# How long before everyone has their own Wikipedia page? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 6, 2017, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236 "2017-06-06T01:35:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/1 "2017-06-06T01:35:38Z")
How long before every person has their own Wikipedia page? Of course, this would also be theoretically impossible if you think about it!!! Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/2 "2017-06-06T01:39:33Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > Of course, this would also be theoretically impossible if you think about it!!! Why? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/3 "2017-06-06T02:21:42Z")
It would require a severe change in Wikipedia policy, or a huge change in their definition of ‘notable’. Quite a few people or groups that you’d think would rate articles don’t have them (or, in a lot of cases, had them, but they were deleted), due to that standard. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/4 "2017-06-06T02:28:53Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > It would require a severe change in Wikipedia policy, or a huge change in their definition of ‘notable’. Was that a response to the OP, or to my “why”? Obviously what you say is true, but those aren’t constraints that I would call “theoretically impossible”. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/5 "2017-06-06T02:53:24Z")
The growth rate has slowed down [since 2010](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_of_Wikipedia#Annual_growth_rate_for_the_English_Wikipedia)or so, and there are only 5.5 million articles on the English wikipedia site as it is. So we’re never going to see everyone on there (even dropping the notability requirement altogether). ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/6 "2017-06-06T02:59:14Z")
Considering you’re not supposed to author a page about yourself, a very long time. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/7 "2017-06-06T03:00:54Z")
Let’s restrict it just to all living people, globally) (roughly 7 000 000 000) Just think about that. In order to have a Wikipedia page, someone has to create it and post the information there. To do that for 7 billion people would be an enormous task. My original thinking was how long before everyone globally has their own personal web page but then I thought it might be easier just to ask if it was possible for everyone to have their own Wikipedia page 😉 My point being is if that everyone had their own [personal web page or Wikipedia page, they would spend all their time creating and updating that page that there would be little time in the day to do much else 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/8 "2017-06-06T03:34:48Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Was that a response to the OP, or to my “why”? To the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/9 "2017-06-06T03:50:41Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > My point being is if that everyone had their own [personal web page or Wikipedia page, they would spend all their time creating and updating that page that there would be little time in the day to do much else 😃 This is an utterly bizarre line of thought. Let’s go with a reasonable version, and make it a blog. I think I post to my tumblr, on average, about once or twice a month. Some people I know have never posted to theirs, having it just for the sake of following. The most prolific that I follow posts maybe 5 or 6 times a day, and for him, part of it is for his job. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/10 "2017-06-06T03:59:17Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > It would require a severe change in Wikipedia policy, or a huge change in their definition of ‘notable’. What if Andy Warhol’s prediction - “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” - comes true? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/11 "2017-06-06T04:12:20Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > What if Andy Warhol’s prediction - “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” - comes true? It would take 200,000 years for everyone currently alive to be famous for 15 minutes (assuming only one person can be world-famous at a time). ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/12 "2017-06-06T04:18:04Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It would take 200,000 years for everyone currently alive to be famous for 15 minutes (assuming only one person can be world-famous at a time). You’re assuming, though, that in the future we haven’t colonized Space and aren’t living on lots of different worlds. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/13 "2017-06-06T04:32:43Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It would take 200,000 years for everyone currently alive to be famous for 15 minutes (assuming only one person can be world-famous at a time). It’s difficult to be world-famous for 15 minutes when about 1/3 of the world is asleep at any given time. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/14 "2017-06-06T04:36:28Z")
Even if Wikipedia changed its rules, the vast majority of people in the world wouldn’t be interested enough, or interesting enough, to get their own Wikipedia article - not to mention plenty of them have no access to Internet at all, and also many, many people are being born every single hour. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/15 "2017-06-06T09:04:12Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > My point being is if that everyone had their own [personal web page or Wikipedia page, they would spend all their time creating and updating that page that there would be little time in the day to do much else 😃 That’s plain nonsense. A lot of people have their own personal page. None of them spend all their time creating and updating that page with changing personal information. (I’m not counting blogging about various topics as a job or obsession, as that is not similar to having a wikipedia page.) By what logic do you see the workload per person increasing with more personal pages? ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/16 "2017-06-06T13:16:17Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > What if Andy Warhol’s prediction - “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” - comes true? He later changed it to “In 15 minutes everyone will be famous”. Given Facebook, Twitter, Youtube _et al._ I’d say he got it right. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-everyone-has-their-own-wikipedia-page/788236/17 "2017-06-06T14:17:42Z")
> [@whitetho](#): > > He later changed it to “In 15 minutes everyone will be famous”. Given Facebook, Twitter, Youtube _et al._ I’d say he got it right. That’s preposterous. Andy Warhol died on February 22, 1987, well before Facebook etc were created. There have been over a million 15 minute periods since he passed, and I would argue that, even today, there are many people that still aren’t famous.