first Wikipedia edit
{{Short description|First Wikipedia edit on its homepage in 2001}}
{{For|Wikipedia's internal page on this topic|Wikipedia:Wikipedia's oldest articles|selfref=yes}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}
File:"Hello, World!" Jimmy Wales NFT.png for US$750,000]]
The first edit in Wikipedia's database, to HomePage, was made on January 15, 2001, and states in its entirety "This is the new WikiPedia!" In December 2021, co-founder Jimmy Wales announced that he would sell a website containing a re-creation of an earlier edit that he said he made and then later deleted, which contained the text "Hello, World!", to the highest bidder as a non-fungible token (NFT).
Background
{{main|History of Wikipedia}}
The concept of a collaboratively written, freely licensed hypertext encyclopedia was first posited in the 1990s; Richard Stallman proposed a "Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource" in 1998.{{cite web|url = https://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/free-encyclopedia-1998-draft.html|title = The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource (1998 Draft)|work = GNU.org |last = Stallman|first = Richard|author-link = Richard Stallman|date = 1998|access-date = December 3, 2021 |url-status= live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210124065108/https://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/free-encyclopedia-1998-draft.html|archive-date = January 24, 2021|language = en}} In 2001, Larry Sanger conceived of Wikipedia as a source of volunteer entries from the general public that could then be "fed into" Nupedia, a collaborative encyclopedia founded by Jimmy Wales and written by "qualified volunteer contributors" with a multi-step peer review process.{{cite web|last = Poe|first = Marshall|author-link = Marshall Poe|title = The Hive|work = TheAtlantic.com|date = September 2006|url = https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061223004004/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia|archive-date = December 23, 2006|language = en | access-date = January 23, 2022}} A message sent by Sanger to the Nupedia mailing list said "Humor me [...] go there and add a little article. It will take all of five or ten minutes". On January 13, 2001, Wikipedia's domain name was registered,{{Cite web |url = http://businessworld.in/article/Wikipedia-The-Utopia-That-Survived-And-Thrived/25-04-2021-387601 |title = Wikipedia–The Utopia that Survived and Thrived |first = Shubhranshu |last = Singh |website = BW Businessworld.in |date = April 25, 2021 |language = en |access-date = January 23, 2022 |quote = Wikipedia began with its first edit on 15 January 2001, two days after the domain was registered by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. |archive-date = December 4, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211204012947/http://www.businessworld.in/article/Wikipedia-The-Utopia-That-Survived-And-Thrived/25-04-2021-387601/ |url-status = live }} and on January 15, 2001, Wikipedia was launched.{{Cite web|url = https://gizmodo.com/the-first-edit-to-wikipedia-is-being-auctioned-as-an-nf-1848156387|title = The First Edit to Wikipedia Is Being Auctioned as an NFT|website = Gizmodo.com|first = Shoshana|last = Wodinsky|date = December 3, 2021|language = en|access-date = January 24, 2022|quote = That edit… was originally penned… shortly after the site first rolled out to the public in mid-January, 2001.|archive-date = October 27, 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221027011024/https://gizmodo.com/the-first-edit-to-wikipedia-is-being-auctioned-as-an-nf-1848156387|url-status = live}}
First edit
{{Redirect|UuU||UUU (disambiguation)}}
Historically, the earliest surviving edit on Wikipedia's database was a revision of the page UuU from January 16, 2001, created as a list of countries starting with the letter U and oddly titled due to software considerations of the time.{{Cite web | author = The Telegraph Staff | date = September 24, 2009 | title = The Oldest Surviving Web Pages | website = Telegraph.co.uk | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6138384/The-oldest-surviving-web-pages.html | url-access = subscription | access-date = January 23, 2022 | language = en | archive-date = October 13, 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221013151505/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6138384/The-oldest-surviving-web-pages.html | url-status = live }}{{cite book|author = Murray, Janet H. | date= 2011 |title = Inventing the Medium: Principles of Interaction Design as a Cultural Practice | location = Cambridge, Mass. | publisher = MIT Press | pages = 89–90 | isbn= 9780262016148| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pVoGEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 | access-date = January 23, 2022 | quote = [p. 90:] Figure 3.2 The earliest still-extant Wikipedia editing entry. [Shows image of 'Project page / Wikipedia:UuU'.]}} However, page histories during that time were unreliably stored by the UseModWiki software; in 2010, previously inaccessible records of early UseModWiki revisions were found in archives by Wikimedia developer Tim Starling.{{Cite web | author = Starling, Tim [tstarling at wikimedia.org] | date = December 14, 2010 | title = [Foundation-l] Old Wikipedia Backups Discovered | work = Lists.Wikimedia.org | url = https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-December/063088.html | language = en | quote = I was looking through some old files in our SourceForge project. I opened a file called wiki.tar.gz, and inside were three complete backups of the text of Wikipedia, from February, March and August 2001! / This is exciting, because there is lots of article history in here which was assumed to be lost forever. | access-date = December 4, 2021 | archive-date = March 26, 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220326040838/https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-December/063088.html | url-status = live }} When these edits were imported into Wikipedia's database at 02:28, July 30, 2019 (UTC),{{cite news|url = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2019-08-30/News_and_notes#Earliest_surviving_Wikipedia_edits_imported|title = Documenting Wikimania and our beginnings|work = The Signpost|author = Bluerasberry|author2 = Pythoncoder|author3 = Smallbones|date = August 30, 2019|access-date = December 5, 2021|archive-date = July 24, 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220724233354/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2019-08-30/News_and_notes#Earliest_surviving_Wikipedia_edits_imported|url-status = live}}{{cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&logid=100903716|title=Import log entry by User:Graham87 for HomePage|work=Wikipedia|access-date=November 26, 2022}} its earliest recorded edit became the January 15, 2001, creation of HomePage with the text "This is the new WikiPedia!" by an anonymous person using the office.bomis.com server.{{Cite web|url= https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HomePage&oldid=908493298|title= HomePage|date= January 15, 2001|via= Wikipedia|language= en|access-date= December 4, 2021|archive-date= October 14, 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221014023542/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HomePage&oldid=908493298|url-status= live}} On being informed of the importation of these edits, Wales said:
For the record, these are the earliest edits that have been found, but not the earliest edits. In the early days of Usemod wiki, I did a lot of deleting things *on the hard drive* (as this was the only way to really do that). Those will never be found of course. The first words, soon deleted, were "Hello, World!"
{{clear}}
Non-fungible token sale
On December 3, 2021, Wales announced that he would be selling, through auction house Christie's, a non-fungible token (NFT) of a re-creation of what he claimed to be the first Wikipedia edit, made earlier than the "This is the new WikiPedia!" edit.{{Cite web |url = https://www.papermag.com/wikipedia-christies-auction-2655918616.html |title = Wikipedia Is Selling a Slice of Internet History |date = December 3, 2021 |website = PAPER |first = Matt |last = Moen |language = en |access-date = December 4, 2021 |archive-date = October 14, 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221014164226/https://www.papermag.com/wikipedia-christies-auction-2655918616.html |url-status = live }}{{Cite web|url = https://www.cnet.com/tech/christies-auctioning-off-nft-of-first-wikipedia-edit/|title = Christie's auctioning off NFT of first Wikipedia edit|first = Bree|last = Fowler|website = CNET|date = December 3, 2021|language = en|access-date = December 4, 2021|archive-date = October 17, 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221017210917/https://www.cnet.com/tech/christies-auctioning-off-nft-of-first-wikipedia-edit/|url-status = live}} Wales' edit, whose timestamp was listed as 18:29 UTC on January 15, 2001,{{Cite web|url= https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/christies-wikipedia-nft/|title = Christie's & Jimmy Wales Sell Wikipedia's First Entry as an NFT|date = December 3, 2021|website = Highsnobiety|first = Alexandra|last = Pauly|language = en}}{{cite web|url = https://www.editthisnft.com/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi|title = Wikipedia: HomePage: re-creation of early edit|author = Jimmy Wales|access-date = December 4, 2021|archive-date = May 28, 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220528013520/https://www.editthisnft.com/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi|url-status = live}} was on the page HomePage. It consisted of the text "Hello, World!"; it was made as a test and subsequently erased.{{Cite web|url= https://www.vice.com/en/article/wikipedias-co-founder-is-auctioning-his-first-edit-as-an-nft/|title = Jimmy Wales Is Auctioning His First Wikipedia Edit As an NFT|website = Vice|date = December 3, 2021|first = Matthew|last = Gault|language = en}}
The product being sold was not actual ownership of the edit (as Wikipedia content is released under a copyleft license), but rather a "digital item" that records the purchaser's name alongside a URL of the edit and by itself confers the owner no special rights.{{Cite web|url = https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/3/22808679/jimmy-wales-nft-first-wikipedia-edit-imac-christies-auction|title = Jimmy Wales is selling his first Wikipedia edit as an NFT|first = Adi|last = Robertson|date = December 3, 2021|website = The Verge|language = en|access-date = December 4, 2021|archive-date = June 1, 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230601004244/https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/3/22808679/jimmy-wales-nft-first-wikipedia-edit-imac-christies-auction|url-status = live}}{{failed verification|date=December 2021}} However, plans were made to set up a website, "Edit This NFT",{{Cite web |url= https://www.editthisnft.com/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi |title= Wikipedia: HomePage |website= Editthisnft.com |language= en |access-date= December 4, 2021 |archive-date= May 28, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220528013520/https://www.editthisnft.com/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi |url-status= live }} mirroring only the original page; the purchaser would be allowed to edit it.{{Cite web|url = https://www.engadget.com/jimmy-wales-wikipedia-nft-auction-171330170.html|title = Jimmy Wales is auctioning off an NFT of his first Wikipedia edit|website = Engadget|date = December 3, 2021|first = Igor|last = Bonifacic|language = en|access-date = December 4, 2021|archive-date = October 18, 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221018044055/https://www.engadget.com/jimmy-wales-wikipedia-nft-auction-171330170.html|url-status = live}} It sold for US$750,000.{{cite web|url=https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/birth-wikipedia/lots/2181|title=The Birth of Wikipedia|publisher=Christie's|access-date=16 December 2021|archive-date=October 13, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013151506/https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/birth-wikipedia/lots/2181|url-status=live}} Numerous Wikipedia editors objected to the sale on various grounds.{{Cite web |last=Gault |first=Matthew |date=2021-12-08 |title=Wikipedia Editors Very Mad About Jimmy Wales' NFT of a Wikipedia Edit |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/wikipedia-editors-very-mad-about-jimmy-waless-nft-of-a-wikipedia-edit/ |access-date=2022-02-01 |website=Vice Motherboard |archive-date=February 12, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250212142836/https://www.vice.com/en/article/wikipedia-editors-very-mad-about-jimmy-waless-nft-of-a-wikipedia-edit/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Harrison |first=Stephen |date=2021-12-09 |title=Jimmy Wales Is Auctioning the "Birth of Wikipedia" as an NFT |url=https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/jimmy-wales-birth-of-wikipedia-nft-auction.html |access-date=2022-02-01 |website=Slate |archive-date=February 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220202203528/https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/jimmy-wales-birth-of-wikipedia-nft-auction.html |url-status=live }} Some editors, including administrators, argued that Wales' use of his own user profile page to advertise the sale was a violation of Wikipedia guidelines against self-promotion. Other editors criticized the sale on the grounds that the artificial scarcity of NFTs is incompatible with Wikipedia's open-source free knowledge principles. They were broadly not opposed to Wales selling the iMac he used at the time, but objected to the NFT for representing what they perceived as monetization encroaching onto the platform.
References
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