Talk:Main Page

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

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

Some older talk has been archived to

What makes the Internet Encyclopedia a "sister project"? I looked it up in the wikipedia, but there is no article on Internet encyclopedia. Ortolan88 19:14 Mar 13, 2003 (UTC)

That's what I would like to know. According to Fred it is a fork but it really is just a derivative project with very different policies ("Multiple Point of View" instead of NPOV, for example). I vote for removal of the link. Perhaps we should have an "Unwanted Step-child Project" section. ;-) --mav

Happy birthday (Mar. 14) to Albert Einstein -- IHCOYC 12:35 Mar 14, 2003 (UTC)

I don't much like the "Content Enhanced" button. It looks out of place and doesn't really tell anyone anything. If anything, we should have a GFDL button. I'm going to remove it unless anyone has a strong objection. --The Cunctator

Frankestein is the 7th item for Historical anniversaries. It is in italics, the first item on the left, and there is no dash after Nessie, making it look like a heading at first glance. May I suggest we accept Maveric149's 2003-02-27t20:32z suggestion to use bold text for headings. Also, please link to the ongoing Global protests against war on Iraq article. - I am Jack's username, 2003-03-16t07:22+02:00

Re Infrogmation's 2003-03-01t21:15z comment: if the block is going to be changed, why not use the blockquote tag to make the multi line entries liquid (flow into whatever resolution the user is using) and remove the line break tag. - I am Jack's username, 2003-03-16t08:22+02:00

Yeah, a dash should be at the end of the first line (but I'm about to add more events so Frankestein is going to move anyway). I wouldn't mind having the subheads being bold but a few other people really didn't like it for some reason. If I muster-up enough courage I'll do that later. The br tag is needed so that the box correctly centers itself at higher resolutions. Maybe you can show me what you mean by editing Main Page/Temp. --mav

I'm doing it here in talk, because the border around the table doesn't look nice in Mozilla:

In the news:
Domestic Security Act - Phil Spector - Václav Havel - Shuttle disaster - Richard Reid
Recent deaths: Lou Harrison - Crew of STS-107 - Lord Younger - Lord Dacre - Gianni Agnelli
Ongoing events: Israeli-Palestinian conflict - Plan to invade Iraq - War on Terrorism - North Korea
Historical anniversaries: Gary Powers - Joseph McCarthy - The Beatles - Mary I - Confederacy - Jean Aristide - Maastricht treaty - Spanish-American War -
Elizabeth II -

Treaty of Waitangi

Note that there are no line breaks in the historical anniversaries group. In the historical anniversaries group I also put non-breaking spaces for multi word article names to prevent them from being split at the end of a line, and I put non-breaking spaces before the dashes to prevent a dash from being the first character on a new line. On high resolutions the right margin isn't as justified (aligned) as before. - I am Jack's username, 2003-03-16t09:02+02:00

The first line then fills the screen at higher res. See media:Maveric149-temp.png. Same problem with Mozzila too. --mav

Yeah, that's jarring - my resolution at 1152x864 doesn't make it stand out as much. Also, a table would be better since these aren't quotes. - I am Jack's username, 2003-03-16t10:25+02:00

Add Rachel Corrie to Recent Deaths. Susan Mason

could someone write about the International Solidarity Movement? It's one thing to have an article on this one person, but it gives the reader much more of an overview to have an article on the organisation which is behind these events and its principles -- Tarquin 09:26 Mar 17, 2003 (UTC)

Should US invasion of Iraq or Iraq disarmament crisis go into recent events, what with the 48-hour deadline? Geoffrey 01:25 Mar 18, 2003 (UTC)

I've looked at both articles and haven't seen a mention of this deadline in either. That along with a linked date is a basic prerequisite of inclusion in the In the news section. Also Iraq disarmament crisis is already linked in the Ongoing events area. That leaves us with US invasion of Iraq. If that is updated then it can be listed in the In the news section. Then after a few days if we are at war then that can replace Iraq disarmament crisis in the Ongoing events area. --mav

Okay, I added an introductory paragraph (which it was lacking) along with developments from Monday's speech (and also had dates, forgot to say -01:08 UTC). (See Wikipedia:Be bold in editing pages.) It's 23:23 UTC, the deadline expires at 01:00...unless the Apocalypse occurs within the next hour and a half, there will be an attack. At this time, it's not very ongoing. Geoffrey 23:23 Mar 19, 2003 (UTC)

How about the Global protests against war on Iraq? More protests are planned on the day of the first major strike. Adding it thus would add only one character to the line length:

Israel/Palestine - Iraq crisis and protests - War on Terrorism - North Korea crisis

Then the protests would be a current event, no? --mav

The main page should have a sentence in the top blurb to the effect:

"We appreciate it if new users register before editing, so we can know who you are. You may also edit your user page."

Or something like that.

--jaknouse

Why? There is already a statement pointing them to the sandbox and the words "log-in" on every page an anon sees. We needn't re-clutter the Main Page again just to beat anons over their heads to log-in - it is their right to contribute as anons if they want. --mav 03:10 Mar 19, 2003 (UTC)

I respectfully disagree. I think you are not adequately accounting for normal human psychology. "Log-in" just does not register as "register" to most people, and they also wouldn't think to look to the sandbox for registration. --jaknouse

Somebody has already mentioned that "log-in" should perhaps be replaced by "register" for people that do not have a Wikipedia cookie set. But that is something that is low on the developers to-do list. There still is no reason to clutter the Main Page - esp since the great majority of anons arrive here via Google and never see the Main Page. --mav 23:32 Mar 20, 2003 (UTC)

Well, you're absolutely right about how people enter; it was the same with me. I was searching for something and it came up on Google and I landed here completely by accident and it took me a while to figure out about registration. BTW, what's the time/date insertion command? --jaknouse

While logged in, three tildes ("~") put your user name, four that plus the time & date. -- Infrogmation 06:35 Mar 21, 2003 (UTC)

Now that war has broken out, perhaps we should put it in current events. - Montréalais

It's already there. Susan Mason

I'm not sure that "broken out" is quite the right terminology. "Been created" might work. --jaknouse

What's the difference between the label "in the news" and "ongoing events" ? Is not "ongoing events" to be rather "background articles" ? If so, why is US invasion of Iraq under this label. It does look to me like a daily news report.

Well up to a day ago US invasion of Iraq was an ongoing event. Now it is a current one. I hope you like the changes I just made. --mav 01:34 Mar 22, 2003 (UTC)

Please add Arab League to in the news. Dietary Fiber

Could we have something on this black hole that's being investigated (according to AOL news) and the Eddington limit? -- Tarquin 16:25 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)

Happy Birthday (March 25) Lark Voorhies!!

Antonio Iiitts all right!! Cause Im Saved By The Bell!! Martin

We need to add Turkish Airlines to current events on the Main page. I would go to Main page/temp and do it but Im afraid Id ruin that page.

Antonio Ill fly on the plane's tail Martin

Done. --mav

whoever updates this page should take the time to scan the news everyday...

Carlo Urbani died Dietary Fiber

There isn't any one person responsible for updating the page, but in any case we only list things that we have non-stub articles on. See Wikipedia:Selected Articles on the Main Page --Camembert

You should change that policy, by listing a stub article on this page you will induce yourself to make the article better. Also fix the War on Iraq link and add Peter Arnett to In the news:' (or rather Out of the news:) Dietary Fiber

I mean really, it would be appropriate to list the death of a Nobel Prize recepient who died trying to save you from the mystery disease without a cure which is spreading throughout the world. Dietary Fiber

Arnett and Urbani added. -- Infrogmation 19:27 Mar 31, 2003 (UTC)

Cubana de Aviacion needs to be in current events/in the news at Mian Page

Thanks and God bless

Antonio El Loco Martin

? How is that a current event? I don't see any current info in that article. --mav

I would guess that they're the operator of the airplane that's been/being hijacked from Cuba to the US (the reverse of how it always was in the 1970s, oddly enough). -- John Owens

Hm. To be listed on the Main Page though any current event has to be important enough to the subject to warrent updating the article. I don't think this event passes muster in that regard. --mav

Well it looks like Antonio updated the article. I guess if we included Turkish Airlines we might as well add this one as well. But these events really are not important enough to update the airliner's articles. Heck, each of these airlines have had much more significant things happen to them. Everyone needs to remember thatWikipedia is not a news report. --mav

The "Chemical Ali" link on the main page is not appropriate. We would write GW or The Butcher Sharon, nor should we use "Chemical Ali" which refers to an event which, if Im not mistaken, Iraq says it wasn't responsible for. Dietary Fiber

And the same government now says that 3/4 of US troops in Baghdad have been "slaughtered" and that Iraqi forces are victorious even though a great deal of evidence suggests otherwise. And "Chemical Ali" has been taped as saying "I will kill them all with chemical weapons! Who is going to say anything? The international community?". But the displayed name is still perhaps sub-optimal for other reasons concerning professional presentation so I'll change it to something else. --mav

Should we put Jessica Lynch on the current events?

Private Jessica Lynch should *definitely* be indexed on the front page under "War on Iraq." It is the biggest buzz on the Internet. -- NetEsq 03:56 Apr 8, 2003 (UTC)

done. --mav

Who was that masked mav? -- NetEsq 05:08 Apr 8, 2003 (UTC)

May I ask why is "Statistics" listed under "Philosophy, Mathematics, Natural Science"? It's already in the Mathematics article, under "Applied Mathematics".. (AFAIK Statistics is not a "natural science" for itself but a branch of mathematics dealing with probablilty and prediction..) -- 213.8.131.63

Theoretical physics is arguably "just" applied mathematics, but I don't think anybody would argue it doesn't deserve its own listing - Khendon

The Statistics article states clearly that "Statistics is a branch of applied mathematics that includes ..." I can easily categorize for the title "Philosophy, Mathematics, Natural Science":

Philosophy: Philosophy

Mathematics: Mathematics

Natural Science: Astronomy and astrophysics, Biology, Chemistry, Earth science, Physics

Where does "Statistics" fit into any these categories? If you would have said under "Mathematics" I would say that Calculus, Algebra, Geometry etc. should also be listed.. -- 213.8.130.41

You should link the page http://fi.wikipedia.com/ as Finnish to this main page!

Calm down, and look under "Suomi". -- John Owens

Short pages says, "Here's a saved copy from 04:23 Apr 10, 2003:" but then there's no link to the saved copy. -- Zoe

You mean Special:Shortpages, right? The page you link doesn't exist. -- John Owens 04:55 Apr 10, 2003 (UTC)

I haven't yet run initial saved copies of Special:Shortpages, Special:Longpages, or Special:Popularpages, as they're slow. That's why they're disabled in the first place. ;) I'll see about it now, hopefully they won't bog down too bad. --Brion 05:16 Apr 10, 2003 (UTC)

Well, that was fun. --Brion 05:31 Apr 10, 2003 (UTC)

Can you add Madrid metro expansion to the news items? - Montréalais

Done. --mav

Can you add Tikrit to the news items?

Susan Mason

Not until it satisfies the guidelines for listing. --mav

OK folks, I'm going on vacation to Death Valley for the next week or so. Therefore somebody else is going to have to maintain the Historical anniversaries section on the Main Page. The guidelines for doing so are linked at the top of this page. Have fun! --mav 08:04 Apr 12, 2003 (UTC)

Please add "border-color: black" to the style properties for the line (1px table border) that runs down the middle of the lower part of the main page. I've already done this on the Current events page (look there to see what I mean).

Currently mozilla renders this line black, while IE usues light grey (which is very hard to see). -- stewacide

OK, I've put that border-color in now, but I don't do IE, so take a look and tell me how it is now. -- John Owens 04:18 Apr 14, 2003 (UTC)

Yup, it worked! Much better now. -- stewacide

Sorry, the "we've won" link to that Washington Times article had to go. It's in no way NPOV. --Robert Merkel 13:53 Apr 15, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks, Robert. I should have just added the usual entries to Current events -- which I eventually did. Good catch. --Uncle Ed 17:28 Apr 15, 2003 (UTC)

Does anyone else have an issue with the word-wrapping of the "Hyphenated Lists"? My browser (IE) will just willy-nilly insert a newline before or after the hyphen. However, having a line start with a hyphen looks bad to me.

For example, the "About the Project" section has 3 of 4 lines on my screen showing up starting with hyphens: About page - Announcements - FAQ
- Village pump - Wikipedians - Chat
- Mailing lists - Utilities - Software -
DB download - Friends of Wikipedia
- Press coverage

Of course that changes depending on the size of my window, but there are always several lines starting with the hyphens.

I suggest adding a non-breaking space ( ) after the Wiki's and before the hypen. What does everyone else think? -- Jketola 19:55 Apr 15, 2003 (UTC)

While I wouldn't say I have an issue with it, my browser (Galeon/Mozilla) has the same behaviour (though I see it in the "Other Languages" and "Sister Projects" sections instead), and I do agree it would be better otherwise, presumably with the   you mention. -- John Owens 21:18 Apr 15, 2003 (UTC)

Sounds like a good suggestion to me. -- Infrogmation 21:26 Apr 15, 2003 (UTC)

Can someone add a zh: link on the top, please? Thanks --Kaihsu 13:54 Apr 18, 2003 (UTC)

I'd be happy to, but I'm not sure of the proper form for linking to http://zh.wikipedia.org/ . If you post the proper characters here, I'll copy and paste them on the main page. -- Infrogmation 19:17 Apr 18, 2003 (UTC)

Done. --Brion 02:01 Apr 19, 2003 (UTC)

Could we get a link to By alphabetical order now that there is an archived list (rather than one which taxes the server)? - Brettz9 00:54 Apr 19, 2003 (UTC)

Done. --Brion 02:01 Apr 19, 2003 (UTC)

Great, Thanks! Now, could I repeat my earlier request to make the List of reference lists link to also or instead include something like Almanac data. I think Almanac is a more familiar term, and it would not confuse people who might think that the reference data is confined to such things as Wikipedia usage reference. In fact, given the growing size and number of these lists, I would think that their usefulness (and distinctiveness from an encyclopedia) might merit having their own domain name (as with http://wiktionary.org ), assuming resources were available. If that were possible, such data as timelines and calendars and even current events could be moved or cross-referenced there as well. Of course, it would be logical, I think, if it were possible, to be listed as a sister project. - Brettz9 20:58 Apr 20, 2003 (UTC)

Also, I'm not sure what people think of this concept, but Relational_Topics might be an interesting categorization to include if it develops further... - Brettz9 20:58 Apr 20, 2003 (UTC)

Lastly, could I make a recommendation to make "Sister Projects" larger or more prominent somehow? To me, that it is a very important aspect to promote the awareness that the content possibilities are not limited to the type of content at Wikipedia (such as for dictionary data at Wiktionary.org). - Brettz9 20:58 Apr 20, 2003 (UTC)

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. Juan Hernandez

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. --mav

So then we could probably expect another couple million articles generated in that manner for other countries.hmmm.....big siteJuan Hernandez

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. --Brion 17:23 Apr 21, 2003 (UTC)

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 Intlwiki-L and nicely ask a developer to set one up for you. It may take some time though becasue of technical reasons. --mav

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.

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) 213.39.207.24 19:39 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)~

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

Antonio Orgy Martin

Ask and ye shall receive. The update, that is, not the orgy. -- John Owens

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. -- 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). --mav

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. 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.... --mav

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

Thank you and God bless

Sincerely yours, 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. --mav

- Agreed

Antonio Cheerful One Martin

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

Because we can't list everything - and there is a lot to list for May 1. --mav

Right-o, then. Out of curiousity Is there some set number of entries, or what? - 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. --mav

Since the Iraq War category is off the main page, perhaps we should bring back the "Ongoing Events" category? -- 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. --mav

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

Antonio To The Batcave!!! Martin

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!!

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 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. :) -- Oliver P. 19:26 May 5, 2003 (UTC)

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

Only events go in the historical anniversaries section. --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

Antonio Electrified Martin

"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? --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. LDC

You're having one of those dreams again, Mav. ;) -- John Owens

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. -- John Owens 20:24 May 9, 2003 (UTC)

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

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

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? Enchanter

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

If not yet there, you can add them also to m:The provisional portal of Wikipedia 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). -- Toby 12:59 May 14, 2003 (UTC)

OK, I found it (za). Done. -- Toby 13:50 May 14, 2003 (UTC)

Please add Dave DeBusschere to Recent Deaths MB 22:46 14 May 2003 (UTC)

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

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! Antonio Glamour Baby! Martin

Please add the 2001 anthrax attack to In the news. See Current events May 11. 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. -- Minesweeper 20:37 May 15, 2003 (UTC)

Done, please add to main now. MB 21:40 15 May 2003 (UTC)

Added. -- Minesweeper

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

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. --mav

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

Done. --mav 06:53 16 May 2003 (UTC)

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

Same here... --mav 19:02 16 May 2003 (UTC)

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