The Wikipedia Timeline, Events in Wikiland from the founding to present Options Rating

[Derktar]

The Wikipedia Timeline

See this thread for discussion, suggestions, to make corrections: http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=25162

Thanks to Anthony for the original starting point, Kato for a lot of grunt work, and those who posted ideas. See also

Below is a helpful index to help navigate events in the timeline.

Timeline Index

A

Administrators, (proposed) Oct 2001, (1000 mark) Sep 2006, (accounts hacked) May 2007,

Akahele, (launch) Feb 2009

Taner Akçam, (defamation of) Feb 2007

Alexa ratings, Dec 2004

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Grant donation) Mar 2008

Ambi, ("District Attorney's Office") Mar 2005, (WikiEnlist) Jul 2005

Answers.com, (partnership for ad revenue) Oct 2005, (index tool) Apr 2006

Antisocialmedia.net, (launch) Sep 2006,

Arbitration Committee, (founding) Jan 2004, (Sandifer prosecutions) Mar 2005, (appointments) Oct 2005, (Kelly Martin resigns, elections) Jan 2006, (Mongo case) Oct 2006, (R Marsden case), Nov 2006, (elections) Dec 2006, ( (Essjay) Feb 2007, (IRC) Feb 2007, (Arbcom and J Wales) Apr 2007, (BADSITES) Sept 2007, (elections) Dec 2007, (elections) Dec 2008, (S Blacketer) May 2009, (elections) Dec 2009

Jon Awbrey, (banning) Sep 2006

B

BADSITES, (Mongo case) Oct 2006, (mayhem) Apr-Jun 2007, (climax) Aug-Oct 2007

Judd Bagley (Wordbomb), (banned) July 2006, (antisocialmedia) Sep 2006, (BADSITES) Aug 2007, (Utah ban) Sept 2007, (register article) Dec 2007, (NTWW radio) Apr 2008, (Akahele) Feb 2009

Fred Bauder, (re-elected) Jan 2006, (Mongo case) Oct 2006, (BADSITES) Sept 2007

Barbara Bauer, (defamation of) May 2008

Will Beback, (dispute with Kathryn Cramer) May 2007

Angela Beesley, (welcomes Everyking) Feb 2004, (launches Wikia) Dec 2004, (Trustees) July 2005, (opposes JW) Jun 2006, (biography) July 2006, (replaced on board) Sept 2006, (advisory board) Jan 2007, (Wikichix) Dec 2006

Chris Benoit, (death) June 2007

Brian Bergstein, (paid editing) Jan 2007

Bessemer Venture Partners, (investment in Wikia) Mar 2006

Biographies of Living Persons (policy), (inauguration) Dec 2005, (single-incident BLPs) Jun 2007

Tony Blair, (with Wales) Mar 2008

Sam Blacketer, (elected) Dec 2007, (suspicions) Nov 2008, (outed) May 2009

Bomis, (launch) 1996, (funds WP) 1999, (L Sanger) Jan 2002, Feb 2002, (Bomis babes) Sept 2005,

Daniel Brandt, (first mention on WP) Jan 2005, (biography) Sept-Dec 2005, (Seigenthaler) Feb 2006, (bio) April 2006, (Essjay) July 2006, (plagiarism) Oct 2006, (bio) Dec 2006, (Essjay) Jan 2007, (bio deleted) Jun 2007, (BADSITES) Oct 2007, (NYBrad) Apr 2008,

Richard Branson, (with Wales) Mar 2008

BBC, (debunking Nature study) Mar 2006, (JW speech) Dec 2007

Brockhaus encyclopedia, (folds) Feb 2008

Tom Brokaw, (bio) Mar 2009

Robert Byrd, (bio) Jan 2009

Patrick Byrne, (bio) Apr 2006, (J Bagley) Jul 2006

C

Cabal, (birth) Oct 2001

CAMERA, (pro-Israeli infiltration) Apr 2008

Campaigns Wikia, (launch) Jul 2006

Nicholas Carr, (blog) May 2006

Charitable status, (gained) Apr 2005

Citizendium, (launched) Oct 2006

Cla68, (blocked) Oct 2007

Co-founder / Sole founder dispute, (L Sanger coins WP) Jan 2001, (J Wales confirms) Oct 2001, (JW edits own bio) Oct 2005, Nov 2005, Dec 2005, (WP spat) Apr 2009

Steven Colbert, (Wikiality) August 2006

Juan Cole, (bio) May 2006

CoolHandLuke, (elected) Dec 2008

Conservapedia, (BADSITES) Jun 2007

Credentials, (JW statements) Mar 2007

Catherine Crier, (bio) May 2009

The Cunctator, (first edit) 2001

Ward Cunningham, (invents wiki) 1994, (advisory board) Jan 2007

Steve Cuozzo, (critical article) Aug 2008

D

Richard Dawkins, (critique) Jul 2007

Ludwig De Braeckeleer, (SlimVirgin) Jul 2007

Florence Devouard, (re-elected) July 2005, (chair) Oct 2006 (quoted) July 2007, (quoted) Dec 2007, (castigates JW) Mar 2008 ((replaced) July 2008

Carolyn Doran, (hired) Sept 2006, (scandal) Dec 2007

Durova, (Wikiscanner) Aug 2008, (secret list) Sep 2007, (blocks Cla68) Oct 2007, (massive controversy) Nov-Dec 2007

E

Ebay, (R Marsden) Mar 2008

Emerald Group, (study) Feb 2008

Encarta, (folds) Mar 2009

Encyclopedia Britannica, (critical of WP) Nov 2004, (deletion) July 2005, (post Seigenthaler musings) Dec 2005, (debunking Nature study) Mar 2006,

Encyclopedia Dramatica, (F Bauder) Oct 2006

English Heritage, (legal issues) Mar 2009

Everyking, (first edits) Feb 2004

Essjay, (WR suspicions) July 2006, (controversy) Jan-March 2007

Ezperanza, (launch) July 2005

F

Seth Finkelstein, (bio) Sept 2006, (bio deleted) Jun 2007, (spat with Wales) Jan 2008, (JW vs L Sanger) Apr 2009

Flagged Revisions, (German WP) May 2008, (poll) Jan 2009

Jossi Fresco, (Register) Feb 2008

FT2, (election) Dec 2007

Fundraising, Mar 2005

G

Sue Gardner, (hired) June 2007, (Exec dir) Dec 2007

Rick Gates, (proposal) 1993

Gay Nigger Association of America, (featured article efforts) Sep 2005

David Gerard, (first edits) Jan 2004, (Wikimedia UK) Mar 2005, (WikiENlist) July 2005, (blocks Utah) Sep 2007, (Virgin Killer) Dec 2008, (deflagged) Nov 2009

German Wikipedia, (launch) Mar 2001, (shut down) Jan 2006, (govmt input) Jun 2007, (flagged revisions) May 2008, (court order) Nov 2008, (falsehoods) Feb 2009

Mike Godwin, (hired) June 2007, (legal counsel) July 2007, (pulls story) May 2008, (anthrax attacks) Aug 2008

Google, (Brandt) Oct 2005

Google Knol, (launch) Jul 2008

GNU Free Documentation License, (launch) 2000

GNUPedia, (confusion with WP) Jan 2001

GNUProject (R Stallman) 1999

Grawp (start) Sep 2007

Mark Grebner, (lawsuit) July 2009

H

Bernard Haisch, (bio) Jun 2006

Hivemind, (launched) Oct 2005.

I

Indian Ocean Tsunami, (misinfo) Feb 2005

Internet Relay Chat, Feb 2007

Internet Watch Foundation, (IWF block image)[/i] Dec 2008, (IWF receive threats) Mar 2009

IP addresses, (WP protect identity) Apr 2005

J

Maurice Jarre, (bio) Mar 2009

Jayjg, (WikiENlist) July 2005, (elected) Jan 2006, (deflagged) May 2009

JoshuaZ, (sockpuppets) Feb 2008

JzG, (bans Wikipedia Review) Jan 2007, (cyberstalking list) Sept 2007, (Rachel Marsden) Feb 2008

K

Andrew Keen, (book) Jun 2007, (debate with Wales) Mar 2008, (documentary) Apr 2008, (debate with Sanger) Jun 2008

Ted Kennedy, (bio) Jan 2009

Ben Kovitz, (idea of using Wiki) 2001

L

Mark Lawson, (false claims in bio) Mar 2006

Joe Leiberman, (defamation) Dec 2007

Philipp Lenssen, (Brandt bio)Oct 2005

Andrew Lih, (Wikipedia Revolution) Mar 2009

Ron Livingston (lawsuit) Dec 2009

M

Mantanmoreland, (first edits) Jan 2006, (P Byrne bio) Apr 2006, (vs J Bagley) Jul 2006, (cyberstalking list) Sept 2007, (Register article) Dec 2007, (banning) May 2008

Rachel Marsden, (noticed by WR) Nov 2006, (affair with Wales) Feb-Mar 2008

Kelly Martin, (first edits) Dec 2004, (arbcom) Oct 2005, (resignation) Jan 2006

Charles Matthews, (elected) Jan 2006, (Carl Hewitt) Dec 2007

Alan Mcilwraith, (hoax bio) Oct 2005

Roger McNamee, (advisory board) Jan 2009

Mediation Committee, (launch) Jan 2004

Microsoft, (paid edits) Jan 2007, (encarta) Mar 2009

Eric Möller, (hired) May 2005, (blocked) Apr 2006, (joins board) Sept 2006, (resigns) Dec 2007, (statements on pedophilia) May 2008

Mongo, (BADSITES case) Oct 2006

Moulton, (radio) Apr 2008

Mugabe, (BLP vandalism) Mar 2007

Don Murphy, (defamation of) Oct 2006

Wikipedia Review (Gregory Kohs), (blocks and unblocks) August 2006, (blocks) Oct 2006, (unblock and interview) Jan 2007, (blocks) Mar 2007, (radio) Apr 2008, (vandalism study) Oct 2008, i](Akahele)[/i] Feb 2009, (unblock) Jun 2009

Mzoli's Meats, (Wales's article) Sept 2007

N

Naked Short Selling controversy, (Mantan 1st edits) Jan 2006, (P Byrne bio) Apr 2006, (Bagley banned) July 2006, (antisocialmedia) Sept 2006, (BADSITES) Aug 2007, (Gerard blocks Utah) Sep 2007, (Cla68 blocked) Oct 2007, (Register) Dec 2007, (Mantanmoreland banned) May 2008

National Portrait Gallery, (legal threats) Jun 2009

Nature Study, (debunking) Marc 2006

Nebraska High School, (lawsuit) Jul 2006

New Scientist, (study) Jan 2009

Newyorkbrad, (elected) Dec 2007, (outed) Apr 2008

New York Times, (early piece) Sep 2001, (coverage of scandals) Dec 2005, (critical piece) Mar 2006, (credentials policy) Mar 2007, (Taliban) Nov 2008, (Taliban) Jun 2009

No Follow Tags, (added) Jan 2007

NOINDEX, (citizendium) May 2007

No Personal Attacks (Policy), (creation) Apr 2002

NotTheWikipediaWeekly, (launch) Mar 2008, Apr 2008

Nupedia, (launch and demise)2000 - 2001

O

Barack Obama, (defamation of) Feb 2009

Omidyar network, (donation) Aug 2009

The Onion, (spoof) Jul 2006

Andrew Orlowski, (critical article) Oct 2005

OTRS (ticket system for complaints about WP), (launch) Jan 2006

P

Paid Editing, (proposed) Apr 2006

Sarah Palin, (premeditated editing) Aug 2008

Brad Patrick, (hired as counsel) June 2006, (resigns) Mar 2007

Pedophilia, (BLP defamation) Nov 2005, (userboxes) Feb 2006, (image) Apr 2006, (Wikia spanking site) Jan 2008, (E Möller) May 2008

Plagiarisim, (students) Jul 2006, (Brandt) Oct 2006

Brian Peppers, (article for deletion) Dec 2005

Lev Ponomarev, (bio) Apr 2009

Simon Pulsifer (SimonP), (interview) Jan 2008

Q

Qatar, (block) Jan 2007

Quid encyclopedia, (folds) Feb 2008

R

Ayn Rand, (Wales email list) 1989, Mar 1994

Raul654, ("District Attorney's Office") Mar 2005

Requests for Adminship, (implementation) Jun 2003

The Register, ("WP has serious problems") Oct 2005, (Cade Metz 1st article) July 2007, (covers scandals) Dec 2007, (Jossi) Feb 2008,

David Rohde, (Taliban) Nov 2008, Jun 2009

Roy Rosenzweig, (essay) Jun 2006

Alex Roshuk, (on JW) Dec 2007

Tim Russert, (bio) Jun 2008

S

Phil Sandifer (Snowspinner), (self-appointed prosecutor) Mar 2005

Larry Sanger, (manifesto) 1994, (at Nupedia WP) 2000-5, (citizendium) Oct 2006, (interview) Apr 2007, (NOINDEX - bio) May 2007, (documentary) Apr 2008, (debate) Jun 2008, (spat with Wales) Apr 2009

Scientology, (banning) Jun 2009

Scottish Parent Teacher Council, (blames WP) Jun 2008

Jason Scott, (lecture) Apr 2007

John Seigenthaler, (defamation of) May-Dec 2005, (Brandt) (citizendium) Oct 2006, Feb 2006, (more defamation) Sept 2006, (criticisms of JW, speech) Apr 2007,

Semi-Protection, (implemetation) Dec 2005

David Shankbone, (Israel trip) Dec 2008, (L Sanger vs JW spat) Apr 2009

Tim Shell, (Bomis) 1996

Clay Shirky, (advisory board) Jan 2007

SlimVirgin, (Brandt) Jan 2005, (Brandt bio) Sept-Oct 2005, (WP:ATT) Mar 2007, (oppose vote for admin) May 2007, (cyberstalking list) Sept 2007,

Michael Snow, (elected to board) Jul 2008

Spanish Wikipedia, (fork) Feb 2002

Bruce Springsteen, (bio) Feb 2009

Richard Stallman, (encyclopedia proposal) 1999, (GNUpedia) Jan 2001

Jens Stoltenberg, (defamation of) Nov 2005

T

Teachers Unions, (criticisms) Apr 2007

Three Revert Rule, (creation) Nov 2004

The Truth According to Wikipedia, (movie) Apr 2008

The Times, (fake footballer) Jan 2009

U

Userboxes, (pedophilia) Feb 2006

V

Valleywag, (R Marsden and expenses scandals) Feb-Mar 2008, (E Möller) May 2008

Vandalism Study, (Oct 2008)

Brion Vibber, (hired) May 2005

Virgin Killer (LP cover), (noticed by media) May 2008, (IWF block image) Dec 2008, (IWF receive threats) Mar 2009

W

Jimmy Wales, 1989-2009

Kat Walsh (Mindspillage), (elected) Oct 2005

George Washington, (shit on stick) May 2007

Alison Wheeler, (Wikimedia UK launched) Mar 2005, (WMUK disbanded) Sep 2008

Simon Wiesenthal, (defamation of) Sep 2005

Willy On Wheels, (start) Aug 2004, (prevention) Mar 2005, (redirects) Aug 2005

Wikia, (launch) Dec 2004, March 2006, (Cyberstalking list) Nov 2007, (connection with WP) Jan 2009, Mar 2009

Wikianswers, Jan 2009

Wikia Search, (proposed) Dec 2006, (plans) Mar 2007, (launch) Jan 2008, (folds) Mar 2009

WikiEN-l mailing list, (launch) 2001

Wikimedia Foundation, (launch) Jun 2003, (charity status) Apr 2005, (trademark) Jan 2006, (board) Oct 2006, Dec 2007,

Wikimedia UK, (launch) Mar 2005, Sep 2008

Wikipedia Art, (launch) Mar 2008

Wikipedia Review, (launch) Nov 2005, (new launch) Feb 2006, (WP plan attacks) May 2006, (blacklist) Apr 2007, (Jossi) Feb 2008, (radio) Apr 2008, (vandalism study) Oct 2008, (S Blacketer) Nov 2008,

Wikipedia Watch, (launch) Oct 2005

Wikipedia Weekly, (launch) Oct 2006

WikiScanner, (launch) Aug 2007

Wikitionary, (launch) Dec 2002

Danny Wool, (hired) May 2005, (blanks bio) Mar 2006, (blocks E Möller) Apr 2006, (resigns) Mar 2008, (blog) Jan 2008, (revelations about WMF) Mar 2008,

Y

Yahoo, (indexing) Mar 2004

Z

Zoe, (email to professor) Jan 2007

Fuzzy Zoeller, (defamation of) Feb 2007

[Derktar]

1989-2000

1989
Jimmy Wales initiates the Ayn Rand Philosophy Discussion Email List and serves as moderator.

1993
October 22nd
Rick Gates proposes Interpedia, "The Internet Encyclopedia" which never leaves the planning stages.

1994
Computer programmer Ward Cunningham begins work on the software 'WikiWikiWeb' which became the first 'Wiki'. Cunningham later wrote the book Wiki Way describing the process, and remains a member of Wikimedia's Advisory Board.

March 22nd
Larry Sanger, who is an occasional contributor to Wales's Ayn Rand list, writes a 'manifesto' on his own online mailing list (eventually named the Association for Systematic Philosophy). Sanger writes: "The history of philosophy is full of disagreement and confusion. One reaction by philosophers to this state of things is to doubt whether the truth about philosophy can ever be known, or whether there is any such thing as the truth about philosophy. But there is another reaction: one may set out to think more carefully and methodically than one’s intellectual forebears."

1996
November 15th
Jimmy Wales and Tim Shell found the dot-com Web directory Bomis.

1999
Software freedom activist and creator of the GNU project Richard Stallman calls for development of a free on-line encyclopedia through the means of inviting the public to contribute articles. He describes this in his essay The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource.

Autumn
Jimmy Wales begins thinking about a “volunteer-built” online encyclopedia to be funded by Bomis.

2000
January
Larry Sanger sends Jimmy Wales a business proposal for what is in essence a cultural news blog.

March
GNU Free Documentation License version 1.1 released.

March 9th
Nupedia founded by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales. Sanger becomes 'Editor in Chief' and states his wish to make Nupedia "the world's largest encyclopedia." Nupedia plans to be a formally constructed online encyclopaedia establishing a verification system to ensure that the expert contributors are experts.

June
Larry Sanger completes his PhD in philosophy and gets a raise.

July
The 'Nupedia Advisory Board' is installed. 'Atonality', believed to be the first Nupedia article, is published after peer review.

2001

2001
January
Nupedia's mailing list grows to almost 2,000 people.

January 2nd
Ben Kovitz (computer programmer and polymath) explains the basic concept of a wiki to Larry Sanger over dinner (also known as The Conversation at the Taco Stand), Sanger considers the wiki format as suitable for the Nupedia project. (See Sanger's memoirs)

January 10th
Larry Sanger launches a wiki. According to Sanger, "It's an idea to add a little feature to Nupedia. Jimmy Wales thinks that many people might find the idea objectionable, but I think not."

January 11th
Sanger coins the name "Wikipedia" for the Wiki project.

January 12th
Wikipedia.com and Wikipedia.org domain names are registered.

January 15th
Wikipedia Launches at Wikipedia.com after Nupedia's Advisory Board expresses concern about a Wiki being associated with Nupedia. Wikipedia develops a life of its own and begins to function largely independently of Nupedia, although Sanger initially leads activity on Wikipedia by virtue of his position as Nupedia's editor-in-chief.

January 16th
First article created on Wikipedia.

January 17th
GNUPedia, a similar project to develop a free encyclopedia, is launched after being proposed by GNU founder Richard Stallman in 1999. Confusion between GNUPedia and Nupedia stifles the project, not helped by the fact that Jimmy Wales had purchased the gnupedia.org domain name.

March
Wikipedia boasts over 1300 articles.

March 5th
Jimmy Wales interviewed in Slashdot about Nupedia. He ends the interview stating, "People who want to get started _today_ on contributing free texts to the world can do so at Wikipedia. All the content is released under the GNU FDL, and it already has over 1000 articles. Short, and maybe not the high quality of Nupedia, but with time? Who knows..."

March 16th
German language and Catalan Wikipedias launched.

May 11th
French language Wikipedia launched.

June 26th
"Wikipedia is now useful!", announces Larry Sanger.

July 6th
Larry Sanger, who still considers Nupedia to be the primary project, proposes a backroom Wiki for Nupedia only viewable to members, where articles can be improved and then approved for publishing by Nupedia. Wikipedia, which is operating concurrently and has far fewer participants, is seen by Sanger as a test case for what could be achieved on Nupedia.

July 26th
Wikipedia editor The Cunctator (T-C-L-K-R-D) makes his first edit. He becomes perhaps the first Wiki-addict.

September
WikiEN-l mailing list created.

September 20th
New York Times publishes a piece on Wikipedia called Fact-Driven? Collegial? This Site Wants You. Jimbo Wales: ''It's kind of surprising that you could just open up a site and let people work'.'

October
Wikipedia grows at a rate of around 50 new editors a month.

October 18th
Jimmy Wales proposes the principles of what he terms "cabal membership". This becomes the bureaucratic framework of Wikipedia.

October 30th
Jimmy Wales confirms that Larry Sanger had the idea to use Wiki software for a separate project (Wikipedia) to accompany Nupedia. Later, in 2005, Wales gave a different story stating that "Larry Sanger was my employee working under my direct supervision during the entire process of launching Wikipedia. He was not the originator of the proposal to use a wiki for the encyclopedia project."

December
Larry Sanger gets married, and moves to Colorado.

2002

2002
January
Larry Sanger is placed on half-time pay by Bomis.

February 1st
Sanger is no longer a Bomis employee.

February 12th
Sanger announces "Bomis might well start selling ads on Wikipedia sometime within the next few months, and revenue from those ads might make it possible for me to come back to my old job."

February 26th
Participants in the Spanish language Wikipedia leave the project to form Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español citing statements from Bomis, Inc. regarding advertising on all Wikipedia sites. The Spanish language Wikipedia suffers, before overtaking the forked Wiki in article numbers in November 2004.

March 1st
Larry Sanger resigns as "Editor in Chief" of Nupedia and "any position of authority I had with Wikipedia".

April 24th
Wikipedia editor Lee Daniel Crocker (T-C-L-K-R-D) writes the first version of Wikipedia's No Personal Attacks policy.

August
wikipedia.com changes to wikipedia.org

December 12th
Wiktionary launched.

2003

2003
June 14th
Requests for Adminship (RFA) is introduced on Wikipedia.

June 20th
Wikimedia Foundation founded. Wikiquote launched.

July 10th
Wikibooks launched.

October 28th
The first arranged meet-up of Wikipedians takes place in Munich. Since then regular meetups of Wikipedians are held.

November 24th
Wikisource launched.

2004

2004
January
Arbitration and Mediation Committees announced, compared to Parliament by Jimbo.

January 4th
David Gerard (T-C-L-K-R-D) welcomed to Wikipedia on the day he makes his first edit.

February 2nd
The 200,000th article on the English Wikipedia is created.

February 13th
Angela Beesley welcomes Everyking (T-C-L-K-R-D) to Wikipedia on the day he makes his first edit.

March 2nd
Yahoo! announces that Wikipedia content will be indexed more often and featured prominently on Yahoo! pages.

April 20th
The 250,000th article on the English Wikipedia is created. The latest 50,000 articles have been created in just 78 days.

August 20th
One of the most notorious vandals in Wikipedia history, Willy on Wheels, begins his antics around this day.

November 15th
Former editor-in-chief of Encyclopedia Britannica Robert McHenry writes The Faith-Based Encyclopedia, an article critical of Wikipedia, which gains some attention.

November 28th
Voting ends on the topic of implementing a new rule known as the 'three-revert rule' policy. In future, anyone reverting content to a previous state three times on the same article can face sanctions.

December 21st
Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley form Wikia, Inc. as a Florida Corporation

December 29th
Kelly Martin (T-C-L-K-R-D) is welcomed to Wikipedia two days after her first edit.

December 31st
Wikipedia enters Alexa's list of the top 100 English-language websites for the first time.

2005

2005

January 4th
Editor SlimVirgin (T-C-L-K-R-D) discusses the use of a citation attributed to Daniel Brandt as an article source on the (now deleted) article 'John Train Salon'. This is the first mention of Brandt in relation to Wikipedia who at this time is unaware of the site. SlimVirgin writes: "I removed Daniel Brandt. He's not a credible source..." and shows familiarity with Brandt. SlimVirgin deletes the article and talk page three months later.

February 14th
Wikipedia is accused of being the source of misinformation which found its way into a Washington Post article on the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

March 1st
The first on site fundraising effort ends raising $94,000.

March 7th
MediaWiki developers activate a feature which ends the ability of new user accounts to perform page moves. This is implemented after a spate of mischievous page moves by notorious activist Willy on Wheels (T-C-L-K-R-D) .

March 18th
English Wikipedia reaches 500,000 articles.

March 21st
Wikipedia editor 'Snowspinner', real name Phil Sandifer (T-C-L-K-R-D) decides to become a "self-appointed prosecutor" against other Wikipedia editors. Sticking to his pledge, he brings many new requests to be judged by the Arbitration Committee, including accusations against long term editor Everyking. Sandifer sows significant discord among Wikipedians, and sets off a myriad of bitter feuds between users that last for several years.

March 22nd
'Snowspinner' alongside arbitrators Raul654 (T-C-L-K-R-D) and Ambi (T-C-L-K-R-D) creates the short lived "District Attorney's Office" group which aims to "prosecute" other editors more efficiently. Snowspinner declares himself "dictator", with other participants being designated as partners. The unpopular venture creates further disharmony and is shelved.

March 28th
Several Wikipedia editors in the UK meet to discuss the possibility of a UK chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation. The group is led by Australian, David Gerard (T-C-L-K-R-D) , and 'Vampwillow (T-C-L-K-R-D) '. Vampwillow is later revealed to be Alison Wheeler (T-C-L-K-R-D) using two admin accounts against policy, and secretly campaigning to keep her own biography on Wikipedia. (Bio since deleted and replaced by that of a notable singer with the same name)

April 7th
The Wikimedia Foundation approve a privacy policy to protect the identification of IP addresses and anonymous users' real life information.

April 16th
The Wikimedia Foundation announce that it has officially been recognized as a tax-exempt charitable organization in the United States.

April 18th
Larry Sanger publishes his "memoirs" of setting up Wikipedia and Nupedia.

May 16th
Jimmy Wales announces the appointment of seven people to official positions in the Wikimedia Foundation. These are; Brion Vibber as Chief Technical Officer; Domas Mituzas as Hardware Officer; Jens Frank as Developer Liaison; Erik Möller as Chief Research Officer; Danny Wool as Grants Coordinator; Elisabeth Bauer as Press Officer; Jean-Baptiste Soufron as Lead Legal Coordinator

May 26th (Seigenthaler controversy)
Brian Chase, a delivery manager in Tennessee, creates a Wikipedia biography of journalist and writer John Seigenthaler. It includes hoax claims that Seigenthaler was "directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby".

June
Wikimedia servers are transported to a new location in Tampa, Florida.

June 27th
English Wikipedia now has 500 administrators.

July 4th
Moderators of Wikipedia's mailing list clamp down on what they claim is "disruptive behavior" by other subscribers. Complaints by Wikipedia administrators Jayjg, Ambi and David Gerard lead to moves by Gerard to moderate new subscribers "by default".

July 18th
Angela Beesley and Florence Nibart-Devouard are re-elected to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.

July 25th
A Wikipedia Arbitrator immediately deletes (out of process and without discussion) a new article on the book "The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World". The book details the writer's experience of reading the entire Encyclopædia Britannica. The article is later restored per process.

August 12th
Ezperanza launched. This is a sub-group created within Wikipedia to "indirectly support the encyclopedia by providing support and other assistance for Wikipedians in need, and by strengthening Wikipedia's sense of community". The organization is disbanded in January 2007.

August 29th
Massive spate of mischievous edits by the allusive "Willy On Wheels". Willy, who may be one person or a team of collaborators, manages to change the multiple-language portal at www.wikipedia.org for over an hour, altering the Wikipedia logo on WikiCommons to a picture referencing himself.

September (Seigenthaler controversy)
Victor S. Johnson, Jr., discovers the hoax Wikipedia entry on John Seigenthaler. After Johnson alerted him to the article, Seigenthaler e-mails friends and colleagues about it.

September 4th
Wikipedia editors attempt to get an article on the controversial internet entity Gay Nigger Association of America "featured" and on the site's Main Page.

Also on September 4th
Jimmy Wales edit wars on his own Wikipedia biography to change the words "softcore pornography" to "adult content", in a section detailing his involvement in "Bomis Babes".

September 21st
A day after the death of Simon Wiesenthal, a holocaust survivor who helped track down more than 1000 Nazi war criminals, Wikipedia is discovered to have been displaying outrageous false information about Wiesenthal, claiming he partook in oral sex acts in Austria with other men. The Council of Australian Jewry go public with their complaints.

September 28th
Wikipedia editor SlimVirgin starts a biography on Daniel Brandt.

October (Seigenthaler controversy)
John Seigenthaler contacts Jimmy Wales, who took the then-unusual step of having the affected versions of his biography history hidden from public view in the Wikipedia version logs. Mirror websites not controlled by Wikipedia continue to display the older and inaccurate article.

October 5th
Scottish call-center worker Alan Mcilwraith creates a hoax biography on himself depicting a bogus life as a decorated war hero. The biography lasts until the media break the hoax in April 2006.

October 11th
Jimmy Wales personally appoints editors Mindspillage (Kat Walsh) and Kelly Martin to the Arbitraton Committee.

October 12th
SlimVirgin responds to Brandt's complaint that he was not notified about his biography with "we tend not to do that." Brandt begins editing the article himself making corrections. SlimVirgin asks that he ceases.

October 13th
Daniel Brandt launches Wikipedia Watch. On the site, Brandt publishes an open letter requesting that Jimmy Wales "lock down" the article, who replies that this is "...an impossible and absurd request."

October 16th
SlimVirgin agrees to delete the Daniel Brandt biography entirely.

October 18th
Wikipedia critic Andrew Orlowski runs the article, "Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems" in The Register, which is highly critical of the site.

October 24th
The Wikimedia Foundation announce an increased partnership with Answers.com. Answers.com provides direct scrapes of Wikipedia articles. In return, Wikipedia and Answers.com will split advertising revenue from the Answers.com website

October 26th-29th
Philipp Lenssen, a pro-Google blogger antagonistic towards Brandt's anti-Google investigations, restores Brandt's biography. It is immediately deleted for a second time. Lenssen blogs about the situation, and gains support from readers prepared to challenge Brandt. The biography is recreated by administrator Canderson7 (T-C-L-K-R-D) who asserts to Brandt that "resistance is in fact futile". The article is filled with increasingly hostile edits.

October 28th
Jimmy Wales edits his own biography to remove mention of Larry Sanger as co-founder of Wikipedia.

November 4th
Daniel Brandt's biography is protected, unprotected, deleted several times and finally restored. Brandt participates in the discussions maintaining his position that he is a private figure and the article is an invasion of privacy. Multiple anonymous administrators goad Brandt with derisory statements including "Poor baby", "He can cry about this until the cows come home", and suggestions that everyone "point and laugh" at Brandt's open letter to Jimmy Wales. Brandt is blocked from the site.

November 5th
First incarnation of Wikipedia Review launches.

November 7th
First Article-for-Deletion debate on the biography of Daniel Brandt ends in a "keep".

November 9th
Jimmy Wales edits his own biography to remove mention of Larry Sanger as "setting up" Wikipedia. This is the second time Wales has removed Sanger from the article.

Also on November 9th
Brandt also launches Hivemind, which lists the real life identity of prominent Wikipedia administrators. Brandt later describes Hivemind as a service "because someone, somewhere, has to take responsibility for the content on Wikipedia".

November 11th
The English article on Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg falsely asserts that he had been in prison for pedophilia. Norwegian media publish stories describing Wikipedia's error.

November 13th
Due to reservations from several Wikipedians, Daniel Brandt's biography is put up for deletion for a second time. The result is keep.

November 29th (Seigenthaler controversy)
USA Today publishes an op-ed written by John Seigenthaler. Seigenthaler describes his Wikipedia defamation experience and calls Wikipedia a "flawed and irresponsible research tool."

December (Seigenthaler controversy)
Daniel Brandt locates the IP address responsible for the Seigenthaler biography hoax to a company in Tennessee.

December 1st
Jimmy Wales edits his own biography again to remove "co" from "co-founder" and demote Larry Sanger's role in the founding of Wikipedia. Wales's revision directly contradicts statements he had made two years earlier.

December 5th (Seigenthaler controversy)
John Seigenthaler appears on CNN. He criticizes Wikipedia and US Congress for passing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which protects ISPs and web sites from being held legally responsible for disseminating content provided by their customers and users, "unlike print and broadcast companies."

Also on December 5th
In light of the Seigenthaler contoversy, Jimmy Wales announces that the creation of new Wikipedia articles will be restricted for accounts that have not set up a user name.

December 9th (Seigenthaler controversy)
Brian Chase confesses to the John Seigenthaler hoax and resigns from his job. Seigenthaler receives a hand-written apology and speaks with Chase on the phone.

December 11th
A Wikipedia biography is created on Brian Chase.

December 14th
Former editor-in-chief of Encyclopedia Britannica Robert McHenry writes a follow-up piece to his 2004 critique The Faith-Based Encyclopedia, to incorporate the Seigenthaler controversy called The Faith-Based Encyclopedia Blinks.

December 17th
Wikipedia agrees on a new guideline, 'Biographies of living persons' (BLP). Editorial restrictions are introduced on the creation of new Wikipedia articles; and new tracking categories for the biographies of living people are implemented.

Also on December 17th, a biography is created of Brian Peppers, a 37 year old American who had become an "internet meme" due to his extreme physical malformations caused by Crouzon syndrome. The article was "speedy deleted" the following day, before being restored with 66% support. The article is deleted and restored several times before being deleted unilaterally by Jimmy Wales on 22nd February 2006. The comings and goings of the article cause considerable dispute between opposing camps.

December 22nd
"Semi-protection" enabled on Wikipedia. This allow administrators to prevent edits from IP addresses and newly created accounts on specific articles.

December 24th
New York Times covers Jimmy Wales's controversial edits to his own biography, and recaps the Seigenthaler controversy.

2006

2006
January 10th
Wikipedia becomes a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation.

January 12th
Kelly Martin resigns from the Arbitration committee.

January 15th
'Communications committee' formed to handle media inquiries and emails received for the foundation and Wikipedia via the newly implemented OTRS (a ticket handling system).

January 19th
A German Court orders the German-language version of Wikipedia shut down after the family of deceased phreaker/hacker “Tron” sued Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. for using the deceased’s full name in an entry.

January 22nd
Voting ends for elections to the Arbitration Committee. Mindspillage (T-C-L-K-R-D) , Charles Matthews  (T-C-L-K-R-D) and Jayjg (T-C-L-K-R-D) are appointed among others (Jayjg had already served several months). Fred Bauder (T-C-L-K-R-D) is reelected.

January 28th (Naked Short Selling controversy)
'Mantanmoreland' makes his first edit to Wikipedia. Formerly, the IP address 70.23.85.112 (T-C-L-K-R-D) , suspected of being Mantanmoreland, had been editing the article Naked Short Selling (T-H-L-K-D) and writing that the practice was a "nonissue".

February 6th
Jimmy Wales redirects a Wikipedia biography of Brian Chase, the Seigenthaler hoaxer. He reasons that Daniel Brandt "violated this man's privacy severely by releasing his name and identity to the press". Brandt defends his position stating that he told the press he was "uncomfortable with Wikipedia putting up a dedicated page on Mr. Chase" and that it was actually Seigenthaler who put Chase's name into print. Brandt's own biography continues to be a source of contention and shows no signs of being similarly redirected.

Also on February 6th
Five Wikipedia administrators are removed of their "duties" by Jimbo Wales after a Wikipedia-War erupts over userboxes. Userboxes are decorative images that editors use to identify themselves on their editor pages. A userbox was created by User:Paroxysm and stated that the user "identifies as a pedophile". Wikipedia libertarians who supported the userbox battled against those who found it distasteful.

February 26th
Second incarnation of Wikipedia Review launches.

March 1st
The Wikimedia Foundation announce the creation of the 1,000,000th article in the English language edition of Wikipedia

March 10th
New York venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners invests $4 million to help Wikia.

March 12th
New York Times publishes critical article Anonymous Source Is Not the Same as Open Source.

March 13th
Danny Wool, in his new role implementing "Office actions" blanks and protects an article on Jack Thompson, a Florida attorney and activist, for legal reasons. The article had been criticized for its overwhelmingly negative portrayal of Thompson, and its lack of sources. In its last version before it was blanked, the article contained at least 21 uncited statements.

March 24th
BBC and other media outlets cover Encyclopaedia Britannica's debunking of the pro-Wikipedia Nature study. Britannica say the study contained "a pattern of sloppiness, indifference to basic scholarly standards, and flagrant errors so numerous they completely invalidated the results".

Also on March 24th
Guardian journalist and TV presenter Mark Lawson describes how his life was changed after being erroneously depicted as Jewish in his Wikipedia biography.

March 26th
Wikitruth launched. Wikitruth is a satirical Wiki hosting criticisms of Wikipedia and reposting deleted articles from the site.

March 28th
Bessemer Venture Partners and the investment group of eBay Inc. announce that they are participants in a $4 million initial round of investment in Wikia Inc.

April 4th
Administrator Sam Korn deletes a controversial image described as a "sexualized drawing of minor female" and is taken to task by a number of Wikipedians for "censorship". Jimmy Wales comments, "Sam rocks. For something like this it is far better to err on the side of tastefulness and respect. Let us not let the pedophile trolls set the standard for our debates."

April 5th
Articles for deletion/Daniel Brandt (3rd nomination) ends in another keep.

April 11th
Jimmy Wales controversially adds a new tool intended to bring revenue to Wikipedia from advertising on a partner site, Answers.com. Eric Möller calls for the partnership to be cancelled.

April 14th (Naked Short Selling controversy)
"Mantanmoreland" creates a Wikipedia biography of Gary Weiss.

April 19th
Danny Wool indefinitely blocks Eric Möller (Eloquence (T-C-L-K-R-D) ) for "reckless endangerment -- OFFICE". After some too-ing and fro-ing, Jimmy Wales unblocks Möller the same day. Wool, a paid employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, had "stubbed" and protected two articles while representing WP:OFFICE, which means that he is acting under the authority of the Wikimedia Foundation to resolve urgent legal problems. Möller, a researcher for the Wikimedia Foundation and partner of board member Angela Beesley, unprotected the same articles without discussion.

April 24th
A "Paid editor job board" is proposed by an editor, which is met by controversy, but later morphs into the Reward Board which is still running.

April 29th (Naked Short Selling controversy)[/i]
Mantamoreland, using another account name of Lastexit (T-C-L-K-R-D) , adds significant negative material to the biography of Patrick Byrne. Byrne is a vocal critic of the controversial market practice of Naked Short Selling.

April 30th
The mainstream media notes Wikipedia's capacity to be "a remarkably useful for political dirty tricksters", citing a number of cases including a recent controversy when a US Republican campaign manager reworked an opponent's biography to add scurrilous claims.

May 22nd
Professor Juan Cole, outspoken critic of US foreign policy, describes his negative experiences with his Wikipedia biography, "I gave up trying to correct facts on various issues and now just actively warn students that Wikipedia is not an acceptable source for research projects or even casual knowledge".

May 24th
Influential blogger Nicholas Carr pronounces"The death of Wikipedia".

May 28th
Wikipedians discuss the growing influence of Wikipedia Review. One administrator writes "The Foundation should take one of these trolls and use the legal system and/or the press to crucify him. The value of a troll's head on a pike as a deterrent to other trolls would be worth the cost and difficulty. "

June
Historian Roy Rosenzweig publishes an indepth look at Wikipedia for The Journal of American History.

June 2nd
Resolution:CEO passes, letting Jimmy Wales name the new Chief Executive Officer of the Wiki Media Foundation. Angela Beesley opposes.

June 16th
Brad Patrick, heretofore a practicing attorney engaged in some pro bono work with the Foundation starting in the fall of 2005, was named as general counsel and interim executive director; in the latter capacity, Patrick was designated to assist the Board in its search for a permanent executive director.

June 19th
Astrophysicist Bernard Haisch attempts to clarify bad edits made to his biography and is confronted by an anonymous editor KSmrq (T-C-L-K-R-D) who writes, "You do not get to choose whether or not an article on you appears in Wikipedia, and you have no veto power over its contents. The article can cast you as a genius or an imbecile, a respected scientist or a crackpot. [...] Wikipedia does not operate by ''your'' rules, but by its own conventions; I suggest you learn to accept it. " Haisch described his experience in the New York Times.

July 4th
Jimmy Wales releases his Mission Statement for the new site Campaigns Wikia. Wales announces that "This can be the start of the era of net-driven participatory politics".

July 7th
Angela Beesley resigns from the Wikimedia Foundation board.

Also on July 7th (Naked Short Selling controversy) Judd Bagley, an associate of Patrick Byrne and later Communications Officer for Byrne's company Overstock.com, identifies Mantanmoreland and another account (Lastexit) as journalist Gary Weiss. Bagley's account, Wordbomb, is blocked indefinately from Wikipedia by SlimVirgin for "appearing to try to out another Wikipedian".

July 12th
Angela Beesley attempts to have her Wikipedia biography removed for the third time. "I'm sick of this article being trolled. It's full of lies and nonsense." The article is kept despite a significant number of delete votes.

July 22nd
A Nebraska private school files a lawsuit to determine the identity of the person or persons responsible for edits to the Wikipedia article about the school.

July 26th (Essjay Controversy)
Daniel Brandt starts a thread on Wikipedia Review asking "Who is Essjay?" 'Essjay' is a prolific Wikipedia editor with extraordinary bureaucratic powers on the encyclopedia. 'Essjay' boldly claims on his user page to be a tenured professor at a Catholic College in the US. Essjay Media Watch.

Also on July 26th, Judd Bagley makes his first post on Wikipedia Review as Wordbomb. (Naked Short Selling controversy)

Also on July 26th
The Onion run a spoof article mocking Wikipedia inaccuracies. Several high profile Wikipedia editors call for significant changes to Wikipedia's registration process in light of the ridicule meted out in the article.

July 27th
A professor at the University of Oklahoma explains that 16 students plagiarised sections of their final papers for a history of science course. Nine of those students, the professor found, had copied entries on Wikipedia virtually verbatim.

July 31st (Essjay Controversy)
The New Yorker publishes an article on Wikipedia, written by Stacy Schiff, which features an interview with 'Essjay'. Essjay repeats his claims that he is a tenured professor.

August 1st
Stephen Colbert segment on Wikipedia where the word wikiality is first coined. Colbert runs a story on the Wikipedia article "Elephant" urging the public to change the details, which causes panic on the site.

August 2nd
Numerous dates of death are mischievously added to biographies of living retired US baseball players. The falsehoods are discovered only after shocked relatives had contacted players themselves.

August 9th
Jimmy Wales blocks the account Wikipedia Review (T-C-L-K-R-D) . Wikipedia Review is a venture devised by Gregory Kohs that would allow Kohs to write a comprehensive neutral Wikipedia article at the bequest of paying businesses. Kohs insists he was transparent about his business model.

August 11th
Jimmy Wales unblocks Wikipedia Review having reached what Wales describes as "a very favorable agreement".

August 28th
Daniel Mayer resigns as Chief Financial Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation. Tricia Hoffman hired part time as Wikimedia Foundation bookkeeper.

September (Carolyn Doran controversy)
Carolyn Doran is hired by the Wikimedia Foundation as a bookkeeper.

September 2nd
Wikipedia now has 1000 administrators.

September 6th
A year on from the Seigenthaler controversy, the edit "On November, 22nd, 1963, John Seigenthaler, Sr. killed and ate then-President John F. Kennedy" stays in his biography for over thirty hours before being spotted.

September 7th
Scholar Jon Awbrey indefinitely banned from Wikipedia by a small group of notorious editors for "wasting the community's patience" while creating projects. Awbrey becomes prolific critic of Wikipedia.

September 9th
Wordbomb's first article on antisocialmedia.net, set up to expose Gary Weiss' sockpuppetry and other dealings in regard to Naked Short Selling on Wikipedia.

September 25th
Erik Möller replaces Angela Beesley on the Wikimedia Foundation board after an election process later described as a "disgrace" by Beesley. The election was marred by leaks, a "list of endorsement" by Möller, and controversial interventions by Jimmy Wales.

September 28th
The Guardian publishes Seth Finkelstein's article I'm on Wikipedia, get me out of here which describes the journalist's problems dealing with his Wikipedia biography.

October
The Wikipedia biography of Don Murphy, co-producer of the Transformers movies, is repeatedly hit by malicious vandalism from fans of the series. Murphy is forced to remove the material himself using the pseudonym ColScott and other aliases, leading to his requests that his biography be removed from Wikipedia. The biography is retained by Wikipedians. Murphy's accounts are later banned by Wikipedia administrators, and thus he becomes forthright and active critic of Wikipedia.

October 3rd
Wikipedia Weekly is launched, first episode airs the week of October 16th.

October 4th
Jimmy Wales again blocks Wikipedia Review indefinitely, for "inappropriate use of Wikipedia name in commerce; implying that people can pay him to get listed in Wikipedia". (More info here)

October 17th
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger releases a press statement announcing the creation of Citizendium, a wiki based encyclopedia that requires real name verification to edit.

October 22nd
Jimmy Wales steps down as Chair of the Wikimedia board of Trustees to be replaced by Florence Devouard. The remaining official roles on the board were also filled at this time, with Tim Shell chosen as Vice-Chair, Erik Möller as Executive Secretary, and Michael E. Davis as Treasurer.

October 23rd
Arbitrator Fred Bauder changes all the spellings of "Encyclopedia Dramatica" to "damatica" in other people's comments during the long MONGO Arbitration case over the 'BADSITES' issue as paranoia towards external sites gains strength.

October 26th
The 'MONGO Arbitration case' comes to a close, and sets a precedent for the 'BADSITES' disputes which dominate the site for two years. The decision allows for the removal of links to sites that host criticisms of Wikipedians, regardless of whether they were relevant or on internal project pages.

October 27th
Daniel Brandt launches the first study of plagiarism in Wikipedia that has been undertaken, using a program he created to run a few sentences from about 12,000 articles against Google Inc.'s (GOOG) search engine. Brandt ended with a list of 142 articles, which he brought to Wikipedia's attention. The project gains mainstream media coverage.

November 30th (Rachel Marsden scandal)
Arbitration case concerning biased editing on TV pundit Rachel Marsden's biography ends. Jimmy Wales is seen to intervene in the case. 'Somey' from Wikipedia Review notes, "Maybe this could be the start of a beautiful relationship!"

December 4th
Angela Beesley creates a mailing list and an external wiki for use exclusively by female Wikipedia editors, called WikiChix. Due to the approved culture of secrecy and fake identities that dominates Wikipedia, the list inevitably becomes infiltrated by males disguising themselves as female editors.

December 7th
Wikimedia Foundation bylaws revised, Board expanded to include Kat Walsh, Oscar van Dillen and Jan-Bart de Vreede.

December 17th
Voting closes for elections to the Arbitration Committee.

December 23rd
Jimmy Wales makes a passing comment regarding the possibility of a wiki-based internet search. The result is extensive media coverage publishing the statement as an announcement, forcing Wales's Wikia company to re-brand and relaunch its previous search engine proposal under the temporary name of "Search Wikia".

December 28
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Daniel Brandt (11th nomination). Nominated by Majorly (T-C-L-K-R-D) . Consensus remains "Keep".

December 29th
Wales attempts to clarify several issues regarding "Search Wikia". He says that funding received from Amazon.com is not specific to the search project and also restates that Wikia and Wikipedia have separate management, even though they shared three key stakeholders.