Editing Wikipedia (section)

== History ==
{{main|History of Wikipedia}}

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=== Nupedia ===
{{main|Nupedia}}
[[File:Nupedia.svg|thumb|alt=Logo reading "Nupedia.com the free encyclopedia" in blue with the large initial "N"|Wikipedia originally developed from another encyclopedia project called [[Nupedia]].]]
Various collaborative online encyclopedias were attempted before the start of Wikipedia, but with limited success.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.niemanlab.org/2011/10/the-contribution-conundrum-why-did-wikipedia-succeed-while-other-encyclopedias-failed/ |title = The contribution conundrum: Why did Wikipedia succeed while other encyclopedias failed? |website = Nieman Lab |access-date = June 5, 2016}}</ref> Wikipedia began as a complementary project for [[Nupedia]], a free online English-language encyclopedia project whose articles were written by experts and reviewed under a formal process.<ref name="KockJungSyn2016">{{cite journal |last1=Kock |first1=Ned |last2=Jung |first2=Yusun |last3=Syn |first3=Thant |author1-link=Ned Kock |title=Wikipedia and e-Collaboration Research: Opportunities and Challenges |journal=[[International Journal of e-Collaboration]] |date=2016 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=1–8 |doi=10.4018/IJeC.2016040101 |url=https://cits.tamiu.edu/kock/pubs/journals/2016JournalIJeC_WikipediaEcollaboration/Kock_etal_2016_IJeC_WikipediaEcollaboration.pdf |publisher=IGI Global |issn=1548-3681 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160927001627/https://cits.tamiu.edu/kock/pubs/journals/2016JournalIJeC_WikipediaEcollaboration/Kock_etal_2016_IJeC_WikipediaEcollaboration.pdf |archive-date=September 27, 2016}}</ref> It was founded on March 9, 2000, under the ownership of [[Bomis]], a [[web portal]] company. Its main figures were Bomis CEO [[Jimmy Wales]] and [[Larry Sanger]], [[editor-in-chief]] for Nupedia and later Wikipedia.<ref name="autogenerated1"/><ref name="Meyers"/> Nupedia was initially licensed under its own Nupedia [[free content|Open Content]] License, but even before Wikipedia was founded, Nupedia switched to the [[GNU Free Documentation License]] at the urging of [[Richard Stallman]].<ref name="stallman1999"/> Wales is credited with defining the goal of making a publicly editable encyclopedia,<ref name="SangerMemoir" /><ref name="Sanger"/> while Sanger is credited with the strategy of using a [[wiki]] to reach that goal.<ref name="WM foundation of WP 1">{{cite web |url=https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-October/000671.html |title = Wikipedia-l: LinkBacks? |access-date = February 20, 2007}}</ref> On January 10, 2001, Sanger proposed on the Nupedia mailing list to create a wiki as a "feeder" project for Nupedia.<ref name="nupedia feeder from WP 1">{{cite news |first = Larry |last = Sanger |title = Let's Make a Wiki |date = January 10, 2001 |publisher = Internet Archive |url=https://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030414014355/https://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html |archive-date = April 14, 2003 |access-date = December 26, 2008}}</ref>

=== Launch and growth ===
The [[domain name|domain]]s ''wikipedia.com'' (later redirecting to ''wikipedia.org'') and ''wikipedia.org'' were registered on January 12, 2001<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927193149/https://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.com|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 27, 2007|title=WHOIS domain registration information results for wikipedia.com from Network Solutions|date=September 27, 2007|access-date=August 31, 2018}}</ref> and January 13, 2001<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927194913/https://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.org|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 27, 2007|title=WHOIS domain registration information results for wikipedia.org from Network Solutions|date=September 27, 2007|access-date=August 31, 2018}}</ref> respectively, and Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001<ref name="KockJungSyn2016" /> as a single English-language edition at www.wikipedia.com,<ref name="WikipediaHome" /> and announced by Sanger on the Nupedia mailing list.<ref name="SangerMemoir" /> Its integral policy of "neutral point-of-view"<ref name="NPOV" /> was codified in its first few months. Otherwise, there were initially relatively few rules, and it operated independently of Nupedia.<ref name="SangerMemoir" /> Bomis originally intended it as a business for profit.<ref name="Seth-Finkelstein">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/sep/25/wikipedia.internet |title = Read me first: Wikipedia isn't about human potential, whatever Wales says |author = Finkelstein, Seth |work = [[The Guardian]] |date = September 25, 2008 |location = London}}</ref>

[[File: English Wikipedia HomePage 2001-12-20.png|thumb|The Wikipedia home page on December 20, 2001]]

{{Wikipedia editor graph}}
{{Wikipedia article graph|caption=Number of English Wikipedia articles}}
Wikipedia gained early contributors from Nupedia, [[Slashdot]] postings, and web [[search engine]] indexing. Language editions were created beginning in March 2003, with a total of 161 in use by the end of 2004.<ref>{{Cite mailing list|url=https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-March/000048.html| title=Alternative language wikipedias |date=16 March 2001 |mailing-list=Wikipedia-L |last=Wales |first=Jimmy |access-date=January 16, 2022}}</ref><ref name="WP early language stats 1">{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Multilingual_statistics |title = Multilingual statistics |website = Wikipedia |date = March 30, 2005 |access-date = December 26, 2008}}</ref> Nupedia and Wikipedia coexisted until the former's servers were taken down permanently in 2003, and its text was incorporated into Wikipedia. The English Wikipedia passed the mark of two million articles on September 9, 2007, making it the largest encyclopedia ever assembled, surpassing the ''[[Yongle Encyclopedia]]'' made during the [[Ming Dynasty]] in 1408, which had held the record for almost 600&nbsp;years.<ref name="EB_encyclopedia" />

Citing fears of commercial [[advertising]] and lack of control, users of the [[Spanish Wikipedia]] [[fork (software development)|fork]]ed from Wikipedia to create [[Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español|Enciclopedia Libre]] in February 2002.<ref name="EL fears and start 1">{{cite web |title = [long] Enciclopedia Libre: msg#00008 |url=https://osdir.com/ml/science.linguistics.wikipedia.international/2003-03/msg00008.html |website = Osdir |access-date = December 26, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006065927/https://osdir.com/ml/science.linguistics.wikipedia.international/2003-03/msg00008.html |archive-date = October 6, 2008 |df = mdy-all}}</ref> Wales then announced that Wikipedia would not display advertisements, and changed Wikipedia's domain from ''wikipedia.com'' to ''wikipedia.org''.<ref name="Shirky" /><ref>{{cite web|last=Vibber|first=Brion|date=August 16, 2002|title=Brion VIBBER at pobox.com|url=https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2002-August/003982.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620071550/https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2002-August/003982.html|archive-date=June 20, 2014|access-date=December 8, 2020|website=[[Wikimedia]]}}</ref>

Though the English Wikipedia reached three million articles in August 2009, the growth of the edition, in terms of the numbers of new articles and of editors, appears to have peaked around early 2007.<ref name="guardian WP user peak 1">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/aug/12/wikipedia-deletionist-inclusionist |title = Wikipedia approaches its limits |first = Bobbie |last = Johnson |work = The Guardian |location = London |date = August 12, 2009 |access-date = March 31, 2010}}</ref> Around 1,800 articles were added daily to the encyclopedia in 2006; by 2013 that average was roughly 800.<ref name="WP growth modelling 1">{{srlink|Wikipedia:Modelling Wikipedia extended growth}}</ref> A team at the [[Palo Alto Research Center]] attributed this slowing of growth to the project's increasing exclusivity and resistance to change.<ref name="wikisym slowing growth 1">{{cite conference |url=https://www.wikisym.org/ws2009/procfiles/p108-suh.pdf |title = The Singularity is Not Near: Slowing Growth of Wikipedia |year = 2009 |location = Orlando, FL|conference = The International Symposium on Wikis |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511110022/https://www.wikisym.org/ws2009/procfiles/p108-suh.pdf |archive-date = May 11, 2011}}</ref><!-- ''Hidden while in discussion on the talk page'': New or occasional editors have significantly higher rates of their edits reverted (removed) than an elite group of regular editors, colloquially known as "the [[cabal]]". This could make it more difficult for the project to recruit and retain new contributors over the long term, resulting in stagnation in article creation. --> Others suggest that the growth is flattening naturally because articles that could be called "[[wikt:low-hanging fruit|low-hanging fruit]]"—topics that clearly merit an article—have already been created and built up extensively.<ref name="bostonreview the end of WP 1">{{cite magazine |url=https://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/edit-page-wikipedia-evgeny-morozov |title = Edit This Page; Is it the end of Wikipedia |magazine = Boston Review |first = Evgeny |last = Morozov |date = November–December 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211050926/https://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/edit-page-wikipedia-evgeny-morozov|archive-date=December 11, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last = Cohen |first = Noam |author-link=Noam Cohen |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/weekinreview/29cohen.html |title = Wikipedia&nbsp;– Exploring Fact City |work = The New York Times |date = March 28, 2009 |access-date = April 19, 2011}}</ref><ref name="stanford WP lack of future growth 1">{{cite journal |first1=Austin |last1=Gibbons |first2=David |last2=Vetrano |first3=Susan |last3=Biancani |year=2012 |url=https://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs341-2012/reports/09-GibbonsVetranoBiancaniCS341.pdf |title=Wikipedia: Nowhere to grow |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140718091331/https://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs341-2012/reports/09-GibbonsVetranoBiancaniCS341.pdf |archive-date=July 18, 2014 |url-status=live }} {{open access}}</ref>

{{anchor|Decline in participation since 2009}}
In November 2009, a researcher at the [[Rey Juan Carlos University]] in [[Madrid]] found that the English Wikipedia had lost 49,000 editors during the first three months of 2009; in comparison, it lost only 4,900 editors during the same period in 2008.<ref name="guardian editors leaving 1">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/nov/26/wikipedia-losing-disgruntled-editors |title = Wikipedia falling victim to a war of words |work = The Guardian |location = London |first = Jenny |last = Kleeman |date = November 26, 2009 |access-date = March 31, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://libresoft.es/publications/thesis-jfelipe |title = Wikipedia: A quantitative analysis |website=Libresoft |format = PDF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120403172516/https://libresoft.es/publications/thesis-jfelipe |archive-date = April 3, 2012}}</ref> ''The Wall Street Journal'' cited the array of rules applied to editing and disputes related to such content among the reasons for this trend.<ref name="WSJ WP losing editors 1">Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages, The Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2009.</ref> Wales disputed these claims in 2009, denying the decline and questioning the study's methodology.<ref name="telegraph Wales WP not losing editors 1">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/6660646/Wikipedias-Jimmy-Wales-denies-site-is-losing-thousands-of-volunteer-editors.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/6660646/Wikipedias-Jimmy-Wales-denies-site-is-losing-thousands-of-volunteer-editors.html |archive-date=2022-01-10 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title = Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales denies site is 'losing' thousands of volunteer editors |first = Emma |last = Barnett |work = The Daily Telegraph |location = London |date = November 26, 2009 |access-date = March 31, 2010}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Two years later, in 2011, he acknowledged a slight decline, noting a decrease from "a little more than 36,000 writers" in June 2010 to 35,800 in June 2011. In the same interview, he also claimed the number of editors was "stable and sustainable".<ref name="wiki-women" /> A 2013 ''[[MIT Technology Review]]'' article, "The Decline of Wikipedia", questioned this claim, revealing that since 2007, Wikipedia had lost a third of its volunteer editors, and that those remaining had focused increasingly on minutiae.<ref name="Simonite-2013">{{cite journal |last = Simonite |first = Tom |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2013/10/22/175674/the-decline-of-wikipedia/ |title = The Decline of Wikipedia |date = October 22, 2013 |journal = [[MIT Technology Review]] |access-date = November 30, 2013}}</ref> In July 2012, ''[[The Atlantic]]'' reported that the number of administrators was also in decline.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/3-charts-that-show-how-wikipedia-is-running-out-of-admins/259829 |title = 3 Charts That Show How Wikipedia Is Running Out of Admins |work = The Atlantic |date = July 16, 2012}}</ref> In the November 25, 2013, issue of ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine, Katherine Ward stated, "Wikipedia, the sixth-most-used website, is facing an internal crisis."<ref>Ward, Katherine. ''New York'' Magazine, issue of November 25, 2013, p. 18.</ref>

The number of active English Wikipedia editors has since remained steady after a long period of decline.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2013-05-05|title=Who really runs Wikipedia?|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2013/05/05/who-really-runs-wikipedia|access-date=2021-11-26|issn=0013-0613}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Mandiberg|first=Michael|date=2020-02-23|title=Mapping Wikipedia|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/02/where-wikipedias-editors-are-where-they-arent-and-why/605023/|access-date=2021-11-26|website=The Atlantic|language=en}}</ref>

=== Milestones ===
[[File:European Wikipedias article count 2019 map.svg|thumb|[[Cartogram]] showing number of articles in each European language {{as of|2019|1|lc=y|post=.}} One square represents 10,000 articles. Languages with fewer than 10,000 articles are represented by one square. Languages are grouped by language family and each language family is presented by a separate color.]]
In January 2007, Wikipedia first became one of the ten [[list of most popular websites|most popular websites]] in the US, according to [[Comscore]] Networks. With 42.9&nbsp;million unique visitors, it was ranked #9, surpassing ''[[The New York Times]]'' (#10) and [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] (#11). This marked a significant increase over January 2006, when Wikipedia ranked 33rd, with around 18.3&nbsp;million unique visitors.<ref>{{cite magazine |url = https://www.pcworld.com/article/129135/wikipedia_breaks_into_us_top_10_sites.html |title = Wikipedia Breaks Into US Top 10 Sites |magazine = PCWorld |date = February 17, 2007 |access-date = March 26, 2021 |archive-date = March 19, 2012 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120319204141/http://www.pcworld.com/article/129135/wikipedia_breaks_into_us_top_10_sites.html |url-status = dead }}</ref> {{as of|2020|March}}, it ranked 13th<ref name="Alexa siteinfo" /> in popularity according to [[Alexa Internet]]. In 2014, it received eight billion page views every month.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportPageViewsPerCountryOverview.htm |title = Wikimedia Traffic Analysis Report&nbsp;– Wikipedia Page Views Per Country |publisher = Wikimedia Foundation |access-date = March 8, 2015}}</ref> On February 9, 2014, ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported that Wikipedia had 18&nbsp;billion [[pageview|page view]]s and nearly 500&nbsp;million [[unique user#Unique visitor|unique visitor]]s a month, "according to the ratings firm comScore".<ref name="small screen">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/technology/wikipedia-vs-the-small-screen.html?_r=0 |title = Wikipedia vs. the Small Screen |work = The New York Times |date = February 9, 2014 |last = Cohen |first = Noam |author-link=Noam Cohen}}</ref> Loveland and Reagle argue that, in process, Wikipedia follows a long tradition of historical encyclopedias that have accumulated improvements piecemeal through "[[stigmergy|stigmergic]] accumulation".<ref name="sagepub WP and encyclopedic production 1">{{cite journal|first1=Jeff|last1=Loveland|first2=Joseph|last2=Reagle|date=January 15, 2013|title=Wikipedia and encyclopedic production|journal=New Media & Society|volume=15|issue=8|page=1294|doi=10.1177/1461444812470428|s2cid=27886998}}</ref><ref name="theatlantic WP actually a reversion 1">{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/01/what-if-the-great-wikipedia-revolution-was-actually-a-reversion/272697|title=What If the Great Wikipedia 'Revolution' Was Actually a Reversion? |first=Rebecca J.|last=Rosen|website=[[The Atlantic]]|date=January 30, 2013|access-date=February 9, 2013}}</ref>

{{anchor|BlackoutProtest}}
On January 18, 2012, the English Wikipedia participated in a series of coordinated protests against two proposed laws in the [[United States Congress]]—the [[Stop Online Piracy Act]] (SOPA) and the [[PROTECT IP Act]] (PIPA)—by [[protest against SOPA and PIPA|blacking out its pages for 24 hours]].<ref name="LA Times Jan 19">{{cite news |url=https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2012/01/wikipedia-sopa-blackout-congressional-representatives.html |title = Wikipedia: SOPA protest led eight million to look up reps in Congress |first = Deborah |last = Netburn |work = Los Angeles Times |date = January 19, 2012 |access-date = March 6, 2012}}</ref> More than 162&nbsp;million people viewed the blackout explanation page that temporarily replaced its content.<ref name="BBC WP blackout protest 1">{{cite news |title = Wikipedia joins blackout protest at US anti-piracy moves |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16590585 |work = BBC News |date = January 18, 2012 |access-date = January 19, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/SOPA/Blackoutpage |title = SOPA/Blackoutpage |publisher = Wikimedia Foundation |access-date = January 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622185443/https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/SOPA/Blackoutpage |archive-date = June 22, 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

On January 20, 2014, Subodh Varma reporting for ''[[The Economic Times]]'' indicated that not only had Wikipedia's growth stalled, it "had lost nearly ten percent of its page views last year. There was a decline of about two billion between December 2012 and December 2013. Its most popular versions are leading the slide: page-views of the English Wikipedia declined by twelve percent, those of German version slid by 17 percent and the Japanese version lost nine percent."<ref name="economictimes.indiatimes.com">{{cite news |first = Subodh |last = Varma |title = Google eating into Wikipedia page views? |date = January 20, 2014 |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/29094246.cms |work = The Economic Times |access-date = February 10, 2014}}</ref> Varma added, "While Wikipedia's managers think that this could be due to errors in counting, other experts feel that Google's [[Knowledge Graph]]s project launched last year may be gobbling up Wikipedia users."<ref name="economictimes.indiatimes.com" /> When contacted on this matter, [[Clay Shirky]], associate professor at New York University and fellow at Harvard's [[Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society]] said that he suspected much of the page-view decline was due to Knowledge Graphs, stating, "If you can get your question answered from the search page, you don't need to click [any further]."<ref name="economictimes.indiatimes.com" /> By the end of December 2016, Wikipedia was ranked the fifth most popular website globally.<ref name="Alexa">{{cite web |url=https://www.alexa.com/topsites |title = Alexa Top 500 Global Sites |website = [[Alexa Internet]] |access-date = December 28, 2016}}</ref>

In January 2013, [[274301 Wikipedia]], an [[asteroid]], was named after Wikipedia; in October 2014, Wikipedia was honored with the ''[[Wikipedia Monument]]''; and, in July 2015, 106 of the 7,473 700-page volumes of Wikipedia became available as [[Print Wikipedia]]. In April 2019, an Israeli [[lunar lander]], [[Beresheet]], crash landed on the surface of the [[Moon]] carrying a copy of nearly all of the English Wikipedia engraved on thin nickel plates; experts say the plates likely survived the crash.<ref name="WRD-20190805">{{cite news |last=Oberhaus |first=Daniel |title=A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades On The Moon |url=https://www.wired.com/story/a-crashed-israeli-lunar-lander-spilled-tardigrades-on-the-moon/ |date=August 5, 2019 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |access-date=August 6, 2019}}</ref><ref name="VOX-20190806">{{cite news |last=Resnick |first=Brian |title=Tardigrades, the toughest animals on Earth, have crash-landed on the moon&nbsp;– The tardigrade conquest of the solar system has begun. |url=https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/8/6/20756844/tardigrade-moon-beresheet-arch-mission |date=August 6, 2019|work=[[Vox (website)|Vox]] |access-date=August 6, 2019}}</ref> In June 2019, scientists reported that all 16&nbsp;GB of article text from the English Wikipedia had been encoded into [[synthetic genomics|synthetic DNA]].<ref name="CNET-20190629">{{cite news |last=Shankland |first=Stephen |title=Startup packs all 16GB of Wikipedia onto DNA strands to demonstrate new storage tech&nbsp;– Biological molecules will last a lot longer than the latest computer storage technology, Catalog believes. |url=https://www.cnet.com/news/startup-packs-all-16gb-wikipedia-onto-dna-strands-demonstrate-new-storage-tech/ |date=June 29, 2019 |work=[[CNET]] |access-date=August 7, 2019}}</ref>