User:Andrewa/The Problem With Page Views



In requested move (RM) discussions, the question often arises as to whether there is a primary topic for a possible undisambiguated title, and if so, which of the two or more contenders that might be.

One of the two criteria for deciding this is A topic is primary for a term, with respect to usage, if it is highly likely—much more likely than any other topic, and more likely than all the other topics combined—to be the topic sought when a reader searches for that term. One of the three tools that may help to support the determination of a primary topic in a discussion (but are not considered absolute determining factors, due to unreliability, potential bias, and other reasons)... given later on that page is Wikipedia article traffic statistics (external link as per that page).

So page stats are relevant, but they don't end the discussion, not by a long shot. The disambiguation guideline certainly doesn't indicate anything of the sort. But there have been many, many comments in RM discussions over the years that assume just the opposite, that quote page stats as the main or even the only evidence and insist end of story, often quite heatedly.

Perhaps it has been proposed that this should be the guideline. It seems surprising if not, considering the ferocious nature of the repeated appeals to it as a principle. But if so the proposal is lost in the archives somewhere, and obviously didn't get up. Perhaps it should be proposed a few times, so we can then list it at Perennial proposals. It seems to already have that sort of status (and usefulnesss... sorry).

Because, there are very good reasons that the guideline reads as it does. Another user put it better than I can:

And that pretty much destroys the argument that page views are all that is relevant. Page views are at best one tool; It could even be argued that they have no relevance at all. Which is entirely consistent with what the guideline says. Page view statistics often help by suggesting what a word or phrase most often means in English, but they should never decide the issue. There is no valid argument to support the notion that they should.

And that this is still supported by consensus is demonstrated by the fact that there have been many, many move discussions where consensus has been not to blindly follow the page view count in deciding whether there was a primary topic and what it was. The experience of Wikipedians has been that page stats are not the whole story. Which again supports that the guideline is right on the money, and that those ignoring or misquoting it are not.

Examples below. Please feel free to add to the list.

Examples
Add diffs or permalinks to discussions where either the consensus has been that page view stats did not correctly identify the primary topic, or where it has been claimed that page view statistics should overrule all other considerations, or preferably, both have occurred in the one discussion!


 * Typecasting: This article gets more than 86% of the traffic... but it still wasn't agreed that it was the primary topic.
 * Fingering: Several RMs over the years  with lots of arguments... but no chance of consensus to simply go by page views.
 * The One and Only (song) ...the song has received more pageviews than all the other articles combined... but consensus was not to move.
 * James McCarthy (footballer)... He gains far more views than all the other James McCarthys combined... and yet strong consensus not to move.
 * Winters... What I see is that there is a primary topic. Going by pageviews, Winters, California is the primary topic among the three articles... But clear if rough consensus was that there is no primary topic.
 * Usher (musician). An argument that he was the primary topic was rejected despite evidence from page views.
 * Three Girls closed as no consensus but still as spectacular an example as is ever likely to be found. Three girls remained a primary redirect to De tribus puellis which was getting 33 views per day vs 2000 for one of the other entries at Three Girls (disambiguation).
 * Talk:Miya (actress) clearly the primary topic supported purely by pageviews, but closed as consensus not to move.