Talk:Main Page: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Wikimedia project page for Main Page discussion}}

<big>See [[wikipedia:FAQ|Wikipedia FAQ]] for ''general'' questions about Wikipedia; you can ask questions at the [[wikipedia:Village pump|Village pump]]. See [[talk:Wikipedia category schemes]] for general discussion of the category scheme on Wikipedia's Main Page.

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= Main Page error reports =

See [[Wikipedia talk:Selected Articles on the Main Page]] for discussion of (and recommendations for) the

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[[Wikipedia:Selected Articles on the Main Page|Selected Articles on the Main Page]]. See below for more discussion of particular issues regarding the Main Page (e.g., whether to include a particular category on the page). '''Please add your additions at the bottom.'''</big>

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= General discussion =

In 2001, [[Larry Sanger]] predicted the wiki would have 84,000 articles by mid-2008. At the current rate, we would have perhaps 320,000 articles by 2008. But since we reached Sanger's prediction in about 30% of the time allotted, then it stands to reason that by late 2004 we will have 320,000+ articles. I wonder when we will run out of topics. [[User:Juan Hernandez|Juan Hernandez]]

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:You also have to figure in the fact that 30,000 of our articles were created by a [[bot]] with US census data for nearly every US city and town. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

Please *start* a new discussion at the bottom of this talk page (e.g. using the "New section" button above), or use the "[edit]" link beside a heading to add to an existing section.

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So then we could probably expect another couple million articles generated in that manner for other countries.hmmm.....big site[[User:Juan Hernandez|Juan Hernandez]]

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Yet another question...Might the person who enabled the [[By Alphabetical Order]] page so that it includes at least an archived record, consider doing it, if he/she is so empowered, for http://wiktionary.org as well?

:Wiktionary is behind on updates, as it has some customized code in there (mostly for saying "Wiktionary" instead of "Wikipedia" ;). At some point it does need updating, and that'll be in with the rest. --[[User:Brion VIBBER|Brion]] 17:23 Apr 21, 2003 (UTC)

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I am trying to update the http://sa.wikipedia.org pages but it keeps linking to http://www.wikipedia.org , is there a way to fix this that a user can do. Thanks!

:That's because we don't have a Wikipedia set-up in that language yet. Post a message to [[Wikipedia:Intlwiki-L|Intlwiki-L]] and nicely ask a developer to set one up for you. It may take some time though becasue of technical reasons. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

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On April 29, it is noted that this is the anniversary of the Bounty. Clicked on teh bounty, and found out it's the 28th. I am in Timezone GMT+10 (Western Pacific). Just wondering.

:The historical anniversaries are a running list... some will refer to dates other than today.

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http://pd.wikipedia.com and pd.wikipedia.org are redirected to wikipedia.org. But meanwhile there is a '''Low Saxon Wikipedia''' at http://za.wikipedia.com. Is it possible to redirect pd.wikipedia.com to za wikipedia.org or - better - transfer the content of za.wikipedia.com to use pd.wikipedia.org?

pd.wikipedia.org is the ___domain given in wikipedia available for the Low Saxon language (Plattdüütsch) [[User:213.39.207.24|213.39.207.24]] 19:39 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)~

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[[Vieques, Puerto Rico|Vieques]] needs to be on Main page current events, and maybe, Im not sure but maybe, [[Mexicana de Aviacion]] too.

We should talk to bantam books or a big publisher so our encyclopedia gets published into the largest and most informative encyclopedia book ever.

and where are those counters? LOL

''[[User:AntonioMartin|Antonio Orgy Martin]]''

:Ask and ye shall receive. The update, that is, not the orgy. -- [[User:JohnOwens|John Owens]]

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Someone needs to set the width of the "Selected Articles" table to 600 pixels. Admins keep adding stuff to the historical aniversaries and the formatting gets all messed up. -- [[User:165.247.201.82|165.247.201.82]] 08:11 May 1, 2003 (UTC)

:Fixed. Some Admins are new and have their screens at 800 px wide so it looks fine to them (not to me though). --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

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What's [[Battle of the Nile]] doing? It happened the first of August, not first of May, so unless I'm

not understanding something it shouldn't be there. [[User:Geoffrey|Geoffrey]] 11:05 May 1, 2003 (UTC)

:Removed. I have no idea why that was listed - it's not even on the [[May 1]] page.... --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

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[[Edwin Rosario]] should be on historical anniversary on the main page on [[May 1]]

Thank you and [[God]] bless

Sincerely yours,

''[[User:AntonioMartin|Antonio El Demonio Martin]]''

:I would but then that would mean [[Chernobyl]] and another listing would drop off. We can't list everything - that is what the day pages are for. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

**Agreed

''[[User:AntonioMartin|Antonio Cheerful One Martin]]''

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Why did [[Beltane]] disappear from the main page? - [[User:Logotu|Logotu]] 18:37 May 1, 2003 (UTC)

:Because we can't list everything - and there is a lot to list for May 1. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

::Right-o, then. Out of curiousity Is there some set number of entries, or what? - [[User:Logotu|Logotu]]

:::No. But the resulting size has to work on both standard res (800 x 600) and high res (1024 x 768+) screens. Also, a typical day will have 3 entries listed while a day like May 1 will have two to three times as many entries listed. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

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Since the Iraq War category is off the main page, perhaps we should bring back the "Ongoing Events" category? -- [[User:Infrogmation|Infrogmation]] 11:11 May 4, 2003 (UTC)

:I would vote against it. The links on [[current events]] seem to be enough for me and nobody ever updated [[Background articles for ongoing events]]. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

**I agree with Mav. On the other hand, how about a [[Talk: What an Encyclopedia is or should be to you]] page?

''[[User:AntonioMartin|Antonio To The Batcave!!! Martin]]''

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I need help with the [[Tim Duncan]] page: I need someone to format me a table on the Career stats areas, cause it doesnt look that good the way it is now, and I dont know how to do tables and stuff.

I'd appreciate it.

Thank you and [[God]] bless you!!

''[[User:AntonioMartin|Antonio I Can be Your Hero Baby!! You Are my Everything!! Martin]]

: I wasn't sure that a table was necessary, so I tried just changing the lists around a bit. I think it looks all right now, but tell me if you disagree. I don't think this is the right page to ask about such things, though. It should be for discussing the Main Page! You can ask general queries on the [[Wikipedia:Village pump|village pump]], such as, "Help! How do I do tables?" The answer is to just copy and paste a table from a page that already has one, and just change the contents. :) -- [[User:Oliver Pereira|Oliver P.]] 19:26 May 5, 2003 (UTC)

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Please add [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]]'s b-day to the main page. [[User:Mbecker|MB]] 19:09 May 7, 2003 (UTC)

:Only events go in the historical anniversaries section. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

:I do have to say , through, that I think maybe a list of ''Happy Birthdays'' or ''Happy Birthday to'' should go in the main page

*''[[User:AntonioMartin|Antonio Electrified Martin]]''

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"This is a read-only backup missing several features such as logged-in users and image uploads. "

Is it my imagination or did I just edit? --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

Yep--Jason and I apparently crossed paths. The main server went down, so he switched the IP to point to the new server, where Brion and I had a read-only backup running. When I went to edit the front page, the old server was already back up and I edited that instead. [[User:Lee Daniel Crocker|LDC]]

: You're having one of those dreams again, Mav. ;) -- [[User:JohnOwens|John Owens]]

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So there isn't any good reason for there to be a dash after every hyphen? I never did like those extra spaces at the ends of lines. -- [[User:JohnOwens|John Owens]] 20:24 May 9, 2003 (UTC)

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http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Lonelypages is one month old, and many links are useless, as they've since been linked. Anyone able to update this? - [[user:zanimum]]

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Why is [[George Galloway]] on the main page as "Galloway"?

:It was shortened like that for space concerns. Otherwise, the "in the news" section would have pushed past the end of the line and wrapped to next line on 800x600 screens. It probably wasn't the best shortening, but the only alternative is the removal of the link. -- [[User:Minesweeper|Minesweeper]]

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There seems to be a severe problem with the main page with my browser - it is refusing to load and crashing altogether. I'm running IE6.0 on Windows 98. The problem is caused by the Korean characters in the languages section - take those out, and the problem goes away.

Now of course, this is Microsoft's fault, not ours. But if this is affecting a significant number of users, including new users, it could be quite a problem. Perhaps we could consider taking out the offending characters for the time being, although of course this wouldn't be ideal.

Has anyone else been having the same problem? [[User:Enchanter|Enchanter]]

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Can someone please consider adding the Welsh and Low Saxon languages? thanks, [[User:Aldie|Aldie]] 07:51 May 14, 2003 (UTC)

:If not yet there, you can add them also to [[m:The provisional portal of Wikipedia]] [[User:Giskart|Giskart]] 12:51 May 14, 2003 (UTC)

OK, I did Welsh, but what's the URL for the Low Saxon one? (I can't find a language code for that).

-- [[User:Toby Bartels|Toby]] 12:59 May 14, 2003 (UTC)

OK, I found it (za).

Done.

-- [[User:Toby Bartels|Toby]] 13:50 May 14, 2003 (UTC)

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Please add [[Dave DeBusschere]] to Recent Deaths [[User:Mbecker|MB]] 22:46 14 May 2003 (UTC)

Done, but you might consider making a more substantial article for him. [[User:Fred Bauder|Fred Bauder]] 13:14 May 15, 2003 (UTC)

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I just want to say thank you for letting me enjoy such a wonderful experience as [[Wikipedia]]. I had never been to a place where I could talk about the things that I think are important in life, in a neutral way, of course.

I never plan to retire from here so you'll guys will be dealing with me for a LOOOONNNG time! LOL

Thanks and [[God]] bless you all!

''[[User:AntonioMartin|Antonio Glamour Baby! Martin]]''

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Please add the [[2001 anthrax attack]] to In the news. See [[Current events]] [[May 11]]. [[User:Mbecker|MB]] 20:28 15 May 2003 (UTC)

: You have to update [[2001 anthrax attack]] with the latest news so that people will know why it's listed on the front page. -- [[User:Minesweeper|Minesweeper]] 20:37 May 15, 2003 (UTC)

::Done, please add to main now. [[User:Mbecker|MB]] 21:40 15 May 2003 (UTC)

:::Added. -- [[User:Minesweeper|Minesweeper]]

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[[San Antonio Spurs]] should be In the news, and [[George Francis]] in recent deaths on the main page

''[[User:AntonioMartin|Antonio Here I am! Rocking like a Hurricane!! Martin]]''

:Our article on the Spurs is embarrassing and doesn't have any context in it telling the reader ''why '' it warrents listing (they weren't the only ones to win last night either; also, this is a minor win as far of the entire team history is concerned - we will only record something when and if they win the championships). But bio meets the specs. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

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Could [[Rik Van Steenbergen]] be added to recent deaths? I just wrote a short biography, hoping some Belgians can add to it. [[User:Jheijmans|Jeronimo]]

:Done. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]] 06:53 16 May 2003 (UTC)

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Is it just me or has the article counter got stuck at 120,701 articles? -fonz

:Same here... --[[User:Maveric149|mav]] 19:02 16 May 2003 (UTC)

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[[June Carter Cash]], singer and wife of [[Johnny Cash]], died May 15, aged 73. [[User:Uyanga|Uyanga]] 20:50 16 May 2003 (UTC)

:Done. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

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Please add [[FA Cup]] to "in the news", it is the FA Cup final today [[User:Mintguy|Mintguy]] 11:47 17 May 2003 (UTC)

:I may have missed it but I don't see any entry in [[current events]] mentioning that fact nor do I see that the article has been updated to reflect this piece of information. This is also not the type of thing we would be adding to that article anyway. However, as soon as there is a clear winner we will list the ''updated'' article on the winner ''after'' the fact of their win is made clear on [[current events]] (per our guidelines on this; see [[Wikipedia:Selected Articles on the Main Page]]). Context is needed otherwise a person clicking on [[FA Cup]] will not know why in the world we have that article listed on the Main Page. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]] 01:03 18 May 2003 (UTC)

:The article is fixed now per the guidelines so I put it on the Main Page. --mav

::I was just about to say I'd fixed it (to be honest, I wasn't sure if the date in the FA Cup article was mentioned too far down, but I guess it's OK) - thanks mav :) --[[User:Camembert|Camembert]]

And could someone include [[Wendy Hiller]] in the "Recent Deaths", please? She was a very great actress. [[User:Deb|Deb]] 22:52 17 May 2003 (UTC)

:Done. ---[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

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I'm confused. I just want some clarification. I thought that when adding new ''Historical anniversaries'', they are to be put at the beginning of the list. [[Anne Boleyn]] and [[Mary I of Scotland|Mary I]] were placed in the middle of the list. Just want some clarification. [[User:Kingturtle|Kingturtle]] 02:02 21 May 2003 (UTC)

:I believe the thinking here is that ''Historical anniversaries'' should be listed in chronological order. Thus, new ones like you added should be placed at the front of the list. Mav's are from a few days ago (May 19), so he's slipping them in where they fit chronologically. -- [[User:Minesweeper|Minesweeper]] 02:11 21 May 2003 (UTC)

:Yes, that is exactly it. I should have been more clear King of the Turtles (I just love that nick, BTW :). --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

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How do articles get placed into catgories (maybe I just missed that somewhere)? Is there a category of "Military Science" or some other place where one can place ship histories, etc.?

:Yes there is: [[Military science]]. If you're looking for ship articles, take a look at [[List of ships of the Royal Navy]], [[List of ships of Japanese navy]], [[List of ships of the United States Navy]], [[List of ships of the line of the United States Navy]], and [[List of museum ships]]. -- [[User:Minesweeper|Minesweeper]] 21:37 21 May 2003 (UTC)

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I don't like the "new articles" section. How are the articles chosen for that anyway? I would rather have an "article of the day" section. [[User:LittleDan|LittleDan]] 01:37 22 May 2003 (UTC)

:? New articles ''are'' added daily to the Selected Articles box. They are grouped into several different categories based on timely relevance to the current date. If you want to be presented with any old random article then use the Random Article feature of the software. --[[User:Maveric149|mav]]

:: but if we had an "article[s] of the day" section, we'd put developed articles there about relatively obscure topics that don't happen on that day. If you want new articles, just look on the "new articles" feature of wikipedia. I don't see the merit of putting randomly seletcted new stubs on the homepage. I'd rather see randomly selected *good* articles for people to come by and say "wow, wikipedia has great articles on such-and-such relatively obscure topic." and learn about it, instead of being presented with the stub-of-the-day. [[User:LittleDan|LittleDan]] 00:34 23 May 2003 (UTC)

::Dan, do you mean going to "recent changes" and looking for articles with an '''N''' next to them? I think the "new articles" feature on the main page is more convenient and more appealing to people who may come upon wikipedia for the first time (i.e. through the main page). I don't see a problem with it; there are all sorts of ways people may want to get into wikipedia and this offers one. Also, the somewhat random or disjointed character of the list on the mainpage I think give people just one more vivid indication of the breadth of wikipedia, and the diversity of our interests. I'm sorry you do not like it, but I just don't see any compelling reason to get rid of it. [[User:Slrubenstein|Slrubenstein]]

::: Just so you know, a much easier approach than looking for the '''N''''s is [[Special:Newpages]], accessible from the dropdown menu at the top of the page as "Newly created articles". -- [[User:JohnOwens|John Owens]] 04:22 23 May 2003 (UTC)

: The articles are currently chosen mostly be me, as I created that section a few days ago and other sysops have yet to join me in editing it. It is mostly an experiment and will be removed if it does not work. You may not have noticed it, but the idea behind that section is actually very similar to what you are proposing, namely, to give exposure to our fleshed out new articles. I deliberately only add those articles that are reasonably well written and preferably non-stubbish. In selecting these articles, I also have to go through Newpages, deleting nonsense pages and fixing stubs along the way. So I think the section is worth keeping not only because of the exposure it gives to our most recent works (regardless of whether there is currently any timely interest regarding the topic or not), but also because it encourages those who edit it to go through [[Special:Newpages]], which are somewhat neglected in comparison to Recent Changes. I think agreeing on which these new pages are going to be is going to be much easier than choosing a single "Article of the day". --[[User:Eloquence|Eloquence]] 04:42 23 May 2003 (UTC)

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There's a small typo in East Timor in the list of anniversaries - it reads E. T''I''mor. As I'm no sysop I cannot fix it myself. [[User:Ahoerstemeier|andy]] 08:03 22 May 2003 (UTC)

:Fixed. :) -- [[User:Minesweeper|Minesweeper]] 08:06 22 May 2003 (UTC)