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.

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Some older talk has been archived to

• talk:Main Page/Archive 1
• talk:Main Page/Archive 2
• talk:Main Page/Archive 3
• talk:Main Page/Archive 4
• talk:Main Page/Archive 5
• talk:Main Page/Archive 6
• talk:Main Page/Archive 7
• talk:Main Page/Archive 8

• Talk about the layout and colour design of the Main Page
  • talk:Main Page/Temp
  • talk:Main Page/Temp2
  • talk:Main Page/Temp3
  • talk:Main Page/Temp5 (previously Temp4)
  • talk:Main Page/Temp6

Protect pages listed on the Main Page?

After the latest vandalism on the front page link to Tli Cho it might be appropriate to discuss protecting also pages listed there. Or make an option to add them automatically to watchlists of all admins. Safety measure.
--Kpjas 07:16, 27 Aug 2003 (UTC)

• I think protecting them would be a bad idea. If these are the pages people are coming across first, you don't want to give them the idea they can't edit them as they may think it applies to the whole site. Watching them would be a good though. Angela. 07:22, 27 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Question on database schema moved to village pump.

Front page quotation

I really dislike that pretentious front page quotation. Firstly, it pushes the actual content of the page even further down on smaller displays. Secondly, it doesn't make any sense concerning Wikipedia. Wikipedia contains lots and lots of (often very good) information, but it is not exactly a source of wisdom! I think the quotation is pretty silly in this context... --Morn

I agree on all counts. I've never heard of this guy John Naisbitt either. I'm getting rid of it. Mintguy 18:12, 27 Aug 2003 (UTC)

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I suggest include a link to disccuss this page in the top part of the page, near to protected page and include a new page named Main Page/simulation to propose changes.

• You might want to take a look at Talk:Main_Page/Layout_design, Main Page/Temp, Main Page/Temp2, Main Page/Temp3, Main Page/Temp4, Main Page/Temp5, Main Page/Temp6 and Main Page/Temp7 first. :) Angela 23:06, 30 Aug 2003 (UTC)

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Note: Harley-Davidson and Anniversaries discussion moved to Wikipedia talk:Selected Articles on the Main Page. --Jiang 22:24, 1 Sep 2003 (UTC)

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Wikipedia:Welcome, newcomers

Wikipedia:Welcome, newcomers is not linked on the main page. To make the main page more welcoming, I propose we replace "Community" with that link, or at least add it in that section. --Jiang 05:05, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

The "you" in the second sentence of the introduction used to be a link there - looked like a fine solution. Don't know why it's gone. Kosebamse 05:14, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

The "you" doesn't seem prominent enough. We need to make this link very visible. --Jiang 05:16, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

See archive 8 of this page. Angela 06:18, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I agree with the decision made on Archive 8 but we need to link it somewhere else. --Jiang 06:22, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Okay, added it in, but should it be made more prominent? --Jiang 20:42, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

It's fine - the help page is already very prominent. --mav

The Magic Door

Where can I go to find information about a Television show viewed in the U.S.A. called the Magic Door. A Miniature man that played an accoustic guitar and lived in a mushroom? Back in the 1970's.

If you are refering to the children's show "The Magic Door Television Theatre", as of this moment, there is no article on Wikipedia about it. If you would like to create an article about it, I have found a few possible sources of information: [1], [2]. I have not been able to find any information on a show called just The Magic Door based your description though. I hope this helps. { MB | マイカル } 15:45, Sep 3, 2003 (UTC)

Fitting the screen

I'm using IE 6. How do I adjust by screen to see if everything will fit at 800? --Jiang 04:34, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)

The simplest way is to adjust your screen to 800x600 resolution and try it out. :) Right-click on the desktop and go into "display properties", you should be able to adjust the screen resolution from there. --Brion 04:51, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)

One way of acheiving this is to view the page through a frame that is set at 800 pixels. It isn't going to be exactly the same as viewing the page at 800 by 600, but it will likely be close enough to be useful. Copy the following code and paste it into a file, for instance wiki.html. Then load it in a browser and the left side of the screen should have the main page of Wikipedia in a frame which is 800 pixels wide. -- Popsracer 09:57, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)

<HTML> <frameset cols="800,*"> <frame src="http://www.wikipedia.org/" frameborder="0" scrolling="Auto" noresize marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"> <frame frameborder="0" scrolling="Auto" noresize marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"> </frameset> </HTML>

Article count on front page

Seeing the article count at 154006 reminds me of an old issue I have with this count. I think it would be better to always truncate these article counts to the nearest thousand, because

• the counter is not realtime but only updated every few days. It will thus be never as accurate as it seems, which is quite unscientific.
• a large number that ends in some zero digits looks much more pleasant in a text.
• one could then reformulate the Wikipedia introduction in a way that underlines the ever-growing nature of Wikipedia more effectively, so that instead of, for example

We started in January 2001 and are currently working on 153472 articles in the English version.

it would read

We started in January 2001 and are currently working on more than 153000 articles in the English version.

which I think sounds considerably more exciting. --Morn

The article count is only updated every few days? That's new to me. -- Schnee 15:53, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)

You're right, it is updated daily. But since Wikipedia usually grows by several hundred articles a day the accuracy of this count is still very limited. --Morn

No. Unless something has recently changed then ror logged-in users it is updated in real time; all you have to do is reload the page. For anon users the count is only updated when somebody edits the main page to create a new version. This is due to the fact that we cache every page for anons. --mav

OK, sometimes I am logged in and sometimes not when I am reading or contributing to the site. That explains why the counter sometimes froze for me.

Still, the main question is if a first-time visitor really needs or wants the information with that seeming precision. There is a statistics page after all.

I see those three introductory sentences on the frontpage as the Wikipedia sales pitch. And while the first and third sentences are fine, the second sentence is a little weak and comes off as bean counting (two numbers in a sentence, not very good style).

The less nerdy our intro sounds, the less likely first time visitors will become vandals, I suspect. In the end, my question revolves more around the psychological effect on newcomers than the technical side of the issue. --Morn 22:37, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I guess that's a matter of taste really - it looks just fine to me, and I also don't think that visitors will become vandals simply because the number is not rounded to the nearest 1K or so. That sounds a bit far-fetched really... -- Schnee 00:22, 5 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I prefer to have the maximum number of significant digits. Look at McDonalds Corp. They put "one billion served", or "3 billion served" on their signs. With so many zeroes, it makes people think that they don't really count! Even if they only updated the sign weekly with a new number to the maximum number of significat digits, it would give more credibility to the number. dave 12:37, 9 Sep 2003 (EDT)

Logo voting

The front page should be changed to mention that the first round logo voting ends Sept 5 20:00 UTC. Jrincayc 02:59, 5 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Agreed. Done.

James F. 03:26, 5 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Lt Gen Bazilio Olara Okello

Dear Sir/ Madam I recently saw a detailed article on Bazilio by Col Joseph Ntare on your page, could you please forward it to me. Thank you James Tawny

I answered your query at the Wikipedia:Village Pump which is the best place for this sort of query. Pete 12:07, 8 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Assination attmpts

I changed the "assassination attempt" link to Anna Lindh to "Anna Lindh" because there have been a few assasination attempts today -- in case people havent read the wires. Its too general a category. -戴&#30505sv 01:56, Sep 11, 2003 (UTC)

Chile

Surely the September 11 aniversary link should be Salvador Allende rather than Augusto Pinochet.

MIT Media Lab survey

See the discussion on the link to Wikipedia:MIT Media Lab survey added to the main page of Wikipedia on September 11. Nanobug 23:36, 11 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Mahmoud Abbas

Shouldn't the "current events" link go to Abu Ala at this point rather than Mahmoud Abbas? -- AdamRaizen 18:22, 2003 Sep 13 (UTC)

Yes, it should. Done.

James F. 22:06, 13 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Underemployment

Would someone add the article Underemployment to the "New Articles" line? It's a well-written article. (I would, but I made some relatively minor changes -- adding links -- & I feel I should recuse myself.) -- llywrch 05:02, 15 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Done.

James F. 14:08, 15 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Recent Deaths

Shouldn't someone add the Williams sisters' sister's death to the main page?

I dunno. Does she really qualify as suitable? She's only famous by association... (This also applies to adding her to RDs itself.)

James F. 00:40, 16 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Response time

Moved to Wikipedia:Village pump

You mean it's accurate?

Do we have to say "complete and accurate"? As if someone would be creating an inaccurate encyplopaedia? CGS 20:10, 16 Sep 2003 (UTC).

When any 4-year old or jerk can edit, I think it is necessary to mention that our goal is to be complete and accurate. --mav 01:59, 17 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Hurricane Isabel

Why hasn't the hurricane ever registered on "In the News"? It's slamming North Carolina right now, and I think deserves mention (and I can't make the edit). -- VV 23:27, 18 Sep 2003 (UTC)

It needs an article. Does it have one? --Jiang 23:29, 18 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Yes: Hurricane Isabel. -- VV 00:05, 19 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Layout bad on Opera 7

The tables with the different language doesn't wrap with my setup (Opera 7) and generates a thousands of pixels wide table. Please look into this. Thanks, drx

Elbasan?

What newsitem mentions this town? How is it deserving of the first place among current events? Just curious. --Igor 7:11, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

It's listed under "new articles". That doesn't mean "news articles". --Wik 06:13, Sep 20, 2003 (UTC)

OK, silly me :), how does one go about selecting an particular article for the list? Surely, there must be thousands of new articles every day?

--Igor 23:24, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Well, maybe not thousands, but there's a lot, yes :) Selection is done on a pretty informal basis - there are some guidelines at Wikipedia:Selected Articles on the Main Page, but basically it boils down to trying to pick well-written, well-formatted articles of a reasonable length. --Camembert

Biographies

Would someone please update the link to Lists of people? The page was renamed some time ago. -- User:Docu

Done. Angela 17:59, Sep 20, 2003 (UTC)

Recent Deaths

How do we get to select which people appear on the front page? I think that Jack Brymer is deserving of this (died 15th September), as he was really a very distinguished clarinettist. David Martland 18:54, 21 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I've added Jack Brymer. The relevant guidelines here are:

1. All links appearing in section should first be included on corresponding news/deaths/events/anniversaries page
2. All links appearing in this section should go to non-stub entries (greater than 500 chars)
3. Recent deaths: simply, famous people who have died within the last week or so.

Angela 20:02, Sep 21, 2003 (UTC)

Links

Why is there a separate link for "Software engineering" under "Applied Arts and Sciences"? A link for "Engineering" already is there.152.163.253.2 01:01, 22 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I partly agree that it is superfluous as software engineering is linked to from the engineering page, but on the other hand it is a very popular page, so I don't see any overwhelming reason to remove it. Angela 01:17, Sep 22, 2003 (UTC)

EU enlargement

The "EU enlargement" link should point to Enlargement of the European Union, not to European Union as it currently does. Cabalamat

Done. Thanks for spotting it. Angela

Blocks

It would be nice, if people unblock blocked ISPs, that they explain why they do so. An explanation is required to block them. RickK 01:58, 23 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I think they are automatically expiring after 24 hours now due to a change in the code. Angela 03:48, Sep 23, 2003 (UTC)

Galileo

The link to the Galileo spacecraft should be itealicized to meet standard style.64.12.96.47 01:34, 24 Sep 2003 (UTC)

NASA doesn't italisize it.Vancouverguy 01:38, 24 Sep 2003 (UTC)

The Government Printing Office Style guide says that it should be. What does NASA know about writing style? 64.12.96.47 00:23, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)