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[[File:First preserved Main Page of Wikipedia.jpeg|thumbnail|Wikipedia's main page (20 December 2001)]]

[[Wikipedia]], a [[free content|free-content]] [[online encyclopedia]] written and maintained by a community of volunteers known as [[Wikipedians]], began with its [[First Wikipedia edit|first edit]] on 15 January 2001, two days after the [[Domain name|domain]] was registered.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia.org WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools |url=http://whois.domaintools.com/wikipedia.org |access-date=24 October 2016 |website=[[WHOIS]] |archive-date=17 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170417083509/http://whois.domaintools.com/wikipedia.org |url-status=live }}</ref> It grew out of [[Nupedia]], a more structured free encyclopedia, as a way to allow easier and faster drafting of articles and translations.

The technological and conceptual underpinnings of Wikipedia predate this; the earliest known proposal for an online encyclopedia was made by [[Rick Gates (Internet pioneer)|Rick Gates]] in 1993,<ref name="listserv.uh.edu">{{Cite web |year=2010 |title=Wikipedia of Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger |url=http://history-computer.com/Internet/Conquering/Wikipedia.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415133700/http://history-computer.com/Internet/Conquering/Wikipedia.html |archive-date=15 April 2012 |access-date=9 November 2013 |publisher=History Computer}}</ref> and the concept of a [[free as in freedom|free-as-in-freedom]] online encyclopedia (as [[Alternative terms for free software|distinct]] from mere [[open source]])<ref>{{Cite web |title=Philosophy |url=https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html#open-source |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014132149/http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html#open-source |archive-date=14 October 2013 |access-date=5 November 2013 |publisher=GNU}}</ref> was proposed by [[Richard Stallman]] in 1998.<ref name="stallmanencyclopedia" />

Stallman's concept specifically included the idea that no central organization should control editing. This contrasted with contemporary digital encyclopedias such as [[Encarta|Microsoft Encarta]] and ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]].'' In 2001, the license for [[Nupedia]] was changed to [[GFDL]], and [[Jimmy Wales]] and [[Larry Sanger]] launched Wikipedia as a complementary project, using an online [[wiki]] as a collaborative drafting tool.<ref>{{Cite web |title=WikiHistory |url=http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiHistory |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020621221535/http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiHistory |archive-date=21 June 2002 |access-date=15 May 2013 |publisher=[[WikiWikiWeb]]}}</ref>

While Wikipedia was initially imagined as a place to draft articles and ideas for eventual polishing in Nupedia, it quickly overtook its predecessor, becoming both draft space and home for the polished final product of a global project in hundreds of languages, inspiring a wide range of [[List of wikis|other online reference projects]].

In 2014, Wikipedia had approximately 495 million monthly readers.<ref name="EconWikiPeaks">{{Cite news |date=1 March 2014 |title=The future of Wikipedia: WikiPeaks? |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |url=https://www.economist.com/news/international/21597959-popular-online-encyclopedia-must-work-out-what-next-wikipeaks |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408202455/http://www.economist.com/news/international/21597959-popular-online-encyclopedia-must-work-out-what-next-wikipeaks |archive-date=8 April 2014}}</ref> In 2015, according to [[comScore]], Wikipedia received over 115 million monthly unique visitors from the United States alone.<ref name="comScore2012">{{Cite web |date=24 February 2015 |title=comScore Ranks the Top 50 U.S. Digital Media Properties for January 2015 |url=http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Market-Rankings/comScore-Ranks-the-Top-50-US-Digital-Media-Properties-for-January-2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317071240/http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Market-Rankings/comScore-Ranks-the-Top-50-US-Digital-Media-Properties-for-January-2015 |archive-date=17 March 2015 |access-date=17 March 2015 |publisher=comScore}}</ref> In September 2018, the projects saw 15.5 billion monthly page views.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Monthly overview |url=https://stats.wikimedia.org/v2/#/all-projects |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124235329/https://stats.wikimedia.org/v2/#/all-projects |archive-date=24 January 2020 |access-date=31 May 2019 |website=Wikimedia statistics |publisher=Wikimedia Foundation}}</ref>

==Historical overview==
===Background===
The concept of compiling the world's knowledge in a single location dates back to the ancient [[Library of Alexandria]] and [[Library of Pergamum]], and there are ancient precursors of the idea of a comprehensive encyclopedia, such as [[Pliny the Elder]]'s ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis historia]]'', but the modern concept of a general-purpose, widely distributed, printed encyclopedia originates with [[Denis Diderot]] and the 18th-century French [[Encyclopédie|encyclopedists]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miloš |first=Todorović |year=2018 |title=From Diderot's Encyclopedia to Wales's Wikipedia: a brief history of collecting and sharing knowledge |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347489594 |journal=Časopis KSIO |volume=1 |pages=88–102 |doi=10.5281/zenodo.3235309 |access-date=20 October 2021}}</ref> The idea of using automated machinery beyond the [[printing press]] to build a more useful encyclopedia can be traced to [[Paul Otlet]]'s 1934 book ''[[Traité de Documentation]]''. Otlet also founded the [[Mundaneum]], an institution dedicated to indexing the world's knowledge, in 1910. This concept of a machine-assisted encyclopedia was further expanded in [[H. G. Wells]]' book of essays ''[[World Brain]]'' (1938) and [[Vannevar Bush]]'s future vision of the [[microfilm]]-based [[Memex]] in his essay "[[As We May Think]]" (1945).<ref name="reaglechap2">Reagle, Joseph (2010). ''Good Faith Collaboration.  The Culture of Wikipedia''. MIT Press. {{ISBN|978-0262014472}}. Chapter 2: "The Pursuit of the Universal Encyclopedia".</ref> Another milestone was [[Ted Nelson]]'s [[hypertext]] design [[Project Xanadu]], which began in 1960.<ref name=reaglechap2/>

The use of volunteers was integral in making and maintaining Wikipedia. However, even without the internet, huge complex projects of similar nature had made use of volunteers. Specifically, the creation of the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' was conceived with the speech at the London Library, on [[Guy Fawkes Day]], 5 November 1857, by [[Richard Chenevix Trench]]. It took about 70 years to complete. Dr. Trench envisioned a grand new dictionary of every word in the English language, and to be used democratically and freely. According to author Simon Winchester, "The undertaking of the scheme, he said, was beyond the ability of any one man. To peruse all of English literature{{snd}}and to comb the London and New York newspapers and the most literate of the magazines and journals{{snd}}must be instead 'the combined action of many.' It would be necessary to recruit a team{{snd}}moreover, a huge one{{snd}}probably comprising hundreds and hundreds of unpaid amateurs, all of them working as volunteers."<ref>Winchester, Simon (1998). ''The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary''. Harpers, p. 106.</ref>

Advances in information technology in the late 20th century led to changes in the form of encyclopedias. While previous encyclopedias, notably the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', were often book-based, Microsoft's [[Encarta]], published in 1993, was available on CD-ROM and [[hyperlink]]ed. The development of the [[World Wide Web]] led to many attempts to develop [[Online encyclopedia|internet encyclopedia projects]]. An early proposal for an online encyclopedia was [[Interpedia]] in 1993 by [[Rick Gates (Internet pioneer)|Rick Gates]];<ref name="listserv.uh.edu" /> this project died before generating any encyclopedic content. [[Free software]] proponent [[Richard Stallman]] described the usefulness of a "Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource" in 1998.<ref name="stallmanencyclopedia">{{Cite web |last=Stallman |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Stallman |year=1998 |title=The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource (1998 Draft) |url=https://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/free-encyclopedia-1998-draft.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124065108/https://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/free-encyclopedia-1998-draft.html |archive-date=24 January 2021 |access-date=29 October 2021 |publisher=GNU}}</ref> His published document outlined how to "ensure that progress continues towards this best and most natural outcome."

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales said that the concept of Wikipedia came when he was a graduate student at [[Indiana University Bloomington|Indiana University]], where he was impressed with the successes of the [[open-source movement]] and found Richard Stallman's [[GNU Manifesto|Emacs Manifesto]] promoting [[free software movement|free software]] and a sharing economy interesting. Wales also credits [[Austrian School]] economist [[Friedrich Hayek]]'s essay, "[[The Use of Knowledge in Society]]," which he read as an undergraduate,<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2014-09-30 |title=Know It All - The New Yorker |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/07/31/know-it-all |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140930011944/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/07/31/know-it-all |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-09-30 |access-date=2024-11-07 }}</ref> as "central" to his thinking about "how to manage the Wikipedia project."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mangu-Ward |first=Katherine |date=2007-05-30 |title=Wikipedia and Beyond |url=https://reason.com/2007/05/30/wikipedia-and-beyond/ |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=Reason.com |language=en-US}}</ref> The essay asserts that [[Dispersed knowledge|information is decentralized]]—that each individual only knows a small fraction of what is known collectively—and that as a result, decisions are best made by those with local knowledge, rather than by a central authority. At the time, Wales was studying finance and was intrigued by the incentives of the many people who contributed as volunteers toward creating free software, where many examples were having excellent results.<ref>{{Citation |title=Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales: "I have this crazy idea that people will pay for free news" |url=https://play.acast.com/s/dannyinthevalley/wikipediasjimmywales |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=Danny in the Valley |date=19 January 2018 |language=en |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316055526/https://play.acast.com/s/dannyinthevalley/wikipediasjimmywales |url-status=live }} Richard Stallman discussed at 20min, with further Open Source discussion at 16min.</ref> According to ''[[The Economist]]'', Wikipedia "has its roots in the [[Technological utopianism|techno-optimism]] that characterised the internet at the end of the 20th century. It held that ordinary people could use their computers as tools for liberation, education, and enlightenment."<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 January 2021 |title=Wikipedia is 20, and its reputation has never been higher |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/09/wikipedia-is-20-and-its-reputation-has-never-been-higher |access-date=29 August 2022 |issn=0013-0613 |archive-date=31 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231224550/https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/09/wikipedia-is-20-and-its-reputation-has-never-been-higher |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Formulation of the concept===
Wikipedia was initially conceived as a feeder project for the Wales-founded [[Nupedia]], an earlier project to produce a free online encyclopedia, volunteered by [[Bomis]], a web-advertising firm owned by Jimmy Wales, [[Tim Shell]] and [[Michael E. Davis (businessman)|Michael E. Davis]].<ref name="thehive" /><ref name="Jonathan Sidener">{{Cite news |last=Sidener |first=Jonathan |date=6 December 2004 |title=Everyone's Encyclopedia |work=[[The San Diego Union-Tribune]] |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041206/news_mz1b6encyclo.html |url-status=dead |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221005820/http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041206/news_mz1b6encyclo.html |archive-date=21 February 2009}}</ref><ref name="memoirofwiki" /> Nupedia was founded upon the use of qualified volunteer contributors and a considered multi-step [[peer review]] process.<ref>Kaplan Andreas, Haenlein Michael (2014) Collaborative projects (social media application): About Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Business Horizons, Volume 57 Issue 5, pp. 617–626</ref> Despite its mailing list of over 2000 interested editors, and the presence of Sanger as full-time editor-in-chief,<ref name="resignation">{{Cite web |title=My resignation – Larry Sanger – Meta |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/My_resignation--Larry_Sanger |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=meta.wikimedia.org |language=en |quote=I was more or less offered the job of editing Nupedia when I was, as an ABD philosophy graduate student, soliciting Jimbo's (and other friends') advice on a website I was thinking of starting. It was the first I had heard of Jimbo's idea of an open content encyclopedia, and I was delighted to take the job. |archive-date=20 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320142105/https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/My_resignation--Larry_Sanger |url-status=live }}</ref> the production of content for Nupedia was extremely slow, with only 12 articles written during the first year.<ref name="memoirofwiki" />

The Nupedians discussed various ways to create content more rapidly.<ref name="Jonathan Sidener" /> Wikis had been used elsewhere on the web to organize knowledge,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-01-12 |title=From the archives: Highland Park teen is finalist in web competition |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2013-01-12-chi-archives-aaron-swartz-20130112-story.html |access-date=2023-08-21 |website=Chicago Tribune}}</ref> and the idea of a [[wiki]]-based complement to Nupedia was seeded by a conversation between Sanger and Ben Kovitz,<ref name="Ben_Kovitz">{{Cite news |title=Ben Kovitz |publisher=[[WikiWikiWeb]] |url=http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BenKovitz |url-status=live |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070404030625/http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BenKovitz |archive-date=4 April 2007}} – see also Ben Kovitz'  fuller account which he links from there.</ref><ref name="Glyn Moody">{{Cite news |last=Moody |first=Glyn |date=13 July 2006 |title=This time, it'll be a Wikipedia written by experts |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2006/jul/13/media.newmedia |url-status=live |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070222023201/http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1818630,00.html |archive-date=22 February 2007}} – While casting around for a way to speed up article production, Sanger met with Kovitz, an old friend, in January 2001. Kovitz introduced Sanger to the idea of the wiki, invented in 1995 by Ward Cunningham: web pages that anyone could write and edit. "My first reaction was that this really could be what would solve the problem," Sanger explains, "because the software was already written, and this community of people on WikiWikiWeb" – the first wiki – "had created something like 14,000 pages". Nupedia, by contrast, had produced barely two dozen articles. Sanger took up the idea immediately: "I wrote up a proposal and sent it [to Wales] that evening, and the wiki was then set up for me to work on." But this was not Wikipedia as we know it. "Originally it was the Nupedia Wiki – our idea was to use it as an article incubator for Nupedia. Articles could begin life on this wiki, be developed collaboratively and, when they got to a certain stage of development, be put into the Nupedia system."</ref><ref name="Origins_of_Wikipedia">{{Cite news |last=Sidener |first=Jonathan |date=23 September 2006 |title=Wikipedia co-founder looks to add accountability, end anarchy |work=[[The San Diego Union-Tribune]] |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060923/news_lz1n23wiki.html |url-status=dead |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017041126/http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060923/news_lz1n23wiki.html |archive-date=17 October 2007 |quote=The origins of Wikipedia date to 2000, when Sanger was finishing his doctoral thesis in philosophy and had an idea for a Web site.}}</ref> and by another between Wales and Jeremy Rosenfeld.<ref name="Ben_Kovitz" /> Kovitz was a [[computer programmer]] and regular on [[Ward Cunningham]]'s revolutionary wiki "the [[WikiWikiWeb]]". He explained to Sanger what wikis were, over a dinner on 2 January 2001.<ref name="Ben_Kovitz" /><ref name="Glyn Moody" /><ref name="Origins_of_Wikipedia" /><ref name="the hive">{{Cite magazine |last=Poe |first=Marshall |date=September 2006 |title=The Hive |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/3 |url-status=live |magazine=[[The Atlantic Monthly]] |page=3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061110160718/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/3 |archive-date=10 November 2006 |access-date=25 March 2007}} – "Over tacos that night, Sanger explained his concerns about Nupedia's lack of progress, the root cause of which was its serial editorial system. As Nupedia was then structured, no stage of the editorial process could proceed before the previous stage was completed. Kovitz brought up the wiki and sketched out 'wiki magic,' the mysterious process by which communities with common interests work to improve wiki pages by incremental contributions. If it worked for the rambunctious hacker culture of programming, Kovitz said, it could work for any online collaborative project. The wiki could break the Nupedia bottleneck by permitting volunteers to work simultaneously all over the project. With Kovitz in tow, Sanger rushed back to his apartment and called Wales to share the idea. Over the next few days, he wrote a formal proposal for Wales and started a page on Cunningham's wiki called 'Wikipedia.{{'-}}"</ref> Wales stated in October 2001 that "Larry had the idea to use Wiki software" for people bored by Nupedia process,<ref name="Wikipedia-l-000671">{{Cite news |last=Wales |first=Jimmy |date=30 October 2001 |title=LinkBacks? |publisher=Wikimedia |format=Email |url=http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-October/000671.html |url-status=dead |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620072830/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-October/000671.html |archive-date=20 June 2014}}</ref> and later stated in December 2005 that Rosenfeld had introduced him to the wiki concept.<ref name="Wired News">{{Cite magazine |date=3 May 2007 |title=Assignment Zero First Take: Wiki Innovators Rethink Openness |url=https://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2007/05/assignment_zero_citizendium |url-status=dead |magazine=[[Wired News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328235925/http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2007/05/assignment_zero_citizendium |archive-date=28 March 2014 |access-date=1 November 2007}} Wired.com states: "Wales offered the following on-the-record comment in an e-mail to NewAssignment.net editor [and NYU Professor] [[Jay Rosen]] ...' Larry Sanger was my employee working under my direct supervision during the entire process of launching Wikipedia. He was not the originator of the proposal to use a wiki for the encyclopedia project – that was Jeremy Rosenfeld'."</ref><ref name="cadenhead">{{Cite web |last=Rogers Cadenhead |title=Wikipedia Founder Looks Out for Number 1 |url=http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/2828/wikipedia-founder-looks-out-number-1 |access-date=15 October 2006 |archive-date=26 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080926103410/http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/2828/wikipedia-founder-looks-out-number-1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="rosenfeld">Also stated on Wikipedia, on Friday 2 December 2005 [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jimmy_Wales&diff=next&oldid=29849184 permanent reference] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210311054329/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jimmy_Wales&diff=next&oldid=29849184 |date=11 March 2021 }}</ref><ref>Stated on Wikipedia on Monday 14 March 2005: [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=11139857 reference] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222221915/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=11139857 |date=22 February 2021 }}</ref> Sanger thought a wiki would be a good platform to use, and proposed on the Nupedia [[mailing list]] that a wiki based upon [[UseModWiki]] (then v. 0.90) be set up as a "feeder" project for Nupedia. Under the subject "Let's make a wiki", he wrote:<ref>{{Cite news |last=Larry Sanger |author-link=Larry Sanger |date=10 January 2001 |title=Let's make a wiki |publisher=Nupedia mailing list |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030414014355/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html |archive-date=14 April 2003}}</ref>

{{blockquote|No, this is not an indecent proposal. It's an idea to add a little feature to Nupedia. Jimmy Wales thinks that many people might find the idea objectionable, but I think not... As to Nupedia's use of a wiki, this is the ULTIMATE "open" and simple format for developing content. We have occasionally bandied about ideas for simpler, more open projects to either replace or supplement Nupedia. It seems to me wikis can be implemented practically instantly, need very little maintenance, and in general, are very low-risk. They're also a potentially great source of content. So there's little downside, as far as I can determine.}}
Wales set one up and put it online on Wednesday 10 January 2001, under the nupedia.com domain.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Larry Sanger |author-link=Larry Sanger |date=10 January 2001 |title=Nupedia's wiki: try it out |publisher=Nupedia mailing list |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000678.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030425173342/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000678.html |archive-date=25 April 2003}}</ref> This moved to a new wiki under the wikipedia.com domain on 15 January. On 17 January, the [[Free Software Foundation]]'s (FSF) [[GNUPedia]] project went online, potentially competing with [[Nupedia]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 January 2001 |title=Slashdot Comments &#124; GNUPedia Project Starting |url=http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9990&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=502603 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220612010030/https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9990 |archive-date=12 June 2022 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Slashdot.org}}</ref> but within a few years the FSF encouraged people "to visit and contribute to [Wikipedia]" instead.<ref>{{Cite web |year=2012 |title=The Free Encyclopedia Project |url=https://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121221000617/http://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/ |archive-date=21 December 2012 |access-date=20 December 2012 |publisher=GNU.org |orig-year=1999}}</ref>

===Founding of Wikipedia===
{{See also|First Wikipedia edit|Wikipedia:Wikipedia's oldest articles|Wikipedia:First 100 pages}}
There was some hesitation among editors about binding Nupedia too closely to a wiki-style workflow.<ref name="memoirofwiki">{{cite web|first=Larry |last=Sanger |url=http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213&tid=95&tid=149&tid=9 |title=The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir – Part I|date=2005-04-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090722235956/http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05%2F04%2F18%2F164213&tid=95&tid=149&tid=9 |archive-date=22 July 2009}} {{cite web|url=http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/19/1746205&tid=95 |title=The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir – Part II |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061108094801/http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05%2F04%2F19%2F1746205&tid=95 |archive-date=8 November 2006 |website=[[Slashdot]] |date=19 April 2005 |quote=My initial idea was that the wiki would be set up as part of Nupedia; it was to be a way for the public to develop a stream of content that could be fed into the Nupedia process. I think I got some of the basic pages written—how wikis work, what our general plan was, and so forth—over the next few days. I wrote a general proposal for the Nupedia community, and the Nupedia wiki went live January 10. The first encyclopedia articles for what was to become Wikipedia were written then. It turned out, however, that a clear majority of the Nupedia Advisory Board wanted to have nothing to do with a wiki. Again, their commitment was to rigor and reliability, a concern I shared with them and continue to have. Still, perhaps some of those people are kicking themselves now. They (some of them) evidently thought that a wiki could not resemble an encyclopedia at all, that it would be too informal and unstructured, as the original WikiWikiWeb was (and is), to be associated with Nupedia. They of course were perfectly reasonable to doubt that it would turn into the fantastic source of content that it did. Who could reasonably guess that it would work? But it did work, and now the world knows better.}}</ref> After a Nupedia wiki was launched under {{mono|nupedia.com}} on 10 January 2001,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2003-04-25 |title=[Nupedia-l] Nupedia's wiki: try it out |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000678.html |access-date=2023-08-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030425173342/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000678.html |archive-date=25 April 2003 }}</ref> Wales proposed launching the new project under its own name, and Sanger proposed ''Wikipedia'', framing it as "a supplementary project to Nupedia which operates entirely independently."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Larry Sanger |author-link=Larry Sanger |date=11 January 2001 |title=Re: [Advisory-l] The wiki... |publisher=Nupedia mailing list |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000680.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030414021138/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000680.html |archive-date=14 April 2003}}</ref> A new wiki was launched at {{mono|wikipedia.com}} on Monday 15 January 2001. The [[bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth]] and [[server (computing)|server]] (located in San Diego) used for these initial projects were donated by Bomis. Many former Bomis employees later contributed content to the encyclopedia: notably [[Tim Shell]], co-founder and later CEO of Bomis, and programmer Jason Richey.

[[File:Jimmy Wales' Mac and the First Wikipedia Edit — "Hello World" (51738433963).jpg|thumb|right|200px|Jimmy Wales' iMac used to make the first edit to Wikipedia]]
Wales stated in December 2008 that he made Wikipedia's first edit, a test edit with the text "[["Hello, World!" program|Hello, World]]!", but this may have been to an old version of Wikipedia which soon after was scrapped and replaced by a restart.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&diff=prev&oldid=258632986 Message by Jimmy Wales] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412003535/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&diff=prev&oldid=258632986 |date=12 April 2016 }} Wednesday 17 December 2008. Retrieved Saturday 30 January 2010.</ref><ref>{{Cite mailing list |url=https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2011-January/108198.html |title=Hello world? |date=14 January 2011 |access-date=4 June 2022 |mailing-list=WikiEN-l |last=Starling |first=Tim}}</ref> The first recovered edit to Wikipedia.com was to the HomePage on 15 January 2001, reading "This is the new WikiPedia!"; it can be found [[Special:permalink/908493298|here]].<ref>Wikipedia's earliest edits were once believed lost, as early [[UseModWiki]] software deleted data after a month. But on 14 December 2010, [[Tim Starling]] found backups on [[SourceForge]] containing every change made to Wikipedia from its creation in January 2001 to 17 August 2001. As of 2019, these were imported into Wikipedia's edit history.

Before that, the first edits that had been known were to [[Special:PermanentLink/291430|Wikipedia:UuU]], [[Special:PermanentLink/286342|TransporT]], and [[Special:PermanentLink/11992008|User:ScottMoonen]] on 16 January 2001.</ref> The existence of the project was formally announced and an appeal for volunteers to engage in content creation was made to the Nupedia mailing list on 17 January 2001.<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 March 2003 |title=&#91;Nupedia-l&#93; Wikipedia is up! |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000684.html |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030331101007/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000684.html |archive-date=31 March 2003 }}</ref>

The project received many new participants after being mentioned on the [[Slashdot]] website in July 2001,<ref name="slashdot26july">{{Cite web |date=26 July 2001 |title=Britannica and Free Content |url=http://slashdot.org/articles/01/07/26/0312258.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114204227/http://slashdot.org/articles/01/07/26/0312258.shtml |archive-date=14 January 2009 |publisher=Slashdot}}</ref> having already earned two minor mentions in March 2001.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 March 2001 |title=Nupedia and Project Gutenberg Directors Answer |url=http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/03/02/1422244&tid=99 |publisher=Slashdot}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=29 March 2001 |title=Everything2 Hits One Million Nodes |url=http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/03/29/2035230&tid=95 |publisher=Slashdot}}</ref> It then received a prominent pointer to a story on the community-edited technology and culture website [[Kuro5hin]] on 25 July.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 July 2001 |title=Britannica or Nupedia? The Future of Free Encyclopedias |url=http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/7/25/103136/121 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011107050810/http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/7/25/103136/121 |archive-date=7 November 2001 |publisher=Kuro5hin}}</ref> Between these influxes of traffic, there had been a steady stream of traffic from other sources, especially Google, which alone sent hundreds of new visitors to the site every day. Its first major [[mainstream media]] coverage was in ''[[The New York Times]]'' on 20 September 2001.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Meyers |first=Peter |date=20 September 2001 |title=Fact-Driven? Collegial? This Site Wants You |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/technology/fact-driven-collegial-this-site-wants-you.html |access-date=16 March 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=15 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415232001/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/technology/fact-driven-collegial-this-site-wants-you.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Divisions and internationalization ===
Early in Wikipedia's development, it began to expand internationally, with the creation of new [[namespace]]s, each with a distinct set of [[username]]s. The first [[subdomain]] created for a non-English Wikipedia was {{Mono|[[German Wikipedia|deutsche.wikipedia.com]]}} (created on Friday 16 March 2001, 01:38 UTC),<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 March 2001 |title=Alternative language Wikipedias |url=http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-March/000049.html |access-date=13 April 2010 |website=Lists |publisher=Wikimedia |archive-date=20 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620120726/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-March/000049.html |url-status=live }}</ref> followed after a few hours by {{Mono|[[Catalan Wikipedia|catalan.wikipedia.com]]}} (at 13:07 UTC).<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Catalan Homepage |url=http://catalan.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=history&id=HomePage |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010413083954/http://catalan.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=history&id=HomePage |archive-date=13 April 2001 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Wikipedia}}</ref> The [[Japanese Wikipedia]], started as {{Mono|nihongo.wikipedia.com}}, was created around that period,<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 April 2001 |title=Nihongo No Wikipedia: HomePage |url=http://nihongo.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=browse&id=HomePage&revision=3 |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010420120143/http://nihongo.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=browse&id=HomePage&revision=3 |archive-date=20 April 2001 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=31 March 2001 |title=Wikipedia: HomePage |url=http://www.wikipedia.com/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010331173908/http://www.wikipedia.com/ |archive-date=31 March 2001 }}</ref> and initially used only [[Romanization of Japanese|Romanized Japanese]]. For about two months Catalan was the one with the most articles in a non-English language,<ref>[[Wikipedia:Multilingual monthly statistics (2001)|Multilingual monthly statistics]]</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://ca.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C3%80bac&oldid=1 |title= First edition in the Catalan Wikipedia |language= ca |publisher= Wikipedia |access-date= 13 April 2010 |archive-date= 12 November 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201112014959/https://ca.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C3%80bac |url-status= live }}</ref> although statistics of that early period are imprecise.<ref>This [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Multilingual_monthly_statistics_(2001)&oldid=192353617 table] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222221921/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3AMultilingual_monthly_statistics_%282001%29&oldid=192353617 |date=22 February 2021 }}, for instance, misses Japanese and German articles such as [https://web.archive.org/web/20010421123743/http://nihongo.wikipedia.com/wiki/Nihongo_no_funimekusu this one] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20010411030440/http://deutsche.wikipedia.com/wiki/Nupedia_Deutsch-L_Sektion this one], both dated 6 April 2001.</ref>

The [[French Wikipedia]] was created on or around 11 May 2001,<ref>The [http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Historique_de_Wikip%C3%A9dia_en_fran%C3%A7ais&oldid=34816819 Documentation on the French Wikipedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608194149/https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Historique_de_Wikip%C3%A9dia_en_fran%C3%A7ais&oldid=34816819 |date=8 June 2021 }} mentions the date of 23 March 2001, but this date is not supported by Wikipedia snapshots on the [[Internet Archive]], nor by Jason Richey's letter, which was dated 11 May 2001 (see below).</ref> in a wave of new language versions that also included [[Chinese Wikipedia|Chinese]], [[Dutch Wikipedia|Dutch]], [[Esperanto Wikipedia|Esperanto]], [[Hebrew Wikipedia|Hebrew]], [[Italian Wikipedia|Italian]], <!--[[Japanese Wikipedia|Japanese]], commenting out: although Japanese Wikipedia was announced together with the others on that email, it already existed under the domain nihongo.wikipedia.com-->[[Portuguese Wikipedia|Portuguese]], [[Russian Wikipedia|Russian]], [[Spanish Wikipedia|Spanish]], and [[Swedish Wikipedia|Swedish]].<ref>[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-May/000116.html  Letter of Jason Richey to wikipedia-l mailing list] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620081721/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-May/000116.html |date=20 June 2014 }} 11 May 2001</ref> These languages were soon joined by [[Arabic Wikipedia|Arabic]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Homepage from the Internet Archive |url=http://ar.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?HomePage |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011118054300/http://ar.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?HomePage |archive-date=18 November 2001 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Wikipedia}}</ref> and [[Hungarian Wikipedia|Hungarian]].<ref>[http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Announcements_2001#May_2001 Wikipedia:Announcements] May 2001</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=International_Wikipedia&action=history |title = International Wikipedia |publisher=Wikipedia |access-date=13 April 2010}}</ref> In September 2001, an announcement pledged commitment to the multilingual provision of Wikipedia,<ref>[[Wikipedia: Announcements 2001#September 2001|Wikipedia:Announcements 2001]]</ref> notifying users of an upcoming roll-out of Wikipedias for all major languages, the establishment of core standards, and a push for the translation of core pages for the new wikis. At the end of that year, when international statistics first began to be logged, [[Afrikaans Wikipedia|Afrikaans]], [[Norwegian Wikipedia|Norwegian]], and [[Serbian Wikipedia|Serbian]] versions were announced.<ref>{{Cite web |title=International Wikipedias statistics |url=http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:International_wikipedias_statistics |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030305012547/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:International_wikipedias_statistics |archive-date=5 March 2003 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Wikipedia}}</ref>

In January 2002, 90% of all Wikipedia articles were in English. By January 2004, fewer than 50% were English, and this internationalization has continued to increase as the encyclopedia grows. {{as of|2014}}, about 85% of all Wikipedia articles were in non-English Wikipedia versions.<ref name="Grand20" /> {{as of|2023}}, the English and Simple English Wikipedias have 7 million articles between them, but roughly 90% of articles were in non-English Wikipedias.<ref>{{Cite web |title=List of Wikipedias – Meta |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias |access-date=2023-08-21 |website=meta.wikimedia.org |language=en}}</ref>

===Development of Wikipedia===
[[File:Old Wikipedia.png|thumb|right|Wikipedia's main page (28 September 2002)]]
In March 2002, following the withdrawal of funding by Bomis during the [[dot-com bubble|dot-com bust]], Sanger left both Nupedia and Wikipedia.<ref name="Stacy Schiff">{{Cite magazine |last=Schiff |first=Stacy |date=31 July 2006 |title=Know It All |url=https://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact |url-status=live |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122125817/http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact |archive-date=22 November 2008 |access-date=25 April 2009}}</ref> By 2002, he and Wales differed in their views on how best to manage open encyclopedias. Both still supported the open-collaboration concept, but they disagreed on how to handle disruptive editors, specific roles for experts, and the best way to guide the project to success.

Wales went on to establish self-governance and [[Business development|bottom-up]] self-direction by editors on Wikipedia. He made it clear that he would not be involved in the community's day-to-day management, but would encourage it to learn to self-manage and find its own best approaches. {{as of|2007}}, Wales mostly restricted his role to occasional input on serious matters, executive activity, advocacy of knowledge, and encouragement of similar reference projects.

Sanger said he is an "inclusionist" and is open to almost anything,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Nate |date=25 February 2007 |title=Citizendium: building a better Wikipedia |url=https://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/citizendium.ars/3 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081020001720/http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/citizendium.ars/3 |archive-date=20 October 2008 |access-date=22 October 2011 |website=Ars Technica}}</ref> and proposed that experts still have a place in the [[Web 2.0]] world. In 2006 he founded [[Citizendium]], an open encyclopedia that used real names for contributors to reduce disruptive editing, and hoped to facilitate "gentle expert guidance" to increase the accuracy of its content. Decisions about article content were to be up to the community, but the site was to include a statement about "family-friendly content".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archive: Family-Friendly Policy – Citizendium |url=http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Family-Friendly_Policy |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=en.citizendium.org |archive-date=20 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101120030154/http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Family-Friendly_Policy |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Nate Anderson"/>

=== Past content of Wikipedia ===
Old, even obsolete, encyclopedia articles are highly valuable for historical research.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 January 2021 |title=Encyclopedias Are Time Capsules – The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/encyclopedias-are-time-capsules/419619/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126035016/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/encyclopedias-are-time-capsules/419619/ |archive-date=26 January 2021 |access-date=25 June 2022 |website=[[The Atlantic]]}}</ref> For each Wikipedia article, past versions are accessible through the "View history" link at the top of the page. The full version history of all Wikipedia articles is also available for download as [[Wikipedia:Database download|data dumps]], in the form of compressed [[XML]] files.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Koehrsen |first=Will |date=2018-10-26 |title=Wikipedia Data Science: Working with the World's Largest Encyclopedia |url=https://medium.com/towards-data-science/wikipedia-data-science-working-with-the-worlds-largest-encyclopedia-c08efbac5f5c |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=Towards Data Science |language=en}}</ref>

In addition, the ZIM File Archive,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=ZIM File Archive: Free Data: Free Download, Borrow and Streaming |url=https://archive.org/details/zimarchive |access-date=25 June 2022 |website=Internet Archive |language=en}}</ref> at [[Internet Archive]], contains past full snapshots of Wikipedia as well as article selections, in multiple languages, from different years. They can be opened with [[Kiwix]] software. Between 2007 and 2011, three [[#English Wikipedia CD/DVD/Kiwix ZIM file releases|CD/DVD versions]] (called Wikipedia Version [[Wikipedia:Version 0.5|0.5]], [[Wikipedia:Version 0.7|0.7]] and [[Wikipedia:Version 0.8|0.8]]) containing a selection of articles from [[English Wikipedia]] were released. They became available as Kiwix ZIM files, both from the ZIM File Archive<ref name=":0" /> and from the Kiwix download site.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |title=Index of /archive/zim/wikipedia |url=https://download.kiwix.org/archive/zim/wikipedia/ |access-date=25 June 2022 |website=download.kiwix.org |archive-date=22 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220622124809/https://download.kiwix.org/archive/zim/wikipedia/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Evolution of logo===
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Old wikipedia logo.png|alt=This is the very first logo|Founding – late 2001 (tentative)
File:Wiki logo The Cunctator.png|alt=This is the second "improved" logo|Late 2001 – 12 October 2003
File:Wikipedia-logo-en.png|alt=This is the next logo.|13 October 2003 – 13 May 2010
File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg|alt=This is the present logo|13 May 2010 – present
</gallery>

==Timeline==
{{hatnote|Articles summarizing each year are held within the Wikipedia project namespace and are linked to below. Additional resources for research are available within the Wikipedia records and archives, and are listed at the end of this article.}}<!-- DONE THIS WAY SINCE MANY OF THESE LINKS WOULD BE SELFREFS, AND YET WORTHWHILE POINTING OUT THEIR EXISTENCE TO RESEARCHERS-->

===First decade: 2000–2009===
====2000====
[[File:Bomis-staff-summer-2000.jpg|thumb|alt=The Bomis staff, summer 2000|Bomis staff in mid-2000]]
In March 2000, the [[Nupedia]] project was started. Its intention was to publish articles written by experts which would be licensed as [[free content]]. Nupedia was founded by Wales, with Sanger as editor-in-chief, and funded by the web-advertising company [[Bomis]].<ref name="hive">{{Cite magazine |last=Poe |first=Marshall |date=September 2006 |title=The Hive |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/ |url-status=live |magazine=[[The Atlantic]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061223004004/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia |archive-date=23 December 2006 |access-date=1 January 2007}}</ref>

====2001====
In January 2001, Wikipedia began as a side-project of Nupedia, to allow collaboration on articles prior to entering the peer-review process.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Larry Sanger |author-link=Larry Sanger |date=10 January 2001 |title=Let's make a wiki |work=Nupedia-l mailing list |publisher=Internet Archive |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030414014355/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html |archive-date=14 April 2003}}</ref> The name was suggested by Sanger on 11 January 2001 as a [[portmanteau]] of the words ''[[wiki]]'' ([[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] for "quick") and ''encyclopedia''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=[Nupedia-l] Re: [Advisory-l] The wiki... |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000680.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030414021138/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000680.html |archive-date=14 April 2003 |website=nupedia.com}}</ref> The ''wikipedia.com'' and ''wikipedia.org'' domain names were registered on 12<ref>[[Network Solutions]] (2007) ''[http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.com WHOIS domain registration information results for wikipedia.com from Network Solutions] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927193149/http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.com |date=27 September 2007 }}''. Retrieved 27 July 2007.</ref> and 13 January,<ref>[[Network Solutions]] (2007). [http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.org "WHOIS domain registration information results for wikipedia.org from Network Solutions] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927194913/http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.org |date=27 September 2007 }}". Retrieved 27 July 2007.</ref> respectively, with ''wikipedia.org'' being brought online on the same day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia.org Site Info |url=http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101006010812/http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page |archive-date=6 October 2010 |access-date=6 September 2010 |publisher=[[Alexa Internet]]}}</ref> The project formally opened on 15 January ("[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Day|Wikipedia Day]]"), with the first international Wikipedias – the German, [[Catalan language|Catalan]], French, [[Swedish language|Swedish]], and Italian editions – being created between March and May. The "neutral point of view" ([[wikipedia:Neutral point of view|NPOV]]) policy was officially formulated at this time, and Wikipedia's first [[slashdot effect|slashdotter wave]] arrived on 26 July.<ref name="slashdot26july" /> The first media report about Wikipedia appeared in August 2001 in the newspaper ''[[Western Mail (Wales)|Wales on Sunday]]''.<ref>[[Western Mail (Wales)|Wales on Sunday]] (26 August 2001) ''Knowledge at your fingertips. Game On: Internet Chat.''(writing, "Both Encarta and Britannica are official publications with well-deserved reputations. But there are other options, such as homemade encyclopaedias. One is Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com) which uses clever software to build an encyclopaedia from scratch. Wiki is software installed on a web server that allows anyone to edit any of the pages. On Wikipedia, anyone can write about any subject they know about. The idea is that over time, enough experts will offer their knowledge for free and build up the world's ultimate hand-built database of knowledge. The disadvantage is that it's still an ongoing project. So far about 8,000 articles have been written and the editors are aiming for 100,000.")</ref>

The [[September 11 attacks]] spurred the appearance of breaking news stories on the homepage, as well as information boxes linking related articles.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20011010233257/http://www.wikipedia.com/ October 2001 homepage screenshot] shows the "Breaking News" header up top, as well as 11 September 2001 block of articles under "Current events"; the [https://web.archive.org/web/20011010230439/http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/September_11%2C_2001_Terrorist_Attack 9/11 page] shows the activist nature of the page, as well as the large number of subtopics created to cover the event.</ref> At the time, approximately 100 articles related to 9/11 had been created.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Keegan |first=Brian |date=17 November 2020 |title=How 9/11 Made Wikipedia What It Is Today |url=https://slate.com/technology/2020/11/wikipedia-september-11-breaking-news.html |url-status=live |access-date=10 May 2021 |website=Slate |language=en |archive-date=6 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506060557/https://slate.com/technology/2020/11/wikipedia-september-11-breaking-news.html }}</ref> After the September 11 attacks, a link to the Wikipedia article on the attacks appeared on [[Yahoo!]]'s home page, resulting in a spike in traffic.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pasternack |first=Alex |date=11 September 2021 |title=How 9/11 turned a new site called Wikipedia into history's crowdsourced front page |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90674998/how-9-11-turned-a-new-site-called-wikipedia-into-historys-crowdsourced-front-page |access-date=11 September 2021 |website=Fast Company |language=en-US |archive-date=11 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911121514/https://www.fastcompany.com/90674998/how-9-11-turned-a-new-site-called-wikipedia-into-historys-crowdsourced-front-page |url-status=live }}</ref>

====2002====
2002 saw the reduction of funding for Wikipedia from [[Bomis]] and the departure of Sanger. A [[fork (software development)|fork]] of the [[Spanish Wikipedia]] took place, with the establishment of the ''[[Enciclopedia Libre]]''. Jimmy Wales confirmed that Wikipedia would never run commercial advertising. The first portable [[MediaWiki]] software went live on 25 January. [[Internet bot|Bots]] were introduced. The first sister project ([[Wiktionary]]) and first formal [[Manual of Style]] were launched. Close to 200 contributors were editing Wikipedia daily.<ref name="Singer2002">{{Cite news |last=Singer |first=Michael |date=16 January 2002 |title=Free Encyclopedia Project Celebrates Year One |work=[[Mecklermedia|Jupitermedia]] |url=http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/3531_956641 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030316082912/http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/3531_956641 |archive-date=16 March 2003}}</ref>

====2003====
[[File:2003-08-31 English Wikipedia main page.svg|thumb|Wikipedia's main page (August 2003)]]
The English Wikipedia passed 100,000 articles in 2003, while the next largest edition, the German Wikipedia, passed 10,000. The [[Wikimedia Foundation]] was established. Wikipedia adopted its jigsaw world logo. Mathematical formulae using [[TeX]] were reintroduced to the website. The [[:de:Wikipedia:Stammtisch München/Archiv/2003|first Wikipedian social meeting]] took place in [[Munich]], Germany, in October. The basic principles of English Wikipedia's {{self-reference link|Wikipedia:ArbCom|Arbitration system and committee}} ("ArbCom") were developed. [[Wikisource]] was created as a separate project on 24 November 2003, to host free textual sources as its aim in multiple languages and translations.

====2004====
The worldwide Wikipedia article pool continued to grow rapidly in 2004, doubling in size in 12 months, from under 500,000 articles in late 2003 to over 1 million in over 100 languages by the end of 2004. The English Wikipedia accounted for just under half of these articles. The website's [[server farm]]s were moved from California to Florida. {{self-reference link|Wikipedia:Categories|Categories}} and [[CSS]] style configuration sheets were introduced. The first attempt to block Wikipedia occurred, with the website being blocked in China for two weeks in June. Formal elections began for a board for the Foundation, and an Arbitration Committee on English Wikipedia. The first national chapter of the Foundation, [[Wikimedia Deutschland]], was recognized. The first social meeting in the United States took place in [[Boston]], [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Boston1|in July]]. [[Wikimedia Commons]] was created on 7 September 2004 to host media files for Wikipedia in all languages.

''Bourgeois v. Peters'',<ref name="Bour v Pete">{{Cite web |title=387 F.3d 1303 |url=http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200216886.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121221140312/http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200216886.pdf |archive-date=21 December 2012 |access-date=19 November 2013}}</ref> (11th Cir. 2004), a court case decided by the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]] was one of the earliest court opinions to cite and quote Wikipedia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peoples, Lee |date=January 2010 |title=The Citation of Wikipedia in Judicial Opinions |url=http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=yjolt |url-status=live |journal=Yale Journal of Law and Technology |volume=12 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224051512/http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=yjolt |archive-date=24 February 2015}}</ref> It stated: "We also reject the notion that the Department of Homeland Security's threat advisory level somehow justifies these searches. Although the threat level was 'elevated' at the time of the protest, 'to date, the threat level has stood at yellow (elevated) for the majority of its time in existence. It has been raised to orange (high) six times.{{'-}}"<ref name="Bour v Pete" />

On 29 May, Wikipedia changed its default skin from [[mw:Skin:Standard|Standard]] to [[mw:Skin:MonoBook|MonoBook]], the interface that remained the default for Wikimedia Foundation websites until 2010.<ref>{{cite web |title=MonoBook |url=https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:MonoBook |website=MediaWiki |access-date=30 April 2026}}</ref>

====2005====
In 2005, Wikipedia became the most popular reference website on the Internet, according to [[Hitwise]], with English Wikipedia alone exceeding 750,000 articles. Wikipedia's first multilingual and subject portals were established in 2005. A formal fundraiser held in the first quarter of the year raised almost US$100,000 for system upgrades to handle growing demand. China again blocked Wikipedia in October 2005.

The first major Wikipedia scandal, the [[Seigenthaler incident]], occurred in 2005 when a well-known figure was found to have a vandalized biography that had gone unnoticed for months. In the wake of this and other concerns,<ref name="Brandt">[[Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons|WP:BLP]] was started on 17 December 2005, with the narrative "I started this due to the Daniel Brandt situation". [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&oldid=31753956 Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609020908/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&oldid=31753956 |date=9 June 2021 }}</ref> the first policy and system changes specifically designed to counter this form of abuse were established. These included a new [[m:CheckUser policy|Checkuser]] privilege policy update to assist in [[Sockpuppet (Internet)|sock puppetry]] investigations, a new feature called {{self-reference link|Wikipedia:Requests for page protection|semi-protection}}, a more strict policy on biographies of living people, and the tagging of such articles for stricter review. A restriction of new article creation to registered users was only put into place in December 2005 in English Wikipedia.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Terdiman |first=Daniel |title=Growing pains for Wikipedia |url=https://www.cnet.com/culture/growing-pains-for-wikipedia/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |publisher=CNET |language=en |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316055529/https://www.cnet.com/culture/growing-pains-for-wikipedia/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Wikimania 2005, the first [[Wikimania]] conference, was held from 4 to 8 August 2005 at the ''Haus der Jugend'' in [[Frankfurt]], attracting about 380 attendees.

[[File:Wikimania - the Wikimentary.webm|thumb|thumbtime=00:17|right|200px|''Wikimania – the Wikimentary'', a documentary about Wikimania 2005, featuring [[Jimmy Wales]] and [[Ward Cunningham]]]]

====2006====
The English Wikipedia gained its one-millionth article, [[Jordanhill railway station]], on March 1, 2006.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Simon|first=Matt|date=1 March 2012|title=March 1, 2006: English Wikipedia's Millionth Entry Pulls Into the Station|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|url=https://www.wired.com/2012/03/march-1-2006-english-wikipedias-millionth-entry-pulls-into-the-station/|access-date=1 April 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Lemon|first=Sumner|date=2 March 2006|title=Millionth English article posted on Wikipedia|website=[[Computerworld]]|url=https://www.computerworld.com/article/2563140/millionth-english-article-posted-on-wikipedia.html|access-date=1 April 2024}}</ref> The first approved Wikipedia article selection was made freely available to download, and "Wikipedia" became registered as a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation. The [[United States congressional staff edits to Wikipedia|congressional aides biography scandals]] – multiple incidents in which congressional staffers and a campaign manager were caught trying to covertly alter Wikipedia biographies – came to public attention, leading to the resignation of the campaign manager. Nonetheless, Wikipedia was rated as one of the top five global brands of 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 March 2007 |title=brandchannel.com &#124; branding news |url=http://www.brandchannel.com/start1.asp?fa_id=352 |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070321033410/http://www.brandchannel.com/start1.asp?fa_id=352 |archive-date=21 March 2007 }}</ref>

Jimmy Wales indicated at [[Wikimania 2006]] that Wikipedia had achieved sufficient volume and called for an emphasis on quality, perhaps best expressed in the call for [[Wikipedia:100,000 feature-quality articles|100,000 feature-quality articles]]. A new privilege, "oversight", was created, allowing specific versions of archived pages with unacceptable content to be marked as non-viewable. Semi-protection against anonymous vandalism, introduced in 2005, proved more popular than expected, with over 1,000 pages being semi-protected at any given time in 2006.

====2007====
Wikipedia continued to grow rapidly in 2007, possessing over 5 million registered editor accounts by 13 August.<ref>See the special page: [[Special:Statistics]]: 5,078,036 registered user accounts as of 13 August 2007, excluding anonymous editors who have not created accounts.</ref> The 250 language editions of Wikipedia contained a combined total of 7.5 million articles, totalling 1.74 billion words, by 13 August.<ref>Source: [[Wikipedia:Size comparisons]] as of 13 August 2007</ref> The English Wikipedia gained articles at a steady rate of 1,700 a day,<ref>From around Q3 2006 Wikipedia's growth rate has been approximately linear, source: [[Wikipedia:Statistics]] – new article count by month 2006–2007.</ref> with the wikipedia.org domain name ranked the 10th-busiest in the world. Wikipedia continued to garner visibility in [[:Category:Wikipedia publicity|the press]] – the [[Essjay controversy]] broke out when a prominent member of Wikipedia was found to have lied about his credentials. [[Citizendium]], a competing online encyclopedia, launched publicly. A new trend developed in Wikipedia, with the encyclopedia addressing people whose notability stemmed from being a participant in a news story by adding a redirect from their name to the larger story, rather than creating a distinct biographical article.<ref>e.g., cases such as [[Crystal Mangum]] and Daniel Brandt.</ref>

On 9 September 2007, the English Wikipedia gained its two-millionth article, ''[[El Hormiguero]]''.<ref name="WFpressrelease">{{cite web|url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikipedia_Reaches_2_Million_Articles |title=English Wikipedia Reaches 2 Million Articles |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708005830/https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikipedia_Reaches_2_Million_Articles |archive-date=8 July 2017 |website=[[Wikimedia Foundation]] |date=9 September 2007 |access-date=3 June 2012}}</ref> There was some controversy in late 2007 when the [[Volapük Wikipedia]] jumped from 797 to over 112,000 articles, briefly becoming the 15th-largest Wikipedia edition, due to automated stub generation by an enthusiast for the [[Volapük]] constructed language.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1 December 2007 |title=Ciekawe wydarzenia w Internecie |url=http://www.pcworld.pl/artykuly/56502/MySpace.kontra.Facebook.html#t_34252 |url-status=live |journal=PC World (Polish) |language=pl |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106024950/http://www.pcworld.pl/artykuly/56502/MySpace.kontra.Facebook.html#t_34252 |archive-date=6 November 2013 |access-date=26 April 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Yves Nevelsteen |date=15 September 2007 |title=Volapuko jam superas Esperanton en Vikipedio |url=http://www.liberafolio.org/2007/volapukapedio |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130329091247/http://www.liberafolio.org/2007/volapukapedio |archive-date=29 March 2013 |access-date=26 April 2013 |website=Libera Folio |language=eo}}</ref> According to the ''[[MIT Technology Review]]'', the number of regularly active editors on the English-language Wikipedia peaked in 2007 at more than 51,000, and has since been declining.<ref name="MIT">{{Cite journal |last=Simonite |first=Tom |date=22 October 2013 |title=The Decline of Wikipedia |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2013/10/22/175674/the-decline-of-wikipedia/ |journal=[[MIT Technology Review]] |access-date=6 December 2020 |archive-date=31 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731083716/https://www.technologyreview.com/2013/10/22/175674/the-decline-of-wikipedia/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In April 2007, Wikipedia Version 0.5 article selection release was published.<ref name="auto1">{{Citation |title=Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team |date=2022-06-12 |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team&oldid=1092780181 |work=Wikipedia |language=en |access-date=2022-06-25 |archive-date=7 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707222542/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team&oldid=1092780181 |url-status=live }}</ref>

====2008====
Various [[WikiProject]]s in many areas continued to expand and refine article contents within their scope. In April 2008, the 10-millionth Wikipedia article was created, and by the end of the year the English Wikipedia exceeded 2.5 million articles.

====2009====
On 25 June 2009 at 22:15 UTC, following the [[death of Michael Jackson]], the website temporarily crashed. The [[Wikimedia Foundation]] reported nearly a million visitors to Jackson's biography within one hour, probably the most visitors in a one-hour period to any article in Wikipedia's history. By late August 2009, the number of articles in all Wikipedia editions had exceeded 14 million.<ref name="wikistats">{{cite web|url=https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesArticlesTotal.htm |title=Wikipedia Statistics, Article count (official) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140305100104/https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesArticlesTotal.htm |archive-date=5 March 2014 |website=Wikimedia.org}}</ref> The three-millionth article on the English Wikipedia, [[Beate Eriksen]], was created on 17 August 2009 at 04:05 UTC.<ref>{{Citation|title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-17/News and notes|date=2009-08-20|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-08-17/News_and_notes&oldid=309138115|work=Wikipedia|access-date=2023-03-16|language=en|archive-date=9 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609111443/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-08-17/News_and_notes&oldid=309138115|url-status=live}}</ref> On 27 December 2009, the [[German Wikipedia]] exceeded one million articles, becoming the second edition after the English Wikipedia to do so. A [[Time (magazine)|''TIME'']] article listed Wikipedia among 2009's best websites.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1918031_1918016_1917948,00.html "Wikipedia – 50 Best Websites 2009"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111202174857/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1918031_1918016_1917948,00.html |date=2 December 2011 }}. ''TIME''. 24 August 2009. Retrieved 24 November 2011.</ref> Wikipedia content became licensed under a [[Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike]] license in 2009.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 October 2020 |title=Licensing update/Timeline – Meta |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Licensing_update/Timeline |access-date=29 August 2022 |website=meta.wikimedia.org |language=en |archive-date=17 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817062932/https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Licensing_update/Timeline |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Second decade: 2010–2019===
====2010====
On 24 March, the European Wikipedia servers went offline due to an overheating problem. [[Failover]] to servers in Florida turned out to be broken, causing [[Domain Name System|DNS]] resolution for Wikipedia to fail across the world. The problem was resolved quickly, but due to DNS caching effects, some areas were slower to regain access to Wikipedia than others.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bergsma |first=Mark |date=24 March 2010 |title=Global Outage (cooling failure and DNS) |url=http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2010/03/global-outage-cooling-failure-and-dns/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327123357/http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2010/03/global-outage-cooling-failure-and-dns/ |archive-date=27 March 2010 |access-date=30 March 2010 |publisher=Wikimedia Technical Blog}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Perez |first=Juan Carlos |date=25 March 2010 |title=Wikipedia Suffers Global Collapse |url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/192410/wikipedia_suffers_global_collapse.html |url-status=live |magazine=PC World |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329132858/http://www.pcworld.com/article/192410/wikipedia_suffers_global_collapse.html |archive-date=29 March 2010 |access-date=30 March 2010}}</ref>

On 13 May, the site released a new interface. New features included an updated logo, new navigation tools, and a link wizard.<ref name="New features">{{cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:UsabilityInitiativePrefSwitch |title=New features |publisher=[[Wikipedia]] |access-date=6 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100822062045/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special%3AUsabilityInitiativePrefSwitch |archive-date=22 August 2010 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> However, the classic interface remained available for those who wished to use it. On 12 December, the English Wikipedia passed the 3.5-million-article mark, while the [[French Wikipedia]]'s millionth article was created on 21 September. The 1-billionth Wikimedia project edit was performed on 16 April.<ref>[[tools:~emijrp/wikimediacounter/onebillion.png|Total edits in Wikimedia projects – 1 billionth edit screenshot]]. Retrieved 19 November 2011.</ref> In early 2010, Wikipedia Version 0.7 article selection release was published.<ref name="auto1"/>

====2011====
[[File:Armwikicake.png|thumb|upright|One of [[Commons:Wikipedia 10 Photo gallery#Wikipedia 10 Cakes|several cakes]] made to celebrate Wikipedia's 10th anniversary in 2011<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia 10 |url=https://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231212611/http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page |archive-date=31 December 2013 |access-date=26 February 2014 |publisher=Ten.wikipedia.org}}</ref>]]

Wikipedia and its users held many celebrations worldwide to commemorate the site's [[Wikipedia:10 years of Wikipedia|10th anniversary]] on 15 January.<ref>Wikipedia celebrates a decade of edit wars, controversy, and Internet dominance [http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/011111-wikipedia-decade.html?hpg1=bn networkworld.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315204326/http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/011111-wikipedia-decade.html?hpg1=bn |date=15 March 2012 }}</ref> The site began efforts to expand its growth in India, holding its first Indian conference in [[Mumbai]] in November 2011.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 November 2011 |title=Wikipedia hosts India conference amid expansion push |language=en-GB |work=BBC News|first=Rajini|last=Vaidyanathan |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-15803308 |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316055525/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-15803308 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=12 January 2011 |title=Wikipedia, 10 years old, targets India |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1116765620110112 |url-status=live |access-date=13 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110114211053/http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1116765620110112 |archive-date=14 January 2011}}</ref> The [[English Wikipedia]] passed the 3.6-million-article mark on 2 April, and reached 3.8 million articles on 18 November. On 7 November 2011, the [[German Wikipedia]] exceeded 100 million page edits, becoming the second language edition to do so after the English edition, which attained 500 million page edits on 24 November 2011. The [[Dutch Wikipedia]] exceeded 1 million articles on 17 December 2011, becoming the fourth Wikipedia edition to do so.

On 3 March 2011, Wikipedia Version 0.8 article selection release was published.<ref>{{Citation |title=Wikipedia:Version 0.8 |date=2021-01-07 |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Version_0.8&oldid=998970578 |work=Wikipedia |language=en |access-date=2022-06-25 |archive-date=5 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220705013507/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Version_0.8&oldid=998970578 |url-status=live }}</ref> The "Wikimania 2011 – Haifa, Israel" stamp was issued by Israel Post on 2 August 2011. This was the first-ever stamp dedicated to a Wikimedia-related project. Between 4 and 6 October 2011, the [[Italian Wikipedia]] became intentionally inaccessible in protest against the [[Italian Parliament]]'s proposed [[DDL intercettazioni]] law, which, if approved, would allow any person to force websites to remove information that is perceived as untrue or offensive, without the need to provide evidence.<ref name="PCmagDDL">{{Cite web |title=Italian Wikipedia Hidden To Protest WireTap Law |url=https://www.pcmag.com/archive/italian-wikipedia-hidden-to-protest-wiretap-law-288689 |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=PC Magazine |language=en |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316055529/https://www.pcmag.com/archive/italian-wikipedia-hidden-to-protest-wiretap-law-288689 |url-status=live }}</ref> Also in October 2011, Wikimedia announced the launch of [[Wikipedia Zero]], an initiative to enable free mobile access to Wikipedia in developing countries through partnerships with mobile operators.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kapoor |first=Amit |date=26 October 2011 |title=Wikipedia seeks global operator partners to enable free access |work=Wikimedia blog |url=http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/26/wikipedia-seeks-global-operator-partners-to-enable-free-access/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717070411/http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/26/wikipedia-seeks-global-operator-partners-to-enable-free-access/ |archive-date=17 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia Zero |url=http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120529101704/http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero |archive-date=29 May 2012 |access-date=27 May 2012 |publisher=MediaWiki}}</ref>

====2012====
[[File:Wikimedia Foundation Wikipedia Blackout SOPA January 18, 2012.theora.ogv|thumb|thumbtime=13|200px|The staff at the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] the moment the SOPA blackout happened]]
On 16 January, Wikipedia co-founder [[Jimmy Wales]] announced that the English Wikipedia would [[2012 Wikipedia blackout|shut down]] for 24 hours on 18 January as part of a protest meant to call public attention to the proposed [[Stop Online Piracy Act]] and [[PROTECT IP Act]], two anti-[[Copyright infringement|piracy]] laws under debate in the [[United States Congress]]. Calling the blackout a "community decision", Wales and other opponents of the laws believed that they would endanger free speech and online innovation.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ortenzi |first=T. J. |date=17 January 2012 |title=Wikipedia blackout coming Wednesday, says co-founder Jimmy Wales |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/wikipedia-blackout-coming-jan-18-says-co-founder-jimmy-wales/2012/01/16/gIQAh2Ke3P_blog.html |access-date=16 March 2023 |newspaper=The Washington Post |language=en-US |archive-date=6 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306052240/https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/wikipedia-blackout-coming-jan-18-says-co-founder-jimmy-wales/2012/01/16/gIQAh2Ke3P_blog.html |url-status=live }}</ref> A similar blackout was staged on 10 July by the [[Russian Wikipedia]], in protest against a proposed Russian internet regulation law.<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 July 2012 |title=Russian Wikipedia shuts in protest |url=https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/332016/Russian-Wikipedia-shuts-in-protest |publisher=UKPA via Google}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

In late March 2012, the [[Meta:Wikimedia Deutschland|Wikimedia Deutschland]] announced [[Wikidata]], a universal platform for sharing data between all Wikipedia language editions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikidata announcement on Facebook |url=https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/158388724283345 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101031943/https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/158388724283345 |archive-date=1 January 2016 |access-date=28 October 2015 |publisher=Wikimedia Deutschland}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Chalabi|first=Mona|date=April 26, 2013|title=Welcome to Wikidata! Now what?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/apr/26/wikidata-launch|access-date=October 2, 2021|archive-date=2 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211002152920/https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/apr/26/wikidata-launch|url-status=live}}</ref> The US$1.7-million Wikidata project was partly funded by Google, the [[Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation]], and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Terdiman |first=Daniel |title=Wikidata to provide structured data for all Wikipedia versions |url=https://www.cnet.com/culture/wikidata-to-provide-structured-data-for-all-wikipedia-versions/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |publisher=CNET |language=en |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316055527/https://www.cnet.com/culture/wikidata-to-provide-structured-data-for-all-wikipedia-versions/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Wikimedia Deutschland assumed responsibility for the first phase of Wikidata, and initially planned to make the platform available to editors by December 2012. Wikidata's first phase became fully operational in March 2013.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Perez |first=Sarah |date=30 March 2012 |title=Wikipedia's Next Big Thing: Wikidata, A Machine-Readable, User-Editable Database Funded By Google, Paul Allen And Others |work=TechCrunch |url=https://techcrunch.com/2012/03/30/wikipedias-next-big-thing-wikidata-a-machine-readable-user-editable-database-funded-by-google-paul-allen-and-others/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120817042610/http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/30/wikipedias-next-big-thing-wikidata-a-machine-readable-user-editable-database-funded-by-google-paul-allen-and-others/ |archive-date=17 August 2012}}</ref><ref name="WikidataLiveNow">{{Cite web |last=Pintscher, Lydia |date=13 February 2013 |title=Wikidata live on the English Wikipedia |url=http://blog.wikimedia.de/2013/02/13/wikidata-live-on-the-english-wikipedia/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130219054033/http://blog.wikimedia.de/2013/02/13/wikidata-live-on-the-english-wikipedia/ |archive-date=19 February 2013 |access-date=15 February 2013 |publisher=Wikimedia Deutschland}}</ref>

[[File:Justin Anthony Knapp (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|200px|Justin Knapp]]
In April 2012, [[Justin Knapp]] became the first single contributor to make over one million edits to Wikipedia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=First man to make 1 million Wikipedia edits |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/9215151/First-man-to-make-1-million-Wikipedia-edits.html |first=James |last=Titcomb |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=The Daily Telegraph |date=20 April 2012 |archive-date=19 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119233646/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/9215151/First-man-to-make-1-million-Wikipedia-edits.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Skelton |first=Alissa |date=24 April 2012 |title=Wikipedia Volunteer Editor Reaches 1 Million Edits |url=https://mashable.com/archive/wikipedia-volunteer-editor |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=Mashable |language=en |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316055529/https://mashable.com/archive/wikipedia-volunteer-editor |url-status=live }}</ref> Jimmy Wales congratulated Knapp for his work and presented him with the site's ''Special Barnstar'' medal and the ''Golden Wiki'' award for his achievement.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hardest working man on the internet passes one million Wikipedia edits |url=https://www.engadget.com/2012/04/20/one-million-wikipedia-edits/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120820003926/http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/20/one-million-wikipedia-edits |archive-date=20 August 2012 |access-date=3 September 2012 |website=Engadget|date=20 April 2012 }}</ref> Wales also declared that 20 April would be "Justin Knapp Day".<ref name="declared">{{Cite news |last=Skelton |first=Alissa |date=23 April 2012 |title=Wikipedia Volunteer Editor Reaches 1 Million Edits |work=Mashable |url=http://mashable.com/2012/04/23/wikipedia-volunteer-editor/ |url-status=live |access-date=24 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119235227/http://mashable.com/2012/04/23/wikipedia-volunteer-editor/ |archive-date=19 November 2015}}</ref>

On 13 July 2012, the English Wikipedia gained its 4-millionth article, [[Ezbet El Borg|Izbat al-Burj]].<ref name="4Million2012">{{Cite web |date=13 July 2012 |title=English language Wikipedia hits 4 million articles! |url=http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/07/english-language-wikipedia-hits-4-million-articles/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222030833/http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/07/english-language-wikipedia-hits-4-million-articles/ |archive-date=22 December 2012 |access-date=13 July 2012 |website=Wikimedia UK Blog |publisher=[[Wikimedia UK]]}}</ref> In October 2012, historian and Wikipedia editor [[Richard J. Jensen]] opined that the English Wikipedia was "nearing completion", noting that the number of regularly active editors had fallen significantly since 2007, despite Wikipedia's rapid growth in article count and readership.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rosen |first=Rebecca J. |date=25 October 2012 |title=Surmounting the Insurmountable: Wikipedia Is Nearing Completion, in a Sense |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/surmounting-the-insurmountable-wikipedia-is-nearing-completion-in-a-sense/264111/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028064456/http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/surmounting-the-insurmountable-wikipedia-is-nearing-completion-in-a-sense/264111/ |archive-date=28 October 2012 |access-date=27 October 2012 |website=The Atlantic}}</ref> According to [[Alexa Internet]], Wikipedia was the world's sixth-most-popular website as of November 2012.<ref name="AlexaSiteInfoNov12">{{Cite web |title=Amazon Alexa |url=https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=alexa.com |archive-date=25 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200825070245/https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[AllThingsD|Dow Jones]] ranked Wikipedia fifth worldwide as of December 2012.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Fifth-Biggest Site in the World Operated on a Budget of $27M Last Year |url=http://allthingsd.com/20121220/the-fifth-biggest-site-in-the-world-operated-on-a-budget-of-27m-last-year |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206225138/http://allthingsd.com/20121220/the-fifth-biggest-site-in-the-world-operated-on-a-budget-of-27m-last-year/ |archive-date=6 December 2013 |access-date=3 December 2013}}, by Liz Gannes; AllThingsD became a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company Inc in 2005 and was absorbed into [[The Wall Street Journal|WSJ.com]] during 2013.</ref>

====2013====
On 22 January 2013, the [[Italian Wikipedia]] became the fifth language edition of Wikipedia to exceed 1 million articles, while the [[Russian Wikipedia|Russian]] and [[Spanish Wikipedia]]s gained their millionth articles on 11 and 16 May respectively. On 15 July the [[Swedish Wikipedia|Swedish]] and on 24 September the [[Polish Wikipedia]]s gained their millionth articles, becoming the eighth and ninth Wikipedia editions to do so. On 27 January, the [[main belt asteroid]] [[274301 Wikipedia|274301]] was officially renamed "Wikipedia" by the [[Committee for Small Body Nomenclature#Minor planets|Committee for Small Body Nomenclature]].<ref name="TND-20130205">{{Cite web |last=Workman |first=Robert |date=5 February 2013 |title=Asteroid Re-Named 'Wikipedia' |url=http://www.technewsdaily.com/16749-asteroid-named-wikipedia.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130206105134/http://www.technewsdaily.com/16749-asteroid-named-wikipedia.html |archive-date=6 February 2013 |access-date=7 February 2013 |publisher=[[TechMediaNetwork, Inc.|TechNewsDaily]]}}</ref>

The first phase of the [[Wikidata]] database, automatically providing interlanguage links and other data, became available for all language editions in March 2013.<ref name=WikidataLiveNow/> In April 2013, the [[Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur|French secret service]] was accused of attempting to censor Wikipedia by threatening a Wikipedia volunteer with arrest unless "classified information" about [[Pierre-sur-Haute military radio station|a military radio station]] was deleted.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Willsher |first=Kim |date=7 April 2013 |title=French secret service accused of censorship over Wikipedia page |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/07/french-secret-service-wikipedia-page |url-status=live |access-date=9 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930145033/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/07/french-secret-service-wikipedia-page |archive-date=30 September 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Wikimania 2013 - VisualEditor - The present and future of editing our wikis.webm|thumb|right|200px|Presentation about the Wikipedia [[VisualEditor]]]]
In July, the [[VisualEditor]] editing system was launched, forming the first stage of an effort to allow articles to be edited with a [[word processor]]-like interface instead of using [[wiki markup]].<ref name=VisualEd2013/> An editor specifically designed for [[smartphone]]s and other mobile devices was also launched.<ref name="MobileWiki2013">{{Cite web |last=Gonera |first=Juliusz |date=25 July 2013 |title=Edit Wikipedia on the go |url=https://diff.wikimedia.org/2013/07/25/edit-wikipedia-on-the-go/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=Diff |language=en-US |archive-date=25 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325104612/https://diff.wikimedia.org/2013/07/25/edit-wikipedia-on-the-go/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

====2014====
[[File:Wikipedia Edit 2014.webm|thumb|left|200px|Video review of Wikipedia content in 2014, encouraging viewers to edit Wikipedia]]
In February 2014, a project to make a print edition of the English Wikipedia, consisting of 1,000 volumes and over 1,100,000 pages, was launched by German Wikipedia contributors.<ref name=EconWikiPeaks/> The project sought funding through [[Indiegogo]], and was intended to honor the contributions of Wikipedia's editors.<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 February 2014 |title=Wikipedia 1,000-volume print edition planned |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/20/wikipedia-1000-volume-print-edition-crowdfunding |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311014332/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/20/wikipedia-1000-volume-print-edition-crowdfunding |archive-date=11 March 2014 |access-date=12 April 2014 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> On 22 October 2014, [[Wikipedia Monument|the first monument to Wikipedia]] was unveiled in the Polish town of Slubice.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Day, Matthew |date=10 October 2014 |title=Polish town to build statue honouring Wikipedia |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/11153603/Polish-town-to-build-statue-honouring-Wikipedia.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011191441/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/11153603/Polish-town-to-build-statue-honouring-Wikipedia.html |archive-date=11 October 2014 |access-date=11 October 2014 |website=The Daily Telegraph}}</ref>

On 8 June, 15 June, and 16 July 2014, the [[Waray Wikipedia]], the [[Vietnamese Wikipedia]] and the [[Cebuano Wikipedia]] each exceeded the one million article mark. They were the tenth, eleventh and twelfth Wikipedias to reach that milestone. Despite having very few active users, the Waray and Cebuano Wikipedias had a high number of automatically generated articles created by bots.

====2015====
[[File:Wikipedia_5_million_articles_milestone_video_November_2015.ogv|thumb|right|200px|Video marking English Wikipedia's milestone of [[Wikipedia:Five million articles|five million articles]] on 1 November 2015]]
In mid-2015, Wikipedia was the world's seventh-most-popular website according to [[Alexa Internet]],<ref name="AlexaSiteInfoOct26">{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia.org Site Info |url=http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org# |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009035134/https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org |archive-date=9 October 2017 |access-date=9 October 2017 |publisher=[[Alexa Internet]]}}</ref> down one place from the position it held in November 2012. At the start of 2015, Wikipedia remained the largest general-knowledge encyclopedia online, with a combined total of over 36 million mainspace articles across all 291 language editions.<ref name="Grand20">{{Cite web |title=List of Wikipedias – Grand Total (retrieved 2014) |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias#Grand_Total |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219233704/http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias#Grand_Total |archive-date=19 December 2014 |access-date=20 December 2014 |publisher=Wikimedia.org}}</ref> On average, Wikipedia receives a total of 10 billion global [[Page view|pageviews]] from around 495 million unique visitors every month,<ref name=EconWikiPeaks/><ref>{{Cite web |date=20 April 2011 |title=Wikimedia Statistics |url=https://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportPageViewsPerCountryOverview.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111020212633/http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportPageViewsPerCountryOverview.htm |archive-date=20 October 2011 |access-date=14 October 2011}}</ref> including 85 million visitors from the United States alone,<ref name=comScore2012/> where it is the sixth-most-popular site.<ref name="AlexaSiteInfoOct26" />

[[File:Print Wikipedia (no subtitles).webm|thumb|right|200px|Artist [[Michael Mandiberg]] talks about [[Print Wikipedia]].]]
''[[Print Wikipedia]]'' was an art project by [[Michael Mandiberg]] that created the ability to print 7473 volumes of Wikipedia as it existed on 7 April 2015. Each volume has 700 pages and only 110 were printed by the artist.<ref name="NYT">{{Cite news |last=Schuessler |first=Jennifer |date=16 June 2015 |title=Moving Wikipedia From Computer to Many, Many Bookshelves |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/books/moving-wikipedia-from-computer-to-many-many-bookshelves.html |url-status=live |access-date=24 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202120645/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/books/moving-wikipedia-from-computer-to-many-many-bookshelves.html |archive-date=2 December 2016}}</ref> On 1 November 2015, the English Wikipedia reached 5,000,000 articles with the creation of an article on ''[[Persoonia terminalis]]'', a type of shrub.

On October 23, Wikipedia received the ''[[Princess of Asturias Awards|Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2015-06-17 |title=Wikipedia, Premio Princesa de Asturias de Cooperación |url=https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2015/06/17/actualidad/1434535111_709353.html |access-date=2026-02-04 |work=El País |language=es |issn=1134-6582}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Poyo |first=Ana |date=2015-10-22 |title=Los Premios Princesa de Asturias 2015 (al detalle) |url=https://www.vogue.es/moda/news/articulos/agenda-premios-princesa-asturias-2015-ceremonia-entrega-reyes-felipe-letizia-mejores-looks-leonor-de-borbon/23909 |access-date=2026-02-04 |work=Vogue España |language=es-ES}}</ref>

====2016====
On 19 January 2016, the [[Japanese Wikipedia]] exceeded the one million article mark, becoming the thirteenth Wikipedia to reach that milestone. The millionth article was of Wave 224, a [[World War II]] submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy. In mid-2016, Wikipedia was once again the world's sixth-most-popular website according to [[Alexa Internet]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia.org Site Info |url=http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org# |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160706214359/http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org |archive-date=6 July 2016 |access-date=7 July 2016 |publisher=[[Alexa Internet]]}}</ref> up one place from the position it held in the previous year.

====2017====
In mid-2017, Wikipedia was listed as the world's fifth-most-popular website according to [[Alexa Internet]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia.org Site Info |url=http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org# |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704011642/http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org |archive-date=4 July 2017 |access-date=4 July 2017 |publisher=[[Alexa Internet]]}}</ref> rising one place from the position it held in the previous year. Wikipedia Zero was made available in Iraq and Afghanistan. On 29 April 2017, [[Block of Wikipedia in Turkey|online access to Wikipedia was blocked across all language editions in Turkey]] by the Turkish authorities. This block lasted until 15 January 2020, as the [[Judicial system of Turkey|court of Turkey]] ruled that the block violated human rights. The encrypted [[Japanese Wikipedia]] has been blocked in China since 28 December 2017.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ja.wikipedia.org |url=https://en.greatfire.org/https/ja.wikipedia.org |website=[[GreatFire]] |access-date=7 April 2018 |archive-date=20 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180120065845/https://en.greatfire.org/https/ja.wikipedia.org |url-status=live }}</ref>

====2018====
On 13 April 2018, the number of [[Chinese Wikipedia]] articles exceeded 1 million, becoming the fourteenth Wikipedia to reach that milestone. The Chinese Wikipedia has been blocked in [[Mainland China]] since May 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 September 2015 |title=Wikipedia founder defends decision to encrypt the site in China |url=https://www.theverge.com/2015/9/4/9260981/jimmy-wales-wikipedia-china |access-date=17 April 2018 |archive-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141751/https://www.theverge.com/2015/9/4/9260981/jimmy-wales-wikipedia-china |url-status=live }}</ref> Later in the year, on 26 June, the [[Portuguese Wikipedia]] exceeded the one million article mark, becoming the fifteenth Wikipedia to reach that milestone. The millionth article was ''[[:pt:Perdão de Richard Nixon|Perdão de Richard Nixon]]'' (the [[Pardon of Richard Nixon]]). During 2018, Wikipedia retained its listing as the world's fifth-most-popular website according to [[Alexa Internet]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia.org Traffic, Demographics and Competitors – Alexa |url=https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org |access-date=28 October 2018 |website=alexa.com |language=en |archive-date=25 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200825070245/https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org |url-status=dead }}</ref> One notable development was the use of [[Artificial Intelligence]] to create draft articles on overlooked topics.<ref>{{Cite news |title=AI spots 40,000 prominent scientists overlooked by Wikipedia |work=The Verge |url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/8/17663544/ai-scientists-wikipedia-primer |access-date=28 October 2018 |archive-date=9 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180809023533/https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/8/17663544/ai-scientists-wikipedia-primer |url-status=live }}</ref>

====2019====
On 23 April 2019, Chinese authorities expanded the block of Wikipedia to versions in all languages.<ref name="cn2019apr">{{Cite news |last=Gandolfo |first=Ryan |title=Wikipedia Currently Down in China |work=That's Beijing |url=http://www.thatsmags.com/beijing/post/27660/wikipedia-currently-down-in-china |access-date=24 April 2019 |archive-date=24 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190424081614/http://www.thatsmags.com/beijing/post/27660/wikipedia-currently-down-in-china |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="ooni">{{Cite web |last1=Sukhbir Singh |last2=Arturo Filastò |last3=Maria Xynou |date=4 May 2019 |title=China is now blocking all language editions of Wikipedia |url=https://ooni.io/post/2019-china-wikipedia-blocking/ |access-date=7 May 2019 |publisher=Open Observatory of Network Interference |quote=The following chart, based on OONI data, illustrates that multiple language editions of Wikipedia have been blocked in China as of April 2019.{...}OONI measurements show that many of these Wikipedia domains were previously accessible, but all measurements collected from 25 April 2019 onwards present the same DNS anomalies for all Wikipedia sub-domains.{...}Based on these tests, we were able to conclude that China Telecom does in fact block all language editions of Wikipedia by means of both DNS injection and SNI filtering.}}</ref> The timing of the block coincided with the [[30th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests|30th anniversary]] of the [[1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre]] and the 100th anniversary of the [[May Fourth Movement]], resulting in stricter [[internet censorship in China]].<ref name="515news18">{{Cite news |date=15 May 2019 |title=Ahead of Tiananmen Anniversary, Chinese Government Blocks Wikipedia |publisher=News18 |url=https://www.news18.com/news/world/ahead-of-tiananmen-anniversary-chinese-government-blocks-wikipedia-2142621.html |access-date=2 June 2019 |archive-date=2 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602223335/https://www.news18.com/news/world/ahead-of-tiananmen-anniversary-chinese-government-blocks-wikipedia-2142621.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In August 2019, according to Alexa.com, Wikipedia fell from fifth-placed to seventh-placed website in the world for global internet engagement.<ref name="alexa.com">{{Cite web |title=wikipedia.org Competitive Analysis, Marketing Mix and Traffic – Alexa |url=https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org |website=alexa.com |access-date=10 February 2018 |archive-date=25 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200825070245/https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the same year, a copy of Wikipedia was sent to the Moon, as part of the [[Arch Mission Foundation|Arch Lunar Library]]. Due to a failure, the rocket crashed into the surface of the Moon, but, thanks to the use of special, very resistant nickel disks, the copy is believed to have survived the crash.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Taylor |first=Chris |date=2019-04-17 |title=There may be a copy of Wikipedia somewhere on the moon. Here's how to help find it. |url=https://mashable.com/article/moon-library-beresheet-crash-wikipedia |access-date=2026-03-30 |website=Mashable |language=en}}</ref>

===Third decade: 2020–present===
{{missing information|section|notable events in 2024 and 2025|date=October 2025}}

====2020====
{{See also|Wikipedia and the COVID-19 pandemic}}
On 23 January 2020, the six millionth article, the biography of [[Maria Elise Turner Lauder]], was added to the English Wikipedia. Despite this growth in articles, Wikipedia's global internet engagement, as measured by Alexa, continued to decline. By February 2020, Wikipedia fell to the eleventh-placed website in the world for global internet engagement.<ref name="alexa.com" /> Both Wikipedia's coverage of the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] crisis and the supporting edits, discussions, and even deletions were thought to be a useful resource for future historians seeking to understand the period in detail.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harrison |first=Stephen |date=27 May 2020 |title=Future Historians Will Need Access to Coronavirus Misinformation |url=https://slate.com/technology/2020/05/wikipedia-coronavirus-information-future-historians.html |website=Slate |access-date=9 June 2020 |archive-date=27 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527165139/https://slate.com/technology/2020/05/wikipedia-coronavirus-information-future-historians.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[World Health Organization]] collaborated with Wikipedia as a key resource for the dissemination of COVID-19-related information as to help combat the spread of misinformation.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Matt |first=Chase |date=9 January 2021 |title=Wikipedia is 20, and its reputation has never been higher |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |url=https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/09/wikipedia-is-20-and-its-reputation-has-never-been-higher |access-date=9 January 2021 |archive-date=31 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231224550/https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/09/wikipedia-is-20-and-its-reputation-has-never-been-higher |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=McNeil |first=Donald G. |date=22 October 2020 |title=Wikipedia and W.H.O. Join to Combat Covid-19 Misinformation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/health/wikipedia-who-coronavirus-health.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201227064918/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/health/wikipedia-who-coronavirus-health.html |archive-date=27 December 2020 |access-date=25 October 2020 |website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

====2021====
In January 2021, [[Wikipedia:20th anniversary|Wikipedia's 20th anniversary]] was noted in the media.<ref name="Kelly">{{Cite news |last=Kelly |first=Heather |date=15 January 2021 |title=Technology: On its 20th birthday, Wikipedia might be the safest place online |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/15/wikipedia-20-year-anniversary/ |quote=The world's largest online encyclopedia has learned lessons from fighting misinformation for two decades |access-date=16 January 2021 |archive-date=5 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905012756/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/15/wikipedia-20-year-anniversary/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Kent">{{Cite web |last=Kent |first=German |date=15 January 2021 |title=In a post-truth world, we need Wikipedia more than ever |url=https://www.cnet.com/news/in-a-post-truth-world-we-need-wikipedia-more-than-ever/ |publisher=[[CNET]] |quote=Commentary: Wikipedia celebrated its 20th anniversary today. The free encyclopedia may not be exciting, but its neutral, volunteer-driven content is incredibly valuable. |access-date=16 January 2021 |archive-date=21 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221144855/https://www.cnet.com/news/in-a-post-truth-world-we-need-wikipedia-more-than-ever/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=World in Progress: 20 years of Wikipedia |url=https://www.dw.com/en/world-in-progress-20-years-of-wikipedia/av-56212410 |publisher=[[Deutsche Welle]] |format=Audio |quote=The year marks the 20th anniversary of Wikipedia. Every month, more than 1.7 billion people visit the open-source website in search of information about, well, just about anything! We speak with Dr. Bernie Hogan from the [[Oxford Internet Institute]] about Wikipedia's successes, where it fits into the discrimination crisis, and the website's future. |access-date=17 January 2021 |archive-date=5 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005082902/https://www.dw.com/en/world-in-progress-20-years-of-wikipedia/av-56212410 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Wales">{{Cite web |last=Wales |first=Jimmy |date=14 January 2021 |title=As Wikipedia turns 20 it aims to reach more readers |url=https://news.yahoo.com/wikipedia-turns-20-aims-reach-035212015.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9zZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHKHaTI72xUEUz_BdVPt8DFvi-uLdmApcbSckrJrAbM_GpTwHsHtNHRdxX-KYAS6xk81e_p_w46bfh10PJVV7cmUzE-pWR5gsID2T8Kd1k0u-2r78p4Y4V16CKTPFcWRJzV0LwQMJyuEeeR7Vv-_lfVBiCT30KvF47aGzyE3QP-a |via=[[Yahoo!]] |quote=Wikipedia is the web's seventh-most visited site |authorlink1=Jimmy Wales |access-date=17 January 2021 |archive-date=23 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220923105157/https://news.yahoo.com/wikipedia-turns-20-aims-reach-035212015.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9zZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHKHaTI72xUEUz_BdVPt8DFvi-uLdmApcbSckrJrAbM_GpTwHsHtNHRdxX-KYAS6xk81e_p_w46bfh10PJVV7cmUzE-pWR5gsID2T8Kd1k0u-2r78p4Y4V16CKTPFcWRJzV0LwQMJyuEeeR7Vv-_lfVBiCT30KvF47aGzyE3QP-a |url-status=live }}</ref> On 13 January 2021, the English Wikipedia reached one billion edits, where the billionth edit was made by [[Steven Pruitt]].<ref name="vice.com">{{Cite web |date=15 January 2021 |title=The English Language Wikipedia Just Had Its Billionth Edit |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-english-language-wikipedia-just-had-its-billionth-edit/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115145145/https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7appn/the-english-language-wikipedia-just-had-its-billionth-edit |archive-date=15 January 2021 |access-date=26 February 2021 |website=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |language=en}}</ref> [[MIT Press]] published an [[open access]] book of essays ''[[Wikipedia @ 20]]: Stories of an Unfinished Revolution'', edited by [[Joseph M. Reagle Jr.|Joseph Reagle]] and Jackie Koerner with contributions from prominent Wikipedians, Wikimedians, researchers, journalists, librarians and other experts reflecting on particular histories and themes.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/wikipedia-20 |title=Wikipedia @ 20: Stories of an Incomplete Revolution |date=2020 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0262538176 |editor-last=Reagle |editor-first=Joseph |location=Cambridge, MA |language=en |editor-last2=Koerner |editor-first2=Jackie |access-date=12 November 2021 |archive-date=16 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220716055539/https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/wikipedia-20 |url-status=live }}</ref> By November 2021, Wikipedia had fallen to the thirteenth-placed website in the world for global internet engagement.<ref name="alexa.com" />

==== 2022 ====
{{expand section|date=May 2025}}
On 6 December 2022, Wikipedian Richard Knipel created the article [[Artwork title]], whose first revision was a draft generated by [[ChatGPT]] that Knipel had made minor edits to more closely conform with Wikipedia standards. Knipel stated on a [[talk page]] that he believed this was the first time anyone had used ChatGPT to compose a Wikipedia article. The posting of this article was criticized by other editors and sparked controversy within the Wikipedia community, leading to an extensive debate about whether ChatGPT and similar models should be used in writing content for Wikipedia and, if so, to what extent.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harrison |first=Stephen |date=12 January 2023 |title=Should ChatGPT Be Used to Write Wikipedia Articles? |url=https://slate.com/technology/2023/01/chatgpt-wikipedia-articles.html |access-date=30 January 2023 |website=Slate |language=en |archive-date=28 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230128200141/https://slate.com/technology/2023/01/chatgpt-wikipedia-articles.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

====2023====
In January 2023, the default Wikipedia desktop interface was changed for the first time since 2010, to [[Vector 2022]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 January 2023 |title=Wikipedia Gets a Fresh New Look: First Desktop Update in a Decade Puts Usability at the Forefront |url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/01/18/wikipedia-gets-a-fresh-new-look-first-desktop-update-in-a-decade-puts-usability-at-the-forefront/ |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=Wikimedia Foundation |language=en-US |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119234339/https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/01/18/wikipedia-gets-a-fresh-new-look-first-desktop-update-in-a-decade-puts-usability-at-the-forefront/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The new interface received abundant criticism from users. Many objections focused on the fixed-width layout, which created excessive white space on the margins on wide monitors, leading to a 90,000-word discussion on whether the new skin should become the default. [[Swahili Wikipedia]] unanimously voted to reject the new skin and "curtly" demanded a return to the old skin. Other criticism was directed at the Wikimedia Foundation for hiring a design team with limited experience on wikis. Brandon Harris, who was a senior designer at Wikipedia from 2010 to 2014, said: "Wikimedia Foundation often hires designers who aren't familiar with the community, and they come in and try to make all these changes—running head-first into a buzz saw—and the community understandably resists".<ref>{{cite web |title=Wikipedia's Redesign Is Barely Noticeable. That's the Point. |url=https://slate.com/technology/2023/01/wikipedia-redesign-vector-2022-skin.html |website=slate.com |access-date=2025-01-22 |date=2023-01-18}}</ref>

[[File:Wikimedia Sound Logo Finalist VQ97.wav|thumb|[[Sound logo]] of Wikimedia (including Wikipedia)<ref name="wikimediafoundation.org">{{Cite web |date=2023-03-28 |title=Wikipedia's new sound logo: Winner of The Sound of All Human Knowledge contest announced |url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/03/28/wikipedias-new-sound-logo-winner/ |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=Wikimedia Foundation |language=en-US |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406101352/https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/03/28/wikipedias-new-sound-logo-winner/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
After consultation and a contest, the first [[sound logo]] of Wikimedia (including Wikipedia) was adopted.<ref name="wikimediafoundation.org"/>

==== 2024 ====
On January 13, 2024, a copy of the English Wikipedia, stored in [[5D optical data storage]], was installed in an underground research facility in Switzerland, with the potential for being preserved for up to 14 billion years, thanks to the storage technology used. The copy is readable by using a [[microscope]], without the need of using [[Digital electronics|digital technology]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Global Knowledge Vault |url=https://www.archmission.org/gkv |access-date=2026-05-26 |website=Arch Mission Foundation - Preserving humanity forever, in space and on Earth. |language=en-US}}</ref>

On 22 February 2024, a copy of the English Wikipedia was successfully landed on the Moon, as part of the Galactic Legacy Archive project. The mission was carried out by [[Intuitive Machines]], while the rocket was launched by [[SpaceX]]. The data was stored as using 16 layers of nickel, and it's estimated that it can remain on the Moon's surface for up to 5 billion years. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Galactic Legacy Archive |url=https://www.archmission.org/galactic-legacy-archive |access-date=2026-05-26 |website=Arch Mission Foundation - Preserving humanity forever, in space and on Earth. |language=en-US}}</ref>

==== 2025 ====
{{Expand section|Need more informal dates.|date=May 2026}}
==== 2026 ====
[[File:Work-in-progress animation of the Wikipedia 25 birthday mascot scrolling on a phone.gif|thumb|Illustration of Baby Globe scrolling on a phone]]

On January 15, Wikipedia celebrated its 25th anniversary.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2026-01-28 |title=Wikipedia is needed now more than ever, 25 years on |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00074-1 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=649 |issue=8099 |pages=1079–1080 |doi=10.1038/d41586-026-00074-1 |issn=1476-4687}}</ref> A docuseries and a "time capsule" were created as part of the celebrations.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Roth |first=Emma |date=2026-01-15 |title=Wikipedia turns 25 and shares a glimpse into the lives of its volunteer editors |url=https://www.theverge.com/news/861935/wikipedia-25th-anniversary-2026 |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=The Verge |language=en-US}}</ref> A mascot designed by user BaduFerreira called [[Baby Globe]] was released. It appeared when birthday mode was enabled on Wikipedia. A Baby Globe [[collectable]] [[plush]] was developed in collaboration with Makeship.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fear |first=Natalie |date=2026-01-15 |title=Wikipedia’s new mascot is too cute for words |url=https://www.creativebloq.com/design/wikipedia-unveils-adorable-mascot-for-25th-anniversary |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=Creative Bloq |language=en}}</ref> Baby Globe was removed from the Wikipedia site on April 7.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Meet Baby Globe, Wikipedia’s 25th birthday mascot |url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/wikipedia25/wikipedia-mascot/ |access-date=2026-04-14 |website=Wikimedia Foundation |language=en}}</ref>

On March 27, Wikipedia banned the use of content generated by [[Large language model|LLMs]] in its articles, with the exception of translations and minor copy edits.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Milman |first=Oliver |date=2026-03-27 |title=Wikipedia bans AI-generated content in its online encyclopedia |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/27/wikipedia-bans-ai |access-date=2026-03-31 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-03-27 |title=Wikipedia bans one type of content after 'heated debate' |url=https://www.newsweek.com/wikipedia-bans-ai-content-after-debate-11746790 |access-date=2026-03-31 |website=Newsweek |language=en}}</ref>

==History by subject area==

===Hardware and software===
{{Main|MediaWiki}}

{{hatnote|The software that runs Wikipedia, and the computer hardware, [[server farm]]s and other systems upon which Wikipedia relies.}}
* In January 2001, Wikipedia ran on [[UseModWiki]], written in [[Perl]] by [[Clifford Adams]]. The server still runs on [[Linux]], although the original text was stored in files rather than in a database. Articles were named with the [[CamelCase]] convention.
* In January 2002, "Phase II" of the wiki software powering Wikipedia was introduced, replacing the older [[UseModWiki]]. Written specifically for the project by [[Magnus Manske]], it included a [[PHP]] [[wiki engine]].
* In July 2002, a [[rewrite (programming)|major rewrite]] of the software powering Wikipedia went live; dubbed "Phase III", it replaced the older "Phase II" version, and became [[MediaWiki]]. It was written by [[Lee Daniel Crocker]] in response to the increasing demands of the growing project.
* In October 2002, Derek Ramsey created a [[internet bot|bot]]{{snd}}an automated program called [[Rambot]]{{snd}}to add a large number of articles about United States towns; these articles were automatically generated from [[U.S. census]] data. He thus increased the number of Wikipedia articles by 33,832.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lih |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AWuZAAAAQBAJ&q=%22Derek+Ramsey+%28Wikipedian%29%22 |title=The Wikipedia Revolution |date= 2009 |publisher=Hachette Digital, Inc |isbn=978-1401395858 |pages=99–106 |author-link=Andrew Lih}}</ref> This has been called "the most controversial move in Wikipedia history".<ref>Lih, p. 99.</ref>
* In January 2003, support for mathematical formulas in [[TeX]] was added. The code was contributed by Tomasz Węgrzanowski.
* On 9 June 2003, Wikipedia's [[ISBN]] interface was amended to make ISBNs in articles link to Special:Booksources, which fetches its contents from the user-editable page {{self-reference link|Wikipedia:Book sources|Wikipedia:Book sources}}. Before this, ISBN link targets were coded into the software and new ones were suggested on the {{self-reference link|Wikipedia:ISBN|Wikipedia:ISBN}} page. See the edit that changed this.
* After 6 December 2003, various system messages shown to Wikipedia users were no longer [[hard coding|hard coded]], allowing Wikipedia {{self-reference link|Wikipedia:Administrators|administrators}} to modify certain parts of MediaWiki's interface, such as the message shown to blocked users.
* On 12 February 2004, server operations were moved from San Diego, California to [[Tampa, Florida]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Server swapping soon |url=https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2004-February/008420.html |website=lists.wikimedia.org |access-date=10 February 2007 |archive-date=18 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140618061009/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2004-February/008420.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
* On 29 May 2004, all the various websites were updated to a new version of the [[MediaWiki]] software.
* On 30 May 2004, the first instances of "categorization" entries appeared. Category schemes, like Recent Changes and Edit This Page, had existed since the founding of Wikipedia. However, Sanger had viewed the schemes as lists, and even hand-entered articles, whereas the [[categorization]] effort centered on individual categorization entries in each article of the encyclopedia, as part of a larger automatic categorization of the articles of the encyclopedia.<ref>"[[Wikipedia:Categorization]]", Wikipedia. Retrieved 30 January 2007.</ref>
* After 3 June 2004, administrators could edit the style of the interface by changing the [[Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]] in the monobook stylesheet at [[MediaWiki:Monobook.css]].
* Also on 30 May 2004, with MediaWiki 1.3, the Template namespace was created, allowing [[transclusion]] of standard texts.<ref>"[[Wikipedia:Template namespace]]", Wikipedia. Retrieved 17 September 2007.</ref>
* On 7 June 2005 at 3:00&nbsp;a.m. [[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Standard Time]], the bulk of the Wikimedia servers were moved to a new facility across the street. All Wikimedia projects were down during this time.
* In March 2013, the first phase of the [[Wikidata]] interwiki database became available across Wikipedia's language editions.<ref name=WikidataLiveNow/>
* In July 2013, the VisualEditor editing interface was inaugurated, allowing users to edit Wikipedia using a [[WYSIWYG]] text editor (similar to a [[word processor]]) instead of [[wiki markup]].<ref name="VisualEd2013">{{Cite news |last=Arthur |first=Charles |date=2 July 2013 |title=Boot up: wireless contact lens, Wikipedia's visual editing, Samsung's share slide and more |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2013/jul/02/rabbit-contact-lens |url-status=live |access-date=2 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104201314/http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2013/jul/02/rabbit-contact-lens |archive-date=4 November 2013}}</ref> An editing interface optimised for mobile devices was also released.<ref name=MobileWiki2013/>

===Look and feel===
{{hatnote|The external face of Wikipedia, its [[look and feel]], and the Wikipedia branding, as presented to users.}}
* On 4 April 2002, BrilliantProse, since renamed Featured Articles,<ref>"[[Wikipedia:Featured articles]]". Wikipedia. Retrieved 30 January 2007.</ref> was moved to the Wikipedia namespace from the article namespace.
* Around 15 October 2003, a new Wikipedia logo was installed. The logo concept was selected by a voting process,<ref name="logovote">{{Cite web |title=International logo vote/Finalists |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/International_logo_vote/Finalists |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060716073834/http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/International_logo_vote/Finalists |archive-date=16 July 2006 |access-date=8 July 2006 |website=Meta-Wiki |publisher=Wikimedia}}</ref> which was followed by a revision process to select the best variant. The final selection was created by David Friedland (who edits Wikipedia under the username ''"nohat"'') based on a logo design and concept created by Paul Stansifer.
* On 22 February 2004, Did You Know (DYK) made its first Main Page appearance.
* On 23 February 2004, a coordinated new look for the Main Page appeared at 19:46 UTC. Hand-chosen entries for the Daily Featured Article, Anniversaries, In the News, and Did You Know rounded out the new look.
* On 10 January 2005, the multilingual portal at www.wikipedia.org was set up, replacing a redirect to the English-language Wikipedia.
* On 5 February 2005, {{self-reference link|Portal:Biology|Portal:Biology}} was created, becoming the first thematic "portal" on the English Wikipedia.<ref>"[[Portal:Biology]]". English Wikipedia. Retrieved 31 January 2007.</ref> However, the concept was pioneered on the German Wikipedia, where [[:de:Portal:Recht|Portal:Recht]] (law studies) was set up in October 2003.<ref>[[:de:Wikipedia:WikiProjekt Portale/2003|Portals on German Wikipedia ordered by date of creation]].</ref>
* On 16 July 2005, the English Wikipedia began the practice of including the day's "featured pictures" on the Main Page.
* On 19 March 2006, following a vote, the Main Page of the English-language Wikipedia featured its first redesign in nearly two years.
* On 13 May 2010, the site released a new interface. New features included an updated logo, new navigation tools, and a link wizard.<ref name="New features"/>

==== Layout changes in 2023 ====
{{anchor|Vector 2022}}
{{Redirect|Vector 2022|information about using Vector 2022 on Wikipedia|Wikipedia:Vector 2022|selfref=yes}}
{{Multiple image
| image1            = Top of the Pluto page in the Vector 2022 skin.png
| image2            = Top of the Pluto page in the Vector skin.png
| footer            = The [[Pluto]] article on the [[English Wikipedia]], displayed with the Vector 2022 (left) and Vector 2010 skins enabled
}}
Vector 2022, an update to Wikipedia's previous [[Skin (computing)|skin]] Vector 2010, was announced in September 2020, and initially slated for debut in 2021, before being ultimately deployed in January 2023.<ref name="cnn">{{Cite web |last=Kurtz |first=Jason |date=24 September 2020 |title=Wikipedia due to get its first substantial website redesign in a decade  |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/24/tech/wikipedia-redesign-trnd/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120112945/https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/24/tech/wikipedia-redesign-trnd/index.html |archive-date=20 January 2023 |access-date=20 January 2023 |publisher=CNN Business |language=en}}</ref> By January 2023, Wikimedia had made the update available to 300 of [[List of Wikipedias|its language editions]]; it was the default for the Arabic and Greek versions.<ref name="engadget">{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia's first desktop design update in a decade doesn't rock the boat (updated) |url=https://www.engadget.com/wikipedia-desktop-web-redesign-211000932.html |first1=Jon |last1=Fingas |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119195554/https://www.engadget.com/wikipedia-desktop-web-redesign-211000932.html |archive-date=19 January 2023 |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=Engadget |date=19 January 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="slate">{{Cite web |last=Rauwerda |first=Annie |date=18 January 2023 |title=Wikipedia's Redesign Is Barely Noticeable. That's the Point. |url=https://slate.com/technology/2023/01/wikipedia-redesign-vector-2022-skin.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120005241/https://slate.com/technology/2023/01/wikipedia-redesign-vector-2022-skin.html |archive-date=20 January 2023 |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=Slate |language=en}}</ref><ref name="pcmag">{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia Desktop Site Gets New Look, Its First in Over 10 Years |url=https://www.pcmag.com/news/wikipedia-desktop-site-gets-new-look-its-first-in-over-10-years |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119123429/https://www.pcmag.com/news/wikipedia-desktop-site-gets-new-look-its-first-in-over-10-years |archive-date=19 January 2023 |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=PC Magazine |date=18 January 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

Vector 2022 features a revised [[user interface]] which makes numerous changes to the arrangement of the interface elements. Among them, the language selection menu, previously located to the left of the screen, now is found in the top right corner of the display of the article that is currently read.<ref name="pcmag" /> Additionally, the sidebar is collapsible behind a [[hamburger button]]. Vector 2022 additionally increases the [[Margin (typography)|margins]] of the article display, which has the effect of limiting the width of the article;<ref name="pcmag" /> a toggle exists which can decrease the margins and expand the line width of the article to fill the screen.<ref name="techcrunch">{{Cite web |last=Perez |first=Sarah |date=18 January 2023 |title=Wikipedia gets its first makeover in over a decade... and it's fairly subtle |url=https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/18/wikipedia-gets-its-first-makeover-in-over-a-decade-and-its-fairly-subtle/ |website=techcrunch.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119214848/https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/18/wikipedia-gets-its-first-makeover-in-over-a-decade-and-its-fairly-subtle/ |archive-date=19 January 2023 |access-date=20 January 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="slate" /> The default size of the text has not been increased, although the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] told ''Engadget'' that they hope to make this an option in future.<ref name="engadget" /> The search function was also updated in Vector 2022, as the suggested results in response to user queries now include images and short descriptions from the pages in question.<ref name="pcmag" /><ref name="business-insider">{{Cite web |last=Nguyen |first=Britney |title=It's not just you {{snd}} Wikipedia looks different |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/new-wikipedia-update-looks-different-desktop-redesign-2023-1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120012218/https://www.businessinsider.com/new-wikipedia-update-looks-different-desktop-redesign-2023-1 |archive-date=20 January 2023 |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}</ref>

The [[Wikimedia Foundation]] said that the change was motivated by a desire to modernize the site and improve the navigation and editing experience for readers inexperienced with the internet, as the previous skin was deemed "clunky and overwhelming."<ref name="cnn" /><ref name="engadget" /><ref name="techcrunch" /> Tests conducted by the foundation yielded results of a 30 percent increase in user searches, and a 15 percent decrease in scrolling.<ref name="engadget" /><ref name="techcrunch" /> Early versions of Vector 2022 first went live in 2020 on the French-, Hebrew-, and Portuguese-language Wikipedia sites,<ref name="cnn" /> as the skin's new features were rolled out to users for testing gradually before its full release.<ref name="verge">{{Cite web |last=Lyles |first=Taylor |date=24 September 2020 |title=Wikipedia is getting its first desktop redesign in 10 years |url=https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/23/21453300/wikipedia-desktop-redesign-2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120152848/https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/23/21453300/wikipedia-desktop-redesign-2021 |archive-date=20 January 2023 |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=The Verge |language=en-US}}</ref> The skin went live as the default skin for readers of Wikimedia sites in 300 (out of 318) languages on 18 January 2023.<ref name="engadget" /><ref name="slate" /><ref name="pcmag" />

Following the mass rollout of Vector 2022, it is still possible to read Wikipedia using the previous skin. However, to do so requires readers to register for a Wikipedia account, and then set their preferences to display Vector 2010 instead.<ref name="pcmag" /> No changes were made to existing Wikipedia skins such as Monobook and Timeless, which also remain available to use.<ref name="slate" /><ref name="gizmodo">{{Cite web |date=18 January 2023 |title=Try and Spot the Differences in Wikipedia's First New Look in 11 Years |url=https://gizmodo.com/wikipedia-wikimedia-online-encyclopedia-1850002977 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119134259/https://gizmodo.com/wikipedia-wikimedia-online-encyclopedia-1850002977 |archive-date=19 January 2023 |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=Gizmodo |language=en}}</ref>

[[Wikipedia users]] were divided on the changes. A request for comment on the [[English Wikipedia]] asking the community whether or not Vector 2022 should be deployed as the default skin accumulated over 90,000 words in responses.<ref name="slate" /> Critics of the redesign objected most prominently to the [[White space (visual arts)|white space]] left empty in the new skin, while other users criticized said critics as having a kneejerk resistance to change.<ref name="slate" /> 165 editors participating in the discussion disapproved of the new skin, while 153 were in favor, and nine remained neutral.<ref name="mashable" /><ref name="slate" /><ref name="rfc-history">{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia history page |website=en.wikipedia.org |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3ARequests_for_comment%2FDeployment_of_Vector_%282022%29&diff=latest&oldid=1117412136}}</ref> Despite the larger number of editors who expressed that they did not want Vector 2022 to be deployed in its then-current form, as consensus on Wikipedia is not decided by vote, the discussion was closed in favor of the redesign, considering the positive comments left by other users.<ref name="mashable" /><ref name="slate" /> The Vector 2022 developers made some changes to the skin in response to the criticisms, such as adding a toggle to enable article content to fill the entire width of the screen.<ref name="slate" /><ref name="rfc-history2">{{Cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Deployment_of_Vector_(2022)&oldid=1138588215 |title=Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Deployment of Vector (2022) |date=10 February 2023 |via=Wikipedia}}</ref> Users on the [[Swahili Wikipedia]] unanimously disagreed with the enactment of the new skin.<ref name="slate" />

Journalists responding to Vector 2022's rollout considered the update and the new features introduced as useful additions, but generally characterized the skin as a minor update that did not fundamentally change their reading experience on Wikipedia.<ref name="business-insider" /><ref name="slate" /><ref name="techcrunch" /> [[Annie Rauwerda]], creator of the [[Depths of Wikipedia]] social media accounts, wrote in ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'' that Vector 2022 was not "dramatically different" from the previous skin. Rauwerda additionally noted the similarity between the Wikipedia community backlash against the design and previous resistances to similar visual changes on popular sites such as [[Reddit]].<ref name="slate" /> Rauwerda, and Mike Pearl of ''Mashable'', commented that users displeased with the change could weigh in on a discussion about the skin, or use the site's built-in customization features to alter their reading experience.<ref name="mashable">{{Cite web |last=Pearl |first=Mike |date=18 January 2023 |title=Yes, Wikipedia looks weird. Don't freak out. |url=https://mashable.com/article/new-wikipedia-redesign |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120012235/https://mashable.com/article/new-wikipedia-redesign |archive-date=20 January 2023 |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=Mashable |language=en}}</ref><ref name="slate" />

===Internal structures===
{{hatnote|Landmarks in the Wikipedia community, and the development of its organization, [[Wikipedia:Administration|internal structures]], and [[Wikipedia:Policy|policies]].}}
* In April 2001, Wales formally defines the "neutral point of view",<ref>{{Cite web |title=NeutralPointOfView |url=http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/NeutralPointOfView |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010416035757/http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/NeutralPointOfView |archive-date=16 April 2001 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Wikipedia}}</ref> Wikipedia's core non-negotiable editorial policy,<ref>"A few things are absolute and non-negotiable, though. NPOV for example." in [http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2003-November/008096.html statement by Jimbo Wales in November 2003] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051125190519/http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2003-November/008096.html |date=25 November 2005 }} and, [http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-April/044379.html in this thread] reconfirmed by [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-April/044388.html Jimbo Wales in April 2006] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140618224657/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-April/044388.html |date=18 June 2014 }} in the context of lawsuits.</ref> a reformulation of the "Lack of Bias" policy outlined by Sanger for Nupedia in spring or summer 2000, which covered many of the same core principles.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web |date=31 March 2001 |title=Nupedia: Editorial Policy Guidelines |website=www.nupedia.com |url=http://www.nupedia.com/policy.shtml |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010331211742/http://www.nupedia.com/policy.shtml |archive-date=31 March 2001 |quote=Nupedia articles are, in terms of their content, to be unbiased. There may be respectable reference works that permit authors to take recognizable stands on controversial issues, but this is not one of them ... "On every issue ... is it very difficult or impossible for the reader to determine what the view is to which the author adheres?" ... for each controversial view discussed, the author of an article (at a bare minimum) mention various opposing views that are taken seriously by any significant minority of experts (or concerned parties) on the subject ... In a final version of the article, every party to the controversy in question must be able to judge that its views have been fairly presented, or as fairly as is possible in a context in which other, opposing views must also be presented as fairly as possible.}}</ref>
* In September 2001, collaboration by subject matter in {{self-reference link|Wikipedia: WikiProject|WikiProjects}} is introduced.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_proposal |title=Wikipedia:WikiProject proposal – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |work=English Wikipedia |date=18 May 2008 |access-date=13 April 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110506091041/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_proposal |archive-date=6 May 2011  }}</ref>
* In February 2002, concerns over the risk of future censorship and commercialization by Bomis Inc (Wikipedia's original host) combined with a lack of guarantee this would not happen, led most participants of the [[:es:|Spanish Wikipedia]] to break away and establish it independently as the ''[[Enciclopedia Libre]]''.<ref>''[http://enciclopedia.us.es/index.php/Enciclopedia:Por_qu%E9_estamos_aqu%ED_y_no_en_es.wikipedia.org Why we are here and not in Wikipedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710072544/http://enciclopedia.us.es/index.php/Enciclopedia:Por_qu%E9_estamos_aqu%ED_y_no_en_es.wikipedia.org |date=10 July 2022 }}'' (in Spanish, under GFDL)</ref> Following clarification of Wikipedia's status and non-commercial nature later that year, re-merger talks between ''Enciclopedia Libre'' and the re-founded Spanish Wikipedia occasionally took place in 2002 and 2003, but no conclusion was reached. By 2011, ''Enciclopedia Libre'' was considered to be in decline;<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Tkacz |first=Nathaniel |date=January 20, 2011 |title=The Spanish Fork: Wikipedia's ad-fuelled mutiny |url=https://www.wired.com/story/wikipedia-spanish-fork/ |magazine=Wired |access-date=August 21, 2025}}</ref> it ceased operations in late 2024.
* Also in 2002, policy and style issues were clarified with the creation of the ''Manual of Style'', along with a number of other policies and guidelines.<ref>{{Citation|title=Wikipedia:Manual of Style|date=2002-08-23|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style&oldid=171156|work=Wikipedia|access-date=2023-03-16|language=en}}</ref>
* In November 2002, new mailing lists for WikiEN and Announce were set up, as well as other language mailing lists, to reduce the volume of traffic on mailing lists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikimedia News/2002 – Meta |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_News/2002&oldid=486954 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Meta.wikimedia.org |archive-date=3 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903231255/https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_News/2002&oldid=486954 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In July 2003, the rule against editing one's [[Wikipedia:autobiography|autobiography]] is introduced.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Autobiography&oldid=1220207 |title=Wikipedia:Autobiography – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |publisher=En.wikipedia.org |date=30 July 2003 |access-date=13 April 2010 |archive-date=3 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903231255/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Autobiography&oldid=1220207 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* On 28 October 2003, the first "real" meeting of Wikipedians happened in [[Munich]]. Many cities followed suit, and soon a number of regular Wikipedian get-togethers were established around the world. Several Internet communities, including one on the popular blog website [[LiveJournal]], have also sprung up since.
* From 10 July to 30 August 2004 the {{self-reference link|Wikipedia:Browse}} and {{self-reference link|Wikipedia:Browse by overview}} formerly on the Main Page were replaced by links to overviews. On 27 August 2004 the ''Community Portal'' was started,<ref>"[[Wikipedia:Community Portal]]", Wikipedia. Retrieved 30 January 2007.</ref> to serve as a focus for community efforts. These were previously accomplished on an informal basis, by individual queries of the Recent Changes, in wiki style, as ad hoc collaborations between like-minded editors.
* During September to December 2005 following the [[Wikipedia Seigenthaler biography incident|Seigenthaler controversy]] and other similar concerns,<ref name="Brandt2">{{Citation|title=Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons|date=2005-12-17|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&oldid=31753956|work=Wikipedia|access-date=2023-03-16|language=en|archive-date=9 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609020908/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&oldid=31753956|url-status=live}}</ref> several anti-abuse features and policies were added to Wikipedia. These were:
** The [[meta:CheckUser Policy|policy for "Checkuser"]] (a [[MediaWiki]] [[software tool|extension]] to assist detection of abuse via [[Sock puppet account|internet sock-puppetry]]) was established in November 2005.<ref>"[[meta:CheckUser policy|CheckUser policy]]", [[Meta-Wiki]]. Retrieved 25 January 2007. Checkuser function had previously existed but was known as ''Espionage'' – for example, in the Arbitration Committee [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-09-26/Arbitration report|case of JarlaxleArtemis]].</ref> [[Checkuser]] function had previously existed but was viewed more as a system tool at the time, so there had been no need for a policy covering use on a more routine basis.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-10-17/News and notes|Checkuser proposal]] Wikipedia Signpost</ref>
**Creation of new pages on the English Wikipedia was restricted to editors who had created a user account.<ref>"[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-12-05/Page creation restrictions|Page creation restrictions]]", Wikipedia Signpost / English Wikipedia. Retrieved 31 January 2007.</ref>
** The introduction and rapid adoption of the policy [[Wikipedia:Biographies of living people]], giving a far tighter quality control and fact-check system to biographical articles related to living people.
** The "semi-protection" function and policy,<ref>"[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-12-26/Semi-protection|Semi-protection policy]]", Wikipedia Signpost / English Wikipedia. Retrieved 30 January 2007.</ref> allowing pages to be protected so that only those with an account could edit.
* In May 2006, a new "oversight" feature was introduced on the English Wikipedia, allowing a handful of highly trusted users to permanently erase page revisions containing copyright infringements or libelous or personal information from a page's history. Previous to this, page version deletion was laborious, and also deleted versions remained visible to other administrators and could be un-deleted by them.
* On 1 January 2007, the subcommunity named [[Wikipedia:Esperanza|Esperanza]] was disbanded by communal consent. Esperanza had begun as an effort to promote "[[Wikipedia:WikiLove|wikilove]]" and a social support network, but had developed its own subculture and private structures.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-01-02/Experanza|Esperanza organization disbanded after deletion discussion]]  Wikipedia Signpost 2 January 2007</ref> Its disbanding was described as the painful but necessary remedy for a project that had allowed editors to "see themselves as Esperanzans first and foremost".<ref name="Ezperanza">{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:MFD/EA |title=Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:Esperanza – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |publisher=En.wikipedia.org |access-date=13 April 2010}}</ref> A number of Esperanza's subprojects were integrated back into Wikipedia as free-standing projects, but most of them are now inactive. When the group was founded in September 2005, there had been concerns expressed that it would eventually be condemned as such.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-09-19/Esperanza group|New group aims to promote Wiki-Love]] Wikipedia Signpost 19 September 2005</ref>
* In April 2007, the results of a 4-month policy review by a working group of several hundred editors seeking to merge the core Wikipedia policies into one core policy ([[Wikipedia:Attribution]]) were polled for community support. The proposal did not gain consensus; a significant view became evident that the existing structure of three strong focused policies covering the respective areas of policy, was frequently seen as more helpful to quality control than one more general merged proposal.
* A one-day blackout of Wikipedia was called by [[Jimmy Wales]] on 18 January 2012, in conjunction with Google and over 7,000 other websites, to protest the [[Stop Online Piracy Act]] then under consideration by the [[United States Congress]].

===The Wikimedia Foundation and legal structures===
{{hatnote|Legal and organizational structure of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]], its executive, and its activities as a [[foundation (nonprofit organization)|foundation]].}}
* In August 2002, shortly after Jimmy Wales announced that he would never run commercial advertisements on Wikipedia, the [[Uniform Resource Locator|URL]] of Wikipedia was changed from ''wikipedia.com'' to ''wikipedia.org'' ([[.com]] and [[.org]]).
* On 20 June 2003, the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] was founded.
* Communications committee was formed in January 2006 to handle media inquiries and emails received for the foundation and Wikipedia via the newly implemented [[OTRS]] (a ticket handling system).
* Angela Beesley and [[Florence Nibart-Devouard]] were elected to the Board of [[Trustee]]s of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]]. During this time, Angela was active in editing content and setting policies, such as privacy policy, within the Foundation.<ref name="Riehle">{{Cite web |first=Dirk |last=Riehle |title=How and Why Wikipedia Works: An Interview with Angela Beesley, Elisabeth Bauer, and Kizu Naoko |url=https://www.riehle.org/computer-science/research/2006/wikisym-2006-interview.html |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=riehle.org |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316055531/https://www.riehle.org/computer-science/research/2006/wikisym-2006-interview.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
* On 10 January 2006, ''Wikipedia'' became a registered trademark of Wikimedia Foundation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2006-01-16/Trademark_registered&oldid=35499220|title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-16/Trademark registered|access-date=14 January 2007|date=16 January 2006|publisher=Wikipedia|archive-date=3 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903231255/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2006-01-16/Trademark_registered&oldid=35499220|url-status=live}}</ref>
* In July 2006, Angela Beesley resigned from the board of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Angela_Beesley_resigns_from_Wikimedia_Foundation_board |title=Angela Beesley resigns from Wikimedia Foundation board |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707225015/https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Angela_Beesley_resigns_from_Wikimedia_Foundation_board |archive-date=7 July 2017 |website=Wikimedia Foundation press release |date=7 July 2006}}</ref>
* In October 2006, [[Florence Nibart-Devouard]] became chair of the board of the Wikimedia Foundation.

===Edit milestones and projects===
{{Main|Wikipedia:Statistics|List of Wikipedias|Wikipedia:Milestones}}

{{hatnote|Sister projects and milestones related to articles, user base, and other statistics.}}
* On 15 January 2001, the first recorded edit of Wikipedia was performed.
* In December 2002, the first sister project, [[Wiktionary]], was created; aiming to produce a [[dictionary]] and [[thesaurus]] of the words in all languages. It uses the same software as Wikipedia.
* On 22 January 2003, the [[English Wikipedia]] was again [[slashdot effect|slashdotted]] after having reached the '''100,000''' article milestone with the [[Hastings, New Zealand|Hastings]], article. Two days later, the German-language Wikipedia, the largest non-English language version, passed the '''10,000''' article mark.
* On 20 June 2003, the same day that the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] was founded, "[[Wikiquote]]" was created. A month later, "[[Wikibooks]]" was launched. "[[Wikisource]]" was set up towards the end of the year.
* In January 2004, Wikipedia reached the '''200,000'''-article milestone in English with the article on [[Neil Warnock]], and reached '''450,000''' articles for both English and non-English Wikipedias. The next month, the combined article count of the English and non-English reached '''500,000'''.
* On 20 April 2004, the article count of the English Wikipedia reached '''250,000'''.
* On 7 July 2004, the article count of the English Wikipedia reached '''300,000'''.
* On 20 September 2004, Wikipedia's total article count exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles in over 105 languages; the project received a flurry of related attention in the press.<ref>[[meta:PR-1mil-US|One million Wikipedia articles]]</ref> The one millionth article was published in the [[Hebrew Wikipedia]] and discusses the [[flag of Kazakhstan]].
* On 20 November 2004, the article count of the English Wikipedia reached '''400,000'''.
* On 18 March 2005, Wikipedia passed the '''500,000'''-article milestone in English, with [[Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union]] being announced in a [[press release]] as the landmark article.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia Publishes 500,000th English Article |url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/500k_English_articles |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616193053/http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/500k_English_articles |archive-date=16 June 2010 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Wikimediafoundation.org}}</ref>
* In May 2005, Wikipedia became the most popular reference website on the Internet according to traffic monitoring company [[Hitwise]], relegating [[Dictionary.com]] to second place.
* On 29 September 2005, the [[English Wikipedia]] passed the '''750,000'''-article mark.
* On 1 March 2006, the [[English Wikipedia]] passed the '''1,000,000'''-article mark, with [[Jordanhill railway station]] being announced on the Main Page as the milestone article.<ref name="milestone_articles">While this article was announced as the milestone on the Main Page, multiple articles qualified due to the continuous creation and deletion of pages on the site.</ref>
* On 8 June 2006, the [[English Wikipedia]] passed the '''1,000'''-featured-article mark, with [[Iranian peoples]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_Announces_Thousandth_Featured_Article |title=English Wikipedia Announces Thousandth Featured Article |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708005544/https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_Announces_Thousandth_Featured_Article |archive-date=8 July 2017 |website=Wikimedia Foundation |date=8 June 2006 |access-date=21 December 2012}}</ref>
* On 15 August 2006, the Wikimedia Foundation launched [[Wikiversity]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Opening Plenary (transcript) – Wikimania |url=https://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Opening_Plenary_(transcript) |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=wikimania2006.wikimedia.org |language=en |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316104238/https://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Opening_Plenary_(transcript) |url-status=live }} Jimbo Wales, Wikimania 2006 ([http://www.supload.com/listen?s=SI0OG2vN04i audio] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020184036/http://www.supload.com/listen?s=SI0OG2vN04i |date=20 October 2013}})</ref>
* On 1 September 2006, Wikipedia exceeded '''5,000,000''' articles across all 229 language editions.
* On 24 November 2006, the English Wikipedia passed the '''1,500,000'''-article mark, with [[Kanab ambersnail]] being announced on the Main Page as the milestone article.<ref name="milestone_articles" />
* On 4 April 2007, the first Wikipedia CD selection in English was published as a free download.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Schools Global Citizen Resource from SOS Children |url=http://fixedreference.org/2006-Wikipedia-CD-Selection |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704141459/http://fixedreference.org/2006-Wikipedia-CD-Selection |archive-date=4 July 2008 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Fixedreference.org}}</ref>
* On 22 April 2007, the English Wikipedia passed the '''1,750,000'''-article mark. [[RAF raid on La Caine HQ]] was the 1,750,000th article.
* On 9 September 2007, the English Wikipedia passed the '''2,000,000'''-article mark. ''[[El Hormiguero]]'' was accepted by consensus as the 2,000,000th article.
* On 28 March 2008, Wikipedia exceeded '''10 million''' articles across all 251 language editions.
* On 11 October 2008, the English Wikipedia passed the '''2,500,000'''-article mark. While no attempt was made to officially identify the 2,500,000th article, [[Joe Connor (baseball)]] has been suggested as the possible article.
* On 17 August 2009, the English Wikipedia passed the '''3,000,000'''-article mark, with [[Beate Eriksen]] being announced on the Main Page as the milestone article.
* On 27 December 2009, the [[German Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 21 September 2010, the [[French Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the third Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 12 December 2010, the English Wikipedia passed the '''3,500,000'''-article mark.
* On 22 November 2011, Wikipedia exceeded '''20 million''' articles across all 282 language editions.
* On 7 November 2011, the [[German Wikipedia]] exceeded '''100 million''' page edits.
* On 24 November 2011, the [[English Wikipedia]] exceeded '''500 million''' page edits.
* On 17 December 2011, the [[Dutch Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the fourth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 13 July 2012, the [[English Wikipedia]] exceeded '''4,000,000''' articles, with [[Ezbet El Borg|Izbat al-Burj]].<ref name=4Million2012/>
* On 22 January 2013, the [[Italian Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the fifth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 11 May 2013, the [[Russian Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the sixth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 16 May 2013, the [[Spanish Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the seventh Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 15 June 2013, the [[Swedish Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the eighth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 25 September 2013, the [[Polish Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the ninth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 21 October 2013, Wikipedia exceeded '''30 million''' articles across all 287 language editions.
* On 17 December 2013, the [[French Wikipedia]] exceeded '''100,000,000''' page edits.
* On 25 April 2014, the English Wikipedia passed the '''4,500,000''' article mark.
* On 8 June 2014, the [[Waray Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the tenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 15 June 2014, the [[Vietnamese Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the eleventh Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 17 July 2014, the [[Cebuano Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the twelfth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 6 September 2015, the [[Swedish Wikipedia]] exceeded '''2,000,000''' articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 1 November 2015, the English Wikipedia exceeded '''5,000,000''' articles, with ''[[Persoonia terminalis]]'', and it has over 125,000 editors who have made 1 or more edits in the past 30 days.
* On 1 February 2016, the [[Japanese Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the thirteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 14 February 2016, the [[Cebuano Wikipedia]] exceeded '''2,000,000''' articles, becoming the third Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 29 April 2016, the [[Swedish Wikipedia]] exceeded '''3,000,000''' articles, becoming the third Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 26 May 2016, Wikipedia exceeded '''40 million''' articles across all 293 language editions.
* On 26 September 2016, the [[Cebuano Wikipedia]] exceeded '''3,000,000''' articles, becoming the fourth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 19 November 2016, the [[German Wikipedia]] exceeded '''2,000,000''' articles, becoming the fifth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 3 March 2017, the [[Cebuano Wikipedia]] exceeded '''4,000,000''' articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 6 July 2017, the [[Spanish Wikipedia]] exceeded '''100,000,000''' page edits.
* On 15 September 2017, the [[Russian Wikipedia]] exceeded '''100,000,000''' page edits.
* On 27 October 2017, the [[English Wikipedia]] passed the '''5,500,000'''-article mark.
* On 13 April 2018, the [[Chinese Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the fourteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 27 June 2018, the [[Portuguese Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the fifteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 8 July 2018, the [[French Wikipedia]] exceeded '''2,000,000''' articles, becoming the fifth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 14 October 2018, the [[Arabic Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the sixteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 20 January 2019, the [[Spanish Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,500,000''' articles, becoming the seventh Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 1 February 2019, the Wikipedia News recalculated that the [[Italian Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,500,000''' articles, becoming the eighth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 9 March 2019, Wikipedia exceeded '''50 million''' articles across all 309 language editions.
* On 2 August 2019, the [[South Azerbaijani Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' page edits.
* On 17 November 2019, the [[Arabic Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the eighteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 23 January 2020, the English Wikipedia exceeded '''6,000,000''' articles, with [[Maria Elise Turner Lauder]] as the milestone article.
* On 9 March 2020, the [[Dutch Wikipedia]] exceeded '''2,000,000''' articles, becoming the sixth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 23 March 2020, the [[Ukrainian Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the seventeenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 1 July 2020, the [[Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' articles, becoming the eighteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 25 December 2020, the [[Bengali Wikipedia]] exceeded '''100,000''' articles.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Research:A Brief Analysis of Bengali Wikipedia's Journey to 100,000 Articles – Meta |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:A_Brief_Analysis_of_Bengali_Wikipedia%E2%80%99s_Journey_to_100,000_Articles/en#cite_note-100K-5 |access-date=5 March 2022 |website=meta.wikimedia.org |language=en |archive-date=19 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319233514/https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:A_Brief_Analysis_of_Bengali_Wikipedia%E2%80%99s_Journey_to_100,000_Articles/en#cite_note-100K-5 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* On 3 February 2021, the [[Malagasy Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,000,000''' page edits.
* On 4 February 2021, the [[English Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1 billion''' page edits.
* On 14 October 2021, the [[Cebuano Wikipedia]] exceeded '''6,000,000''' articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
* On 14 December 2021, the [[Polish Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,500,000''' articles, becoming the twelfth Wikipedia language edition to do so.<ref name=:3 />
* On 26 December 2021, the [[Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia]] exceeded '''1,500,000''' articles.<ref name=:3 />
* On 19 January 2022, the [[Indonesian Wikipedia]] exceeded '''20 million''' page edits.
* On 17 October 2022, The [[Norwegian Wikipedia]] exceeded '''600,000''' articles.<ref name=:3>{{cite web |website=meta.wikipedia.org |title=Wikipedia News/2022 |url=https://meta.m.wikipedia.org |access-date=26 August 2023}}</ref>
* On 27 November 2022, Wikipedia exceeded '''60 million''' articles across all 329 language editions.<ref name=2x>{{cite web |website=meta.wikipedia.org |title=Wikipedia News/2022 |url=https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_News/2022 |access-date=15 August 2023 |language=en |quote=Wikipedia has reached 60,000,000 articles across all 329 languages.}}</ref>

===Fundraising===
{{update|section|date=March 2026|reason=More recent numbers should be available by now}}
[[File:WMF Support and Revenue, Expenses and Net Assets at Year End.jpg|thumb|400px|Financial development of the Wikimedia Foundation (in US$), 2003–2023<br />Black: Net assets (excluding the Wikimedia Endowment, which currently stands at $100m+)<br />Green: Revenue (excluding third-party donations to Wikimedia Endowment)<br />Red: Expenses (including WMF payments to Wikimedia Endowment)<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 October 2023 |title=Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, Financial Statements, June 30, 2023 |url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Wikimedia_Foundation_FS_FY2022-2023_Audit_Report.pdf |website=wikimediafoundation.org |access-date=1 January 2024 |pages=3, 14 |archive-date=1 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240101235700/https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Wikimedia_Foundation_FS_FY2022-2023_Audit_Report.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

Every year, the Wikimedia Foundation runs fundraising campaigns on Wikipedia to support its operations. These generally last about a month and happen at different times of the year in different countries. In addition to the fundraising banners on Wikipedia itself, there are also email campaigns; some emails invite people to leave the Wikimedia Foundation money in their wills.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fundraising – Meta |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising#Current_fundraising_activities |access-date=18 May 2022 |archive-date=25 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525020516/https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising#Current_fundraising_activities |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=James Lileks |date=2 May 2021 |title=Lileks: Wikipedia wants me to do what? |url=https://www.startribune.com/lileks-wikipedia-wants-me-to-do-what/600052774/ |website=Star Tribune |access-date=24 May 2022 |archive-date=3 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503001943/https://www.startribune.com/lileks-wikipedia-wants-me-to-do-what/600052774/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Revenue has risen every year of the Wikimedia Foundation's existence, reaching {{US$|180.17 million}} as of 30 June 2023, versus expenses of {{US$|169.1 million}}.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 May 2021 |title=Wikipedia is swimming in money{{snd}}why is it begging people to donate? |url=https://www.dailydot.com/debug/wikipedia-endownemnt-fundraising/ |website=[[The Daily Dot]] |access-date=23 September 2021 |archive-date=24 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524121107/https://www.dailydot.com/debug/wikipedia-endownemnt-fundraising/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Wikimedia2023">{{Cite web|title=File: Wikimedia_Foundation_FS_FY_2022-2023_Audit_Report.pdf – Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki|date=5 October 2023|url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_FS_FY2022-2023_Audit_Report.pdf|access-date=1 January 2024 |website=Foundation.wikimedia.org |archive-date=1 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240101140450/https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_FS_FY2022-2023_Audit_Report.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> In addition, the Wikimedia Endowment, an organizationally separate fundraising effort begun in 2016, reached $100 million in 2021, five years sooner than planned.<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 September 2021 |title=The Wikimedia Endowment reaches $100 million milestone and welcomes three new members to its Board: More on what these developments mean for the projects and movement |url=https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/09/22/the-wikimedia-endowment-reaches-100-million-milestone-and-welcomes-three-new-members-to-its-board-more-on-what-these-developments-mean-for-the-projects-and-movement/ |access-date=23 September 2021 |archive-date=24 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924014012/https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/09/22/the-wikimedia-endowment-reaches-100-million-milestone-and-welcomes-three-new-members-to-its-board-more-on-what-these-developments-mean-for-the-projects-and-movement/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Source
! Revenue
! Expenses
! Asset rise
! Total assets
|- align=right
| '''2024/2025'''
|[https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_FY_24-25_Audit_Report.pdf PDF]
| <span
style="color:green;">$208,567,153</span>
|<span
style="color:red;">$190,938,007</span>
|  <span
style="color:blue;">$24,994,640</span>
| $296,550,030
|- align=right
| '''2023/2024'''
|[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/f/f6/Wikimedia_Foundation_2024_Audited_Financial_Statements.pdf PDF]
| <span
style="color:green;">$185,383,511</span>
| <span
style="color:red;">$178,471,109</span>
| <span
style="color:blue;">$16,584,053</span>
|$271,555,390
|- align=right
| '''2022/2023'''
|[https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Wikimedia_Foundation_FS_FY2022-2023_Audit_Report.pdf PDF]
| <span
style="color:green;">$180,174,103</span>{{fv|date=March 2026|reason=Looks like this was revised; see talk page}}
| <span
style="color:red;">$169,095,381</span>
| <span
style="color:blue;">$15,619,804</span>
|$254,971,336
|- align=right
| '''2021/2022'''
|[https://foundation.wikimedia.org/?title=File%3AWikimedia_Foundation_FY2021-2022_Audit_Report.pdf&page=6 PDF]
| <span
style="color:green;">$154,686,521</span>
| <span
style="color:red;">$145,970,915</span>
| <span
style="color:blue;">$8,173,996</span>
|$239,351,532
|- align=right
| '''2020/2021'''
|[https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_Foundation_FY2020-2021_Audit_Report.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$162,886,686</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$111,839,819</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$50,861,811</span>
| $231,177,536
|- align=right
| '''2019/2020'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_Foundation_FY2019-2020_Audit_Report.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$129,234,327</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$112,489,397</span>

| <span style="color:blue;">$14,674,300</span>
| $180,315,725
|- align=right
| '''2018/2019'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_Foundation_Audit_Report_-_FY18-19.pdf&page=6 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$120,067,266</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$91,414,010</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$30,691,855</span>
| $165,641,425
|- align=right
| '''2017/2018'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AFY17-18_-_Independent_Auditors%27_Report.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$104,505,783</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$81,442,265</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$21,619,373</span>
| $134,949,570
|- align=right
| '''2016/2017'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_Foundation_Audit_Report_-_FY16-17.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$91,242,418</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$69,136,758</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$21,547,402</span>
| $113,330,197
|- align=right
| '''2015/2016'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_Foundation_Audit_Report_-_FY15-16.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$81,862,724</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$65,947,465</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$13,962,497</span>
| $91,782,795
|- align=right
| '''2014/2015'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AAudit_Report_-_FY_14-15_-_Final.PDF&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$75,797,223</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$52,596,782</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$24,345,277</span>
| $77,820,298
|- align=right
| '''2013/2014'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AAudit_Report_-_FY_14-15_-_Final.PDF&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$52,465,287</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$45,900,745</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$8,285,897</span>
| $53,475,021
|- align=right
| '''2012/2013'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AFINAL_12_13From_KPMG.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$48,635,408</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$35,704,796</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$10,260,066</span>
| $45,189,124
|- align=right
| '''2011/2012'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AFINAL_11_12From_KPMG.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$38,479,665</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$29,260,652</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$10,736,914</span>
| $34,929,058
|- align=right
| '''2010/2011'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AFINAL_10_11From_KPMG.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$24,785,092</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$17,889,794</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$9,649,413</span>
| $24,192,144
|- align=right
| '''2009/2010'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AFINAL_09_10From_KPMG.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$17,979,312</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$10,266,793</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$6,310,964</span>
| $14,542,731
|- align=right
| '''2008/2009'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AFINAL_08_09From_KPMG.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$8,658,006</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$5,617,236</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$3,053,599</span>
| $8,231,767
|- align=right
| '''2007/2008'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_20072008_fs.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$5,032,981</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$3,540,724</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$3,519,886</span>
| $5,178,168
|- align=right
| '''2006/2007'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_2007_fs.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$2,734,909</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$2,077,843</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$654,066</span>
| $1,658,282
|- align=right
| '''2005/2006'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_2006_fs.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$1,508,039</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$791,907</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$736,132</span>
| $1,004,216
|- align=right
| '''2004/2005'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_2006_fs.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green;">$379,088</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$177,670</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$211,418</span>
| $268,084
|- align=right
| '''2003/2004'''
| [https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_2006_fs.pdf&page=5 PDF]
| <span style="color:green> $ 80,129</span>
| <span style="color:red;">$23,463</span>
| <span style="color:blue;">$56,666</span>
| $56,666
|}

===External impact===
* In 2007, Wikipedia was deemed fit to be used as a major source by the [[UK Intellectual Property Office]] in a [[Formula One]] trademark case ruling.<ref>In deciding [http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-decisionmaking/t-challenge/t-challenge-decision-results/o16907.pdf the trademark of F1 racing] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071031053106/http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-decisionmaking/t-challenge/t-challenge-decision-results/o16907.pdf |date=31 October 2007 }}, the [[UK Intellectual Property Office]] considered both the reliability of Wikipedia and its usefulness as a reliable source of evidence:
<blockquote>Wikipedia has sometimes suffered from the self-editing that is intrinsic to it, giving rise at times to potentially [[libel]]lous statements. However, inherently, I cannot see that what is in Wikipedia is any less likely to be true than what is published in a book or on the websites of news organisations. [Formula One's lawyer] did not express any concerns about the Wikipedia evidence [presented by the plaintiff]. I consider that the evidence from Wikipedia can be taken at face value.</blockquote>
The case turned substantively upon evidence cited from Wikipedia in 2006 as to the usage and interpretation of the term "F1".</ref>
* Over time, Wikipedia gained recognition amongst more traditional media as a "key source" for major new events, such as the [[2004 Indian Ocean earthquake]] and related [[tsunami]], the [[2008 American Presidential election]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vargas |first=Jose Antonio |date=17 September 2007 |title=On Wikipedia, Debating 2008 Hopefuls' Every Facet |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |language=en-US |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/16/AR2007091601699.html |access-date=16 March 2023 |issn=0190-8286 |quote=...at the same time, it's hard to find a more up-to-date, detailed, thorough article on [[Barack Obama|Obama]] than Wikipedia's. As of Friday, Obama's article – more than 22 pages long, with 15 sections covering his personal and professional life – had a reference list of 167 sources. |archive-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116071359/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/16/AR2007091601699.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and 2007 [[Virginia Tech shooting]]. The latter article was accessed 750,000 times in two days, with newspapers published locally to the shootings adding that "Wikipedia has emerged as the clearinghouse for detailed information on the event."<ref>[http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/004178.php "Wikipedia emerges as key source for Virginia Tech shootings"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022200632/http://cyberjournalist.net/news/004178.php |date=22 October 2007 }}. ''[[The New York Times]]'' via Cyberjournalist.net. 2007. "Even ''[[The Roanoke Times]]'', which is published near [[Blacksburg, Virginia|Blacksburg, Va.]], where the university is located, noted on Thursday that Wikipedia 'has emerged as the clearinghouse for detailed information on the event'."</ref>
* On 21 February 2007, Noam Cohen of the ''New York Times'' reported that some academics were banning the use of Wikipedia as a research tool.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cohen |first=Noam |date=21 February 2007 |title=A History Department Bans Citing Wikipedia as a Research Source |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/education/21wikipedia.html |access-date=16 March 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=31 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331235327/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/education/21wikipedia.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
* On 27 February 2007, an article in ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]'' newspaper reported that some professors at [[Harvard University]] included Wikipedia in their [[syllabus|syllabi]], but that there was a split in their perception of using Wikipedia.<ref>Child, Maxwell L. [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=517305 "Professors Split on Wiki Debate"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220125910/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=517305 |date=20 December 2008 }}. ''The Harvard Crimson''. 26 February 2007.</ref>
* In July 2013, a large-scale study by four major universities identified the most [[Disputes on Wikipedia|disputed articles on Wikipedia]], finding that Israel, [[Adolf Hitler]], and God were more fiercely debated than any other subjects.<ref>{{Cite news |date=18 July 2013 |title=Wikipedia 'edit wars' revealed |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23354613 |url-status=live |access-date=18 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718164809/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23354613 |archive-date=18 July 2013}}</ref>

====Effect of biographical articles====
Because Wikipedia biographies are often updated with new information comes, they are often used as a reference source on the lives of [[:Category:Living people|notable people]]. This has led to attempts to manipulate and falsify Wikipedia articles for promotional or defamatory purposes ([[#Controversies|Controversies]]) and has also led to novel uses of the biographical material provided.
* In November 2005, the [[Wikipedia Seigenthaler biography incident|Seigenthaler controversy]] occurred when a hoaxer asserted on Wikipedia that journalist John Seigenthaler had been involved in the [[Kennedy assassination]] of 1963.
* In December 2006, German comedian [[Atze Schröder]] sued Arne Klempert, secretary of [[Wikimedia Deutschland]] because he did not want his real name published in Wikipedia. Schröder later withdrew his complaint but wanted his attorney's costs to be paid by Klempert. A court decided that the artist had to cover those costs himself.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Atze muss zahlen &#124; |date=June 27, 2007 |url=http://recentchanges.de/blog/2007/06/atze-muss-zahlen/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |language=de-DE |archive-date=1 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080801090032/http://recentchanges.de/blog/2007/06/atze-muss-zahlen/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* On 16 February 2007, Turkish historian [[Taner Akçam]] was briefly detained upon arrival at [[Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport]] because of false information on his Wikipedia biography claiming he was a terrorist.<ref name="Independent">[http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2469270.ece "Caught in the deadly web of the internet"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001000113/http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2469270.ece |date=1 October 2007 }}. Robert Fisk. ''[[The Independent]]''. 21 April 2007. Retrieved 24 July 2007.</ref><ref name="CBC">{{Cite news |last=Jay |first=Paul |date=22 June 2007 |title=A question of authority |publisher=[[CBC News]] |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/wikipedia2.html |access-date=24 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629051007/http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/wikipedia2.html |archive-date=29 June 2007}}</ref>
* In November 2008, the German [[The Left (Germany)|Left Party]] politician [[Lutz Heilmann]] claimed that some remarks in his Wikipedia article caused damage to his reputation. He succeeded in getting a court order to make Wikimedia Deutschland remove a key search portal. The result was a national outpouring of support for Wikipedia, more donations to Wikimedia Deutschland, and a rise in daily pageviews of the Lutz Heilmann article from a few dozen to half a million. Shortly after, Heilmann asked the court to withdraw the court order.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 November 2008 |title=Lawmaker apologizes for blocking Wikipedia |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE4AI7NB20081119?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=69 |access-date=20 November 2008 |archive-date=30 May 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120530171758/http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE4AI7NB20081119?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=69 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In December 2008, Wikimedia Nederland, the Dutch chapter, won a preliminary injunction after an entrepreneur was linked in "his" article with the criminal [[Willem Holleeder]] and wanted the article deleted. The judge in [[Utrecht (province)|Utrecht]] believed Wikimedia's assertion that it has no influence on the content of Dutch Wikipedia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikimedia Nederland wint kort geding Sijthoff/en – Wikimedia |url=https://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Nederland_wint_kort_geding_Sijthoff/en |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=nl.wikimedia.org |language=nl |archive-date=31 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131143955/https://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Nederland_wint_kort_geding_Sijthoff/en |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In February 2009, when the German politician [[Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg|Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg]] became a federal minister on 10&nbsp;February 2009, an unregistered user added an eleventh given name in the article on German Wikipedia: ''Wilhelm''. Numerous newspapers adopted it. When wary Wikipedians tried to remove ''Wilhelm'', the edit was reverted citing those newspapers. This case about Wikipedia reliability and journalists copying from Wikipedia was dubbed ''Falscher Wilhelm'' ("wrong Wilhelm").<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikimedia Deutschland press release |url=http://wikimedia.de/fileadmin/wiki/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/pm_Medienkompetenz_1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204025315/http://wikimedia.de/fileadmin/wiki/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/pm_Medienkompetenz_1.pdf |archive-date=4 December 2010}}; [http://futurezone.orf.at/stories/1502467/ ORF Futurezone] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090929010706/http://futurezone.orf.at/stories/1502467/ |date=29 September 2009 }}. Retrieved 27 May 2010.</ref>

===Early roles of Wales and Sanger===
{{anchor|Early roles of Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger}}

{{see also|Jimmy Wales#Co-founder status dispute|Larry Sanger#Status as Wikipedia co-founder}}
<!-- Please read: The section title is linked from elsewhere, including the Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger articles. -->

Wales, along with others, came up with and funded the idea of an open-source, collaborative encyclopedia that would accept contributions from ordinary people.<ref name="memoirofwiki" /> Sanger played an important role in this as Nupedia's [[editor-in-chief]] and main employee.<ref name="co-founders" /> In Sanger's introductory message to the Nupedia mailing list, he said that Jimmy Wales "contacted me and asked me to apply as editor-in-chief of Nupedia. [...] He had had the idea for Nupedia since at least last fall. He tells me that, when thinking about people (particularly philosophers) he knew who could manage this sort of long-term project, he thought I would be perfect for the job. This is indeed my dream job".<ref name="archive2000">{{Cite web |title=nupedia-l Introduction |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2000-April/000143.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030710141440/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2000-April/000143.html |archive-date=10 July 2003 |access-date=19 November 2013}}</ref>

Sanger suggested using a wiki to provide a complementary project for people "intimidated and bored" by Nupedia's elaborate processes,<ref name="Wikipedia-l-000671" /> and coined the portmanteau "Wikipedia" as the project name.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Terdiman |first=Daniel |date=21 December 2005 |title=Wikipedia founder modifies his bio |url=https://www.cnet.com/news/wikipedia-founder-modifies-his-bio/#! |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327233948/http://www.cnet.com/news/wikipedia-founder-modifies-his-bio/#! |archive-date=27 March 2014 |publisher=[[CNET]]}}</ref><ref name="co-founders" /> This was broadly seen as a way to unblock the growing community of Nupedians who found it hard to contribute.<ref name="co-founders" /> Sanger continued to work on Nupedia while contributing to Wikipedia (including drafting policies such as "Ignore all rules"<ref name="Ignore_all_rules">{{Cite news |title=Rules To Consider |work=Ignore all rules |publisher=[[Internet Archive]] |url=http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/RulesToConsider |url-status=dead |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010416035716/http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/RulesToConsider |archive-date=16 April 2001}}</ref> and "Neutral point of view"<ref name="Stacy Schiff" />) and worked with an outreach lead to build up the community of both Nupedia and Wikipedia editors.<ref name="co-founders" /> Upon departure in March 2002, Sanger emphasized the main issue was purely the cessation of funding for his role, which was not viable part-time,<ref name="resignation" /> and encouraged others to continue contributing to Wikipedia while noting that Nupedia could not survive without a full-time editor-in-chief.<ref name="resignation" /> Later that year he stopped contributing to either project, and by 2004 had become publicly critical of Wikipedia. In December 2004 he wrote an essay arguing that Wikipedia was suffering from anti-elitism.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2005-04-18 |title=The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir – Slashdot |url=https://features.slashdot.org/story/05/04/18/164213/the-early-history-of-nupedia-and-wikipedia-a-memoir |access-date=2023-08-21 |website=features.slashdot.org |language=en}}</ref> In April 2005 he published a two-part memoir of his work on Nupedia and Wikipedia, highlighting his role in their creation and continuing belief that Nupedia deserved to be saved.<ref name=":1" /> Later that year Wales began to push back on Sanger's characterization of his role in the project.<ref name="Dan_Mitchell_Insider_Editing">{{Cite news |last=Mitchell |first=Dan |date=24 December 2005 |title=Insider Editing at Wikipedia |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/24/technology/24online.ready.html?ex=1293080400&en=431aff478b00239e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss |url-status=live |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013084516/http://nytimes.com/2005/12/24/technology/24online.ready.html?ex=1293080400&en=431aff478b00239e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss |archive-date=13 October 2007}}</ref><ref name="Evan Hansen">{{Cite magazine |last=Hansen |first=Evan |date=19 December 2005 |title=Wikipedia Founder Edits Own Bio |url=https://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,69880,00.html |url-status=dead |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |publisher=[[Wired News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061230053039/http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0%2C1284%2C69880%2C00.html |archive-date=30 December 2006 |access-date=25 March 2007}}</ref><ref name="Seth Finkelstein">{{Cite news |last=Finkelstein |first=Seth |date=12 February 2009 |title=What's in a name? Everything, when you're talking wiki value |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/feb/12/wiki-answers-wikia |url-status=live |access-date=12 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002212052/http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/feb/12/wiki-answers-wikia |archive-date=2 October 2013}}</ref> By 2006, after the launch of Citizendium, Sanger was harshly critical of Wikipedia, describing it as "broken beyond repair."<ref name="Wikipedia 'broken beyond repair' says co-founder">{{Cite news |last=Thomson |first=Iain |date=13 April 2007 |title=Wikipedia 'broken beyond repair' says co-founder |publisher=[[Information World Review]] |url=http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/news/2187709/wikipedia-broken-beyond-repair |url-status=dead |access-date=15 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070426034156/http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/news/2187709/wikipedia-broken-beyond-repair |archive-date=26 April 2007}}</ref>

In 2005, Wales described himself simply as the founder of Wikipedia;<ref name="Dan_Mitchell_Insider_Editing" /> however, according to [[Brian Bergstein]] of the [[Associated Press]], "Sanger has long been cited as a co-founder."<ref name="co-founders" /> Sanger and Wales were referred to as co-founders in various press releases, interviews, and news reports from 2001<ref name="sanger-NYTimes">{{Cite news |last=Peter Meyers |date=20 September 2001 |title=Fact-Driven? Collegial? This Site Wants You |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E5D6123BF933A1575AC0A9679C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fC%2fComputer%20Software |url-status=live |access-date=18 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226154410/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E5D6123BF933A1575AC0A9679C8B63&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FC%2FComputer%20Software |archive-date=26 December 2007 |quote=It's kind of surprising that you could just open up a site and let people work," said Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's co-founder and the chief executive of Bomis, a San Diego search engine company that donates the computer resources for the project. "There's kind of this real social pressure to not argue about things." Instead, he said, "there's a general consensus among all of the really busy volunteers about what an encyclopedia article needs to be like.}}</ref> and 2002.<ref name="Yahoo!">{{Cite news |last=Wales |first=Jimmy |date=6 August 2002 |title=3apes open content web directory |work=[[Yahoo!|Yahoo! Tech Groups forum post]] |publisher=[[WebCite]] |url=http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/xodp/message/1720 |url-status=dead |access-date=3 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090408184006/http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/xodp/message/1720 |archive-date=8 April 2009 |quote=I'm Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Nupedia and Wikipedia, the open content encyclopedias.}}</ref> Before January 2004, Wales did not dispute Sanger's status as co-founder.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bishop |first=Todd |date=26 January 2004 |title=Microsoft Notebook: Wiki pioneer planted the seed and watched... |url=https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Microsoft-Notebook-Wiki-pioneer-planted-the-seed-1135376.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225123302/https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Microsoft-Notebook-Wiki-pioneer-planted-the-seed-1135376.php |archive-date=25 February 2020 |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |language=en}}</ref> In 2006, Wales said, "He used to work for me [...] I don't agree with calling him a co-founder, but he likes the title".<ref name="James Niccolai">James Niccolai, [http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=7177 "Wikipedia taking on the vandals in Germany"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022165415/http://pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=7177 |date=22 October 2007 }}. [[PC Advisor]]. 26 September 2006.</ref> Starting in 2006, when Sanger wrote and was interviewed extensively about the launch of Citizendium, he emphasized his status as co-founder, and these earlier sources that described him as such.<ref name="co-founders">{{Cite news |last=Bergstein |first=Brian |date=25 March 2007 |title=Sanger says he co-started Wikipedia |work=NBC News |agency=Associated Press |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17798723 |access-date=28 March 2007 |quote=The nascent Web encyclopedia Citizendium springs from Larry Sanger, a philosophy PhD who counts himself as a co-founder of Wikipedia, the site he now hopes to usurp. The claim doesn't seem particularly controversial – Sanger has long been cited as a co-founder. Yet the other founder, Jimmy Wales, isn't happy about it. |archive-date=5 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005002629/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17798723/ |url-status=dead }}.</ref><ref name="sanger-NYTimes" /><ref name="Sanger-Technology Review">{{Cite magazine |last=Heim |first=Judy |date=4 September 2001 |title=Free the Encyclopedias! |url=http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/12586/ |magazine=[[Technology Review]] |access-date=25 March 2007}}</ref><ref name="SangerLinks">{{Cite news |last=Sanger |first=Larry |title=My role in Wikipedia (links) |work=larrysanger.org |publisher=Larry Sanger |url=http://www.larrysanger.org/roleinwp.html |url-status=live |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312163901/http://www.larrysanger.org/roleinwp.html |archive-date=12 March 2007}}</ref>

===Controversies===
{{anchor|Controversies and criticism}}
{{Main|Criticism of Wikipedia|Litigation involving the Wikimedia Foundation|Reliability of Wikipedia}}

* In November 2005, the [[Wikipedia Seigenthaler biography incident|Seigenthaler controversy]] caused Brian Chase to resign from his employment, after his identity was ascertained by Daniel Brandt of [[Wikipedia Watch]]. Following this, the scientific journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' undertook a [[peer review]]ed study to test articles in Wikipedia against their equivalents in ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', and concluded they are comparable in terms of accuracy.<ref>{{Cite journal |year=2005 |title=Internet encyclopaedias go head to head |journal=Nature |volume=438 |issue=7070 |pages=900–901 |bibcode=2005Natur.438..900G |doi=10.1038/438900a |pmid=16355180 |s2cid=4417563 |last1=Giles |first1=Jim |doi-access=free  |issn = 0028-0836}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=The (Nature) peer review |url=http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/multimedia/438900a_m1.html |url-status=live |journal=Nature |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100410155113/http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/multimedia/438900a_m1.html |archive-date=10 April 2010 |access-date=13 April 2010}}</ref> ''Britannica'' rejected their methodology and their conclusion.<ref>Britannica: [http://corporate.britannica.com/britannica_nature_response.pdf Fatally Flawed. Refuting the recent study on encyclopedic accuracy by the journal Nature] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160709053629/http://corporate.britannica.com/britannica_nature_response.pdf |date=9 July 2016 }}</ref> ''Nature'' refused to release any form of apology, and instead asserted the reliability of its study and a rejection of the criticisms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nature's responses to Encyclopaedia Britannica |url=https://www.nature.com/nature/britannica/index.html |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=Nature |archive-date=15 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170515025717/https://www.nature.com/nature/britannica/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
* During early-to-mid-2006, the [[congressional staffer edits to Wikipedia|congressional aides biography scandals]] were publicized, whereby political aides were caught trying to influence the Wikipedia biographies of several politicians. The aides removed undesirable information (including pejorative quotes and broken campaign promises), added favorable information or "glowing" tributes, or replaced the article in part or whole by staff-authored biographies. The staff of at least five politicians were implicated: [[Marty Meehan]], [[Norm Coleman]], [[Conrad Burns]], [[Joe Biden]], and [[Gil Gutknecht]].<ref name=ars>{{Cite web |last=Nate Anderson |date=31 January 2006 |title=Congressional staffers edit boss's bio on Wikipedia |url=https://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060130-6079.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012062850/http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060130-6079.html |archive-date=12 October 2008 |access-date=9 June 2014 |website=arstechnica}}</ref> The activities documented were:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Politician
! Editing undertaken
! Sources
|-
| [[Joe Biden]], Delaware senator
| Removal of unfavorable information
| <ref name=ars/><ref name=wp2006>{{cite web |last1=Noguchi |first1=Yuki |title=Wikipedia's Help From the Hill |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020802212.html |website=www.washingtonpost.com |publisher=Washington Post |access-date=18 February 2026 |date=9 February 2006}}</ref>
|-
| [[Conrad Burns]], Montana senator
| Removal of pejorative statements made by the Senator, replaced with "glowing tributes" as "the voice of the farmer"
| <ref name=wp2006/><ref>{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Walt |date=November 6, 2025 |orig-date=February 8, 2006 |title=Burns' office may have tampered with Wikipedia entry |url=https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/burns-office-may-have-tampered-with-wikipedia-entry/article_2b39cf61-340f-5f5b-9933-3e09f3e2de84.html |access-date=13 February 2007 |website=[[Bozeman Daily Chronicle]]}}</ref>
|-
| [[Norm Coleman]], Minnesota senator
| Rewrite to make more favorable, including changing "liberal" to "activist"
| <ref name=ars/><ref name=wp2006/><ref name=bbc2006/>
|-
| [[Gil Gutknecht]], Minnesota congressman
| Staff rewrite with removal of broken campaign promise; multiple attempts, first using a named account, then an anonymous IP account
| A spokesman for Gutknecht did not dispute that his office edited the entry but questioned Wikipedia's reliability.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Kevin |last=Diaz |date=16 August 2006 |title=Gutknecht joins Wikipedia tweakers |url=http://www.startribune.com/587/story/618899.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821074302/http://www.startribune.com/587/story/618899.html |archive-date=21 August 2006 |newspaper=Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune}}</ref>
|-
| [[Marty Meehan]], Massachusetts congressman
| Replacement with a staff-written biography, including removal of a broken campaign promise
| <ref name=ars/><ref name=bbc2006>{{cite web |last1=Davis |first1=Matthew |title=Congress 'made Wikipedia changes' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4695376.stm |website=news.bbc.co.uk |publisher=BBC News |access-date=18 February 2026 |date=9 February 2006}}</ref>
|}

In a separate but similar incident, the campaign manager for [[Cathy Cox (American politician)|Cathy Cox]] for [[governor of Georgia]], Morton Brilliant, resigned after being found to have added negative information to the Wikipedia entries of political opponents.<ref>Information included the mention of an opponent's son's arrest in a fatal drunk driving crash and allegations of questionable business practices of another opponent. {{Cite news |date=28 April 2006 |title=Online postings changed; ex-Gregoire aide resigns |url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002958137_campaign28m.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524041212/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002958137_campaign28m.html |archive-date=24 May 2011 |access-date=27 July 2013 |website=The Seattle Times}}</ref> Following media publicity, the incidents tapered off around August 2006.
* In July 2006, Joshua Gardner was exposed as a fake Duke of Cleveland with a Wikipedia page.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Student Reporters Expose 'Royal' Sex Offender |url=https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=1501916 |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=ABC News |language=en |archive-date=25 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325084727/https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=1501916 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In January 2007, English-language Wikipedians in [[Qatar]] were briefly blocked from editing, following a spate of vandalism, by an administrator who did not realize that the country's internet traffic is routed through a single [[IP address]]. Multiple media sources promptly declared that Wikipedia was banning Qatar from the site.<ref>[http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196800476 "Wikipedia Founder Refutes Claims That It Banned Qatar"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022202210/http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196800476 |date=22 October 2007 }}. Thomas Claburn. ''[[InformationWeek]]''. 2 January 2007.</ref>
* On 23 January 2007, a [[Microsoft]] employee offered to pay [[Rick Jelliffe]] to review and change certain Wikipedia articles regarding an open-source document standard which was rival to a Microsoft format.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bergstein, Brian |date=23 January 2007 |title=Microsoft offers cash for Wikipedia edit |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16775981 |access-date=1 February 2007 |publisher=[[NBC News]] |archive-date=5 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205062212/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16775981 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In February 2007, ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine issued a rare editorial correction that a prominent [[English Wikipedia]] editor and administrator known as "Essjay", had invented a persona using fictitious credentials.<ref name="New Yorker">{{Cite magazine |last=Schiff |first=Stacy |author-link=Stacy Schiff |date=24 July 2006 |title=Annals of Information: Know It All: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise? |url=https://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060813110914/http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact |archive-date=13 August 2006 |access-date=16 April 2007}}</ref><ref name="Guardian">{{Cite news |last=Finkelstein |first=Seth |date=8 March 2007 |title=Read me first |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/mar/08/media.comment |url-status=live |access-date=16 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070329052204/http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2028328,00.html |archive-date=29 March 2007}}</ref> The editor, [[Essjay controversy|Ryan Jordan]], became a [[Wikia]] employee in January 2007 and divulged his real name; this was noticed by Daniel Brandt of Wikipedia Watch, and communicated to the original article author ([[Essjay controversy]]).
* Also in February 2007,<!--<ref>Docket number L-001169-07 in Monmouth Court, New Jersey. Records may be searched here [http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/acms/disc/CV0227W0E.ASP].</ref>--> Barbara Bauer, a literary agent, sued Wikimedia for defamation and causing harm to her business, the Barbara Bauer Literary Agency.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bauer v. Wikimedia et al. &#124; Electronic Frontier Foundation |url=https://www.eff.org/cases/bauer-v-glatzer |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100412233037/https://www.eff.org/cases/bauer-v-glatzer |archive-date=12 April 2010 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Eff.org}}</ref> In ''Bauer v. Glatzer'', Bauer claimed that information on Wikipedia critical of her abilities as a literary agent caused this harm. The [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] defended Wikipedia<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 May 2008 |title=EFF and Sheppard Mullin Defend Wikipedia in Defamation Case &#124; Electronic Frontier Foundation |url=https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/05/02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100407223854/http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/05/02 |archive-date=7 April 2010 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Eff.org}}</ref> and moved to dismiss the case on 1 May 2008.<ref>[https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/wikimedia/motiontoquashmemo-wikimedia.pdf Motion to quash case (PDF)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161020140651/https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/wikimedia/motiontoquashmemo-wikimedia.pdf |date=20 October 2016 }}. EFF.org. 1 May 2008. Retrieved 19 October 2012.</ref> The case against the Wikimedia Foundation was dismissed on 1 July 2008.<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 January 2008 |title=Bauer v. Wikimedia &#124; Citizen Media Law Project |url=http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/bauer-v-wikimedia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100713053150/http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/bauer-v-wikimedia |archive-date=13 July 2010 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Citmedialaw.org}}</ref>
* In June 2007, an anonymous user [[Chris Benoit double-murder and suicide#Wikipedia controversy|posted hoax information]] that, by coincidence, foreshadowed the [[Chris Benoit double-murder and suicide|Chris Benoit murder-suicide]], hours before the bodies were found by investigators. The discovery of the edit attracted widespread media attention and was first covered in the sister site [[n:Death of Nancy Benoit rumour posted on Wikipedia hours prior to the body being found|Wikinews]].
* In October 2007, in their obituaries of recently deceased TV theme composer [[Ronnie Hazlehurst]], many British media organisations reported that he had co-written the [[S Club 7]] song "[[Reach (S Club 7 song)|Reach]]". In fact, he had not, and it was discovered that this information had been sourced from a hoax edit to Hazlehurst's Wikipedia article.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Andrew |last=Orlowski |title=Braindead obituarists hoaxed by Wikipedia |url=https://www.theregister.com/2007/10/03/wikipedia_obituary_cut_and_paste/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=The Register |language=en |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316055525/https://www.theregister.com/2007/10/03/wikipedia_obituary_cut_and_paste/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* On 14 July 2009, the National Portrait Gallery issued a cease-and-desist letter for alleged breach of copyright, against a Wikipedia editor who downloaded more than 3,000 high-resolution images from the NPG website, and placed them on [[Wikimedia Commons]] ([[National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Foundation copyright dispute]]).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kennedy |first=Maev |date=14 July 2009 |title=Legal row over National Portrait Gallery images placed on Wikipedia |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jul/14/national-portrait-gallery-wikipedia-row |access-date=16 March 2023 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=13 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213165734/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jul/14/national-portrait-gallery-wikipedia-row |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=National Portrait Gallery receives support from BAPLA in its legal fight against Wikipedia |url=http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=865802 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116135932/http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=865802 |archive-date=16 January 2010 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Bjp-online.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=15 July 2009 |title=Gallery in Wikipedia legal threat |language=en-GB |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8151989.stm |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-date=19 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090719231100/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8151989.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=14 July 2009 |title=National Portrait Gallery sues Wikipedia |url=http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?National_Portrait_Gallery_sues_Wikipedia&in_article_id=702647&in_page_id=34 |access-date=13 April 2010 |website=Metro |location=UK}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=17 July 2009 |title=Wikipedia painting row escalates |language=en-GB |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8156268.stm |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-date=23 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090723012706/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8156268.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In April and May 2010, there was controversy over the hosting and display of sexual drawing and pornographic images including images of children on Wikipedia.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schofield |first=Jack |date=12 May 2010 |title=Wikipedia's porn purge, and cleaning up for the iPad |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/may/10/ipad-apple |url-status=live |access-date=24 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104202826/http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/may/10/ipad-apple |archive-date=4 November 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=7 May 2010 |title=EXCLUSIVE: Wikipedia's Parent Company Starts Purging Porn From Its Websites |publisher=[[Fox News]] |url=http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/05/07/wikipedia-purges-porn/ |url-status=dead |access-date=24 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101023073605/http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/05/07/wikipedia-purges-porn/ |archive-date=23 October 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=10 May 2010 |title=Wikimedia pornography row deepens as Wales cedes rights |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10104946 |url-status=live |access-date=24 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618192131/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10104946.stm |archive-date=18 June 2010}}</ref> It led to the mass removal of pornographic content from Wikimedia Foundation sites.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 May 2010 |title=Jimmy Wales – Where things stand now |url=http://www.mail-archive.com/foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org/msg10574.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010080055/http://www.mail-archive.com/foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org/msg10574.html |archive-date=10 October 2012 |access-date=28 November 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=10 May 2010 |title=Wikimedia pornography row deepens as Wales cedes rights |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10104946 |url-status=live |access-date=28 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130150909/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10104946 |archive-date=30 November 2010}}</ref>
* In November 2012, [[Lord Justice Leveson]] wrote in his report on British press standards, "''The Independent'' was founded in 1986 by the journalists Andreas Whittam Smith, Stephen Glover and Brett Straub..." He had used the Wikipedia article for ''[[The Independent]]'' newspaper as his source, but an act of vandalism had replaced Matthew Symonds (a genuine co-founder) with Brett Straub (an unknown character).<ref>{{Cite news |first=Andy |last=McSmith |date=30 November 2012 |title=Leveson's Wikipedia moment: how internet 'research' on The Independent's history left him red-faced |work=The Independent |location=London |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/levesons-wikipedia-moment-how-internet-research-on-the-independents-history-left-him-redfaced-8372446.html |url-status=live |access-date=8 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121204151536/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/levesons-wikipedia-moment-how-internet-research-on-the-independents-history-left-him-redfaced-8372446.html |archive-date=4 December 2012}}</ref> ''The Economist'' said of the [[Leveson report]], "Parts of it are a scissors-and-paste job culled from Wikipedia."<ref>{{Cite news |date=8 December 2012 |title=The Leveson Inquiry: Hacked to pieces. |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21567944-somewhat-mediocre-report-could-yet-lead-better-press-rules-britain-hacked-pieces |url-status=live |access-date=26 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121227113012/http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21567944-somewhat-mediocre-report-could-yet-lead-better-press-rules-britain-hacked-pieces |archive-date=27 December 2012}}</ref>
* In late 2013, commentators publicly shared observations of the reappearance of many of the pornographic images deleted from Wikipedia since 2010.<ref name="XBIZ">{{Cite news |last=Gray |first=Lila |date=17 September 2013 |title=Wikipedia Gives Porn a Break |publisher=XBIZ.com |url=http://newswire.xbiz.com/view.php?id=169017 |url-status=dead |access-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021064635/http://newswire.xbiz.com/view.php?id=169017 |archive-date=21 October 2013}}</ref>

=== Notable forks and derivatives ===
There are a large number of {{self-reference link|Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks|Wikipedia mirror and forks}}. Other sites also use the MediaWiki software and concept, popularized by Wikipedia. No list of them is maintained. Specialized foreign language forks using the Wikipedia concept include [[Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español|Enciclopedia Libre]] (Spanish), ''Wikiweise'' (German), ''WikiZnanie'' (Russian), [[Susning.nu]] (Swedish), and [[Baidu Baike]] (Chinese). Some of these (such as ''Enciclopedia Libre'') use [[GFDL]] or compatible licenses as used by Wikipedia, leading to the exchange of material with their respective language Wikipedias. In 2006, Sanger founded [[Citizendium]], based upon a modified version of [[MediaWiki]].<ref name="Jason Z Cohen">{{Cite news |last=Cohen |first=Jason Z |date=3 March 2008 |title=Citizendium's Larry Sanger: Experts Make It Better |work=LinuxInsider |publisher=ECT News Network |url=http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/61983.html?welcome=1205003304&welcome=1205003861&wlc=1234584689&wlc=1235641480 |url-status=live |access-date=8 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517112405/http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/61983.html?welcome=1205003304&welcome=1205003861&wlc=1234584689&wlc=1235641480 |archive-date=17 May 2011}}</ref> The site said it aimed 'to improve on the Wikipedia model with "gentle expert oversight", among other things'.<ref name="Nate Anderson">{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Nate |date=25 February 2007 |title=Citizendium: building a better Wikipedia |url=https://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/citizendium.ars |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070324225040/http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/citizendium.ars |archive-date=24 March 2007 |access-date=25 March 2007 |website=Ars Technica}}</ref><ref name="Caroline McCarthy">{{Cite news |last=McCarthy |first=Caroline |date=23 January 2007 |title=Citizendium: Wikipedia co-founder Sanger's Wikipedia rival |publisher=[[CNET News]] |url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9680301-2.html |url-status=live |access-date=5 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090730051218/http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9680301-2.html |archive-date=30 July 2009}}</ref> In 2006, conservative activist and lawyer [[Andrew Schlafly]] founded [[Conservapedia]], based on MediaWiki.

===Publication on other media===
The [[German Wikipedia]] was the first to be partly published also using other media (rather than online on the internet), including releases on CD in November 2004<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia, Die freie Enzyklopädie |url=http://www.digitale-bibliothek.de/scripts/ts.dll?s=1&id=E0016306&mp=/art/1266/&sc=Wikipedia.htm |access-date=25 April 2007 |language=de}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> and more extended versions on CDs or DVD in April 2005 and December 2006. In December 2005, the publisher Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, a sister company of Directmedia, published a 139-page book explaining Wikipedia, its history and policies, which was accompanied by a 7.5 GB DVD containing 300,000 articles and 100,000 images from the German Wikipedia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Neue Wikipedia-DVD im Handel und zum Download |url=http://www.heise.de/newsticker/result.xhtml?url=/newsticker/meldung/67137&words=Wikipedia%20DVD |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070605174842/http://www.heise.de/newsticker/result.xhtml?url=%2Fnewsticker%2Fmeldung%2F67137&words=Wikipedia%20DVD |archive-date=5 June 2007 |access-date=25 April 2007 |language=de}}</ref> Originally, Directmedia also announced plans to print the German Wikipedia in its entirety, in 100 volumes of 800 pages each. The publication was due to begin in October 2006, and finish in 2010. In March 2006, however, this project was called off.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia wird noch nicht gedruckt |date=24 March 2006 |url=http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/71231 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070416131622/http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/71231 |archive-date=16 April 2007 |access-date=25 April 2007 |language=de}}</ref>

In September 2008, [[Bertelsmann]] published a 1000 pages volume with a selection of popular German Wikipedia articles. Bertelsmann paid voluntarily 1 Euro per sold copy to [[Wikimedia Deutschland]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=online |first=heise |title=Wikipedia wird noch nicht gedruckt |url=https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Wikipedia-wird-noch-nicht-gedruckt-112468.html |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=heise online |date=24 March 2006 |language=de |archive-date=18 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118200418/https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Wikipedia-wird-noch-nicht-gedruckt-112468.html |url-status=live }}</ref> A free software project has also been launched to make a static version of [[English Wikipedia]] available for use on [[iPod]]s. The "Encyclopodia" project was started around March 2006 and can currently be used on 1st to 4th-generation iPods.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Encyclopodia – the encyclopedia on your iPod |url=https://encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070427070452/http://encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/index.html |archive-date=27 April 2007 |access-date=25 April 2007 |publisher=[[SourceForge]]}}</ref>

==== English Wikipedia CD/DVD/Kiwix ZIM file releases ====
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Release
!Year
!Description
!Link to [[ZIM (file format)|ZIM]] file download
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia CD Selection|2006 Wikipedia CD Selection]]
|2006
|First CD version, containing a selection of articles from the [[English Wikipedia]]. It was published in April 2006 by [[SchoolsWP:SOSChildren|SOS Children]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 June 2006 |title=SOS Children releases 2006 Wikipedia CD Selection |url=http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/education-cd.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070418030451/http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/education-cd.htm |archive-date=18 April 2007 |access-date=25 April 2007 |publisher=[[SchoolsWP:SOSChildren|SOS Children]]}}</ref> 
|
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Version 0.5|Wikipedia Version 0.5]]
|2007
|A CD containing around 2000 articles selected from the online encyclopedia was published by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] and Linterweb. The selection of articles included was based on both the quality of the online version and the importance of the topic to be included. It was created as a test case in preparation for a DVD version including far more articles.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 2007 |title=Wikipedia 0.5 available on a CD-ROM |url=http://wikipediaondvd.com/site.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070427230436/http://www.wikipediaondvd.com/site.php |archive-date=27 April 2007 |access-date=25 April 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=25 April 2007 |title=Wikipedia maakt cd voor internetlozen |url=http://tweakers.net/nieuws/47253/Wikipedia-maakt-cd-voor-internetlozen.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428211831/http://tweakers.net/nieuws/47253/Wikipedia-maakt-cd-voor-internetlozen.html |archive-date=28 April 2007 |access-date=25 April 2007 |publisher=[[tweakers.net]] |language=nl}}</ref> Articles are categorized according to subject. The CD version could be purchased online, downloaded as a [[Disk image|DVD image file]] or [[Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Torrent Project/Version 0.5|Torrent file]], or accessed online at the project's website.
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia Version 0.5 at download.kiwix.org |url=https://download.kiwix.org/archive/zim/wikipedia/wikipedia_en_wp1-0.5_2007-03.zim |website=download.kiwix.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=wikipedia_en_wp1-0.5_2007-03.zim directory listing |url=https://archive.org/download/wikipedia_en_wp1-0.5_2007-03.zim |website=archive.org}}</ref>
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Version 0.7|Wikipedia Version 0.7]]
|2009–2010
|First DVD version. General release of around 31,000 articles taken from all subject areas. A manual effort was performed to remove vandalism, which delayed the release date.<ref>{{Citation |title=Wikipedia talk:Version 0.7 |date=2022-03-04 |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Version_0.7&oldid=1075170885 |work=Wikipedia |language=en |access-date=2022-07-18 |archive-date=22 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922023330/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Version_0.7&oldid=1075170885 |url-status=live }}</ref> Includes topical and geographical indexes of articles, in addition to the alphabetical index.
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia Version 0.7 |url=https://download.kiwix.org/archive/zim/wikipedia/wikipedia_en_wp1-0.7_2009-05.zim |website=download.kiwix.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=wikipedia_en_wp1-0.7_2009-05.zim directory listing |url=https://archive.org/download/wikipedia_en_wp1-0.7_2009-05.zim |website=archive.org}}</ref>
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Version 0.8|Wikipedia Version 0.8]]
|2011
|General release of around 47,300 articles taken from all subject areas. Article selection and vandalism removal using systems developed by a group of volunteers from the Wikipedia community, greatly improved release time. It includes only an alphabetical index and no article categorization.
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia Version 0.8 |url=https://download.kiwix.org/archive/zim/wikipedia/wikipedia_en_wp1-0.8_orig_2010-12.zim |website=download.kiwix.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=wikipedia_en_wp1-0.8_orig_2010-12.zim directory listing |url=https://archive.org/download/wikipedia_en_wp1-0.8_orig_2010-12.zim |website=archive.org}}</ref>
|}
As of June 2022, there have been no more article selection releases since Wikipedia Version 0.8.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 June 2022 |title=Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team&oldid=1092780181 |access-date=27 June 2022 |via=Wikipedia |archive-date=7 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707222542/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team&oldid=1092780181 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Lawsuits===
In limited ways, the Wikimedia Foundation is protected by [[Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act]]. In the defamation action ''Bauer et al. v. Glatzer et al.'', it was held that Wikimedia had no case to answer because of this section.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Judge tosses Matawan literary agent's defamation lawsuit against Wikipedia – Asbury Park Press |url=http://m.app.com/news.jsp?key=81411 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120710045913/http://m.app.com/news.jsp?key=81411 |archive-date=10 July 2012 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=M.app.com}}</ref> A similar law in France caused a lawsuit to be dismissed in October 2007.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-11-05/French lawsuit]]. 5 November 2007.</ref> In 2013, a [[Oberlandesgericht|German appeals court or Oberlandesgericht]] (the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart) ruled that Wikipedia is a "service provider" not a "content provider", and as such is immune from liability as long as it takes down content that is accused of being illegal.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Paulson |first=Michelle |date=2 December 2013 |title=In legal victory, German court rules Wikimedia Foundation need not proactively check for illegal or inaccurate content |url=https://diff.wikimedia.org/2013/12/02/legal-victory-german-court-wikimedia-foundation/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=Diff |language=en-US |archive-date=27 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127005533/https://diff.wikimedia.org/2013/12/02/legal-victory-german-court-wikimedia-foundation/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Internet}}
* [[History of wikis]]
* [[Predictions of the end of Wikipedia]]
* ''[[The Wikipedia Revolution]]'' – 2009 book by [[Andrew Lih]]
* [[Timeline of Wikipedia–U.S. government conflicts]]
<!--
==Notes==
{{notelist|refs=
{{efn|name=britannica|text=
* As of 17 November 2021, [[Special:Statistics]] showed 4,000,129,529 words across 6,410,000 articles implying an average of '''624 words per article'''.
* As of 2021, 33,201 GB (=33,997,900,893 bytes) across four billion words, implying 8.3 [[byte]]s/word. ASCII uses 1 byte/character which in turn implies 8.3 characters/word. However, this includes wikimarkup, and 5 char/word plus one for space or punctuation mark is standard, so '''6 characters/word''' will be assumed.
* One volume: 25cm high, 5cm thick. 500 leaves, 2 page faces per leaf, 2 columns per page face, 80 rows/column, 50 characters per row. So one volume = {{nts|{{#expr:500*2*2*80*50}}}} characters, or {{nts|{{#expr:500*2*2*80*50/6 round 0}}}} words, or {{nts|{{#expr:500*2*2*80*50/(6*624.04)round 1}}}} articles. (Pictures not included!)
** Sanity check: ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' has 44 million words across 32 volumes, or 1,375,000 words per volume.
* There are currently {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} articles, which means {{nts|{{#expr: {{NUMBEROFARTICLES:R}}*624.04}}}} words, which means {{nts|{{#expr:{{NUMBEROFARTICLES:R}}*624.04*6}}}} characters.
* Thus, the text of the English Wikipedia is currently equivalent to '''{{nts|{{#expr:{{NUMBEROFARTICLES:R}}*624.04*6/(500*2*2*80*50) round 1}}}} volumes''' of ''Encyclopædia Britannica.''
** In other words, Wikipedia is approximately '''{{nts|{{#expr:({{NUMBEROFARTICLES:R}}*624.04*6/(500*2*2*80*50))/32 round 2}}}} times the size''' of ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.
}}
}}
-->

==References==

{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="thehive">{{Cite news |last=Poe |first=Marshall |author-link=Marshall Poe |date=September 2006 |title=The Hive |work=The Atlantic Monthly |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/ |url-status=live |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061223004004/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia |archive-date=23 December 2006 |quote=Wales and Sanger created the first Nupedia wiki on 10 January 2001. The initial purpose was to get the public to add entries that would then be "fed into the Nupedia process" of authorization. Most of Nupedia's expert volunteers, however, wanted nothing to do with this, so Sanger decided to launch a separate site called "Wikipedia". Neither Sanger nor Wales looked on Wikipedia as anything more than a lark. This is evident in Sanger's flip announcement of Wikipedia to the Nupedia discussion list. "Humor me", he wrote. "Go there and add a little article. It will take all of five or ten minutes". And, to Sanger's surprise, go they did. Within a few days, Wikipedia outstripped Nupedia in terms of quantity, if not quality, and a small community developed.  In late January, Sanger created a Wikipedia discussion list (Wikipedia-L) to facilitate discussion of the project.}}</ref>

<!--<ref name="irish times interview nov 2009">{{Cite news |last=McCann |first=Fiona |date=27 November 2009 |title='I wasn't sure if anyone would use it' |page=23 |work=The Irish Times |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/1127/1224259543540.html |access-date=4 December 2009}}</ref> -->}}

==Further reading==
===Scholarly studies===
* Adams, Julia, [[Hannah Brückner]], and Cambria Naslund. "Who counts as a notable sociologist on Wikipedia?: Gender, race, and the 'professor test'." ''Socius'' 5 (2019): 2378023118823946. [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2378023118823946 online]
* Bayliss, Gemma. "Exploring the cautionary attitude toward Wikipedia in higher education: Implications for higher education institutions." ''New Review of Academic Librarianship'' 19.1 (2013): 36–57.
* Bridges, Laurie M., and Meghan L. Dowell. "A perspective on Wikipedia: Approaches to educational use." ''Journal of Academic Librarianship'' 46.1 (2020). [https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/downloads/x346dc53r online]
* Davis, LiAnna L., et al. "The Wikipedia education program as open educational practice: Global stories." in ''Open Educational Resources in Higher Education: A Global Perspective'' (Springer Nature Singapore, 2023) pp.&nbsp;251–278.
* Gildersleve, Patrick, Renaud Lambiotte, and Taha Yasseri. "Between news and history: Identifying networked topics of collective attention on Wikipedia." ''Journal of Computational Social Science'' (2023): 1–31.
* Graells-Garrido, Eduardo, Mounia Lalmas, and Filippo Menczer. "First women, second sex: Gender bias in Wikipedia." ''Proceedings of the 26th ACM conference on hypertext & social media'' (2015) [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.02341 online]
* Konieczny, Piotr. "Teaching with Wikipedia in a 21st‐century classroom: Perceptions of Wikipedia and its educational benefits." ''Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology'' 67.7 (2016): 1523–1534.
* London, Daniel A., et al. "Is Wikipedia a complete and accurate source for musculoskeletal anatomy?" ''Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy'' 41 (2019): 1187–1192.
* Reagle Jr., Joseph Michael. ''Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia'' (MIT Press, 2015)
* Salutari, Flavia, et al. "Analyzing Wikipedia users' perceived quality of experience: A large-scale study." ''IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management'' 17.2 (2020): 1082–1095. DOI: 10.1109/TNSM.2020.2978685  States 85% of users are satisfied.
* Sunvy, Ahmed Shafkat, and Raiyan Bin Reza. "Students' Perception of Wikipedia as an Academic Information Source." ''Indonesian Journal Of Educational Research and Review'' 6.1 (2023). [https://ejournal.undiksha.ac.id/index.php/IJERR/article/download/57572/25757 online]
* Timperley, Claire. "The subversive potential of Wikipedia: A resource for diversifying political science content online." ''PS: Political Science & Politics'' 53.3 (2020): 556–560. [https://openaccess.wgtn.ac.nz/articles/journal_contribution/The_Subversive_Potential_of_Wikipedia_A_Resource_for_Diversifying_Political_Science_Content_Online/21099415/1/files/37440181.pdf online]
* Torres-Salinas, Daniel, Esteban Romero-Frías, and Wenceslao Arroyo-Machado. "Mapping the backbone of the Humanities through the eyes of Wikipedia." ''Journal of Informetrics'' 13.3 (2019): 793–803. [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1907.12992 online]
* Van Dijck, José. "Neutrality and the Wikipedia Principle," in ''The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media'' by Van Dijck,  (Oxford University Press, 2013), pp.&nbsp;132–153.
* Wagner, Claudia, et al. "Women through the glass ceiling: Gender asymmetries in Wikipedia." ''EPJ Data Science'' 5 (2016): 1–24. [https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0066-4.pdf online]
* Wang, Ping, and Xiaodan Li. "Assessing the quality of information on wikipedia: A deep‐learning approach." ''Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology'' 71.1 (2020): 16–28. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xiaodan-Li-18/publication/332294515_Assessing_the_quality_of_information_on_wikipedia_A_deep-learning_approach/links/5e588df54585152ce8f4b8b3/Assessing-the-quality-of-information-on-wikipedia-A-deep-learning-approach.pdf online]
* Zheng, Lei, et al. "The roles bots play in Wikipedia." ''Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3.CSCW'' (2019): 1–20. [https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3359317 online]

===Contemporary reports===
* Baker, Nicholson. "The Charms of Wikipedia," ''New York Review of Books'' (March 20, 2008) [https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/03/20/the-charms-of-wikipedia/ online]
* Poe, Marshall. "The Hive" ''The Atlantic'' (Sept 2006), [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/09/the-hive/305118/ online]
* Schiff, Stacy. "Know It All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise?" ''New Yorker'' (July 31, 2006) [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/31/060731fa_fact online]

===Primary sources===
* Messer-Kruse, Timothy. "The 'Undue Weight' of Truth on Wikipedia," ''Chronicle Review of Higher Education'' (February 12, 2012) [http://chronicle.com/article/The-Undue-Weight-of-Truth-on/130704/ online]
* Sanger, Larry. "The early history of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A memoir." ''Open sources'' 2 (2005): 307–38. [https://books.google.com/books?id=q9GnNrq3e5EC&dq=history+of+wikipedia&pg=PA307 online]

==External links==
{{external media | width = 210px| float = right
| video1 =[https://www.ted.com/talks/jimmy_wales_the_birth_of_wikipedia Jimmy Wales: The birth of Wikipedia], 2005 TED (conference), 20 mins.}}
{{sister project links|Wikipedia|collapsible=true}}

===Wikipedia records and archives===
Wikipedia's project files contain a large quantity of reference and archive material. Useful internal resources on Wikipedia history include:

'''Historical summaries'''
* [[:Category:Wikipedia years]] – historical events by year
* [[:meta:History of Wikipedia|History of Wikipedia]] – from the [[Wikipedia:Meta]]
* [[meta:Wikimedia News]] – news and milestones index from all Wikipedias
* [[Wikipedia:BrilliantProse]] – predecessor of [[Wikipedia:Featured articles]] and [[Wikipedia:Good articles]]
* [[Wikipedia:Historic debates]]
* [[Wikipedia:History of Wikipedia bots]]
* [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia records]]
* [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia's oldest articles]]

'''Milestones, size and statistics'''
* [https://stats.wikimedia.org/ Stats.wikimedia.org] – the Wikimedia Foundation's main interface for all project statistics, including the various and combined Wikipedia's.
* [[meta:Wikipedia milestones|Wikipedia milestones]]
* [[Wikipedia:Milestones]] <small>(inactive<!--/outdated-->)</small>
* [[Wikipedia:Size of Wikipedia]]
* [[Wikipedia:Statistics]]

'''Discussion and debate archives'''
* [[Wikipedia:Announcement archive]]
* [[Wikipedia:Mailing lists]]

{{anchor|Other}}'''Other'''
* [[mw:MediaWiki history|MediaWiki history]]
* [https://nostalgia.wikipedia.org Nostalgia Wikipedia] – a snapshot of Wikipedia from 20 December 2001, running a later version of MediaWiki for security reasons but using a skin that looks like the software of the time
* [[Wikipedia:CamelCase and Wikipedia]]
* [[Wikipedia:Magnus Manske Day]] – MediaWiki software goes live into production
* [[Wikipedia:Volunteer Fire Department]] – handling of major editorial influx. Disbanded when no longer needed (2004)
* [https://archive.org/details/zimarchive ZIM File Archive], at [[Internet Archive]], contains full Wikipedia snapshots (as well as articles selections) in multiple languages, from different years. Files can be open with [[Kiwix]] software.
{{clear}}

===Third party===
* [http://corporate.britannica.com/britannica_nature_response.pdf "Fatally Flawed: Refuting the recent study on encyclopedic accuracy by the journal ''Nature''"]. ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. March 2006.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010303221706/http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/HomePage Early Wikipedia snapshot] via Internet Archive. 28 February 2001.
* Giles, Jim, [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/full/438900a.html "Internet encyclopaedias go head to head"]. [[Nature (journal)|''Nature'']] comparison between Wikipedia and ''Britannica''. 14 December 2005 {{subscription required}}
* [[Larry Sanger]]. [http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213&from=rss "The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir"] and [http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/19/1746205&tid=95 "Part II"]. [[Slashdot]]. 18 April 2005 to 19 April 2005.
* [http://www.nature.com/nature/britannica/index.html ''Nature's'' responses to ''Encyclopædia Britannica'']. ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]''. 23 March 2006. {{subscription required}}
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/technology/fact-driven-collegial-this-site-wants-you.html ''New York Times'' on Wikipedia]. September 2001.
* [https://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/encyclopedia.html The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource] – Free Software Foundation endorsement of Nupedia (later updated to include Wikipedia). 1999.

{{Wikipedia}}
{{Wikipedias}}
{{Wikimedia Foundation}}

[[Category:History of Wikipedia| ]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Computing timelines|Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Encyclopedism]]
[[Category:Jimmy Wales]]
[[Category:Larry Sanger]]