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User:Uruiamme/Main Page proposal

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Proposal for a new Main Page feature for hot topics

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I, Uruiamme, have an idea to spruce up the Main Page, which has seen very few changes in recent memory. I was intrigued by a recent news story about the Twitter algorithm which is known for showing the up-and-coming trends being mentioned on Twitter. Interesting. I have also noticed that many other websites notoriously track trends of websites and compare them, such as webtrends.com and compete.com. Many news and media websites show visitors a list of the articles with the highest interest, like the "top stories" list. This is apparent on many social media and link sharing websites, as I already mentioned Twitter. Blogs sometimes use a tag cloud. Even Google uses its algorithms to study things like the flu, a.k.a. "Google flutrends."

With that background, I have a proposal.

  1. Provide a short "hot topic" list on the main page of Wikipedia.
  2. Incorporate a longer and more detailed list into the Portal:Current events via a link.
  3. Automate this using a bot, so trends are available in real time.
  4. Introduce a way for a lead admin to make comments on these, within 10 to 20 minutes of a new trend.
  5. Use some of the work done by Johan Gunnarsson (johang@toolserver.org), see http://toolserver.org/~johang/wikitrends/english-uptrends-this-week.html
  6. Give a cute name to this, for marketing purposes, such as wikitrends or wikibumps, and not the heretofore archaic/deprecated Wikipedia:Article traffic jumps
  7. Send me a lot of money for coming up with the idea and generally saving the entire Wikimedia project from extinction, making me a lifetime voting member of the Foundation, and giving me the keys to the server room.

To me, I sort of expected that such a list of trending topics would have already been found on the Main Page or someplace prominent like a link on the left side of the page. I delved deep to find the page on Toolserver. Nice, but why not share this? Wouldn't that be good for P.R. and users in general? Do printed encyclopedias comment on which articles are new and interesting? I say that they do, as many offer subscriptions to "Yearbooks" to update and supplement new information from the past year.

Details, caveats, and thoughts (linked to list above)

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(Each numbered item below corresponds to a numbered item above)

  1. Perhaps 5 or 6 hot topics, and 2 or 3 cold topics, would appear prominently on the Main Page.
  2. A bot could easily generate a list of 1000 pages, but due to server constraints, how about a default of 20 to 30 "hot" and "cold" items could be on this list. A page like Wikipedia:Wikitrends could hold this expanded data, and be linked from the Main Page. Older versions (archives) could be stored in a database and be retrieved using a query engine rather than static pages. I wonder what this page's talk page would look like?!?
  3. No human is needed once the trend bot is working properly and spitting out results, but we need to consider censoring certain topics deemed too "hot." The program's algorithm should also understand how to weigh low interest fast trends (trivial niches like television episodes which may cause page views to seemingly explode for an hour) versus heavy interest and slow trends (human interest stories developing in the mainstream news media and trending upwards over a period of days). I would assume a SQL database could be used to archive this content. I think an RSS feed is inevitable for certain people to watch these trends.
  4. Someone's ability to use human logic should be able to interpret these trends rapidly and make users understand the "why" of the trends. I would propose a brief synopsis of some trends, if notable. But do we want folks editing the Main Page minute-by-minute that is normally fairly static during the day? Do we have the resources to babysit this? For example, could we have a process to:
    1. Decide whether a trend is noteworthy enough to merit a comment
    2. A consensus as to what exactly to say
    3. The ability to comment on it within 20 minutes
    4. Tie the comment to the trending page, so when the page stops trending, the comment disappears with it.
  5. As of this moment, I have no idea of his support, as this is currently not something he has knowledge of.
  6. Wikitrends seems to me the most obvious and attractive name for this idea. Other possibilities in use: uptrends and downtrends.
  7. Okay, how about fame?

Sideline proposal for wikitrend categories

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I would also propose some category-style wikitrends... e.g.

  • religion & politics
  • entertainment & gaming
  • sports
  • weather
  • biographical
  • war & crime
  • financial & business
  • health & medicine
  • science & technology

This way, whenever a certain type of page appeals to a visitor, they can quickly see which "weather" or "politics" pages are wikitrending at any given moment.

This can help admins and users to see whether new or popular articles are presenting a correct view of current events.

One drawback is that when new articles appear, there isn't a normal way to quickly associate a perfect category to the page, given the decentralized editing of Wikipedia. For example, if an unknown person is accused a crime, or a new natural disaster strikes, then there may be more than one new article created, and/or the article is not categorized properly due to haste. Admins may need to watch not only the wikitrends, but to pay attention to how they are put into categories. This will lead to better categories, IMHO.

Latest idea

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(Here is an idea that I posted to someone asking about how the might look.)

The hot topics would be updated in real time, instantly, all day every day. Just like social network websites and news websites. Have you ever seen the "Trending now" meters used by major news outlets? Those are automatic. Here would be a sample:

Hot Topics, Last 48 hours

  1. iPhone 5 (+2,517.3%)
  2. Michael Jackson (+716.5%)
  3. 2012 Benghazi attack (+205.3%)
  4. 2013 NBA Finals (+175.8%)
  5. Mastectomy (+168.2%)

Hot Topics, Last 48 minutes

(Similar list, but more up-to-the-minute trends listed) There will also be a link to the full breakdown by genre (sports, politics, people, entertainment, technology, religion, wars & conflicts, consumer goods, energy, transportation, employment, economics & finance, trade, aerospace, government, military, media, health & fitness, environment, computing, history, agriculture, law & order, food & drugs, education, culture, flora & fauna, science, and future). I like to saw logs! (talk) 10:23, 16 May 2013 (UTC)


See also

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