The Special Barnstar
	For almost making 5 millionth article. It shouldn't really matter who "won", but somehow, apparently, it does... Samsara 13:11, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. Here's my notes on the event. I warmed up on the previous day by creating several fresh articles:

• Harry the Hermit – I'd read about him in a local newspaper that week. He'd been deleted previously but seemed worth bringing back as his story is the basis for a Hollywood movie now.
• Histoire des Ouvrages des Savans – I saw this mentioned in a list of significant journals in an amusing story: Which philosopher would fare best in a present-day university?. I checked to see if we had them and found one was missing. This then led to a couple of supporting articles:
• Reinier Leers – publisher of the journal
• Henri Desbordes – publisher of its predecessor. Having finished with these articles inspired by the press, I then turned to a book about fish and chip shops which I'd picked up at the bookshop of the Wellcome Collection, after an editathon there. I've been meaning to write about some of my favourites for some time and this seemed a good opportunity to get started.
• Seashell of Lisson Grove – patronised by numerous celebs and usually rated the top fish and chip shop in London.

At that time there were about 700 articles to go and I supposed that there might be a big surge at any time. By creating articles throughout this period, I hoped to strike lucky but the surge didn't happen that day. As the pace still seemed quite slow – about one a minute – I went to bed as usual. The following morning the pace still seemed slow. I had brunch while browsing around and it was during this session that I found this page (WP:5MILLION) This seemed useful for tracking progress so I watched it while wondering whether I could go out, as planned. I had several drafts prepared offline and so started to get them ready. I then noticed Dr. Blofeld start his batch of Turkish villages and we were off to the races.

Blofeld's bot didn't seem as fast as I'd feared so I had plenty of time to get ready. I had three drafts prepared

• Kerbisher & Malt – my favourite fish and chip shop
• Brush pot – an object I'd seen on Antiques Road Show on the previous Sunday. A good antique example might be worth a million dollars.
• The long march through the institutions – a spinoff from the big deletion debates about Cultural Marxism. In browsing around that topic, I came across an article about this on the German Wikipedia and so thought it would stand up as a topic over here.

Cas Liber then joined in with his shrubs but the pace was still quite moderate and so I had time to add another fish and chip shop to my batch, cloning it from one of the others. These were set up in separate browser tabs where I previewed them to check the format so that they just needed saving. I expected the rate to spike as it did and so started saving when there was about 21 articles to go. My batch then bracketed the 5 million mark quite nicely. Close but no cigar...

Another interesting article, I have tried to expand it and was able to make it eligible for DYK. I took the liberty to nominate it myself, hope you didn't mind? And thanks again for starting this interesting articles! Looking forward to work with you again. Jim Carter 11:52, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

• You are very welcome. I'll take another look myself and perhaps pop into the British Museum to see what they have on display there. More anon. Andrew D. (talk) 12:06, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 12:02, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for this, I really haven't noticed that. Jim Carter 17:22, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Hello Andrew, thanks for creating that article. I was able to expand it but I couldn't make it expand any further than 1,350 characters. I thought it would be nice to get the article to at least start class and possibly a DYK. But I couldn't found anything else to expand the article. Do you found anything else in a search? I don't have access to HighBeam or Jstor, maybe there could be additional sources. Jim Carter 15:46, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

• Thanks for your good work. I will add what I can to the article. Andrew D. (talk) 17:21, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

The community has determined that you were a runner-up to the 6th million article, having created Castle Folds in the same minute as the 6th millionth. Congratulations, and thank you for your work here! CaptainEek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 22:13, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

• Thanks. I'm pleased to have achieved something as it was quite a shock to have prepared a dozen article drafts and then have them all vanish when my browser crashed. I scrambled to recover them and saved Castle Folds especially as I visited the area last year and so have more to add. Andrew🐉(talk) 22:24, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

Close, Andrew! Johnbod (talk) 22:36, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

• Especially well done, considering the browser crash. I've been getting a lot of Firefox crashes lately. Thought it was having too many open tabs, but it looks like having a too full second hard drive (which the system backs up to) may be the culprit. Edwardx (talk) 22:47, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

• It may be been an IP disconnect as it was about 12 hours since I started the session. Murphy's Law! Andrew🐉(talk) 23:04, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

On 12 February 2020, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Castle Folds, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Castle Folds is surrounded by Great Asby Scar (pictured)? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Castle Folds. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Castle Folds), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

On 12 February 2020, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Great Asby Scar, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Castle Folds is surrounded by Great Asby Scar (pictured)? You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Great Asby Scar), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

— Maile (talk) 00:02, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

= 6937 + 6516 = 13,453 hits in 12 hours.