Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-03-25/Traffic report

This week's list is reminiscent of lists from the early days of this project: a preponderance of famous faces, Reddit threads, and Google Doodles. Predictably, the arrival of St. Patrick's Day topped the list, while the arrest of Robert Durst proved surprisingly popular. Events of global significance, such as the devastation of Vanuatu, were pushed out this week.

'''For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.'''

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of March 15–21, 2015, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:


 * {| class="wikitable"

! Rank ! Article ! Class ! Views ! Image ! Notes
 * 1
 * 1


 * Saint Patrick's Day
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|2,783,603
 * Kilbennan St. Benin's Church Window St. Patrick Detail 2010 09 16.jpg
 * Every man has his day, at least if he's a saint. And when your day happens to involve copious alcohol consumption and opportunities for gradeschool cruelty, it is bound to be popular. A Google Doodle doesn't hurt either.
 * 2
 * Robert Durst
 * Symbol start class.svg
 * align="right"|1,508,008
 * It's not often that a film documentary has an impact on an actual murder investigation; Errol Morris's 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line famously led to the exoneration of Randall Dale Adams, and now, the The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, the new documentary by Andrew Jarecki (Capturing the Friedmans), has provided evidence leading to the re-arrest of Robert Durst, the wealthy son of a real-estate family suspected of, but never convicted for, three murders. It says something about the inner dynamics of the Durst family that his brother greeted the new evidence by saying he was "relieved" and "grateful" and that, "We hope he will finally be held accountable for all he has done."
 * 3
 * Anna Atkins
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|953,069
 * Anna Atkins 1861.jpg
 * The photographic and botanical pioneer (one of, if not the first person to illustrate a book with photographic plates) got a Google Doodle on her 216th birthday on 16 March.
 * 4
 * Alex (parrot)
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|941,143
 * Congo African Grey pet on a perch.JPG
 * If his trainer is right, then this African grey parrot, who died unexpectedly in 2007, could very well have been the most intelligent non-human animal in recorded history. Not only did he have a vocabulary of over 100 words, he apparently understood what those words meant and could identify objects by name, even if they were different colours or shapes. But one day, Alex appeared to take things to another level completely. He turned to his trainer and asked, "What colour am I?" the first existential question ever asked by an animal. This was noted in a Reddit thread this week, which quickly filled up with contributions from parrot owners telling tales their own pets' abilities.
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|941,143
 * Congo African Grey pet on a perch.JPG
 * If his trainer is right, then this African grey parrot, who died unexpectedly in 2007, could very well have been the most intelligent non-human animal in recorded history. Not only did he have a vocabulary of over 100 words, he apparently understood what those words meant and could identify objects by name, even if they were different colours or shapes. But one day, Alex appeared to take things to another level completely. He turned to his trainer and asked, "What colour am I?" the first existential question ever asked by an animal. This was noted in a Reddit thread this week, which quickly filled up with contributions from parrot owners telling tales their own pets' abilities.

Note: in the name of honest journalism I should admit that the above grey parrot is in fact NOT Alex, since his actual photo is copyrighted. Still, he'd pass in a crowd.
 * 5
 * Natalia Kills
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|902,335
 * Natalia Kills performing 3.png
 * That's a rather aggressive stage name, it must be said. Anyway, the British singer apparently lives up to her name (somewhat) because she is currently engulfed in a minor scandal over bullying a contestant while acting as a judge on the New Zealand version of The X Factor.
 * 6
 * To Pimp a Butterfly
 * Unassessed
 * align="right"|828,825
 * Kendrick Lamar Way Out West 2013 (cropped).jpg
 * The latest album from Kendrick Lamar (pictured) was released on 16 March.
 * 7
 * Christian Laettner
 * Symbol start class.svg
 * align="right"|811,567
 * Christian Laettner at Yahoo event.jpg
 * How does a man named Christian Laettner respond to a TV documentary called I Hate Christian Laettner? Well if he happens to be the Christian Laettner who polarised fans throughout his college basketball career and stomped on rival team member Aminu Timberlake's chest during his career-defining match in 1992, he takes it in his stride and publicly apologises to his most famous victim, who promptly accepts it.
 * 8
 * 2015 Cricket World Cup
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|765,014
 * Bellerive oval hobart.jpg
 * Down from 923K views last week as the tournament played through the quarter finals. With India still in, along with a raft of English-speaking countries (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa), do not expect it to leave this list any time soon.
 * 9
 * Saint Patrick
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|740,598
 * Kilbennan St. Benin's Church Window St. Patrick Detail 2010 09 16.jpg
 * It is perhaps not surprising that Ireland, the only predominantly Catholic country in the English-speaking world, would produce the English-speaking world's most popular saint. It is, however, somewhat surprising that he has been embraced by pretty much everyone, regardless of religious affiliation.
 * 10
 * Monica Lewinsky
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|692,719
 * Monica Lewinsky 2014 IDA Awards (cropped).jpg
 * The former White House intern and owner of the dress that almost brought down the free world gave a TED Talk this week on a pertinent subject in which she is well-versed: cyberbullying.
 * }
 * Monica Lewinsky
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|692,719
 * Monica Lewinsky 2014 IDA Awards (cropped).jpg
 * The former White House intern and owner of the dress that almost brought down the free world gave a TED Talk this week on a pertinent subject in which she is well-versed: cyberbullying.
 * }