This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
Sometimes the featured article isn't changed after a day. Also, it has sometimes been changed more than once a day. I don't think the name should be Todays Featured Article. It should be changed to something that just indicates it's the featured article. If you agree with me-any suggestions? If you don't-post why TeckWiz23:43, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
I think that guy dying from a battlefield infection isn't all that noteworthy. Before antibiotics, that was a very common type of war fatality. In the US civil war, I believe that a lot more soldiers died from infection and illness than directly from wounds, for example. Phr03:18, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
The news section has a small bit about the Jama Masjid Terrorist Attacks. But I think we should also include eight blasts in the Disputed Territory of Kashmir that killed an additional five and injured 32. [1]. Nobleeagle (Talk)03:52, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
The problem in that 'In The News' on MainPage is not a news service, but only features updated contents of Wikipedia. We can't put just any news there. http://stj.msn.com/
I just posted a line about the recent violence in Kashmir on Current events. Please be encouraged to help clean-up pages like Terrorism in Kashmir (tagged for having disputed and outdated information). Good Wikipedia contents are much more likely to get featured on MainPage. --PFHLai04:36, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
Jama Masjid is a 17th century building, not a 16th century one as it currently says on the main page. It states this quite clearly in the main article on the mosque, and also that written about the attacks. You might want to change it. Sikandarji07:17, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
The above is clearly my mistake as I wrote the article as well as the summary to be added in the Main Page. I based my words on a news report that said it was a 16th century building and did not bother to check it from the article itself. I request the admins to do the necessary changes ASAP. -Ambuj Saxena (talk) 07:58, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
I believe that the Page Protection Policy states that those pages that are frequented by vandal attacks or POV pushing. For this reason, the Main Page of Wikipedia is "Protected". I find that the alternative main pages are not protected at all. Agreed that there haven't been instances of vandalism, but the danger is always there. What I want to say is that "Why take chances?" Someday or the other vandals will vandalize the page. I feel that it should at least be semi-protected. This wouldn't do any harm as the layout of Main Page isn't supposed to be experimented by inexperienced users. Also, I feel that there should be a link to Wikipedia:Main Page alternatives from somewhere in the Main Page itself. What do you think. -Ambuj Saxena (talk) 07:53, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
Any page can be vandalized so according to your logic every page should be semi protected, that being said I wouldn't object to them being semi-protected if they meet the criteria of being high visibility (i.e. many users use them in addition to or instead of the main page) and having a large vandalism risk. Pegasus1138Talk | Contribs | Email ---- 08:02, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
I have already written that those pages that are "freqented by vandals" should be protected. Anyway, lets not debate on that. The point is that the alternate pages have high visibility (or may have it in the future), so as a precaution, they should be at least semi-protected. -Ambuj Saxena (talk) 08:14, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
The alternate main pages aren't really used that frequently, and aren't easy for vandals to find. Really the only people that would use them would be active users, who in general are familiar with vandalism and would realize that it needs to be reverted. Additionally, it is likely that those pages are on the watchlists of several people, so vandalism wouldn't last very long. —Spangineer[es](háblame)12:37, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
Lenin is said to have "returned to Petrograd from exile in Finland." In fact, he returned from Switzerland. He arrived at the Finland Station in St. Petersburg (Petrograd). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.136.115.197 (talk • contribs) 09:24, 2006 April 16 (UTC).
Most of the things look same beacuse both Wikipedia and Wookieepedia use MediaWiki as their base. Anyway, the main page design isn't covered under copyright laws (AFAIK) and I feel that it look more different than it used to look like. -Ambuj Saxena (talk) 19:08, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
What's the problem? The purposes of this project include providing ways to use wiki - including our templates and page designs. I'd say this qualifies as a success. Davodd07:10, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
Different featured articles on the regular and the printable version
The featured article on the "regular" Main Page is about Joen of Arc while the featured article on the printable version is about Sverre Sigurdson? Is this some kind of bug or have I been lucky to view the Main Page in some kind of transition state? Exelban00:06, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
Hi. I have two questions:i have 3 answers, that genetic is DNA
1-How was an unregistered user able to edit the main page a few days ago. A registered user can't even edit it unless they are an administrator?
2-Why do some administrators vandalize the talk page? (ex. someone changed the beggining to the free encyclopedia that any monkey can edit). Why do these people have administrative powers if they vandalize pages (especially the main page which they know is protected. Please reply on my talk page. Thanks TeckWiz01:39, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
Both of the incidents you refer to occured on April Fools Day, a day in which even wikipedia administrators go a little crazy =). First, someone unprotected the main page, and an anonymous user made a minor edit, and then later, an administrator changed the page to say something about monkeys for a few seconds. They were just doing it to be funny and different, and it doesn't appear that any real harm was done, though a bunch of editors were pretty upset. —Spangineer[es](háblame)01:53, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
I'm using the same browser as you. Maybe you have to try Ctrl+F5 (hold the Ctrl key and press F5) in order to clear your browser cache. RexNL02:42, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
... "widthdrawl" may refer to the size of Gen. Lee's southern accent, but if not, it should be "withdrawal"! --Dhartung | Talk03:00, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
I have just read an article about the birth of Wikipedia in 2001. As the Dougles Adam´s book The hitchhikers guide was written years before Wikipedia and it fully covers the main idea of low-cost editoriable and encyclopedy for everyone, I hope these two "entities" :) the famous sci-fi book and Wikipedia should appear together even on the Main Page... to honer them both.
Sorry for my bad english... wishing success to the project of Wikipedia,
English is not my maternal language, I don't write it very well. But in the main page, I saw "The Eiffel Tower in Paris is one of the world's most recognisable structures". The word "recognisable" must be writed "recognizable", no ? In my dictionnary, I don't find "recognisable".
I can't edit this page (even if I am registered), so I can't correct it, but by the way, I ask this question for me too. Thank you. Nyro Xeo12:38, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
This is an UK English vs. US English difference. The current spelling conforms with commonly accepted UK usage, and as such is acceptable as shown even if it looks a little strange to those of us accustomed to the American spelling. --Allen3talk12:58, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
Nyro, like Darwin's finches, English 'evolves' according to its environment - there is no right or wrong, only 'the accepted norm'.
It is the purpose of a dictionary (and the rules of grammar) to describe current usage, not to dictate it. Your dictionary is out of date or incomplete.
Having said that, English is the language of England and where could be more English than Oxford. Their dictionary (www.askoxford.com) gives both 'ise' and 'ize' endings as acceptable but uses 'ize' as standard. Leave the spellings up to the author. -- eggman51
"But the difference is language, and the bits you got wrong, coz we was the ones who invented the language" - Mike Skinner, The Streets. He mightn't be speaking it correctly, but you get the point yo. Karlusss23:17, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Canaan Banana, first President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, held a largely ceremonial position according to his entry. The front page should instead say "1980 - Rhodesia became the Republic of Zimbabwe, with Robert Mugabe as the country's head of government, first as Prime Minister and later as first executive President." Calbaer20:37, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
Yes. The trouble was that I couldn't confirm the date for Mugabe. The date was on Banana's page, but not on Mugabe's. One would expect to be the same day, but I couldn't confirm it in the wikipages. So I had to leave Mugabe out. Thought about taking Banana out, but didn't. I hope someone could build the page Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, with info such as the dates, job descriptions (diff. vs the Prez)... etc. before April 18, 2007 comes. It's a red link right now. -- PFHLai06:26, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
I realise the A1 highway article meets DYK standards, so I suggest rewording the entry as follows, so that it does not appear to feature a new article that doesn't meet DYK standards (right now both the viaduct and highway articles are in bold):
Already two (more significant) American events are there. Not a good idea to add a third one. Let's diversify. --PFHLai06:29, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
no title
hi, how have you managed to remove the title Main Page from the top of the main page? is there a magic word that does this? or has it been built into the system? I'd really like to know. please reply on my talk page. -- Alfakim -- talk 17:29, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
In the entry for the oklahoma city bombing it says a car bomb was detonated. Isn't it more accurate to say it was a truck bomb since it was in a rental truck? Saying it was a car bomb might understate the real magnitude of the blast. --72.192.60.8317:46, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
I would have written [[car bomb|truck bomb]], but a quick google of site:gov finds equal usage of both terms even in congressional resolutions. --Dhartung | Talk23:01, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
Why no Pope?
Why isn't Pope Benedict XVI included on the main page for today?
He was elected on this day a year ago and that is a rather important event for over 1 billion people.
Do you mean a year ago today? Because if so, whilst I agree it was quite important, the election of one Pope who has only been in office a year and not done anything of profound importance is not noteworthy enough for the Main Page. Sorry about that. Batmanand | Talk23:57, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
Pope Benedict XVI has been in office for one year. That does not mean that he should not be on the front page. It is his anniversary for being in office for one year and it will stay that way. That is your opinion and I understand that but, let's be fare and not critisice anyone's questions. FellowWikipediantalk10:15, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
There is no need for rancor. The editors are free to choose the interesting and important anniversaries from the list of events, births, deaths, and so forth on the appropriate page e.g. April 19. There are always more things to choose from than there is room to show on the main page, thus, somebody will inevitably be miffed. Ideally the exact same things are not chosen year after year, but many times this is the case simply because of prominent events e.g. September 11. The point of including these events is to direct readers to interesting articles, it is not to cover every possible Wikipedia reader's personal interests. --Dhartung | Talk00:09, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
4-20
I think that in the anniversaries section at the bottom of the page there should be some reference to 4-20 as a holiday in the cannabis culture. Perhaps a link to 4-20?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Awaggener (talk • contribs) .
Hitler's birthday, too, perhaps? I'm rather surprised it's not mentioned. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by ArrEmmDee (talk • contribs) .
Birthdays are not mentioned on the main page except for major anniversaries (centennials of extremely famous persons, for example). As for 4-20, it does not seem notable enough from the article to warrant placement on the Main Page. I may be wrong. —Cuiviénen, Thursday, 20 April2006 @ 01:23 UTC
4-20 is not notable enough .... Furthermore, the wikipage is frequently vandalised and carries the {{cleanup}} tag -- problem pages will not get featured on MainPage. -- PFHLai02:55, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
when i go to any of wikipedia's other sites the thing just logs me out! can you please help me!
All of the sites affiliated with the Wikimedia foundation do not use the same userpool. If you wish to have an account on Wikimedia, Wikibooks, Wiktionary, etc. and on other-language versions of Wikipedia, you must create a separate one there. Also, please sign your comments using four tildes, like this: ~~~~. —Cuiviénen, Thursday, 20 April2006 @ 01:20 UTC
I could be wrong but that's not the question they were asking. I've experienced this as well. Log in to WP, visit another Wikimedia site, come back to WP and I'm logged out. Probably something to do with cookies? Also not really a main page discussion topic o.o Maybe take the question to The Help desk? :) --Monotonehell09:45, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Wiki Problems Link
I think it would be nice to put a little "technical difficulties" link on the top of the main page whenever there are problems, which points to a concise description of what is wrong and when a fix is expected. I'm a n00b so I don't know about the politics and procedures that would be involved ... just an idea. 24.7.106.15507:26, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Image Problem? Today's feature article image is not loading
...The main page is a little... screwed up for me... Using Firefox, tried reloading and deleting cache... more technical difficulties? Misterniceguy704:23, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/mnt/upload3/wikipedia/en/1/14/Lian_Zhu_Shi.jpg': No such file or directory.
I assume that's not supposed to happen?
As 24.7.106.155 said, it would be nice to have a notice for when the problem is expected to be resolved, or just that there is a problem.
--Josh W03:37, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
it's loading for me on firefox just fine. there have been some problems with images on wikipedia lately, though.--Alhutch03:57, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.2 and I am having problems with 'not found' images on Main Page - i.e. error messages, blank space and bad layout. This is still there on flushing cache. Looking at the sections individually gives no problem..
e.g. "Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/mnt/upload3/wikipedia/en/1/14/Lian_Zhu_Shi.jpg': No such file or directory. The Guqin is the modern name for a plucked seven-string Chinese musical"
Hooray! The problem has gone away - and I didn't need to purge anything. Hopefully, someone somewhere has fixed this. Ian Cairns08:03, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
There must be something wrong with this sentence in the Buckingham Palace FA intro:
In addition to being the London home of Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace is a setting for state occasions, royal entertaining and base for all officially visiting heads of state, and is a major tourist attraction.
The part I'm referring to in particular is:
Buckingham Palace is a setting for state occasions, royal entertaining and base for all officially visiting heads of state
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's suffering from incorrect parallelism. The sentence's two most plausible meanings are...
Buckingham Palace is a setting for state occasions. (Correct)
Buckingham Palace is a setting for royal entertaining. (Correct)
Buckingham Palace is a setting for base for all offically visiting heads of state. (Incorrect)
or...
Buckingham Palace is a setting for state occasions. (Correct)
Buckingham Palace is a royal entertaining. (Incorrect)
Buckingham Palace is a base for all officially visiting heads of state. (Correct)
Neither of them are correct. And I'm not sure what the "and is a major tourist attraction" is doing. Because this part of the sentence is embedded within a complex sentence, fixing it elegantly is not very easy. Perhaps, something like...
In addition to being the London home of Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace is a setting for state occasions and royal entertaining, a base for all officially visiting heads of state, and a major tourist attraction.
And also, given the capitalization on Head of State, I imagine it should be "visiting Heads of States" instead of "visiting heads of state." That means my suggestion is "In addition to being the London home of Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace is a setting for state occasions and royal entertaining, a base for all officially visiting Heads of State, and a major tourist attraction." Wow, this is a lot of writing for a seemingly trivial issue. Perhaps, I'm just misinterpreting the sentence and this point is moot. joturner00:55, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
Someone has fixed it (not by me, but I did some wikifying). Thank you for pointing this out. -- PFHLai01:09, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
The caption, being a description of the picture, should really mention and link to Griffith Observatory. Otherwise one wonders, as I did, "This LA stuff is fascinating, but what am I looking at here?". Melchoir08:58, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
Is it worth mentioning somewhere that the monarch of the United Kingdom turns 80 today? It is important enough, I feel. NP Chilla12:09, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
We normally don't include births, but I'll bend the rules for this birth, this year. Hope it sticks, and no one reverts. -- Zanimum13:35, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
I think someone has reverted it. I would say its important enough for the front page.
Yes. 80th isn't that significant, so I've unbent the rules. Her page was already featured in February on the anniversary of her accession to the throne. And, you may see "Queen's Birthday" as a holiday in June. -- PFHLai21:14, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
Hey people, I note thet in the current DYK, the article on Duesenberg has the line "pioneer automobile manufacturer, August Duesenberg, went bankrupt after his failure to sale his first mass produced vehicle." Shouldn't it be "...failure to sell his first mass produced vehicle." I'd change it mysle fbut I'm not admin. Cheers --Roisterer13:12, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
The "On This Day" section list April 21 as Good Friday. I believe that last Friday, April 14, was Good Friday with respect to Christianity. Easter was on April 16, and Good Friday is the Friday before Easter. Unless of course "Eastern Christianity" is different than modern Christianity. - Yendor14:52, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
...that in 1132 George of Antioch was given the title ammiratus ammiratorum, translating Admiral of Admirals in modern English, but meaning Emir of Emirs to contemporaries?
Shouldn't that be "translating to Admiral...."? -- MusicMaker537618:08, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
Could someone please change the text from "City of Los Angeles" to just "Los Angeles"? Nobody calls L.A. "The City of Los Angeles". --- Dralwik|Have a ChatMy "Great Project"
The main page generally does not list birth or death dates except for extremely well-known individuals (IMHO these individuals qualify) and only on major anniversaries (multiples of 100). As the deaths in question occurred in 1616, the next major anniversary will not be until 2016. --Allen3talk15:06, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
There appear to be two spelling errors in the news section of the main page. First: "...existance of CIA..." should be "...existence of CIA...". Second: "...high ranking analysist..." should be "...high ranking analyst...". 10:47 a.m. 22 April 2006
Someone already fixed the news section. Thanks for pointing this out. FellowWikipedian 1:05 pm 22 April 2006 (UTC)
More ITN Copyediting
And I think it should be "high-ranking," not "high ranking." There should also be a period at the end of the first news item. And perhaps someone should put (flag pictured) next to Nepal. joturner15:23, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
The hyphen has been added. Thanks for pointing that out. Instead of adding (flag pictured), I've moved the Nepal item to the top, next to the flag. -- PFHLai18:07, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Opening line
Turkish literature refers to literature written in the Turkish language. Well well. Isn't that a bit of a lousy statement to begin the main page with? I don't think it will impress the people who will arrive here for the very first time today. Piet00:53, 23 April 2006 (UTC)
Well, so it goes. But you did put a period in a place where there wasn't a period; i.e., the sentence continues and gives a bit more information than you suggest it does. Anyhow, it's off the main page now, so hopefully people can now continue to be impressed. —Saposcat07:53, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
What would the article topic be? Only Wikinews could cover one specific diplomatic visit, and there is no need to mention the visit in either Hu's or Bush's bio. Harro504:43, 23 April 2006 (UTC)
As far as summits go, it wasn't much of one -- a lot of the stories focused on how little was accomplished from both points of view. It was pretty much a meet'n'greet to keep up relationships rather than anything historically memorable. --Dhartung | Talk03:47, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
It was not the most important visit. But it was in the newspapers and on TV. Good idea but wait till there is a more important diplomatic visit and try again. FellowWikipediantalk 3:36 pm 24 April 2006 (UTC)
Picture of the Day Copyedit
I believe "Superb Fairy-wrens occupy wide range of habitat types" is meaning the word "a"; it should be "Superb Fairy-wrens occupy a wide range of habitat types." joturner02:12, 23 April 2006 (UTC)