By the time the site was closed in September 2003 , there were 24 articles on Nupedia , with another 74 articles ready to be made . When Wikipedia took over , the articles from Nupedia were moved there , and those were the first articles of Wikipedia . Before it ceased operating , Nupedia produced 24 articles that completed its review process ( three articles also existed in two versions of different lengths ) , and 74 more articles were in progress .