Talk:Main Page/Archive 52

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An experiment

If I may 'be bold', I'd like to see if this has any positive impact on the time it takes to get typos on the Main Page fixed. I'd imagine that, when this page is updated a lot, it can be easy to miss some of the typo comments. If this works (and I'm fairly new to these templates and div boxes, so it probably won't) it might draw more attention to them. Run! 22:52, 3 January 2006 (UTC) + -

For Attention of Admins: Typos and Small Errors Click here to edit box content Please use this box to declare small errors on the Front Page that have not yet been fixed The link in DYK to Venom should instead be a link to Venom (poison). Rampart 20:06, 5 January 2006 (UTC) Or possibly Snake venom. Rampart 20:07, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Wrong photo

The photo for the 'Today's News' section still shows the storm. It should be the miners in WV.--Jon Revelle 23:53, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

The photo can be for any of the news pieces up there. In this case, it is for the storm (which includes "(pictured)") Run! 00:08, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Dinosaur typo

The spelling of "homoeothermic" should be corrected to "homeothermic". I changed it in the actual article.

Thanks, fixed now.-gadfium 03:47, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Iowa funk

I thought this sentence "Built with cost as no object, the Iowas are arguably the finest battleships ever built" should be re-evaluated, since it was changed in the actual article. See here: [[1]] but i think that it werid

DID YOU KNOW?

Can you put a little bit of a space between the trivia items in the "did you know" sections? It gets hard to tell the different items apart. >.> >.< <,<

Typo in winter featured picture

Wikipedia:Today's second feature/December 31, 2005 contains the following text:

A rare meteorological phenomenon encountered during winter is ice fog, which is composed of ice crystals suspended in the air and happening only at very low temperatures (at least 10 degrees below zero). (emphasis mine)

"Happening" should be changed to "happens" or "occurs".

 – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 06:15, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

• Nice spotting there. Changed. Harro5 06:18, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

test. checking how to upload new info.

Celsius or Farenheit?

Is this temperature (at least 10 degrees below zero) in Celsius or Farenheit units? This should be added. Andrew_pmk | Talk 05:40, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

*laughs at the joke which appeared here briefly.* Doops | talk 07:10, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Leap second

Leap seconds are cool, but the IERS's announcement of tonight's leap second was in July. [2] The wording in "In the news" should probably be changed so it doesn't look like they just determined within the past few days that there should be a leap second this year. The present tense "determines" implies that to me. --Cam 22:07, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

According to a IERS determination, a leap second will be added... ? Doops | talk 23:04, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Isn't it Wikipedia policy that we don't add news to the main page unless the event caused a new article to be created? The leap second didn't require a new article. --Phantom784 22:47, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

The criteria are here. There must be an article which has been updated to reflect the news event for that event to appear on the main page in the In The News section. It doesn't have to be a new article. The Did You Know section is only for recently created articles.-gadfium 04:20, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

In the news update

• The precidency of the European Union is handed over to Austria (Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel) on January 1.
  • Post here. Harro5 23:07, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Donation ask

I'd like any "ask" to dissappear from the homepage, or at least be moved somewhere less prominent, if I donate. Actually, for every other page, too. I realize that this would require integration with other systems, but I want it anyway. Done right, it could be a cool inducement. "Donate a buck to hide his ask." Course, done wrong, it could offput.  :)Ozzyslovechild 23:48, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

You can add the line

#pabanner { display: none; }

to the page User:Ozzyslovechild/monobook.css. --Bryan Nguyen | Talk 03:30, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

P.S. I'd like to be able to get rid of (or make the colors less obtrusive) the personal appeal message notice (yes, I read it) but keep the counter and the links, but unfortunately it doesn't have its own class/id defined. --Bryan Nguyen | Talk 03:43, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Recent Deaths

I have set up Deaths in 2006 to be just like Deaths in 2005, and closed out Deaths in 2005, as I have every month since August. All we need now is for someone with power to switch the Main Page Recent Deaths link from 2005 to 2006. Xoloz 01:10, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Somebody has handled this. - BanyanTree 22:49, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

First asteroid?

 # 1801 - Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the first asteroid, 1 Ceres (picured).

I'm pretty sure that it wasn't the first asteroid in the universe. --Dara 01:10, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Also "picured" is a typo. --Cam 02:22, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Fixed both. Ceres was the first known asteroid. Evil Monkey - Hello 02:40, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Archive 51 not linked

Archive 50 stops midway through December. If no archive 51, then half of December is gone. Metarhyme 05:35, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Fixed.-gadfium 05:43, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

thanks-Metarhyme 11:37, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Slight Problem

I just noticed that the page has this text: 1 Today's Featured Article Um... I'm not sure as to whether the 1 should be there? If not, then could someone with permission pls change it. Kaushik twin 05:55, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, stupid error of mine, just noticed that its a numbering scheme throughout the main page. Apologies. Kaushik twin 05:56, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Missing the word novel in the Frankenstein blurb. --Paul 07:35, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Ummmm...

.... OK, I don't want to look bad or anything when I say this, but what the hey? Have a look at the front page! We have a personal appeal message, a status bar on how much money we have received so far, a welcome message and then another message about when the Wikimedia fundraiser is going to run til! Then I get to read the actual content of the site.

I support Wikipedia (I will be donating soon), but isn't this pushing things a bit? - Ta bu shi da yu 09:02, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks :-) Ta bu shi da yu 11:30, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Featured image prismatic spring

The caption under the current featured image: "The vivid colors in the spring are the result of pigmented bacteria in the microbial mats that grow around the edges creating the greens, yellows, oranges, and reds and refracted skylight creating the bright blue in the center of the pool." is absolutely false. The blue color of the water in the center is no more a result of refraction of blue light from the sky than the same effect seen in other large deep bodies of water [3]. It is a result of a light absorbing overtone of the OH stretch in water which is shifted to 698 nm by hydrogen bonding [4]. The other color explanations are correct however. --Deglr6328 10:37, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Hebrew Wiki

Why there is no Wiki in hebrew? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.94.8.132 (talk • contribs) 13:40, January 1, 2006(UTC).

Try http://he.wiki.x.io. --Allen3 ^talk 14:30, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Main page looks wierd

The main page looks different. The text is bigger. Bigger where I need to scroll across to read everything. Plus the links to my userpage, preferences, etc. don't work. All pages on wikipedia work if you put it in to the search bar though. I can get to other pages on the internet too. It looks the same on other computers in my household and it looks like that on my friend's computer at his house. What gives?schyler 20:38, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Looks normal to me. I can't see any reason why it would look like that. Try clearing your cache anyway. Run! 20:50, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

What's cache? Plus my user bar, I guess you would call it, is on the left side underneath the wikipedia logo AND thereis some wierd text that comes up first on my browser page and then stays there underneath everything. The text is:

Warning: invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/OutputPage.php on line 231

That is exactly what it looks like. Maybe somone more computer savy can translate and tell me what it means. schyler 21:09, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Update: Looks normal now. I would still like to know why it looked like that if anyone knows. I remember seeing the main page like that a couple times in the past, but this was the only time it lasted for several hours.schyler 21:43, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Mine's still bad JayDee 22:06, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

I do not have this problem. But that is a server-generated PHP error, so it was not the fault of your browser, os, or other end-user settings. --Anthony5429 03:35, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Missing word in "Selected anniversaries"

In the entry which reads

1818 - Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, a science fiction by Mary Shelley, was first published in London

the word "novel" should be inserted after "fiction". Anville 22:59, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Fixed now. Shanes 23:09, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

That had previously been mentioned 15 hours ago (though in a very subtle fashion). Perhaps this talk page could benefit from an FAO: ADMINS section at the top of the page (below TOC), that is kept up-to-date with spelling/grammar/wording issues (which are removed once addressed) Run! 23:31, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

TC Zeta

This is the only the second North Atlantic Tropical cyclone to exist over... There's TCs in the Indian ocean that exist over two years pretty regularly, same with the south pacific. I fixed this on in the news page, but not the main page. --Swamp Ig 01:14, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

I was going to make the same point JQ 02:06, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Yup, this needs to be corrected. It even happens in the West Pacific occasionally, though never in the East or Central Pacific. - Cuivienen 04:06, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Typo?

In the Featured Article, it says "programme". Is that a typo or is it British English?schyler

• Merriam Webster has it: [5]. It's British English. Harro5 01:36, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

moto

9.5/10

needs more features

plus where it says the encylopdia anyone can edit

it should start with a capital --Madcowpoo 02:09, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

sugestion

where it says art,cutre and other catagorys why don't you have picture links instead of text

? --Madcowpoo 02:13, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

abdigation

wouldn't "resign" be more appropriate?

Account deletion

How do I get my account deleted? I'm sick of having my pictures removed, and I want no part of Wikipedia anymore. Some info on account deletion will be much appreciated. TripleH1976 06:49 PM, 01 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, if you're hardset on leaving... Why not just leave? Why does your account need to be deleted? I'm not trying to encourage you to leave, but a dormant account won't hurt you. - Cuivienen 04:08, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

easy

easy log ot then don't go on for a year then it will be deleted --Madcowpoo 03:01, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

That's not good enough. I want something that is instant, not something that'll happen over time. But thanks for the advice anyhow. TripleH1976 07:06 PM, 01 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually, accounts are never deleted. ⇒ JarlaxleArtemis 03:13, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

That might be bad. Imagine if hundreds of people made accounts then forgot all about them. Then you'll just have wasted space. Kerowren

Aye, but Wikipedia is not paper. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 05:33, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Just for the record how do you do it then or is it one of these spy things once a member always a member? --Madcowpoo 10:09, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

The software does not support deleting user accounts, though it can (in theory) be done in the database directly. However, if an account ever edited an article or did anything else apart from just registering it, deleting it would break various records, and it would also break the GFDL requirement to keep the history of articles intact. -- grm_wnr Esc 17:26, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

error in main page

The number of articles in the arabic wiki exceeded 100 000 ... can u move the arabic from the 10 000 section ?

According to the ar. statistics page, "there are 29852 total pages in the database. This includes "talk" pages, pages about Wikipedia, minimal "stub" pages, redirects, and others that probably don't qualify as articles. Excluding those, there are 10281 pages that are probably legitimate articles." The Arabic wiki seems appropriately placed for now thusly. Lord Bob 07:09, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

years are wikilinked... why?

According to the Manual of Style, individual years should generally not be linked. I see four years linked unnecessarily. I'm referring to the featured article. Any comments? Gflores ^Talk 19:34, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

That particular provision of the Manual of Style is under a lot of debate at the moment, altering articles to follow the guideline in it would be premature at the moment given the opposition to it. Talrias (t | e | c) 19:51, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

As far as I know, it's not the policy that is under debate, it's the use of bots in unwikifying the links. I could be wrong though. Thanks for the quick reply. Gflores ^Talk 20:06, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

It is; see Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)/Archive S#Proposal to remove the dictum prohibiting the linking of individual years from Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers). Talrias (t | e | c) 22:07, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

an: to 1000+ section

The aragonese wikipedia an: has just arrived to 1000 articles. Could you update the main page to reflect this??? Thanks Juanpabl 20:47, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

• Done; thanks for the update and congratulations to the Aragonese Wikipedia.--Pharos 21:49, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Cebuano wiki

The Cebuano wiki has reached 1000 articles. Dralwik 00:55, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

• It's already up there.--Pharos 01:29, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Other languages

I noticed on the German, Italian, French, and Spanish Wikipedias that there is the section ("Other languages"), linking to Latin, English, etc., but there isn't on the English Wikipedia? Does anyone know this? CliffHarris 01:33, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Responded on Cliff's talk. jengod 06:03, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

West Indies Federation

The link for today to the West Indies Federation has some misleading information on the Main Page. The WIF was never independent, as the Main Page suggests, if you check the West Indies Federation article, you'll see that its goal was independence (from Britian), but it was never achieved. It was, I suppose, a federation of dependencies, but the federation wasn't an independent nation, this seems to be quite clear in the West Indies Federation article --Canuckguy 03:49, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

DYK nadir

...that scientific experiments have shown that, contrary to popular belief, apples and oranges can be compared easily and are very similar? This is a misuse of the phrase "scientific experiments have shown." 1) The similarities between apples and oranges are patent to all, with no scientific expertise needed. 2) the experiments referred to in the article were clearly tongue-in-cheek ones. 3) The experiments may have compared apples and oranges with respect to a range of variables; but whether those comparisons are relevant to the idiomatic phrase is beyond the limits of science to prove. 4) "contrary to popular belief" is simply untrue. This sort of sloppy thinking is the kind of thing you'd find on (gag) ananova, not the wikipedia. Doops | talk 05:36, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

OK, I should be constructive and make a suggestion instead of just complaining. How's this? ...that some scientists, in defiance of the popular idiom dismissing the possibility, have conducted experiments to compare apples to oranges? Doops | talk 05:39, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you, the constructive suggestion was far more helpful than when editors simply complain without suggesting a solution. I tried rewording; how does that sound? — Knowledge Seeker দ 05:56, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Doops | talk 06:01, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

cavil

OK, I'm getting really picky now. DYK ..that the campus of Michigan State University has 676 buildings, giving the university 2,037,464.5 m² of floor space? The comma seems to imply that having 676 buildings necessarily leads to having 2,037,464.5 m² of floor space, i.e. that every building in the world has roughly 3014 m² of floor space. This is not true. Better to write ...that the 676-building campus of MSU has 234458972438562589672... or ...that the campus of MSU has 676 buildings, which account for 3w89056u203956234659fdg9 m² of floor space among them or something like that. Doops | talk 16:39, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Changed to "with a total of." You're right. I also got rid of the silly number of sig-figs. ~~ N (t/c) 17:10, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Doops | talk 21:00, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Great Site

Just had the chance to explore Wikipedia and its great! Information is the best and most useful. Keep up the great work! New account member

What a poor choice for main article

What a lousy choice for a main article?!!! --PeterMarkSmith 01:21, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Featured articles aren't necessarily supposed to be interesting, just high-quality. :-P Dave 01:29, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia talk:Featured articles for discussions on Featured Articles. This page is for discussion about the main page, not content featured on the main page. The distinction may seem slight but it is important. --Cyde Weys _vote^talk 01:31, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

The Chicken War

Okay, I'm not an expert on the Chicken War, or who said what, but having a question mark on the talk page hardly shows that we know what we're talking about - does it? I think the proper course of action would be to remove it and explain the uncertainty if necessary. Chooserr 02:45, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

• what?--152.163.101.5 02:50, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
• Things in the "Did you know..." section are phrased as questions, although it is sometimes hard to figure that out, because of the "from wikipedia's newest articles" phrase in the middle. —siroχo 03:34, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Tropical Storm Zeta

The tidbit states, "Tropical Storm Zeta (pictured) continues activity in the Atlantic Ocean, becoming only the second tropical cyclone to exist across two calendar years in the Atlantic." However, this cannot be proven accurate. The accurate wording would be "becoming only the second recorded tropical cyclone..." since the Atlantic has been around for quite a few million years and hurricanes have not been recorded during all these years.

This is just a nit-picky technicality.... Bsd987 03:33, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Added the qualification "on record" —siroχo 03:38, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Chicken War again

The "Kingdom of Poland" sentence would sound smoother as "the Kingdom of Poland". Art LaPella 04:32, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Also Kingdom of Poland links to a disambiguation page.

chinese

she looks chinese. any info on whether or not she is.

I'm sorry, who are you referring to? GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 09:18, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Typo "In the news"

Russia resume the supply of gas to Ukraine after reaching an agreement. Shouldn't it be "resumes"? Dismas|^(talk) 09:36, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Russia consists of more than one person.

Balance in US/non-US story distribution

The tragic coal mine story is indeed a leading story in some international news arenas. However, was the perhaps even more tragic German ice rink disaster similarly put in the ITN section? That is still a leading story on the BBC News frontpage alongside the American disaster.

I'm sorry to make such a point over this particular subject material, but Wikipedia should not be like US TV News channels, where as a non-US viewer it frequently looks like they only care about Americans.

zoney ♣ talk 10:33, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

• There is no article about the German ice rink disaster. Otherwise, it would surely be put on.--Pharos 10:40, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, that fact emphasises the problem rather than provides an excuse. I find that pretty disappointing of Wikipedia to be honest. zoney ♣ talk 11:36, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

There's a small section here if anyone has the knowledge and time to expand it. Jellypuzzle | ^Talk 11:45, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Zoney, remember the Wikipedia policy of being bold. If you see something out there that needs improvement, do it. That's why we're here, and that's what makes us better than all those other encyclopedias. -Scm83x 11:48, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

I can justifiably criticise the encyclopaedia's coverage regardless of not helping to fix it - just because I'm not fixing it myself doesn't mean that the criticism isn't valid.

My taking time to edit here and raise the issue at all is in fact a service to Wikipedia - one which I am not in any way bound to do.

zoney ♣ talk 15:36, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

What you are doing, then, is criticizing the community for not making those news articles. It's nothing to do with the encyclopaedia itself. No-one is paid to make news articles every time there's something significant going on (whether that's a good idea or not, is up for debate). Run! 17:07, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

If an unbiased, or even someway proper encyclopaedia is what is promoted, one cannot be content with article creation in some areas and not in corresponding other areas. zoney ♣ talk 18:45, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Zoney, when you find something missing, and instead of contributing come here and complain, you are contributing to a breakdown in the system. Not all of us heard of the ice rink disaster; you did, and it is your responsibility to create an article about it. If you choose not to, you have no basis to complain. Eightball 19:46, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

I have no such responsibility. Indeed I do not even have to be so good as to raise the issue here at all. Wikipedia suffers greatly from this "sofixit" mentality that makes OSS a joke to most people.

As for me, be assured I have done my part for Wikipedia in the past, and continue to make occasional entirely voluntary contributions. zoney ♣ talk 10:16, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Zoney, this encyclopedia is naturally biased. It is biased because the user base are (a) predominently western, english-speaking and (b) highly computer literate. (a) is responsible for the lack of news you're referring to. How do we fix that bias? By getting thousands of people from non-english-speaking countries involved. Now how do you expect that any of us do that? Run! 23:47, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't. If people do indeed accept the systemic bias inherent to Wikipedia, Wiki-evangelism and moralising to others could be toned down, and people could stop suggesting that it is better than a traditional encyclopaedia (even if in certain areas it is, and even considering bias in other encyclopaedias. Other encyclopaedias by and large have better prose, better editing and more consistent content coverage, accuracy and quality).

Having the US coal mine disaster ITN and not the German ice rink one too looks really bad to international (non-US) readers. zoney ♣ talk 10:16, 5 January 2006 (UTC)