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21 July 2016

News and notes
Board faces diversity and skill-base issues in new FDC appointments
Discussion report
Busy month for discussions
In the media
Women in science editathon gets national press; Wikipedia "shockingly biased"
Featured content
A wide variety from the best
Traffic report
Sports and esports
Arbitration report
Script writers appointed for clerks
Recent research
Using deep learning to predict article quality
 

2016-07-21

Board faces diversity and skill-base issues in new FDC appointments



Reader comments

2016-07-21

Busy month for discussions


The blue padlock denoting pages protected under extended confirmed protection.

No ArbCom prescription needed?

The Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) recently decided to implement a new type of restriction for pages on certain topics with intractable and long-running disputes, such as the Gamergate controversy. It barred editing from anonymous (IP) users and registered editors with fewer than 30 days tenure and 500 edits.

Initially, a series of edit filters enforced the restriction. In January 2016, an editor proposed a new protection level called extended confirmed protection ("ECP" or "30/500", for short) with the same function. Although the proposal received some complaints regarding the instruction creep it presented to new editors, it was eventually approved and technically implemented, with editors being granted the "extendedconfirmed" user right after reaching the requirement. ECP was rolled out on April 5, with ArbCom passing a motion allowing administrators to use ECP to prevent sockpuppetry when less restrictive protection fails to work.

Since that time, ECP occasionally deviated from its ArbCom use: without raising the eyebrows of many, it was used for other reasons, such as to prevent BLP violations. Within three months, an administrator made a proposal allowing use of ECP for any purpose, not just for ArbCom and sockpuppetry: that, with community scrutiny, administrators would be allowed to use ECP protection. The RfC gave editors three options:

  1. To restrict use of ECP to ArbCom.
  2. To restrict use of ECP to ArbCom and for preventing sock puppetry when less restrictive protection fails, provided that the protecting administrator informs the community at AN (closest to status quo).
  3. To allow use of ECP for any purpose, provided that less restrictive protection fails and the protecting administrator informs the community at AN.

The RfC has received a wide range of inputs, with most non-administrators and administrators supporting the third option, and some non-administrators and a few administrators supporting the first and second options. Proponents of the third option believe ECP would be valuable in stopping disruption, while its opponents believe that it would deter newcomers and disenfranchise occasional editors.

More GMO discussion: recently closed RfC on genetically modified food safety

Protester advocating against Monsanto, a corporation that develops GMOs. The scientific community generally welcomes GMOs as improving the availability and nutrition of foods without loss of safety. But many members of the public perceive GMOs negatively.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been a controversial topic for years on Wikipedia, and one with a less than peaceful environment: a number of editors have been sanctioned by ArbCom for poor decorum in GMO discussion, and "discretionary sanctions" have been implemented to stabilize GMO articles.

Wikipedia's coverage of the safety of GM foods in particular has been a source of conflict. Many editors believed the then-current wording on GMO safety was inadequate and provides little context:

There is a general scientific agreement that food from genetically modified crops is not inherently riskier to human health than conventional food, but should be tested on a case-by-case basis. No reports of ill effects have been proven in the human population from ingesting GM food. Although labeling of GMO products in the marketplace is required in many countries, it is not required in the United States and no distinction between marketed GMO and non-GMO foods is recognized by the US FDA. In a May 2014 article in The Economist it was argued that, while GM foods could potentially help feed 842 million malnourished people globally, laws such as those being considered by Vermont's governor, Peter Shumlin, to require labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients, could have the unintended consequence of interrupting the process of spreading GM technologies to impoverished countries that suffer with food security problems.
— Pre-RfC version of second paragraph of Genetically modified organism#Controversy.

To help settle the question, a RfC to change the current wording was opened. Moderated under tight conditions, with strict word limits and behavioral restrictions, there were 22 proposals; nearly 90 editors participated. After one month of discussion, the RfC was closed on July 7, and the first proposal prevailed:

There is a scientific consensus that currently available food derived from GM crops poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food, but that each GM food needs to be tested on a case-by-case basis before introduction. Nonetheless, members of the public are much less likely than scientists to perceive GM foods as safe. The legal and regulatory status of GM foods varies by country, with some nations banning or restricting them, and others permitting them with widely differing degrees of regulation.
— Proposal 1, Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Genetically modified organisms

GMO articles faced a less-than-smooth transition afterwards, as several editors debated the best way to include the new language and replace the old. In the first few days after the RfC was closed, additional text was deleted and replaced while some editors debated whether to change language immediately before and after the RfC-mandated language. Approximately a week later, those disagreements had calmed down.

In brief

  • COI and outing: Largely fueled by the recent block of Jytdog for outing, an RfC has been opened on whether linking the accounts of paid editors to their profiles on other websites (such as Elance) is acceptable. Supporters of this exemption believe that it would help identify paid editors, while opposers contend that harassment and outing is unacceptable in all cases.
  • Finally: For the last year and a half, RfB was the forgotten process. However, prolific Bot Approvals Group member Xaosflux decided to run this month, and, with zero opposition, promoted to the elite coterie of bureaucrats.
  • New administrators: The Signpost welcomes our two new administrators: Jo-Jo Eumerus and BU Rob13.
  • An RfC proposing a new user group called "moderator" has been opened after an unsuccessful RfC in 2013. If enacted, it would be given via an RfA-like process and include full deletion rights and some other tools from the administrator toolkit.
  • Busy week after the 2016 Nice attack: After a terrorist drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France, killing 84 people, many Wikipedians edited and disputed various aspects of the article, including the name of the article, certain details of the attack (e.g., whether it was Islamic terrorism or not), and the notability of the assailant.



Reader comments

2016-07-21

Women-in-science editathon gets national press; Wikipedia "shockingly biased"

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Sandhya Srikant Visweswariah, of the Indian Institute of Science, now the subject of a Wikipedia article.

The Hindu reported about an edit-a-thon on Indian women scientists held on July 16 in Bangalore. Their pre-event article noted that only about 40 women scientists from the country currently have Wikipedia entries, and many of those are incomplete or lack citations.

The paper's followup article reported that about 25 editors participated in the event, creating and updating articles on prominent women scientists in the country. Sandhya Srikant Visweswariah, chair of the Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics at the Indian Institute of Science, was among the subjects tackled. One participant noted, however, that "lack of citations online made it hard to validate entries for many women scientists from the country". This, of course, is a persistent concern, as discussed in part in The Atlantic last month. Having content online leads to the production of more content. Creating new material from non-online content – and being able to use that content to defend Wikipedia's processes of validating content and assessing notability – is a much bigger task although also an essential one.--Milo

Not all we're Cracked up to be?

Wikipedia, a work worth criticizing, is a work in progress, hopefully

Cracked.com featured a critical piece on Wikipedia as "shockingly biased", with input from current administrator Crisco 1492. The piece falls squarely in the sweet-spot of modern criticism of any website: (1) it comes from a website that loves Wikipedia; (2) has readers who love Wikipedia and use it all the time despite its faults; and thus (3) will read any articles, which raises "shocking" concerns about Wikipedia. And though the items discussed are mostly old-hat to Wikipedia editors (not to discount their importance), such articles are usually popular. This one has already received over 350,000 views and 450 comments.

The topic areas discussed in the article include three common complaints: (1) the lack of diversity in contributors and content, such as the gender gap and systemic biases (see The Hindu edit-a-thon discussed above), and the focus of some editors on niche content areas; (2) the ever-present problem of vandalism, but particularly the feedback loop where inaccuracies are cited in the press – "like a game of telephone, only at the end of the game, the garbled nonsense gets published in a newspaper"; and (3) petty arguments among editors, though this discussion also ends in more discussion of vandalism, such as those quixotic editors who like to change heights and weights.

The article also cites the Wikipediocracy website as one "dedicated to destroying Wikipedia", though such a threat does not seem as existential when described as "less like a public service and more like a bunch of Mensa wannabes trying to high five, only to awkwardly smack each other in the nose". Lastly, the piece concludes that "Wikipedia is dying", citing statistics about declining numbers of "very active" editors and the lack of sufficient administrators.

All of these concerns have degrees of validity, and though not precisely news, the continuing focus on them is no doubt important in finding solutions. When high-profile articles stop being written about Wikipedia's flaws, that would suggest irrelevance, which is a much surer sign of decline. No one complains about the functionality or value of Myspace anymore.--Milo

Theresa May (left) and Andrea Leadsom (right) were contenders to replace David Cameron. Leadsom's Wikipedia biography was edited to remove unflattering material by an anon IP that The Guardian reported as geolocating suspiciously close to her local constituency office.
  • New notification features: The Wikipedia blog detailed the newly released updates to the notification system. Highlights include being able to monitor notifications across all wikis on which an editor is active, options to filter your notifications, and bundling of notifications ("5 people thanking you for your edit"), among other updates (July 15)--Milo
  • Apology for misuse of photo on Commons: The use of a Creative Commons licensed photo on an Italian festival poster, without proper attribution, led to a settlement with payment of legal fees when the photographer decided to stand up against the misuse of the photograph, as reported in the Wikimedia blog and elsewhere. Teaching the Internet that a "free license" is not "public domain" is not an easy task. (July 12)--Milo
  • Ten Years on Wikipedia: William Beutler (User:WWB) celebrated ten years on Wikipedia with a post compiling some of the life lessons he has learned from his time on the site. (July 12)--Milo
  • Maybe They Got the Munchies: The Daily Mail and many Australian news outlets like Byron News report that Senator-Elect Pauline Hanson's party policy on medical marijuana appeared to be lifted from Wikipedia. The unattributed copying was first noted on Reddit. (July 10–12)--Milo
  • I Wonder What That Is: HERE announced that its app now has a "Wikipedia Sights" feature which can display geolocated links to articles of interest in your vicinity. (July 8)--Milo
  • IP removing unfavorable content geolocates close to home base: The Wikipedia biography of UK MP Andrea Leadsom (pictured above with Theresa May) drew the attention of The Guardian, when unfavorable content about the energy minister and contender for Prime Minister was removed from her Wikipedia article by an anonymous IP address that geolocated to Towcester, where her constituency office is located. (July 6)--MTbw
  • Wikipedia's seven worst moments?: A Breitbart op-ed produced a "worst moments" list ranging from the removal of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting from list of Islamist terrorist attacks (though it has reappeared on the list subsequent to the Breitbart article) to a description of the GamerGate article as "one of the most biased pages on Wikipedia". Breitbart describes Wikipedia as "... frequently embroiled in controversy surrounding political biases, corrupt mismanagement, and attempts to secretly remove factual information contrary to their narrative". (July 5)--MTbw
  • Copypasting a Wikipedia bio for a campaign handout called a "brain freeze": When Hillary Clinton spoke at Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago, a glossy program given to attendees was copypasted directly from Wikipedia—including mentions of assorted past controversies that generally are absent from a laudatory blurb provided at a campaign event. Organizers stated, "a volunteer had a real brain freeze" when curating the content of the program and humbly explained that the inclusion of references to the Monica Lewinsky scandal was unintentional. (June 28) --MTbw



Do you want to contribute to "In the media" by writing a story or even just an "in brief" item? Edit next week's edition in the Newsroom or contact the editor.



Reader comments

2016-07-21

A wide variety from the best

Map of the U.S. Highways in Michigan

This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 3 to 16 July.
Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.

Male impala in the Serengeti
Front of the Old Pine Church
The Victoria Dam is one of the twenty hydroelectric power stations in Sri Lanka.
Pankaj Advani is the only sportsperson to have won the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna for two sports disciplines; billiards and snooker.

Seven featured articles were promoted these weeks.

  • Dr. No (nominated by SchroCat) is the sixth novel by the English author Ian Fleming to feature his British Secret Service agent James Bond. Fleming wrote the novel in early 1957 at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica. It was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape on 31 March 1958. The novel centres on Bond's investigation into the disappearance in Jamaica of two fellow MI6 operatives. He establishes that they had been investigating Doctor No, a Chinese operator of a guano mine on the fictional Caribbean island of Crab Key. Bond travels to the island and meets Honeychile Rider and later Doctor No. The story was adapted in 1962 as the first film in the Bond series, with Sean Connery in the lead role.
  • The impala (nominated by Sainsf) (Aepyceros melampus) is a medium-sized antelope in eastern and southern Africa. The sole member of the genus Aepyceros, it was first described by German zoologist Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein in 1812. Two subspecies are recognised, the common impala, and the black-faced impala. The impala reaches 70–92 centimetres (28–36 in) at the shoulder and weighs 40–76 kilograms (88–168 lb). It features a glossy, reddish-brown coat. The male's slender, lyre-shaped horns are 45–92 centimetres (18–36 in) long.
  • Old Pine Church (nominated by West Virginian) is a mid-19th century church near Purgitsville, West Virginia. It is among the earliest extant log churches in Hampshire County. The church is a large, one-story, gablefront log building sheathed in brown-painted wooden German siding. The original hewn log beams are visible beneath the church, with some bark remaining on the logs. The church's interior ceiling measures approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) in height and is clad in pressed metal panels. In the church's adjoining cemetery, the earliest extant gravestone dates from 1834, and several unmarked interment sites may exist from as early as 1759. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, due to its "significant settlement-era rural religious architecture in the Potomac Highlands".
  • Agharta (nominated by Dan56) is a 1975 live double album by American jazz musician Miles Davis. After experimenting with different lineups, he established a stable live band in 1973 and toured constantly for the next two years. During a three-week tour of Japan in 1975, Davis performed two concerts at the Festival Hall in Osaka; the afternoon show produced Agharta and the evening show was released as Pangaea the following year.
  • The CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship (nominated by MPJ-DK) is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship promoted by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. As it is a professional wrestling championship, it is not won via legitimate competition; it is instead won via a scripted ending to a match or on occasion awarded to a wrestler because of a storyline. The official definition of the light heavyweight division in Mexico is between 92 and 97 kilograms (203 and 214 lb), but the weight limits are not always strictly adhered to. Because CMLL puts more emphasis on the lower weight classes, this division is considered more important than the heavyweight division, which is considered the most important championship by most promotions outside of Mexico. The current champion is La Máscara, who is in his first reign.
  • "The Man Trap" (nominated by Miyagawa) is the first episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. It aired on NBC in 1966. Set in the 23rd century, the series follows the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and his crew aboard the Starfleet starship USS Enterprise. In this episode, the crew visit an outpost to conduct medical exams on the residents, only to be attacked by a shapeshifting alien creature seeking to extract salt from their bodies. "The Man Trap" was written by George Clayton Johnson and directed by Marc Daniels. The episode placed first in the timeslot with a Nielsen rating of 25.2 percent for the first half-hour and 24.2 for the remainder. After broadcast, reviewers criticized the levels of violence but praised the acting. More recent appraisals have been mixed; praise has been given to the plot and diverse cast but Hollywood.com listed it as among the worst episodes of the series.
  • Milos Raonic (nominated by Saskoiler) (born 1990) is a Canadian professional tennis player. Raonic is the most successful Canadian singles player in history. He became the highest-ranked Canadian male tennis player ever in 2011, when he reached world No. 37. His career-high world No. 4 ranking is the highest by a Canadian man or woman. He is the first Canadian man in the Open Era to reach the Australian Open semifinals, the French Open quarterfinals, and the Wimbledon final. He has more ATP World Tour titles and finals appearances in the Open Era than all other Canadian men combined.

Five featured lists were promoted these weeks.

  • Sri Lanka's electricity demand is currently met by nine thermal power stations, fifteen large hydroelectric power stations, and fifteen wind farms (nominated by Rehman), with a smaller share from small hydro facilities and other renewables such as solar. Most hydroelectric and thermal/fossil fuel based power stations in the country are owned and/or operated by the government via the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board, while the renewable energy sector consists mostly of privately run plants operating with a power purchase agreement.
  • Following the trial of Charles I in 1649, 59 commissioners signed his death warrant. They, along with the several key associates and numerous court officials, were the subject of punishment following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 with the coronation of Charles II. Charles I's trial and execution had followed the English Civil War (1642–51) in which his supporters, Royalist "Cavaliers", were opposed by the Parliamentarian "Roundheads", led by Oliver Cromwell. There is no agreed definition of who is included in the list of regicides (nominated by SchroCat). The Indemnity and Oblivion Act did not use the term either as a definition of the act, or as a label for those involved. "Regicide" has never been specific crime in English law, and has never been defined in law. Historians have identified different groups of people as being suitable for the name, and some do not include the associates who also faced trial and punishment.
  • The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (nominated by Vivvt) is the highest sporting honour of India. The award is named after Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India who served the office from 1984 to 1989. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The recipients are selected by a committee constituted by the Ministry and is honoured for their "spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports over a period of four years" at international level. As of 2016, the award comprises a medallion, a certificate, and a cash prize of 7.5 lakh (US$9,000). As of 2015, there have been twenty-eight recipients from twelve sport disciplines.
  • The Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (nominated by Magiciandude) is an honor presented annually by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, the same organization that distributes the Latin Grammy Awards, to commend musicians who have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording. Award recipients are honored during "Latin Grammy Week", a string of galas just prior to the annual Latin Grammy Awards ceremony.
  • Matt Damon (born 1970) is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. His filmography (nominated by Krimuk90) includes 72 films (including three television movies) and twelve television episodes. With box office receipts of over $2.9 billion in North America, Damon ranks among Hollywood's most commercially successful actors. Damon has featured as a guest star in the television shows Will & Grace (2002), Entourage (2009) and 30 Rock (2010–11), among others. A production company he formed in 2000 with Ben Affleck and Sean Bailey, named LivePlanet, produced Project Greenlight (2001–05, 2015), a television series that helps newcomers develop their first film. Damon has served as the executive producer of a number of projects directed by the winners of the show. In addition, he has narrated several documentaries, including The People Speak (2009) and Inside Job (2010).

One featured topic was promoted these weeks.

  • U.S. Highways in Michigan (nominated by Imzadi1979) are the segments of the national United States Numbered Highway System that are owned and maintained by the US state of Michigan, totaling about 2,300 miles (3,701 km). The longest of these is US Highway 23 at around 362 miles (583 km). On a national level, the standards and numbering for the system are handled by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, while the highways in Michigan are maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Fourteen featured pictures were promoted these weeks.



Reader comments

2016-07-21

Sports and esports

Your Traffic Reports for the weeks of June 26 – July 2, and July 3–9, 2016:

The dominant topic in Wikipedia traffic the week of June 26 to July 2 was sports, and more particularly football, with UEFA Euro 2016 in the top spot for third straight week. And Iceland's improbable team (#22 in the WP:TOP25) victory over England in UEFA Euro 2016 put that country's article at #5. Lionel Messi's (#4) defeat at the Copa América (#12) final, and his subsequent retirement announcement, was also big news. In other news, the hangover from Brexit (#25) kept the European Union (#9) in the top ten for a second week, and put Boris Johnson (#13) and Theresa May (#17) on the Top 25 as well. Game of Thrones also merits a mention, taking slots #2 and #3, and its season finale episode article at #18.

Moving on to the week of July 3–9, sports dominated again this week, with the traditional return of Wimbledon joining the lead-up to the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament, the latest UFC event, and an unexpected team change for an NBA superstar. But it was a sport of an entirely modern kind, Pokemon Go, that led the pack, and before you ask, yes, Pokemon is an esport. Traditional summer distractions such as movies and television round out the list, with the inclusion of politicians Donald Trump and Andrea Leadsom after the Top 10 to remind us (barely) of the real world.

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.

June 26 – July 2

The ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 UEFA Euro 2016 C-class 1,590,000
A third straight week in the top spot, though with less than half as many views as last week. The Round of 16 commenced on June 25, and the quarter-final rounds were underway when this weeks' report closed July 2. The final four teams were Portugal, Wales(!), Germany, and France, with the next match on July 6.
2 Game of Thrones B-class 1,126,688
Last week the Season 6 article was #6, while this general series article was #16 (with 730K views). Why the switch this week? No doubt it is because the season finale on June 26 (The Winds of Winter) (#18) caused more mainstream press coverage, prompting more people unfamiliar with the show to look it up on Wikipedia to see what they were missing.
3 Game of Thrones (season 6) C-class 1,103,448
See #2. Numbers up slightly from last week.
4 Lionel Messi Good Article 1,060,930
Up from #21 and 564K views last week. The Argentine forward and "best footballer on the planet"TM faced Chile in the Copa America Centenario final on June 26, and lost on penalty kicks after a 0–0 draw. The 29-year-old Messi announced his retirement after the game.
5 Iceland B-class 784,708
Views spiked on the northern island country's article on June 27 and 28. On June 27, Iceland defeated England 2–1 in their UEFA Euro 2016 Round of 16 match. But alas, Iceland fell to France on July 3 and did not make the semi-finals.
6 Pat Summitt B-class 764,584
The longtime head coach of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball team, who won a record 1,098 games in her tenure, died at age 64. She retired from coaching in 2012 after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Her public openness about her condition was widely admired and helped raise awareness of the disease and its impact.
7 Battle of the Somme B-class 757,121
The 100th anniversary of the commencement of this First World War battle fell on July 1. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies and was the largest battle of the First World War on the Western Front. More than one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in history.
8 Independence Day: Resurgence C-class 755,170
The 20-years-later sequel to Independence Day premiered in the United States on June 24. As of July 4, its worldwide gross is $252 million; the film had a budget of $165 million. It has received mostly negative reviews, though I fully intend to see it. Down slightly from 810K views last week.
9 European Union Good Article 736,104
Views previously spiked on June 24 due to the Brexit vote, but traffic remained high (though declining each day) for this entire week as the aftermath of the vote began to be digested. Down from #3 and 1.97 million views last week.
10 Jesse Williams (actor) Start-class 720,299
At the BET Awards on June 26, this actor won a humanitarian award, and delivered a speech highlighting racial injustice, police brutality, and cultural appropriation, which drew press attention far beyond anything the BET Awards normally gets. (BET is an acronym for Black Entertainment Television, the most prominent television network targeting African American audiences.)

July 3–9

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 1,371,390
For most people born before the Clinton administration, Pokémon is about as comprehensible as the religious customs of some lost Pacific island or the codes and shibboleths of an ancient secret society. Which, by the way, is exactly why your kids love it so much. It's too complicated to explain quickly but the latest iteration exploded into the public mind almost overnight (it currently has more users than Tinder in the US, despite only being in release for 5 days) due to its unique, and perhaps uniquely dangerous, gameplay. Thanks to the wonders of augmented reality, Google Maps and GPS, a real-time scavenger hunt has morphed with a video game; it's everywhere you go. Hold up your iPhone to a tree, there's a Pokémon sitting in a crook, waiting to be captured and sent to the death ring, er, I mean "gym". Look down on the pavement, and there's a cute Pokémon staring up at you. And hey look! There's one swimming in that deceptively close and surprisingly deep pond! And there's one across that very busy street! Yes, Pokemon Go-related accidents have already happened, as have muggings, since the game alerts any other players to your current location. Thankfully none of this has proven fatal, though it's only a matter of time before a health official is forced to remind the general public that real people do not get extra lives.
2 Sultan (2016 film) Start class 1,152,393
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. And now he's done it again. His latest, a wrestling drama, was also released on Eid and has taken in nearly ₹1.96 billion ($29 million) in its first six days.
3 Independence Day (United States) B-class 1,142,261
This is the fourth US Independence Day since we started this list, which means it's time to look for patterns, and one that stands out is that while this article's numbers keep climbing year upon year, it has never been the #1 article for its week. Some have speculated that Americans already know enough about their founding holiday and don't need to look it up.
4 UEFA Euro 2016 C-class 988,687
Numbers are down slightly for the quarter- and semi-finals, which saw the darlings of the tournament (Wales and Iceland) predictably knocked out by France and Portugal. This list's timeframe ends before the 10 July final so expect numbers to shoot up again next week.
5 Juno (spacecraft) C-class 960,161
Not all NASA missions need to be glamorous; this one, which began a slow, winding descent towards Jupiter on 4 July, won't be gracing us with grand vistas of the jewels of the Jovian realm. No: this one is hardcore, pick-to-the-cliff science. Have you ever seen a cutaway image of the inside of a gas giant? Well if not, here's one. Thing is, up until now, it's basically educated guesswork. We don't have any hard evidence of what's under those clouds. But we will, thanks to Juno, which will get the info by mapping Jupiter's gravitational field. But to do so, it has to get close. Real close. As in, close enough to be fried by Jupiter's 12,000-Chernobyls-per-second radiation belts. Needless to say, it's a tough little bugger, but its creators don't expect it to be producing useful science for more than 18 months before it's toast.
6 Nettie Stevens Start class 896,719
This pioneering geneticist and discoverer of the XY sex-determination system got a Google Doodle on her 155th birthday on 7 July.
7 UFC 200 Start class 872,178
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.
8 Serena Williams B-class 857,452
The world women's number 1 tennis champion clinched yet another record on 9 July when she beat Angelique Kerber in straight sets to clinch her 22nd major singles title at her natural home, Wimbledon. Two more titles and she will equal Margaret Court's career record.
9 Antoine Griezmann C-class 849,627
Olivier Giroud may have scored two goals for France in the Euro 2016 semi-final, but it was Griezmann who scored the most goals in the tournament.
10 Kevin Durant Good Article 707,764
The seven-time NBA All-Star signed with the Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors this week for a reported two-year, $54 million contract.




Reader comments

2016-07-21

Script writers appointed for clerks



Reader comments

2016-07-21

Using deep learning to predict article quality; search engine helps schoolkids navigate Chinese Wikipedia; talk page sentiment

A monthly overview of recent academic research about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, also published as the Wikimedia Research Newsletter.




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