Misplaced Pages

Steven Pruitt

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(Redirected from Ser Amantio di Nicolao) American Misplaced Pages editor and administrator (born 1984) "Ser Amantio di Nicolao" redirects here. For the opera character, see Ser Amantio di Nicolao (Gianni Schicchi).

Steven Pruitt
Steven Pruitt in 2022. He is a middle-aged man with dark blond hair wearing an orange collar shirt.Pruitt in 2022
Born (1984-04-17) April 17, 1984 (age 40)
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Alma materCollege of William & Mary (BA)
Years active2004–present
Known forMost edits on English Misplaced Pages
RelativesPeter Francisco (6th great-grandfather)
HonorsTime's "The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet" (2017)

Steven Pruitt (/ˈpruːɪt/ PROO-it; born April 17, 1984) is an American Misplaced Pages editor and administrator with the largest number of edits made to English Misplaced Pages, at over 6 million, having made at least one edit to one-third of all articles in the edition. Pruitt first began editing Misplaced Pages in 2004. He has also created more than 33,000 Misplaced Pages articles. Pruitt was 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, which is a reference to a minor character in Giacomo Puccini's 1918 opera Gianni Schicchi. He has stated that he aims to fight gender bias on Misplaced Pages, promoting the inclusion of women via the Women in Red project.

Early life

Pruitt was born on April 17, 1984, in San Antonio, Texas, the only child of Alla Pruitt, a Russian Jewish immigrant, and Donald Pruitt of Richmond, Virginia. His mother emigrated from the Soviet Union under the loosening of the policy of Jewish migration under Leonid Brezhnev, while his father worked as a college professor in Virginia. They met when they were both teachers in the Defense Language Institute's Russian Department at Lackland Air Force Base, close to San Antonio.

While growing up, Pruitt was a reader of classical literature and mystery stories by Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh. Pruitt has credited his love of knowledge to his mother's stories of growing up in the Soviet Union.

Pruitt graduated from St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2002. He attended the College of William & Mary, where he sang as part of a choir, and he graduated in 2006 with a degree in art history.

Career

In 2017, Pruitt was a contractor for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where he worked with records and information. In 2020, he became a records manager at the Defense Health Agency. As of 2021, he works for Chenega IT Enterprise Services, a contractor for the Defense Health Agency.

Misplaced Pages editing

Pruitt wearing a suit looking forward
Pruitt in 2018

Pruitt began editing Misplaced Pages in June 2004. His first Misplaced Pages article was about his great-great-grandfather, Peter Francisco, a Portuguese-born American Revolutionary War hero known as the "Virginia Hercules". His favorite article to work on is for the Pohick Church in Virginia. He created his current account in January 2006 while a senior at the College of William & Mary. Prior to creating his current account, he had edited under several accounts for which he kept forgetting the password. Being unemployed during the 2008 financial crisis, Pruitt spent hours editing. This activity sometimes prevented him from getting job interviews when potential interviewers confused the site with Julian Assange's WikiLeaks. In 2015, he surpassed editor Justin Knapp for the most edits. The same year, he became an administrator. By February 2019, Pruitt had made over three million edits to Misplaced Pages, more than any other editor on the English Misplaced Pages, and he made over four million edits by February 2021. Pruitt has also created more than 33,000 Misplaced Pages articles, the seventh-highest tally out of any Misplaced Pages editor. According to Northern Virginia Magazine,

Pruitt has not literally pressed the "edit" button 4.4 million times. One method he has used to achieve his astonishing numbers is a software tool that allows a user to make numerous identical edits simultaneously. For example, he could italicize every mention of Northern Virginia magazine across Misplaced Pages where it currently appears in standard font. Yet it is claimed he has not "cheated" his way to the top spot, since that software is also available to others.

As a contributing member of the Women in Red WikiProject, his Misplaced Pages edits have included creating articles on more than 600 women, in order to counter the site's gender gap. Even though the majority of his work is done alone, he is also a member of the WikiProject for Virginia. Pruitt identifies as an inclusionist, preferring to retain articles instead of deletion. He also considers himself a WikiGnome, a type of editor that makes small, behind-the-scenes edits. Pruitt spends between three and four hours daily editing, with more on the weekends. The longest Pruitt has gone without editing Misplaced Pages since he began is two or three weeks. He made the one billionth edit on the English Misplaced Pages on January 13, 2021, to the page "Death Breathing".

Interviews

Pruitt giving a self-introduction

Pruitt was featured on CBS This Morning in January 2019. In the interview, Pruitt described the first article he worked on about Francisco, as well as his commitment to help boost Misplaced Pages's coverage of notable women.

Pruitt's focus on women artists, composers, and historical figures reflects his interest in shedding light on lesser-known and often overlooked subjects. He has actively contributed to addressing the gender gap on Misplaced Pages, recognizing that the representation of biographical articles about women has seen growth, from around 14% to the current figure of nearly 18%, due in part to his efforts and the creation of initiatives such as the Women in Red project. He mentioned this in one of his interviews.

Personal life

Pruitt's non-Misplaced Pages-related interests include the Capitol Hill Chorale, in which he sings. He is a fan of opera, which started from his parents' inculcation at an early age, and this passion provided inspiration for his Misplaced Pages username "Ser Amantio di Nicolao" — after a minor character in the 1918 Puccini opera Gianni Schicchi. Pruitt is also a fan of classical music. As of 2018, he is single and living with his parents as their caregiver due to the high costs of housing in the Washington, D.C., area.

Distinctions

  • Time's "The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet" (2017)

See also

References

  1. ^ "Meet the man behind a third of what's on Misplaced Pages". CBS News. January 26, 2019. Archived from the original on February 1, 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2019. The last statistic I saw was that 17.6 percent of the biographical articles on Misplaced Pages are about women, on the English Misplaced Pages I should say," Pruitt said. "It was under 15 percent a couple of years ago which shows you how much we have been able to move the needle.
  2. ^ Harrison, Stephen (January 15, 2021). "Misplaced Pages Is Basically a Massive RPG". Wired. Condé Nast. ISSN 1078-3148. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  3. ^ "Time Magazine Named Steven Pruitt One of the Most Influential People on the Internet–Just For His Misplaced Pages Edits". Northern Virginia Magazine. November 24, 2021. Archived from the original on November 27, 2021. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  4. "Meet the man behind a third of what's on Misplaced Pages - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. January 26, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  5. ^ Brown, Jennings (January 15, 2016). "Meet The World's Most Prolific Misplaced Pages Editor". Vocativ. Archived from the original on February 1, 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
  6. ^ Malloy, Daniel (February 13, 2018). "This Prolific Nerd Is Shaping the Future of Misplaced Pages". OZY. Archived from the original on February 1, 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
  7. ^ Eshleman, Tina (September 17, 2018). "The Wikiman: How the most prolific Misplaced Pages editor is expanding what we know about the world". W&M Alumni Magazine. No. Fall 2018. College of William & Mary. Archived from the original on April 10, 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
  8. ^ "Steven Pruitt '02". St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  9. ^ "The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet". Time. June 26, 2017. Archived from the original on May 18, 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2019. The family moved to Monterey, California, for several years before settling in Northern Virginia in 1989, when Steven was 5.
  10. Puckrik, Katie (November 9, 2021). "Hoax". dot com: The Misplaced Pages Story (Podcast). Acast. Event occurs at 5:35. Archived from the original on November 9, 2021. Retrieved January 16, 2022. : Steven's article says he works for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but that's not true any more. He's got a new job. / : I'm a records manager in the records management office of the Defense Health Agency. ... I haven't done an interview of any sort formally since I changed jobs, which is now about a year and a half ago ...
  11. Yassin, Nuseir (December 23, 2020). "The Secret King of Misplaced Pages". YouTube. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  12. ^ Harrison, Stephen (October 2, 2018). "The Misplaced Pages contributor behind 2.5 million edits". The Washington Post. Nash Holdings. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on October 2, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  13. Wallace, Jaleel; Wallaca, Nicole (April 12, 2021). "What Content Creators Can Learn From the Internet's Most Prolific Editor". Medium. Archived from the original on April 12, 2021. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  14. Gault, Matthew (January 15, 2021). "The English Language Misplaced Pages Just Had Its Billionth Edit". www.vice.com. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  15. Pruitt '06 discusses Misplaced Pages's gender gap, November 7, 2018, retrieved August 31, 2023

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