All the Rage: Raging Again
When I launched The Wikipedian in the spring, one of my initial plans that fell by the wayside was the continuation of a weekly feature at my ever occasional political site, Blog P.I. called "All the Rage". The feature, made possible by Craig Wood's WikiRage tool identifying the most-edited articles across Wikipedia according to various periods of time, sought to explain why certain articles happened to be trending during a given week. Today at last, "All the Rage" returns on a trial basis. (Let's say for now, monthly?) So let's take a look at the ten-most edited articles* on the English Wikipedia for November 2009:
2012 (film) -- The surprise fall box office hit is the surprise most-edited Wikipedia article for the month. And, apart from a one-week period in the middle of November (when the film was released) one of the most-vandalized.
Assassin's Creed II -- The next installment in a video game series, the first of which I'd been led to believe received a mixed reaction from critics. No matter, Roland Emmerich's previous films were no masterpieces either, and look how his latest did.
Rated R (Rihanna album) -- The first album from R&B singer Rihanna since the all-too-public incident wherein she suffered a brutal beating from then-boyfriend (and fellow R&B artist) Chris Brown debuted well in early release.
The X Factor (UK series 6) -- How long before this very popular UK talent show crosses the pond to the United States? Difficult to say. No doubt multi-millionaire host Simon Cowell could import it stateside alongside the Idol franchise if he cared to do so.
Robert Enke -- This 32-year-old German football (soccer) goalkeeper committed suicide on November 10. I'm not quite sure why this page, except that the obviously sudden news caused a sudden spike in traffic (and edits) suggesting his fame in Germany exceeded that of sportswriter Mike Penner in the United States or model Daul Kim in South Korea. Hidden in the revisions are clues to the possible motivations, however morbid. On a somewhat lighter note, I did just learn that Wikipedia has a category titled Suicides by jumping in front of a train.
Berlin Wall -- Did something happen with that twenty years ago this past month?
Left 4 Dead 2 -- Another video game sequel. Scoff if you must, but this zombie shoot-'em-up does feature one shockingly complete article after two weeks' release.
Dancing with the Stars (U.S. season 9) -- This is the show that readers of Blog P.I. might remember as the one in which former House Majority Leader Tom "The Hammer" DeLay took part. You may wish to forget, but YouTube never will.
John & Edward -- If you've been wondering what that "JEdward" phrase in Twitter's top searches was all about (and are not yet hip to What the Trend) then wonder no more. And blame Simon Cowell.
Kesha (singer) -- Who? Another singer, this one with only a hit single to her name but also a deletion debate and argument over whether the article should be named Ke$ha like her stylized stage name. Current consensus: no. Check in after her first album debuts in early 2010.
That's about all for now, folks. We'll see you next time we play "All the Rage". ___ *Almost. We will be doing a few things different this time around. One is that we will not profile articles scheduled for feature on the Main page -- in most cases, these are Featured articles. We will, however, mention them in an "honorable mention"-type section here in the footer. One perennial, and the only article affected this time, is Deaths in 2009 (or soon enough, Deaths in 2010).