Talk:Main Page

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 220.184.48.79 (talk) at 02:40, 12 November 2004 (→Election Controversy: On the Front Page or Not?). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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'The purpose of this page is to discuss the Main Page'. See the Wikipedia FAQ for general questions about Wikipedia. You can also ask questions at the Village pump.

How to edit the main page. Before criticizing any content on the main page, remember that everything is editable. If you see a mistake in any of these sections, be bold and fix it. Comment on a new topic

STYLISTIC NOTE: Any item in bold type on the Main Page must be updated and listed on its corresponding subject area page before being listed on the Main Page. For example, a news item should first be listed on current events, then the article on the subject of that news item should be updated to reflect a current event, and then that item can be placed on Template:In the news.

Main Page cache purge - click this link when a change has been made to any of the templates displayed on the Main Page, to clear the Main Page's cache (located on the Wikimedia servers) so non-logged-in users can see the update. This may or may not force your browser's cache to expire. See Wikipedia:Reload to learn how to deal with that.

Please post screenshots of the current Main Page to Main Page/Screenshots for debugging design issues.

See TOC talk and the category schemes talk for general discussion of the category schemes on (or not on, as is currently the case) Wikipedia's Main Page.

Archived talk

Archives of older material from this talk page: Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.

The layout of the Main Page underwent a significant redesign, implemented on 23 Feb 2004. Talk archives 1-13 relate to the old design. Archives after this date: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27.

Talk pages specifically dealing with layout and design, or alternative designs for the Main Page:

世纪情感 杭州网站建设 杭州喷塑 杭州网络公司 杭州网站建设 杭州网络公司 情感 杭州网站建设 杭州网站建设 杭州网络公司 

食品机械

包装机 食品包装机械 杭州网站建设 杭州网络公司 杭州网络公司 喷塑 网站建设 网站推广 企业邮局 虚拟主机 国际域名 杭州网络 公司建站 网络推广 GOOGLE排名 网站建设 商大信息 网络公司 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网络公司 网络公司 

网络公司

网络公司 网络公司 网络公司 网络公司 网络公司 网络公司 网络公司 网络公司 网站建设 视频会议 V2 conference 网络监控 足球网站设计 购房 楼盘代理 房产交易 房屋买卖 楼盘团购 视频会议 购房 购房 楼盘代理 房产交易 房屋买卖 V2 conference 

网络监控

办公自动化 餐饮收银 网路岗 蛋黄派 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网络公司 网站建设 网络公司

Cour d'Assize

In France a criminal court for the worst crimes is a Cour d'"assise," not d'assize.

Test

Protecting no-table version

Is it possible to do this? I can see that the no-table version of the main page could become an easy target for vandals.

Vandalism on the Main Page!

Someone change this quickly, please, it's incredibly embarassing.

Arafat's picture

Arafat is not "Boston Red Sox Logo"... --205.189.150.1 00:25, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hahaha, yeah, I just noticed that, I was just about to post this myself. - Bloodshedder 01:39, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Fixed, after screenshotting and before logging in. Oops! (That page is publicly editable, BTW, which is why I, a lowly n00b, was able to fix it, though I wanted to leave it.) Suntiger 03:54, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Infinite monkeys

A special case of a prepositon is not a therom. Neither is the zero-one law a prepositon, even though it is obvious

...err, a Prepositon? Is that a sub-atomic particle? Or did you drop the 'i'?

Happy Halloween!

Happy late Halloween everyone! "Antonio Van Helsing Martin"

Test

Main Page Sandbox

It has been done. Templates are comming soon.

In the news

whats up w the font on the dixville story? Sam [Spade] 01:08, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Also, why does the main page report votes as 15 Bush/15 Kerry/1 Nader when Dixville Notch, New Hampshire gives it as 19-7-0? --Calair 06:33, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

In the news

Hi guys, This morning a controversial dutch filmmaker(Theo van Gogh) has been murdered in Amsterdam. He was attacked by a man and a woman, and stabbed to death. The man has been arrested, still looking for the woman. See this article on cnn: http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/11/02/netherlands.filmmaker.reut/index.html I don't know if it is important enough, thought I'd notify you guys

nice combination of jacques plante and clint benedict

What's up with the pro-John Kerry ASCII art? Is Wikipedia offering an endorsement, or was the main page HA><ORED? --Feitclub 13:13, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)

Option number three, simple vandalism. Don't give the vandals more credit than they deserve. -- Cyrius|✎ 13:56, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

WIKIPEDIA.INFO, isn't it about time?

Wikimedia already owns the domain name wikipedia.info; so isn't it about time to adopt it as the main domain for Wikipedia? It sounds more likely for a work like this; it's even almost a full sentence!! --Alif 18:05, 3 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I don't think .info has any particular benefit over .org. People know .org's, if you said wikipedia.info to someone they probably wouldn't know what you were on about. My cynical mind tells me that .info's were invented so that everyone had to shell out more $ to keep all variations of their domain name registered. -- Chuq 23:04, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)
This is the conspiracy-theory explanation :-). Originally .org was meant for not-for-prophit organisations. While this applies to Wikipedia in a way, .info is more specif about the site being a source of information. Eventually .info will become as known as the other domains. --Alif 17:07, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)
maybe. maybe not. I for one have hardly come accross any sites using the "new" tlds that were even remotely worth visiting. ".info" smells of SEO and dotcom-bubble. dab 17:36, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)
If we don't get that domain, someone else will. Guaranteed. -- user:zanimum

WIKIPEDIA moderators are vandalizing their own site?

Check out the discussion of the election results! FIX IT FOOLS!

WikiAtlas?

I'd posted this one before, but it didn't generate any feedback. So here I go again. Does anyone have an opinion on this one?

I love WikiPedia, I love the random page function.

but ... Is anyone else annoyed at how often small town entries come up? It seems pointless to have "Nuclear_winter" and "Dacula,_Georgia" [with it's pop. of 3,848] in the same place.

Is there a way to seperate all these geographic entries from the rest?

I would say that inclusion of Wallaceton,_Pennsylvania is certainly non-encyclopedic ... unless you can open the WorldBook set, [or Encarta] and find Brights_Grove,_Ontario in there.


This is Natasha and I would like to comment on what you have said about the content of the site and I would have you know that those small towns ARE very needed. I am in history 12 and you learn about some not so important places . and I have even grown up in some not so important places .. and I would be very dissapointed if they didnt come up.

If Wikipedia did nothing beyond what its rivals do, there'd be no reason for its existence.
I also like the 'random page' button, and I also find the small town entries dull... but this problem can easily be resolved by hitting the button again ;-) I honestly don't see what the problem is. --Calair 05:59, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I agree that the town entries are fine. The only time where they ever get in the way is the random page button, which is a toy, anyway. However, "WikiAtlas" is an excellent idea! I have been wondering for some time how we could standardise custom maps. When I want to draw a map to explain a point in a specific article, I have to search for a public domain map of the area in question on google, and then maybe remove labels in an editor before adding my own information, arrows or whatever. The Xerox Mapserver has been gone for several years, and I don't know of a similarly useful tool to produce basic maps (e.g., the map of Image:Kurgan map.png is based on a Xerox mapserver map). How about starting a WikiAtlas project that somehow links to all geographical WP articles? There is probably not enough CPU resources to generate maps dynamically, but if we had an application that could generate maps from vector data, we could still make a large collection of ready made maps, and illustrate the location of all these little town stubs. dab 07:32, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I also like the idea of a WikiAtlas. I've seen a number of out-of-copyright books that had some fine maps well worthy of scanning. (If only I could fix that darn yellowing...) -- RJH 23:34, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Automatic indexing

4) Wie heeft de Slag om Stalingrad gewonnen? Stalin wou Stalingrad voor geen goud verliezen. Hij liet alle mannen loopgraven en verdedigingslinies aanleggen. Toen de Duitsers de stad kwamen binnenvallen werd er om elk huis en elke muur gevochten. Alles werd meerdere malen door de Russen terug veroverd. Toen de Duitsers in de gaten kregen dat ze de stad niet konden in nemen gingen ze hem omsingelen om daardoor de Russen af te zwakken. Op 18 November 1942 waren de Duitsers het verste gekomen in Stalingrad en hadden het bijna helemaal ingenomen. Maar vanaf toen werden ze alleen nog maar terug gedrongen. De Russen kwamen toen van het Noorden aanvallen en Sloten daardoor het Duits 6e leger in. De Russen zorgden er voor dat de Duitsers geen versterking konden aanvoeren naar Stalingrad en konden het Duitse 6e leger verslagen. De Russen hebben de slag om Stalingrad dus gewonnen, vooral doordat de Duitsers de Russen ver onderschat hadden en dus geen stand konden houden.


Is my article automatically indexed under the respective category or I have to manually edit the category to add the article? --Sbenza 13:47, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

If you add [[Category:Xxx|Article name]] at the bottom, the article is automatically indexed. For people articles you might want to use [[Category:Xxx|Surname, first name]]. Hope this helps. Generally, this kind of question should go on Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous), by the way. Filiocht 13:58, Nov 4, 2004 (UTC)

Featured article picture

Something's odd about the picture for the featured article at the moment, it's not very baroque at all. Lisiate 23:02, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Fixed (not by me) Gwimpey 23:12, Nov 4, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks to however did so, I see the article has now changed anyway. Lisiate 00:24, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Lord Chancellor

The current featured article para begins: "The Lord Chancellor, is one of the most senior and important functionaries in the government of the United Kingdom." It could really do with losing that dreadful comma, please. :)

Oh and while I'm at it, the reference to "Tony Blair's ministry" does not, I think, work in UK English. Tony hasn't got a ministry! (No jokes please.) But I'd defer to the view of a person with some UK constitutional knowledge here. 82.35.17.203 00:59, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There must be a link on the main page to some low-bandwidth-friendly version of the page; preferably no-tables and no-text (which can have links to the intermediate variants), for wireless users. Readding a link to the no-tables version, which is as close as we come to that ideal; it in turn has a prominent link to the text-only version (which has none of the first four sections at all). +sj+ 22:23, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

added your note to the Wikipedia:Technical FAQ , as a start for wireless users. Ancheta Wis 11:23, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Chinese Website

大家好，很高兴来到这个地方。不知有没有中文的网页？

慕名而来

在这里
--Voidvector 08:29, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

I want to ask if there is anyway to filter out those Wikipedia copy offs like BrainyEncyclopedia in a google search? --Voidvector 08:29, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

they are annoying! I usually repeat the search with a characteristic phrase of the WP article text excluded. dab 15:09, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Try using site:wikipedia.org search terms. -- [[User:Solitude|Solitude\talk]] 18:46, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

Buffalo, NY Public Libraries

I am posting this not as an act of vandalism, but to reach out to the Wiki community for assistance. The budget of Buffalo, New York is so poorly managed under the current leadership as to require cuts in the funding of the Buffalo Public Schools system and other publicly funded activities and organizations. Now, however, it is planned to close all of the public libraries in the city. Please, Wiki community, either make an "In the news" article about these recent developments or become active in some other fashion, but whatever is done, it must be done quickly. We've not much time.

Thank you, and good day.

I googled, and this is, in fact, true. →Raul654 20:30, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)


Thanks for the verification Raul654. Now, once again, I ask of you all, please take action against this!

Intro paragraph

The intro paragraph ends with: "Learn how to edit pages, experiment in the sandbox, and visit our Community Portal to find out how you can edit any article right now." Now, there are two ways to interpret this, either as these three clauses:

  • Learn how to edit pages
  • Experiment in the sandbox
  • Visit our Community Portal to find out how you can edit any article right now

Or as these three clauses:

  • Learn how to edit pages [to find out how you can edit any article right now]
  • Experiment in the sandbox [to find out how you can edit any article right now]
  • Visit our Community Portal to find out how you can edit any article right now

Either way, this is far from great prose. In the former set of three clauses, the last half of the third clause is redundant with the first clause. The latter set of three clauses is even worse, with the first clause being redundant with itself and the second clause of the set not making any sense at all. This is unfortunate, because I think the main page of Wikipedia should display some better prose.

Now, I would fix this myself, but I don't want to change the main page until I get the approval of other Wikipedians first. Basically, what we need is some sentence that has links to three places (Wikipedia:How to edit a page, Wikipedia:Sandbox, and Wikipedia:Community Portal) while avoiding the redundancy of having "edit a page/article" twice in the same sentence. Here's a tentative proposal for the fixed sentence:

"Visit our Community Portal to find out how you can edit any article, or experiment in the sandbox."

—Lowellian (talk)[[]] 07:36, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

Unconfirmed news? REMOVE!!

Please remove "unconfirmed news" item. This is not a news agency or a blog website! Awolf002 15:32, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC) lol

From which source is this "report"? --ThomasK 15:46, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

This looks fishy -- there isn't even any article at the end of the link. And CNN isn't reporting anything about this. I think it's bogus. 23skidoo 16:22, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

That's why I ask. --ThomasK 16:26, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

It's been 3 hours at least and no media report on CNN or anywhere else I can find. I'd remove this myself but I don't know if regular users are allowed to. Yesterday about this time some hacker put a message up on the main page. Could this be another troublemaker? 23skidoo 18:43, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I have just removed the rumour, WP should not report on rumours, but at least give the news time to settle. Note that any user, even anonymous users without accounts can edit the News section here: Template:In the news, for that matter, any page can and may be edited by any user (with a few exceptions, but in those cases there is no edit button). -- [[User:Solitude|Solitude\talk]] 18:50, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

ok, but how is this a rumour:

His death is being reported by some Palestinian sources, but explicitly denied by others.

that's just a simple fact: the Palestinians don't seem to be able to agree whether or not he is dead (we never did claim he was dead). dab 19:06, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It IS very shady language, and not suitable for our main page In the news section. The fact that they disagree whether he is dead, means it is just not known for a fact as of yet. -- [[User:Solitude|Solitude\talk]] 14:24, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

This is becoming a trend, I guess. Two days ago Eequor added on a thing about a Bulgarian radiation leak, because someone "in Bulgaria" went onto Reference Desk and asked for safety tips for dealing with the situation. I'm worried for Wikinews. -- user:zanimum

Given the childish spat currently under way re Mordechai Vanunu, I think Wikinews is probably doomed to farce. Filiocht 15:36, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC)
let's be glad that Wikipedia:is not a newsticker ;o) dab 15:46, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Maybe we need a Wikipedia:In the news is not a playpen page? Filiocht 15:53, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC)

Hello All

Weren't Japanese toilets a featured article 3 weeks ago? One might think someone had a fixation with this topic.

I noticed this also. Hyacinth 00:34, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Actually that is incorrect, check for yourself: Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 2004. Note that it wasn't even a featured article until: 00:22, Oct 19, 2004 Raul654. -- [[User:Solitude|Solitude\talk]] 14:29, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

It was on the main page. Someone must have changed it, because the accusiation is totally true. Frankly, I question Raul's judgement on choosing these things. Not only this, but he put an Australia veteran's memorial on November 9th, while two days after that is Rememberance/Veteran's Day. -- user:zanimum

The Japanese toilets article is relatively new article, and I remember it being on the Main page as well, but as I recall, that was in the Did you know section, where tidbits from new articles are listed. This makes perfect sense as it was a good article when it was just started and now it's featured it has appeared on Main again. -- [[User:Solitude|Solitude\talk]] 21:27, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

To be exact, it is archived here: Wikipedia:Recent additions 16. On the selection of featured articles on main, they can not be changed at the last moment, as they are planned way ahead, take a look at the system here: Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 2004. Of course you can always message Raul to suggest an article to feature on a certain date, suffice to say you can't please everyone, there are so many FA's, anniversaries, and so on, that would make great days to front an article, I think he's doing a great job. -- [[User:Solitude|Solitude\talk]] 21:36, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)
This article was on the main page under 'Did you Know' about 3 weeks ago. It became a featured article, and it is on the main page today because the author requested it. →Raul654 21:41, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)
So it went for being brand new to being featured in three weeks??? -- user:zanimum
Sure, why not? See Wikipedia:Featured article candidates for the procedure.--Eloquence*

International Shipping Containers?

Does anyone know anything about international shipping containers? sizes, classifications, capacity, regulations that sort of information.

curious... I've looked at different web sites in China and they say how stuff can be shipped... but I dont know what the containers sizes mean.

Left-handed child

Can anyone tell me definitively whether a child's parent has to be left-handed to be left handed? I have a child that seems to be preferring her left hand and neither parent is left handed.

There's a hereditary component to it, but there must be more than one gene involved. It's quite possible for a left-handed child to have both parent right-handed. Don't blame the milkman just yet.-gadfium 23:44, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, I'm the left-handed child of two right-handed parents. My maternal uncle was left-handed at birth - also born to two right-handed parents. But he now writes with his right hand as he was beaten as school (in the UK) until he did. Don't fear, he's in his late 50s and as far as I'm aware they don't do that any more. Ah, the age of enlightenment. There you go, social history and genetics all in one go. (PauaShells, NZ)

International nuisance

Please route all responses to the Village Pump's tech section. The IP of 64.12.117.7 has appeared for users in Austria, Austria, Canada (5 of 13 provinces), Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Israel, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States of America (10 states). That's 16 countries, not including Wales and Scotland. Why? MediaWiki apparently lacks in some major areas.

Although some have enjoyed this "New United Nations", or even "New World Order", since they can "talk to a whole bunch of people around the world", it really has been a complete turn off Wikipedia for others. Many are getting aggrevated, asking "what the hell is this about", and "why the fuck was this new message sent to me of all people", and yes, they linked to that article.

Although I know the developer have better things to be doing, this is getting silly. Personally, I like this international wall for graffiti of sorts, but many may just be leaving as soon as they get this page. -- user:zanimum

世纪情感 杭州网站建设 杭州喷塑 杭州网络公司 杭州网站建设 杭州网络公司 情感 杭州网站建设 杭州网站建设 杭州网络公司 

食品机械

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网络公司

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网络监控

办公自动化 餐饮收银 网路岗 蛋黄派 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网站建设 网络公司 网站建设 网络公司

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