After big views for a high point of 1969, the Moon landing, attention is drawn to a low one, the Tate murders (like when the mastermind behind the crimes died). Thanks to the bloody revisionist take present in the latest Quentin Tarantino movie, the murders top the list. There are other film entries (#6, #7), many of which involve superheroes (#9) — and there's also a subversive take on superpowered people in The Boys (#2, #14). Completing it, there's political (#5, #8), entries propelled by our friends in India (#4), and the oft-present Lady Death (#3).

For the week of July 28 to August 3, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	About
1	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood		1,299,670		Leonardo DiCaprio (pictured) and Brad Pitt star in the latest movie by Quentin Tarantino. The movie is an alternate history period piece, set in 1969 Los Angeles, where the Tate murders take a bloodier route. Critics liked it, and audiences are also intrigued by Once Upon a Time in Hollywood even if other movies (#6, #7) kept it from the top of the box office.
2	The Boys (2019 TV series)		1,141,847		Karl Urban stars in this comic book adaptation about vigilantes fighting back against mean-spirited superheroes, currently available on Amazon Prime Video.
3	Deaths in 2019		1,063,857		The Grim Reaper manifests once again. It takes a nation of billions to take it down.
4	V. G. Siddhartha		1,019,648		Speaking of the recently deceased, the founder of cafe chain Café Coffee Day was found dead on July 31.
5	Tulsi Gabbard		952,510		The 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates and forums have started, showcasing potential candidates such as this Samoa-born Representative for Hawaii.
6	The Lion King (2019 film)		852,681		The most successful Disney animated classic, held dear by anyone who grew up in the 90s (myself included, I even made sure it has a Good Article here) got a remake. The only purpose must be to stuff the studio's coffers, as it's basically the same movie stretched to two hours with few good changes and many bad ones (e.g. "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" during the day and whatever this was). And The Lion King surely is doing that!
7	Hobbs & Shaw		768,918		"How come there are nine The Fast and the Furious movies?", asked my mom upon hearing about the ninth, a spin-off centered around the other two bald men in the cast, Jason Statham (pictured) and Dwayne Johnson. Reviews were OK and the movie topped the box office, and should be proof that the "actual ninth" must also make a killing next year.
8	Boris Johnson		749,040		As described by John Oliver, “a clownish figure with silly hair and a passing relationship with the truth" has been selected by his party to be the leader of United Kingdom, something that certainly brings to mind someone from across the Pond. Though at least Johnson was a politician before, garnering a bad reputation for what he did as both mayor of London and Foreign Secretary.
9	Avengers: Endgame		682,848		A movie where Thanos (whose "daughters" are seen to the left) dies twice. Made a boatload of cash and is currently the most viewed article of the year.
10	Sharon Tate		614,199		Margot Robbie (pictured) portrays this actress in our #1.

It's yet another week where India pushes the top entries, both related to politics, no less: a controversial territory reorganization (#1, #8, #10) and a politician's death (#2). The only topic as present are two of those tragic and sadly very common mass shootings that the United States endures (#4, #5, #9). Otherwise, the year's deaths (#13) have had the addition of a convict (#3) and an acclaimed writer (#6), and for some lighter\escapist topics, there's movies (#7).

For the week of August 4 to 10, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	About
1	Article 370 of the Constitution of India		3,772,745		Jammu and Kashmir had a special status in India, thanks to this 1947 law which aimed to reconcile the Muslim majority region with Indian rule. It has now been revoked, leaving the population under a curfew and lockdown enforced by the military despite widespread unrest.
2	Sushma Swaraj		2,389,395		We're not leaving India yet, as this politician and Supreme Court lawyer, who had served as Minister of External Affairs prior to deciding not to run for this year's elections, died at 67 following a heart attack.
3	Jeffrey Epstein		1,891,850		A wealthy, connected, convicted criminal, and a pedophile no less, who hanged himself in prison. Wasn't a good time to have the same name as him.
4	List of mass shootings in the United States in 2019		1,384,533		Says something about how bad the gun culture/control in the United States is when a whole yearly list can be done with gun massacres. And of the two that sadly opened August, more views given to the first, where a white nationalist opened fire at an El Paso, Texas Walmart, killing 22 — including eight Mexicans and a German — and injuring 24.
5	2019 El Paso shooting		1,038,183
6	Toni Morrison		920,193		This American writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for a career that included works such as Song of Solomon and Beloved, died at the age of 88 from complications of pneumonia.
7	Hobbs & Shaw		902,248		Jason Statham (pictured) and Dwayne Johnson (who barely missed the list at #26) star in the first spin-off of The Fast and the Furious franchise, which has led the box office for two straight weeks.
8	Jammu and Kashmir		841,886		The Indian-administered part of an oft-disputed region bordering Pakistan and China, now going through territory status changes (#1, #10, #14), and being reorganised to split the territory of Ladakh (#21)
9	8chan		826,346		Before going on a shooting spree in Texas (#5), the shooter posted a white nationalism manifesto on this infamous imageboard. It was the final straw to ensure 8chan become a downright deep web site, unavailable for people without onion-flavoured browsers.
10	Article 35A of the Constitution of India		810,162		If #1 stated Jammu and Kashmir had special status, this article defined who were the permanent residents there. Both have been revoked by the presidency.

There are some interesting contrasts in this report. Villains (#1 and #12) appear alongside their victims (#7 and #11 respectively), while two of our film and TV entries, #2 and #22 also feature #12. At the same time, there's a film (#17) and a TV series (#8) about superheroes, with very different perspectives on them, while our usual mix of Indian topics sees both a celebration of independence (#25) and concerns about a loss of independence #15). Other than that, the list sees entries related to events in Hong Kong at #9 and #13 and a dose of the surreal at #10 and, arguably #19.

For the week of August 11 to 17, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	About
1	Jeffrey Epstein		3,899,509		With an ongoing flow of stories, revelations and speculation about the convicted pedophile who killed himself in jail, it's not surprising he's at the top of this week's report. This week's #7 has been pulled into the spotlight along with him.
2	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood		954,131		Positive reviews are rolling in for Tarantino's 10th film (and the first not associated with disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein), pushing it up to second place in this week's list.
3	SummerSlam (2019)		953,509		A professional pay-per-view wrestling event that took place in Toronto on the 11th of August and was attended by 16,904 people, while even more have come to read about it on Wikipedia.
4	Peter Fonda		807,332		The star of Easy Rider and Ulee's Gold died on August 16th at the age of 79 of lung cancer. "He went out laughing", said his sister Jane.
5	Sacred Games (TV series)		721,703		This popular series based on a book by Vikram Chandra is the first original Indian series commissioned by Netflix. Its second season hit the platform on the 15th of August, and it's rocketed above American series like #8, #20 and #22 below.
6	Deaths in 2019		718,841		Death is never far from our minds and this week is no exception, even as #4 was added to the list.
7	Ghislaine Maxwell		696,761		She's the daughter of famous publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, but it's Ghislaine's association with #1 in this week's list that has brought her back into the public eye. It seems unlikely that this is the last we'll see of her.
8	The Boys (2019 TV series)		675,306		Violent, dark, subversive and funny — this Amazon Prime adaptation of the comic book by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson has stayed popular.
9	2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests		556,665		Protests in Hong Kong have continued to grab headlines and, with concerns about a military invasion of the island by China, those headlines aren't ending any time soon.
10	Corn flakes		554,828		An old story about the origins of this ubiquitous breakfast cereal circulated on social media this week, leading people to look online for confirmation...

I have a confession to make, Agent Groff. I have yet to make time to watch the second series of Mindhunter, caught up instead as I was with The Boys. I'd like to apologise, your highness, for this lapse in my binge-watching judgement, as it has caused me severe difficulties with regards to writing this report, which focuses very heavily on the David Fincher-produced series. On the plus side, preparing this week's report has given me insight into the crimes of some of the most depraved individuals in American history. However, to my detriment, preparing this week's report has given me insight into the crimes of some of the most depraved individuals in American history. Aside from the pervasive presence of Mindhunter, however, the report is rather diverse, and was a joy to compile, composed as it is with entries from silver screen both Eastern and Western, animalistic curiosities, and political intrigue/idiocy. Enjoy.

Without further ado, for the week of August 18 to 24, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes
1	Mindhunter (TV series)		1,210,366		Netflix never ceases to dominate the Top 25 Report when any of its behemoth series release new content, from Black Mirror to Stranger Things. However, even with its remarkable consistency at the apex of the report, it is difficult for me to recall a week when one series captured the Wikipedia zeitgeist to quite as dramatic an extent as Mindhunter evidently has this week. Barring the untimely demise of an Indian politician, the customary shenanigans of The Donald, and a film tangentially related to the series, Joe Penhall's incredibly engrossing series would have a complete stranglehold (delectable pun absolutely intended) on the top entries of the report. The second series of the striking show sees the FBI's Behavioural Science Unit attempt to unravel the psyche of serial killers to put an end to a string of murders, specifically targeting children, in Atlanta. While the lead characters of the series are fictional historical inserts (get used to the concept, as they are just like Quentin's duo in #6), the criminals, and crimes, depicted are steeped in actual fact. At least 28 victims are believed to have met their demise in the three year span in Georgia, at the hands of the ultimately apprehended (spoiler alert, I guess) Wayne Williams, who was only ever convicted of the murder of two adults during the same timeframe. Williams maintains his innocence, sighting an elaborate plan to frame him and avert a race war (get used to the concept, as it is the same as #7's concocted and contrived scheme). While the series is framed around the police pursuit of Williams, there are several vignettes set in Park City, Kansas depicting the murderous activities of sexual sadist Dennis Rader, whose malicious machinations ran concurrently with Williams, but who would chronologically evade capture and detainment for his crimes for a further two and a half decades, following his inexplicable series of communications with local media that saw the then decades old cold case pinned on him. Fans of the show can expect this to transpire in the future, I guess. The primary takeaway from the dominance of Mindhunter over Wikipedians' interest speaks both to Netflix's power, and to the number of people using Wikipedia on a second device to research real-life events as they unfold onscreen — something that detracts from the lustre of the show, for me personally, but a phenomenon that we will doubtless observe at full strength yet again come November.
2	Atlanta murders of 1979-1981		1,140,526
3	Wayne Williams		1,134,108
4	Dennis Rader		964,775
5	Arun Jaitley		931,315		The former Minister for Finance in the Modi government died during the week, leading droves of Indian Wikipedians to his article to recall his political achievements, which built to a crowning achievement of the implementation of an indirect tax on the purchase of goods and services that lines the vaults of the Indian exchequer with billions of rupees each month. The public perception and memory of his tenure will perhaps be softened by his controversy-embroiled predecessor (#22)
6	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood		912,368		The latest film from violent visionary Quentin Tarantino, following on from his Nazi-torching flick, spaghetti western, and Bonanza-inspired western, depicts an actor who stars in a Nazi-torching flick, spaghetti western, and Bonanza-inspired western, and is somehow still one of the most inventive and creative releases of the year. An enjoyable and slow-paced romp, which derives its pervading tension by the looming spectre of our malevolent #7 and #21, portrayed by the same actor as in #1, the film is paradoxically either the least or most Tarantino film which Tarantino has ever produced. Irrespective of this, and the admittedly lengthy build-up, the explosive third act is gloriously satisfying, reveling in near gleeful bloodshed, and the film is one of the better cinematic experiences of recent times, an experience just recently made available to those on the other side of the Atlantic.
7	Charles Manson		859,306
8	Deaths in 2019		742,779		The reaper never ceases to claim souls for the underworld, and the denizens of Wikipedia never cease to be captivated by the list of his latest wretched and reluctant recruits, a list headlined this week by our #5.
9	Greenland		690,827		Seriously? Are we serious here? Every week that passes in our increasing world of political insanity makes me less convinced that our existence is not some elaborate, comical simulation. It turns out, as 690,000 or so Wikipedians discovered, that you can not claim sovereign territory of another nation, much less one with a burgeoning independence movement, with stacks of freedom francs, regardless of how much you would like to. Not anymore, anyway. Can't wait until the next episode of this riveting, Room-esque disasterclass of a show, when the Commander-in-Chief will presumably attempt to hire Iron Man as part of the Space Force.
10	Edmund Kemper		671,237		This delightful individual, propelled towards the pinnacle of the report by his appearance in #1, fits securely within the rogues' gallery of the show, infamous as he is for the murder of his grandparents while still a teenager. Following his release for these crimes, the so-called "Co-ed Killer" embarked on a brutal killing spree in California in 1973, targeting young women who he would (reader discretion advised), decapitate, before engaging in various depraved acts of necrophilia with the corpses. His terrifying and torturous crimes culminated in the matricidal slaughter of his mother, who psychologists ultimately surmised was the target of his misogynistic malfeasance. Cheery stuff.

• These lists exclude the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.

Fake news comes in many varieties, and the fakers use Wikipedia to spread it. This month's examples include a fake plot summary of a fictionalized film retelling the story of the very real Charles Manson, and a reporter anonymously vandalizing a Wikipedia article to start media coverage on a politician he doesn't like. The simple censorship of a town's history of racial violence almost looks benign, or at least honest, in comparison.

• Edit warring over a made-up plot summary, complicated by spoilers: The Verge, Esquire, and other media reported on an edit war over the Wikipedia article about the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The Quentin Tarantino production is about the real-life Charles Manson, albeit with a wildly a-historical ending. The source of the conflict? A plot summary with an ending as wildly divergent from the film as the film is wildly divergent from the actual events. It seems that rather than reveal spoilers, an editor simply made something up. Editors who had seen the screening at the Cannes Film Festival objected that the content was bogus, yet did not wish to reveal the true ending as the film had not yet been released in theaters. The resulting edit war which saw the false summary removed and restored, the section of the article removed entirely and then restored, died out once the film was released in theaters and editors who had not seen the advance screening could confirm that the erroneous summary was indeed erroneous.-3f
• John Delaney, RIP 2019?: On July 30, 2019, at the second round of 2020 Democratic presidential debates, former U.S. Representative and presidential candidate John Delaney was excoriated by Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren after he criticized progressives, including Warren, for proposing policies that he deemed "dead on arrival." Later that night, an anonymous vandal edited Delaney's biography on the English Wikipedia declaring that Delaney died, slain by Warren. The edit was reverted within three minutes and the article protected the next minute. A reporter for The Young Turks finished tweeting a screenshot of the vandalism the minute after. The vandalism and the tweet were reported by several seemingly reliable news sources, including USA Today, Mashable, and WKYC. When asked by The Signpost about the vandalism the reporter did not deny that he vandalized the article stating "I thought it was funny. Presidential debates are largely substance-free spectacle so no, I don’t think there’s much more to report."-S
• The right to forget?: Wikipedia entries won't let Harrison shed unsavory past. Representatives and residents of the town of Harrison, Arkansas, removed material on its history of racial violence which goes back more than a century. They believe that the material doesn't reflect the current reality of the town. Mayor Jerry Jackson was quoted saying "I believe Harrison is probably the most non-racist small town in America because we have had this image to deal with for so long." This type of censorship results in fake history rather than fake news, but the results are much the same. We prefer the standard view of historians, the right to remember, over the right to forget.-S
• Propaganda lives on as history: Dalton Delan describes a cold war propaganda battle about Yellow rain in The Unspin Room: A story lost to history – or at least to Wikipedia in The Berkshire Eagle. At this late date it may be impossible to determine which version of events is correct. Was the yellow rain chemical warfare or bee poop? The Wikipedia article, strangely enough, clearly favors the bee poop hypothesis.-S

With so much fake news around, it's good to see that some reporters can actually find real news.

• European court weighs in on the Turkish ban of Wikipedia: The European Court of Human Rights has set a deadline of the end of October for Turkey to prove that its ban of Wikipedia in the country is within European human rights standards, reports Ahval and Deutsche Welle (latter article in Turkish).
• On Chinese Wikipedia, a bitter battle rages to define the Hong Kong protests: Wired UK gives a history of this summer's conflicts both on the streets and online. See Community view in this issue of The Signpost for more details.
• Welsh Wikipedia Gives Me Hope: by Stephen Harrison in Slate describes the value of "smaller language" versions of Wikipedia in giving a foothold for those speakers to promote cultural diversity. Welsh Wikipedia has over 100,000 articles, which may account for a recent dramatic increase in the presence of Welsh in the tech world, such as increased quality in Google Translate.
• Wikimania to the Rescue: another piece by Stephen Harrison in Slate gives a galloping overview of the first day of Wikimania 2019. He covers topics including a WMF partnership with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the conference's theme of the UN's 17 sustainable development goals, international camaraderie, reducing the carbon footprint of both the WMF and Wikimania, freely licensed textbook images, gender inequality, and harassment. And all in less than 800 words.
• Meet Émna Mizouni, the Wikimedian of the Year yet another piece by Stephen Harrison, but this time published in One Zero. The interview with Mizouni details her work in Tunisia. See News from the WMF for further details.
• "Detention" or "concentration"? : Gizmodo reports on the year-long dispute over whether the locations where the US government warehouses asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants qualify for Wikipedia's list of concentration and internment camps.
• Fogcam is closing down after 25 years: The early webcam at San Francisco State University showed – what else? – a foggy campus scene. SFGate, BBC, Gizmodo, NPR, and Engadget, all covered the closure but did not refer to Wikipedia. Rather they linked to the www.fogcam.org website, which will stay open without the webcam. Fogcam.org referenced two articles on Wikipedia to show that they were the oldest operating webcam on the internet.

• Gizmodo reports on 11 Incredibly Useful Websites You Might Not Know About which include 1. Simple Wikipedia, and 7. Internet Archive
• From The New York Times to House to Netflix: The NY Times' ‘Diagnosis’ column which inspired the House TV show uses crowdsourcing and will have a new show on Netflix. "While there’s a lot of misinformation online, Sanders thinks patients are becoming more critical about where they get their information.... even Wikipedia can be helpful so long as the entries are edited by 'people who have skin in the game.' "
• Edit-a-thon by the Interference Archive: on pirate radio and community broadcasting.
• The Santiago Times asks: Is Chilean President Sebastián Piñera ‘a famous thief’? Wikipedia says so!. This looks like real vandalism, not something done by a reporter just so he could write a story about it. The vandalism lasted a dozen hours.
• Legal Cheek: reports that someone from O’Melveny & Myers, which has been in merger talks with Allen & Overy, was requesting deletion of material about O&M's work with the Trump administration. Even though the firm's IP address was used to request the deletions, O&M denied that anybody had been authorized to make such requests, raising the question of whether they're opening a new practice as Wiki-lawyers.
• Orissa Post: reports that Sangram Keshari Senapati has contributed at least one article per day to the Odia Wikipedia starting on March 8, 2017 and continuing through at least July 12, 2019. That's two years and 100 days.
• Another type of gender gap: Allie Jones in The Outline writes in I’m Upset: Wikipedia should tell me why a famous man is bad, that the "personal life" sections of men's biographies are often missing all the juicy details that women's biographies more often have.
• Many celebrities critique their Wikipedia biographies: More episodes of Loudwire's interview series "Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction", where they interview a celebrity about "their Wikipedia article." This month featured Steve-O [1] and Chris Raab [2], best known for their Jackass stunts, John Petrucci of the metal band Dream Theater [3], and Dan Donegan from Disturbed [4]. Carlin Isles, a United States national rugby sevens team member, also reviewed the Wikipedia biography on himself in a video posted by NBC Chicago.

For further coverage of Wikipedia in the news see List of articles about Wikipedia

Wikimania 2019 was held in Stockholm from August 16 to 19, attracting about 900 conference goers, and holding over 200 events including presentations and panels. For those of us who missed it, we can still see many of the presentations online, including 25 recorded by the Wikimedia Foundation available on YouTube. Popular sessions include:

• Welcome session & keynote
• Closing session
• Mark Graham on the Internet Archive
• Katherine Maher interviewed by Joakim Jarenberg

But the video offerings are not limited to those produced by the WMF. At Commons there are 153 other videos that were produced by volunteers known as the Knowledge Savers. These small session videos are not as slick as the WMF-recorded presentations, but you should be able to find the presentation that you really wanted to see. – S

It disappeared. Following up on a discussion at User talk:Jimbo Wales, The Signpost asked for comment from the WMF. Greg Varnum stated "The FDC's role is currently under review as FDC members, the board and staff await the Movement Strategy outcomes and recommendations, particularly as they relate to Resource Allocation. For FY19/20, the APG-FDC grant amounts and process remain the same as last year: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/2018-19_Annual_Plan/Temporary_changes_to_grants_programs. The Board will review the FDC's role once Movement Strategy outcomes and recommendations are ready." – S

On July 29, Graham87 (one of the few non-stewards with import rights) manually imported 419 revisions of HomePage (the original title of the Main Page) from 2001. The edits were manually restored from an August 2001 database discovered in 2010 by Tim Starling, which can be found here (warning: clicking the link will download the file). Of particular note is this edit, the oldest surviving Wikipedia edit, reading, in full: "This is the new WikiPedia!". (This title was previously held by an edit of the (list) article UuU.) The January 15th edit was made by office.bomis.com, which, according to Wikipedia:Wikipedia's oldest articles, is likely Jimbo Wales.

After these events were pointed out to Jimbo, he responded with some clarification:

– P

• New user-groups: The Affiliations Committee announced the approval of this month's newest Wikimedia movement affiliates, the Hausa Wikimedians User Group and the Yoruba Wikimedians User Group. The two have been recognized as user groups for one-year renewable periods. In July the Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group, and the Wikipedians of Goa User Group were approved.
• New chapters: In July Wikimedia Colombia was approved as a new chapter and Wikimedia Medicine was approved as a new thematic organization by the Affiliations Committee.
• New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's administrators who were approved in August by RfA: Izno, Chetsford, Bradv, and Floquenbeam.

Ryan Merkley will join the Wikimedia Foundation on September 16 as Chief of Staff to the office of the Executive Director. His extensive experience includes five years as the CEO of Creative Commons (CC), and three years at Mozilla, moving from Director of Programs and Strategy to Chief Operating Officer to Chief Strategy Officer.

Merkley listed ten accomplishments in his five years at CC, including

• developing and implementing a 5-year strategy,
• developing CC Search, which indexes 300 million CC-licensed images
• redesigning an affiliate program Creative Commons Global Network
• helping to run four CC Summit conferences
• raising money, and
• hiring a diverse workforce "with a majority of both leadership and staff who are women."

You can watch his presentation at Wikimania (starting at 36:00) as he explains his work at CC, how copyright works, and how CC works with the UN’s sustainable development goals.

His new role at the WMF "is designed to be both operational and strategic," Merkely told The Signpost. "I’ll serve as an advisor and partner to the ED and support leadership and the Board," as well as working on "special projects like the Movement Strategy."

He’ll work from his home in Toronto, where he lives with his young daughter, wife, and a dog. "My wife Kelsey and I started a small wine club, where we focus on natural and biodynamic wines. I’m a musician — drums, percussion, guitar — and I sometimes get out to play with friends and their bands."

The editing community is central to Merkley’s view of Wikipedia, "everything at the Wikimedia Foundation connects to community in one way or another." His message to the community is

I love the idea of work we can only do together — of collective acts. I get energized from meeting people and having them tell me about their work and their interests. Too often people treat leadership in an organization like characters in a soap opera, not as real humans who struggle and sometimes fail. I hope people will reach out, and connect so we can get to know each other and accomplish great things.