[WikiEN-l] Short featured articles

[Carcharoth]

On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 3:00 PM, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:
>> Today's featured article is all of 6 paragraphs long. Discuss.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MissingNo.
>
> Seems appropriate.

Sure, the length is about right for the topic, but if you are in the
habit of settling down at some point in the day to read through the
featured article, you might feel a little short-changed that you'd
finished reading it after a few minutes or so. I suspect readers don't
realise that almost any article can be featured, and have certain
expectations that aren't always met. This is a case where viewing
figures don't help, as lots of people click through to the FA, but the
question here is what the reaction is of those readers. But then I'm
not convinced that people even use the main page the way that is
assumed. I suspect the main use is as an entry point to Wikipedia,
with a brief scan of what is there if the passing visitor is not in a
rush, and maybe following some of the links if something looks
interesting. Those who want to follow some regularly may be more
likely to use RSS or some other syndication service.

Carcharoth