The Signpost
Single-page Edition
WP:POST/1
4 August 2016

Editorial
Wikipedia policy suppresses sharing of information
News and notes
Foundation presents results of harassment research, plans for automated identification; Wikiconference submissions open
In the media
Paid editing service announced; Commercial exploitation of free images; Wikipedia as a crystal ball; Librarians to counter systemic bias
Obituary
Kevin Gorman, who took on Wikipedia's gender gap and undisclosed paid advocacy, dies at 24
Traffic report
Summer of Pokémon, Trump, and Hillary
Featured content
Women and Hawaii
Recent research
Easier navigation via better wikilinks
Blog
All-new notifications page helps Wikimedians focus on what matters most
Technology report
User script report (January to July 2016, part 1)
 

2016-08-04

Wikipedia policy suppresses sharing of information

This article written by the Signpost editorial board.

Recent prominent events and decisions on English Wikipedia have focused on what information, published elsewhere on the web, can be appropriately republished or linked on Wikipedia itself. Such questions about information and ethics are essential to any serious effort to organize and publish information. Here at the Signpost, we aim to present debates like this to our readership, and offer analysis to help our readers track the progress of various discussions, and participate more effectively.

Typically, the proper role of the Signpost is not to take a position, but to offer a platform for exploration and reflection. In July 2016, for instance, we ran an op-ed piece from Wikipedian Doc James, who argued in favor of permitting the republication of information that is already public; and in the spirit of a healthy and diverse discourse, we would gladly run essays arguing otherwise, provided they are rooted in an exploration of what will help Wikipedia thrive.

On this topic, however, our relationship to Wikipedia is more complex. Wikipedia is not merely the subject matter of the Signpost; it is also the platform on which the publication rests. For us to play a useful role in sharing information and stimulating discourse about Wikipedia, we must be able to link to relevant source material; our writers and editors must be able to speak without fear of retaliation or censure. As with all publications, our ability to inform our readership relies on freedom of the press. We must regard any policy or enforcement that might have a chilling effect on our contributors’ words as a potential threat to our core purpose.

Wikipedia's policies on no personal attacks and harassment contain language that if strictly interpreted would severely impede our ability to bring you the news; and recent discussions suggest that strict interpretation is to be expected. As of this writing, Wikipedia’s harassment policy states (emphasis added):

Posting another editor's personal information is harassment, unless that person had voluntarily posted his or her own information, or links to such information, on Wikipedia. Personal information includes legal name, date of birth, identification numbers, home or workplace address, job title and work organisation, telephone number, email address, other contact information, or photograph, whether any such information is accurate or not. Posting such information about another editor is an unjustifiable and uninvited invasion of privacy and may place that editor at risk of harm outside their activities on Wikipedia. This applies to the personal information of both editors and non-editors.

Like any news outlet, the Signpost routinely publishes quotations from, and links to, a wide variety of materials on the web, including personal web pages, blog posts, press releases, affiliate sites, and wikis other than English Wikipedia. In many cases—and for no nefarious purpose—those public pages contain information that the definition above would categorize as “personal”, though Wikipedia policy may be the only framework that categorizes it that way. Thus, if the Signpost is to carefully adhere to a strict interpretation of current Wikipedia policy, we are forced to curtail the quantity and quality of information we offer our readers.

This state of affairs is not desirable for any news outlet that hopes to keep its readers informed. In the short term, we will append a short message, linking to this editorial, to the bottom of any story in which we must compromise our intended words to comply with Wikipedia policy. In the longer term, we look forward to a day when Wikipedia’s policies can adequately protect individuals’ genuine privacy interests while simultaneously supporting various legitimate discussions involving identity and related topics.

The Signpost loses and gains a co-editor-in-chief

User:Go Phightins! is stepping down from his position as the Signpost's co-editor-in-chief today:

It is not without a degree of disappointment that today I announce that effective immediately, I will be stepping down as co-editor-in-chief of the Signpost. My tenure has lasted 18 months, but due to real-life obligations, there have been prolonged droughts where I have been barely able or not at all able to contribute. It is not fair to the remainder of the team that produces this publication for me to continue to hold a title without contributing my fair share. Therefore, now is a good time for me to step back. I plan to continue to advise and contribute as I can in the future, but will do so in a reduced capacity.

I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to The ed17 for offering me (a.k.a. dragooning me) to take on this responsibility in January 2015, Rob for serving with me for most of this tenure and taking on a lion's share of the publication process, Tony for his unwavering support of the publication's goals and reliable reporting as one of our most prolific writers, the entire Signpost editorial board for their consistent work in churning out issue after issue, and especially Andreas for his willingness to be drafted into service on this project and his huge body of work maintaining it.

My sincerest hope is that the publication continues on its current upward trajectory while attracting new blood to help give those who have been longstanding contributors a break to avoid burnout.

To that end, it is with surpassing pleasure that we announce that Pete Forsyth will be joining us as our new co-editor-in-chief. Pete has been a Wikipedian since 2006, and has covered Wikipedia happenings in the Signpost, and in news outlets from USA Today to the blogs of Creative Commons and the Wikimedia Foundation. We are excited to have him join us in this official capacity.

As always, we are eager for new contributors, and now is a great time to consider whether joining The Signpost team is something you are willing to do. Please contact Rosiestep if that's something you would be interested in doing.

Thank you for your continued loyal readership!

Sincerely,

Ben Go Phightins!

Thank you, Ben, for your many years of service to the Signpost. I am delighted that you will continue to be a member of the Signpost editorial board, and contribute as and when time allows.

I am equally delighted to welcome Pete Forsyth as my new co-editor-in-chief. Pete brings outstanding smarts, insight and experience to the position, and I couldn't have wished for a better replacement. I look forward to our work together, covering news in and around the Wikimedia world. AK



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2016-08-04

Foundation presents results of harassment research, plans for automated identification; Wikiconference submissions open

Maggie Dennis's presentation (13:35–23:20) and Ellery Wulczyn's presentation (23:30–34.25)

Among the most common forms of harassment reported in the slide at 17:31 were content vandalism (27%), trolling or flaming (24%), name-calling (17%), discrimination (14%), and stalking (13%). Less prevalent but more concerning were threats of violence (6%), outing (6%), impersonation (5%), hacking (3%), and revenge porn (2%). Unspecified experiences were rated at 15%.

What becomes clear from viewing Maggie Dennis's presentation is that harassment is a highly prevalent behaviour at the interface of three problematic phenomena that continue to plague the WMF's sites: the gender gap, the flatlining of editor numbers, and the maintenance of the quality of the sites for readers. The Foundation is investigating measures to address the harassment problem in the communities; proposals for impending action include the default protection of user pages, the creation of a help page on all Wikipedias, and research into current mechanisms for dealing with harassment.

Dennis then introduced Ellery Wulczyn, from Wikimedia Research, who explained the progress of a program to develop an algorithmic approach to detecting personal attacks on the English Wikipedia—a collaborative project between the WMF and Jigsaw, a division of Alphabet, a holding company for Google. The project has created a data "pipeline" of examples of personal comments on the site, used this to develop a model for automated detection of harassment, and analysed the data to try to develop a system with the same level of accuracy as humans. Samples of comments were judged by 10 humans and a scale was derived of how likely each comment was to be harassing. From this a model was developed, and the claim was made that this is a 95% match with a later pooled human assessment of whether examples constituted harassment. A demonstration is at wikidetox.appspot.com, which readers are invited to visit and test for themselves. The algorithm determined that there is an 82% likelihood that this statement of mixed but ultimately insulting intention was harassment:

"Congratulations. I don't know whether you are aware of this fact or not, but you have shown your qualified stupidity."

The algorithm determined a 69% probability that "F#@$ you, a$$h0l3" was a personal attack; and the different grammatical contexts of "I will punch your lights out" and "Let's drink punch" were rated at 59% and 17% likelihoods of harassment, respectively. However, Wulczyn pointed out that the system is only as good as the depth of the corpus of personal attack patterns to which it has been exposed, with human rankings; for example, "Your intellect is lacking" was determined as having only a 10% probability of being an attack.

The intention now is to continue the program of "training" the system to achieve scores approaching zero false positives. The immediate goal is to explore the prevalence, dynamics, and impact of personal attacks on the English Wikipedia, and to create a complete historical dataset of talkpage comments with probability scores (which will be released publicly) for input to the "training" process.

The program is still at an early stage. Among the next goals is to integrate the algorithm with the ORES API system to enable extensions and tools to be built on top of the model. Readers with questions or suggestions are welcome to visit the dedicated page on Meta. T

Wikiconference submissions open

2016 Wikiconference North America, which will occur in San Diego, California, from October 7–10. Shown here: the San Diego Central Library, envisaged to be one of the venues for the event.

The 2016 Wikiconference North America, which will occur in San Diego, California, from October 7–10, invites interested editors to submit proposals to host a workshop, seminar, panel, tutorial, or other program during the event. Submissions can be made here. GP

Brief notes

  • Revamped app unveiled: A revamped Android app was released last week for Wikipedia. Its new homepage has been designed to help users access information more quickly and efficiently, and the app is now available worldwide in the Google Play store. More information was released in a Foundation blog post. GP
  • Language detection added to Wikimedia search engine: Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales's vision to provide everyone in the world with an encyclopedia "in their own language" took another step last week when a feature was deployed on the English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish-language Wikipedias that will detect unsuccessful searches that may have been intended in another language. The blog post that announced the feature did not define a timeline for deploying the feature globally (it did state a few other language Wikipedias that will get it next), but did encourage users to test the feature in an online demo. GP



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2016-08-04

A reputation management and search engine optimisation firm has announced a professional service for creating, altering, monitoring, updating, and translating Wikipedia pages and has launched a corresponding Internet portal. In its communications, the firm assures potential clients that ownership of a Wikipedia article is a prominent asset, enhancing their online reputation.

The press release contains a contact name, a city, a phone number, and an email address identifying an employer (whose web page also includes a photograph of the contact, along with details of other staff members). All of this is "personal information" as defined in WP:Outing. AK / PF

The Signpost aspires to provide readers with sufficient information to evaluate the news we report and the opinions our op-ed writers express. However, English Wikipedia policy prevents us from doing so in some routine cases. We withheld significant information in this story to comply with our interpretation of Wikipedia’s policies.

Photographer sues Getty for appropriation of donated images

Photographer Carol Highsmith (pictured, self-portrait) donated thousands of her photographs to the Library of Congress, only to see a commercial vendor claim copyright.

Beginning in 1988, photographer Carol M. Highsmith donated thousands of images to the Library of Congress for free use by the general public, only to see Getty Images, a stock photo company, appropriate them, in some cases without attribution, add their own watermark, and then accuse Highsmith of copyright infringement. Hyperallergic reports that Highsmith sued Getty and another stock photo business, Alamy, for copyright infringement, asking for $1 billion in damages, including compensation for over 18,755 images Getty appropriated as well as punitive damages because the company had been previously liable for the same violation against another photographer within the past three years. She learned that both agencies had been charging fees to customers for use of her images and sending threat letters to others who had used her free images. The complaint states, “The defendants have apparently misappropriated Ms. Highsmith’s generous gift to the American people ... not only unlawfully charging licensing fees ... but are falsely and fraudulently holding themselves out as the exclusive copyright owner.” Inspired by the example of Dorothea Lange, Highsmith wanted to document all 50 states, and these images now form the Carol M. Highsmith Collection at the LOC. (July 27) MTbw

Wikipedia as a crystal ball

(Tim Kaine) Perhaps WP:NOTCRYSTAL should be WP:ISCRYSTAL when an unexpected upsurge in article edits occurs prior to a vice-presidential candidate announcement.

The Atlantic studied trends in the number of edits to Wikipedia articles about potential vice-presidential picks, noting a 2008 Washington Post story on an upsurge in Wikipedia article edits prior to the VP selection of Sarah Palin. This year, The Atlantic noted increased editing activity each time various hopefuls such as Tom Vilsack and Elizabeth Warren were paraded into public view. Based on this metric, a dramatic upsurge in editing of Tim Kaine's article prior to Hillary Clinton's July 22 announcement shows that Wikipedia accurately foreshadowed the selection of the Democratic VP nominee. The story was also covered by New York Magazine and Bloomberg Politics. (July 22) MTbw

Librarians to counter systemic bias

Pacific Standard reports on a $250,000 Knight Foundation grant for a project called "Amplify libraries and communities through Wikipedia". The article draws particular attention to the dearth of women and people of colour in Wikipedia's volunteer base ...

As James Hare, president of Wikimedia DC, told the New York Times in 2015:

“The stereotype of a Wikipedia editor is a 30-year-old white man, and so most of the articles written are about stuff that interests 30-year-old white men. So a lot of black history is left out.”

... as well as the hostile reception new editors may receive. In the words of Merrilee Proffitt, one of the project leads, Wikipedia ...

can be a challenging environment. The thing that someone said to me that resonates is, “Wikipedians are very nice in person, but can be mean online.” You don’t get subtleties in online communication. These are all volunteers, they’re doing it on their spare time, they’re not getting paid, they’re very protective of that. They’re a little suspicious of new editors and what might be motivating them.”

Librarians in the United States have a gender bias that is almost the exact mirror opposite of Wikipedia's—83% are women—and hence it is hoped that getting librarians involved will provide a little balance:

It’s a lot to expect all librarians to get on board with this project. But if they did, you’d be talking about essentially closing Wikipedia’s gender gap in one fell swoop.

Librarians' racial bias, on the other hand, is much the same as in Wikipedia, so addressing racial bias “may be a bit trickier”:

“It’s safe to say that librarians are also disproportionately white, but the communities we serve are incredibly diverse,” Proffitt says. “What librarians can do by becoming Wikipedians is bring this out to their people. Public libraries are in every corner, and serve such a variety of audiences.”

(July 27) AK



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2016-08-04

Kevin Gorman, who took on Wikipedia's gender gap and undisclosed paid advocacy, dies at 26


Kevin took to the site as a duck to water, making nearly 2500 edits in his first four months, and branching out into mushrooms, a topic for which he had a passion. By April, he had signed up to help facilitate a Wikipedia-oriented class that would be held in the following semester, and within two months had landed a summer communications internship with the Wikimedia Foundation. He came back to the WMF for a short time in 2013 to author a retrospective report on the organization's grants process, which took care to point out several significant potential risks in the process. In February 2014 he made international news headlines by becoming the first person to hold a Wikipedian-in-residence position at a US university.

As a volunteer, Kevin took on a heavy and often harassment-inducing load in combating bias in Wikipedia articles related to the men's rights movement—an effort that attracted coverage in the celebrity and pop-culture site Jezebel.

It was these experiences, according to the Feminist Philosophers blog, that persuaded Kevin to "attend the first class of Alex Madva’s feminist philosophy course, and ultimately led [him] to play an integral role in identifying and redressing the underrepresentation of feminist philosophy and women philosophers on Wikipedia." He later also became a moderator of the gendergap Wikimedia mailing list.

Some of those philosophers are listed in his userspace, and editors will note that many articles still need to be written.

Kevin took on some of the work of exposing undisclosed paid advocacy on Wikipedia, which is where we had personal contact. Thanks to him, the Signpost helped to uncover the edits of Wiki-PR, a public-relations company that contravened several policies and guidelines—especially those related to sock puppetry—to manage thousands of articles for pay. The "source", referenced three times in that initial story, was Kevin. He was also a primary driver behind a feature story on Wiki-PR from Martin Robbins of Vice. These revelations were enough to engender a strong reaction from the Foundation, which directly led to changes in the global terms of use.

Kevin Gorman at WikiConference USA 2015

Kevin continued to tackle paid advocacy right up until his 12,000th and last edit—a post on the harassment policy's talk page which read (in part):

Kevin died in July 2016 from a combination of what his family described as multiple "very rare" genetic disorders, which had caused or were in addition to other serious illnesses that afflicted him—everything from sepsis to encephalitis. These ailments were a factor in a significant reduction in editing after August 2014.

Despite his health issues, he did try to turn his experience into a positive by contributing a significant amount of content to the article on immunoglobulin therapy—a treatment he himself was receiving. He wrote that he needed the treatment because he "never developed an immune system, and as a result, need[ed] frequent injections of antibodies pooled from y'alls blood plasma. ... the reason I got sick so often was because I had no immune system."

Kevin's generosity in death lives on through other people; with his prior permission, medical staff were able to use his liver, kidney, and heart for people in need. This kindness as a donor should surprise no one: he dedicated his life to helping others. It is a legacy that might cause us to be proud and grateful.

Community members are leaving condolences on Kevin's English Wikipedia talk page, and there are plans to work on the organ donation (see WikiProject Medicine) and Marfan syndrome articles in his honor.

His family has created a memorial on Facebook; according to his father, Kevin's friends in Berkeley are planning to hold a memorial service in the city on 21 August.

The ed17 was the editor-in-chief of the Signpost from 2012 to 2015. He currently works for the Wikimedia Foundation.



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2016-08-04

Summer of Pokémon, Trump, and Hillary

Your traffic reports for the weeks of July 10–16, July 17–23, and July 24–30.

For the full top-25 lists (and our archives back to January 2013), see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles every week, see WP:MOSTEDITED. For the most popular articles that ORES models predict are low quality, see WP:POPULARLOWQUALITY.

July 10–16, 2016

Let it Pokemon Go: Pokémon Go led the chart for a second week, with a substantial 4.7 million views. This is a flashback to people's complaints about Wikipedia circa 2005—that the site was dominated with Pokemon articles. Well, the world finally caught up to our advance research. Aside from the esport, politics and regular sports dominate the chart. Sports entries are split among Ultimate Fighting Championship articles; football, with the conclusion of UEFA Euro 2016; and tennis, due to Wimbledon. The lack of any Google Doodle or Reddit "Today I Learned" threads anywhere in the Top 25 this week seems unusual.

For the week of July 10 to 16, 2016, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Pokémon Go Start-class 4,778,652
Way up from 1.37 million views last week to lead the chart for a second week. Many non-players simply enjoy reading the stories of the ridiculous things happening due to it, such as people wandering into places not really appropriate for gaming such as cemeteries, neighbor's yards, and so on. Oh, and accidents. Until and unless someone dies, it is mostly harmless fun, right?
2 Theresa May B-class 1,738,109
The new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. May had previously been the British Home Secretary since 2010, but the shockwaves of Brexit have been to May's benefit. That's the way history goes for individual people, mostly unpredictable except in hindsight.
3 Mike Pence C-class 1,651,153
Don't tell Donald Trump (#23), but his newly announced vice-presidential candidate got far more views this week. Trump's media skills generated a great deal of interest in his VP pick, though there was some suggestion that he almost tried to back out of the Pence pick at the last minute. Though more conservative than Trump on social issues, the Governor of Indiana is generally considered a safe and stable selection by the Republican party, more so than the other reported finalists for the VP slot, Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie.
4 Sultan (2016 film) Start class 1,220,923
Second week on the chart, with about 70,000 more views than last week. One big difference between Hollywood and Bollywood is that in Bollywood, stars still matter. And Salman Khan (pictured) rules the roost right now. His last big film, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, dominated Eid al-Fitr weekend and went on to make nearly $100 million. Now he's done it again: his latest, a wrestling drama, was also released on Eid and took in nearly ₹1.96 billion ($29 million) in its first six days.
5 UFC 200 Start class 1,139,080
Second week on the chart, as is typical of these UFC Saturday events. The latest in the mixed martial arts tournament series was held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (pictured) on 9 July. Headliner Amanda Nunes defeated Miesha Tate in the first round.
6 Bastille Day Start class 977,775
The French national holiday has never made it on the Top 25 before, so sadly, its appearance is most likely due to the 2016 Nice attack.
7 Cristiano Ronaldo B-class 946,953
Up from #21 last week. Playing for the Portugal national football team (#24), the man sometimes called the world's most famous athlete led his team to victory in the final of UEFA Euro 2016 (#10) over France, and earned the Silver Boot award.
8 Andy Murray Good Article 831,169
The men's singles winner at Wimbledon over Milos Raonic (#12) occurred on July 10.
8 Brock Lesnar Good Article 750,002
Lesnar defeated Mark Hunt in the heavyweight match at UFC 200 (#5).
10 UEFA Euro 2016 C-class 744,132
Numbers are down again this week, but its been a long run in the charts for this football tournament. Portugal won for the first time, on July 10.

July 17–23, 2016

Trumpapalooza: Last week's American news was dominated by the Republican National Convention, which could have been named the Trump Convention, because Trump family members were highlighted among the speakers every night. FIVE of the top ten slots this week are Trumps, even including Donald Trump's first wife, Ivana Trump (#8), who wasn't even at the convention. I cannot recall any prior instance of a single family dominating the chart like this. And outside the Top 10, two more Trump offspring made the list, plus Trump's second wife, Marla Maples, was #11.

For the week of July 17 to 23, 2016, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Melania Trump C-class 2,990,596
How is The Donald not #1 this week? Well, his third wife gave a speech on Monday night at the Republican National Convention. This type of speech is usually non-controversial and helps humanize the candidate. This one kicked off a negative three day news cycle because the speech lifted some passages from Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. This fact was initially denied by the campaign (which to date is notorious for not being coordinated in its public statements), but finally admitted to on Wednesday, though blamed on one of Trump's employees, Meredith McIver, who has been the ghostwriter for a number of Donald's books.
2 Donald Trump B-Class 2,796,617
Trump is now officially the Republican nominee for President of the United States, and accepted the nomination in a lengthy speech on July 21.
3 Pokémon Go B-class 2,029,089
Down from 4.7 million views last week, but still going strong. How long is the shelf life of this thing? I was out to dinner the other night and half the people I saw walking around were teenagers looking at their phones playing Pokémon Go. I shook my fist at the sky like a cranky old man and felt better. The article has improved from Start Class to B-Class in the last week, now with a staggering 184 references.
4 Ivanka Trump Start class 1,775,380
Probably the most liked Trump outside core Trump-fandom, Trump's daughter Ivanka gave a speech introducing her father at the Republican National Convention, though she touted some policy positions that sounded like she was introducing a Democratic candidate.
5 Tim Kaine B-class 1,513,047
Kaine, a current United States Senator, and former Governor from Virginia, was named as Hillary Clinton's vice-presidential running mate on July 22. I must say Kaine was not high on my radar because he does not showboat online, though the Wall Street Journal put him on Hillary's shortlist last month. Virginia is also a swing state, probably a must-win for either candidate to be elected.
6 Kabali (film) Start class 1,351,718
This Tamil language film starring Rajinikanth (#27) (pictured) debuted on July 22 to mixed reviews, but broke box office records, earning around ₹211.75 (US$31 million) worldwide during its opening weekend.
7 Stranger Things (TV series) Start class 1,165,953
This Netflix science-fiction series was released on July 15 to positive reviews.
8 Ivana Trump Start class 1,032,111
Donald Trump's (#2) first wife, mother of Ivanka (#4), as well as Donald Jr. (#20) and Eric (#13). She was not in Cleveland last week, but instead in St. Tropez "with her dog and Italian lover" as the Daily Mail tells us. I would guess some of these views include people trying to get to Ivanka's article.
9 Tiffany Trump Start class 1,019,203
Donald Trump's (#2) only child with Marla Maples (#11) (his second wife), who also spoke at the convention last week.
10 Mike Pence C-class 940,781
Donald Trump's (#2) Vice-Presidential candidate, down from 1.65 million views last week.

Bonus: Just missing the WP:TOP25 for July 17–23:

July 24–30, 2016

Hillary Summer: The Democratic National Convention (not to be confused with the Democratic National Committee, both abbreviated DNC) was held this week, and culminated in Hillary Clinton receiving her coronation as the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States; the first woman to be so named by a major political party in the US, though that string of qualifiers is a reminder of just how behind the rest of the world the US is in this regard. Unlike last week's Republican Convention, which saw a flood of interest in all things Trumpian, the DNC hasn't generated as much traffic; numbers are down across the board, and Hillary got less than half the views of her rival. This weaker showing allowed the traditional concern of the American summer season, movies, to get a strong look-in, particularly toward the bottom of the list.

For the week of July 24 to 30, 2016, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Hillary Clinton Featured Article 1,331,698
One puzzling feature of this list over the last year is how seldom Hillary Clinton has appeared on it, despite the constant media hum of the 2016 election and the near omnipresence of her competitor. Some might argue that they already know everything they need to about Hillary; after all, she's been a global figure for longer than many of our readers have been alive. But the same could also be said of Donald Trump, and interest in him has obviously not waned. At this point it is clear that people just aren't as excited about her. On paper, she is one of the most qualified people ever to run for President of the US, and yet, ignoring post-convention "bumps" after each party's convention, polls place her neck and neck with Donald Trump, a man with no political qualifications and no coherent policy goals who just this week told a dictator to commit espionage against the United States. In what should be her moment in the sun, nominated as her party's candidate, endorsed wittily by a sitting President, and even supported by her onetime arch-rival Bernie Sanders, her article didn't generate even half the views Trump got during his nomination week, and he lost the top spot to his wife.
2 Kabali (film) Start class 1,118,570
This Indian film (not Bollywood- it's in Tamil; Bollywood films are strictly Hindi) starring Rajinikanth (pictured) has, despite mixed reviews, smashed records in its first week of release, earning ₹3.2 billion ($48 million) worldwide and already placing itself as the second (or third, depending on the source) highest-grossing Tamil film ever.
3 Stranger Things (TV series) Start class 1,110,852
This Netflix science-fiction series (basically an 8-hour homage to early 80s kid-centric flicks like E.T., The Goonies and Explorers) was released in its entirety on July 15 to positive reviews.
4 Donald Trump B-Class 1,022,010
To be fair, he was probably going to be on this list anyway; the timeframe includes the comedown from his convention spike. But there's no denying the sudden boost he got on 28/29 July, when he suggested on-air that the Russians should hack Hillary Clinton's (#1) email server, making him arguably the first ever US presidential candidate to invite a foreign power to attack his own country.
5 Tim Kaine B-class 1,018,201
Kaine, a current United States Senator, and former Governor from Virginia, was named as Hillary Clinton's vice-presidential candidate on July 22. I must say Kaine was not high on my radar because he does not showboat online, though the Wall Street Journal put him on Hillary's shortlist last month. Virginia is also a swing state, probably one Trump would have to win to have any chance of being elected.
6 Suicide Squad (film) C-class 854,350
DC Comics' ramshackle crew of pressganged supervillains, forced to do the will of a shadowy organization or let their heads explode, are the stars of one of the most anticipated films in the nascent DC Cinematic Universe, due for release on 5 August.
7 Bill Clinton Good Article 849,257
The former President widely regarded as one of the most persuasive speakers in modern American politics drew on all his talents to support his wife's candidacy for his former position. Whether it worked or not is unclear; many were nonplussed by his oration, which, having begun with the phrase, "In the spring of 1971, I met a girl..", drew unintentional attention to his infidelities.
8 Chelsea Clinton C-Class 857,452
The woman who very well could become the first offspring of two US Presidents gave a warmly received speech in support of her mother's candidacy at the DNC.
9 Pokémon Go Start-class 806,097
The curiousest thing about Pokemon Go, at least for me, is how it has dissolved the barrier between video games and reality. Video games are the most popular entertainment medium in the world, but they have always been confined to certain spaces- that kid shouting abuse through his headset in his mother's basement; the harried mother catching some alone time on the bus; the family pulling out the console on Christmas Day. All easy to ignore. But now, the game has not only entered the outside world, but it has become the outside world- to the point where people who have never even contemplated playing a video game have found themselves pulled into this one, as their houses and places of business were transformed into gyms and Pokestops.
10 Star Trek Beyond C-class 681,239
The latest in the Star Trek reboot film series has been holding steady for a second week. The film stars Chris Pine (pictured) as Captain Kirk, and was released on July 22 to positive reviews. It grossed over $117 million in its opening weekend, but has seen some pretty steep drops since then.



Reader comments

2016-08-04

Women and Hawaii

Michael Schumacher holds the record of most Formula One Grand Prix wins with 91.

This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 17 to 30 July.
Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.

Portrait of Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman at the Peabody Essex Museum
The Hawaii Sesquicentennial half dollar depicts Captain James Cook on the obverse and a Hawaiian chieftain on the reverse.
File:SMS Körös in the Danube in 1914.jpg
The Austro-Hungarian river monitor SMS Körös bombarding Belgrade in 1914

Eight featured articles were promoted these weeks.

  • The 2008 UAW-Dodge 400 (nominated by MWright96) was the third stock car race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on 2 March 2008, before a crowd of 153,000 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 267-lap race was won by Carl Edwards of the Roush Fenway Racing team who started from second position. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second and Greg Biffle came in third. The race attracted 12.1 million television viewers.
  • Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman (nominated by KAVEBEAR) (1845–1863) was an American Union Army soldier of Native Hawaiian descent. Considered one of the "Hawaiʻi Sons of the Civil War", he was among a group of more than one hundred documented Native Hawaiian and Hawaii-born combatants who fought in the American Civil War while the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was still an independent nation.
  • Margaret Lea Houston (nominated by Maile66) (1819–1867) was First Lady of the Republic of Texas during her husband, Sam Houston's, second term as President of the Republic of Texas. They met following the first of his two non-consecutive terms as the Republic's president, and married when he was a representative in the Congress of the Republic of Texas. She was his third wife, remaining with him until his death.
  • Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines (nominated by Hawkeye7) began on 11 March 1942, when General Douglas MacArthur and members of his family and staff left Corregidor Island, where his forces had been surrounded by the Japanese. They traveled in patrol torpedo boats for two days through stormy seas patrolled by Japanese warships to reach Mindanao. From there, MacArthur and his party flew to Australia in a pair of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, ultimately arriving in Melbourne by train on 21 March. In Australia, he made his famous speech in which he declared, "I came through and I shall return".
  • The Hawaii Sesquicentennial half dollar (nominated by Wehwalt) was struck in 1928 by the United States Bureau of the Mint in honor of the 150th anniversary of Captain James Cook's landing in Hawaii, the first European to reach there. Only 10,000 were struck for the public, making it rare and valuable. Chester Beach made the plaster models for the coins from sketches by Juliette May Fraser. Although the issue price, at $2, was the highest for a commemorative half dollar to that point, the coins sold out quickly and have risen in value to over a thousand dollars.
  • Theodore Komnenos Doukas (nominated by Cplakidas) (died c. 1253), was ruler of Epirus and Thessaly from 1215 to 1230 and of Thessalonica and most of the rest of Macedonia and western Thrace from 1224 to 1230. He was also the power behind the rule of his sons John and Demetrios over Thessalonica in 1237–46.
  • SMS Körös (nominated by Peacemaker67) was the name ship of the Körös-class river monitors built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The ship was part of the Danube Flotilla, and fought various Allied forces from Belgrade down the Danube to the Black Sea during World War I. After the war, she was transferred to the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and renamed Morava. During the World War II German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, Morava was the flagship of the 2nd Mine Barrage Division, and operated on the Tisza river. She fought off attacks by the Luftwaffe, but was forced to withdraw to Belgrade. Due to high river levels and low bridges, navigating monitors was difficult, and she was scuttled by her crew. She was later raised by the navy of the Axis puppet state the Independent State of Croatia and continued in service as Bosna until June 1944, when she struck a mine and sank.
  • Catherine Zeta-Jones (nominated by SchroCat and Krimuk90) (born 1969) is a Welsh actress. Zeta-Jones aspired to a theatrical career from an early age. She studied musical theatre at the Arts Educational Schools, London, and made her adult stage breakthrough with a leading role in a 1987 production of 42nd Street. Her screen debut came in the unsuccessful French-Italian film 1001 Nights (1990), and she found greater success as a regular in the British television series The Darling Buds of May (1991–93). Zeta-Jones established herself in Hollywood with roles in the action film The Mask of Zorro (1998) and the heist film Entrapment (1999). Zeta-Jones has received such accolades as an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a Tony Award, and in 2010 she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her film and humanitarian endeavours. She is married to the actor Michael Douglas with whom she has two children.

Two featured lists were promoted these weeks.

  • The Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor (nominated by Charles Turing) is an honour, begun in 1969, presented annually at the Kerala State Film Awards of India to an actor for the best performance in a leading role in the Malayalam cinema. Until 1997, the awards were managed directly by the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Government of Kerala. Since 1998, the awards have been controlled by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, an autonomous, non-profit institution functioning under the Department of Cultural Affairs. The awardees are decided by an independent jury constituted every year by the Academy. They are announced by the Minister for Cinema and are presented by the Chief Minister. Throughout the years, accounting for ties and repeat winners, the Government of Kerala has presented a total of 49 Best Actor awards to 27 different actors. The recipients receive a figurine, a certificate, and a cash prize of 100,000 (US$1,200).
  • Michael Schumacher (born 1969) is a German racing driver who has won seven Formula One world championships. Schumacher contested 308 races in his career which included 91 Grand Prix wins (nominated by Cowlibob and The Rambling Man); the majority of his race victories were for the Ferrari team with 72. His most successful circuit was Magny-Cours, where he won eight times in his career. Schumacher's largest margin of victory was at the 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix, a race in which he lapped the field, and the smallest margin of victory was at the 2000 Canadian Grand Prix when he beat teammate Rubens Barrichello by 0.174 seconds.

Fourteen featured pictures were promoted these weeks.



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2016-08-04

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