The Coming Week: 1/1/15-1/3/15

12/31/2014 - With the new year tomorrow, we'll start to watch which of the articles selected for each player's team will have the most pageviews. Many articles selected by the players are expected to have more pageviews due to an event. Each week, I'll highlight some articles that we expect might see some extra action.

Articles of the Week: Lithuania and Chicago Blackhawks

Article: Lithuania

  

Category: Geography, Politics, Religion, and History
Owner: 50 Shades of Wiki (Team 3)
Pageviews in January 2014: 118,205

What's coming: Lithuania joins the Eurozone on January 1, 2015, and the player behind Team 3 is hoping that will lead to more Lithuania in the news. Lithuania is the last of the Baltic states to join the Eurozone after Latvia joined the Eurozone exactly one year before. 

Latvia saw a modest increase in pageviews from January 2013 to January 2014, going from 161,933 to 163,919, a 1.2% increase. Over the same time period, Lithuania's pageviews decreased by almost 30%. It will be interesting to see how much Team 3 benefits from Lithuania's move to the Euro.

Article: Chicago Blackhawks

Category: Arts, Entertainment, and Sports

Owner: Wiki Wiki What?! (Team 7)

Pageviews in January 2014: 40,469

What's coming: On January 1, 2015, the Chicago Blackhawks face off against the Washington Capitals in the 2015 NHL Winter Classic. This is a high-profile outdoors game, which could lead to more exposure for the Chicago Blackhawks, and more pageviews for Team 7. 

Some bad news for Team 7: it didn't seem to help last year. The Toronto Maple Leafs were part of the 2014 NHL Winter Classic, but their pageviews decreased by over 50% from January 2013 to January 2014, while the Blackhawks' page only decreased by 36%. Still, other factors were involved, so the Winter Classic should help the Blackhawks overall.

The Teams

12/31/2014: After the draft last night, we ended up with these teams:

Team 1 "Giant Clam"

Taylor Swift {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Count Dracula {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Comet {Business, Science, & Technology}
Giant Clam {Business, Science, & Technology}
Mitch McConnell {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Republican Party (United States) {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Democratic Party (United States) {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Murphy's Law {OTHER}
Eiffel Tower {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
General Motors {Business, Science, & Technology}

Team 2 "Hot Chicks & Jesus"

Reese Witherspoon {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Katy Perry {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Stephen Hawking {Business, Science, & Technology}
Eclipse {Business, Science, & Technology}
Iran {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Fidel Castro {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Mila Kunis {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Angela Merkel {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Jesus {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Moon {Business, Science, & Technology}

Team 3 "50 Shades of Wiki"

Fifty Shades of Grey {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Julianne Moore {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Oculus Rift {Business, Science, & Technology}
ExxonMobil {Business, Science, & Technology}
Kim Jong-Un {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Wichita {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Lithuania {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Antonin Scalia {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Bob Dylan {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}

Team 4 "Farticles"

Jurassic Park {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
American football {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Bank {Business, Science, & Technology}
Netflix {Business, Science, & Technology}
OPEC {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Ruth Bader Ginsburg {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
NPR {OTHER}
Silicon Valley {Business, Science, & Technology}
Barack Obama {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Assassination of John F. Kennedy {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}

Team 5 "E-Cigs in Space"

Benedict Cumberbatch {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Stephen Colbert {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Hydraulic fracturing {Business, Science, & Technology}
Asteroid {Business, Science, & Technology}
Hillary Rodham Clinton {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Israel {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Quantitative easing {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Electronic cigarette {Business, Science, & Technology}
International Space Station {Business, Science, & Technology}
Beck {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}

Team 6 "The Google, The Veto, and the Mr. Mom"

Michael Keaton {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Green Day {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Petroleum {Business, Science, & Technology}
Google {Business, Science, & Technology}
Veto {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Iraq {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Japan {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Clint Eastwood {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Apple Inc. {Business, Science, & Technology}
Eminem {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}

Team 7 "Wiki Wiki What?!"

Chicago Blackhawks {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
NASCAR {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Snow {Business, Science, & Technology}
Tesla Motors {Business, Science, & Technology}
Fox News Channel {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Africa {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Deaths in 2015 {OTHER}
Walmart {Business, Science, & Technology}
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Central Intelligence Agency {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}

Team 8 "D's Asters"

SpongeBob SquarePants {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
Liam Neeson {Arts, Entertainment, and Sports}
El Niño {Business, Science, & Technology}
Koch Industries {Business, Science, & Technology}
John Boehner {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Ebola {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Pope Francis {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Bashar al-Assad {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}
Facebook {Business, Science, & Technology}
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act {Geography, Politics, Religion, and History}

Looks to me like everyone did a good job! Should be interesting to see how it plays out...

Articles for Draft

Below is the list of articles for the draft, by category:

Arts, Entertainment, and Sports:

"Weird Al" Yankovic

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

American Football

Art

Batman

Beck

Benedict Cumberbatch

Bigfoot

Bob Dylan

Captain America

Charlie Chaplin

Chicago Blackhawks

Clint Eastwood

Cops (1989 TV Series)

Count Dracula

Eiffel Tower

Elvis Presley

Eminem

ESPN

Fifty Shades of Grey

Great Pyramid of Giza

Green Day

Jabba the Hutt

Johnny Cash

Julianne Moore

Jurassic Park

Katy Perry

Kentucky Derby

Liam Neeson

Louis C.K.

Mario

Michael Jackson

Michael Keaton

Michelangelo

Mila Kunis

Minecraft

NASCAR

Pharrell Williams

Reese Witherspoon

Samuel L. Jackson

Scrabble

Sesame Street

SpongeBob SquarePants

Stephen Colbert

Taylor Swift

The Simpsons

Vincent Van Gogh

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Yoga

Business, Science, & Technology:

Apple Inc.

Asteroid

Bank

Bee

Bill Gates

Boeing

Cannabis (drug)

Charles Darwin

Coca-Cola

Cold fusion

Comet

Dinosaur

Dolphin

Eclipse

El Niño

Electronic cigarette

Extraterrestrial life

ExxonMobil

Facebook

Frog

General Motors

Giant Clam

Giant Panda

Goat

Goldman Sachs

Google

Great Barrier Reef

Harvard University

Hydraulic fracturing

International Space Station

Internet

Jellyfish

Koch Industries

Light

McDonald's

Microsoft

Moon

Netflix

Nose

Oculus Rift

Periodic table

Petroleum

Root

Silicon Valley

Snow

Stephen Hawking

Sun

Tesla Motors

Thomas Edison

Tide

Time

Walmart

YouTube

Geography, Politics, Religion, and History:

Abraham Lincoln

Adolf Hitler

Africa

Angela Merkel

Antarctica

Antonin Scalia

Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Aung San Suu Kyi

Barack Obama

Bashar al-Assad

Beijing

Boston

Brazil

California

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

Central Intelligence Agency

Chicago

China

David Cameron

Democratic Party (United States)

Ebola

Egypt

Fidel Castro

Fox News Channel

George W. Bush

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

Hillary Rodham Clinton

India

Iran

Iraq

Israel

Japan

Jesus

John Boehner

Kim Jong-Un

Lake Michigan

Lithuania

Mafia

Mexico

Milwaukee

Mitch McConnell

Nigeria

OPEC

Paris

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Pope Francis

Quantitative Easing

Republican Party (United States)

Ronald Reagan

Russia

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Shanghai

Texas

United States

Veto

War on Drugs

War on Poverty

War on Terror

Wichita

Other:

B

Bead

Bean

Beard

Beer

Champagne

Deaths in 2015

Earthquake

Hipster (contemporary subculture)

List of internet phenomena

Main Page

Murphy's Law

NPR

Portal:Current Events

Sexual Intercourse

Rules

The rules for Fantasy Wikipedia are listed below. I tried to make it easy on the participants, because for this first year, we don't really know if it's going to work. If these rules don't make sense to you, look up some basics on Fantasy Football, since this is what it's based on:

Choosing your "team"

Each player has a "team" of 10 Wikipedia articles from 4 categories. Only 8 are active each round; the other 2 are "benched" during the month (but may be substituted later on)

There are three main categories and an "OTHER" category. Each player must have 2 articles in each category.

The "OTHER" category can be filled with articles from one of the three main categories, or from the "OTHER" pool.

These articles are drafted from a pool in December 2014. It will be a "snake" draft (ABCDEFFEDCBAABCDEFFEDCBA, etc)

Scoring:               

Each article will score points based on how many more views it has, year over year, in a time period.      

-4 points: -50% or fewer views than prior period.

-2 points: -50% to -40% fewer pageviews than prior period.

-1 point: -40% to -25% pageviews than prior period.

0 points: -25% to -10% more pageviews than prior period.

1 point: -10% to -5% more pageviews than prior period.

2 points: -5% to +0% more pageviews than prior period.

3 points: +0% to +5% more pageviews than prior period.

4 points: +5% to +15% more pageviews than prior period.

8 points: +15% to +30% more pageviews than prior period.

10 points: +30% to +60% more pageviews than prior period.

15 points: >60% more pageviews than prior period

Source for scoring: http://stats.grok.se/              

Three Rounds

Round 1: January 2015

Round 2: February 2015. 1.5 times as many points are awarded as Round 1.

Round 3: March 2015. Twice as many points are awarded as Round 1.

Payout:

Everyone throws in for $20. First place gets everything but $40. Second place gets $40.

Gentleman's Note:

I'll try to make sure each page has enough volume that it should be hard to cheat.

But still. This is a gentleman's game. Some of you may know how to program a computer to continually refresh a Wikipedia page. Don't do that, and don't click on your pages. And don't ask anyone to do that, or to click on your pages.

Prizes:

Everyone is buying in for $20.

Once per month (December, January, February), you may e-mail the moderator (me) and say you'd like to pick up an undrafted article from the pool. It will sit in your "bench." This costs a $5 Wikipedia donation.

Introduction

Welcome to the Fantasy Wikipedia blog for 2015!

Fantasy Wikipedia is a game for the first three months of 2015. It's designed like Fantasy Football... but instead of drafting football players, participants draft Wikipedia articles. Participants gets points based on how many more pageviews their articles had in 2015 vs 2014. For example, if you have the Wikipedia article "Pottery," and it has 15% more pageviews in January 2015 than in January 2014, you get more points than someone who had the article Norway, if Norway had only 1% more pageviews in this time period.

2015 is the first time anyone has tried this, as far as I know. I've pulled together 7 of my friends to volunteer to be guinea pigs for it. I'll put a few updates on this blog to let everyone know how it's going.