Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors

Error reports

Please post error reports regarding only what is currently on the Main Page or on Main Page/Tomorrow here.
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Errors in In the news

Pirate Bay

Would it be helpful to add the country where the trial occurred to the Pirate Bay item? Maybe we could insert "in a Swedish court" after "guilty." --Cam (talk) 13:21, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Is it really necessary? The blurb is already long enough. --BorgQueen (talk) 13:23, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I agree with BorgQueen in full.--chaser - t 17:42, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I disagree. Some people/organizations try to use the verdict as a way to enforce something in their own country. Maybe we should put the "in a Swedish court" there as a clarification that intelligent people obviously don't need to have. That way we indicate that the verdict only has an effect in Sweden instead of a European one. --ZombieCow (talk) 17:48, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Torrent-tracking

There's a grammatical error. "Four people associated with the torrent tracking website The Pirate Bay...".

Per Compound Modifier, "torrent-tracking" is a compound modifier of "website", and so requires a hyphen. Let's set a good example, especially on the Main Page. Regards, Unimaginative Username (talk) 23:18, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Actually, the compound modifier article isn't that absolute, and neither is WP:HYPHEN. But in this case, I can imagine four people associated with a torrent, while tracking the website The Pirate Bay. So I hyphenated it. Art LaPella (talk) 01:46, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Actually, the WP article linked is tagged and is too short, besides. Also, WP really shouldn't be used as a source, other than internally. It was just the quickest and most convenient, since a lot of people don't go too deeply into this stuff. I consider this source much more authoritative: English Plus

Your example is exactly the reason for this rule: to avoid ambiguity. Four torrent people are tracking the website... The hyphen makes it unambiguous that "torrent" attaches to "tracking" to form a single modifier.

The most famous example (I think) is "I bought a little used car". Did you buy a used compact car, or did you buy a car that hadn't been used very much? "I bought a little-used car" is unambiguous, and a comma disambiguates the other: "I bought a little, used car". A comma clearly separates the modifiers that are not one compound modifier, although they aren't necessary if no misunderstanding is likely: "I live in a small yellow house". But if the author could be trusted to hyphenate the compound ones, the lack of a hyphen would make "little used car" more clearly indicate the compact used car. Unfortunately, most can't. :-(

Thanks for fixing. I'll remember to get non-WP, authoritative sources in the future. (also to create a new topic header so it's more visible. Sorry about that as well.) Regards, Unimaginative Username (talk) 04:41, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

"... although they aren't necessary if no misunderstanding is likely" is the qualification I wanted to see (I didn't know anything about this stuff before Wikipedia). I wish someone would make our Manual of Style guideline WP:HYPHEN less ambiguous on that point. Art LaPella (talk) 16:52, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

It *seems* to cover this case:

To link related terms in compound adjectives and adverbs:

...

* A hyphen can help to disambiguate (little-celebrated paintings, not a reference to little paintings). (As you said, a torrent-tracking website, not four people in the midst of a figurative {or literal} storm tracking the website.)

* Many compound adjectives that are hyphenated when used attributively (before the noun they qualify—a light-blue handbag), are not hyphenated when used predicatively (after the noun—the handbag was light blue); this attributive hyphenation also occurs in proper names, such as Great Black-backed Gull. Where there would be a loss of clarity, the hyphen may be used in the predicative case too (hand-fed turkeys, the turkeys were hand-fed). ("The 'Pirate Bay' website, known for torrent tracking" doesn't have the potential ambiguity of the pre-noun modifier in the first case.)

You certainly could voice your concerns and requests on the MOS talk page, but given that presently, almost 14,000 words are there discussing the much more vital topic of En dashes vs. hyphens, I wish you luck in obtaining any more information about where the hyphens -- or is it en-dashes? should go! Regards, Unimaginative Username (talk) 09:22, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it covers this case. I was thinking of last time, when someone wanted to hyphenate "half a million" somethings. Art LaPella (talk) 13:39, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Errors in Picture of the Day/Today's featured picture

Reporters: please first correct the regular version.

Errors in Did you know?

• The word "that" is missing at the start of the first hook. Also, this hook is not text-wrapping properly, so there's quite a bit of empty space between this first hook and the words "From Wikipedia's newest articles:" above it. Please fix. Thanks. --199.71.174.100 (talk) 21:52, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

"That" added, removed a spare line. How's it looking now? Bencherlite^Talk 22:18, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Still a lot of empty space to the left of the map. Perhaps the codes for the map are not compatible with IE6? --199.71.174.100 (talk) 22:24, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Ouch, just looked at it in IE instead of my usual Firefox and I see the massive space you're talking about. Can another admin work out how to fix this? Bencherlite^Talk 22:32, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

It's ugly here (on FF3) for another reason: the way the links are superimposed on the map blocks out a good chunk of the map and makes the links almost unreadable. How about we just switch to a different image entirely? Algebraist 22:39, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

The only thing I can see that is suitable is File:Sphincterochila boissieri shell.jpg for the snail hook. How about that one? - Dumelow (talk) 22:53, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

That would work, or File:Sphincterochila boissieri shell 2.jpg, the same image but only the side view. Shubinator (talk) 00:50, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Y Done I saw errors on Firefox and I switched the image. Royalbroil 01:09, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Protection

Something's wrong with cascading protection. DYK Images on the main page are not being automatically protected. There was problems with the previous group. I tested and protected the image on this group. There's a thread at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Main_page_cascading_protection_not_working. Royalbroil 12:49, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Is this issue still live? --Dweller (talk) 14:36, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

The DYK image which is live now, File:Lyon0002soft.JPG, suffered some vandalism. I briefly deleted the image to remove the bad history, and restored the page and then purged the main page and re-applied image protection. I'm posting for two reasons. The first, so people can double check and make sure I didn't mess anything up and the second, to find out why the heck an unprotected image slipped by? Does this have to do with the broken cascade protection discussed above? Any ideas?-Andrew c ^[talk] 21:55, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, that would be the cascading protection issue. The image is (and was) hosted on En, and therefore should be automatically protected by cascading protection once it's on the front page (which is why DYK admins intentionally haven't been manually protecting the images). However, it seems to have a few cracks now. Does anyone know if the software changed around the middle of March (Royalbroil's post) that would affect cascading protection? Also, we seem to be having a rash of Main Page image vandalism (I remember this OTD image getting vandalized a few days ago)...anyone know if it's the same person/IP? Shubinator (talk) 23:42, 10 April 2009 (UTC) (btw, archived Village pump thread is here)

I just created a bug report, it's number 18483. Royalbroil 01:31, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Follow-up and old items

This holding area is for items that require follow-up (for example, a general point that needs to be raised elsewhere), or for items that haven't been dealt with but where the topic under discussion is no longer on the Main Page. The items listed here should eventually be moved to a suitable location elsewhere, such as:

• Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article
• Template talk:In the news
• Wikipedia talk:Did you know
• Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries
• Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day

Any other problems

Please report other problems on Talk:Main Page.