About a month ago Mike posted an interesting read titled Wikipedia “front page challenge”, or who wants to delete a Navy Seal that makes knives. The first part can basically be summed up like this: you can try to make an entry in Wikipedia for yourself. but if you’re famous enough to be on Wikipedia, you’re already on there, and if not, you will almost certainly be deleted for not being notable enough.

In other words, it’s basically a waste of time, because if the Wikipedia folks are willing to knock the Navy Seal down a virtual perch or two (one of the examples given), most of the rest of us probably don’t have a chance (see: Darren and his Nintendo contest winning ways not making the cut).

This issue may very well relate to Dan’s question from a couple of weeks before that on whether Wikipedia has peaked, which itself may have partially been a response to Anthony’s question from a few months before about whether Wikipedia was peaking. After all, once you get to the point (dare I say of the tipping variety?) that the primary role of the gatekeepers is to prevent people from adding things, growth is going to grind to a halt, and potentially reverse.

Given all of that, as we all collectively move over this Wikipedia peak or at minimum tread near it, this seems like a good time to ask what, among the 2,096,000 English language articles already in existence, is the most popular content on the site. Thankfully, this beta version of a tool “still being tested” helps us do just that.

Now I can’t list all of them – as a few might offend some people’s sensibilities. But there’s a couple of notable things that I’d like to point out:

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is #5. I repeat, of all the pages viewed in the most popular, evolving online encyclopedia in the world, the page about the game that allows you to pretend rock-out with a plastic guitar (I salute you!) is #5.

While the World Wrestling Federation may be disconcertingly high to some at #21 (sneaking in just after World War II), Pavarotti’s hold on #14 should provide some balance. WWE as the most popular sport, Pavarotti as the most popular singer (actually he’s the second most popular singer, but I think the most popular singer is most popular for reasons other then singing)…. who’d have thunk it? More importantly, in researching this might I have become the first person to view both pages? Leeeetttttt’ssss get ready to oppppeeeerrrraaaaaa!

Somehow, jammed in the middle of the likes of 50-Cent (#18) and Harry Potter (#12), is the infamous… Hypertext transfer protocol. Arguably, it’s the biggest surprise on the list – so completely different than everything else – even though Naruto’s claim on #3 is what amazed me the most, as it’s almost knocked the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows juggernaut off it’s leading status.

While Mike’s post on how questionable cultural references outweigh more academic subjects (i.e. if you think John Locke, think about Lost unphilisophically) explains part of what drives the various rankings and popularity measures, I find such lists a particularly fascinating (and, um, scary) snapshot about what we have collectively been most interested in the last little while.

If you want another fun experiment on a similar vein, pull up the main Digg page every couple of hours and look at the generally odd list of articles that people are bumping up. In effect, this represents our collective interests in regards to the news as the day moves along. The top-10 in all topics right now is:

Warning – don’t drink from hotel glasses

22 Funny scenes from Taiwan – Translations gone wrong

Sick deputy can’t kill dog from three feet away

Memory Test: Firefox 2.0.0.9 vs. Firefox 3.0 b.1

The End of America?

Holocaust Denial, American Style

Mentally Ill Vietnam Vet Dies of Hypothermia while living under a bridge

First video of the Optimimum Maximus Keyboard actually working

The 10 most bitter female rock songs

France at a standstill: five million Civil Servants Strike

Yup, it’s an interesting world…