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Meet the Man Behind a Third of What's On Wikipedia (cbsnews.com)
Thelasko shares a report from CBS News: Steven Pruitt has made nearly 3 million edits on Wikipedia and written 35,000 original articles. It's earned him not only accolades but almost legendary status on the internet. The online encyclopedia now boasts more than 5.7 million articles in English and millions more translated into other languages -- all written by online volunteers. Pruitt was named one of the most influential people on the internet by Time magazine in part because one-third of all English language articles on Wikipedia have been edited by Steven. An incredible feat, ignited by a fascination with his own history.
How much money does he make from his work? None. "The idea of making it all free fascinates me. My mother grew up in the Soviet Union ... So I'm very conscious of what, what it can mean to make knowledge free, to make information free," he said. Pulling from books, academic journals and other sources, he spends more than three hours a day researching, editing and writing. Even his day job is research, working in records and information at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He joked that his colleagues probably think he's nuts. To put in to perspective what it took for Pruitt to become the top editor, he's been dedicating his free time to the site for 13 years. The second-place editor is roughly 900,000 edits behind him, so his first place status seems safe, for now.
How much money does he make from his work? None. "The idea of making it all free fascinates me. My mother grew up in the Soviet Union ... So I'm very conscious of what, what it can mean to make knowledge free, to make information free," he said. Pulling from books, academic journals and other sources, he spends more than three hours a day researching, editing and writing. Even his day job is research, working in records and information at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He joked that his colleagues probably think he's nuts. To put in to perspective what it took for Pruitt to become the top editor, he's been dedicating his free time to the site for 13 years. The second-place editor is roughly 900,000 edits behind him, so his first place status seems safe, for now.
This seems a great thing to be!
Over 13 years, that's 632 edits a day, every day, plus 7.3 original articles each day.
"Pulling from books, academic journals and other sources, he spends more than three hours a day researching, editing and writing."
So that's 1 article every 24 minutes while making and one edit every 17 seconds
I call bullshit. Story does not add up.
It worries me that he must be writing articles and making edits mainly just on the basis of looking stuff up. He cannot have a very deep knowledge of most of what he is doing.
An advantage of Wikipedia should be that every article can be written/edited by someone well versed with the subject. I have done edits and articles in three or four areas I know well, with the assistance of refererences too, but I think that is about the limit of what anyone can be expert enough to do reliable edits.
that works out to 83 seconds between edits if he did nothing but edit Wikipedia during his free time for 18 years.
For his own sake, I hope many of those contributions were his own custom bots correcting spelling or formatting mistakes.
Over 13 years, that's 632 edits a day, every day, plus 7.3 original articles each day.
"Pulling from books, academic journals and other sources, he spends more than three hours a day researching, editing and writing."
So that's 1 article every 24 minutes while making and one edit every 17 seconds
I call bullshit. Story does not add up.
I believe it adds up to him doing a lot of research and possibly editing whilst supposedly working at his government job.
Which country puts religion on passports? Maybe Iran? Probably not...
I suspect you've had your edits pulled because you're a racist fuckwit, not because of "the evul libruls."
-- "...I'm a bad guy because I, well, I sing some rock-and-roll songs." M. Manson
Imagine all (or a lot of) the people... earning enough money to cover their needs and then spending time advancing free projects. A lot of rubbish would be produced, but occasionally we'd get something as good as Wikipedia.
I don't think these can be "well researched".
3 million / 13 = 230,000 per year.
assume he edits 300 days per year
769 per day
assume he works 4 hours per day after his day-job on this
769/4 = 192 per hour
that's 3.2 per minute.
When does he read the books he uses?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.