You may have heard already that Wikipedia hit a milestone recently with its two-millionth English article, which was, ironically, about a Spanish TV show called El Hormiguero. As interesting as that is, it’s also interesting to note that George W. Bush is officially more popular than Jesus.
Well, “popular” probably shouldn’t be the word used, and I don’t want to incite double sacrilegious outrage by comparing our current Commander in Chief to the Prince of Peace or the author of the song “Give Peace a Chance.”
I’m only saying that, aside from entries and edits made to more clerical and administrative areas of Wikipedia, “W.” leads as the topic of choice among editors and writers there. Jesus isn’t even second; he’s in third place, behind the United States.
Perhaps, “less agreeable” is better than “popular.”
According to the stats provided by Wikipedia, over 32,000 edits have been made to articles about George W. Bush by 3,622 users, doubling the number of edits made to entries about the U.S. with 16,594 from 2,320 users.
As for the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful Counselor, God With Us? Seems there’s less to quarrel with. Only 1,747 users have made 15,286 edits to articles about Jesus.
At least he trumps the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict (14,287 edits) and his, well, antithesis, Adolf Hitler (14,287), who edges out World War II in general (14,033), RuneScape (13,155), Hurricane Katrina (12,754), and Nintendo Wii (12,465).
Ah, the things humans will argue about.
Those are overall numbers since Wikipedia’s inception. Here are the top 25 most edited articles as of March 2007 (the latest numbers Wikipedia made available):
1. 300 (film)
2. George W. Bush
3. Deaths in 2007
4. PlayStation 3
5. Wikipedia
6. Essjay controversy
7. Harry Potter
8. Eminem
9. Battle of Thermopylae
10. Borat
11. Conservapedia
12. United States
13. American Idol (season 6)
14. Grand Theft Auto IV
15. World War II
16. Saint Patrick’s Day
17. Beyonce Knowles
18. WrestleMania 23
19. McDonald’s
20. Kobe Bryant
21. 2007
22. 2007 Cricket World Cup
23. Christianity
24. Jesus
25. American Idol
