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Wikipedia might not be looked at as a credible source when it comes to journalism, but, let’s face it, we all use that sh*t when we’re looking for something stupid like a celeb’s birthday or some other basic info. And, while the site allows pretty much anyone to go in there and edit pages — which is always entertaining, even if the updates only last a few minutes — there’s one guy who has helped make Wikipedia as accurate as possible.
Meet Steven Pruitt, Wikipedia’s top editor, who has written for the site for the past 13 years, has edited nearly three million pages and added 35,000 more original articles. Oh, and he does it all for free.
According to a piece from CBS News on Pruitt about his Wikipedia work, the site has about 5.7 million articles in English in total, meaning this dude is responsible for nearly one-third of the content. That’s kind of insane, especially when you consider that the person with the second-most edits and articles is at about 900,000 articles behind Pruitt.
So, how did Steven Pruitt get into Wikipedia editing? Here’s what he had to tell CBS News.
Pruitt is deeply obsessed with history, and his love of opera inspired his Wikipedia username: Ser Amantio Di Nicolao, his favorite opera character.
“My first article was about Peter Francisco, who was my great great great great great great grandfather … and if we had an hour I could probably go into the full story,” Pruitt said. “He was a sergeant in arms in the Virginia Senate and there’s kidnapping, potential piracy. If you read the story you would not believe any of it happened.”
Still living with his parents in the home he grew up in, Pruitt has always remained true to his interests.
“I think for a long time there was an attitude of, ‘That’s nice, dear. The boy’s crazy. I don’t know why he wastes his time, the boy’s crazy,'” Pruitt said of what his parents think of his volunteer gig.
Considering Pruitt has written so many articles for Wikipedia, the fact that he does it for free might actually prove he’s crazy, right? Well, we may all think that, but he doesn’t seem to worry about it.
“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.
“Because I edit Wikipedia all the damn time, I think that one sort of goes without saying,” Pruitt said.
With about 6,000 people visiting Wikipedia every second, Steven Pruitt might not be seeing any of that revenue coming in, but he’s helping you learn something, guys, and he seems pretty pumped that he gets to do it. Talk about a hobby, right?
So the next time you’re searching for info on a celebrity or trying to find stats about Super Bowl’s from the past, just know that Steven Pruitt is probably the one giving you all the details.