Editing History of Wikipedia (section)

===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 French, German, [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[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" />

====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 only was put in place in December 2005.<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'', documentary about Wikimania 2005, featuring [[Jimmy Wales]] and [[Ward Cunningham]]]]

====2006====
The English Wikipedia gained its one-millionth article, [[Jordanhill railway station]], on 1 March 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 {{self-reference link|Wikipedia:WikiProject|WikiProjects}} 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>