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Traffic report

Eurovision, Google Doodles, Mothers, and 5 May

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By Serendipodous

Eurovision is known for being political, and it was a doozy this week. Anger over Vladimir Putin's anti-gay laws manifested both positively (in the form of victory for Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst) and negatively (the booing of the guileless teenage Russian entrants). In other news, the transition from spring to summer in the Northern Hemisphere meant that TV and movies share roughly equal space. Expect movies to overtake TV sometime near the end of June.

For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation for any exclusions.

For the week of 4 to 10 May, the ten 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 Audrey Hepburn C-class 1,617,064
The Oscar-winning actress, UN children's ambassador, epitome of 60s style and embodiment of the "gamine" got a Google Doodle on her birthday this week; she would have been 85 if she hadn't died 22 years ago.
2 Cinco de Mayo C-class 1,192,811
One of the most self-explanatory article spikes on Wikipedia ever, this celebration of Mexican-American culture (originally meant to commemorate a Mexican victory over the French) occurred, conveniently, on May 5.
3 Conchita Wurst Start-class 739,352
It wouldn't be Eurovision without some unsettling political subtexts, and while Russia's not-quite-invasion of Ukraine may have had less impact than expected (they both gave each other points, albeit not a lot) the same cannot be said for its antediluvian restrictions on the LGBT community, (Eurovision is known as the "gay Superbowl", after all) reaction to which almost certainly played a part in this Austrian drag queen's triumph over bookies' favourite, Sweden's Sanna Nielsen.
4 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 C-Class 670,016
A franchise that no one asked for has proven a bitter pill to swallow, at least in America. While the series's box office numbers as a whole are flat, it has had to rely increasingly on worldwide sales to attain them. The original Spider-Man film in 2002 made half its money at home and half overseas. For the rebooted Amazing Spider-Man, (this film's predecessor) the split was 2-1 for overseas grosses and, while this movie might just attain its series's standard tally of between $700 and $800 million, the overseas share is holding steady at 3-1. This declining domestic interest is even more obvious once inflation is accounted for. How it will affect the franchise's future is uncertain; at least one more sequel and a Venom spinoff are planned, but it's possible later instalments may be retooled to better attract international audiences.
5 Mother's Day C-Class 649,026
The second Sunday in May (that's May 11 to all you ingrates who forgot) is far and away the most popular time of year to celebrate Mother's Day, and, even as the day fell, panicked college students in all participating countries rushed to their computers to see if they'd blown it.
6 Amazon.com B-Class 485,896
This article suddenly reappeared in the top 25 after a long absence, but at least it has a reason: Amazon Fire TV; a digital streaming device to watch online content on a HDTV. How it distinguishes itself from the three or four other such devices currently on the market is a matter of some dispute.
7 Eurovision Song Contest 2014 C-Class 472,907
There's always a political undercurrent to Eurovision, but it surfaced pretty nastily this year. Even for such a gay-friendly event, it was perhaps a bit untoward to boo the Russian entry, the winsome, 17-year-old Tolmachevy Sisters, simply for the homophobic decrees of their leader. Still, from the looks of things, they bore the abuse with grace.
8 Game of Thrones B-class 444,209
New seasons of this immensely popular show always draw people to Wikipedia.
9 Deaths in 2014 List 396,516
The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article.
10 YouTube Good Article 363,717
A perennially popular article.
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  • FWIW, Tom Neuwirth has said in interviews he's a drag artist, not transsexual per se (though he is most pleased for Conchita to be taken as support for transsexuality), and Conchita Wurst is a character - David Gerard (talk) 21:29, 17 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
    • I was just coming here to say the same thing. Describing Conchita Wurst as a transsexual is incorrect. She's a drag queen. Tom Neuwirth is (as far as anyone publicly knows) a cisgendered man who dresses up as a woman (but with a beard for an extra genderfuck twist) in order to entertain. Willam Belli once said, "If I'm not getting paid, I'm a boy", and the sources suggest the same is true of Tom/Conchita. Angr (talk) 08:33, 18 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
And thank you Angr for introducing me to the words "cisgender" and "genderfuck" and the meaning of "cisgender" (sadly my work has blocked me from learning about "genderfuck"). --Roisterer (talk) 05:48, 21 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
You're welcome. Another genderfuck twist comes from using the term "cissy" (pronounced just like "sissy") for a cisgendered person, in analogy to the sometimes-offensive "tranny" for a transgendered person. Angr (talk) 10:47, 21 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • On the Russian Federation's so-called "Anti-Gay Laws", and the (mis)reporting thereof in mainstream media, see this paper by gay activist Brian M. Heiss: static.prisonplanet.com/p/images/february2014/white_paper.pdf . --NSH001 (talk) 23:35, 17 May 2014 (UTC) (NB: I had to render this URL out into plaintext because the spam blacklist was messing up this talk page. jp×g 10:06, 3 December 2022 (UTC))[reply]
    • If I get time I will read the rest of the paper, but the early phrase "As I began my mission to disprove the Curry - Dvorak analysis of the law" rather scuppers my hope for a document by an author with an open mind. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 01:05, 18 May 2014 (UTC).
That's a strange remark, since he takes the time to look at the evidence, and comes to the opposite conclusion from what he wanted to believe. --NSH001 (talk) 05:31, 18 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
      • Having got to the part where "Non-Traditional Sexual Relations" is apparently not understood to be almost synonymous with "LGBT" (p 22 of 72) I don't think this report is worth any more of my time. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 01:27, 18 May 2014 (UTC).
I think you are misreading the report here. He is saying nothing of the sort. Read it again, carefully, and in context. --NSH001 (talk) 05:31, 18 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Also, I just got done reading the document and it is utter nonsense. The entirety of it boils down to, as we would say on Wikipedia, WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS. The author just complains about events in other countries and in the US and says that if we don't bring those up, then we can't complain about what Russia is doing. SilverserenC 19:13, 18 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Make sure we cover what matters to you – leave a suggestion.
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