145. rms.md 146. science.md 147. shader.md 148. semiconductor.md 149. silicon.md 150. software.md 151. sound.md 152. socialism.md 153. state.md 154. selflessness.md 155. speech_recognition.md 156. steganography.md 157. square_root.md 158. sudoku.md 159. kys.md 160. speedrun.md 161. space.md 162. star.md 163. sun.md 164. sin.md 165. ussr.md 166. schizo.md 167. set.md 168. suckless.md 169. shit.md 170. sex.md 171. citizendium.md 172. conservapedia.md 173. infogalactic.md 174. leftypedia.md 175. lrs_wiki.md 176. metapedia.md 177. encarta.md 178. prolewiki.md 179. vikidia.md 180. wikidata.md 181. wikipedia.md 182. fun.md 183. wiki.md 184. jargon_file.md 185. wikiwikiweb.md