The Signpost

Traffic report

So do you laugh, or does it cry?

Singer Scott Weiland (#1) who died this past week wrote many cryptic lyrics, including "So do you laugh or does it cry?", in 1994's "Interstate Love Song". And things that either make us laugh or cry are the things that tend to dominate this Report every week. But aside from Weiland's death, the Top 10 is entertainment-dominated this particular week.

For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.

For the week of November 29 to December 5, 2015, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Scott Weiland C-class 1,149,112
The former lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots was found dead on his tour bus in Minnesota on December 3, likely the result of a drug overdose. Weiland was an unabashed rock star-type who came out of a 1990s grunge-era that was very ambivalent about 70s rock glamour. Sadly, Weiland's long history of drug use made his death not terribly shocking to many.
2 Tyson Fury C-class 1,076,733
On November 28, the British professional boxer defeated Wladimir Klitschko (#14) in a match held in Düsseldorf to become the unified heavyweight champion. This ended Klitschko's reign, the second longest in heavyweight history.
3 Lucy Maud Montgomery C-class 1,063,021
The author of Anne of Green Gables was honored with a Google Doodle on her 141st birthday on November 30.
4 Facebook B-class 1,057,020
Always a popular article, but rarely this high on the chart. Founder Mark Zuckerberg's (#18) recent announcement that he planned to give away 99% of the gazillions he has earned from giving us the ability to "like" posts about internet memes and keep informed of the insane racist rantings of your distant relatives likely caused the view bump this week.
5 Jessica Jones C-class 914,281
Down from #1 last week, a drop of a million views. The Netflix series based on this Marvel Comics superhero, starring Krysten Ritter (pictured), debuted on November 20, 2015, and, like its predecessor, Daredevil, shot to the top of this list. Pandemic binge-watching of the latter among MCU fans led to a rapid decline in interest, as everyone scoffed down the entire season in two days. This series seems to be fairly slightly better, at least here.
6 Krampus Start-class 842,714
As Yuletide falls in the German-speaking regions of the Alps, children are told not only of jolly Saint Nick with his sack of toys; they are also told of Krampus, whose sack is empty, waiting to be filled with naughty children who will then be carried to his lair. He isn't the only "anti-Santa" out there; the Dutch have Zwarte Piet, and the Haitians have Tonton Macoute, but Krampus's demonic appearance caught the eye of America last year, where he became a leering antidote to the oversaturation of manufactured Christmas cheer, and this year, it seems he's back, no doubt aided by an upcoming movie.
7 Jessica Jones (TV series) C-class 830,756
See #5
8 Google C-class 787,850
Ironically, it can be hard to google Google to figure out why Google is especially popular in a given week. When I googled "Scott Weiland" (#1), for example, I immediately learned he was dead. Last week Google had only 252,348 views (#80 on raw WP:5000). The only edit of note to Google during this week was a link to Project Fi, which looks like Google's plan to provide cell phone service primarily using Wi-Fi networks.
9 Kobe Bryant B-class 659,062
On November 29, the American basketball star announced that he will be retiring at the end of the current NBA season. This means that every time he plays in a city for the final time on his "farewell tour" (a disambig article that seems ripe for expansion?), it will be a minor news story.
10 Adele C-class 631,753
"Hello, it's Adele, if you're wondering, after seven weeks yes I'm still here." And will no doubt stay in the Top 25 for a bit longer.

















Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-12-09/Traffic_report