It's hard to imagine a world before Wikipedia. Saviour of student deadlines everywhere and settler of endless pub arguments, Wikipedia is now a ubiquitous part of the online world. But it's not been an entirely easy ride -- beset by vandalism, Wikipedia has also had to ban users for secretly promoting brands and has been accused of being skewed by "rich, Western voices".
But how has the site changed since 2001? On its fifteenth birthday, WIRED takes a look at some of the biggest changes.
In its current incarnation, the Star Wars' Wikipedia page spans thirteen sections, all packed full of detail; plot and cast, production history and technical information and plenty of trivia. It's also an impressive 15,000 words long and meticulously referenced.
The first version was, understandably, somewhat less impressive.
400 words long, the page was both brief and full of conjecture -- sentences like "it has been noted that it is impossible in the United States to go for a full day without hearing some reference to Star Wars" or "it is tempting to speculate that this break from traditional science fiction influenced the cyberpunk genre" would never sneak past Wikipedia's eagle-eyed editors now, or would at least inspire a '' note.
As leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn's current Wikipedia page is unsurprisingly detailed. His parliamentary career -- including expenses and activism -- are examined, as well as his policies, personal life and awards. It's 10,000 words on nuclear disarmament and parsimonious expense submitting.
In 2003, when the first Jeremy Corbyn article was written, he was a stub.
The most striking difference between early and late Wikipedia pages is in tone. Like a traditional encyclopaedia, Wikipedia strives to be neutral in tone and requires articles to be rigorously and extensively referenced. Early pages, often, do not reflect that mission.
Take 'Feminism' for example. A politically charged topic, the feminism page on Wikipedia has been subject to many edits that do not meet these standards. "Feminism is a social and political movement that is so totally mindless that it has even been called 'the radical notion that women are people'," the second version of the page confidently states. "Note that by all but the most radical definitions, a "feminist" need not be a woman - many men are proud to identify themselves as feminists -- and many men are too intelligent to call themselves such." "Feminists, being both moronic and totalitarian, are incapable of understanding that "equality" is a predicate tha [sic] requires two arguments."
Luckily, the page is now more stringently edited, and reflects a decidedly more neutral viewpoint.
Some heavily edited pages are also an interesting way to track the progress of Internet hoaxes. Web series lonelygirl15, which focused on fictional teen girl Bree as she documented her life via YouTube vlog, was revealed to be fictional in 2006. Prior to this, however, the fictional status of the series was unknown -- and this is reflected in the (many) edits the page has been subjected to.
Although the lonelygirl15 wiki now details the nature and details of the hoax, the first incarnation of the page was a little less certain. Although it suggests the page might be fake -- "the story arc seems scripted" -- it also refers to Bree as a real vlogger, not an actress.
Back in 2005, the iPhone was two years away from conception. That didn't stop its name being used in vain on Wikipedia, though.
Described as "born from Apple and Motorola's Alliance", the iPhone was referred to (with male pronouns, bafflingly) as a "white Motorola E398". The price of "one music" on the iPhone was 99 cents -- considerably less than on other smartphones, apparently.
The page actually referred to the Motorola Rokr, a series of phones designed to support iTunes -- the real iPhone was only given a proper entry after its 2007 launch.
It's not the only example that shows you can't always believe what you read on the internet -- a 2012 edit of the Spot the Dog children's books described them as "written by Ernest Hemingway" and featuring "a young golden retriever who suffers with alcoholism and a shattered sense of masculinity". "Spot the Dog showcases Hemingway's hallmark minimalism: 'Where's Spot? Is he under the stars? Is he in the box? No. He's at the bar. Sipping whiskey. Sucking on cigarettes. Suffering'." the page stated. Like the iPhone, though, the page has now been reverted to its (less existential) reality.