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Errors in the summary of the featured article
Errors with "In the news"
- The German ruling coalition (Chancellor Olaf Scholz pictured) collapses over disagreements on economic policies.
The word "collapses" seems too strong as the linked article, 2024 German government crisis, does not use it. What it actually says is "...FDP effectively moved into the opposition, rendering the current coalition a two-party minority government." So, there's still a coalition but it has lost one of its members and so will continue as a minority government for now. Scholz is negotiating what happens next and it seems to be too soon to say exactly what that will be. Andrew🐉(talk) 13:37, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
- Indeed, I'm not even sure why this is in ITN given that the government is still very much in place. There will presumably be elections soon and we should post then.
- Also, when I first read this I thought it was Scholz himself who had collapsed. It's a poorly worded hook, given the presence of the photo caption in the middle, making it look like the Chancellor has had a mishap. — Amakuru (talk) 14:35, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
Indeed, I'm not even sure why this is in ITN ...
: Met WP:ITNSIGNIF:
—Bagumba (talk) 05:15, 11 November 2024 (UTC)It is highly subjective whether an event is considered significant enough, and ultimately each event should be discussed on its own merits
- FWIW, the first two sources at the ITNC nom were "Scholz sets stage for German snap election as government collapses" and "Germany’s Coalition Collapses, Leaving the Government Teetering".—Bagumba (talk) 19:41, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
- Those are news headlines which, per WP:HEADLINE, tend to use "exaggerations or sensationalized claims with the intention of attracting readers". And note that those examples are contradictory – one says the "government collapses" while the other says "government teetering". These are metaphors but these can be confusing when we are blurbing actual physical collapses too such as the recent canopy collapse. We should have a more precise description using the encyclopedic language of the article rather than the journalistic hyperbole of the news headlines. In this case, the finance minister was dismissed and his party left the governing coalition. A vote of confidence is now expected but hasn't been scheduled. So, the blurb might be:
- * German chancellor Olaf Scholz (pictured) dismisses his finance minister and the resulting resignations leave his coalition without a majority.
- Andrew🐉(talk) 09:46, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
- This doesn't seem to a gross error that will get resolved here. Since it appears to be "major changes in the blurb's intent or very complex updates" (Wikipedia:In_the_news/Candidates#Suggesting_updates), the ITNC nom seems like the best venue to gain consensus.—Bagumba (talk) 10:32, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
- FWIW, Ger. Wiki's ITN blurb translates as: "After the failure of the ... coalition, the FDP leaves the German federal government and as a result the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is reshuffled." -- Sca (talk) 14:42, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
- This doesn't seem to a gross error that will get resolved here. Since it appears to be "major changes in the blurb's intent or very complex updates" (Wikipedia:In_the_news/Candidates#Suggesting_updates), the ITNC nom seems like the best venue to gain consensus.—Bagumba (talk) 10:32, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
- Those are news headlines which, per WP:HEADLINE, tend to use "exaggerations or sensationalized claims with the intention of attracting readers". And note that those examples are contradictory – one says the "government collapses" while the other says "government teetering". These are metaphors but these can be confusing when we are blurbing actual physical collapses too such as the recent canopy collapse. We should have a more precise description using the encyclopedic language of the article rather than the journalistic hyperbole of the news headlines. In this case, the finance minister was dismissed and his party left the governing coalition. A vote of confidence is now expected but hasn't been scheduled. So, the blurb might be:
- We should keep this discussion open as there are further developments to consider. Today, there are reports that the major parties have agreed the date for a snap election with the timetable being a vote of confidence on Dec 16 and the election on Feb 23. See DW, Reuters, etc. So, the updated blurb might be:
- German chancellor Olaf Scholz (pictured) agrees the date for an early election after resignations left his ruling coalition without a majority.
Errors in "Did you know ..."
Errors in "On this day"
Errors in the summary of the featured list
Errors in the summary of the featured picture
General discussion
More ITN picture silliness
The first impression you get from ITN at the moment is that the Sri Lankan army have captured Mullaitivu, which is apparently in the middle of the Mediterranean. At least to those of us who read left to right and up to down like virtually everyone else on the planet, and aren't familiar with en.wiki's stupid formatting policies. As can be seen from the current image, the Sri Lankans chose to surprise the French by landing on the poorly-defended western coast adjoining the Bay of Biscay. They then stormed through the southern French mainland, which let's face it, isn't the most difficult of military campaigns. After sampling the local wines they crossed the Mediterranean and captured the well-known Tamil Tiger stronghold of Corsica.
No, I agree, that wasn't at all funny. Either align that shit or caption it for god's sake. --81.157.142.106 (talk) 23:40, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
- A rather enjoyable story I must say. They're probably behind all these recent avalanches in Afhghanistan, Scotland and Turkey too, an added effect of their stomping carelessly across Asia and Europe. Presumably one of the slightly more insane members of the army got lost in Belgium along the way too... I knew they were all connected! --➨♀♂Candlewicke ST # :) 02:29, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
- As it appears you are already aware, this issue is discussed in the FAQ and in a section above. Saying the same thing over and over again is not going to achieve anything. As I've mentioned before, if you do the work to come up with a solution that works and pleases everyone, you might get things changed. If not, you're just wasting your time by coming up with silly stories. Incidentally, I don't know why you aren't more concerned about the people who think that Edward III, his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer all lived at the Moscow State University because of yesterday's SA/OTD Nil Einne (talk) 00:07, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
- Er, Nil Einne, I agree with you that ITN formatting is that way for good reasons (lets just take every single previous discussion of this as already read, okay?), but 81.157.142.106 has a good point here - this particular combination of image and lead item is very bad. More to the general point, we know that people sometimes just assume that the lead item and image are related, so we ought to be careful not to confusion. All it takes is one moment to think about how people might mistakenly associate the image and lead item, and a willingness to reject images that might confuse people unduly. I realize that our new articles don't always have appropriate images to choose from, but we should still avoid confusion like this. — Gavia immer (talk) 07:14, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
- 81.157.142.106, stop being silly and get a wide screen monitor. The ITN pic will be next to the corresponding news item if the column is wide enough. Or look at the top of Portal: Current events. --74.13.127.206 (talk) 13:13, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
- why dont we put the "(pictured)" before the text of the item so it is immediately obvious to those with narrow screens which is the pictured item Machete97 (talk) 17:10, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
- Because that will either result in us having to put pictured twice or people having to guess what precisely is being pictured or having to be unnecessarily verbose in all instances. (If you don't get what I'm talking about, pay a bit of attention to ITN or even just look at some of the current headlines. I don't know if we had a picture for the de-excommunication item but there are 6 people that could be pictured there. If we had pictured Benedict or that bishop we just put it besides their names, the same if we picture all 4 excommunees?) Nil Einne (talk) 17:49, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
(pictured) before the item, caption explaining it.Machete97 (talk) 10:18, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
- Where to put the caption? --74.13.129.119 (talk) 14:48, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
- Where do captions usually go ? Great example here with the map. Machete97 (talk) 15:54, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
- Where do captions usually go on the Main Page? Nowhere. And this is the problem. In the absence of captions, we use the text "(pictured)". See Nil Einne's post at 17:49, 26 January 2009 (UTC) for an explanation to why putting "(pictured)" before the item won't work. --74.13.129.119 (talk) 16:06, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
- Where do captions usually go ? Great example here with the map. Machete97 (talk) 15:54, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
- I really don't understand the problem with the current situation, surely any new poeple to wikipedia are going to read the whole of the ITN section and see (pictured) next to the pictured article, and anyone who has been here longer will know that the picture is not always of the top article. I believe the problem is coming from people who are just too lazy to bother reading beyond the first article, yet can spend the time writing a big long argument demanding the picture be moved. If it is moved to be alongside the correct article the rest of the layout would look wrong as all four boxes use the same format of picture in the top right corner. It also seems to just be the ITN that gets the most complaints when DYK and OTD also do the same thing. Dark verdant (talk) 16:25, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
- "surely any new poeple to wikipedia are going to read the whole of the ITN section"? dont think so. even if you do scan the thing for the (pictured) it takes a minute to find it (should maybe be in bold?) and if you aren't looking for it ie. a newcomer, it could appear that the Sri Lankans had invaded the Bay of Biscay and fought their way to the Mediterranean.
- As per the post you mention, why not put (pictured) in bold at the start of the item, then elaborate in brackets and normal type at the end of it. this makes it easy to zone in on the pictured item, which leads you to read it, and with it a description of the picture.Machete97 (talk) 18:34, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
- Sounds like this will take up quite a bit of precious space. --PFHLai (talk) 21:36, 27 January 2009 (UTC) Not that I'm complaining about the "lack of space" on MainPage... --PFHLai (talk) 19:47, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
- Fair enough Machete97. I thnk someone had already mentioned that they did it bold at some time, can't remember who that was or when it happened. Also Nil Einne was explaing that you can't put (pictured) in front as it usually comes straight after the person or thing in the picture. An ITN sentence might mention more than one people or things so the (pictured) has got to go next to the correct one. Bold seems the best idea but if it has happened before and stopped there must have been a reason for it. Dark verdant (talk) 09:13, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
- If the space is a problem it could be just (P) or P or PICTURED or Pictured or something at the start of the item, with the description of the picture as it has always been, such as after the name of the person mentioned as it is right now. Whatever we do it should be the same on DYK and OTD. Machete97 (talk) 14:45, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
- I like the idea of (P) or P before the item, however will this just cause more complaints here demanding to know what it means.Dark verdant (talk) 16:07, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
- If you saw the (P) or whatever and didn't know what it meant, then read the item/compared it to the others/saw the picture it should become obvious - but chances are there will still be people who don't get it. Machete97 (talk) 11:23, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
- I like the idea of (P) or P before the item, however will this just cause more complaints here demanding to know what it means.Dark verdant (talk) 16:07, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
- If the space is a problem it could be just (P) or P or PICTURED or Pictured or something at the start of the item, with the description of the picture as it has always been, such as after the name of the person mentioned as it is right now. Whatever we do it should be the same on DYK and OTD. Machete97 (talk) 14:45, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
- Making the (pictured) bold seems like a reasonable solution, at least temporarily; if it was stopped for a reason, as Dark verdant suggests, then we will soon discover what that reason was. On the other hand, the practice of bolding the aside might have just lapsed due to thoughtlessness. Let's try it, I say... 168.9.120.8 (talk) 14:59, 30 January 2009 (UTC)
- From memory, we tried making the pictured bold something but some people felt it too distracting. As they say, you can't please everyone. Edit: Yes I was right, see /Archive 108#Suggestion - "pictured" ITN item highlight. There may be more discussions, you can use our new search box to find them like I found this one. Nil Einne (talk) 11:52, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
- Making the (pictured) bold seems like a reasonable solution, at least temporarily; if it was stopped for a reason, as Dark verdant suggests, then we will soon discover what that reason was. On the other hand, the practice of bolding the aside might have just lapsed due to thoughtlessness. Let's try it, I say... 168.9.120.8 (talk) 14:59, 30 January 2009 (UTC)
looks like they considered PICTURED too. i agree with what they are saying there - bolding whole chunks of text like that doesn't look very good - but i think it would be good to leave it as it is apart from a (P) (or whatever is agreed) at the start of the item, so a quick look down the left margin of ITN, OTD or DYK will tell you which is pictured. 82.110.112.201 (talk) 15:59, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
- I favor PICTURED. Not that distracting, unlike (pictured). –Howard the Duck 00:40, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
- I like that idea, though not sure how it would make the main page look with that in DYK, ITN and OTD. Might be best to see an example of the whole main page like that. It may look wrong with random blocks of blue everywhere. Dark verdant (talk) 15:24, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
- DYK's first blurb always has a pic associated with it, so it'll only affect ITN and OTD, the two sections at the right. –Howard the Duck 06:16, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
- P.S.: I really thought the photo was some nebula or something related to astronomy, until I saw a discussion at Template talk:In the news. –Howard the Duck 06:16, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
Pic juxtaposition
For a while it seemed we had solved this problem, but today Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir's picture appears opposite two unrelated items.
If we can't move the pic, how about keeping the pic-related item at the top until a new pic is selected?
Sca (talk) 15:05, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
- There is still a section further up dedicated to this topic, why not add to that discussion instead of starting a new one. There have been various ideas on how to counter it. Dark verdant (talk) 16:06, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
- So moved. --74.13.129.109 (talk) 16:19, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
- Items are arranged in order of date. SpencerT♦C 01:17, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- This is all so fastidious and irrelevant. The picture relates to the entire section of In The News, not the first entry. If you can't wrap your head around this concept after the first couple views than there's something wrong with you. Yeah, sometimes it's funny to see. Who cares? Right now, to correct this problem, there is a picture of Japanese Kanji next to the top story about a Japanese fraud. It's a picture of letters! It's not even relevant enough to be in the actual article. It's as interesting as having a picture of the words "NO TREES" next to a story about deforestation. When you see a top story side by side with a picture that doesn't match, do you get all flustered? Do you faint? Do you get on the phone and warn all of your French friends that India is attacking them, only to be painfully embarrassed later? Get over the slight incongruently, because now you're adding irrelevant data to the front page. The ITN picture should be whatever article has the most intriguing picture. Otherwise you're going to mostly end up with so dull meaningless filler up there. 173.49.91.134 (talk) 16:45, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- It's been replaced with File:UK snow February 2, 2009 img008.jpg, illustrating the London snowfall item, which is a big improvement. Note that the Enten image was used to replace an equally uninformative illustration of northern Colombia to go with the Titanoboa image. Frankly, it would have been better to keep Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir up for one more day. — Gavia immer (talk) 17:01, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
Christian holidays and their labelling
I have always found the manner in which the labelling of the Christian holidays is done is at best confusing and at worst wrong. Taking today's holiday (Candlemas) as an example, it is claimed that today this holiday is solely celebrated in Western Christianity, by which, I assume, this implies the Latin Rite, Ambrosian Rite, Mozarabic Rite, and the various Protestant traditions. However, this is wrong, as all Byzantine Rite Churches on the Gregorian Calendar (e.g. Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in many parishes in North America or the Finnish Orthodox Church) or on the Revised Julian Calendar (mixed calendar) (e.g. the Orthodox Church of America and the (Orthodox) Church of Greece also celebrate this holiday today. For those churches on the Julian calendar, which includes most Slavic Orthodox Churches, such as the Church of Russia, celebrate the holiday on February 15th on the Gregorian Calendar, but on February 2nd on the Julian Calendar. The same would apply for those using the Coptic calendar (Coptic Rite), which would be on February 15th in most years (There are some difference about when the leap year occurs). Finally, in the Armenian Rite, on the Gregorian Calendar, Candlemas is on February 15th (40 days after Christmas/Epiphany was is celebrated on January 6th). Now for the small group of Armenians using the Julian calendar (I believe this is the case in Jerusalem), this would be February 28th! Of note, although I have never seen it happen, it is theoretically possible to celebrate the Latin Rite on the Julian calendar. This may be used by the Liturgy of St. Tikhon, which is a Latin Rite Liturgy in the Western Tradition. Thus, for them, Candlemas would be on February 15th! Thus, I would suggest the following scheme to be used:
- For most fixed holidays (not depending on the date of Easter): February 2nd Candlemas (Christians using the Gregorian or Revised Julian Calendars). Then, February 15th Candlemas (or Presentation) (Christians using the Julian or Coptic Calendars).
- For the variable holidays, which depend on the date of Easter: April 12th Easter (Christians using the Gregorian Calendar). April 19th Easter (Christians using the Julian, Revised Julian, and Coptic Calendars). Aside: There is a small issue with the Oriental Churches, which under certain circumstances use different date for Easter if it occurs on April 2nd.
Finally, for the saints, whose commemoration is dependent on the rite being used by the Church, then both the rite and calendar should be included. Thus, for example on January 25th (Gregorian Calendar), it is claimed that it is the feast day of Gregory of Nazianzus in Eastern Orthodoxy. This is only true for those Christians using the Byzantine Rite and the Gregorian or Revised Julian Calendars. For the remainder of Eastern Orthodox Christians, that day was the feast day of St. Tatiana. I would suggest that the feast days be mentioned as feast day of Name of Saint (Byzantine Rite using the Gregorian or Revised Julian Calendars). Woollymammoth (talk) 21:24, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
- Hm, we usually have a few holidays on OTD. I'm not familiar with religious holidays, but I'm worried about practicality. Something like "feast day of Name of Saint (Byzantine Rite using the Gregorian or Revised Julian Calendars)" for each and every saint commemoration could make the holidays way too long on days where there's even two saints. The browser I'm using now allots about 60 characters of readable prose per line for the OTD section, it'll probably be even less at home, where I use a laptop. Your example has 90 characters, and that's just one holiday. Having say, four lines of holidays alone doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the page.
I don't want any factual incorrections on the main page of course, so can you think of a less eloquent way of specifying the calendar and rite? Puchiko (Talk-email) 09:10, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
- The Main Page usually defers to the terms used on the relevant articles. In this case, the infobox tables on Easter, Candlemas, and most of the other Christian holiday articles use the "Western/Eastern" notation. Therefore, I would recommend that you contact some of the people at Wikipedia:WikiProject Holidays who help organize the articles related to Holidays. Cheers. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 16:27, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
Remove the line of links
I've just been investigating page hits for the links from the main page, whilst doing so I noticed a couple of duplicates ... and before you know it came to the conclusion that this line of links Overview · Editing · Questions · Help Contents · Categories · Featured content · A–Z index is uneccessary. About,Help,contents, and featured content are already linked in the sidebar, the editing tutorial can be accessed from intro and about, that leaves questions,categories and a-z, which could be integrated into the side bar. This would bring the content up by one line - not much but an improvement for readers to get more 'meat' right away. LeeVJ (talk) 01:36, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
- A long-term Main Page redesign discussion is currently ongoing. The current plan includes removing that line of links. If you have any other general suggestions about the formatting of the Main Page, it would be best to make them there. —Verrai 01:27, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
- thanks for the pointer will have a look .. but why isn't it being done the wiki way, it's faster and more organic than a whole proposal for a new look? LeeVJ (talk) 02:08, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
- The main page is extremely high-profile, and whatever might be gained by editable Main Page would be lost in the ridiculous amount of vandalism it'd receive. ~user:orngjce223 how am I typing? 04:40, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
- I just meant the process for the main page redesign proposal is taking understandably longer than regular concensus built changes, hopefully it will be applied soon! LeeVJ (talk) 03:29, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
- thanks for the pointer will have a look .. but why isn't it being done the wiki way, it's faster and more organic than a whole proposal for a new look? LeeVJ (talk) 02:08, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
Featured picture: Bugs and Birds bias
I have noticed a certain bias in the selection of featured photos in the wildlife realm. Not including today's picture (3rd Feb.) I have looked back at the featured pictures for January and of 8 pictures of flora and fauna there were: 3 birds, 3 insects, a cactus and a lizard/cameleon (didn't look too carefully.) This seems to be a long running bias in the selection of pictures. Remember there are other animals without wings and apart from those pesky humans. Comments? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kayakboy (talk • contribs) 23:00, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
- It's merely a matter of what our high quality photographs depict, and what editors most interested in the featured picture process are, themselves, most interested in. In this sense, it is an example of systematic bias. Remember also that birds and bugs are some of the easier wildlife to find when you go out wandering- plants and, at the right time of year, fungi are also abundant, but a lot of people find them boring. (We don't have any featured images of fungi, as far as I know.) We also have a lot of featured pictures of space topics, as NASA releases images into the public domain. The best way to counter something like this is to nominate pictures of other types- I'm sure there are plenty of images on our servers that could be featured with a little attention. J Milburn (talk) 23:07, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
- And has anyone else noticed the recent trend of hot air balloon related pictures? Alphabet55 (talk) 02:48, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
- To put it a different way, it's a lot easier to get a high quality photograph of a Paper Wasp or Red-eyed Tree Frog in a relatively natural environment then it is to do likewise for a Siberian tiger, Python molurus or Blue Whale. Also if I'm not mistaken images on TFP are basically shown mostly in order of promotion. This is unlike TFA where there is selection and an abundance of article so it is possible to reduce systemic bias by giving a lower priority to classes of articles repeatedly featured and a higher priority to classes of articles rarely seen. BTW, I did a very quick search and didn't find any fungi FP. So it's possible JM is right. According to Wikipedia:WikiProject Fungi there is a decent web source for free pictures of fungi so you could be the first to guide a FP of a fungi to the main page, hint hint. Nil Einne (talk) 09:51, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
- File:Backlit mushroom.jpg is our only fungal FP, which can be found in Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Biology (not in Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Plants because fungi are not plants). As for the birds/bugs bias, we had a whole lot of bird and bug FPs promoted in quick succession (starting the middle of Wikipedia:Featured pictures thumbs 12 and continuing into group 13, which is where we are now); I've actually been spacing them out to about 1 each per 8–10 days so that they aren't all clumped together. howcheng {chat} 17:48, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
- @Alphabet55: Yes, two in the last month! Not only that, but we've had two photos related to polar expeditions in the last month as well. When will the bias end?! howcheng {chat} 18:35, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
- Another fungi picture we have is File:Haeckel Lichenes.jpg, so discount what I said earlier. We do have a lot of decent fungi photos, I'm considering nominating a batch for featured status to help bulk out the fungi portal. J Milburn (talk) 16:50, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
BIrds, insects and restorations are the FP staple and has been since I started closing nominations (coming up to two years). Fortunately for you I will promote another fungi pic today. I'd also like to advise against flooding FPC with fungi pics because you'll find that lots of similar-looking pictures => hardly any reviews => non-promotion. MER-C 03:58, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- How do you explain the blatant anti-cat bias in the featured pics? Ceiling Cat (talk) 04:15, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- What blatant anti-cat bias? --74.14.20.60 (talk) 05:25, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- There's a blatant anti-cat bias on the main page. There haven't been any cats on the main page is months (years?) This is despite the fact that there was widespread support for a daily kitten feature. Ceiling Cat (talk) 05:38, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- I want ducks on the Main Page everyday. Especially if they don't wear pants. –Howard the Duck 07:40, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- Can we have File:Lynx kitten.jpg on MainPage as a FP on St Mark's Eve or the following day (April 25), please? That's the only cat in Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Animals/Mammals. Thanks. --PFHLai (talk) 17:01, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- There's a blatant anti-cat bias on the main page. There haven't been any cats on the main page is months (years?) This is despite the fact that there was widespread support for a daily kitten feature. Ceiling Cat (talk) 05:38, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- What blatant anti-cat bias? --74.14.20.60 (talk) 05:25, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- How do you explain the blatant anti-cat bias in the featured pics? Ceiling Cat (talk) 04:15, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
Dartmoor Cross
The blurb states "Dartmoor crosses (example pictured) were probably used not for religious purposes". It would seem to me they were to help people, including pilgrims navigate safely from one abbey to another. It would follow then that going to an abbey would be a religious purpose, wouldn't it? CsikosLo (talk) 17:53, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
- I had the same thought. Perhaps "were not used for ceremonial purposes" would be more precise. A pilgrimage is a religious exercise, though not a ceremony. 168.9.120.8 (talk) 18:25, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
Wikipedia languages
Now that there are several laguages that are over the 500,000+ articles mark --six to be precise (Deutsch, Français, Italiano, Nederlands, Polski, 日本語)-- shouldn't there be another breakdown on the Main Pages? Currently they are grouped at "More than 20,000", "...50,000", "...100,000", "...300,000"; shouldn't there now be "More than 500,000" also? Also, I am presuming the http://www.wikipedia.org page will automatically break down into another 1,000,000+ section when a language reaches this benchmark...? Hope this is the right place to raise one/both of these issues. Jimthing (talk) 22:20, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
- This should be raised at Template talk:Wikipedialang, where they are constantly making and discussing adjustments to that template. As for the interlingual Main Page, it is governed by discussions at Meta-Wiki, not here on the English-language Wikipedia. —Verrai 02:11, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
Girl with a Pearl Earring TFP
Thanks Wikipedia, I scroll down to TFP and nearly have a heart attack upon seeing the image. That's some scary......erm, stuff!! --293.xx.xxx.xx (talk) 08:56, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- Wow, bit of a hyperbole, no? Well, it's done its job. GARDEN 09:28, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- What's scary about it?173.49.91.134 (talk) 16:50, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
Sgurr nan Spainteach
The link to info about this mountain in the "did you know" section takes you to the wrong page 81.110.33.251 (talk) 17:39, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- What is the proper page to link to? Please suggest a new link on WP:ERRORS. Thanks. --PFHLai (talk) 18:01, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- The link is piped to Sgurr na Ciste Dhuibhe, which mentions Sgurr nan Spainteach as a subsidiary peak. Presumably it doesn't have its own article. --Herald Alberich (talk) 20:01, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
"investment scam"
As this is currently under investigation and nothing has been proven this should be re-worded to avoid implication of guilt. WP:BLP applies. Exxolon (talk) 19:41, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- Nothing in the summary suggests to me an implication of guilt. He was arrested, there is a scam. Not "he participated in a scam". —Verrai 20:24, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
- If there is a scam, someone did something illegal. No-one has been convicted in a criminal court of doing something illegal; some have been arrested for doing something illegal, but they are innocent until proven guilty in court. Until someone is proven guilty of fraud or some similar crime, it is an alleged scam/fraud/whathaveyou. Every single decent media source on the planet refers to ongoing criminal cases in this way. --81.157.142.106 (talk) 00:52, 8 February 2009 (UTC)
Proposal to add an ongoing issues and events section
I'm proposing the addition of an 'ongoing issues and events' section to the main page. The reason is that there are ongoing issues which are current and relevant, regardless of when they start, which appears to be the guiding principle regarding how long links are displayed in the current events section.
Currently, a list is kept on the current events page as a sidebar. My contention is that some of these are of interest to most people who visit the main page, and deserve thus to be there. Featuring these on the main page would also generate more attention for them, driving up interest in developing them further, and with more depth.
At issue for me is the Global financial crisis of 2008–2009. I think its currency, broad relevance, potential impact, and probably lengthy duration indicate its importance with regard to current events. Further, the topic has serious depth, as how it affects different countries is complex and requires treatment.
Certainly, for this one issue, just keeping it sustained in the current events portal would work, and Im wondering what current events people think of that (this is crosslinked there). But there are other ongoing issues of interest, are'nt there? They aren't "news," in one sense of the word. But they are news, in quite another. Thoughts? -Stevertigo 22:33, 7 February 2009 (UTC)
- You may consider suggesting this at Wikipedia talk:2008 main page redesign proposal. SpencerT♦C 22:47, 7 February 2009 (UTC)
- Though the fact that it's the '2008 main page design proposal', and we're in the second month of 2009, suggests that sticking your head in a bucket of shit may be a more productive and less stressful use of your time. --81.157.142.106 (talk) 00:55, 8 February 2009 (UTC)