Who Are the Top Wikipedia Editors of All Time?

Do you ever wonder about who's actually adding all of this information to Wikipedia? You know… all those statistics about Douglas Fir Trees, the 1985 World Series, and the third season of Growing Pains. The kind of stuff that you pull up and cite during debates with friends. Who are the people actually adding that stuff to the site?

Here's your answer: Volunteer editors!

That’s right, Wikipedia is entirely managed, governed, updated, and cared for by dedicated volunteers, including some powerful wiki editors. It’s time to shine a light on some of the most prolific Wikipedia editors.

Steven Pruitt

Research Wikipedia edits even a little, and it won’t be long before you see this name. Working under a pseudonym (Ser Amantio di Nicolao), it’s believed that Pruitt has made over 4.5 million edits in total. Additionally, he alone has created over 35,000 different articles. Pruitt’s impact on Wikipedia is so strong that he was on Time Magazine’s list of most important influencers in 2015.

If you aren’t impressed by Pruitt’s Wikipedia prowess so far, a statistic that might shock you is that he has edited around one-third of all pages on the website. Steven Pruitt is a Wikipedia legend, and his edit total is still climbing to this day.

BrownHairedGirl

Compared to Steven Pruitt, very little is known about the second-most prolific editor on Wikipedia. Although she has made nearly 2.3 million edits, BrownHairedGirl has stayed out of the limelight. Her Wiki profile states that she’s from Ireland, her eyes are ‘both working,’ and her weight is ‘my own.’

As it would happen, this editor excels at more than just witty responses. BrownHairedGirl has played an essential role for Wikipedia over the years. Their 2.3 million edits have come over a period of a decade and a half, during which time she has also deleted over 12,000 pages and banned over 250 users. BrownHairedGirl is keeping Wikipedia safe from editors, brands, and vendors who break the site’s rules. 

Justin Knapp

Just behind BrownHairedGirl, we find Justin Knapp - a user who goes by the pseudonym Koavf. For a short while, Knapp was the most prolific Wiki editor before Pruitt took his crown and ran away with the title. While BrownHairedGirl has also passed Knapp’s edit total, he was the first to surpass one million edits and continues today (although at a slower rate).

Between 2005 and 2012, Knapp averaged a whopping 385 edits each day. With a degree in philosophy and another in political science from Indiana University, it’s fair to say that Knapp is qualified to make Wikipedia better. After lots of hard work, Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, rewarded Knapp with his very own day on the platform. Now, April 20th is considered Justin Knapp day.

If you visit any page regarding history, politics, philosophy, religion, and popular culture, you can be reasonably certain that Justin Knapp has visited once or twice.

BD2412

As the final addition to this list, BD2412 is one of the longest-serving Wikipedia editors and has nearly 1.9 million edits to his name. After joining toward the end of 2005, this lawyer started to contribute frequently. According to BD2412 himself, he has edited just shy of 15% of the pages on the website. To put this into perspective, odds are that all those who have edited seven pages have likely stumbled across one that BD2412 has also edited.

Like BrownHairedGirl, BD2412 has been kept relatively anonymous, aside from the odd photo. However, it has been confirmed that the user has published academic journals and peer-reviewed articles. Once again, he has established himself as a dedicated Wikipedia editor.

A final note

Although these editors are extremely prolific, such volunteers on Wikipedia are sadly few in number overall. If you've ever wondered why a Wikipedia page is missing some details or hasn't been updated lately, it is likely due to editors not being able to get it to. With that said, don't be too hasty to jump in and try to fix things yourself. If your edit would be for a page you're professionally connected to, you need to follow the site's Conflict of Interest Guidelines and its Terms of Use for anyone with a financial connection. For more about that, read our blog post How do I edit my Wikipedia page?