7 ms·

AMA: Steven Pruitt, a Wikipedian with 3M edits

239 points by aboutruby 8y ago

skilled 8y ago
Apparently, higher-up, editors get tools that let them make modifications to multiple threads simultaneously. [1] And, Wikipedia happens to count those edits separately even if the editor applies the fix to multiple articles at once as a single action. <-- This is my self-assessment though, I could be wrong! [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/au2rjb/i_am_steven_pruitt_the_wikipedian_with_over_3/eh56ryj/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/au2rjb/i_am_steven_pr...
- aboutruby 8y ago
  I didn't find whether this counts as a single action but I found the website hosting most of the tools: https://tools.wmflabs.org https://tools.wmflabs.org (I was looking for this site for a while and couldn't find it)
- mormegil 8y ago
  Wikipedia (or, rather, MediaWiki, the wiki engine powering it) has a comprehensive API (see e. g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ApiSandbox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ApiSandbox), allowing all kinds of automated tasks. You do not need any special permission to use it, however, you are rate-limited, unless you get an exemption. And, there are many ready-made tools utilizing the API for common tasks. Either local tools like Pywikibot or hosted online like many tools on tools.wmflabs.org
  - shaklee3 8y ago
    He says in the AMA the tool he uses is invite-only after you have over 500ish edits.
- cooper12 8y ago
  The tool is called AWB, [0] and a better way to explain it would be that it lets you work on lists of articles, applying the same change to each, but each edit still has to be approved one-by-one. It's only bots that are normally allowed to just fire away edits and those have to be granted permission beforehand. [1] Pruitt does not have any special bot exemption, [2] and those running bots are usually expected to create a separate account for them. Indeed, looking at his contributions, [3] they have the tag "AWB". The requirements are also not that high, needing only "250 non-automated mainspace edits or 500 total mainspace edits" to be eligible. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bot_policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bot_policy [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:ListUsers&limit=1&username=Ser%20Amantio%20di%20Nicolao https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:ListUsers... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Ser_Amantio_di_Nicolao https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Ser_Aman...
  - shaklee3 8y ago
    He did say he hasn't written original content in quite a while, and most of his changes are edits.
- Arkanosis 8y ago
  Another editor here: that's entirely right. 3 millions edits, however, is still an astonishing accomplishment, even taking this into account. Edits that don't require any human thinking are usually done by bot accounts, and few of them have that many edits.
curiousgal 8y ago
It's a bit sad that this guy mainly came into the spotlight because of some Twitter user making fun of his appearance and not because of his work.
- notafrog 8y ago
  What a world we live in
- aboutruby 8y ago
  That's not true, that's just some internet drama, the CBS interview was the starting point [1], which is actually not great compared to the Washington Post article [3]. [1]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-man-behind-a-third-of-whats-on-wikipedia/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-man-behind-a-third-of-... [2]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/meet-the-most-prolific-contributor-to-the-english-version-of-wikipedia/2018/10/02/a6497a74-9411-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/meet-the-m...
- aw3c2 8y ago
  For some humble self-reflection: You just brought the spotlight on his apparently-noteworthy appearance here. This was not discussed by anyone here and at least for me, nothing that would have come to mind.
  - analognoise 8y ago
    I don't think GP is agreeing with it, or that it requires "humble self reflection": the Twitter thing made Reddit's front page (which is seen by many more people than the CBS and HN combined, and is incidentally where I first heard about it as well). You can step off that high horse now.
    - gotocake 8y ago
      Leave out that last sentence and you’re making a cogent, convincing argument; the insult adds nothing and takes something away.
taxidump 8y ago
How many hours per week do you spend on edits, on average?
- wodenokoto 8y ago
  You have to ask on reddit, this is just a meta discussion of the AMA.
  - bookofjoe 8y ago
    I like the term "meta discussion" to characterize this comment thread. It describes and explains concisely what HN is about/does best.
- pizzabear123 8y ago
  He says 2 to 3 hours a day on week days. Maybe more on weekend. He has a regular job
cooper12 8y ago
One strange thing about the AMA is the reverent tone of some of the replies. Some people are saying "thanks for this article" or "thanks for getting me through school", etc. I think there's a misconception at play because people are assuming since he has the most edits, he wrote most of the content. It probably also doesn't help when there are blatantly false headlines like "Meet the man behind a third of what's on Wikipedia". [0] In actuality, a majority of the edits are semi-automated and minor fixes: think things like fixing typos, categorization, or page formatting. Not trying to diminish his work, but hoping to provide some perspective. It's important that people understand the vast collaboration behind the project and the numerous voices that have built it up to what it is today. If one person was responsible for most of the content, it would be nowhere as diverse as it is. [0]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-man-behind-a-third-of-whats-on-wikipedia/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-man-behind-a-third-of-...
- nothrabannosir 8y ago
  On the other hand, we can assume all of those small edits add value. This gives Wikipedia more appeal (no typos, clean pages, etc), which, in turn, invites others to edit. Are those his contributions? No. Does he deserve some credit? Some. It is always hard to measure these secondary and further effects. The best way to determinte the value is a market with independent actors. Thought experiment: imagine Wikipedia edits were paid in some currency. Doesn't have to be monetary; it could be e.g. karma. How much would he have gotten per edit? Sum it all up: that's his contribution. One thing is for sure: it's more than just a motley of typo fixes. He has, indeed, added a lot of value to Wikipedia, albeit probably indirectly, and, thus, helped people through school.
  - cooper12 8y ago
    Of course. Like I said, "not trying to diminish his work". But it also gives the wrong impression of what editing Wikipedia entails. Anyone can edit, and even a single edit adds utility. One doesn't need to devote as much time has Pruitt has, or have reference books, or make as much edits. My point was that the commenters seem to have a misconception about who writes Wikipedia. It's not just Pruitt, it's people like you and me. It's also women, people from every continent, laymen, scientists, college students, retirees, people working alone, those at editathons, people who edit once, those who edit regularly, those who edit anonymously, those who edit under a pseudonym, etc. Wikipedia is a massive collaborative project; it's great that they're spotlighting his (commendable) efforts, but care should be taken to avoid outrageous misinformation like saying he wrote a third of Wikipedia. Those thousands of content creators deserve commensurate credit as well.
sn41 8y ago
Sounds like a really humble and level-headed guy. Kudos for all the selfless hours he has put in for the greater good.
- boshomi 8y ago
  +1 User Aka[1] in the German Wikipedia follows Steven with only 30,000 edits behind in the main namespace. [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Aka https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Aka [2] some statistics: English Wikipedia: https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm German Wikipedia: https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaDE.htm https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaDE.htm
agumonkey 8y ago
Who else contributed to wikipedia since this AMA ?
echofavor 8y ago
Thanks for sharing. You can also share your ideas for free on www.echofavor.com
denart2203 8y ago
How did you learn about Wikipedia? P.S. Thank you for all of your edits on Wikipedia, I’m sure you’ve helped countless people.
rampage101 8y ago
Why?
faiz7412 8y ago
I'm pretty sure Steven Pruitt read the Asimov trilogy cover to cover and loved it!
- DonaldPShimoda 8y ago
  > the Asimov trilogy Just for clarity, I think you meant the Foundation trilogy. Asimov wrote an awful lot of books, and more than just the one trilogy. (Also, there are more than three books in the Foundation series, but that's a separate point.)
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
dkns 8y ago
Turns out the guy who wrote Baba Yetu (civilization 4 theme song which won grammy) is in the comments too, thanking Steven https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/au2rjb/i_am_steven_pruitt_the_wikipedian_with_over_3/eh59ajr https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/au2rjb/i_am_steven_pr.... What a small world we live in.
- macawfish 8y ago
  Funny! I met Christopher Tin once, and got to sing his music, on a choir tour in Turkey. It was during the mass protests in 2013.
virgakwolfw 8y ago
I want to see his library

239 points by aboutruby 8y ago

Apparently, higher-up, editors get tools that let them make modifications to multiple threads simultaneously. [1] And, Wikipedia happens to count those edits separately even if the editor applies the fix to multiple articles at once as a single action. <-- This is my self-assessment though, I could be wrong! [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/au2rjb/i_am_steven_pruitt_the_wikipedian_with_over_3/eh56ryj/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/au2rjb/i_am_steven_pr...

aboutruby 8y ago
I didn't find whether this counts as a single action but I found the website hosting most of the tools: https://tools.wmflabs.org https://tools.wmflabs.org (I was looking for this site for a while and couldn't find it)
mormegil 8y ago
Wikipedia (or, rather, MediaWiki, the wiki engine powering it) has a comprehensive API (see e. g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ApiSandbox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ApiSandbox), allowing all kinds of automated tasks. You do not need any special permission to use it, however, you are rate-limited, unless you get an exemption. And, there are many ready-made tools utilizing the API for common tasks. Either local tools like Pywikibot or hosted online like many tools on tools.wmflabs.org
- shaklee3 8y ago
  He says in the AMA the tool he uses is invite-only after you have over 500ish edits.
cooper12 8y ago
The tool is called AWB, [0] and a better way to explain it would be that it lets you work on lists of articles, applying the same change to each, but each edit still has to be approved one-by-one. It's only bots that are normally allowed to just fire away edits and those have to be granted permission beforehand. [1] Pruitt does not have any special bot exemption, [2] and those running bots are usually expected to create a separate account for them. Indeed, looking at his contributions, [3] they have the tag "AWB". The requirements are also not that high, needing only "250 non-automated mainspace edits or 500 total mainspace edits" to be eligible. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bot_policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bot_policy [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:ListUsers&limit=1&username=Ser%20Amantio%20di%20Nicolao https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:ListUsers... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Ser_Amantio_di_Nicolao https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Ser_Aman...
- shaklee3 8y ago
  He did say he hasn't written original content in quite a while, and most of his changes are edits.
Arkanosis 8y ago
Another editor here: that's entirely right. 3 millions edits, however, is still an astonishing accomplishment, even taking this into account. Edits that don't require any human thinking are usually done by bot accounts, and few of them have that many edits.

curiousgal 8y ago

It's a bit sad that this guy mainly came into the spotlight because of some Twitter user making fun of his appearance and not because of his work.

notafrog 8y ago
What a world we live in
aboutruby 8y ago
That's not true, that's just some internet drama, the CBS interview was the starting point [1], which is actually not great compared to the Washington Post article [3]. [1]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-man-behind-a-third-of-whats-on-wikipedia/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-man-behind-a-third-of-... [2]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/meet-the-most-prolific-contributor-to-the-english-version-of-wikipedia/2018/10/02/a6497a74-9411-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/meet-the-m...
aw3c2 8y ago
For some humble self-reflection: You just brought the spotlight on his apparently-noteworthy appearance here. This was not discussed by anyone here and at least for me, nothing that would have come to mind.
- analognoise 8y ago
  I don't think GP is agreeing with it, or that it requires "humble self reflection": the Twitter thing made Reddit's front page (which is seen by many more people than the CBS and HN combined, and is incidentally where I first heard about it as well). You can step off that high horse now.
  - gotocake 8y ago
    Leave out that last sentence and you’re making a cogent, convincing argument; the insult adds nothing and takes something away.

taxidump 8y ago

How many hours per week do you spend on edits, on average?

wodenokoto 8y ago
You have to ask on reddit, this is just a meta discussion of the AMA.
- bookofjoe 8y ago
  I like the term "meta discussion" to characterize this comment thread. It describes and explains concisely what HN is about/does best.
pizzabear123 8y ago
He says 2 to 3 hours a day on week days. Maybe more on weekend. He has a regular job

cooper12 8y ago

One strange thing about the AMA is the reverent tone of some of the replies. Some people are saying "thanks for this article" or "thanks for getting me through school", etc. I think there's a misconception at play because people are assuming since he has the most edits, he wrote most of the content. It probably also doesn't help when there are blatantly false headlines like "Meet the man behind a third of what's on Wikipedia". [0] In actuality, a majority of the edits are semi-automated and minor fixes: think things like fixing typos, categorization, or page formatting. Not trying to diminish his work, but hoping to provide some perspective. It's important that people understand the vast collaboration behind the project and the numerous voices that have built it up to what it is today. If one person was responsible for most of the content, it would be nowhere as diverse as it is. [0]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-man-behind-a-third-of-whats-on-wikipedia/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-man-behind-a-third-of-...

nothrabannosir 8y ago
On the other hand, we can assume all of those small edits add value. This gives Wikipedia more appeal (no typos, clean pages, etc), which, in turn, invites others to edit. Are those his contributions? No. Does he deserve some credit? Some. It is always hard to measure these secondary and further effects. The best way to determinte the value is a market with independent actors. Thought experiment: imagine Wikipedia edits were paid in some currency. Doesn't have to be monetary; it could be e.g. karma. How much would he have gotten per edit? Sum it all up: that's his contribution. One thing is for sure: it's more than just a motley of typo fixes. He has, indeed, added a lot of value to Wikipedia, albeit probably indirectly, and, thus, helped people through school.
- cooper12 8y ago
  Of course. Like I said, "not trying to diminish his work". But it also gives the wrong impression of what editing Wikipedia entails. Anyone can edit, and even a single edit adds utility. One doesn't need to devote as much time has Pruitt has, or have reference books, or make as much edits. My point was that the commenters seem to have a misconception about who writes Wikipedia. It's not just Pruitt, it's people like you and me. It's also women, people from every continent, laymen, scientists, college students, retirees, people working alone, those at editathons, people who edit once, those who edit regularly, those who edit anonymously, those who edit under a pseudonym, etc. Wikipedia is a massive collaborative project; it's great that they're spotlighting his (commendable) efforts, but care should be taken to avoid outrageous misinformation like saying he wrote a third of Wikipedia. Those thousands of content creators deserve commensurate credit as well.

sn41 8y ago

Sounds like a really humble and level-headed guy. Kudos for all the selfless hours he has put in for the greater good.

boshomi 8y ago
+1 User Aka[1] in the German Wikipedia follows Steven with only 30,000 edits behind in the main namespace. [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Aka https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Aka [2] some statistics: English Wikipedia: https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm German Wikipedia: https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaDE.htm https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaDE.htm

agumonkey 8y ago

Who else contributed to wikipedia since this AMA ?

echofavor 8y ago

Thanks for sharing. You can also share your ideas for free on www.echofavor.com

denart2203 8y ago

How did you learn about Wikipedia? P.S. Thank you for all of your edits on Wikipedia, I’m sure you’ve helped countless people.

rampage101 8y ago

Why?

faiz7412 8y ago

I'm pretty sure Steven Pruitt read the Asimov trilogy cover to cover and loved it!

DonaldPShimoda 8y ago
> the Asimov trilogy Just for clarity, I think you meant the Foundation trilogy. Asimov wrote an awful lot of books, and more than just the one trilogy. (Also, there are more than three books in the Foundation series, but that's a separate point.)

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

dkns 8y ago

Turns out the guy who wrote Baba Yetu (civilization 4 theme song which won grammy) is in the comments too, thanking Steven https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/au2rjb/i_am_steven_pruitt_the_wikipedian_with_over_3/eh59ajr https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/au2rjb/i_am_steven_pr.... What a small world we live in.

macawfish 8y ago
Funny! I met Christopher Tin once, and got to sing his music, on a choir tour in Turkey. It was during the mass protests in 2013.

virgakwolfw 8y ago

I want to see his library