Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american columnist”. Today it says “american author”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Musical artist Matthew "”. It now reads “American author and poet Musical artist Matthew "”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
Matthue" Roth (born June 30, 1978) is an American author, poet, columnist, spoken word performer, video game designer , and screenwriter. Beginning his career as a slam poet in San Francisco, Roth gained attention for his unusual blend of religious themes with frank sexual material, and appeared in the 2002 live Broadway production of Def Poetry Jam . As a writer, he has written three young adult novels, two children's books, and two memoirs, and has written for The Forward , Tablet , and Jewcy . He also co-founded the Jewish culture website Hevria , with Elad Nehorai , and the Jewish educational website G-dcast (later BimBam ), with Sarah Lefton. In 2018, Roth's short story "One Part Finger" was shortlisted for the Best American Short Stories . In 2009, Roth's novel Losers was chosen as a special selection of the American Library Association. In 2014, Roth and his now ex-wife, restaurateur Itta Werdiger-Roth, were included in The Jewish Week 's "36 Under 36", a list of influential young Jews under age 36. The Jewish News of Northern California . (actually, free: it's a new poem I wrote, and I'm giving it to you for my birthday)" ( Tweet ) .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1178541179.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Musical artist Matthew "Matthue" Roth (born June 30, 1978) is an American columnist , author , poet , spoken word performer, video game designer , and screenwriter . Beginning his career as a slam poet in San Francisco , Roth gained attention for his unusual blend of religious themes with frank sexual material, and appeared in the 2002 live Broadway production of Def Poetry Jam . As a writer, he has written three young adult novels, two children's books , and two memoirs , and has written for The Forward , Tablet , and Jewcy . He also co-founded the Jewish culture website Hevria , with Elad Nehorai, and the Jewish educational website G-dcast (later BimBam ), with Sarah Lefton. In 2014, Roth and his wife, restaurateur Itta Werdiger-Roth, were included in The Jewish Week 's "36 Under 36", a list of influential young Jews under age 36.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 963257343.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american columnist”. Today it says “american author”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Musical artist Matthew "”. It now reads “American author and poet Musical artist Matthew "”. Read the current article and compare.
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2020, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
american columnist
Now
american author
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
