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This page serves as an archive of summaries of the past month's events at Did you know.

DYK's November wrap, 2021

I thought I'd start these monthly wraps with an epigraph to summarize this month at DYK, a specific experience from this month at DYK, or the DYK experience in general. Our first epigraph is as follows:

The internet people have gone crazy.
— Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), on The West Wing (2002)

It's me. I'm internet people. Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone betwixt, welcome to DYK's November wrap! Coincidentally, Spotify Wrapped was just released (and its article should be on DYK in a few days!), so I'm also staring, open-mouthed in horror, at the fact that 34% of my top-songs playlist is literally just Hamilton. College applications were due last night, so I'm running off of two hours of sleep, Dr Pepper, and pure spite—let's get into it!

As is tradition, a round of applause for our most-viewed hooks of the month: (Did you know...)

Side note here: Dumelow had like fifteen gagillion hooks on the stats page on this month—idk how they do it, but whatever secret sauce they've figured out, it's good.

I really was hoping for a quieter month in the one-a-days, but we spent about half of it running two sets a day, for a total of 45 sets and 360 hooks this month—fortunately, the show went on just fine! Lots of admins helped promote to queues (I understand Ritchie333 and Hog Farm dangled their feet in the water), and given that we perennially run DYK's queue backlog like a sick American with a GoFundMe page for their medical bills, I very much appreciate the admins who are sufficiently guilted by our cries for help and hope they will consider making their one-time contributions monthly :) as for prep builders, Vaticidalprophet dipped their toes back in the water, and of course the ever-helpful SL93 and Kavyansh.Singh lent their hands to make sure we weren't running two sets a day forever. I was surprised by how long it went on, actually, but I can see from WP:Recent additions that there are entire months that ran on two a day; so I'm just going to be thankful for what we got.

I'd also like to highlight our well-performing non-image hooks, because 7⁄8ths of our hooks should probably make up at least a third of this wrap: (Did you know...)

Speaking of an unquiet month, we had quite a bit going on behind the scenes! And I think you know what I mean when I say that; the one discussion that was so controversial, so fiery, as to dwarf nearly every other discussion for the month and temporarily cast a shadow on the decision-making of DYK. I'm talking, of course, *dramatic setup* about this question from DrThneed about whether we still do International Women's Day...

No, obviously I'm overdramatically referring to the Belle Delphine thingamadoodle. Umm, long story short, the entry that ended up being our most-viewed hook of the month (see above) was not exactly... uncontroversially interesting. While most respected WP:NOTCENSORED, some thought that the hook being reviewed, promoted, and ran was poor editorial oversight and didn't reflect well on Wikipedia's reputation. Others thought that the hook was fine, and pointed out that DYK had ran much more explicit images. The hook did end up running the full twelve hours, and Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life went on, although I'd like to input that the highlight of that discussion was Gerda Arendt being thoroughly unimpressed. We also restarted our starting-to-become-perennial discussion about whether we really need to haul in admins to keep this place running, and the discussion was closed after it became clear that 1. there was no consensus among admins and 2. the venn diagram of people the admins trust to promote preps to queues and people who actually want to do it is, like, almost no one. We're still figuring out how to implement SD0001's fancy new gadget, and EEng's find from several years ago on editor conduct guidelines was quietly archived as well—a shame, it might have come in handy for the Belle Delphine thing? Who knows.

Moving on, we also had some changes to the way the WP:DYKSTATS page is operated, due to the valiant efforts of our bold, efficient, and dare I say vivacious young theleekycauldron. We now have a script to semi-automate the updating of the monthly stats table, which allows one editor to maintain a page instead of relying on multiple editors to add their own hooks. We also stopped penalizing hooks for lingering interest, and some other cool behind-the-scenes changes to the page that make it easier to edit and nicer-looking! So, if something changed for the better this month here at DYK... it was probably that, because our equally important discussion about whether the Special occasion holding area belongs at the top or bottom hasn't been closed yet due to the absence of Shubinator.

Lastly, here are some of our quality quirkies from this month that were left unappreciated by our readers (who needs 'em, they don't know what's good): (Did you know...)

So, what have we learned? We've learned that no one really wants to promote queues (except me, but i'm certifiable anyway). We've learned that things stop moving a little when Shubinator takes a break. And, of course, we've learned that if you're considering putting an adult film actress in the image slot, you should probably... think it through first. Lessons noted—since quiet is apparently a dream of the foolhardy, here's to an... interesting December for us all! theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/them) 09:41, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think we should be worrying about putting a porn star on the main page. The image was a bit vulgar, but it was absolutely necessary to understand the hook. I'm surprised there was such a big to-do. —valereee (talk) 19:03, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Theleekycauldron, great write up for another month. Thank you. Ping to user:DrThneed so that she doesn’t miss her mention. Schwede66 19:19, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Schwede66 You can generally rely on my to ask the noob questions. Although that may not be fair to myself, I noticed someone else asked the same question just a couple of months ago! DrThneed (talk) 03:56, 5 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@DrThneed: which newbie-child, candy-ass, tenderfoot, wet-behind the ears, inexperienced dingus of an editor asked that question before you?
...
it was me, wasn't it
yep theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/she?) 03:59, 5 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Great write-up! Thanks for this. We should get this one on a separate page as well for posterity. a la WP:TOP25. Ktin (talk) 19:40, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
This was a joy to read, theleekycauldron :) ezlev (user/tlk/ctrbs) 20:22, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I'm glad :) theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/them) 22:18, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I have said this earlier. Repeating it -- thanks for the energy that you bring to the project! Ktin (talk) 22:24, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
(: theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/she?) 06:17, 4 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hi theleekycauldron, sorry I've been away for a few days and missed this. Many thanks for the kind mention above and for your continued work on producing these lists and in DYK in general, much appreciated - Dumelow (talk) 07:51, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hey, thanks for this writeup. In the future, if you're thinking of doing this regularly, it might be worth putting it in a more general place, possibly as a regular Signpost feature? Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 13:24, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, good idea! That would make it much more available to non-regulars here. —valereee (talk) 13:46, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
or you could send it out in a mass-message newsletter-type feature. Eddie891 Talk Work 14:19, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Smallbones: Assuming @Theleekycauldron: is willing, how possible is it that some version of DYK monthly wrap could become a part of Signpost? It just seems like it would be a natural fit. — Maile (talk) 15:27, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I appreciate the idea! Really, I'm flattered :) Hmm, it'd be logistically tricky, though. The Signpost is released towards the end of every month, but I usually like to wait until the beginning of the next month to let the stats update first. Also, my ability to write on a hard deadline is ... um ... shall we say my history professor this semester isn't writing any letters of rec based on my assignment punctuality.
As for the broader idea here, I'm a little hesitant there, as well (although I'm open to convincing. It's hard to put into words, so bear with me here, but I kind of enjoy the venue WT:DYK provides and I'm not sure that going to The Signpost and exposing this kind of content to the wider audience preserves the same kind of small chatter from the regulars that I really enjoy reading. Did y'all see the comments at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2021-11-29/Serendipity? The comments section really wasn't fun—there was a tangent discussion about how DYK's standards are too low and how people are, and I quote, "feeding" [sic] their ego [sic] off [sic] DYK. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with talking about this month's Belle Delphine controversy, for example, if I knew that 1. it would comprise a significant part of the comments and 2. it would just invite criticism of the editorial process. I don't know if I'm willing to leave the rather bubbly[a] environment of WT:DYK for The Signpost, where I don't see it being warmer or more active. theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/she?) 16:09, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I would be happy to write some articles about the goings-on of DYK for The Signpost—but I'm leaning towards the idea that the wraps are for here. theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/she?) 16:12, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, yes. You just reminded me of the playing out of a very strong difference of opinion of a specific coverage over there, a few months ago. Got kind of hostile. Stuff like that takes all the incentive away. — Maile (talk) 17:59, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Is there a way we can send DYK December wrap to the talk page of all those who are active at DYK, say all those who reviewed/nominated an article. In a format similar to WikiProject Military history? – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 18:15, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I think you'd be thinking of the mass messaging system—but it'd definitely have to be opt-in, we don't need everyone who passes through DYK getting the alert. Like I hinted at before, I'd much rather a small, happy audience to a large, convoluted one. theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/she?) 18:33, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I, uh, um... how is bubbly a pun? ... Pamzeis (talk) 05:21, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Pamzeis: "bubbly" as in bright and perky but also "bubble-y" as in "that which the outside (i.e. wider wikipedia and not just dyk) does not penetrate". it's not my best work... theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/she?) 05:32, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Notes

  1. ^ Pun intended.


DYK's October wrap, 2021

Hi everyone, and welcome to DYK's October wrap! I thought it'd be fun to try and take a look at the past month through hooks, policy proposals, prep-set things, and generally summarize what's been going on. Let's get into it!

First, let's give a big round of applause to our most-viewed hooks of October 2021! Did you know ...

  • ... that Anne Wyllie, also known as the "Spit Queen", now has a Wikipedia biography because a healthcare executive asked who she was? (without an image for half the time, too—not too shabby, DrThneed!)

Speaking of feetloaf, that was our lead-off in our special Halloween set, which did quite well—four of the eight hooks are on the Wikipedia:DYKSTATS page for the month, which is great! Thanks to everyone who contributed a hook there!

In terms of the prep sets, we ran one a day right up until the last third of the month, when we switched to two a day—thanks to all the admins who promoted preps to queues during this time, it's much appreciated and I'm happy we're past that now. I understand that Kavyansh.Singh has been getting their sea legs at the prep sets of DYK—welcome Kavyansh, it's nice to know that you're helping with something much more valuable and long-lasting than your fifteen bajillion Featured Articles or whatever (i only jest). As always, thanks to SL93 and Cwmhiraeth for helping fill prep sets as well, and to Ravenpuff and Mandarax for doing all the formatting fixes we keep forgetting about.

For policy proposals, we have EEng's dug-up find from a couple of years ago on hook etiquette, a DYK gadget that looks quite fancy from SD0001, a proposal from Valereee and myself to move the Special Occasion Holding Area to the top, a half-baked idea from me to include audio narrations of different items on the Main Page, a possible 4/20 set from Valereee, and a proposal to loosen up on our "no DYK runs twice" rule, all of which are also ongoing. There was also a proposal from me to include an emergency hook storage area, which was shot down, a pedantic spat on whether or not to include (pictured) in every single lead hook, and a discussion prompted by an IP on whether we were just too obsessed with WandaVision (I know I'm nuts for the show). We also wrapped up some of the details from the proposal for "unreviewed backlog mode" from August.

Lastly, I want to highlight some hooks that didn't make the stats page, but I found to be quality quirkys regardless:

That's all I've got for you, i did try to keep it brief—thanks to everyone who helped keep the wheels of DYK spin, be it nominations, reviews, prep building, queue promotion, or the mere act of existing as BlueMoonset—and here's to a enjoyable, but maybe quieter, November! theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/them) 21:10, 1 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Nice job. Please keep up the good work on this kind of monthly recap. — Maile (talk) 22:37, 1 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Enjoyed, thank you! Noting also that I loved some of the "gang" DYK (LouisAlain, Grimes2 and myself) such as
  • ... that a comic award jury wrote about the characters of Nicolas Mahler that they "have no eyes, no ears, no mouths – but they undoubtedly have character"?
but with LouisAlain banned, they will enlighten us more rarely. With 50+ DYK this year, he was one of the more prolific contributors, but sadly we seem to have no room for character. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:58, 1 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Gerda Arendt: looks like our October Wrap will now have its own archive page (see below). That being the case, I am inserting a link here to the community banning of LouisAlain, for clarity. He is indeed community banned, preventing him from contributing here, but as far as I can tell, the banning was not a result of anything at DYK. (Diff) — Maile (talk) 19:45, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
This is a great summary theleekycauldron!!! Thanks for all the energy that you bring to this project! Cheers and best wishes. Ktin (talk) 01:19, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed, very good! Cwmhiraeth (talk) 05:28, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
glad you enjoyed! Hopefully I can make this a regular thing :) theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/them) 05:43, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Awesome summary – thank you. There's an interesting backstory to the Anne Wyllie hook. A friend wrote the article and I suggested the theme for the hook. We then talked about it on Twitter (where all the journos hang out) as we needed somebody to write the story that she has a WP article because some snob asked who she was. Not sure whether this was the impetus for the media story that resulted but with it, we had a reliable source for our hook. And once the article had been featured, WWIII broke out on Wyllie's talk page over the listed scientific papers. My goodness me. Anyway, quite an eventful little article. Schwede66 08:44, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Theleekycauldron: I think everything is on Template:DYKbox. The protection level is "autoconfirm", which I think you have been for years. You will notice at the bottom of the template are links for the template's sandbox and for a test case scenario. Care to give it a try? — Maile (talk) 18:55, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Done—it wasn't showing me my changes when i clicked "show preview", which was throwing me off. theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/them) 20:05, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
A couple of scattered thoughts. FYI, there is a part of this I have not figured out. Maybe you already have. I think maybe this section cannot be automatically archived, because it would then be moved into the normal archive listings. So, maybe each month, it will be a manual archive. Another idea occurred to me that won't require archiving. That is, post your future Monthly wrap directly onto the monthly wrap page, sectioned one month below another. And just post a notice over here that the latest month has been posted, with a link from here to there. — Maile (talk) 01:19, 3 November 2021 (UTC) Actually, if you posted directly there, it would be more user friendly to post the latest month at the top, with the older months below that - less scrolling down for the reader. — Maile (talk) 01:29, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
as long as i'm writing the thing, I don't see a problem in archiving it by hand, yeah—I'm archiving lots of the stuff on the talk page anyway. And smart to put newer ones on top, yeah theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/them) 02:37, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
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