Talk:Main Page/Archive 9

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Archive This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
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Archive 9


Contents

Protect pages listed on the Main Page?

After the latest vandalism on the front page link to Tli Cho it might be appropriate to discuss protecting also pages listed there. Or make an option to add them automatically to watchlists of all admins. Safety measure.
--Kpjas 07:16, 27 Aug 2003 (UTC)

  • I think protecting them would be a bad idea. If these are the pages people are coming across first, you don't want to give them the idea they can't edit them as they may think it applies to the whole site. Watching them would be a good though. Angela. 07:22, 27 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Question on database schema moved to village pump.

Front page quotation

I really dislike that pretentious front page quotation. Firstly, it pushes the actual content of the page even further down on smaller displays. Secondly, it doesn't make any sense concerning Wikipedia. Wikipedia contains lots and lots of (often very good) information, but it is not exactly a source of wisdom! I think the quotation is pretty silly in this context... --Morn

I agree on all counts. I've never heard of this guy John Naisbitt either. I'm getting rid of it. Mintguy 18:12, 27 Aug 2003 (UTC)

I suggest include a link to disccuss this page in the top part of the page, near to protected page and include a new page named Main Page/simulation to propose changes.

  • You might want to take a look at Talk:Main_Page/Layout_design, Main Page/Temp, Main Page/Temp2, Main Page/Temp3, Main Page/Temp4, Main Page/Temp5, Main Page/Temp6 and Main Page/Temp7 first. :) Angela 23:06, 30 Aug 2003 (UTC)


Note: Harley-Davidson and Anniversaries discussion moved to Wikipedia talk:Selected Articles on the Main Page. --Jiang 22:24, 1 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Welcome, newcomers

Wikipedia:Welcome, newcomers is not linked on the main page. To make the main page more welcoming, I propose we replace "Community" with that link, or at least add it in that section. --Jiang 05:05, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

The "you" in the second sentence of the introduction used to be a link there - looked like a fine solution. Don't know why it's gone. Kosebamse 05:14, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

The "you" doesn't seem prominent enough. We need to make this link very visible. --Jiang 05:16, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

See archive 8 of this page. Angela 06:18, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I agree with the decision made on Archive 8 but we need to link it somewhere else. --Jiang 06:22, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Okay, added it in, but should it be made more prominent? --Jiang 20:42, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)
It's fine - the help page is already very prominent. --mav

The Magic Door

Where can I go to find information about a Television show viewed in the U.S.A. called the Magic Door. A Miniature man that played an accoustic guitar and lived in a mushroom? Back in the 1970's.

If you are refering to the children's show "The Magic Door Television Theatre", as of this moment, there is no article on Wikipedia about it. If you would like to create an article about it, I have found a few possible sources of information: [1], [2]. I have not been able to find any information on a show called just The Magic Door based your description though. I hope this helps. { MB | マイカル } 15:45, Sep 3, 2003 (UTC)

I agree.

Fitting the screen

I'm using IE 6. How do I adjust by screen to see if everything will fit at 800? Install linux.

--Jiang 04:34, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)
The simplest way is to adjust your screen to 800x600 resolution and try it out. :) Right-click on the desktop and go into "display properties", you should be able to adjust the screen resolution from there. --Brion 04:51, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)
One way of acheiving this is to view the page through a frame that is set at 800 pixels. It isn't going to be exactly the same as viewing the page at 800 by 600, but it will likely be close enough to be useful. Copy the following code and paste it into a file, for instance wiki.html. Then load it in a browser and the left side of the screen should have the main page of Wikipedia in a frame which is 800 pixels wide. -- Popsracer 09:57, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)
<HTML> <frameset cols="800,*"> <frame src="http://www.wikipedia.org/" frameborder="0" scrolling="Auto" noresize marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"> <frame frameborder="0" scrolling="Auto" noresize marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"> </frameset> </HTML>


Another way to do this could be bookmarklets. Have a look at this page and add the "Resize Window to 800 x 600" bookmarklet to your bookmarks. Then you just click on that bookmark and the window resize itself to 800x600.
http://www.bookmarklets.com/tools/windowing/indexE.phtml
-- Ludvig 17:24, 12 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Article count on front page

Seeing the article count at 154006 reminds me of an old issue I have with this count. I think it would be better to always truncate these article counts to the nearest thousand, because

  • the counter is not realtime but only updated every few days. It will thus be never as accurate as it seems, which is quite unscientific.
  • a large number that ends in some zero digits looks much more pleasant in a text.
  • one could then reformulate the Wikipedia introduction in a way that underlines the ever-growing nature of Wikipedia more effectively, so that instead of, for example
We started in January 2001 and are currently working on 153472 articles in the English version.

it would read

We started in January 2001 and are currently working on more than 153000 articles in the English version.

which I think sounds considerably more exciting. --Morn

The article count is only updated every few days? That's new to me. -- Schnee 15:53, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)
You're right, it is updated daily. But since Wikipedia usually grows by several hundred articles a day the accuracy of this count is still very limited. --Morn
No. Unless something has recently changed then ror logged-in users it is updated in real time; all you have to do is reload the page. For anon users the count is only updated when somebody edits the main page to create a new version. This is due to the fact that we cache every page for anons. --mav
OK, sometimes I am logged in and sometimes not when I am reading or contributing to the site. That explains why the counter sometimes froze for me.
Still, the main question is if a first-time visitor really needs or wants the information with that seeming precision. There is a statistics page after all.
I see those three introductory sentences on the frontpage as the Wikipedia sales pitch. And while the first and third sentences are fine, the second sentence is a little weak and comes off as bean counting (two numbers in a sentence, not very good style).
The less nerdy our intro sounds, the less likely first time visitors will become vandals, I suspect. In the end, my question revolves more around the psychological effect on newcomers than the technical side of the issue. --Morn 22:37, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)
I guess that's a matter of taste really - it looks just fine to me, and I also don't think that visitors will become vandals simply because the number is not rounded to the nearest 1K or so. That sounds a bit far-fetched really... -- Schnee 00:22, 5 Sep 2003 (UTC)
I prefer to have the maximum number of significant digits. Look at McDonalds Corp. They put "one billion served", or "3 billion served" on their signs. With so many zeroes, it makes people think that they don't really count! Even if they only updated the sign weekly with a new number to the maximum number of significat digits, it would give more credibility to the number. dave 12:37, 9 Sep 2003 (EDT)

Logo voting

The front page should be changed to mention that the first round logo voting ends Sept 5 20:00 UTC. Jrincayc 02:59, 5 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Agreed. Done.
James F. 03:26, 5 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Lt Gen Bazilio Olara Okello

Dear Sir/ Madam I recently saw a detailed article on Bazilio by Col Joseph Ntare on your page, could you please forward it to me. Thank you James Tawny

I answered your query at the Wikipedia:Village Pump which is the best place for this sort of query. Pete 12:07, 8 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Assination attmpts

I changed the "assassination attempt" link to Anna Lindh to "Anna Lindh" because there have been a few assasination attempts today -- in case people havent read the wires. Its too general a category. -戴&#30505sv 01:56, Sep 11, 2003 (UTC)

Chile

Surely the September 11 aniversary link should be Salvador Allende rather than Augusto Pinochet.

MIT Media Lab survey

See the discussion on the link to Wikipedia:MIT Media Lab survey added to the main page of Wikipedia on September 11. Nanobug 23:36, 11 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Mahmoud Abbas

Shouldn't the "current events" link go to Abu Ala at this point rather than Mahmoud Abbas? -- AdamRaizen 18:22, 2003 Sep 13 (UTC)

Yes, it should. Done.
James F. 22:06, 13 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Underemployment

Would someone add the article Underemployment to the "New Articles" line? It's a well-written article. (I would, but I made some relatively minor changes -- adding links -- & I feel I should recuse myself.) -- llywrch 05:02, 15 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Done.
James F. 14:08, 15 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Recent Deaths

Shouldn't someone add the Williams sisters' sister's death to the main page?


I dunno. Does she really qualify as suitable? She's only famous by association... (This also applies to adding her to RDs itself.)
James F. 00:40, 16 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Response time

Moved to Wikipedia:Village pump

You mean it's accurate?

Do we have to say "complete and accurate"? As if someone would be creating an inaccurate encyplopaedia? CGS 20:10, 16 Sep 2003 (UTC).

When any 4-year old or jerk can edit, I think it is necessary to mention that our goal is to be complete and accurate. --mav 01:59, 17 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Hurricane Isabel

Why hasn't the hurricane ever registered on "In the News"? It's slamming North Carolina right now, and I think deserves mention (and I can't make the edit). -- VV 23:27, 18 Sep 2003 (UTC)

It needs an article. Does it have one? --Jiang 23:29, 18 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Yes: Hurricane Isabel. -- VV 00:05, 19 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Layout bad on Opera 7

The tables with the different language doesn't wrap with my setup (Opera 7) and generates a thousands of pixels wide table. Please look into this. Thanks, drx

I can confirm this (Opera 7.20 on winXP) - the yellow "Community" box is indeed thousands of pixels wide. The languages list reads "Wikipedia language list - Afrikaans [huuuuge gap] [arabic (in arabic script, right aligned]" So it seems likely that it's a difference in how Opera handles R->L langages inside tablecells -- Finlay McWalter 13:06, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Elbasan?

What newsitem mentions this town? How is it deserving of the first place among current events? Just curious. --Igor 7:11, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

It's listed under "new articles". That doesn't mean "news articles". --Wik 06:13, Sep 20, 2003 (UTC)
OK, silly me :), how does one go about selecting an particular article for the list? Surely, there must be thousands of new articles every day?

--Igor 23:24, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Well, maybe not thousands, but there's a lot, yes :) Selection is done on a pretty informal basis - there are some guidelines at Wikipedia:Selected Articles on the Main Page, but basically it boils down to trying to pick well-written, well-formatted articles of a reasonable length. --Camembert

Biographies

Would someone please update the link to Lists of people? The page was renamed some time ago. -- User:Docu


Done. Angela 17:59, Sep 20, 2003 (UTC)

Recent Deaths

How do we get to select which people appear on the front page? I think that Jack Brymer is deserving of this (died 15th September), as he was really a very distinguished clarinettist. David Martland 18:54, 21 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I've added Jack Brymer. The relevant guidelines here are:

  1. All links appearing in section should first be included on corresponding news/deaths/events/anniversaries page
  2. All links appearing in this section should go to non-stub entries (greater than 500 chars)
  3. Recent deaths: simply, famous people who have died within the last week or so.

Angela 20:02, Sep 21, 2003 (UTC)

Links

Why is there a separate link for "Software engineering" under "Applied Arts and Sciences"? A link for "Engineering" already is there.152.163.253.2 01:01, 22 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I partly agree that it is superfluous as software engineering is linked to from the engineering page, but on the other hand it is a very popular page, so I don't see any overwhelming reason to remove it. Angela 01:17, Sep 22, 2003 (UTC)

EU enlargement

The "EU enlargement" link should point to Enlargement of the European Union, not to European Union as it currently does. Cabalamat

Done. Thanks for spotting it. Angela


Galileo

The link to the Galileo spacecraft should be itealicized to meet standard style.64.12.96.47 01:34, 24 Sep 2003 (UTC)

NASA doesn't italisize it.Vancouverguy 01:38, 24 Sep 2003 (UTC)
The Government Printing Office Style guide says that it should be. What does NASA know about writing style? 64.12.96.47 00:23, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Agreed. Done. James F. 11:46, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Moving

I'm stunned that that worked. I couldn't put it back without using an admin account. -BuddhaInside

Yes you could have. As long as the redirect page wasn't edited, you could have moved it back the same way you moved it out. -- Tim Starling 14:57, 26 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Recent Deaths: George Plimpton

His passing is at least as significant as that of Robert Palmer. Would someone with the proper access please add George to the list of Recent deaths featured on the Main Page? -- NetEsq 18:46, 27 Sep 2003 (UTC)

International Wikipedias: Arabic

I have noticed that while the list of languages (on many wikipedia opening pages) refer to the Arabic Wikipedia as "(Araby)" or something like that, the Arabic script reads at best al-Arabiya (‮العربية‬)... and last I checked, we refer to languages rather than regions or countries (also according to the "Araby" transscript mentioned earlier).

Am I correct - Arabic readers please comment and correct - that it would be more appropriate to call this عربي instead? -- Ralesk 18:01, 29 Sep 2003 (UTC)

PS: the bidi support of ‬Mozilla is terrible :-(

PPS: as a matter of fact, Ericsson mobile phones that support Arabic interface language also write عربي.

I think I agree, although I don't actually speak Arabic, so I'm basing my opinion on a Google search. It would presumably need to be changed in the m:Language.php files by someone with CVS access. You may have more luck if you take this to the mailing list. Angela 20:47, Oct 3, 2003 (UTC)
I've noticed before (seems my post on this page was removed), that the Arabic letters didn't seem to match the English transliteration, just wasn't sure whether to change the English or the Arabic... Looking at the bottom of the Arabic main page, maybe العربية means Arabic, as an adjective rather than a noun. Κσυπ Cyp 07:03, 8 Oct 2003 (UTC)
Rather the other way around... "al" is a definite article, so I'd guess al-Arabiya is the noun and arabiy (to follow one of the more reasonable Russian latin letter transscription conventions) would probably be the adjective. I wish our Arabic editors would step in and tell us what this all is about. Then again, if we just list editions and we say, for example "German, Hindi, Hungarian", we are practically saying "German Wikipedia, Hindi Wikipedia, Hungarian Wikipedia" etc., which are pretty much adjectives aren't we? If I'd say "there is an edition in Hungarian" then that'd be a noun, I believe. So if I am correct, the first use, and thus the edition listing is the "arabiy" that is adjective use, and their mentioning of "how to edit wiki pages in Arabic", that sounds like there the "al-Arabiya" is indeed a noun. -- Ralesk 11:37, 9 Oct 2003 (UTC)
Can someone confirm which is the correct version so we can update it? --Brion 17:39, 12 Oct 2003 (UTC)

800 x 600

Jiang, I fully appreciate the desirablity of having the Main page fit in an 800 x 600 screen, but if you are working on a 1024 x 768 or 1280 x 1024 screen (as I am) the correct size is not exactly intuitive when you are entering text. Perhaps a solution might be hard-coding the table cell width in the respective locations so that they wrap anything too long, making it directly obvious. Just an idea. -- Viajero 09:08, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)



An exhortation for us to become post-larval posted here can be read at user:Khranus

We are trying to make Wikipedia faster and more responsive. You can help by making a donation.

...and the donation page does not even work
It does for me. Maybe it was a temporary glitch? Pete 15:08, 7 Oct 2003 (UTC)
Strange that nobody noticed it. http://wikimediafoundation.org/fundraising Works perfect with Mozilla Firebird but not with IE 6.0 on the computer at work or IE 5.5 at home. Only the left menu is loaded. The right is blank. I send this also to Wikitech-l Giskart Walter 20:24, 7 Oct 2003 (UTC)
The right-hand side loads works for me at work (WinNT4/IE5.5) and at home (WinXP/IE6.0)... fraid I can't tell you why it does for me and not you
It works now thanks to Brion. Giskart Walter 22:50, 7 Oct 2003 (UTC)
Think the whole thing did work, just had to scroll down past a few pages of blank space. (Mentioned it on Wikipedia:Village pump.) Κσυπ Cyp 06:51, 8 Oct 2003 (UTC)

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words." -Phillip K. Dick

(Don't you think wikipedia is at least a step in the direction of freeing up words so as to decentralise control over 'words'? sorry to add a comment to this page if you'd rather it go somewhere else, but seeing as how this is a comment about wikipedia itself...)

Khranus

I thought it was pretty silly to remove Steve Biko just to make room for an awfully long last name, when a first name will do, because everybody in the world knows who Arnold is. Silly is ov course a nice way of puttin it.戴&#30505sv 08:04, 10 Oct 2003 (UTC)

  • YEEES! And if they don't, (are they living in a cave somewhere?) they click Arnold out of curiousity. Sometimes I get the impression that people are so literal-minded here, with no sense of humor. Like when Galileo was listed under Recent deaths, which I thought was kind of witty. It only last about six hours before some humor-challenged admin. switched it to In the news with the comment: "satellites don't die". Oh. -- Viajero 08:39, 10 Oct 2003 (UTC)
    • I agree with you that sometimes humour is sacrificed on the artifical altar of being "encyclopedic". I have been on the receiving end myself (see Talk:London Congestion Charge). I was said to see the Galileo 'death' get moved, that was a good neat bit of humour. However, how is writing "Arnold" humourous? In that case it is better simply to be as informative as possible to readers. Pete 09:24, 10 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • Obviously not everyone in the world knows who "Arnold" is. More pertinently not everyone who reads the front page of the Wikipedia knows who it is. I know that for a fact, because when I opened up the main page the other day I didn't know for sure who it was, because frankly my dears I don't give a damn about Hollywood and the elections for some province of some country that speaks English (or least not so much that I just use the first name of the winning candidate). Would you automatically who I meant if I wrote "Ken"? Your arrogance is not becoming. Note also that a Google search for "Arnold" gives 8 different Arnolds in the first ten pages.
  • Of course the current solution of just writing Schwarzennegger is a much better solution that what I put... I was just not certain that about the screen fit for 800*600 resolutions so was too cautious. Pete 09:24, 10 Oct 2003 (UTC)
    • Yup, Ken Livingstone. Aside from that, perhaps you are right, but if a European celebrity ran a noisy campaign in which his or her followers referred to her frequently by the first name, I wouldn't mind seeing it on the first page, even if I didn't immediately recognize who it was; I think I would get the point. Anyway, 'nuff said. -- Viajero 09:43, 10 Oct 2003 (UTC)
      • Nearly nuff said... you make good points.. apologies for over-reacting ... I allowed myself to get annoyed by Sv's rather sharp comments. Pete 10:05, 10 Oct 2003 (UTC)
        • No problem! I assure you that I am on your side. I don't live in the US either, and I am generally pretty alert to American provincialism sneaking into Wiki. Anyway, A. Sch. has now been deposed in favor of Shirin Ebadi on the Main Page, a completely different kettle of fish. -- Viajero 12:34, 10 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Hey!!! Someone Take out the Arabic Text from the main page (‮العربية‮). The problem is not with Arabians, no racism intended. The problem is that my browser [Opera 7 http://www.opera.com] generates a thousands pixel wide table, could someone fix that, it happens only with the (‮العربية‮) in the main page, not in other pages, could someone fix it or delete it. It appears to be a problem with bidirectional text. Changing web browser, no chance! I use opere for speed and convinience :) Elnoyola 00:27, 12 Oct 2003 (UTC)

"Change browser, no chance!" What??? Your solution to the Arabic link problem, which is fine with every other browser, is to say "WIkipedia must change, because I, me, me, me... will not change MY browser to something made after 1996" -- is ridiculous. Read my lips-RI-DiC-CU=Lous. The rule, as Anthere helped us figure out a while ago, the argumet "I like my ancient old, but comfortable brower hold abosolutely no weight whatsoever. Sorry nice try. 戴&#30505sv
Err.. Stevertigo, try writing something you have a clue about. Opera 7? 1996? You'd do well to apologise to Elnoyola. Pete 07:40, 13 Oct 2003 (UTC)
I removed it until someone can figure out what was wrong with it and fix it. Angela 00:36, Oct 12, 2003 (UTC)

Hello, Angela, I suppose that you after 7 minutes of my post on the Talk Page corrected the Arabic Link. Thanks, the main page now work well. Possible solutions:
Write:
Arabic Text Backwards (Like arabic Right to Left without using the (amp sign) (number sign) 8238;, that I think changes the direction of text) or use a transliteration od the Arabic Name. Thanks for solving the problem really fast, less than 7 minutes after my post.

Mug shots?

Are police mug shots public domain? - user:zanimum

Generally no - they belong to whatever municipality that took them. But if the US government took it (FBI, Justice Department, federal prison), then it is in the public domain. However, I've never heard of a market for mugshots nor any municipality suing anybody over using them in any context. They, to me at least, seem like publicity shots by celebrities (the celebrities want their publicity photos widely distributed; likewise authorities want their photos of criminals to be distributed widely). This also seems like something that would not only be fair use for us (a non-profit educational use), but even with downstream commercial users. So even though IANAL, I say go ahead and use them (just say where you got it on the image description page). --mav

Main Page wiki text

As only the administrators can edit the text of the Main Page, how can one get the actual wiki text for adapting it to one of the other Wikipedias (non-en)? I know that the page changes, but some links are invariant, ditto for the formatting. ¬ Dori 01:42, 14 Oct 2003 (UTC)

It's also a GFDL violation, as has been pointed out on a mailing list or two. Allowing people to obtain the wikitext for protected pages is generally considered a good idea, just no-one's gotten around to coding it yet. If you just want it for the purposes of adapting to another language, you could get it from the layout proposal page Main Page/Temp. -- Tim Starling 01:53, Oct 14, 2003 (UTC)
The HTML source is still available, so it is not a violation per the letter of the GFDL. I just updated Main Page/Temp, but a "View source" link on every protected page would be better (seems like that would be easy to code to me, but then I'm PHP illiterate). --mav 02:10, 14 Oct 2003 (UTC)


Yes I know that I can get the html, but I am lazy and would rather not adapt it to wiki :) Tim, thanks for the link. ¬ Dori 02:28, 14 Oct 2003 (UTC)
There's no view source link in the interface yet but the function is there: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Main_Page&action=edit
(Also the wiki source is in the downloadable database dumps, but that's a little more work to find the page you want!) --Brion 23:53, 14 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Albanian Wikipedia

Could someone with powers put a link to the Albanian Wikipedia (e.g. [http://sq.wikipedia.org/ Shqip]) in the appropriate place? No articles yet, but it might entice a passing-by Albanian less lazy than myself to do something about it :) thanks ¬ Dori 06:32, Oct 16, 2003 (UTC)

Done! -- Brion

Karl Malden honoured

Might be pushing it but in case somebody agrees, not just any Hollywood actor, this one is getting a lifetime achievement award at 91.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3193816.stm

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=387984&section=news

Saint Teresa

This is supposed to be on Selected Articles for the Main Page, but, can we fit in Saint Teresa? We already have John Paul II on the front page, but she seems seperately important. I'd replace another news headline, but all seem so important. - user:zanimum

As in Mother Teresa? Isn't she just being beatified, not canonized? Adam Bishop 12:50, 17 Oct 2003 (UTC)
Now I'm confused. Radio and TV were calling her a Saint, but BBC says she'll just be canonized. - user:zanimum

Recent Deaths

I think that Eugene Istomin is worth noting as a recent death. Also Denis Quilley - though I'll have to check the articles. Istomin's is taking shape, and perhaps satisfies the requirements. He was at least as well known in music as many of the others that get a mention. David Martland 05:42, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Done. Angela 04:52, Oct 18, 2003 (UTC)

Does drummer Tony Thompson (Chic, David Bowie, Power Station) merit a mention? Catherine 05:27, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Categories

Originally, Philosophy was with "Mathematics and Natural Sciences." I believe that it should be restored to this category. Say what you will about philosphy, but it does not belong beside the social sciences. Traditional views of knowledge categories group philosophy into the same group as mathematics.

I propose slightly modified categories: Philosophy & Mathematics, Natural Science, Applied Science, Social Science, Humanities, and Fine Art.

Psychology was originally seen as being as an elevated branch of philosophy but lost that status in the 20th century when it progressed more toward a science. Philosophy has nothing to do with psychology anymore.

CATEGORY DEFINITIONS to avoid ambiguity!!

Philosophy & Mathematics: Purely analytic ways of knowing. This should be seperated from science because science is not as "pure" as mathematics. (Comptuer science is not self-evident analytic knowledge!!)

Natural Science: Sciences that are concerned with natural phenomena. (e.g. biology, physics, earth science, chemistry, etc.)

Social Science: Sciences that study aspects of society using theories and scientific models. (e.g. sociology, political science, economics, etc.)

Applied Science: Scientific knowledge that is applied to a specific end. (e.g. engineering, health science, computer engineering, computer science, etc.)

Humanities: Knowledge systems that do not require fine art skills and do not accumulate knowledge through scientific means. (e.g. history, mythology, theology, law, etc.)

Fine arts: Any mode of production, including that which is produced, which requires a skill that cannot be learned but through practice and excersises (hence a fine skill or "talent"). (theatre, dance, ballet, music, poetry, opera, film, etc.)

Furthermore... if it is not a system of knowledge (e.g. "tourism") I don't think it belongs on the main page, or at least in a sepearte section.

PETA/Pamela Anderson/Kentucky Fried Chicken is in the news. Lirath Q. Pynnor

Nathaniel Heatwole is in the news. Lirath Q. Pynnor

Why does the Abortion in the U.S. link to go Intact dilation and extraction, and not Abortion in the United States? I think it's inaccurate to link to the specific technique when the label does not match. Fuzheado

I've changed the link so it now goes to Abortion in the United States. Fuzheado 02:23, 22 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I went from the Main Page of Wikipedia, until I got into the section with an alphabetical listing of subjects. In that alphabetical listening I found "transexualism" (a missplelling of "transsexualism"), and "transexuality" (a misspelling of "transsexuality"). -DN

Shall fix Dysprosia 09:00, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC)

WikiSource

Is there a reason for not mentioning WikiSource in the para. "Syster Projects"?
Found it in the French Main Page
^^ Dod1 13:48, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC)
Can you please respond to this question? ^^ Dod1 21:03, 2 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Little Orphan Annie's Second Plea for Help

I've "changed" my username to Little Orphan Annie before for this exact same purpose, so I'll do it again.

Once again I dawn a red wig to plea to someone to just update the Orphaned pages list. I know the server is slow, that's why it doesn't automatically do it. But they haven't changed since May. I thought after the first time I became the cute red head that the list would update at least every two months. But the list has just sat, and all articles were linked to.

If this doesn't finally get someone on the course of action to update the list every month or so, I seriously will change my username to Little Orphan Annie in protest. - Little Orphan Annie

Try asking at Wikipedia:SQL query requests. Angela 23:25, Oct 27, 2003 (UTC)


Why are people not removing the articles on the right and adding to the left? The World Series is still stuck there on the left-hand side, yet the news is getting old now. Someone added Wildfires to the right-hand side, and someone else added the Ian Smith or whatever to the middle!? What is going on here? dave 04:06, 29 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I can only speak to my own addition. I took a look at the story behind all the headlines listed, and made a considered choice, balancing age of news, importance of news and general cultural balance. Maybe that was wrong. -- Cimon Avaro on a pogostick 04:33, Oct 29, 2003 (UTC)

Why does the link say "Iain Duncan Smith" but point to UK Conservative party? --Wik 07:34, Oct 29, 2003 (UTC)

Suggestion of new feature in Wikipedia software. How about a User-To-User page that would be a page that associates two users? A URL might look like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UserToUser.phtml?User1=MyUserName&User2=YourUserName

The reason is I have people leave me messages on my talk page but I have no idea the context. If I reply to them on my talk page they might never see it unless they happen to be monitoring my talk page. So I go to their talk page and unless I quote their message they won't know the context. If instead any messages where placed on a User-To-User page, and any User-To-User pages that referenced me that have been recently updated would show in my watchlist.

Whadayathink? MikeSchinkel 00:09, 30 Oct 2003 (UTC)


I can't think of a problem with that. I guess the developers have the ball on stuff like this. -- Cimon Avaro on a pogostick 00:36, Oct 30, 2003 (UTC)

Note to Zanimum

Maybe I am blind, but I see no relevant anniversary date in Lend-lease. What's going on? -- Viajero 18:33, 30 Oct 2003 (UTC)

The other ones Zanimum added did not have context either. But even if they were updated to establish context, then we should still wait a day before listing them because they are already listed on October 30. When that page falls off the Main Page and those articles are updated, then a few good examples should be listed. Summarizing a list that is already directly linked does not encourage people to visit the current day page. Also, the point of that section is to show off our articles on historical events. So a combination of the 'majorness' of the event, the mix of items already listed, along with the relative completeness of the article, have to be the filter we use (no context, of course, means no listing on the Main Page; we want to encourage people to update the articles - the reward being a possible Main Page listing - and we don't want to confuse readers). --mav 18:53, 30 Oct 2003 (UTC)
All of these points are listed and were listed on the calendar page for October 30. I don't see how these articles don't count, the Land-Lease and War of the Worlds are certainly major.
October 30, 1938 - Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing a nationwide panic.
October 30, 1941 - World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt approves US$1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
October 30, 1470 - Henry VI of England returns to the throne after Earl of Warwick defeats Yorkists in battle.
October 30, 2001 - Michael Jordan returns to the National Basketball Association with the Washington Wizards after 3 1/2 years (the Wizards lose 93-91 to the New York Knicks).
Granted I do relize now that it should have been linked to War of the Worlds (radio), other than that I can't see the problem. - user:zanimum
Zanimum, the point is that articles listed under In the news, Recent deaths, New articles;, and Week in history should indicate in the article itself the relevant date and other information, which Mav refers to as context. So, if you go to the article, it is immediately explicit why it is listed (which wasn't the case, for example, with Lend-lease). Being listed under the appropriate day isn't enough. I don't know who cooked this policy up but it is a good one.
I have one small favor to ask of you as someone who regularly updates the Main page as I do: do you think you could indicate in the Summary what your change is? It would make it much easier to track the changes to the page. Thanks in advance. -- Viajero 15:00, 31 Oct 2003 (UTC)
Just read the guideline on this issue Zanimum: Wikipedia:Selected Articles on the Main Page --mav
I have reworked and added the above text to Wikipedia:Selected Articles on the Main Page -- Viajero 13:19, 11 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Page space

Out of curiosity, how come Week in history gets two lines? Shouldn't In the news and New articles get two lines too? Kingturtle 21:32, 1 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Because there is far more past history to cover than current history. "Recent deaths" is already the second line of current news. --mav 11:28, 2 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Richard Neustadt died Lirath Q. Pynnor


The "new articles" should be at the bottom of the selected articles list; the other 3 are related to the news; "new articles" is just some random sysops selection of random articles -- however, "anniversaries" is 2 lines long; and, we don't want a two liner admist one liners...so, "new articles" should either be deleted or increased to two lines. Lirath Q. Pynnor

Clarification: "New articles" may be arbitrary choices but they are not random. -- Viajero 17:58, 2 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Without any formal procedure governing what is placed there; its pretty random -- regardless, it is not of the same category as the other 3; and should not be intermingled. Lirath Q. Pynnor

Random suggests they are picked out of a hat. In actuality, a human mind decides which ones to choose, based on criteria. Kingturtle 23:20, 3 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Right...how about acknowledging my actual point (rather than my opinion on some side issue); that the "new articles" shouldn't be interspersed between three lists of articles whose topics are, in some way, related to the current date? Lirath Q. Pynnor

Uh - the articles were created around the current date. --mav 23:41, 3 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Whoever runs the Main Page should consider adding Edgardo Mortara to the New Articles list. It's beautifully written. Michael Hardy 00:41, 5 Nov 2003 (UTC)

It was created on Oct 23. Many hundreds of even newer articles have added since then. --mav 03:22, 5 Nov 2003 (UTC)~

Inserting comma

Pardon me if this has been done to death already, but wouldn't it be better to have a comma in the centre of the figure indicating the number of articles being worked on, i.e., 170,323 instead of 170323? Moriori 22:58, 5 Nov 2003 (UTC)

The problem is that a comma is used as a decimal point in most of Europe so it could appear confusing. Angela 23:12, Nov 5, 2003 (UTC)
Umm, isn't it their problem they don't conform to Wiki style and not the rest of the world's? Can you imagine removing all the commas on the List Of Countries By Population page (and throughout the rest of Wikipedia)? Heh heh. Moriori 02:07, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC)
Wikipedia is multinational. And yes, some words and punctuation are different - but as long as we all can read it, I don't see how there's a problem. Using *no* separators in numbers makes it unambigious. -- Pakaran 23:17, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC)
Why not add some sort of new markup feature for handling numbers, where the display format is controlled by the user's preferences? Not putting commas when giving elevation in feet makes it harder to read but then it may be confusing to those who are used to a comma being used as the decimal point. There is inconsistency when using commas on pages containing elevation (e.g. mountains) RedWolf 08:12, Nov 10, 2003 (UTC)

width and height for the wikipedia logo

It would be great, if the measures of the Wikipedia-Logo (wiki.png) could be fixed using HTML width and height attributes, since this could reserve space for the image even it is not loaded and would make rendering faster. 82.82.117.237 17:54, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers is a recent death. -- Cyan 22:59, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Pretty meager article for the Main page, doncha think? -- Viajero 23:19, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Richard Neustadt recently died, its irritating that I have to again suggest this. People with worse articles, who are less notable; get on the recent deaths list -- why are my suggestions being ignored? Lirath Q. Pynnor

Your suggestion was not ignored. As you can see from the page history [3], I added the article to the Main page on Sunday but Angela took it off several hours later because of the "edit war". However, I am not going to argue for adding it again until the typography has been quieted down; as it now stands, it looks like a billboard -- Viajero 13:57, 7 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I suggest create an online tool to resize jpg and png uploaded images to the ideal wikipedia image size Mac

It might be better to suggest this in the feature requests section at SourceForge rather than here. There are instructions on how to do this on the Bug reports and feature requests page. Angela 14:54, Nov 9, 2003 (UTC)

Japan general election

Please add a link to Japan general election, 2003. Thanks -- Taku 17:30, Nov 9, 2003 (UTC)

  • Done. Angela 17:39, Nov 9, 2003 (UTC)

Anniversaries

  • This month sees the 50th anniversary of the uncovering of the Piltdown Man hoax, with a major exhibition at the NHM [4] Andy Mabbett 09:41, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)
  • Today is the first anniversary of the Prestige's sinking. --zeno 11:08, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)
    • Done. -- Viajero 13:48, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Urgent

There is a br-Tag or something similar in the section "Wikipedia in other languages". --zeno 13:27, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I removed an unneccessary carriage return in the source, which means that the languages are all now shown in the same font size in my browser (IE5.something) Hope this fixes whatever problem you were having. Pete 13:43, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)