 | This page contains material that is kept because it is considered humorous. Such material is not meant to be taken seriously. |
On 1 April 2006, the log for the first ever chat session on #wikipedia was painstakingly recovered from a corrupt hard disk. Starting mere seconds before Wikipedia went online, it shows us a fascinating glimpse at the early days of the site.
Session Start: Mon Jan 15 00:00:34 2001 * Now talking in #wikipedia * jwales has joined #wikipedia * Larry_Sanger has joined #wikipedia <Larry_Sanger> Do we really need an IRC channel? I mean, we don't even have any articles yet. <jwales> Suppose so, but it'll get pretty busy when we do. <jwales> We might even have over 100 people in here, you know, in a decade's time. <Larry_Sanger> I dunno. I think that's a tad optimistic. <jwales> Probably. <jwales> Ok, Wikipedia's up. <Larry_Sanger> Great. Who's gonna write the first article? <jwales> Me, me! <Larry_Sanger> Fine, fine. <Larry_Sanger> Hey, I've got some philosophy lectures that I wrote a few years back...think they'll be good for Wikipedia? <jwales> Sure, whatever. The bigger the better. <jwales> Right, Wikipedia has it's first article! <Larry_Sanger> Lemme see. <Larry_Sanger> What the hell? "0MG YOU SUCK"? <jwales> Huh? I didn't write that. <Larry_Sanger> That's what it says. <jwales> Someone must have vandalized it. <Larry_Sanger> What? <jwales> Vandalized. It's the word I use to describe someone editing a page for malicious purposes. <Larry_Sanger> This is great. <Larry_Sanger> Perfect. We're online for, what, 3 minutes? And already it's messed up. <jwales> Wait, wait, we can revert, remember? <Larry_Sanger> Oh, right... <jwales> There, done. <Larry_Sanger> "This is a test.". Catchy. <jwales> What I want to know is, who the hell was the vandalizer? We don't even have a main page yet. <Larry_Sanger> Someone from Britannica, or Encarta? <jwales> Maybe. <Larry_Sanger> We should ban the user. <jwales> Are you kidding? We can't ban our first outside user. We'll be the laughing stock of all the other wikis. <Larry_Sanger> Guess so. Who was the user, by the way? <jwales> Just an IP address. 127.0.0.1. <Larry_Sanger> Ok. <Larry_Sanger> Do we have a logo yet? <jwales> Not really. I put up an American flag, though, as a temporary measure. <Larry_Sanger> Hmm, a little ethnocentric. I had this idea of this 3D jigsaw ball like thing, with individual characters on each piece. <jwales> We're Wikipedia, not Pixar. KISS. <Larry_Sanger> Suppose so. <Larry_Sanger> No topic? <jwales> ? <Larry_Sanger> This IRC room doesn't have a topic. Put the status in or something. * jwales changes topic to 'Status: Up' <jwales> How's that? <Larry_Sanger> Looks ok to me. <jwales> Don't really see what the point is, though. Why would Wikipedia ever be down? <jwales> Anyway, just written a HomePage. <Larry_Sanger> "Welcome to WikiPedia! We're writing a complete encyclopedia from scratch, collaboratively. We started work TODAY. We want to make over 100,000 pages. So, let's get to work! Write a little (or a lot) about what you know!" <Larry_Sanger> You're crazy, Jimbo. <jwales> I don't see why 100,000 isn't a reasonable target. Granted, it'll take us 8 years at the least to do it, but that's still an incredibly fast amount of progress. <Larry_Sanger> Will Wikipedia even be around in 2009? <jwales> Of course. And if it gets REALLY popular, we might even reach a million! <Larry_Sanger> ... <Larry_Sanger> So... <Larry_Sanger> ...if the first 100,000 takes 8 years, multiply that by 10, and that gives us a millionth article date of.... <Larry_Sanger> ...2081. <jwales> I'll be 115. <Larry_Sanger> Hah! I'll be 113. <jwales> Rats. <Larry_Sanger> Heh, what would the millionth article be? <jwales> Probably something like FirstCityOnTheMoon. <Larry_Sanger> Or an article about a railroad station in, I dunno, Scotland. <jwales> Railroads will be long gone by then. We'll be riding around in hovercars. <jwales> WOO! <Larry_Sanger> Woo? <jwales> First outside article! <Larry_Sanger> Woo! What is it? <jwales> AprilFoolsDay <Larry_Sanger> What does it say? <jwales> "Held on FirstOfApril." <Larry_Sanger> Wow, that's great! <jwales> Yeah, really informative! <Larry_Sanger> And brilliant prose, too. <jwales> That's actually a great idea for a page. Stick all the best articles on it, you know, to show how great Wikipedia can be. <Larry_Sanger> Great idea. I'm creating it now, and sticking that on. <jwales> Wow, we're growing so fast. The TestPage, the HomePage, AprilFoolsDay, BrilliantProse...that's four articles already! <Larry_Sanger> In a month or so, we might even have more articles than NuPedia! <jwales> Yeah! <Larry_Sanger> Boy, the fun never stops with Wikipedia. <jwales> You got that right. Tomorrow, I'm gonna start writing an article on GdansK. <Larry_Sanger> Don't you mean DanZig? <jwales> Hmm. Didnt think of that. <Larry_Sanger> Who cares, anyway? It's just a stupid city. <jwales> Good point. <Larry_Sanger> I'm gonna get going. Got a busy day ahead of me. <jwales> But we were making such good progress! <Larry_Sanger> Yeah...same time tomorrow? <jwales> Sure. <Larry_Sanger> Bye for now! <jwales> Bye! * Larry_Sanger has left #wikipedia * Disconnected