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Traffic report

Brinksmen on the brink

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By Serendipodous

There's nothing like a good old bit of Cold War nostalgia, combined with a suitably scary international incident, to focus our attention on the real world, and the rapidly unfolding, or toppling, situation in Ukraine clearly has tingled our collective nape, as people searched out the players and places involved in what could be the most destabilising event since the Yugoslav Wars. The Winter Olympics continued to haunt the list as well, no doubt buoyed by those same events. That said, nothing could stem our outpouring of affection for the beloved comedian Harold Ramis, whose death managed to top the week in the face of those international concerns.

For the full top 25 list, plus an explanation as to any exclusions, see WP:TOP25.

For the week of 23 February to 1 March, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Harold Ramis C-class 1,158,070
Nothing guarantees Wikipedia attention like a sudden and unexpected death, and Ramis's death at only 69 appeared to come out of the blue. People rocked in sudden recognition of the director who gave us such beloved comedies as Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation and Groundhog Day, though most probably mourned him as the guy who played huggable nerd Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters.
2 Ukraine B-Class 700,513
Things are moving fast in the country, from protest to revolution to armed hostility. It has now reached the point where anything I say will probably be obsolete by the time this is published. But it's fair to say things are getting pretty hairy; the last time Vladimir Putin asserted his manhood to his near neighbours, the conflict lasted a week. Here's hoping a similar outcome prevails now.
3 True Detective (TV series) C-class 633,432 This HBO police procedural stars Woody Harrelson and actor-of-the-moment Matthew McConaughey
4 Crimea C-class 606,887
The evil of a strategic position is to be the plaything of great powers, and, 160 years after inspiring the war that gave us the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Siege of Sevastopol,* the balaclava, and Florence Nightingale, the hapless peninsula has become so again.

*The first one, anyway

5 Internet C-class 506,413
I'm giving this the benefit of the doubt for now; there's no reason for people not to be interested in the thing off of which they are currently reading. However I suspect that it might follow IPv6 to the Exclusions list before too long.
6 Facebook B-class 482,478
A perennially popular article
7 Deaths in 2014 List 460,121
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
8 Joaquín Guzmán Loera B-class 441,481 Some consider this head of the Sinaloa Cartel to be the most powerful drug lord of all time; even surpassing the infamous Pablo Escobar, so much so that Chicago police named him public enemy number one—the last person so named was Al Capone, and he lived in that city. His arrest on 22 February may be a harbinger of better things. Or not—the last time he was in prison, he just bribed the guards and walked out.
9 House of Cards (U.S. TV series) B-class 441,280 The second season of this political thriller series was released in its entirety on Netflix on 13 February
10 2014 Winter Olympics B-class 404,604
The 2014 Winter Olympics ended last week, but the impending Paralympics kept it in the public mind. Thanks to Russia's vicious anti-gay laws, roundly condemned political imprisonments, and questionable behaviour with his neighbours, the event has become, whether Russia wanted it to or not, a lightning rod for modern civil rights protest.
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I'd only need a rationale if I'd actually done it. Which I didn't. Serendipodous 09:35, 10 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I posted it, because I couldn't see a reason not to; however, I was suspicious of it, because it fit the profile of a number of other exclusions (like IPv6, Java) and made me think that sooner or later I would be moving it to exclusion. As it happens, looking at the raw data this week, my fears were unwarranted, as it failed to make the top 25. Serendipodous 10:55, 10 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
It was just too popular; it followed no patterns, appeared unaffected by outside events, and was too obscure a topic to feature in EVERY SINGLE top 25. Of course I could be wrong, but it's on record that I was not the one who suggested removing it. Serendipodous 19:05, 10 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
So the same exclude rational could be applied to Facebook? IPv6 was last on Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-02-19/Traffic report and I see no discussion on the talk page. Where is the actual discussion on the matter? Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 21:01, 10 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
He's saying that its spike is artificial, as in there is probably a link bot or whatever that is helping that article. Goddamn, this guy decided to waste his time to report what are the top 25 articles that has been visiting this week, and for whatever reason, you guys want to lynch him! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.255.63.35 (talk) 00:11, 11 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Don't worry; I'm used to it. Serendipodous 11:15, 11 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Crisco 1492: @Sun Creator: articles are commonly removed from the listing if their hit counts appear to have no basis in reality, especially if these hit counts are something obscure (Cat anatomy comes to mind, from last year's top 25s). And it's worth remembering that this is a curated list, not a blind listing. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 05:01, 13 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Ed: "However I suspect that it might follow IPv6 to the Exclusions list before too long" was unclear to those who do not know why IPv6 is not included, or if it was even worth including. The answer, "I'd only need a rationale if I'd actually done it", confused me even more, because it suggested that IPv6 was not excluded at all. I know this is a curated list, but I'd expect the editor in charge of this section to a) make sure that the average reader can understand what is included and b) answer questions in a way that is less confusing that the original statement which was questioned. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 06:46, 13 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I suspect that the 25th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee's proposal for the WWW will mean a spike in related articles - the "celebrations" seem to have been going on for a while, Britain's House of Lords were at it back in January.Le Deluge (talk) 20:47, 13 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Why does no one EVER look at the top 25?? The link is there! It's right frigging there! Serendipodous 21:22, 10 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I must admit I missed that the link to the Top 25 page also takes you to an explanation of what exclusions are and why. My fault, but from what you say, I guess I'm not the only one. It may be worth slightly rewording the link in future to help others avoid making the same mistake - e.g. to say something like 'for an explanation...'? Markpackuk (talk) 09:55, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Fixed. Serendipodous 22:04, 10 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Where do you keep the list of excluded articles and their rationales out of curiosity. I've always wanted to see that list. Also thank you for the great list, its one of my favourite features. Zell Faze (talk) 14:50, 11 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
It's in the Top 25 report. The link's in the opening paragraph. Serendipodous 15:18, 11 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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