The Signpost

Traffic report

No accounting for the wisdom of crowds

Summary: A news-heavy week offers some insight, perhaps, into humanity's priorities: Barack Obama's contemplating entering the Syrian Civil War and the anniversary of the March on Washington share space with Miley Cyrus's public pushing of her posterior and Robin Thicke's apparent extramarital groping, with the highest interest directed towards the offending bottom.

For a list of the top 25 articles of the week, plus exclusions, see: WP:TOP25

For the week of August 25–31, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Twerking Start-class 1,264,178 Apparently, girls waggling their bottoms onstage now has a word. Or at least one fit for the Oxford Dictionary Online. And a Wikipedia article. You'd think we'd have had one a while ago, given what a common phenomenon it is, but I suppose words are as they are needed, and boy, Miley, did you make this one needed.
2 Robin Thicke C-class 855,701
The last time the Blue-eyed soul singer and son of Alan Thicke was on this list, it was because he'd just released his latest album; now he's back, with triple the views, both for his role in Miley's routine, and for his hand straying too far over the anatomy of a pretty clubgoer.
3 Miley Cyrus B-class 826,479
The former teenybopper graduated into adulthood in the manner customary to her profession: doing something in public to offend. The heightened publicity has secured her career for the immediate future at least.
4 Facebook B-class 563,381
A perennially popular article
5 Breaking Bad B-class 561,320
The final season of this acclaimed chemistry teacher-turned-Scarface TV series began on August 11.
6 Syria C-class 560,861
The next potential Middle Eastern country in which the USA might embroil itself has, unsurprisingly, become a topic of interest this week.
7 Białowieża Forest C-class 390,642
This ancient forest of centuries-old oaks and European bison between Poland and Belarus stimulated a Reddit discussion on August 28.
8 Deaths in 2013 List 372,873
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
9 I Have a Dream C-class 372,170
The 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's rhetorical masterpiece at the March on Washington on August 28 stimulated much public discussion about its legacy and effects.
10 Martin Luther King, Jr. Good Article 354,119
Of course, the anniversary also drew attention to the man himself.

















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