Talk:Main Page

Main Page error report

To report an error in content currently or imminently on the Main Page, use the appropriate section below.

• Where is the error? An exact quotation of the text in question helps.
• Offer a correction if possible.
• References are helpful, especially when reporting an obscure factual or grammatical error.
• Time zones. The Main Page runs on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, currently 11:48 on 2 November 2024) and is not adjusted to your local time zone.
• Can you resolve the problem yourself? If the error lies primarily in the content of an article linked from the Main Page, fix the problem there before reporting it here. Text on the Main Page generally defers to the articles with bolded links. Upcoming content on the Main Page is usually only protected from editing beginning 24 hours before its scheduled appearance. Before that period, you can be bold and fix any issues yourself.
• Do not use {{edit fully-protected}} on this page, which will not get a faster response. It is unnecessary, because this page is not protected, and causes display problems. (See the bottom of this revision for an example.)
• No chit-chat. Lengthy discussions should be moved to a suitable location elsewhere, such as the talk page of the relevant article or project.
• Respect other editors. Another user wrote the text you want changed, or reported an issue they see in something you wrote. Everyone's goal should be producing the best Main Page possible. The compressed time frame of the Main Page means sometimes action must be taken before there has been time for everyone to comment. Be civil to fellow users.
• Reports are removed when resolved. Once an error has been addressed or determined not to be an error, or the item has been rotated off the Main Page, the report will be removed from this page. Check the revision history for a record of any discussion or action taken; no archives are kept.

Administrators: Clear all reports

Errors in the summary of the featured article

Please do not remove this invisible timestamp. See WT:ERRORS and WP:SUBSCRIBE. - Dank (push to talk) 01:24, 29 September 2022 (UTC)

Errors in "Did you know ..."

Current DYK

• ... that after Liam and Noel Gallagher's band Oasis announced "the most controversial band reunion since the Sex Pistols' 1996 Filthy Lucre Tour", Noel's daughter Anaïs Gallagher criticised some fans for ageism and sexism?

Ugly hook, and where is the quote from? Secretlondon (talk) 23:50, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

@Secretlondon: The quote is from the fifth sentence of the third paragraph of "Initial announcement and reactions", while its source is in the sentence. How would you word the hook?--Launchballer 01:00, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

There are three bolded highlights in this hook. What is the article(s) that users are supposed to be focusing on: All three, or just one? Why is this specific quote included at all? Doc Strange^MailboxLogbook 02:39, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

It's a multi-hook, which I suppose is like casting a wide net to catch all possible fish. All three bolded articles in this one hook are the target articles. Bremps... 03:06, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

Errors in "On this day"

Today's OTD

• Add "Victory Day in the Maldives" near "Culture Day in Japan". MAL MALDIVE (talk) 03:51, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

Errors in the summary of the featured list

Friday's FL

(November 8)

Monday's FL

(November 4)

Errors in the summary of the featured picture

Notice to administrators: When fixing POTD errors, please update the corresponding regular version (i.e. without "protected" in the page title) in addition to the Main Page version linked below.

Today's POTD

In the description of the featured picture for Diwali, we should wikilink the mythical city Ayodhya (Ramayana) instead of the actual city Ayodhya. The reason is explained in the second paragraph of the article Ayodhya (Ramayana):

“ The historicity of this legendary city is of concern to the Ayodhya dispute. According to one theory, it is same as the present-day Ayodhya city. According to another theory, it is a fictional city, and the present-day Ayodhya (originally called Saketa) was renamed after it around the 4th or 5th century, during the Gupta period. ”

Also see the section Ayodhya_(Ramayana)#Historicity. --Lekhak93 (talk) 09:03, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

General discussion

What should be on Main Page?

I noticed there's a proposal for redesigning the Main Page. It seems to be working on the premise of keeping what we have, which seems to me to be a bit of a wasted opportunity. I'd seriously suggest we ditch ITN, as it is so confusing. It gives the impression that we're a news source, which we're not. Worse, it gives the impression that we're a rubbish news source. Any views? --Dweller (talk) 22:16, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Considering the high page views ITN gets, I really don't think readers would like it if we ditched ITN. I sometimes like to think of the readers as the silent members of the community, this is written for them you know. I would be opposed to a change that clearly upsets readers. On another note, I'd still like to get some type of GA link onto the main page. Ryan Vesey 22:25, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Page views aren't a good measure of the effectiveness of ITN, since it's natural that people will want to find encyclopaedic coverage of current events regardless of whether they get there through the main page or the search function. Click-through would be more useful as a metric but I don't believe Wikipedia tracks that level of information. A useful measurement would be one that accounts specifically for the role the main page had in driving traffic to a given article, which is something that could easily be tracked through the referrer header field on any other website. Is there any way to look at that data on Wikipedia? (as an aside, I also question the value of the ITN section on the main page) – NULL ‹talk›
‹edits› 23:16, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

I sometimes wish we'd create "Main page redirects" so that you could get an accurate count of views that came from the main page. Ryan Vesey 23:32, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

I think a radical change would be interesting. I know it's not ideal, but would it be feasible to put, similar to what we have in most articles now, a small feedback box on the mainpage asking if the change is better or worse (scale 1-5?) and what is better or worse about it. Maybe it could be, for a predetermined amount of time, fixed as a banner, not dissimilar to the donation banner, in the same place as the donation banner? If the feedback is overwhelmingly negative (determined statistically, no just pure percentages), then it should be reverted. Just my two cents. 81.157.1.104 (talk) 00:17, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

I would not accept a drastical change of the mainpage, but I am in favour to replace the ITN box with GA of the day. I am not a fan of updates, etc. Regards.--Kürbis (✔) 09:02, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

I think that if we need to remove content from the Main Page, ITN should be first to go. While Wikinews is not as good a news source as Wikipedia is, it is supposed to be one, and a link to our sister project should (in an ideal world) be all we need to cover the news. —Kusma (t·c) 10:05, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

(reset) ITN is useful for 'ongoing stories' (and discussions thereon), and contributing to the MP's general purpose of bringing to people's attention things they might not otherwise be aware of/look at. Jackiespeel (talk) 12:13, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

I think ITN is quite powerful in that it highlights that wikipedia is much more up to date compared to other encyclopaedia's, and also as a stepping off point for topical items - so if someone is interested in the political situation in Syria because it is in the news a lot at the moment, often in that situation there will be an ITN to feed them into the right area with an article that should be wikilinked to a lot of the appropriate related broader topics that have built up over time, so it basically works as a short term stored search for various topics that are temporarily going to be quite popular for visitors. --81.149.74.231 (talk) 15:05, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

• While I agree to include a spot for GA on the main page, I strongly disagree with the proposal to remove ITN per reasons mentioned above. Mohamed CJ (talk) 16:38, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

This exact question was addressed in a RfC last year. Outside of this, I think any content changes should be pursued separately to the visual refresh proposal; consensus will become even more difficult if the two are combined. — Pretzels ^Hii! 17:06, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

If anything, what needs to be jettisoned is the old phrase that Wikipedia is not news. That's been blatantly false for years, and Wikipedia gets a lot of readers and editors from ongoing world events. Our mission to bring knowledge to people does not and should not stop at some arbitrary distance from the "now" - making knowledge available can and should include providing the best information on important events that are happening right now. Nathan ^T 17:24, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

ITN is highly subjective and controversial, it should not be there. Conversely DYK is more objective. I think OTD should replace ITN and then either put a GA or promote hte POTD to OTD's place. (we can leave certain permanent sickes on the top like recent deaths, national electoral calendar, international sports calendar, and a link to the list of news templates)Lihaas (talk) 02:14, 18 August 2012 (UTC)

I've taken the liberty of moving this message; it was originally posted into an unrelated section. Graham87 03:16, 18 August 2012 (UTC)

This probably occurred because two sections were archived in the preceding edit (see the diff), and Lihaas clicked the section edit link before the edit by the archiving bot. Graham87 03:21, 18 August 2012 (UTC)

ITN is vital to the front page, and I'm concerned by any mood music towards its removal. What I hope isn't happening is a move to delete/downgrade ITN by editors who feel that their nominations haven't made it to the front page doktorb _words^deeds 05:09, 18 August 2012 (UTC)

I think ITN is the most useful thing on the front page. I always find myself clicking on links in that section a lot more than the other sections. I'd hate to see it go. Rreagan007 (talk) 19:46, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

Tense in "golden toad" photo

The caption for the featured photo says

The golden toad (Bufo periglenes) is an extinct species of true toad that was once....

That's just incorrect English. If the toad is extinct, it needs to be described in the past tense. The article itself correctly uses the past tense, so I'm not sure why someone wanted to use incorrect English for the main page itself. --Trovatore (talk) 08:45, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

No, the present tense is used to indicate the continued extinction. Were the past tense to be used ('The golden toad was an extinct species...') it would imply that the extinction had ceased, something not possible. Otherwise the toad is described in the past tense ('...was once...'). Thanks! EDIT: Your complaint would be correct if the word 'extinct' were omitted. 81.157.1.104 (talk) 09:51, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

You're correct that the golden toad was an extinct species would also be wrong. In fact the golden toad is not a species, and never was — it was a toad, not a species.

That doesn't obviate my complaint in any way. The article itself has perfectly acceptable English: [t]he golden toad (Bufo periglenes) was a small, shiny, bright true toad that was once.... The caption for the photo on the main page is not acceptable English. --Trovatore (talk) 17:01, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

There is no problem with the language used, it may not be common colloquial English but it is the correct technical phrasing. Bufo periglenes is still a valid taxon, so it is an extinct species. Your contention that the golden toad was not a species makes no sense to me. --Khajidha (talk) 19:37, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

No, there really is a problem. It's just not good English. I can accept the phrasing Bufo periglenes was a species but not the golden toad was a species. A toad is not a species. --Trovatore (talk) 20:54, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

No, there really isn't a problem. Your examples say the same thing. Bufo periglenes is the scientific name while golden toad is the colloquial name... both are just differant (and correct) labels for the same species of animal, and that species of animal is extinct. The tense is correct, as is the usage of both acceptable names. 63.192.83.15 (talk) 21:57, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

No, you're quite wrong. It just doesn't work in English. Exactly why is difficult to reason out, but it's clear that the language as given is unacceptable. --Trovatore (talk) 23:57, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Sorry but it is correct as it stands. The sentence may look strange because it uses two tenses and could be rewritten, but it does work. violet/riga _^[talk] 00:06, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

It does not. --Trovatore (talk) 00:08, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Ooooh yes it does... violet/riga _^[talk] 00:17, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

How is "the golden toad" not a species? You seem to be saying that, for example, Homo sapiens would be a species but "human beings" wouldn't. They are exactly the same thing, just like "golden toad" and Bufo periglenes are the same thing. Both are names for a particular species of organism, it's just that one is the taxonomic name and one is the common name. --Khajidha (talk) 00:21, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

The parallel sentence is the human being is a species. Would you say that? I seriously doubt it. If you did I'd laugh at you (maybe just internally). --Trovatore (talk) 00:36, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

I don't know about "human being" (probably a countable/mass noun issue), but we seem to have no problem with "The American White Ibis is a species", "The Andalusian is a horse breed", "The Andean Condor is a species", "The Appaloosa is a horse breed", "The Australian Cattle Dog is a breed of herding dog" "The Australian Green Tree Frog is a species" "The Aylesbury duck is a breed of domesticated duck" ... and that's just the common name 'A's from the Animal section of the list of Featured Articles. If that construct is not good English, it looks like it's news to the editors who review Featured articles. Or is this just a matter of capitalization? "The golden toad is a species" is wrong, but "The Golden Toad is a species" would be acceptable? -- 205.175.124.30 (talk) 01:29, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

The problem, or at least one problem, with the locution, is that it conflates the individual with the class. Capitalization would reduce my objection somewhat, but I would still want past tense, perhaps the Golden Toad was a species of toad, now extinct.... or something of the sort. Of course, the capitalization gets into the whole conflict between WP:BIRDS and the regulars at the MoS. --Trovatore (talk) 01:36, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

But... why? It is, today, extinct, and so present tense is the correct way to address it. The same way, you would say, "Steve Redgrave is a former Olympian" but also "Steve Redgrave was an Olympian" (although when you do it with humans it reads as though they're dead, the analogy is the same). We don't capitalise species' names because it doesn't make sense to do so, the same way we don't capitalise job titles and so on. You certainly wouldn't write, "we went to the zoo and saw dozens of Zebras", would you? foxj in the wild 09:41, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Foxj, that's exactly it: We say Steve Redgrave is a former Olympian because he's still alive. If he were dead, we would say he was a former Olympian, and to say he is one would be quite incorrect. Because the golden toad is extinct, it must be described in the past tense. --Trovatore (talk) 17:27, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

It's a moot point now that it's not on the main page anymore, but I can't just let this one go. It may sound wrong to your ear (or your reading eyes), Trovatore, but the tense is quite correct, I assure you. 'Extinct' is an adjective describing a state of being, and so its use is equivalent to the word 'dead'... If Steve Redgrave died, we would say "Steve Redgrave is dead" not "Steve Redgrave was dead". Now we could say "Steve Redgrave has died", which would be equivalent to "the golden toad has become extinct", but there is no reason to use a wordier equivalent when the current wording is correct, accurate, and succint. 63.192.83.15 (talk) 18:41, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

You can say Steve Redgrave is dead. You cannot and must not say Steve Redgrave is a dead Olympian. Well, in some contexts, mostly jocular ones, you can, but not introducing him in an encyclopedic context. It's just utterly inferior writing, completely substandard. --Trovatore (talk) 19:24, 17 August 2012 (UTC) By the way, as far as I know, Steve Redgrave is very much alive; I wasn't thinking about that aspect when I responded. --Trovatore (talk) 19:28, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Your example is a False analogy, in that you are equating the term "Olympian" to "species". A closer (but still imperfect) analogy to "The golden toad is an extinct species" would be to say "Steve Redgrave is a dead human". Sure, that is awkward sounding because, as persons ourselves, most readers would already assume that 'Steve Redgrave' is a person and that to do so explicately is redundant... but not incorrect grammatically. The blurb as it appeared was factually and grammatically correct and was not in violation of the manual of style, it seemed to have the support (or at least the passive acceptance) of the community, and most of articles on extinct species that I looked at seemed to show a consensus for similar phrasing. So I wonder how you can declare it "just utterly inferior writing, completely substandard" without being able to tell us exactly what your objection is beyond that it just doesn't sound right to you. 63.192.83.15 (talk) 00:19, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

To Trovatore: the only problem with saying "the human being is a species" is the inherrent silliness of writing about one's own species from an outside perspective. The grey wolf is a species, it doesn't lose that distinction just because I didn't use Canis lupus. Similarly, the blue whale is a species whether I use that term or Balaenoptera musculus. The sugar maple is just as much a species as Acer saccharum. So how are you making a distinction between "the golden toad" and Bufo periglenes? What do you mean by saying that it "conflates the individual with the class"? Both terms refer to the same population of organisms, a formerly interbreeding collective that is no longer extant. Thus you can say equally well that "the golden toad is an extinct species" or that"Bufo periglenes is an extinct species. --Khajidha (talk) 14:24, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

When you say the golden toad, you're using a sort of "generic individual" figure of speech; to my ear it doesn't work well to say that the generic individual is the entire class. Seems less bad with the capitals. But I don't want to focus on this; the main problem with the caption is the utterly atrocious problem with tense. --Trovatore (talk) 17:32, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

"It doesn't sound right to me" is not always the best way to determine what is or is not proper English usage. It is not at all uncommon to see a generic individual used to refer to an entire species/class/etc... even if such usage doesn't sound right to your ear, I'm sure there are many examples of such usage right here in Wikipedia. For example, if I were to say, "The great white shark is found in warm tropical waters," it is clear that I mean the whole species, not just an individual of the species. 63.192.83.15 (talk) 18:41, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

No, you mean a generic individual of the species. The species itself is an abstract object, so really it isn't "found" anywhere, except in the Platonic heaven. --Trovatore (talk) 19:32, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

No, I'm using the singular to indicate the collective through Notional agreement. And a species is not an abstract, it is defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring... the actual real organisms themselves (whther they have all died or not), not just the abstract idea of them. 63.192.83.15 (talk) 00:19, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

• Just to be pedantic, coming back from extinction may be possible. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 09:59, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Or indeed a Lazarus taxon — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.132.214.244 (talk) 11:18, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

It reads perfectly fine to me as to all aspects complained of. By the way, there's nothing wrong with the preceding sentence ending in a preposition.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:25, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

You cannot be serious! There's a line to be drawn, and this is the kind of tedious nonsense up with which I will not put. Trying desperately not to replace 'will' with 'shall'... 81.157.1.104 (talk) 12:08, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

I'm late to the proceedings, but I want to express my agreement that the blurb's wording was factually and grammatically correct.
On a related note, I Love Lucy is a television series. —David Levy 17:45, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

I agree it seemed fine, what I am more concerned about is that people are trying to kill the great Steve Redgrave over a grammatical dispute... --81.149.74.231 (talk) 12:09, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Pussy Riot

I think we can safely say that Britannica would never have "Pussy Riot" on its cover page. :-) The relevant discussion about the ITN entry is here, for the curious: <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:In_the_news/Candidates&oldid=507837910#.5BPosted.5D_Pussy_Riot>. --MZMcBride (talk) 14:00, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Becuase the final print run was in 2010? Lugnuts ^{And the horse} 14:02, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Final paper copy was 2011, but it's still updated online and runs different front pages like Wikipedia, see Online Britannica. The Rambling Man (talk) 14:27, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

No, 2010 - "Its final print edition was in 2010, a 32-volume set." From here. Lugnuts ^{And the horse} 18:04, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Including a "Did you know?" section, heh. --MZMcBride (talk) 15:22, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Because it was out of touch? Thankfully Wikipedia is WP:NOTCENSORyED. Regards, Sun Creator^(talk) —Preceding undated comment added 16:41, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

I'm impressed we have a redirect for that typo of NOTCENSORED. I wouldn't have imagined that it was common enough to require a redirecet. —howcheng {chat} 19:29, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

To be fair, it was created this afternoon by Sun Creator, whose typo pointed there. :P GRAPPLE X 19:31, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

And he/she created it as a double redirect. Instead of simply correcting a two-minute-old typo.

I've pipe-bypassed the redirect and deleted it under CSD R3. —David Levy 20:45, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

My bad, sorry. The effect of editing on an iPhone, plus didn't realize it would be a double redirect. Regards, Sun Creator^(talk) 20:54, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

When posting the above reply, you accidentally removed part of mine. (I've restored it.)

I suggest that you use the "Show changes" button when editing via your phone. Thanks! —David Levy 21:12, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

What on earth do people want? "Pussy" to be blanked out like a curse word in a 50s novel? No need for the name of a band to be censored - I hope that nobody has censored Fuck Buttons' name in the London 2012 Opening Ceremony article for the same reasons. doktorb _words^deeds 05:07, 18 August 2012 (UTC)

The same goes for the page about Mrs Slocombe. 91.125.136.29 (talk) 09:34, 18 August 2012 (UTC)

What really bothers me is that there's a picture of only one of the 3 members, and she just happens to the most attractive one. Sexist treachery. Cosprings (talk) 14:29, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

You may have some sort of point. You could try contacting the admin who posted the picture, although they might respond best to not being accused of sexist treachery. Formerip (talk) 14:38, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

It is not a sexist treachery at all because when I pick one among multiple males, I pick the hottest hunk out of them too :D (For example, Usain Bolt -- yes, he is reasonably hot in my standard). There's nothing wrong with picking more pleasant-looking pics when we have to stare at them for quite a while. Oh, and I consider myself a feminist, which is one of the reasons why I insisted to include the word feminist in the blurb. Free Pussy Riot! --BorgQueen (talk) 15:09, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

Beauty contest? Lugo wins

Yes, he might. Why not?

Your standards have changed. 109.150.65.81 (talk) 12:32, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

What about him? I just checked its history and found that I'm not the one who uploaded the picture. What are you trying to say? (Sorry if you are actually replying to someone else) --BorgQueen (talk) 12:52, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

• It's just that he's the unofficial spokesman of ITN. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 13:01, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

• See? (And that's a plural "you" in the OPs post) — Crisco 1492 (talk) 13:02, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

• Even when it came to Mr. Lugo, I tried to pick the cutest possible shot. --BorgQueen (talk) 18:41, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

• Shame Mrs Crisco would be terribly horrified if I grew such magnificent facial hair. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:45, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

I agree with the OP, I am truly offended by seeing such a group name on the main page of what is supposed to be an encyclopedia that also serves as a news provider.189.215.203.123 (talk) 23:36, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

• I don't think the OP was offended. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 01:49, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

• I was disappointed when I learned it was only a band. --kelapstick^(bainuu) 09:34, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Why are some languages capitalized and some are not?

This is probably a stupid question, but at the bottom of the main page where other languages are listed, why are some languages capitalized and some are not? For example, "Deutsch" and "Nederlands" are capitalized but "español", "français", and "italiano" are not. Also, on the languages listed on the left side of the main page, all languages appear to be capitalized except for "‪norsk (bokmål)" and "‪norsk (nynorsk)‬". Rreagan007 (talk) 06:17, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

I raised this at WP:VPT a while ago and got some piss-poor answer at the time. Lugnuts ^{And the horse} 06:46, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Link. --202.28.181.200 (talk) 08:45, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Looking at the source this seems to be something handled "under-the-hood" as it were; doesn't seem to be a way to fix it by simply editing the source code. — foxj 07:09, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Seems to be related to how Mediawiki deals with the #language magic word. --202.28.181.200 (talk) 08:45, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Does it have anything to do with how those words are written in their native languages? This is a guess as much as anything else, it certainly does look rather inconsistent. Foxj might be right - it's something which can't be easily resolved even if a problem is identified. doktorb _words^deeds 07:53, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

From my knowledge of the languages, as a substantive, 'français' is not capitalised in French; 'Deutsch' is in German. After a look at the mainpages, it seems that that is the reason; for the native translations of '[there are] n articles in the [lannguage] Wikipedia', the capitalisation on the English Wikpedia is accurate to foreign rules. 109.150.65.81 (talk) 09:20, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Yes, it's to do with how those words are written in their native languages (and they are written in their native languages, since "Deutsch" and "slovenčina" are not English words). Not all languages treat names of languages as proper nouns. - filelakeshoe 09:35, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

It's very rare that my guesses end up accurate! doktorb _words^deeds 09:46, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

This still does not explain why the 2 "norsk" languages are not capitalized in the left-hand side list while all the other languages are. Rreagan007 (talk) 18:03, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Well, it explains why some are - is "norsk" the Norwegian word for the Norwegian language? doktorb _words^deeds 18:19, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Yup, and looking at the two Wikipedia entries for the two forms of Norwegian bokmal here and nynorsk here both confirm that in Norwegian, the names of languages are not normally capitalized. --Jayron32 20:30, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

No, Rreagan007 is right: "norsk (bokmål)" and "norsk (nynorsk)" in the left-hand sidebar are the only two entries uncapitalised; the rest are, even thought some aren't in their respective languages. 109.150.65.81 (talk) 22:38, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

The reason is discussed here [1] which I came across by following the VPT discussion (despite the claim the answers were piss-poor). Nil Einne (talk) 07:12, 22 August 2012 (UTC)