Talk:Main Page

Main Page error reports

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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)

Tomorrow's FA

• I uploaded a cropped version of the image featured in the blurb, which looks better in my opinion. Does anybody know which page to purge to make that one display instead?--NØ 15:54, 24 December 2024 (UTC)

Errors with "In the news"

• 7.3-magnitude: I think "magnitude-7.3" is probably more common and more correct. — RAVENPVFF · talk · 16:11, 24 December 2024 (UTC)

  FWIW, most of the source titles at 2024_Port_Vila_earthquake#References list the number first. —Bagumba (talk) 16:17, 24 December 2024 (UTC)

Errors in the summary of the featured list

Friday's FL

(December 27)

Monday's FL

(December 30)

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

Edit request on Wikipedia:Main Page/Tomorrow

Please replace:
{{#if:{{Wikipedia:Main Page/Commons media protection/Featured picture}}||}}

With:
{{#if:{{Wikipedia:Picture of the day/On the main pages}}||}}

So KrinkleBot knows what to do on January 24, 2020. --- C&C (Coffeeandcrumbs) 07:52, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

@David Levy: I think you are one of the few people that will understand the effects of this. --- C&C (Coffeeandcrumbs) 06:52, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

Can you give a bit more background/rationale and I will look into it — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 10:40, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

Martin: The requested edit appears to be appropriate. Its purpose is to address days on which the featured picture section displays one of multiple images at a given time (which otherwise necessitates manual intervention to ensure that all of the relevant files are protected at the Wikimedia Commons). I see that the matter was discussed at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. —David Levy 13:13, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

MSGJ and David Levy, yeah, we also discussed it the last time we had multiple photos at POTD. Since then I realized that the bot owner at Commons does not need to be involved at all and that this seemingly pointless transclusion is how we make the cascade protection reach all the right places that need protection. Wikipedia:Main Page/Commons media protection/Featured picture is an old abandoned system of protecting these images. As of now, we have to manually add these images to WP:CMP. This edit will make it so that the files are automatically protected at Commons. Ping Anomie as well who can explain more about why the Module:Random necessitated creation of Wikipedia:Picture of the day/On the main pages. --- C&C (Coffeeandcrumbs) 17:39, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

While we have several copies of the main page (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and apparently also these) that each apply cascading protection, it was still possible that one of the random options wouldn't be transcluded onto any of them and so would be a potential target for main page vandalism. So I made a module that would load all the random POTD possibilities onto a cascade-protected page. Anomie⚔ 19:59, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

Okay,  Done. Thanks for the explanation — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 10:34, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

@Coffeeandcrumbs: that page is already cascade protected, so is there any advantage in transcluding it on Wikipedia:Main Page/Tomorrow? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 10:39, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

MSGJ, yes, while the page is cascade protected on en.wiki, that does not mean that the files on it will be protected on Commons. It is cascade protected on en.wiki so that the various templates on it are protected. But to ensure that Krinklebot protects the files, it needs to be transcluded into one of the pages that the bot looks for. For example, if you removed the line{{#if:{{Wikipedia:Main Page/Commons media protection}}||}} from this page, WP:CMP would cease to function and the ITN photo would become unprotected. Cascade protection on en.wiki does not automatically propagate to Commons. Krinklebot only protects files currently on Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow's Main Page. Since the POTD templates on somedays randomly rotate, Krinklebot will contantly protect and unprotect them as they cycle. A vandal could silently wait for this cycle and vandalize one of these files at the right moment. When they cycle back on the Main Page, Krinklebot would protect the wrong version again. We could be stuck with the wrong version for several minutes until we sorted it out. Since the vandalized file is protected on Commons, we would need a Commons admin to revert. In the meantime, our only recourse would be to remove the POTD template altogether or replace it with yesterday's. --- C&C (Coffeeandcrumbs) 11:34, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Thematic Days

Perhaps from time to time we might have a thematic front page where the featured article, the did you knows and the on this days all relate to a single topic. E.g. cartography, the vikings, computer science, Brazil or anything else one cares to think up. We would probably need a WikiProject to sign up to generate the content. Thoughts? Greenshed (talk) 19:20, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

We already do that on some holidays. Particularly on Christmas, Halloween, International Women's Day, Valentine's Day or April Fool's Day the DYK, FA and FP are selected accordingly. Brandmeister^talk 22:12, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

These are date-themed whereas I was more thinking about some topic-themed days (not that the date ones are bad). Greenshed (talk) 20:32, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

I think this is a fantastic idea. Some topics will have a particular date that would be most appropriate to showcase articles on that topic (for example 7 September could have a theme of Brazil). For other topics you could just pick a date. For best results, you should start planning at least 6 months in advance. Some of the main page sections have specific processes to reserve a slot, e.g.

• TFA: Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/pending
• DYK: Template talk:Did you know/Approved#Special occasion holding area
• OTD: no specific process, you can directly edit the day's entries or post to the talk page

— Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:24, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Deaths: Bobby Brown

I am surprised that "Deaths" announcements today don't include a parenthetical mention of which Bobby Brown has died. Yes, you can click on it to find out, but is it truly sound Main Page style for a good encyclopedia to jolt readers with news that Bobby Brown is dead without an immediate reference as to which one he is? It's not poor judgment so much as complete and total thoughtlessness on someone's part. A few extra characters—Bobby Brown (footballer)—wouldn't hurt the page aesthetics that much, would it? Mason.Jones (talk) 15:55, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Space on the Main Page is at a premium, so, as a rule, any parenthetical disambiguators in article titles are omitted, leaving only the name. Even though some readers may mistake the footballer for the singer, not all will; in fact, I didn't know who the latter was before this. Furthermore, stating "(footballer)" probably wouldn't even be enough, as Wikipedia has at least five footballers with that name. — RAVENPVFF · talk · 16:43, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

This is also being discussed at Wikipedia talk:In the news#Recent Death section and disambiguation. --- C&C (Coffeeandcrumbs) 19:42, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, C&C. Mason.Jones (talk) 20:26, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

When I first saw this, I admit I assumed it was Bobby Brown, you know - the one without the disambiguator. But I soon realised I was wide of the mark when I got to ITN/C. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:33, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Saw an updated study on guns/crime from 15 May 2019 that is not included on protected page regarding John Lott (scholar) and possibly others. It seems significant enough to be given individual/updated consideration as the present writeup gives a non-conclusive impression regarding previous studies. “Right‐to‐Carry Laws and Violent Crime: A Comprehensive Assessment Using Panel Data and a State‐Level Synthetic Control Analysis“ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jels.12219 Media article discussing it here - https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/more-guns-more-crime

Right‐to‐Carry Laws and Violent Crime: A Comprehensive Assessment Using Panel Data and a State‐Level Synthetic Control Analysis

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jels.12219

Media article discussing it here -

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/more-guns-more-crime SprDg (talk) 18:10, 22 January 2020 (UTC)