User:Milowent/BigBangWikipedia

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Was digging around for very early stuff on Wikipedia's history, like the first weeks. A lot of this information is buried in archives.

Sources of interest[edit]

Early Wikipedia, Detailed Timeline[edit]

  • Prehistory
March 9, 2000 Nupedia goes online. (Oldest archive.org capture of the home page is April 7, 2000 [1])
Nupedia holds a logo contest in 2000. Archive.org capture for September 30, 2000 is first to display it.[2] One of the logo contest entries is later nabbed in the first few days of Wikipedia's existence to serve as Wikipedia' first real logo.[3]
August 17, 2000: Archive.org shows Nupedia has only two approved articles.[4].
October 18, 2000: Archive.org shows Nupedia now has five approved articles.[5]
November 20, 2000: CNN article on November 20 says still only two articles approved.[6]] Archive.org, however, shows nine articles on November 10.[7]
Even after Wikipedia starts in early 2001, Nupedia only has 13 approved articles by Feb 8, 2001.[8].
  • 9 January 2001: Archive.org version of Nupedia on January 9, 2001. [9]
  • 10 January 2001: Nupedia wiki is created by Larry Sanger[10] at "http://www.nupedia.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?NupediaWikiHomePage"
  • 11 January 2001 :Within a day, it is clear that some nupedians dislike the idea of having a wiki *on* the nupedia website. Larry Sanger agrees that another name would be fine. He uses the term "wikipedia", on 11 January 2001 (23:22:29 UTC post [11])
  • 12 January 2001: wikipedia.com is registered [12]
  • 13 January 2001: wikipedia.org is registered at 00:12 UTC (so 4:12pm on 12 Jan 2001 in West Coast of USA)[13]
  • Day One: 15 January 2001: Wikipedia.com is created
Jimmy Wales was the first editor of Wikipedia. On 13 Feb 2004, he commented [14] " I haven't had a save that fast since the first day I setup the first website and no one knew about it but me."
First Page "HomePage" Wikipedia 10K Redux entry 19:27:13 UTC (11:27am Pacific Time in United States), edit by "office.bomis.com"
Second Page: "WikiPedia", 19:52:32 UTC.
Third Page: "PhilosphyAndLogic", 23:23:47 UTC
The first "article" though its original text merely stated:

Let's work on articles on (at least) these famous philosophers:
AristotlE
PlatO
EpicuruS
ReneDescartes
ImmanuelKant
AynRand
4th Page (2nd article): "UnitedStates". (23:47:31 UTC). Initial text is merely a half-list of the US states, from Alabama to Indiana
Only 8 total edits made on first day, all from "office.bomis.com", so presumably from Jimmy Wales' offices.
  • Day Two: 16 January 2001
Wikipedia's ninth edit comes 19 hours after its last edit, putting the states in UnitedStates in CamelCase format
5th page (3d article): "PopularMusic"
6th page (4th article): "SportS"
7th page (5th article): "MathematicsandStatistics"
17th overall edit adds this text to HomePage:
The idea here is to write a complete encyclopedia from scratch, without peer review process, etc. Some people think that this may be a hopeless endeavor, that the result will necessarily suck. We aren't so sure. So, let's get to work!
8th page (6th article): "CountriesoftheWorld"
9th page (7th article), 2nd country article: "AfghanistaN" First true article in terms of having significant content, clearly copied from somewhere else.
10th page (8th article): "AaA"
2nd user, eiffel.demon.co.uk, makes 27th edit overall, which is a revision to "SportS". This is User:Eiffel, Roger Browne. In 2016, he added comments to his talk page about his very early involvment.
First "drama. eiffel's 3rd comment is question why the home page includes a US flag: "A comment: For an internet encyclopedia, that will have contributors from around the world, a USA flag somehow doesn't seem right for the logo."
11th page (9th article), created by eiffel, "UuU". Notable because its creation was the oldest surviving edit on Wikipedia for many years, see Wikipedia:UuU, and until 2010, really the only evidence of the "first" article.
12th page (10th article), by eiffel, "TechnologY"
13th page (11th article), by eiffel, "ComputinG"
14th page (12th article), by eiffel, "ComputerSoftware"
15th page (13th article), by eiffel, "TransporT"
16th page, by 3rd editor, ScottMoonen (https://twitter.com/smoonen), creates "NamingConventions" about how to name articles.
17th page created, 43rd overall edit, first edit under a username, ScottMoonen, creates "RecentChanges"
18th page, first userpage, 3rd user, "ScottMoonen"
By end of day two (UTC) 46 total edits have been made to Wikipedia. Wikipedia has 18 pages, 13 of which can be called "articles", though only Afghanistan has any real content. Though the content is terrible, it now has at least as many articles as Nupedia has.
Day Three: 17 January 2001
4th user. This is "dhcp058.246.lvcm.com" ("lvcm") which is most likely Larry Sanger.
Larry edits for about two hours, adding some simple initial articles, and a number of guidance pages. He also appears to import the pages which had existed in the NupediaWiki.
"lvcm" creates NupediaWiki (20th page). Intro text says "Welcome to Nupedia's wiki! This might become the "WikiPedia" since some Nupedia members have reservations about associating a wiki with the Nupedia name." Later this same day he edits the page down to "Nupedia doesn't actually have a wiki. WikiPedia is where NuPedians go to have their wiki needs satisfied."
Then creates (presumably copying from the NupiediaWiki), "WhatIsAWiki" (20th page), "WhatIsAWikiFor" (21st page), "WhyDoesNupediaHaveaWiki" (22nd page), "WhyOnEarthWouldIWantToContributeToaWiki" (23rd page), "HowDoesOneEditaPage" (24th page).
"lvcm" next creates "LarrySanger" (25th page), the import include a self-introduction plus comments added to it by other Nupedians including RoseParks (Ruth Ichfer). Wiki culture didn't have "talk pages" separate from other pages, this is why early user pages may have comments of others right on it, see, e.g., User:AyeSpy for a preserved example.
"lvcm" creates "Nupedia" (26th page)
14th article (27th page), "PhiloSophy" by lvcm.
15th article (28th page), 3rd country article, "RusSia" by lvcm.
16th article, 1st biography, 2nd true article with content, (29th page), ThomasReid, by lvcm. Larry's "Meta-observation: the above took me less than ten minutes to write and required no research on my part. I could continue on and write twenty articles like this in a day with no trouble. I think this is an excellent way to generate draft articles for Nupedia."
17th article (30th page), CommonSense, another substantive article, by lvcm.
18th article (31st page), MetaPhilosphy, by lvcm.
19th article (32nd page), HoldComeWhatMay, by lvcm.
20th article, 2nd biography, 33rd page, WilliamAlston, by lvcm.
21st article, 34th page, SiberianHusby, by lvcm.
35th page, RoseParks, for Nupedian Ruth Ichfer, by lvcm. Presumably a copy from NupediaWiki.
22nd article, 36th page, "SubLime" by lvcm. Text, however, is just joke content.
37th page, "MakeANewPage" by lvcm.
38th page, "NewTopics" by lvcm
39th page, 23rd article, "EncycloPedia" by lvcm. Content: "In this particular case, NuPedia!"
40th page, DisRuption, created by lvcm. Larry questions whether a wiki will lead to disruption from "assorted spammers, idiots, nuts, etc.? .... I guess we'll see."
41st page, 24th article, "MuSic" by lvcm. Content "That which soothes the savage beast... "
42nd page, 25th article, "FootBall" by lvcm. Content "That which one buys a large screen television for... "
43rd page, 26th article "IrishTraditionalMusic" by lvcm. Has substantive content. Was copied from Nupedia. (See Dec 3, 2000 nupedia version: [15])
44th page, 27th article, "CelticMusic" by lvcm. One paragraph of content. Was copied from Nupedia.
45th page, 28th article, "DonegalFiddleTradition" by lvcm. Substantive content. Was copied from Nupedia. (see Dec 3, 2000 nupedia version: [16])
46th page, "MouthOff" by lvcm. Essentially crated to be a discussion page.
47th page, "NupediaWikiFaq" by lvcm.
48th page, "PaGe" a test page by lvcm.
49th page, "WikiWatcher" by lvcm.
50th page, "WikiPedians" by lvcm.
Larry edits "WikiPedia" to comment that CamelCase linking seems "not quite right". not quite right. How about patching the Wiki server code so that any string that ends in a special character (such as "~") becomes a Wiki link.
51st page, 29th article, "MathematicalGrouP" by lvcm.
52nd page, "LikeThis" by lvcm. A test page.
53rd page "LinkToAnExistingPage" by lvcm.
54th page "StartaNewParagraph" by lvcm.
55th page "PutWordsInItalicsAndBold" by lvcm
56th page "LinkToExternalPages" by lvcm
57th page "PartakeInDiscussion" by lvcm
58th page "SummarizeDiscussion" by lvcm
59th page (92nd edit so far) "BeBoldInUpdatingPages" by lvcm. Origin of WP:BOLD - probably an import for NuPediawiki
60th page "CanWeAddNupediaArticlesToTheWiki"
61st page: "HowCanIExploreWikiPedia"
62nd page, 30th article, "HisTory" by lvcm. Content: "That which happened."
63rd page, 31st article, "RidiCulous" by lvcm. Joke content.
64th page, 32nd article, "TheStates". I list of the states of the United States.
65th page, "WikiPediaFaq", by lvcm
66th page, "WhatsTheRelationshipBetweenWikipediaAndNupedia", by lvcm
67th page, 33rd article, "BoMis", by lvcm
68th page ,"WikiPediaProcess"
69th page, 34th article, first article on a political subdivision of any country, "AlaskA", by lvcm.
No one then edits for close to 5 hours.
5th editor appears, SunirShah (161th edit overall), creates 70th page "SunirShah" about himself, under IP "cr824441-a.rchrd1.on.wave.home.com".
He also concurs on ScottMoonen that the US flag logo should be replaced suggests "a quick and inkwell". Larry responds to say the flag is temporary. "It's a very temporary thing, the nearest thing Jimbo had to hand. Definitely won't be the WikiPedia logo."
ScottMoonen and eiffel make minor comment edits
6th editor appears; also 1st female to edit: GathyaLanglois (2nd username use). Was a nupedian.
Gaytha's first edit (170th edit overall) crates 71st page, 35th article, "RhodeIsland"
72nd page, 36th article, "StandardPoodle". Content: "A dog by which all others are measured." The edit is preserved [17], and this article has been recognized to be one of the earliest articles, "https://www.thenational.ae/uae/wikipedia-still-no-1-after-15-years-1.94617"
SunirShah adds comment on flag issue at ScottMooonen from another IP "bob.bitflash.com", to which Larry responds again.
Larry moves the flag discussion from ScottMoonen to new 73rd page, "OldWikiPediaLogo"
7th editors appears "10-045.051.popsite.net" (184th edit overall). Also uses username "ShortArticles" and amends MakeANewPage to say "The shortest article I know is "a"."
At 11:16pm UTC (3:16pm PDT), Larry posts about existence of Wikipedia on the Nupedia-L mailing list:
Wikipedia is up!
http://www.wikipedia.com/
Humor me. Go there and add a little article. It will take all of five or ten minutes.
(The prior Nupedia-L message to this one was posted at 9:33pm UTC(1:33pm PDT) on January 16[18], so Larry's message above is definitely the first mention of Wikipedia on Nupedia-L)
A January 18, 2001 wayback machine version of nupedia.com includes this text at the bottom:[19] "Finally, we'd like to announce a fun project loosely associated with Nupedia, Wikipedia. Have a look and write a paragraph or two!"
--Larry
Day three (UTC) of Wikipedia ends. Wikipedia has 73 pages, 36 of which can be called "articles", and has been edited by seven people, with a total of 185 edits.
Day Four: 18 January 2001
8th editor: node1372.a2000.nl
9th editor: proxy.syd.eastlink.ca
10th editor: pool-63.49.117.221.bltm.grid.net, creates 74th page, 37th article, "HoldMoreStubbornlyAtLeast"
11th editor: pm3-28.sal.redshift.com
12th editor: Ottawa-ppp110368.sympatico.ca, created 75th page, 38th article "TheKoran"
Larry Sanger creates 76th page, 39th article, "ReLigion"
13th editor, 43.new-york-02rh16rt-ny.dial-access.att.net (This is User:RoseParks), 199th edit overall, creates 77th page, 40th article, "Pythagorean_Theorem"
1st article on a musical group, 45th article, 82nd page, JarsOfClay. Edit is preserved.[20], creator is IP editor "209.69.30.xxx"
4th country article, 47th article, 84th page, NewZealand, created by "dhcp241-043.ma.lycos.com"
86th page, 1st misspelled article title, "InvestigatorAsPholosopher". Done by Larry Sanger, and he then recreates 87th page under correct spelling.
Day four (UTC) of Wikipedia ends with 269 total edits.
Day Five: 19 January 2001
50th article, 88th page, 5th country article, "AlbaniA", by "office.bomis.com" so presumably Jimmy Wales.
100th page, 60th article, created by lvcm (Larry), 336th edit overall, "TopOlogy"
Day five (UTC) ends with 376 total edits
Day Six: 20 January 2001
70th article, 111th page, "PolanD"
Day six (UTC) ends with 470 total edits
Day Seven: 21 January 2001
Day seven (UTC) ends with 659 total edits
Day Eight: 22 January 2001
Day eight (UTC) ends with 723 total edits (slow day?)
Day Nine: 23 January 2001
Day nine (UTC) ends with 863 total edits
Day Ten: 24 January 2001
Day ten (UTC) ends with 958 total edits
Day Eleven: 25 January 2001
end of Jan 25:1086
Dave Twelve: 26 January 2001
First talk page: Larry creates "ChristianityTalk" (274th page, 1344th edit), moving a discussion from Christianity, with note "Commentary moved to ChristianityTalk. I think we should not advance our own idiosyncratic views about the subjects we write on on the pages we write on. Save those for *Talk, *Discuss, or whatever.". The original start to this page still exists at Talk:Christianity/History formerly at ChristianityTalk.
First page on any war (275th page, 1351th edit), "WorldWarOne", created by "bln2-t6-1.mcbone.net". (Edit preserved [21])
end of Jan 26:1354
end of Jan 27:1562
end of Jan 28:1786
end of Jan 29:2067
end of Jan 30:2448
end of Jan 31:2622
end of Feb 1: 2793
end of Feb 2: 3113
end of Feb 3: 3279
end of Feb 4: 3362
end of Feb 5: 3448
end of Feb 6: 3589
end of Feb 7: 3734
end of Feb 8: 3825
end of Feb 9: 3935
end of Feb 10:3992
end of Feb 11:4057
end of Feb 12:4242
end of Feb 13:4397
February 14, 2001: 1000th page, MobyDick, created by Jimmy Wales, content "Epic novel by HermanMelville."
end of Feb 14:4583
end of Feb 15:4700
end of Feb 28: 6945
Oldest archive.org capture of HomePage, March 31, 2001 [22]
end of Mar 31: 16141
end of Apr 30: 21798
end of May 31: 30678
end of Jun 30: 37363
end of Jul 31: 49085
end of Aug 15: 57522
end of Aug 16: 58110
The early archive Tim Starling unearthed in 2010 goes through edit 58229, on Aug 17, 2001 (4:24:54)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Milowent/BigBangWikipedia&oldid=1060300030"