Hi, Laura!
I wonder if a variable worth considering is the number of views of the DYK vs the average number of page views of the article(s) (per day/week/month or whatever) promoted by the DYK *before* the publication of the DYK (obviously this can only measured for expanded articles rather than new ones). The hypothesis here is that more popular topics make more popular DYKs.
Another interesting variable is number of page views of the article in the days/weeks/months after the DYK. It would be interesting to know the extent to which DYKs drive additional interest in the topic both in the short term and whether any increase in interest is sustained longer term. I would hypothesize any initial sharp increase during the DYK, with a sharp fall-off after the DYK finishes but with a small sustained elevation.
It would also be interesting to see if articles mentioned in DYKs show any increased edit activity OR the creation of new inbound links to the article in the short or long term, but I am less sure about what is the baseline for comparison (given that a DYK article will have recently been created or expanded, suggesting an abnormally high level of edit activity immediately preceding the DYK). Possible proxies are articles in the same categories?
Kerry
Sent from my iPad
Hi,
Summary: This research examines the traffic of 544 English Wikipedia Did You Knows to try to determine which variables play a role in the determining the number of page views an article will get on the day. It largely concludes that the number of dependent and independent variables make it to difficult to isolate specific reasons why one type of article performs better than another, though there are some general time and topics that will likely result in greater views.
Any feedback is appreciated either here, on the research talk page or privately.
Sincerely,
Laura Hale