# Why so many Australians featured on the Wiki homepage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2016, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-australians-featured-on-the-wiki-homepage/742476 "2016-01-08T05:25:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2016, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-australians-featured-on-the-wiki-homepage/742476/1 "2016-01-08T05:25:52Z")
Most of them are of military fame. Here’s today’s: [Bruce Kingsbury - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Kingsbury) Others in recent months: Jan. 1: [Lachlan Macquarie - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lachlan_Macquarie) Dec. 10: [Nicky Barr - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Barr) Oct. 5: [John Lloyd Waddy - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lloyd_Waddy) Can’t remember the last American, Chinese, Russian, Brit, Japanese or Frenchman thus featured. Is there a particularly influential Australian among Wiki management? ---
**Author:** ![Jaguars](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaguars/32/5879_2.png) [@Jaguars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaguars)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2016, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-australians-featured-on-the-wiki-homepage/742476/2 "2016-01-08T10:57:21Z")
More likely a person or organized group of people who are good at crafting articles focused to Aussie history. The front page uses the pool of top-quality articles (“Featured articles”), so a group that hammers out a method for consistently meeting the featured article criteria could easily have a run like that. Click on the talk tab of the pages and you can see info on their quality rating and when they were featured. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-australians-featured-on-the-wiki-homepage/742476/3 "2016-01-13T02:15:23Z")
Another Aussie military topic featured today: [No. 1 Flying Training School RAAF - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._1_Flying_Training_School_RAAF) ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-australians-featured-on-the-wiki-homepage/742476/4 "2016-01-13T02:45:41Z")
Maybe something to do with [Operation Boomerang](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i15OPuFvmA)? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-australians-featured-on-the-wiki-homepage/742476/5 "2016-03-06T01:42:48Z")
And another today: [Iven Mackay - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iven_Mackay) Still no intervening American, Chinese, Russian, British, Japanese or French officer in the meantime. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-australians-featured-on-the-wiki-homepage/742476/6 "2016-03-06T02:02:36Z")
From [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Today%27s_featured_article/February_2016), just for February 2016: February 1: Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (Madagascar) February 4: Abe Waddington (England) February 6: Hugh Beadle (Rhodesia) February 11: Josiah Willard Gibbs (US) February 15: Chester A Arthur (US) February 17: Myles Standish (England) February 23: Military career of John McCain (US) February 24: Æthelberht (England) February 27: Arthur W Radford (US) ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-australians-featured-on-the-wiki-homepage/742476/7 "2016-03-06T02:34:32Z")
We are just that frickin’ awesome, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-australians-featured-on-the-wiki-homepage/742476/8 "2016-03-06T05:28:17Z")
I’ve actually wondered that too (and no, I don’t have anything to do with it). I don’t really have any insights into why it might be, beyond agreeing there’s a lot of very dedicated amateur historians in this country and it’s quite possible that the Australian Military Taskforce on Wikipedia has a couple of talented people with the combination of time, knowledge, research ability and writing skills to ensure there’s quite a few Australian military folks ending up on the front page. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-australians-featured-on-the-wiki-homepage/742476/9 "2016-03-06T19:58:41Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > From [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Today%27s_featured_article/February_2016), just for February 2016… Huh. Thanks. For some reason the Australians really stand out.