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Archived from Talk:Main Page. — Dan | Talk 15:43, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikimedia announces Yahoo!

At (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_announces_Yahoo_support) Wikimedia announces some news. Can someone of the Wikipedians imagine all the consequences ?

Wikipedia is the largest and most ambitious project the Internet has ever seen up to today. Hence it's not surprising that some of the biggest Internet players are keen on participating in this unique project (like Yahoo, Google, or Microsoft...). Their help is welcome. But not their influence. I hope the Wikipedia community will have a close glance on the future development of all those _charitable efforts_ by all those _donators_.

Hans Rosenthal (hans.rosenthal AT t-online.de -- replace AT by @ )

I'm not sure that commercial advertisements (which is basically all this "announcement" is) are appropriate for the front page. I don't need to be spammed by PR garbage whenever I visit wikipedia. --Bk0 03:54, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

This will end well Tom k&e 09:06, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I had no idea we were selling week long ads on our front page. [1] Utter disgust. —Korath (Talk) 15:05, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

Nobody is selling anything. Yahoo made a generous donation, without asking for anything in return. The fact that Yahoo is a company doesn't change a thing. And personally, I'd be happy to acknowledge their generosity myself, if anyone is interested. (I was interested: it's nice to see that wikipedia is getting unconditional support from big name private businesses.) Kevin Baastalk 15:24, 2005 Apr 9 (UTC)
See the edit summary of that diff. I don't mind acknowledging their generosity, but "generosity" in exchange for an agreement for a prominent banner on our web site is paid advertising. —Korath (Talk) 15:48, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)
Agreed. The banner has no information of substance, it's just a big Yahoo! billboard. This may cause other organizations to expect similar treatment if they also make a large monetary "donation". --Bk0 17:41, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Fahqin A! Righteous. This speaks to the very best intentions of Hollywood, and indeed the wellest-meaning instincts of the American Spirit. In terms of market-positioning, I hope that whoever dropped the ball a Google is not fired, but rather retained and encouraged toward something in the vein of an on-the-job sebatical spent searching for the opportunity missed and the opportunity that exists in this direction. Kudos to yahoo!. Ozz bless. -Ozzyslovechild 03:30, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

If Yahoo! asked for the banner, it's advertising, then it sucks. If some fellas at the WikiFoundation / Wikipedia decide to be courteous and acknowledge their generosity, then it's alright. Just my 2 cents .... -- 09:39, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I do not like this banner. It's just an ad. Mention them on a donator's page somewhere, but as it is, they just ended up paying for product placement. 80.219.219.208 18:08, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I don't see the problem with the banner. They donated. Quite a bit. They deserve recognition for this. End of story. Nickptar 14:06, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Fully agreed.
James F. (talk) 16:38, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Not to mention that it reflects well on Wikipedia. Yahoo is famous. When I saw that announcement, I thought "Wow. Wikipedia is really getting the recognition it deserves." And I bet that if it were my first visit to Wikipedia, I would have thought "Wow. If Yahoo donates to it, it must be quite good." Nickptar 21:24, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I think the more important question is not "at what price xyz" but rather in the vein of "what the faq have we the wikipedia community done to demonstrate our appreciation for this bit from yahoo!?" I think we should be singing yahoo!'s praises all about. homepage, wherever. call it an ad; call it whatever, but this is indead one heckuva solid done done unto us. There should have been a contest to vote for the best thank you banner that got placed on the homepage for a whole week. Or something. And then faded to deep background. Or something.

Anyhoo, has Google weighed in? Seems like they should be given the chance to best yahoo!. Seems like the addition of a Wikipedia article link for whatever a google.com visitor has just searched on might be a very nice step in that direction. Course, presumably they would work some Google magic on which link(s) to offer. For brand name type of searches, like Phylis Wheatley, Ed Begley Jr., or aroma therapy, it might be pretty direct to pick the right article to link to, but I'm guessing that most searches aren't as simple and would benefit from some of Google's home-style applied theory.

And how about those guys at MIT that are plotting sub-US$100 laptops in million kinda increments for developing countries? Have they been contacted about Wikipedia placement or some such on such? And has anyone told them to get their head out of their asses with respect to the display needing to be of such quality that it is a Major Cost Component? Trying to improve the lives of people with inconsistent water availability should not pause long on discussions of whether it needs 8, 256, 1024, or millions and millions of colors. Flourescent tan covered my hide by black and green screens and that held my attention for long enough to realize the truth was within..


OK. Basta. Selah.

-Ozzyslovechild 02:49, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Doesn't anyone here listen to public radio? It is possible to acknowledge donations while staying relatively clear of corporate influence. Upper-class academic influence, on the other hand... Rhobite 06:34, Apr 24, 2005 (UTC)

Can someone with sysop powers fix up today's Selected Anniversaries, please ? (Again)

Things should be in past tense. I just fixed that for yesterday's Selected Anniversaries. Can someone change "weds" to "wedded" or "married" on today's Selected Anniversaries, please ? Thanks. -- 01:59, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks to User: Hajor for fixing it. -- 09:41, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I have added a new example of contemporary parody to the Encyclopedia.

Search for Parody then look down the page for a contemporary example called the George W Bush 2000 Stolen Election Commemorative gold and silver coins.

What does this have to do with the MainPage ? This does not belong here. -- 09:40, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

NYPL Images

Can we use NYPL photos on WP?

--rydel 17:47, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

We may not use the photos on their site. Here is their page explaining the copyright of the photos http://www.nypl.org/legal/index.cfm --Clawed 12:42, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
That's not really true. This was discussed *AT LENGTH* on the village pump about 2 months ago. Basically, the NYPL is charging people a fee to distribute public domain works. Legally, their position is a bunch of smoke an mirrors - public domain is public domain no matter how you sliec it. But, proving this will take a $1 million court case to prove. →Raul654 16:31, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia on DVD

Any chance of an English Wikipedia on CD? I'm still on dialup and can't connect every time I need some instant enlightenment, so I would definitely value having the Wikipedia on my hard drive, even in outdated form... Please help me

Andy, London

I think my previous post didn't work, I'm new to this. Could you put the English Wikipedia on DVD for offline browsing and reading? I can't connect all the time because I'm still on dialup. Thank you!

The Wikipedia SQL database can be downloaded at http://download.wikimedia.org. Various efforts have been made to establish a Wikipedia on disc; a German company is preparing a distribution of the German Wikipedia on disc, and a SourceForge project is active. --Slowking Man 22:38, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for this information... Although I don't really understand what to do to download the files... I guess my best course would be to wait in hope for the DVD project to complete so I can buy it! Just for your information, I think where Wikipedia excels (and what distinguishes it from other encyclopedias) is the excellent (and prolific) cross-referencing. Keep it up!

If you just want the current revisions of the articles, click "wikipedia" at the top, scroll down to "en.wikipedia," and click the link marked "cur." You'll need to have the MySQL database engine installed on your computer, as well as a program that can decompress gzipped files (7Zip is great for Windows). --Slowking Man 22:43, Apr 16, 2005 (UTC)

Charles, Prince of Wales

I believe it would be more effective to change the phrase "The Prince of Wales" in the News section to "Charles, Prince of Wales;" he is commonly known simply as Prince Charles; simply calling him by his title is awkward; we call all other news figures by name. Why not Charles? Fishal 04:27, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I also suggest "HRH the Prince of Wales" --> "Prince Charles", or "Charles, the Prince of Wales" (or "Charles Mountbatten"?), we are not sponsored by the Buckingham palace, after all. dab (ᛏ) 06:59, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Obviously you haven't seen Wikimedia annouces Buckingham Palace Support --Neo 14:28, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)
If you do plan to make that change, please decide beforehand whether it should be "Charles, Prince of Wales weds..." or "Charles, Prince of Wales, weds...". See the history of the ITN template. –Hajor 14:40, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I apologize. sorry there is nothing to fix, you'll be fine. Italic text In our society titles are given to mortals for certaiin functional purpose. For example, Mr. is to refer to the make species, Mrs to the female, Dr is to refer to either medical, law or some other professional with whom we usually deal regularly in our society. Now this Charles business. First of all we, the 'lesser' members of society do not and need not deal with such outmoded titles and personalities until that person creates a carnival about his jumping into bed with a seriously frightening-looking female. We can do with comedy from time to time, though. What difference does it make if he is calles prince Charles or Charles prince of Wales? Who in his or her right mind will have this kind of curiosity to occupy one's concerns with such unimportant subject matter - unless that person happens to belong to that unimportant social group (I mean unimportant to the vast majority of the mortals and not to the section of society who already think of themselves as god's gift to society. Good luck with your serach concerning titles Zack

Page protection

Why is Germany still protected? It has been protected for months (with no recent discussion) because of the ridiculous edit warring of User:Jiang and User:Heimdal, making it impossible to work on it. This is outrageous!

The page should be unprotected, and Heimdal and Jiang should be told to leave the page alone.

uh, no, it's been protected since March 27 --- 14 days. →Raul654 21:04, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)
It has been protected since January or February. Maybe it has been unprotected for short periods.
Um, actually it shows as protected to me right now. Fawcett5 21:20, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I unprotected the page a few hours ago, I have only just found this comment here. If the warring kicks off again I think the two users should go through the complaints process rather than the page being protected for extended periods, as this was (two weeks is a long time). Rje 01:13, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

Unfair

Are you saying that you don't want the people who vandalized this website to go on it anymore because they aren't a "member" or something? This site is a semi-helpful informational website and anyone should be able to go on it, member or not. I'm not a member, but use this site. 

                Thank you.
  From,
     P. Herman
I am not quite sure what you mean, but only the users with an extensive history of vandalism are permanently banned from Wikipedia. Less serious vandalism usually results in edit blocks (often temporary), but those users are still able to read the articles.
If you found yourself under a hard ban (access denied completely), then either you were engaged in persistent vandalism in the past, or you try to access Wikipedia under the IP address that's been banned for vandalism (this can happen with dynamic IPs). If you care to provide me with more details as to what your problem is, I would perhaps be able to assist you.—Ëzhiki (erinaceus europeaus) 15:20, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)
"This site is a semi-helpful informational website and anyone should be able to go on it" — you are too kind with our humble effort! dab (ᛏ)
Well, yeah, that irked me a bit too, but some of our articles do not deserve to be called even "semi-helpful". It all depends on what kind of information you are after. He's got a point there, even though it could be worded a little... er, differently.—Ëzhiki (erinaceus europeaus) 16:22, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)
sure, a lot of stuff on WP is crap. But it is condescending to imply that you are graciously prepared to use it because it is almost semi-useful, and therefore you claim the inalienable right to access it. dab (ᛏ) 10:31, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
The original comment is from an anonymous user of an IP account that received a 3rd vandalism warning yesterday (User talk:216.255.121.2).
Just to let you know that there is a technical problem with anonymous accounts, in that they can often be shared by serveral users from the same ISP. As such the vandalism warning may actually have been directed at someone else who happens to be be using the same account. From the contribution log for this address, it looks like the problem is principally a user who has been adding nonsense to the page on Artemis. If that isn't you, please feal free to continue reading anonymously. If the vandalism warnings worry you, you can avoid them by creating your own user account, or becoming a member, but this isn't required. -- Solipsist 10:03, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Super Bowl Halftime Shows Article

I created that article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_Halftime_Shows

So if you all can finish it go ahead, but I'll keep on updating it!

-Red Deadeye

(Sorry you all, just ignore this, I forgot this was for the Main Pge only, my bad)

Remove: this is a dumb article

Wikiwax

Can Wikiwax.com be added to the search engine list along with Google and Yahoo? Perhaps we could even replace the wikipedia internal search with wikiwax. Its much better. Seabhcán 08:02, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It seems our servers are so un-strained, that we can actually run our own search. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=&go=Go However, Wikiwax is a unique concept. Try mentioning it on Meta Wikipedia. -- user:zanimum

Katyn Forest Massacre

This item in today's Featured Anniversaries says the Germans drove "a wedge between the Allies, the Polish government-in-exile in London, and the Soviet Union." But the Soviet Union was one of the Allies! 65.219.236.154 13:05, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

So was the Polish government-in-exile in London. What's the problem ? 64.229.205.145 13:42, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
It's poor (but not uncommon) English. "Between" requires two objects, but it is followed here by a list of three. Generally this is understood as meaning "among"; but that would imply that the wedge was driven among the Allies (consisting of Poland, the Soviet Union, and other countries), Poland-in-exile, and the Soviet Union, meaning that both Poland and the S.U. were simultaneously on both sides of the wedge. The whole sentence is a mess. RussBlau 17:54, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)
I've changed it to "... driving a wedge among the Allies, particularly the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Soviet Union." I hope this is better now. -- PFHLai 19:26, 2005 Apr 13 (UTC)
Yes, much better; thank you! RussBlau 22:32, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)
You are welcome. Glad that I could help. -- PFHLai 10:05, 2005 Apr 15 (UTC)
Can I just chip in to say that "driving a wedge among" sounds silly. As a metaphor the wedge only works when you are talking about pushing two things apart. How can you drive a wedge among things? Use another metaphor, or lose the metaphor entirely. "Causing division among" or Provoking division among", mebbe..? --stib 13:07, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Urgent

I notice that the banner about the Yahoo deal was removed. I have no idea when or if it was discussed on the english wikipedia. However, since it seems nobody mentionned it ( I did on the french wikipedia), we had an aggremeent with Yahoo to put the banner for at least a full week. I wish that this deal is respected and the banner stay here for a little longer since the agreement was not fully respected. I also would hope some people help us respect that agreement> this is important for all of us\. Thanks a lot. user:anthere

There is some discussion above. From the Main Page history:
(cur) (last)  15:33, 9 Apr 2005 David.Monniaux (Anthere says agreement specifies announces on en: and fr: main pages for 7 days; reinstated)
(cur) (last)  23:44, 8 Apr 2005 Raul654 (rm banner - it's been 24 hours)
(cur) (last)  04:45, 8 Apr 2005 Frazzydee (using main page banner; current position seems a bit out of place...feel free to revert)
(cur) (last)  01:18, 8 Apr 2005 Angela (moving the announcement here instead of the site notice)
So it was removed for almost 16 hours last Friday evening/Saturday morning. Was it announced anywhere that we were required to carry a front page banner for 7 days? (And if that is not advertising, then I don't know what is. Not very effective, though - I had not noticed it.) -- ALoan (Talk) 16:22, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Nod, it was first in the mediawiki, then here, then removed, but placed by Angela in the donation template. But it is not very visible there. You are absolutely correct the 7 days was not publicly announced (though I actually explained french editors... ). However, the agreement mentionned it should be on the main page of english and french wikipedia for at least 7 days (later on major languages main pages as well). It was not said, so I apologize and of course, we can not complain it should not have been removed ;-) Fact is it was decided very quickly and we run out of time... well, at least I did...

I think that when someone makes us a precious present, with, as *only* compensation to announce it on the main page, it deserves to be on the main page. Now, in all truth, though this is somehow a sort of advertisement, frankly the cost is little in comparison to the present... I think it is mostly an exchange with value for both parties and little negative sides. Now, it is up to you guys whether you want a site up and running smoothly or not ;-) Right ? Anthere

We try to find a middle solution with Angela that would be suitable. I leave to her to see what is best.... will perhaps not be online before a while


Anthere (broadcasting from Helsinki and museum closing...)

I agree that it is a nice gesture if we, by consensus, decide to place this notice and keep it there as a favor to our good friends at [[Yahoo!]. However, if we are mandated to keep it there as terms of our agreement in exchange for their funding of our servers, then let's call a spade a spade-- we're providing advertising for them. Of course, I think that most wikipedia contributors would like the notice to stay as a show of gratitude, but the "no-advertising" clause in our charter is looking a bit shaky. Cheers. --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 17:04, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)
I am perfectly fine with Wikipedia putting up a banner on the main page to show our gratitude --- but I am a bit uneasy about the fact that Wikimedia signed some kind of contract with Yahoo promising to do it. While I don't care that much if Wikipedia has ads personally, I think it's important to respect the no-advertisement clause to keep our community together --- remember that the spanish wikipedia forked over this issue. In the future if potential sponsors ask to appear on the main page, perhaps we should try informally telling them that the community will very likely put up a banner to express gratitude, but that it contravenes our charter to make an agreement. I understand the pressing need for servers but let's tread carefully over this. Redquark 20:38, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Do the terms of the contract specify where on the Main Page the banner needs to be placed? If not, what's wrong with having it in a less visible place at the bottom after having it in a highly visible place for the first 2 days?--Eloquence* 00:04, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)
I, like others, have absolutely no problem with keeping the banner as a way to show our gratitude- even if it as the top; however, I would be very uncomfortable if putting the banner at the top of the main page was a condition for recieving the donation, especially when the WMF press release says "Yahoo! does not expect Wikimedia to host advertisements in return for this support." -Frazzydee|✍ 03:03, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia is a NON-PROFIT cooperation of voluntarily contributors. Advertising does not belong on the server! Try to keep the site INFORMATIVE and not COMMERCIAL! Axezz 11:31, Apr 14, 2005 (CET)

I don't know the ins and outs of this, but if the board thinks it necessary to promise advertising in exchange for funding, the way to go would be to get rid of the non-advertising clause first. I have no problem with the banner at all, as long as it doesnt flash or scream, and as long as Yahoo doesn't own my contributions ;) I suggest we leave it up so 'our' people don't lose face towards Yahoo, but I do think it was inconsiderate to sell advertising space without preparing people here, and it is no wonder if the banner has a bit of a shaky existence here now... dab (ᛏ) 16:51, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia On Blu-Ray

Well, what do you think? It would certainly be a more appropriate format than the DVD or HD-DVD.

The site says 1 disc will hold 25GB, worth 2hrs of HDTV or 13hrs of older broadcast media, but even then, Wikimedia would not fit on a single Blu-Ray drive, including all the revision history (what else is new). Maybe they will cut a deal for non-profits and .orgs. It would be to the Blu-Ray consortium's benefit to be able to include free access to the world's knowledge as a side effect.
I'd prefer CD or DVD. I'd hate to have to buy Blu-Ray technology just to use a offline disc version of Wikipedia. Please try to think of the people who don't buy such stuff the moment it hits the market. 131.211.71.58 07:02, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Accuracy of Wikipedia

I am a high school student and am doing a project on Wikipedia. Does anybody have any thoughts on the accuracy of Wikipedia? Pros and cons?

Its accuracy varies wildly, so much so that it would be premature to trust it. There are efforts underway to make it more accurate but in many areas rightness is very much a matter of opinion.Grace Note 13:18, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
The theory is that the more often a particular page is viewed and edited the more accurate that article gets. I think you could figure out how accurate an article is by looking at the views/edits ratio of an article - the higher views per edits the more accurate. However this assumes there is no bias in the viewership and editors. Take a look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias. Seabhcán 13:31, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
All statements on the accuracy of Wikipedia are also matters of opinion, as of now. It is statistically equally probable that more often an article is edited, the further from the facts it is driven. The best thing for you to do, IMHO, is to pick a random sample of, say, 50 articles and check what they say against what other, more traditional, sources say about the same topic. (Of course, a bigger sample would be better, if you had the time). You could then create an index of verifiability for that sample. Might be interesting, and at least it could be fact driven. Filiocht | Blarneyman 13:35, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)
Good idea. But it would be difficult to do it completely randomly (as using the "Random page" tab) because Wikipedia contains so many articles not found elsewhere: and those are precisely the articles which might be inaccurate - the more common subjects being more frequently checked. In any case, cool project, and I'd love to see the result. Will you post it here? (Perhaps on your userpage) Seabhcán 14:47, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Re: accuracy: some bits for your consideration:
  • The accuracy of Wikipedia is in their process, over time, more so than its content at any one point in time.
  • The fact that there is always a possibility that what you're reading has been put in front of your eyes by some guy who didn't follow the NPOV direction is a Great Thing. Why? Because it forces all users to do precisely what the fuck they they should do when they read anything, every thing, each thing: question it, but be willing to believe it is True.
Also:
  • Nice to see schools sniffing around Wikipedia. Tell your teachers that they should be pushing for stuff like a Wikipedia class or maybe better done as study hall type thing where the only thing that kids do is screw around on Wikipedia, reading a stream of whatever catches their fancy. No work required; just browsing. There's opportunity in that direction. Gets the kiddies exposed to a wider world, and gets them reading some/any-thing which should be grounds enough to justify at least one period a week if not more.
  • There's also opportunity in having them start to take on articles, maybe as class projects, maybe as individual projects. Especially with a teacher shepherding them, any given class of kids could really bring a lot to this table.
Best of luck to you,
-Selah 16:21, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Selected Anniversaries

I would like to see the Selected Anniversaries section of the main page contain more birthdays of important people. For instance, today is Leonardo da Vinci's birthday.

There is only space for a linked number of birthdays, events, etc on the Main Page - see April 15 for a more comprehensive list -- ALoan (Talk) 19:40, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
We do feature holidays and observances on the Main Page. Anyone wanna ask the Italian government to make April 15th "Leonardo da Vinci's Day" ?  :-) -- 199.71.174.100 21:19, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikikiddy -- A Wiki from and for the kids

I just had the idea that it might be a nice new Wiki project to create a Wiki sister for all those children on the web who are eager to learn. Such a Wikipedia project could be called "Wikikiddy" (the kids find better names...) and should be written _by_ children _for_ children. What do you think ? -- Hans Rosenthal (hans.rosenthal AT t-online.de -- replace AT by @ )

There is the simple english version of wikipedia at http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page --Clawed 06:04, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)
That is for people who are not very fluent in English, not necessarily for kids. → JarlaxleArtemis 05:35, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)
If you think about it, kids aren't that fluent in English anyway and would appreciate a resource that's easier to understand. Plus, looking over the Simple Wikipedia, it looks like it was kind of written at a level kids would understand, anyway.

We are currently developing Wikijunior, a print magazine project funded by the Beck Foundation. It won't be editable on the actual site, but kids do have the option of submitting content for approval, just as anyone else can. More info at m:Wikijunior. -- user:zanimum

Even if the kids would use the "Wikikiddy" or "Wikijunior" to help them doing their homework -- so what ? Would those kids be cheating ? I say: No. They would just be doing what all of us adults are doing: Looking for answers (in the Web) when we do not have any answer at hand.
Hans Rosenthal (hans.rosenthal AT t-online.de -- replace AT by @ )

In The News

This section on the Main Page needs an update.

I agree. I also think Wikipedia should try to focus on news from non-western countries as well. Noone mentions Africa or Latin-america. The credibility of wikipedia is at stake if we don't offer a more broad perspecive on these pages. Axezz 13:39, Apr 16, 2005 (CET)

Wikipedia is only as good as its contributions. If you can find a fitting news item from those area suggest it to the updating admins at the template's talk page. Mgm|(talk) 17:06, Apr 16, 2005 (UTC)
Wikipedians are encouraged to suggest news items for the 'In The News' section at Wikipedia:In the news section on the Main Page/Candidates. The guidelines can be found at Wikipedia:In the news section on the Main Page. Fellow Admins are also encouraged to patrol the candidates page more often and update the MainPage accordingly. Thanks to all. -- PFHLai 19:42, 2005 Apr 16 (UTC)
Well, could be a number of factors: 1) nothing happening in those parts of the world, 2) lack of interest on the part of English Wikipedians (there are probably few in Africa; Latin American Wikipedians would be found at the Spanish or Portuguese Wikipedia). I believe Angola has been in the news a few days now. It's in Africa. Nelson Ricardo 15:35, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)
Why not just grab a couple of headlines from Wikinews?
Sure, however Wikinews has a terrible lag time from event to article. -- user:zanimum

Where do I go to report something wrong

Theres something seriously wrong with the article: "school_shooting" It just shows some html. Where do I go to report it?

  • Check it again now, I think it's fixed. Mgm|(talk) 09:35, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

404 on the Front Page Search

The www.wikipedia.org main page is forwarding me to a 404 when I put something in the search box and press 'Search' with English selected. This is the fourth or fifth time I have seen this happen in the last couple of months, since you first put up that horrible welcome page! This is extremely unprofessional - don't your webmasters even check these pages work before putting them live? It's not hard to do! Sort it out!

This is happening again at the moment, it seems. Can somebody fix it? 82.110.36.82 10:12, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Need help

I have a Compaq computer that has Windows XP on it. This is not the computer its in the bed room and it works slowely and does all kinds of stuff! I want to use system restore but I can not even get that to work. It just closes out. Can you help?

Lanita

What kind of help is expected of an encyclopedia here ? -- 14:44, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Try Accessories: System Tools: Disk Defragmenter. It will take a few hours, but it should work. If that doesn`t work, post your question to the Wikipedia:Reference desk. -- user:zanimum

Conclave (In the News)

"to select the 265th pope to replace the late Pope John Paul II." - John Paul has *not* been replaced by 265 popes. Can somebody fix this please? Slac speak up! 11:53, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

  • It sounds, a bit ambiguous. I give you that, but it says that they are choosing the 265th pope and that the chosen person will replace the late pope. Do you have any better suggestion on how to phrase it without losing the info? Mgm|(talk) 12:03, Apr 18, 2005 (UTC)
    • And I don't know if the to-be-elected pope will *replace* the late pope. -- Sundar (talk · contribs) 12:13, Apr 18, 2005 (UTC)
    • replace replace with succeed? dab (ᛏ) 15:56, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • Nice job, it's much better indeed. Mgm|(talk) 17:18, Apr 18, 2005 (UTC)

Won't it rather be the 264th though? I know it's difficult to count popes with all the antipopes, but there must be some sort of official figure, I suppose? It's just that I've seen the number 264 (for JPII's successor) in the newspaper. dab (ᛏ) 17:40, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Given that some popes are semi-legendary figures, I question the value of including "265th" at all. Just because a particular numbering scheme has the official endorsement of the Vatican (even if it is 265, rather than 264) doesn't mean we should automatically relay it as correct. Slac speak up! 22:02, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

the Roman Catholic Church is free to define who is and who isn't a pope, I suppose, so their count must be official. Whether the number is relevant enough to be in the template is another question entirely, of course.
Hermannus Contractus in 1049 numbered Pope Leo IX as 154th. I think the count is still based on his. The difficult thing is of course to get through the 14th/15th century with all its antipopes. Maybe we should discuss this in Numbering of Popes ; ) dab (ᛏ) 14:31, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"to elect the 265th pope, to succeed Pope John Paul II." This is a grammar mistake. It should be "to elect the 265th pope, who will succeed Pope John Paul II." iten

Sistine Chapel

what does sistine mean?

Sigh. The first paragraph of the article you linked to tells you!
The Sistine Chapel is a chapel in the Palace of the Vatican, the official residence of the Roman Catholic Pope in the Vatican City. It was built between 1475 and 1483, in the time of Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere, and is one of the most famous churches of the Western World. The name Sistine is derived from the Italian sistino meaning of or pertaining to Sixtus. -- Arwel 16:03, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)
he didn't link to it; I inserted the link earlier with an edit summary "click on link" ;o) dab (ᛏ)

how to create menu in javascript

POV: "helped to convert"

"the Nine Saints ... helped to convert parts of what is now Eritrea and Ethiopia..." I think it would be better to write "converted parts of..." or "took part in converting parts of..." to avoid the positive connotation of "helped to". Otherwise it sounds as if the conversion was a good thing. For example, it would be ludicrous to write "the people of XXX helped to exterminate the people of YYY"-- one might instead write "they exterminated..." or "they took part in the extermination..." or some other neutrally-worded phrasing. MisterSheik 18:38, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I agree; it implies that conversion was a good thing. I've modified the entry. — Knowledge Seeker দ 07:30, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

If I search for something like this (yes, a bracket as a typo), there are nasty error messages in addition to the empty search results. The top of the page gets rendered with error messages covering part of the Wikipedia logo. Maybe this should fail more gracefully?

Here is the error text:
Warning: file(http://10.0.0.14:8123/search/enwiki/Fra%5Dnce?namespaces=0&offset=0&limit=20):  
failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 500 Internal server error  
in /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.4/extensions/LuceneSearch.php on line 631

Warning: array_map(): Argument #2 should be an array in /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-
1.4/extensions/LuceneSearch.php on line 631

Warning: array_shift(): The argument should be an array in /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-
1.4/extensions/LuceneSearch.php on line 642

Warning: array_shift(): The argument should be an array in /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-
1.4/extensions/LuceneSearch.php on line 651
Cigarette 22:54, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)
The best place to report bugs is to the MediaWiki bugzilla at http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/ (MediaWiki is the name of the open-source software that wikipedia runs on) --Clawed 11:41, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Aramaic Page Vandalism?

The Aramaic page listed on the main page today has a comment at the bottom - "Eli is a big loser!!!" at the very bottom. I'm new here and didn't see where to edit it out, but hope someone else knows. -- user:67.64.133.217

It`s since been fixed. Any page can be edited just the same way you created this talk page. Someone perhaps even fixed it by the time you hit "edit" on Aramaic. Anyway, welcome to our community! -- user:zanimum

Election of a new pope

I just saw the ITN-item about how there was black smoke on the first day of the papal conclave. Are we going to report every day how the election is going? "Day 37: Still black smoke." The pope dying is obviously news that we should report, and when a new pope is elected thats certainly news to, but isn't reporting the color of the smoke a bit much considering we have so little space for news on the front page? Gkhan 07:20, Apr 19, 2005 (UTC)

Since it's likely to take only a couple of days I don't think we need to worry too much. I think if it drags on for 37 days whoever is updating ITN with conclave news will have long since tired of noting every smoke signal issued by the cardinals. — Trilobite (Talk) 14:25, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Wow, my objection became really silly really fast :P Gkhan 16:30, Apr 19, 2005 (UTC)

How to post an article?

Wikipedia ia a free encyclopedia. Does it have any other org, where I can login with the same username and password? Also I would like to know the procedure to post an article.

Not sure I understand your first question. As for the second, just follow a red link to one if there is one, and if there isn't edit an article to link to it and follow the link. It's important that new articles you create are linked to somewhere else in Wikipedia, so they aren't isolated "islands". Alternatively you can just put the title into the search box on the left of the page and if nothing is turned up by the search there'll be a link to an edit box for the non-existent article. — Trilobite (Talk) 14:33, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

re warsaw ghetto and warsaw uprising

The Article states that 1000 of the participants in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising were participants in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising which the same article state had less that 800 participants most of which presumable would have been killed? Can some one research the true #s and fix this?

Typographical Error on Lead Story

"Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger." Am I unfamiliar with some relevant stylistic point, or wouldn't that be Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger? — WCityMike (T | C) 21:19, Apr 19, 2005 (UTC)

No, it's standard for the "Cardinal" to be between the first and last names. (By the way, new comments go at the bottom on discussion pages.) Nickptar 21:48, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Okay, that's weird. I wonder who came up with that stylistic oddity. — WCityMike (T | C) 00:45, Apr 20, 2005 (UTC)
That is actually the style for the nobility. If you have read any of the murder mysteries starring the British Lord Peter Wimsey, his biography in Who's Who (if he were not fictional) would be at the entry Wimsey, Peter Lord. There was a mystery where they looked him up, and that was the dialog by the actor reading from Who's Who.

Misspelling of an item.

1713 - Emperor Charles VI issued the Pragmatic Sanction to ensure that the Habsburg monarchy would be inherited by his daugther, Maria Theresa.

Obviously, the word should be daughter.

This site is amazing!

(Note: This was fixed yesterday.)

Regnal name

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected pope on the second day of voting in the papal conclave, and takes the reign name Benedict XVI.

In the above sentence, "...reign name..." should be changed to "regnal name." --Jpbrenna 03:32, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I've just fixed it. Thank you for pointing that out. -- PFHLai 06:03, 2005 Apr 20 (UTC)

karl marx-means of production

Which of these is NOT" means of production" according to Karl Marx ? 1 landowner 2 owner of capital 3 owner of factory & industry or 4 labor Someone please e-mail me the answer at Califcurt28@yahoo.com Thank You

I think the question may be "Which of these doesn't own a means of production". See means of production. When asking a question, please look for the reply here rather than asking for it to be emailed.-gadfium 23:30, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Redirect fix

I'm a "direct the redirect" freak, but on the ltem on Pope Benedict XVI's election, the RTÉ link redirects to Radio Telefís Éireann. Au revoir, Dralwik 20:58, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Photo in the News

How come the new President in Ecuador looks so much like the new Pope? Are they related ? :) --03:53, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Funny. We add new news to the top of the list, and the picture is always at the top. So, if the first story doesn't have a picture, we just use a picture from the second article. -- user:zanimum

Ayrton Senna

He didn't win the first of 41 championships—he won the first of 41 races. --ScottDavis 06:17, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Fixed, thanks.-gadfium 06:39, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Suggestion to promote other language wikipedias

Can we identify some wikis that are small but have some current activity and feature some stats for one of them each week? People seeing the meter reading showing one article more each day might be convinced that the wiki has some promise and hence might start contributing. For example, many early Tamil editors here might've thought that the Tamil wiki has no scope as it simply has no critical number of users and activity. But, of late, it's got revived. Featuring the stats on the recent activity there with a short introduction on the Main page might help bring more visitors. What do you say? -- Sundar (talk · contribs) 06:31, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC)

That's actually not that bad an idea. There is a fairly large white space created on my page in the languages area, after the list of editions "with over 100,000 articles". A small table off to the side saying the language's name, than number of articles and upto ten words on progress. -- user:zanimum
I strongly concur. --Zantastik 01:53, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Or what about a list ranking say the top ten wikipedias in terms of their current monthly article growth rate as per [2] ? This is a pretty good indication about activity in the smaller wikipedias. BjarteSorensen 02:53, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

International Marketing & Cultural Issues

Colleagues,

I have over 30 years experience in international marketing after having lived in 10 countries and conducted business on the ground in over 50. I am intrigued that this free encyclopedia is offered in so many different languages and take this opportunity to conduct a little research.

Your feedback would be appreciated on your experiences, either positive or negative, in trying to reach your international market as well as your opinion on how different cultures should be approached.

Thank you and happy reading. Ron.

Ron. A. Welsh RAW Power Writing Words to unleash the power in your product

Mobile: 61.423339324 Website: http://www.rawpowerwriting.com/

editing this document is possible here.

You may want to post it here -> Wikipedia:Village pump (assistance) or here -> Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikidemia -- Sundar (talk · contribs) 08:21, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC)

Yes, it was missing for some reason. I have restored it. Thank you to the anonymous user, 212.160.102.29, who informed us of the error here. - Mark 12:27, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Someone who didn't forget Poland. -The lorax 13:33, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Arrggghh what a missed opportunity for wikicomedy! If only I had caught that I would have been sure to put "you forgot Poland" as the edit summary.... ;-) — Trilobite (Talk) 20:02, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

earthquake

How many times 9-Richter Earthquake is more than 8-Richter?

Please see Richter magnitude scale & Logarithmic scale. -- PFHLai 05:42, 2005 Apr 22 (UTC)

Search Problems

Recently I have noticed that when I make a search, I am no longer directed to a disambiguation page. In fact, my searches never yield the article anymore unless it is extremely general (i.e. Chicago), rather I have to deal with the search results. Attempt to search for Loudon County, Virginia and you will find nothing of the sort although a page exists. This problem must be corrected immediately or the site's readership may suffer considerably. I have noticed that reading articles is much more effortful and less desirable because I can get better results from a Google! search (either way I am left picking through a confusing list of relevant sites, many of which ar ein no way relevant).

You'll find that correct spelling tends to improve search results: Loudoun County, Virginia. Mkweise 20:23, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Swear word in results for Byzantine Empire

Someone has apparently played a joke at this URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire

That was vandalism by Anonymous user, 206.158.3.70. The damages by this vandal have since been undone.

Misspeling on front page

"Alfredo Palacio becomes the interim President of Ecuador following the Congressional outster of Lucio Gutiérrez in the wake of widespread public unrest.".

Should be "ouster".

It's now fixed. Thank you for pointing that out. -- PFHLai 21:12, 2005 Apr 23 (UTC)

WEST2005

Hey Guys, Check out the band WEST2005

they are a hot new band so check them out

(Comment left by SimplePlanFan892 (talk · contribs)) - Mgm|(talk) 22:35, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC)

anchor names lost in redirect

As you can see by editing the page, the following should redirect to a specific part of an article but doesn't:

http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Naga_Sadow&redirect=no

I just tried it and it works from the redirect page but not when you are automatically redirected by the redirect page. You should submit the bug to the wikimedia bugzilla so the developers can fix it. http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/ --Clawed 09:25, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
If I recall correctly, this is deliberate and there are no plans to change the software. I don't remember the reasoning, but it may have something to do with broken links when section titles change. — Knowledge Seeker দ 18:52, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Considering Knowledge Seeker's reply, should I still submit this to bugzilla? TerraFrost 05:45, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Well, from my point of view, you are certainly free to. My memory may be incorrect; and even if it is not you are free to disagree. If you are unsure perhaps bring it up on one of the Village Pump pages? — Knowledge Seeker দ 06:51, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

News on Berlusconi's new government

There's a sentence in this news that's blatantly false: "Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (pictured) successfully forms a new government, ending Italy's greatest period of political turmoil since the Mani pulite and likely forestalling a general election until 2006." This wasn't "Italy's greatest period of political turmoil since the Mani pulite"; as a matter of fact, this has been the shortest government crisis (it lasted only 1 day and a half) since the Mani Pulite crisis (in 1992).

  • Well, I didn't like the characterisation either. Anyhow, it's gone now. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 16:27, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Main Needs Better Organization

I think the main page needs more linking to subdomains. For example, it would be very useful if there were links to all the other wiki "projects". For example, the main page should be much more helpful in finding what you are looking for. The search feature definately helps, but since it searches the entire site, its inaccurate. If I wanted to find archived pictures or music, a word in the dictionary, quotes, guitar tabs or song lyrics, or source code - some can be found at the bottom of the page, but some can't - and its unclear how to find it.

I propose a listing of categories containing subcategories to be placed on the top of the main page - making navigation easier.

--fresheneesz 23:32, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

MLA/APA Citation

Can wikipedia have an auto-citation link/module that will automatically generate MLA or APA citation for a page? (All one has to do is to copy/paste the citation into his own document to cite that article) Encyclopedia Britannica does it, its on the bottom of everyone of their pages.

something like this?:
  • TITLE: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Internet edition, 2001-05.
  • PUBLISHED: Wikimedia Foundation: 2001-05.
  • NOTES: This page was last modified 00:29, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • CITATION: [Article Title]. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Internet ed. Wikimedia Foundation: 2001-05.
  • LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org - All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).
  • ABOUT: About Wikipedia. Disclaimers.

Business Discussions?

As a journalist aficionado I suggest that a Business/Economics blogg should be included in your extensive and prominent service. The encyclopedia is astonishing in terms of the great amount of information that could be gathered at once, still, people should have the option to comment and question themselves in the importance and influence of the business life in their day-to-day. Allowing readers to post their knowledge and opinions about the business world will represent a new streamline media system where individuals will be able to rely on their opinions and expert’s opinions about what is going on in the world of business, and more importantly, how the latter influences their life. Represent different opinions where people can analyze and determine their convince is a fundamental part of the freedom of expression and the rational analysis that every individual should be allowed to access. Media is changing and the business world changes faster than anything else in one’s life, therefore it’s consequently necessary to provide a space for an undertaking interaction between people of different backgrounds that have some opinions/questions about business matters.

Thank you for your time and I hope to see a business space in the near future, and by the way, congratulations in your excellent services and the benefit that they’re bringing to the world’s community.

Best Regards,

Oscar <removed advertising>

"On the lamb."

I know that on the lamb means that one is hiding out, but I was curious as to where this particular phrase came from. If any one knows any history this phrase please help.

On the lam (note spelling) means "on the run". The exact origin is not known, but presumed early twentieth century, and somehow related to "lamming" meaning a beating or thrashing [3]. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 16:50, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

My talk page

Whenever I go to the Main Page, a message that says I have new messages always shows up. Why? -- Tony Jin | (talk) 00:44, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC) Never mind.

I didn’t know

Small Armenian communities existed in Ethiopia as early as the 7th century, possibly due to the ties between the Armenian and Ethiopian churches. By late 19th century, Armenians had gained prominence in business, government, and diplomacy. After the Italian conquest of 1936 and the overthrow of the emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia in 1974, the community shrunk to only several hundred person. do anyone have more info on this

Did You Know ...

... that the answers to the questions in the Did You Know section are better off in the article than on the Front Page ?

... that Wikipedia:In the news section on the Main Page/Candidates usually has a number of items ready to appear in the In The News section, but they often sit there unattended and become old news ?

... that one has to be an Admin to edit the Did You Know and In The News sections on the Front Page ?

(Comment by User:64.229.35.13)

  1. The questions are meant to highlight new articles.
  2. You can ask an active admin to update the template.
  3. Yes, I know. It's a precaution against vandals defacing our front door so to speak.

You're free to suggest improvements if you think they're needed, though. Mgm|(talk) 12:33, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)

Error in today selected anniversary

1478 - The Pazzi Conspiracy: Giuliano di Piero and Lorenzo de' Medici were attacked in Florence:

Giuliano di Piero should be Giuliano de' Medici: in medieval Italy there wasn't a clear rule for names and surnames, Giuliano di Piero de' Medici stands for Giuliano (his first name) son of Piero (first name of his father) de' (of) Medici (family name). GhePeU 16:05, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I think whoever put that up just want to avoid repeating the family name. Perhaps 'di Piero' should be removed. -- 16:45, 26 Apr 2005 (EST)
I've remove 'di Piero'. Hope it's better now. -- PFHLai 22:51, 2005 Apr 26 (UTC)

Jesus article

The Jesus article is messed up.

Also the article about Ludacris is messed up too.

Both cases of vandalism have been taken care of. Phew .... - 04:07, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

wheres the global warming section???? how are we supposed to do our work without a global warming section????

Do you want a PR boost?

Get a featured article on Main Page! You will also make the world a better place, by donating some useful copyrighted pictures to the community. ;-)

  • Huh? April 1 was nearly month ago... Mgm|(talk) 12:42, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)

Hello

wikisaurus

Has anyone ever thought of starting a wiki style thesaurus? I would but don't know how! I think it would grow quite quickly as people only need to add a word, not an explanation of it! What do you think?

  • I think the folks over at Wiktionary would be able to do more with that suggestion. They're a dictionary and already have the words to lay a foundation. Mgm|(talk) 17:24, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)

Kylie Minogue is no David Bowie

"Minogue has established one of the longest and most successful careers as a performer in contemporary pop music"

What, is this a joke? From the late Eighties until now? That's one of the longest and most successful careers in contemporary pop music? Come on now, not for the main page.

Karl Ward 15:15, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

  • I agree, it contradicts the rest of the text in the "blurb". I've removed it. Mgm|(talk) 17:33, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)
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