Wikipedia has become an iconic symbol of the Internet over its 20 years of existence. According to statistics, the site now hosts around 55 million articles in over 300 languages. Every month, 1.5 billion devices access Wikipedia, with 280,000 “editors” contributing content.
Among all contributors, Steven Pruitt stands out as the most famous, with nearly 3 million edits and 35,000 original articles to his name. This has made him almost a legend. The editor in second place trails Steven by about 900,000 edits.
Wikipedia has over 5.7 million articles in English, all written online for free by volunteer editors. In 2017, Steven was honored by TIME magazine as one of the most influential people on the Internet for editing millions of English Wikipedia articles, a remarkable achievement fueled by his passion for family history.
Steven’s deep obsession with history and love of opera inspired his Wikipedia username: Ser Amantio Di Nicolao, his favorite opera character.
Steven shared in an interview, “My very first article was about Peter Francisco, my great-great-great-great-grandfather. He was a soldier and a member of the Virginia Senate.”
Peter Francisco, Steven’s ancestor.
Currently, Steven lives with his parents in his childhood home. He says he has always stayed true to his interests, even though his parents once thought he was “crazy” for spending about three hours every day for 13 years editing Wikipedia content.
However, their opinion likely changed when Steven was honored by TIME alongside famous figures like President Trump, author J.K. Rowling, and Kim Kardashian West.
Despite all his editing and writing, Steven doesn’t earn any money from it. But he doesn’t mind because he’s doing what he loves. He said, “The idea of making knowledge free really attracted me. I edit and write articles using books, academic journals, and many reliable sources.”
Wikipedia is accessed billions of times every month
Steven’s day job also involves research. He works with records and information at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He jokes that his coworkers think he’s “a bit odd” for spending so much time on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia’s journalist and vice president of communications, Kui Kinyanjui, commented, “Wikipedia wouldn’t exist without the dedication of volunteer editors. It’s one of the top five most visited websites worldwide, alongside tech giants like Google, YouTube, and Facebook.
People like Steven play a crucial role for platforms like Wikipedia. Their passion helps create useful knowledge for everyone. There are 6,000 people accessing Wikipedia every second. This responsibility motivates editors to contribute accurate and diverse content. Wikipedia has launched a project focused on writing about women, and Steven will assist us in this process.”
Source: CBS
