# Local Wikipedia 45 Hacker News commenters recommended Local Wikipedia and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Shows Wikipedia articles near your location, which people enjoy for discovering local history. Critics say the radius is not really a half-hour walk and results are thin outside large English-speaking areas. ## Why people recommend it - Discovers nearby history and buildings (5 comments): "came up with three weird stories I didn't know about the history of places within a few blocks of me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205171)) "I learned some interesting history about the neighborhood I'm staying in." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205757)) "I've already discovered a bunch of historic places I had no idea about." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50206646)) - Articles feel more relevant than defaults (2 comments): "Incredible how much more relevant nearby articles feel than the default to which you have no personal connection" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205809)) "I imagine this would be useful for someone having moved to somewhere new." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50208019)) - Fun to browse nearby stuff (4 comments): "Cool idea! I had lots of fun looking at stuff nearby." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205142)) "having this popping up 100s of entries nearby is fun!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50211878)) "Fun to follow subway station articles along my local line" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50212752)) - Clear, well-designed idea (2 comments): "Very cool. Obvious in hindsight with every location having coordinates." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205138)) "I love that it formats it into your own mini wikipedia." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50206172)) ## What people warn about - Radius not really a half-hour walk (3 comments): ""Great project." but "this isnt a \"half hour walk\" and it is just a 3 km radius around the location"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50208085)) "It doesn't seem to be accurate with regard to the "half hour walk" but it still paints a nice radius." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50208595)) "It shows things that are easily half a day walking for me and only the most obvious things" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50229799)) - Missing non-English Wikipedia languages (5 comments): "It's still using the English Wikipedia though, not the German one (which I think would have more local content)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205849)) "This is very cool - one feature request: please support other languages!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50206043)) "it's missing a lot of what the local language Wikipedia offers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50212530)) - Sparse coverage outside the US (3 comments): "coverage outside the US is surprisingly sparse" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50206229)) "not many local articles in english here" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205336)) "This is a really cool idea but my entire city is mostly articles for regional districts and schools." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50215518)) - No way to set search radius (3 comments): "Kinda cool, thanks for building this. Not much around me unfortunately, maybe allow expanding the range of distance?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50210700)) "It really should have a field to enter the radius of the search." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205352)) "All I get are train stations unless I decide to input the city instead of the street... but then the areas are no longer 30-minute walks!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50206751)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Wikipedia](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wikipedia.md): 404 recommend - [Grokipedia](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grokipedia.md): 52 recommend - [Britannica11.org](https://hackerapproved.com/p/britannica11-org.md): 14 recommend - [Wikidata](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wikidata.md): 13 recommend - [Wiktionary](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wiktionary.md): 12 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://localwiki.org/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Local Wikipedia", https://hackerapproved.com/p/local-wikipedia/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).