Our periodic look at the top ten most-edited articles on the English language Wikipedia, made possible Craig Wood’s Wikirage monitoring tool, is back this week. It’s been two weeks since our last installment, the previous week’s edition being canceled on account of travel.
However, it also marks the beginning of a new direction for this recurring feature, or at least a new frequency for its recurrence. When July ends in two more weeks, All the Rage will start appearing on a monthly basis. I think we’ve pretty well established a week-by-week pattern, and here is a brief outline of the kinds of articles that usually make the list:
- Weekly installments of popular television shows in the U.S. and UK are frequently represented.
- The highest-grossing film in North America each week almost always makes the list.
- Pay-per-view professional wrestling events are not unheard of.
- Other entertainment genres popping up from time to time: Nickelodeon sitcoms aimed at tweenagers, televised elimination-style competitions produced by Simon Cowell, sports playoffs and championship series.
- Deaths in 2008 is the list-based article most likely to appear in the top ten articles, and prominent passing figures sometimes earn a spot of their own.
- Those who write the breaking/current news articles — on terrorist attacks, natural disasters and many things government-related — are among the most sophisticated and motivated Wikipedians of all.
- If an article attains the status of Featured Article, thereby giving it 24 hours on the front page of Wikipedia, the resulting vandalism and reversions thereof can push it into the most-edited articles of the week.
Now that we’re going monthly (and between these three installments, bi-monthly) I wonder what different patterns will emerge. What’s likely is that some or all of the above article types will remain, but they won’t all and their relative chart positions may prove to be different as well. Or maybe the trends will look no different on a month-by-month than week-by-week basis. Stay tuned and we’ll find out.
Also, this is not to say that Wikipedia commentary on Blog P.I. itself will be reduced, and this may also be a good place to announce that I will introduce, in the next few days, a new recurring feature also focused on evaluating Wikipedia articles. The angle will be different and the frequency will be a little more when-I-feel-like-it-and-have-the-time, and I’ll have much more to say about that very soon.
And in the meantime, how about that list for the past week:
- Article: Rafael Nadal
Why: Spanish tennis player Nadal, long the #2 in the world, won Wimbledon 2008 over Roger Federer, long the #1 in the world.
Detail:
This article is very long and well-developed, and was so going into the final two days of the tournament. And while new information has been added to the 2008 section, making it a few paragraphs longer, it is now recognized as being of lower quality. Specifically, the “Playing style” section has been slapped with a warning that says it “may contain original research or unverified claims.” This despite the fact that it’s a paragraph or two shorter and already cited several sources. Among the claims disputed enough to be removed entirely is his being known for “ultra-precise drink bottle positioning on changeovers.”
Article: Roger Federer
Why: Despite losing to Nadal last week, Swiss tennis player Federer is still the #1 ranking player in the world, for a record consecutive 232nd week.
Detail: As with the Nadal article, it is very much the same article as it was just a week ago, and the differences are not always apparent on first glance. On second glance, however, we see that the old section “Personal life” — listed above the “Tennis career” section — has been broken up into two constituent parts and reordered. The article now begins with a section called “Early life” containing a basic biographical sketch. Information about his dating life and charitable works has been relocated to the end of the article and is still titled “Personal life.” Meanwhile, context has been given to the “Tennis career” section, which is itself broken into “Junior tennis” and “Career on the ATP.”
- Article: WALL-E
Why: Pixar + robots × space = intense fan interest.
Detail: Seriously, this is the third week in a row WALL-E is on the list, after consecutive weeks in the number one position. I could be wrong, but that might make it the single most-edited article in the three-plus months I’ve been writing this feature. Based on the discussion page, it looks like much of the recent editing has focused on dealing with the extraneous info added by some editors — an Apple references section existed at one time — and debates over how much a critique of consumerism it represents. In its current form, the “Commentary” section largely focuses on disagreements among conservatives about whether the film is “leftist” or reinforcing of “traditional conservatism,” and whether the culprit is big business or too close a tie of business to big government.
- Article: List of characters from Total Drama Island
Why: Let’s see if I’ve got this right: it’s a Canadian television show modeled on Survivor and Drawn Together, now being shown on Adult Swim.
Detail: Why not the main article itself? Why the list? Well, the show seems to have a lot of characters, and the show has apparently struck enough of a nerve that fans are compelled to fill out as much information as possible about them. And the place for that has been designated this page, not the main article.
- Article: I Love Money: Challenge Show
Why: This one is about a reality game show, rather than the above article, which is a parody of a reality game show.
Detail: I must say, this is a terrible article — written by fans and for fans but not giving outsiders any idea what the show is like or why it is interesting or how it works different from other shows. Most edits, so far as I can tell, have gone into meticulous updates of the chart showing contestant and episode progress, with detailed but impenetrable episode summaries. Too much detail. Not enough background. Just goes to show that even highly active articles are not necessarily good articles.
Article: Journey’s End (Doctor Who)
Why: Marking its second week on the list, this is the final episode of the “fourth series” of Doctor Who — after 26 “seasons” that is.
Detail: To be fair to the fans of I Love Money, I am sure it is much easier to write an “encyclopedic” article about Doctor Who. The show has been around since the 1970s, continuity and the TARDIS-associated universe has a detailed history to explain and even summarize when it gets too long. While there is very little discussion on the I Love Money series talk page, the talk page for this individual episode of Doctor Who is already very long, and fairly sophisticated. And it surely can’t hurt that there is a WikiProject Doctor Who.
- Article: To Kill a Mockingbird
Why: It was the Featured Article (FA) on July 11.
Detail: Featured Articles are frequently vandalized (sometimes amusingly but more often not), articles with racial components are especially vulnerable, literary disputes can get very contentious, and damage done by these edits will bring people to the talk page complaining about how this terrible article was made, FA by editors who may or may not have a bone to pick with other editors or WikiProjects. That more or less describes what’s happened here.
- Article: Atom
Why: The Featured Article on July 9.
Detail: More FA vandalism. After watching this list for some time, I would probably be willing to vote for temporary semi-protection of Featured Articles. Wikipedia prides itself on openness and in its site policies prefers not to create barriers for new editor participation (in its behind the scenes clique-ishness, it can be a bit different). However, policing vandalism on these articles seems like a real drain for editors on “Recent changes (RC) patrol”, aka vandal watch. A semi-protect would only apply to unregistered users and very new accounts, and would only last the period on which the FA was front-paged. I am sure this has been proposed before and shot down in a vote or debate, but if I ever become aware of a discussion to implement this, I would certainly weigh in on its behalf.
- Article: Deaths in 2008
Why: The hardiest perennial makes another showing.
Detail: Passing this week: former White House press secretary and Fox News anchor Tony Snow, medical pioneer Michael DeBakey, the founder of Benihana, a producer of Woody Allen films, and an Indonesian serial killer.
Article: 34th G8 summit
Why: As mentioned above, the government and news-focused Wikipedians do a damn good job of creating detailed articles about recent events in record time. Editors of, say, I Love Money expended many edits on not that much result. Editors of this article added a great deal of information in fewer edits.
Detail: It seems strange to me that President Bush’s joking conclusion, “goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter,” didn’t make the article. I could understand, though, that it may be a little too U.S.-centric given the global scope of the article, although with equal treatment of similar news coverage of leaders’ statements in other countries, it would not be out of place. But then it seems even more curious that the statement was not raised at all on the discussion page. These people mean business.
Holdovers this week: WALL-E and Deaths in 2008.
Falling off the list: Everything else from two weeks ago.
Recurring themes: Doctor Who episodes, reality TV, Featured Article vandalism.
Honorable mention: Tony Snow, the 50th most-edited article for the concluding week. More and more this section reads like an obituary, which I really don’t need to be doing on a weekly basis. But on Saturday morning, as I learned of Snow’s passing from the morning television news, I did what came natural and checked out the Wikipedia page. While the article obviously reflected current events, as a Wikipedia article it was only mediocre at that point. I made a few edits of my own, removing extraneous information. Did his “pay cut” comment upon leaving the White House need to be mentioned in the second paragraph? Did Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan need to be mentioned in the first paragraph? I said no, and on both counts, other editors have since agreed.
Images courtesy Graham Hodgson, agentjon and davidsilver on Flickr.
If it’s Sunday (or, admittedly, sometimes Monday) it’s Blog P.I.’s weekly post about the ten most-edited articles on Wikipedia:
Article: WALL-E
Why: Disney-Pixar’s latest movie hit theaters this weekend, and it’s unsurprisingly shaping up to be a hit, posting Pixar’s third-best opening ever.
Detail: Wikipedia aims to be as impartial as possible, but what can you do when the subject is universally acclaimed? You fine-tune the language and cut back on verbatims, as one editor advises: “Well, as you say, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, so it will be difficult to get the reception section sounding anything less than a puff piece. However, and speaking as the editor who added the current version of the reception section, I entirely agree that the reviews should be paraphrased better, with fewer direct quotes.”
- Article: The Stolen Earth
Why: The penultimate episode of the latest run of Doctor Who episodes on BBC One.
Detail: Which means there’s a very good chance we’ll see the final episode appear in one of these slots next weekend. Of the numerous British articles included in this list over the past few weeks, Doctor Who has ranked the highest most consistently.
- Article: 2008 NBA Draft
Why: If you’ve ever wondered where all these new basketball players come from, perhaps you should learn about the NBA draft.
Detail: The NBA still hasn’t caught back up with football in national prominence, but basketball fans still eagerly anticipate and closely follow draft night each year. With two televised rounds of thirty picks each and numerous trades, that’s a whole lot of updates on one night — and as Wikirage shows, most edits did occur all on one night.
- Article: Night of Champions (2008)
Why: It’s not the WWF, that’s the World Wildlife Federation. It’s WWE now — World Wrestling Entertainment.
Detail: If the NBA draft is a bit less-attended than the adventures of the Tenth Doctor and his TARDIS (yes, I’ve been skimming the Doctor Who pages) at least it is a little better-attended than this WWE event.
This page was reverted and protected and reverted, but not necessarily due to vandalism. More the problem seems to be enthusiastic but inexperienced editors adding information in the wrong place and even trying to use the page as a forum. This happens often on some popular subjects, and it makes me wonder about members of the WikiProject Professional wrestling. No doubt the project counts among its members some dedicated and knowledgeable editors, but it seems that they find themselves having to undo a lot of the “help” they get. I doubt the same happens at WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology.
Article: Guitar Hero World Tour
Why: Previously titled Guitar Hero IV, makers of the next installment of the popular video game series have continued to make new information available over the past few weeks, but was protected from unhelpful help (see above) until early June. Now the gates are wide open.
Detail: Allowing people to add spurious rumors such as the planned inclusion of a Soulja Boy track with no guitar instrumentation (since removed). Interesting also that video games seem to show up in this list months ahead of release — the title won’t be out until late October — while movies typically don’t appear until the week of release.
- Article: Deaths in 2008
Why: Death and taxes may be inevitable, but only one ranks well in the list of most-edited Wikipedia articles.
Detail: Passing this week: one of the most influential comedians in my life and the second half of the 20th century, George Carlin. And then some other people, including a 37-year-old American comic book artist of cancer, a 20-year-old Russian-Kazakh model who threw herself from her 9th story Manhattan appartment yesterday afternoon, and the 9-year-old University of Georgia mascot, Uga.
- Article: District of Columbia v. Heller
Why: In the session’s most closely-watched decision, the Court affirmed 5-4 that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a firearm.
Detail: Through the week I’ve been somewhat skeptical of the claim bandied about that the case was the first to rule on the Second Amendment, and here is an amusing smackdown of Slate’s lead legal correspondent, who apparently was among the banditos: “We are well aware of U.S. v. Miller, and know much more about it than the sensationalist writer Lithwick. The article does not say that D.C. v. Heller is the first case to pertain to the Second Amendment or that has incidental remarks that could be interpreted as pertaining to the question of individual-rights vs. collective-rights; it is not the first such case, nor is it the second. It is, however, the first case to definitively or directly or comprehensively address the question.”
Article: Battlefield: Bad Company
Why: Not the English rock supergroup, but a new video game from Electronic Arts which “puts the player in a fictional war against Russia, where gamers will lead a squad of AWOL soldiers fighting both Russians and Mercenaries.”
Detail: I can’t really tell where all the edits went, except that editors have removed some unnecesary sections, but I was a bit surprised to find out that this page has existed since August 2006, presumably when it was first announced.
- Article: 2008 WWE Draft
Why: Did you know the WWF WWE had a draft? Or maybe that should be “draft”? If it wasn’t for Wikipedia and this feature, I wouldn’t.
Detail: Do you think Vince McMahon is mocking David Stern?
- Article: Camp Rock
Why: The Disney Channel sitcom all but ignored in last week’s edition because I was trying to pay attention at Personal Democracy Forum is back again, down to the tenth slot from the third.
Detail: For I think the first time, Disney holds the first and last articles on this list.
Holdovers this week: Camp Rock
Falling off the list: Everything else.
Recurring themes: Top American film releases, Doctor Who episodes, the NBA, Disney.
Honorable mention: I would have thought Carlin would have been ranked higher. Instead, it looks as if his page was edited heavily on June 22 but not much thereafter. And while there was some coverage this past week of the young woman who was fired for editing Tim Russert’s article before his death was officially announced, less has been said about Carlin’s article though an edit war of sorts took place here. Several people tried to add the correct data, only to have other editors ask for more information, changing the article back until receiving confirmation.
Meanwhile, you still can’t say the seven dirty words on television, but as the headline implies, you most certainly can say them on Wikipedia. In the proper context, of course.
P.S. For what it’s worth, I feel compelled to note that I have made a few disclosed edits to a handful of Disney movie articles for distributor Buena Vista. However, I have not contributed to the Disney movies listed here — haven’t been asked and haven’t needed to do so.
Images courtesy andy castro, noamgalai and eyewash design on Flickr.
I spent most of Sunday traveling to New York City for Personal Democracy Forum, so I am filing this week’s edition from the auditorium. This means I’ll have to keep it short, including this intro:
- Article: Mozilla Firefox
Why: Although Firefox 3.0 has been available for a few weeks in beta, the official release took place just this past week.
Detail: One editor asks: “Should we include a section on Easter eggs into this article? For example, typing ” about:robots ” into the URL bar in Firefox3 results in a page titled ‘ Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!” Apparently not — that’s already covered in The Book of Mozilla.
- Article: The Incredible Hulk (film)
Why: The #1 film in America last week. But why still so high?
Detail: One possibility, nothing better than a little healthy competition to raise the article to “GA” or “Good Article” status: “How can we improve this article to make it GA quality? Iron Man (film) was GA within two weeks I think? Something like that I think. We should get moving on this article. Thoughts?”
- Article: Camp Rock
Why: This Disney Channel
Detail: Last week it was ICarly, this week it’s Camp Rock? I was about to assign credit to WikiProject Disney, but it turns out that particular project hasn’t claimed the film. WikiProject Films has. That said, it does seem that something Disney-related does make it on this list most weeks.
- Article: UEFA Euro 2008
Why: Last week’s #1, still in the top of the list.
Detail: The European soccer tournament concludes on June 29, so it may well appear on this list again next weekend.
- Article: Feed the Animals
Why: It’s a mash-up album released just this week.
Detail: The album contains substantial information about which samples were used on each track, so much so that I suspect it wouldn’t withstand serious scrutiny from the community. In fact, already the page is tagged for failing to cite sources.
- Article: Tim Russert
Why: The host of Meet the Press died of a sudden heart attack two Fridays ago.
Detail: I expressed some irritation last week that Russert’s article had failed to crack the top ten — apparently I just spoke too soon.
- Article: 2008 NBA Finals
Why: The Boston Celtics won their first championship in some twenty years last week, devastating the hated Los Angeles Laters and forever banishing all comparisons of Kobe Bryan with Michael Jordan to the dustbin of history (so says this Blazers fan).
Detail: In a previous edition, I had also wondered at why the article about the NBA playoffs failed to make the list, even as European soccer tournaments appeared. Well, finally it has.
- Article: Dasavathaaram
Why: A Tamil-language film released in the past couple weeks.
Detail: This article too was mentioned in last week’s edition, as an example of an article which ranked higher than Russert’s.
- Article: Midnight (Doctor Who)
Why: The latest episode of Doctor Who on BBC.
Detail: This is the third Doctor Who episode to appear on this list during the latest season (or as they say, series) began.
- Article: The Happening (2008 film)
Why: The latest Shyamalan film to be met with mostly negative reviews.
Detail: Which has, apparently, elicited the interest of more than a few Wikipedians. Who make suggestions like this one: “I have noticed that a lot of edits for this article were inclusions of unnecessary details, some of them detailing the methodology of suicides used in the film. I haven’t got time at the moment but perhaps, it might be useful if I (or someone else who beats me to it) make a new section that describes just that: how people killed themselves.”
Holdovers this week: UEFA Europe 2008, The Incredible Hulk (film)
Falling off the list: Everything, including Deaths in 2008 and any Featured Articles.
Recurring themes: Metric football, movies
Honorable mention: George Carlin I am writing this up on Monday morning, just a few hours after learning about the passing of comedian George Carlin his article is the most-edited of the past 24 hours, and there’s a good chance he’ll make the list next week as well.
Although All the Rage exists as a feature for the purposes of examining the top 10 most-edited articles on the English-language Wikipedia for the week ending Saturday, sometimes it’s almost more interesting what doesn’t make the list. Today we’ll do both:
Article: UEFA Euro 2008
Why: The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship is under way right now in Austria and Switzerland, and at least some English-speaking country must still be alive.
Detail: Possibly the UK? British subjects (the articles, not the citizens) dominated the top slot for the past month now, and we can assume plenty of them are involved here.
- Article: The Incredible Hulk (film)
Why: It’s the number one movie in America this week.
Detail: Just as British articles have been landing in the top 5 edited articles for several weeks now, so have the top-grossing U.S. films on their opening weekends.
- Article: Kung Fu Panda
Why: The number one movie in America last week.
Detail: See above.
- Article: Lukas Podolski
Why: This Polish-born German soccer player made both goals in a 2-0 victory over Poland on June 8. Then he scored the Germans’ only goal in a 2-1 defeat by Croatia.
Detail: I’m not sure if he’s just really good or Germany is really just not that good. And if you assumed that the German-language Podolski article would be longer than the English one, as I did until just a moment ago, you’d be wrong.
Article: Treaty of Lisbon
Why: This EU treaty, apparently in the works since at least 2001, was rejected this week by Irish voters, thus throwing its future into question.
Detail: I’d never heard of this treaty once, I’ll admit. But if I wanted to find out more about it, this is probably the best place to find it. I am sincerely impressed by the quality of the article. When I first saw it, I assumed it was a historical subject that had made Featured Article. Well, it’s not — but it should probably be up for Featured Article status. The editors who assembled this page are among Wikipedia’s most sophisticated.
- Article: ICarly
Why: It’s another one of those Nickelodeon “sitcoms” aimed at “tweenagers”, and it’s back on this list after appearing once, in this feature’s second week.
Detail: Given the target age range for this show noted above, I’m surprised this show is so frequently edited. It can’t be my sisters and their friends; though they’re a precocious wireless generation more advanced than the wired childhood of my generation, I doubt they’re editing Wikipedia just yet. The youngest editors I’ve seen are still a few years older, maybe late middle school. Does this show have an adult following? A few questions I can’t answer: Why hasn’t Hannah Montana been on this list? And do you think SpongeBob SquarePants would have made this list during its heydey?
- Article: Deaths in 2008
Why: The most consistently-ranking Wikipedia article on WikiRage is back after a couple off-weeks.
Detail: If that’s how you want to put it. Passing this week: Washington’s most respected journalist, Tim Russert, the politician uncle of Rep. Jeff Flake, a 28-year-old Armenian chess grandmaster, by heart attack (perhaps even more tragic than the 58-year-old Russert) and the suicide of a Polish-German footballer (stay happy, Lukas Podolski).
Article: Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Why: It’s the new Coldplay album, released in Europe last week and available in the United States on Tuesday.
Detail: They are English, but somehow I doubt that’s it. For one thing, they’re in all those iTunes commercials right now. I’m one of those Radiohead fans who views all Coldplay fans as easily entertained if not actual philistines, but I’ll admit the section played before the Apple logo comes onscreen is catchy.
- Article: Jurassic Park (film)
Why: Front-paged on the English Wikipedia as a Featured Article on June 9.
Detail: Meanwhile, the article about the novel Jurassic Park “needs additional citations for verifications.” That’s a damn shame.
- Article: George I of Great Britain
Why: The Featured Article on June 11.
Detail: For the first time this week, the first and last articles on this list concern something British.
- Holdovers this week: Nothing, actually, for just the second time.
- Falling off the list: Last week’s list.
- Recurring themes: British articles of all kinds, American blockbuster films, Featured Articles, I try to be polite when I don’t care about the subject.
Honorable mention: Tim Russert made it just to #24 according to WikiRage as of Sunday afternoon. That’s fewer than the apparently unintentionally hilarious new M. Night Shyamalan flick, the two-weeks out Adam Sandler vehicle, and a Tamil-language film released in “many theaters.” Hmm.
On the other hand, according to Brian Cubbison at the Syracuse Post-Standard, Wikipedia beat the AP to announcing Russert’s death on Friday afternoon. John Robinson at the Greensboro News-Record praises Wikipedia for getting there first. Indeed, if you follow breaking news, you know AP almost never gets beaten on getting there first. Plus, I’m pleased that newspapers have reporter-bloggers following Wikipedia this closely.
But I’d also like to salute the anonymous first-time editor at 66.187.200.74 in New York City for rolling the page back until the rumors could be verified. As I understand it, MSNBC held back the news until it could notify Russert’s wife, Maureen Orth, and the other TV networks held back until NBC News could break it. Plus, the Verifiability requirement for new information is one of the central tenets of Wikipedia. It’s what keeps the sometimes unreliable website anywhere in the neighborhood of reliable. Wikipedia is supposed to be a research site, and it shouldn’t try to be a news site. I suppose that’s what Wikinews is for, but it hasn’t really caught on.
I don’t really know what else to say about that, except my best to his friends and family. I’m going to miss the hell out of Russert on “Meet”.
- One more thing: Notice something missing? How about the 3G iPhone? In fact, this article is at #20 overall at the time of this writing. I’m not sure if it’s counting edits still, because the article has been “merged” with iPhone. The announcement last week was covered heavily by the business and tech press in addition to the Apple and gadget blogs, but on this website full of geeks, that’s as good as it can do? Does this bode ill for Apple and the new iPhone, or does it say something about the type of people who are and are not on Wikipedia? I’ll leave you with that thought.
Image courtesy queenkv on Flickr.
For the third time in four weeks, an article about a British television show takes the top spot in our exploration of the top 10 most-edited articles on the English-language Wikipedia for the week of June 1 to June 7. Hat tip as usual to WikiRage creator Craig Wood for making this feature possible. Let’s get started:
- Article: Britain’s Got Talent
Why: Simon Cowell’s latest show actually named its winner in time for last week’s edition, but apparently there was more to stay about it. Sustained editing and discussion of how best to organize the article continued until June 4, but now the edits are trailing off as the article stabilizes.
Detail: I think for the first time, we have the same #1 two weeks in a row, although if not for week nine’s asterisk edition, I think Indy IV would have preceded it.
- Article: Harold Innis
Why: Featured Article on June 1. Heavily vandalized
Detail: I had never heard of the guy, but the article certainly demonstrates that he was interesting. But what’s more interesting to me is what appears to be no mere vandalism, but a hacking of the MediaWiki software. But be careful clicking on that link, especially if you have a large monitor. The heavily pixelated background is NSFW in the extreme, though it takes a moment to realize the fact.
- Article: Yves Saint Laurent (designer)
Why: The French fashion designer whom I would not have won an “alive or dead?” guessing game until his death on June 1 was announced.
Detail: It’s actually a surprisingly short article for a business celebrity or a most-edited page. My guess is that Saint Laurent didn’t do much publicity. The article’s two photos are from when he was fairly young. I can’t ever recall seeing him answer Vanity Fair’s Proust questionnaire like Karl Largerfeld has done. Heck, Lagerfeld picked the music and DJs for a radio station in Grand Theft Auto IV. Yves Saint Laurent, not so much.
Article: Bo Diddley
Why: The American rock singer, songwriter and rectangular guitarist died at age 79 on June 9.
Detail: I wondered what the last version of the page before his passing was announced looked like, so I looked it up. It’s substantially the same and approximately even the same length, but now is more tightly written. One image has been removed, likely because it wasn’t clearly released under a public license. It may be tempting to think of the latter change as making Wikipedia worse, but Wikipedia is quite conservative when it comes to approving images for use, probably to avoid being sued. This actually makes the “information wants to be free” types on Wikipedia strong defenders of copyright, which is kind of ironic.
- Article: Ran (film)
Why: Featured Article (FA) on June 1.
Detail: The article is fairly long, but apparently its suitability for the front page fell under dispute almost as soon as it went up. The page seems fine to me, and I’m not sure this wasn’t just a case of a user from WikiProject Music sniffing that his work was better.
- Article: Confederate government of Kentucky
Why: Featured article on June 3.
Detail: You can always count on certain articles which have reached FA status resulting in some debate on the associated talk page, even though these are pages which have supposedly reached enough stability that they’ve been so approved for the front page. Headline on the latest talk page debate: “’provisional government’ or ’shadow government’ a better term?”
- Article: 2008 Danish embassy bombing
Why: The Danish embassy in Islamabad was the site of a suicide car bombing on June 2, killing five. Al-Qaeda reportedly claimed responsibility on June 5, citing the Jyllands-Posten cartoons as motivation.
Detail: With no natural disasters to meticulously document this week, Wikipedia’s newshounds instead focused on building up this article. With the breakdown of country-by-country responses and substantial number of news citations (48) it certainly looks more than a little like it.
Article: One Night Stand (2008)
Why: It’s a WWE pay-per-view event that aired on June 1.
Detail: WWE has been dominating the bottom half of these lists for awhile. Long enough now that maybe we should think about it. Apparently one of the entertainment/media subcultures that has really taken to Wikipedia is professional wrestling and its fans. They may be more active than fans of any other professional sport; playoffs and championships pages sometimes show up here when they come around, but the 2008 NBA Finals are nowhere to be found, though it’s not a bad page. I used to have a WWE-related page watchlisted and for awhile, noted the changes each day. Kudos to WP:PROWRESTLING, or WikiProject Professional wrestling (you don’t capitalize “wrestling”). They’ve created 5 Featured Articles, which is pretty good, considering the subject matter.
- Article: Giovani dos Santos
Why: At first I thought he might be Baby Diego from “Children of Men” but apparently he’s a 19-year-old “attacking midfielder or forward, who plays for Barcelona and the Mexican national team.”
Detail: Why him, why now? Looks like the surge of interest owes to Santos transferring to Tottenham Hotspur in London, a deal worth between four and eight million pounds.
- Article: Night of Champions (2008)
Why: It’s a pay-per-view WWE event coming up on June 29.
Detail: “The official theme song is “Devour” by Shinedown.[3]”
Holdovers this week: Britain’s Got Talent
Falling off the list: Among non-featured articles, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Phoenix (spacecraft), Eurovision Song Contest 2009, Deaths in 2008 (just #15 this week), Nepal, 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Eurovision Song Contest 2008
Recurring themes: Simon Cowell, professional wrestling
Honorable mention: Clocking in at #25 is Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008, the name of which makes you wonder if he ran in 2004 or if Obama supporters want to imply there will be a 2012 re-elect.
Images courtesy garretkeough, timburts and greggoconnell on Flickr.
Consulting the WikiRage oracle this week, we discover to my mind the most interesting collection of edited articles since we started the feature. But then I will admit, I already have “Grand Theft Auto IV” pre-ordered.
Article: Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack
Why: The blockbuster video game commonly known as “GTA IV” will be released Tuesday, but there are reports it has leaked online, and the list of songs and artists has to date not been fully listed.
Detail: A conscientious editor has tried to call the mob to reason: “This page has zero sources. I understand the game comes out on Tuesday, and there are leaked copies that people have (pirated and otherwise), but unless a credible source lists the soundtrack for the game it has no business being on wikipedia. This entire page is original research or speculation. This page needs to be re-done, or mostly deleted until we can verify the soundtrack from a reliable source.” He tried creating a version based entirely on previously published facts, but his version has not prevailed. But as he acknowledges, if the information is accurate, the page will be verifiable on short order. A losing battle.
- Article: Thierry Henry
Why: French soccer player, the Featured Article (FA) on the Wikipedia Main Page on April 23.
Detail:
82.69.66.147 of London and 82.20.251.226 of Portsmouth, England really have it in for the guy.
- Article: Danica Patrick
Why: The comely young IndyCar driver/GoDaddy spokesbabe won her first IndyCar race — and became the first woman ever to do so.
Detail: In contrast to Henry, Patrick has enthusiastic supporters in Ciley Myrus (”YOU GO GIRL!”) and Happy Halter-topped Hippie Chick (”WE LOVE YOU, DANICA!”) but they aren’t helping, either.
Article: Ocean sunfish
Why: FA on April 23.
Detail: Sometimes I wonder why people bother promoting their articles for the recognition, considering the high level of tedious vandalism that frequently occurs, as it did in this case. On the other hand, if I was really into the Ocean sunfish, I would probably take pride in defending its honor.
- Article: Deaths in 2008
Why: Week in, week out, people keep shuffling off this mortal coil.
Detail: For two weeks in a row, nobody of any significant fame (at least in North America) passed away. Judging by the history page, the most intense interest surrounded the shooting death of a New Orleans rapper named VL Mike.
- Article: Super Fun Time
Why: The mid-season finale of “South Park.”
Detail: As he has in previous weeks, Professor Chaos — deployer of more userboxes than any other editor I’ve seen — has valiantly defended the page from the inclusion of a Trivia section. Some of his fellow editors are very much annoyed by his insistence that material from the section be moved into the main article, but he is correct that Trivia sections are frowned upon, and there is none in the article now.
- Article: Vasa (ship)
Why: As you may have figured out by now, if the subject has been obsolete for 30 years or more, it must be a FA, as this was on April 24.
Detail: Seriously, who vandalizes an article about a shipwrecked 17th century Swedish warship? Is it the Swedish part?
- Article: American Idol
Why: It’s still going on, right?
Detail: It’s come to the point in the season where even I, an ardent non-watcher, know the name of at least one person on the show. But the fact that related articles haven’t appeared on the WikiRage top 10 most-edited much over the past few weeks has to count against its continued relevance.
Article: Pearl Jam
Why: FA on April 22.
Detail: Although considered good enough to be featured on the front page, the article also continued to include fanboy POV like “Pearl Jam continues to generate hit albums, tour successfully, and garner critical acclaim into the 21st century.” in the first section, and still includes a quote asserting they were “the most popular American rock & roll band of the ’90s” just because some guy at All Music Guide said so. Nirvana fans strenuously object.
- Article: E=MC² (Mariah Carey album)
Why: As the title of the article indicates, Mariah Carey’s latest album goes highbrow. Okay, not really.
Detail: In late March, an editor pointed out on the Talk page, “It should be mentioned in the intro that its a play on the famous formula by einstein.” Why he or she did not simply add it then I don’t know, but it’s better than (but not nearly as fun as) this comment from the Talk page a month before: “whats with that title written on the page???……..is that the new title??…….has it been confirmed??……isnt ‘that Chick’ the official title?? and if it is the official title,whats does the ‘E’ stand for…..d” In any case, today the article helpfully notes the reference, and explains: “The album name means ‘(E) Emancipation (=) equals (MC) Mariah Carey (²) to the second power’.” And I am not sure I am glad we have that cleared up.
Holdovers this week: Nothing from last week returns.
Falling off the list: Everything from last week.
Recurring themes: The latest episode of South Park, and Deaths in 2008 makes a comeback.
Honorable mention: David Archuleta, whose name I alluded to at least recognizing, was in fact #13 for the week.
Images courtesy Coneee, mattindy77 and Jer on Flickr.
It’s time once again to turn our attention to what Wikipedians turned their attention to this week, according to the most-edited list at WikiRage.
- Article: Suleiman the Magnificent
Why: This fourteenth century Ottoman sultan was the Featured Article on April 8.
Detail: As usual, the front-paging of an article results in some vandalism. But the overall effect is salutary, as the article gets closer scrutiny by serious editors. In the meantime, you get enjoyable debates like this: “Article says: ‘Suleiman married a harem girl Roxelana, who became Hürrem Sultan’.
I understand that PC or indifference thereto is a controversial subject, but is ‘harem girl’ (although perhaps literally correct) really the best way for us to phrase this? … As a female member of the household, she would still have been part of the harem. I don’t really see a problem with the term. I suppose we could change ‘girl” to ’slave,’ if that’s what the problem is.”
- Article: J.K. Rowling
Why: The children’s author who is wealthier than the Queen was the Featured Article on April 11.
Detail: At 23:42 GMT on April 12, David4674 reduced the entire article to… nothing. His edit summary was surprisingly forthright: “Blanked the page.” But don’t worry, David4674 isn’t a real editor: he’s a sock puppet of… Dan 689. Both appear to have been banned.
- Article: Deaths in 2008
Why: Passing this week: Monk’s psychiatrist and numerous people I’ve never heard of.
Detail: Abu Ubaidah al-Masri, an al Qaeda operative in Pakistan is believed to have died of hepatitis in December 2007, but U.S. government sources didn’t announce this until just the past week, hence his inclusion in the list.
- Article: Victoria Cross
Why: Not a television actress from the 1980s, but in fact the highest military decoration in the British Commonwealth. Featured Article? Good guess! It was on April 9.
Detail: Only the Talk page will tell you that Major General Candy in “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” was a fictional recipient of the VC, if it matters, and I am not sure it does.
- Article: Yi So-yeon
Why: As of April 8, this 29 year-old astronaut is the first Korean and second Asian woman in space
Detail: If you’re envious now, just wait until she starts doing TV commercials. Although you might have to be in South Korea to see them, I’m sure the money is just as good.
- Article: 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay
Why: The ceremonial relay has been in the news for controversy: Human rights protesters have targeted the ceremony, even snuffing out the flame a couple times in France.
Detail: Not yet making the page: Complaints about the environmental impact of carrying the torch around the globe.
- Article: Chrono Trigger
Why: Not that Wikipedians are opposed to editing video game articles already, but this was the Featured Article on April 10.
Detail: When the article appeared on Wikipedia’s main page on Thursday, the box art was not included, even though it is included in the article. I’m not sure I quite follow the reasoning, but Wikipedia is lately in the habit of keeping fair use images off the front page, only including an image if it is free use.
- Article: Tomb of Antipope John XXIII
Why: The only question is, when was it the Featured Article? The answer is April 6.
Detail: I have to admit, this question from the Talk page crossed my mind, too: “If he’s the anti pope, does that mean he worships the anti christ?”
- Article: American Idol (seaon 7)
Why: It’s dominating the iTunes top 10 list, so why shouldn’t it be on the Wikipedia top ten list?
Detail: Let’s be clear about this: “Also, regarding David Hernandez: As far as I’ve read, only incriminating pictures of him working at the bar were released. I have NEVER heard about any nude pics floating around out there on the net. Could anyone find a source to prove this? (And a link to these alleged ‘nude’ pictures. Not even for personal reasons. I’m just pretty certain only clothed pics of him with the name of the bar he works at were at VFTW and that’s it.)”
- Article: Olympic Flame
Why: See #5.
Detail: I find all this torch business a little silly, but did you know that in a ceremony involving eleven “priestesses” the torch is lit by the sun’s rays using a parabolic mirror? That’s kind of cool.
Holdovers this week: Deaths in 2008, articles related to controversy involving China and the Olympics (returning from week 2)
Falling off the list: April 1, 2008; Ima Hogg; Celine Dion; April Fool’s Day; Canada on Strike; Earth Hour; NATO; Google’s hoaxes; Bette Davis
Recurring themes: Featured Articles being the most-edited of the week.
Honorable mention: Eek, a Penis! was the episode of South Park this week, and even though it was edited 220 times this week, somehow that wasn’t enough to make the top 100. I’m suspicious; #100 was controversial talk show host Randi Rhodes, and her page was edited less than 100 times in the past week. Hmm.
Stephen Colbert once said of Wikipedia, “any site that’s got a longer entry on ‘truthiness’ than on Lutherans has its priorities straight.” I remember checking on this at the time, and he was correct about the length of the respective articles. And I tend to share his actual point, that people are too interested in entertainment — such as Colbert himself. But that isn’t the end of the story: the spotlight Colbert shone on Wikipedia surely led to the current status quo: the articles for Truthiness and Lutheranism are currently about the same length.
Which is a good jumping off point for the second installment of our look at the top-edited articles on Wikipedia.
- Article: Major Boobage
Why: It’s third episode of South Park’s twelfth season.
Detail: Last week, the entry for the previous episode was number four on this list. Because a new article will be created for each new episode over the next few weeks, expect weird titles like the above to wind up somewhere on this list each week. And how many edits, total? 433 by noon Sunday EDT.
- Article: Fitna (film)
Why: A 15-minute documentary film criticizing Islam and the Koran, written, directed and produced by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, released on the Internet this week.
Detail: The movie credits actually lists the official website as being at wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitna on both the Dutch (.nl) and English (.en) editions. Problem is, in each case this is a disambiguation page, because it’s an Arabic word with a few related entries already. Was this a simple mistake, or an attempt to supersede the other Wikipedia articles? Either way, whether to move the article for the movie into the space occupied by the disambiguation page has been the most controversial issue surrounding this article, and remains unresolved.
- Article: Deaths in 2008
Why: Passing on this week: actor Richard Widmark, Beatles music executive Neil Aspinall, pioneering radio talker Wally Phillips, NFL draft prospect Heath Benedict, Cambodian photojournalist Dith Pran and my favorite: Herb Peterson, inventor of the Egg McMuffin.
Detail: This was number three last week as well, although last week’s deaths were more publicized. Also resolved since last week: Abigail Taylor, the Minnesota girl who died following injuries sustained from a public swimming pool, passed muster for notability and has an article again.
- Article: 2008 Tibetan unrest
Why: Violence has subsided but not ended entirely, and governments around the world are weighing whether to boycott the Olympic Games.
Detail: Last week, this article was on the list as 2008 unrest in Tibet (see below). The article was suggested to be renamed when it became apparent the protests were no longer confined to Tibet. However, the move didn’t actually occur until more than a week later.
Article: American Idol (season 7)
Why: It’s the current season, and contestants are being eliminated every week.
Detail: A high number of edits from IP addresses suggest that people unlikely to edit Wikipedia articles otherwise are contributing heavily to this one. My favorite edit summary: “Chikezie’s name has been revealed and known throughout the season, you incompetent twatwaffle. He goes solely by his first name on the show.”
- Article: Sea otter
Why: It was on the Wikipedia Main Page as a Featured Article on Monday, bringing renewed attention to this otherwise uncontroversial subject.
Detail: Well, not entirely uncontroversial. It was also the target of vandalism in November 6 because of… South Park. Comedy Central is so far out ahead of Wikipedia it’s not even worth keeping count.
- Article: ICarly
Why: The Nickelodeon show just finished its first season, is being released on the Internet and seems to be getting plenty of coverage lately. Aside from that, I’m stumped.
Detail: That’s really iCarly, but for some reason, the software powering Wikipedia changes lowercase first letters to uppercase. See also: IPod and IPhone.
- Article: 2008 unrest in Tibet
Why: See number four.
Detail: Had the name not changed mid-week, it would have been the top-edited article of the week.
Article: Stephen Curry (basketball)
Why: The son of former Charlotte Hornets star player and current Charlotte Bobcats assistant Del Curry, the younger Curry leads this year’s NCAA playoffs Cinderella team, the Charlotte-area Davidson Wildcats. Later today he’ll lead the Wildcats against Kansas as both vie to crack the Final Four.
Detail: Curry’s rivals must be turning out, because a high percentage of these edits are vandalism and then the reversion of said vandalism. And I’ll admit, some of it is funny.
- Article: American Idol
Why: See number five.
Detail: I’m really not the best person to be writing this. After all, I get most of my American Idol news from Tony Kornheiser.
Holdovers this week: 2008 unrest in Tibet, Deaths in 2008.
Falling off the list: Arthur C. Clarke, Britney’s New Look, Bear Sterns, David Paterson, 2008 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament, Horton Hears a Who! (film), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Brian Posehn
Images courtesy iiraa, Taekwonweirdo and Sail Whitestone.
Today Blog P.I. launches a new feature, or what I hope will actually become one: a look at the Top 10 most-edited pages on the English-language Wikipedia for the past week, with an explanation for why each page made the top ten. Some will be obvious to anyone who keeps tabs on current events, so rather than giving a terse “duh” I’ll endeavor to pull a non-obvious detail or amusing factoid from the edit history.
This would be completely impossible without WikiRage, an online resource keeping track of the most-edited pages for various time periods and categories. We’ll be using the previous week and the raw number of edits. Also, credit for the concept goes to the podcast Wikipedia Weekly which has done something similar before. However, as I count just three episodes 2008 YTD, it is weekly in name only. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen to us. With that, let’s look at the list for the week of March 16-22:
- Article: Arthur C. Clarke
Why: The celebrated author of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and many other science fiction stories passed away this week at age 90.
Detail: His death loosed a number of obituaries and many, many edits clarifying many aspects of his life and stories.
- Article: 2008 unrest in Tibet
Why: It’s more than a current event; it’s the worst political turmoil in mainland China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations.
Detail: Despite China’s attempts to keep the lid on news coverage it has generated plenty, and no small amount of disagreement about what belongs in the article.
- Article: Deaths in 2008
Why: Among the notables passing away in the past week: Science fiction writer Clarke, film director Anthony Minghella, actor Paul Scofield, former child aviator Vicki Van Meter.
Detail: Not currently evident from the page, an editing skirmish over whether to include Abigail Taylor, a six-year-old Minnesota girl who drew headlines when her intestines were partially sucked out by the drain of a public swimming pool.
- Article: Britney’s New Look
Why: It was the new episode of South Park this week. It was also about Britney Spears, which must count for something.
Detail: Fans of the show take the plot summaries very seriously.
- Article: Bear Stearns
Why: Facing imminent collapse, the brokerage firm sold to JP Morgan Chase for $2 a share, down from $30 the week before and $172 at its height.
Detail: Bear Stearns has its defenders; the “Controversy” section dealing with the crisis itself is still yo-yoing between deletion and re-inclusion. Who will win? I’d bet on a slightly toned-down and retitled version of that section. One can’t argue the plunge in share price and sale is not a key event in the company’s history.
- Article: David Paterson
Why: Not only is he the new governor of New York, but he’s already embroiled in a controversy over whether he abused state resources in conjunction with admitted romantic affairs.
Detail: Prior to taking over for Eliot Spitzer this week, Paterson was said to be the first legally blind governor of any U.S. state. However, that may be a matter of dispute.
- Article: 2008 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament
Why: Productivity plummets (not really) as March Madness sweeps office spaces across the country.
Detail: This page is amazingly detailed. Whomever designed the bracket templates, I salute you.
- Article: Horton Hears a Who! (film)
Why: It was the number one movie at the U.S. box office this week.
Detail: Now that the film has been released, moviegoers are building out the entry. Oh, the things some people see fit to add to Wikipedia entries.
- Article: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Why: This staple of college-level English courses hasn’t changed in 500 years… right?
Detail: Turns out there is a new translation of the poem out. At least, that’s where I think what is causing a number of edits aiming to emphasize Freudian and homoerotic subtext in the tale. However, other Wikipedians disagree — and both have been debated on the discussion page. Literary fight! Then again, some vandals want others to confuse it with Monty Python.
- Article: Brian Posehn
Why: On March 19, the comedian and actor mentioned editing his own Wikipedia entry on Late Night with Conan O’Brien
Detail: It’s amusing how would-be Wikipedia editors can’t even agree on what Posehn actually said.
Well, that’s it for this week. If you have questions or comments about this feature, please let us know.
As I noted in my semi-live blog on Iowa caucus night, my Portland Trail Blazers are on a roll. Despite #1 draft pick Greg Oden sitting out his rookie season after microfracture surgery, this relatively-inexperienced team (the youngest in the NBA) has won 16 of their last 17 games.
Indeed, they are no longer the Jail Blazers, although that rep did carry the upside of seeing more Blazer jerseys than Wizards jerseys in the District.
Meanwhile, Blazermania has gripped the Portland metropolitan area like it hasn’t in nearly a decade. For the first time since anyone can remember, home games are actually selling out. The team has encouraged this by offering package deals for tickets like the four-tickets-for-$88 that put me in a seat at Paul Allen’s allegedly-bankrupt Rose Garden this December for the first time since the 2000 Western Conference Finals (from which I may never fully recover).
And it’s not just special ticket packages — the Blazers are making concerted pitches meant to appeal to Blazer fans’ better basketball selves. Here’s one that’s currently on the official Blazers website, that I thought was worthy of noting here:
Now, tell me that doesn’t sound like a last-minute campaign fundraising appeal. In fact, all they need now is a fundraising bat.