Talk:Main Page/Archive 23

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Archive 23


Contents

Copy pictures

Is it a copyvio if I copy a picture/photo from a different language wikipedia site. ??? eg. from nl.wikipedia.org to eg.wikipedia.org

No, unless the original picture is itself a copyvio. -- Grunt (talk) 02:51, 2004 Jul 9 (UTC)

Can someone please FIX THIS

"If you find Wikipedia or its sister projects useful, please consider making a donation . Donations are used primarily for purchasing computer equipment and launching new projects."

Should be:

"If you find Wikipedia or its sister projects useful, please consider making a donation. Donations are used primarily for purchasing computer equipment and launching new projects."

There wasn't actually a space after the word donation in the wikitext, although one did show up on the rendered page. I think this is a space for that external link icon to be displayed, but for some reason it isn't displayed, leaving a space. I've moved the period inside the link, which is not ideal, but at least is better than an extra space before it. Angela. 19:59, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)
"Full stop". — Chameleon My page/My talk 20:07, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)
"Not ideal" indeed. Yuck. Kludges to avoid rendering bugs. *sighs*
James F. (talk) 06:58, 10 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Separation of powers

Why does this talk about the US?

When I hear "separation of powers" I think first of the French Republic, and secular republics in general, before I think of America. The Main Page makes it sound like a purely American principle. — Chameleon My page/My talk 21:41, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)

July 20th is not the anniversary of Columbia but rather Colombia.. in spanish or english the official name of the country is written Colombia, Columbia is something else, please correct that.

Blank line at top of page

There is a blank line at the top of the main page. Possibly there are 2 right now. Why doesn't this get fixed? Thue | talk 10:57, 10 Jul 2004 (UTC)

  • Some people have been saying that a blank line makes the print version better. That might be why. —siroχo 00:50, Jul 11, 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedia Slow

Hi, I've noticed lately that Wikipedia seems to be slow, and not at any particular time. It just takes forever to load pages, even when it only took a few seconds before. I was wondering if anyone else has this problem. I have a DSL connection and live in Texas, USA, and speed on other sites is not a problem. Is Wikipedia simply outgrowing its bandwidth? I'd just like to know if others are experiencing this, thanks--naryathegreat 01:32, Jul 11, 2004 (UTC)

It varies for no reason obvious to me. It was slow for me for some time yesterday, seems acceptable now. Possibly it is a result of the developers tuning the site. Thue | talk 19:47, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)


The reason that the site is slow is that we do not have enough servers to support all the traffic we are getting. Until we get enough money to buy more servers Wikipedia will probably continue to be as slow as it is now, or it may even get slower. Jeff8765 01:04, Jul 20, 2004 (UTC)

Marine Corps Establishment

The current line on the front page is incorrect. The Marines were established on November 10, 1775 -- they were re-established in 1798. --Alexwcovington 08:15, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Saxophone

I think saxophone was featured a couple of weeks back. At least I'm sure I saw that picture on the front page. Could someone clarify? Arvindn 09:19, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

No, Saxaphone was never featured. →Raul654 16:08, Jul 11, 2004 (UTC)
The saxophone with the same photo was used as a selected anniversary on May 17. -- Popsracer 02:05, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Does wikipedia represent the entire world?

discussion moved to User_talk:Drbalaji_md#Does_wikipedia_represent_the_entire_world.3F

Is Wikipedia democratic or aristocratic?

discussion moved to User_talk:Drbalaji_md#Is_Wikipedia_democratic_or_aristocratic.3F

What is the future of Wikipedia? An experimental poll

discussion moved to User_talk:Drbalaji_md#What_is_the_future_of_Wikipedia.3F__An_experimental_poll

related trolling also moved to User_talk:Drbalaji_md

Random German comment

Immer höre ich nur Englisch, das ist ja total langweilig, kann hier jemand Deutsch? (ja ich weiß, ich gehöre in die deutsche Wikipedia, aber man kann auch in fremdsprachigen Wikipedias seinen Spaß haben!!!)--217.2.41.199 12:56, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Man kann hier seinen Spaß haben, als man auf Englisch sprecht, natürlich. — Chameleon My page/My talk 16:42, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Seing as I don't know German: Vaß? Ilyanep (Talk) 15:46, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

First Beer

Lion Beer is possibly the first brand of beer in Asia. Beer was first brewed in Mesopotamia, and after that in Anatolia, both of which are in Asia. ato 02:10, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

i think this comment should go on the Did you know discussion, not here.--Zero00 11:49, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Selected anniversaries

When selecting anniversaries for the front page, please take care to distribute them geographically somewhat. Today's selected anniversaries consisted of 3 american events and 1 british/american event. That's just not appropriate for the front page of an international encyclopaedia. Zocky 11:49, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Template:June_12_selected_anniversaries is made from June 12 and not just for the main page, feel free to select better enteries from the latter to include in the former. -- Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 13:13, 2004 Jul 13 (UTC)

BegPedia? Shame on you

Is this the new way to resort to beggary? I thougt Bomis makes money with pornographic content - and not with begging?!

PS The red bordered design is real stylish - or better - more than ugly. Shame on you... I would prefer a minimum of 10 pop-under windows and a blinking bold red border:

To help support Wikipedia, please visit the fundraising page, or read about what we use the money for.
15 Popup windows and at least 2 blinking borders -- Rainbow Colored Ilyanep (Talk) 23:58, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)
How do you get the border to blink? Must be some inane Internet Explorer bug. :) - Fennec (はさばくのきつね) 19:53, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)
  • Well, the alternative to this is Google Ads, because MediaWiki really needs the money. The servers have been really slow lately so we need more servers, and it is unfair to expect Bomis to pay. You may be interested in the disscussion of Google Ads here.Jeff8765 20:26, Jul 14, 2004 (UTC)
    • See...I'd perfer Google ads. Ilyanep (Talk) 23:58, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)
      • I have to admit that Google ads, do have their merits, according to Jimbo we could expect to get over $300,000 a month with Google ads, far more than we would ever get from donations, I am just worried that the project might fork if we get outside ads of any sort, like the Spanish Wikipedia did a few years back.

It isn't begging, it is reminding people that servers are not bought with good will. The burden on Bomis is already huge considering that more than half of their colo bill probably comes from serving Wikimedia projects. Only having the donation link in the sidebar yields (at most) a hundred bucks a day on average. Compare that with the $3,600 we have taken in during the three days that notice was put up. This is only a temporary notice, as will all such notices be during fund drives. Compare the notice with quarterly public TV and radio fund drives. In those case all you see or hear is the fund drive notice for minutes at a time, but with our message all the content is still there all the time. The only alternative to this kind of thing is to;

  • accept advertisements, and thus risk multiple forks,
  • close-up shop since there is no way we can keep up with demand

We will probably need to buy $35,000 of new servers this quarter (1 July to 30 September) alone just to keep up with projected demand (our traffic is growing at an average rate of 90% compounded quarterly). So shame on you for complaining. Or do you have about $20,000 to bring our budget in line? Thought so. --mav 05:25, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

    • Google Ads are OK if they are opt-in only. — Chameleon My page/My talk 05:38, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)
      • Yes that might be a good idea, additionally to or instead of donating money one could voluntarily choose to have Google ads in the left sidebar. In that case it might be not anymore necessary to put the 'donate' notice on top of all pages for all users. Donar Reiskoffer 06:35, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)
        • But by entering into a business contract to provide services, wikipedia would stop being a volunteer project and become a business. For many, including me, that is not acceptable. If there was a fork to a non-ad version, I would go there. Zocky 00:39, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I hope that "open source" does not become a new business plan --ganesh 18:00, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

  • I understand Wikipedia's situation and I am glad these efforts are taking place because they are necessary and this project is necessary for many people. I would also recommend that the Donations in the sidebar be RED or DARKER BLUE so people notice it more easily even without fund drives. --Exigentsky

And this is how they treat those who want to donate money!

(moved to User talk:Drbalaji md#And this is how they treat those who want to donate money! (moved from Talk:Main page))

Writing Style/Spelling

Offtopic discussion moved to Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style.

Table color stuff

Lysine was complaining in IRC about tables which set the background color but not the font color (which resulted in one case with white on white, depending on browser prefrences), so I inserted several style="color:black;" and equivalent. - Fennec (はさばくのきつね) 19:50, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Editing Redirects

Some people don't seem to know this so I'll post it here--if you want to edit a redirect, go to any page and click the edit this page button. Then, for instance, look at the web address: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Triangle&action=edit

Replace the title= with the redirect you want to change, say: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Triangles&action=edit and press Enter on your keyboard. You'll be taken to the redirect's edit page. This is a clever tip they don't teach you in school.--naryathegreat 22:06, Jul 17, 2004 (UTC)

Why would you want to do something as convolute as that? Simply type the name of the redirect. Then click on the "Redirected from" link under the title of the article you reach, and you go to the actual page that you can change through edit. Aris Katsaris 01:10, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Hmmm. That has its merits. Never thought of that one before. Thanks--naryathegreat 01:50, Jul 18, 2004 (UTC)\

LOL! THere's the wrong way, the right way and the eccentric way :) --Exigentsky

The image accompanying the Christianity article

All I see is a black box with no image in it. When I click on where the image should be, it takes me to a large IKHTHUS image, which I assume is what we're supposed to be seeing. Am I the only one having this problem? RickK 19:55, Jul 18, 2004 (UTC)

Knowing you're using IE, I went to have a look, and the problem indeed seems to be IE's bad PNG transparency support. I'm going to try to fix the image so it doesn't use transparency. — Chameleon My page/My talk 22:03, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)
It is now fixed. However, the thumbnail on the front page still seems to be derived from the old image, despite my reloading. What was wrong with the cross, anyway? — Chameleon My page/My talk 22:15, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)

TYPO ON THE FRONT PAGE!

The Henson article on the front page .. "most important puppeteer in relevision history" - looks really bad for Wikipedia if we cant notice typos on our face to the world. Palnu 03:58, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC) Ah saw that someone fixed it. Palnu 04:02, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)

You could have fixed it yourself. The main page is editable by any user who knows how. Read Wikipedia:Editing the main page. Guanaco 04:09, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Thank you, didnt know that one. Palnu 04:22, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Browse by category

"Browse by category" should replace "Browse Wikipedia by topic" on the main page. This would make it much easier to browse Wikipedia. Den fjättrade ankan 22:51, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Only for those articles which are associated with Categories. RickK 22:53, Jul 20, 2004 (UTC)

Change the other articles to corresponding Catregories then, and add new Categories. That's what we have done on Swedish Wikipedia. Den fjättrade ankan 23:36, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I am the creator of "Browse by category". I originally created it because I was unhappy with the state of Category:Main page. But for the English Wikipedia, there is still not enough category structure yet for it to completly replace the topics. For example there is no Category:State yet. However, I have created a concept Main Page to demonstrate what that main page would be like if categories replaced topics. I am using it to find weaknesses in the category system and to fix them. Krik 10:31, 21 Jul 2004 (UTC)

In other words, the 13 sub-categories in Category:main page need to bump up to over 70 sub-categories in alphabetical order, and probably there also needs to be a tree hierarchy as well? Then the 70-odd major articles need a systematic review to ensure that the sub-categories cover them? What else can we help out on? Ancheta Wis 00:32, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Why no bolded Donation button?

Wikipedia costs money and it needs money. It receives hundreds of thousands of visitors daily and they need to be aware that while Wikipedia is free, maintaining and improving it is very expensive.

I suggest an unintrusive bolded donation button, perhaps using a slightly darker blue color as well. It is simple, elegant and fits right in with the design since it is the last button in the navigation panel. At the same time it does attract more attention initially. --Exigentsky

Highlighting that link would be nice. How about changing its color, as exigentsky suggested below? +sj+ 21:09, 21 Jul 2004 (UTC)

"Today's featured article"

Hasn't "Today's featured article" been changing more than once a day lately? Not that I've been tracking it closely, but that's been my subliminal impression... -- Jmabel 20:36, Jul 21, 2004 (UTC)

A certain troublesome user (Let's call him "nthony iPierro") started an edit war on template:feature - for which he was banned for 24 hours. If you were here while it was happening, you might have noticed. →Raul654 20:58, Jul 21, 2004 (UTC)

Sister project images link to images, not sister projects...

The sister project images link to the images, not the sister projects. This is poor usability. If you don't believe me, take a look at your logs. I bet you'll see alot of people click the image, then the back button, and then the text link. I would have changed the template but I couldn't wrap my head around the wiki markup enough to do it. Please, someone change it.

Thanks! -Jeff

The images now redirect to the projects. Angela. 10:41, Jul 24, 2004 (UTC)

reese's peanutbutter cups

Brilliant, an unwikified article on the front page!!!. No country either, so must be American. I'd remove it, but I don't know how. jimfbleak 05:44, 25 Jul 2004 (UTC)

now I know - Jim
I think it's healthy to use the DYK section to promote articles of varying degrees of wikification. It's the new section, after all.
IMHO, it's not all about impressing frosh/strangers, it's about enticing sophomores to participate in the wikisystem. That was my angle at least. It was a solid article that just needed a basic runthrough. It could have been a fun project for someone.
As for the "no country," I honestly didn't realize Reese's Peanut Butter Cups weren't marketed internationally--my Amerocentric bad. jengod 01:01, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)
Incidentally, what's with the "my bad"? "Bad" is an adjective; "my bad" doesn't make sense. I've seen a lot of Americans writing this online. Is there some TV show where an immigrant character says "my bad" and so it's become a common catchphrase? — Chameleon Main/Talk/Images 09:59, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
I did a web search and found that its origins are among black players of informal basketball games, who would say "My bad" as a quick way of apologizing if they made a mistake. "Bad" here is used as a noun. [1] [2] [3] (Maybe this needs a Wikipedia article!) - Brian Kendig 13:10, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
It also became really popular in Californa after the movie Clueless used the phrase several times. - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 17:39, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC)
It's a contraction of ... "am I bad" H2O 02:39, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Let's change the main page

Hi, I suggest changing the main page graphic design. I'm not a webmaster, and my design contains a lot of technical errors, but I want you to take a look at it and think about it. Actually, it's in Polish, but I think it's pretty obvious, and if not, I can easily prepare an English version. Of course, someone else may do it instead :). You can see my project at main page new layout Agni (Polish Wikipedia)

I made a English version of it. You can see it here. It uses in the news instead of featured pictures. I like the layout more because it gives topics more priority, instead of hiding them in the middle. [[User:Krik|- Norm | image:green.png]] 23:53, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Ok, fine, but what I meant was actually the colors and design, not the text (although yeah, maybe also that). I somehow do not fancy these bright colors. Agni

Typo in "Did you know"

... members of their respectives parties ... - Brian Kendig 04:28, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Fixed at Template:Did you know Dori | Talk 04:35, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC)

Typo on Main Page

female line of "descend" from a woman - shouldn't this be "descent"? H2O 18:25, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Fixed. →Raul654 18:29, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC)
In the future, you can Wikipedia:Be Bold and edit it yourself. For instructions see: Wikipedia:Editing the main page. - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 18:32, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC)
Did not know this. Thought you had to be an admin/sysop, which I am not. H2O 02:31, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Mitochondrial eve picture

The picture has been vandalized, showing a closeup of her breast. Not sure if this can be fixed easily. (It's not possible to revert a picture, is it?) Ksheka 00:02, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC)

It is possible, it's just not working with regards to that image for some reason. Fixed the hard way, and the vandal, User:OutsourcingRaul, has been blocked. -- Cyrius|✎ 00:27, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

How can I fix the Radar picture? It shows Radar O'Reilly!

Fixed now; thanks for catching that (was an act of vandalism). If the wrong image still displays, just clear your cache. Cheers, -- Hadal 05:02, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Thanks man. I tried fixing it but I didn't know how.
Ah, it's a shame. I thought it was wonderful and very funny that it had the Radar O'Reilly photo. --Mistertim 05:08, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Funny, but certainly not wonderful. As the user responsible seems to be the same one behind the Mitochondrial Eve breast spoof, I've blocked him for an indefinite period. -- Hadal 05:11, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Sook Ching Massacre

The Sook Ching Massacre was in 1942, not 1947 as written on the main page. 1947 was the time of the war crime tribunal investigating the massacre.

Kelvinc 20:23, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I've fixed this. In the future you should Wikipedia:Be bold in updating pages. The template you were looking for was Template:Did you know. - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 20:38, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC)
Thanks DDG. I didn't know there were ways of editing that information, being a newbie and all.  ;)
Kelvinc 13:55, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Hmm...

Shouldn't this page really be at Main page, in accordance with the manual of style? Right now, Main page is a redirect, while Main Page is the real article. The capitalized 'p' doesn't make sense, especially in the context of the other articles on WP. Also, this maybe the first comment on this talk page actually about this page (and not about a template)... - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 20:42, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC)

The Manual of Style is capitalised in the same way as this page, and I don't think that has to apply to non-articles anyway. It always surprised me the village pump wasn't like this too. Angela. 01:35, Jul 30, 2004 (UTC)
Hmm, Manual of Style is more like the title of a book, and so it makes sense that it's capitalized. However, look at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship, Wikipedia:Requests for comment, Wikipedia:Help desk, Wikipedia:Reference desk, Wikipedia:Featured articles, Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries and almost everything else. I thought we would want to discourage over-capitalization. However, I kind of get the feeling that the Main Page is coded down somewhere deep in mediawiki, so this probably can't be changed...- DropDeadGorgias (talk) 13:54, Jul 30, 2004 (UTC)
See MediaWiki:mainpage. It is capitalized only due to the fact that it always has. --mav 22:20, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Khmer and Cherokee

On the main page; wikipedia in other languages section, I get the series of squares for the languages Khmer and Cherokee. I use Opera 7.53 with encoding set to automatic. The same is visible in IE6 (SP1). It seems to me that there is no script for these languages. Hope this glitch can be rectified. [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 18:48, Jul 31, 2004 (UTC)

You need the correct fonts to view them properly. Install these fonts and it should work. (Khmer and Cherokee) [[User:Krik|- Norm | image:green.png]] 21:59, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Featured article change?

Why was the featured article changed from "Gender role" to "typewriter"? I came soon after midnight (the start of July 31st) and it was the former, but then later in the day I visited again and it was different. I was just curious about why/when this can happen.

It seems there's a neutrality dispute at gender role (see talk:gender role), and Krik thought it would be best to swap with an undisputed article (with text that isn't being reverted or changed radically). -- Hadal 06:10, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)