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.
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• 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.)
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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 the summary of the featured list

Friday's FL

(August 23, today)

Monday's FL

(August 26)

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.

General discussion

Mobile version

Why are DYK and OTD not in the mobile version of the front page? See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. SpinningSpark 09:52, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

It's an after effect of the 2007-2009 mobile efforts. It was done to make it a very lightweight page, and because the mainpage was not easy to 'reshape' over the past few years. This is why the main page is still 'hardcoded' to take certain small fragments of the main page, and not everything. There have been some improvements, and the current 'experimental/alpha/dragons'-mode of the mobile site shows you how it currently looks with all sections enabled. This is a one step at a time development process, if you want to contribute to it, please do so. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:34, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

I might be underestimating the difficulties, but it seems to me a very simple thing to have a link at the bottom of the page linking to "main page sheet 2" or whatever. DYK, OTD and TFP are all transclusions. It can't be difficult to construct a page containing just those. It is a very sad state of affairs that users of the mobile site have no obvious way of getting to DYK. SpinningSpark 10:45, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

Apparently it's even easier, you can just change it, because it's already configureable: Configuring the main page. Dze google be your friend. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:33, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

I agree that these sections should at least be linked from the mobile main page. I said so recently and note that my questions and suggestions there, addressed to @Maryana (WMF): (who doubt is busy; no criticism implied) weren't answered. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:01, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

Ping-summoned! Hi :)

With regard to why DYK, OTD, and TFP specifically aren't displayed, there's just limited screen real-estate on mobile devices, and something had to get cut. It would be useful to hold an RfC to gather more feedback on the mobile main page, because I'm guessing (based on the feedback we've received to date), for every user who wants one specific main page area displayed, there's another who doesn't (or wants something else in its place). Andy did indeed have some good ideas: Why could DYK etc not be "below the fold", or displayed as a link to a subpage? As for the formatting of "help" & "contents", why not create "mobile help" and "contents for mobile", and link to them? Replace "in the news" with a link to a sub-page, and you'd have more than enough room for links to the others mentioned. The mobile team has talked in the past about tinkering with the main page to surface featured content in a more modular way – it would require some design work, but if there were a list of links & information prioritized by the community, that would make it a whole lot easier :)

I would suggest talking about this with Kenan, who's in the process of taking over the product management duties on the mobile team. I'm actually switching over to working with the Flow team, which is part of the reason I'm being tardy in mobile-related queries. Apologies! Maryana (WMF) (talk) 22:51, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

In my opinion, everything that is available in the main Wikipedia should also be available, by some means, in the mobile version. I really don't understand why this is such a problem. How does mobile handle ordinary pages that are exceptionally long? The reader is just required to scroll down are they not? Why should the front page be any different? You already have to scroll down to see everything on main Wikipedia. That appears to be what "below the fold" means. Why make a big issue of it and use technical jargon to baffle everyone? I also don't understand why we are getting comments like "the community should hold a discussion" and "go and talk to X". A discussion on the main page talk page seems to me to be the ideal place to hold a discussion about the main page. What you are hearing hear is the community opinion.

By the way, another thing that is impossible to navigate to from the mobile version is this (or any) talk page (unless one understands how to modify the url). SpinningSpark 15:09, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

There's nothing wrong with the space, but as has been stated before if you want to have any chance of getting something done a well advertised RFC would be essential. Of course it would also be a mistake to rush in to something, a poorly designed RFC would also achieve nothing. (For example, any discussion that makes the assumption the mobile version is only going to be used by high end smartphones is likely flawed. Similarly having some idea of the possible problems including bandwidth related ones for the wide variety of devices and connections out there before an RFC would be ideal.) And since the WMF could obviously veto any changes if they conflict with their goals, discussing with the WMF people involved would also be wise. Nil Einne (talk) 01:57, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Obvious bias at ITN

Two items at once on geology? WTF!!! Obvious pro-science bias!!!!

Someone was bound to complain so I figured I'd just get the ball rolling... Beeblebrox (talk) 19:53, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

Just be happy no one's dying. And we have at least four good stories lined up at ITN/C (also with no death). This is actually -- I think there's a double meaning here -- good news. -- tariqabjotu 23:06, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

Ok, there's death in the Recent deaths line, but that doesn't count. -- tariqabjotu 23:08, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

IAS? Is that shorthand for Ignore All Sources? :p Modest Genius ^talk 15:25, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

oops. Beeblebrox (talk) 15:47, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

• If he's starting the ias thread, I'm starting the "The photo of X has been up too long thread" and reposting LUGO! Hot Stop talk-contribs 16:01, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

  

Lugo! Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 18:11, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

You're still all missing the real bias problem: terracentrism. We've only got one item that's not entirely Earth related, and even that's just a launch from Earth to...you guessed it...Earth's moon.--Fyre2387 ^{(talk • contribs)} 22:14, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

I don't know, Vincent van Gogh always struck me as being on a different planet. SpinningSpark 00:14, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

9/11

Could we maybe get a "killing almost 3,000" on the 9/11 entry in OTD? (Optional link to Casualties of the September 11 attacks.) We routinely list death tolls for far less notable attacks, so I don't think it'd be a U.S.-biased move. — PinkAmpers&^{(Je vous invite à me parler)} 04:47, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

I second this. The current blurb seems underwhelming when considering the magnitude and historical impact. Also, the blurb needs more emphasis on the attacks than the hijackings in my opinion. It almost reads as if the attacks were not on the same day as the hijackings. Samuel Peoples (talk) 08:59, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

This is kind of an anniversary that needs no introduction, though. Let's keep things concise. Formerip (talk) 10:02, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps so. But do consider that younger people with no or vague memory of the attacks also visit Wikipedia, and they may not have an accurate understanding of the magnitude of the event with the current blurb. Samuel Peoples (talk) 12:11, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) I agree with Formerip that the entry is basically fine as it stands as far as detail is concerned. I do however also agree with Samuel Peoples about the relationship between the hijackings and the attacks not being clear. That could be addressed very easily by changing the wording from "Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger airliners for a series of suicide attacks . . . " to "Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger airliners and used them in (or used them to carry out) a series of suicide attacks . . .". Awien (talk) 12:19, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

(Adds) The purpose of these blurbs is, after all, to take the reader to the article, not to substitute for the article. Awien (talk) 12:22, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

I agree with Awien's suggestion on the change of wording. The blurb should be fine after that. Samuel Peoples (talk) 12:44, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

 Done. —howcheng {chat} 16:03, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Unfortunately, because this section should have been in WP:ERRORS not here, Howcheng accidentally introduced an error into the blurb (not realising that this very issue had already been dealt with (by me) at WP:ERRORS). All's well now, but please put reports about main page errors in the right place, to avoid duplication and confusion. Bencherlite^Talk 17:10, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

I apologise - I'm the one who triggered the duplication by posting the suggested rewording as a request at errors without leaving a note here. Awien (talk) 14:39, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Chilean Coup?

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Something missing from day in history. Just saying....204.108.237.194 (talk) 14:05, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

If you check the "staging area" for today's OTD/SA listings, you will find an unusually long list of potential items for the roughly five available slots in OTD's available Main page space. Additionally, the 1973 Chilean coup d'état article has several sections that need referencing improvements. Fix the problems with the article (you or any other interested party have close to a year to complete the work) and you should have a good chance of seeing the coup listed next year (the person who performs most of the OTD/SA maintenance is usually kind to articles that have seen improvement sufficient enough to remove them from the ineligible list). --Allen3 ^talk 14:33, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

The article isn't tagged so it should've been fair game; more so on its 40th anniversary (since we're biased towards multiples of 10 anniversaries). –HTD 14:39, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

At the time I did the scheduling, it was. —howcheng {chat} 15:57, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Well that explains it. –HTD 16:31, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Glaring grammatical error at very beginning of today's "featured article"

The article reads:

"The Middle Ages of European history lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began..."

Talk about a basic failure of pronoun agreement! "Middle Ages" is a they, not an it.

Why would Wikipedia want to "feature" an article containing such an elementary and prominent error? Has Wikipedia no self-respect?

It's not an error, it's a style choice. Not everything that ends with "s" is really plural, "The Middle Ages" can be either singular or plural depending on context. SnowFire (talk) 20:04, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

And dialect. I believe using 'they' in that situation is more common in British English than North American. Could be mistaken.72.28.82.250 (talk) 21:23, 12 September 2013 (UTC)