Steven Pruitt

I’m not sure I believed the ‘anyone can edit’ part of it until I became part of 'everyone'.

What can we unlock from the libraries? What can we make accessible? We’re getting to define who belongs in the greater canon of knowledge.

Steven Pruitt (born April 17, 1984) is an American Wikipedia editor and administrator with over 5 million edits, having made at least one edit to one-third of all English Wikipedia articles. Named as one of the 25 most important influencers on the Internet by Time magazine in 2017, Pruitt edits under the pseudonym Ser Amantio di Nicolao.

Quotes

• What can we unlock from the libraries? What can we make accessible? We’re getting to define who belongs in the greater canon of knowledge. Here we are, a bunch of people on the internet, redesigning the canon.
  • Quoted in "The Wikiman, William and Mary Alumni Magazine (September 17, 2018)

• My interests are maybe not the most ordinary, but I have them, and I follow them.
  • Quoted in "The Wikipedia contributor behind 2.5 million edits", The Washington Post" (October 2, 2018)

• You don’t get numbers like mine without being a bit obsessive. I probably edit a bit more when I should be cleaning my room.
  • Quoted in "The Wikipedia contributor behind 2.5 million edits", The Washington Post" (October 2, 2018)

• I’m not sure I believed the ‘anyone can edit’ part of it until I became part of 'everyone'.
  • Quoted in "Meet the Internet’s unsung heroes: Wikipedia’s human collaborators" 'ZMEScience (May 5, 2020)

• I have my moments, I think everyone does. But then I look back on some of the articles I’ve written […] and it feels good. That wonderful feeling of having made something useful. That’s what keeps me going, often as not.
  • Quoted in "Meet the Internet’s unsung heroes: Wikipedia’s human collaborators" 'ZMEScience (May 5, 2020)

• The act of creating content is more codified than it was [when Wikipedia started] and I think ultimately it makes it less friendly for novice users. For the self-guided editor, it’s not as easy as it was for me.
  • Quoted in An Oral History of Wikipedia, the Web’s Encyclopedia (Jan 13, 2021)

• Who belongs in the encyclopedia? Who has a seat at the table? We’re figuring these questions out as we’re going, but we’re doing it in such a way that it becomes available to the rest of the world...It’s incredible to me to think about that. That’s what academia should have been all along.
  • Quoted in "Time Magazine Named Steven Pruitt One of the Most Influential People on the Internet–Just For His Wikipedia Edits" (November 24, 2021)