Any global event is reflected on its relevant Wikipedia pages, often within minutes of it taking place.
In the case of the Queen’s death, the legion of volunteers that keep up the ‘Free Encyclopedia’ sprang into action to keep it updated.
The first edit made to the Queen’s Wikipedia page came just minutes after the first sources broke the news.
Over the course of the next 15 minutes, over 55 edits were made to Her Majesty’s entry – such as changing verbs to the past tense.
The entire process is documented in a fascinating thread on the Depths of Wikipedia Twitter account.
Yesterday, that gap was closed to two minutes. The Royal Family’s Twitter account posted the news at 6.30pm and by 6.32pm, the first Wikipedia edit had been made.
Wikipedia editor Sydwhunte now has ‘bragging rights’ for getting their first, according to the Twitter thread.
From there, an unofficial ‘Task Force’ of editors came into being to try to create, update or moderate the required articles.
For instance, King Charles’ article changed five times as the internet waited for his official title to be revealed.
He wrote: ‘You could speculate that knowing you’re the first person pronouncing someone dead on such a visible site as Wikipedia might be interesting.’
The Queen is said to have died peacefully with the now-King Charles and Princess Anne at her bedside at Balmoral in Scotland.
Family members including Prince William, Prince Harry and Prince Edward sadly missed their chance to say goodbye in person, reports claims.
The nation has entered a period of official mourning that will last until seven days after the funeral.
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