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Archive 40 | ← | Archive 42 | Archive 43 | Archive 44 | Archive 45 | Archive 46 | → | Archive 50 |
The front page should only contain headlines and links. No Content. Cyrus Zahababian
There is too much stuff on this page. It doesn't really need to be the front page of a newspaper, does it?
Yes. Yes it does. R e dwolf24 ( talk) 04:07, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
I think that the main page is just one big link fest! That was my very first thought when first visiting the Wikipedia about a year ago. It looked grey with so many links! I really think that the News section is unnecessary. If I want news I can check the news at about 100 different sites on the internet. Whilst I think that it is sort of ‘cool’ to demonstrate the Wikipedia ability to be changed to reflect very current news events, I think this should be demonstrated on a smaller box. I also think that a sample article box could be taken from each main category (perhaps the main 6) and arranged in a row with different colours for each box and perhaps even an icon like the French version of the Wikipedia has. This would make the invaluable resource the Wikipedia is, contain a friendlier front end and let’s face it, can you name one other website with almost 100 hyperlinks on the very first page, with every one in a bright blue? In this modern day and age, search engine technology is the accepted and preferred way of accessing content; indexes are a thing of the past. Please admins, be bold! Lewispb 21:53, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
Raul654 has decluttered the main page. Howsabout some comments? R e dwolf24 ( talk) 06:36, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
After discussion with some others, most of whom thought the main page was far too cluttered, I've decided to be-bold and try trimming it down. Here's a rought list of changes:
All in all, I think it's a lot better looking. Less cluttered, with important links more obvious to newbies now. →Raul654 06:39, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
How can I find a list of new articles - I really enjoy seeing what is new?-- Porturology 08:06, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
The changes are much better and long overdue. The one thing I think needs putting back, however, is the new pages (and orphans) links: I don't think they are particularly good to have there from a usefulness point of view, but in previous discussions we've concluded that it is necessary to speed up the Google spidering of our newest pages. violet/riga (t) 08:45, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
Great job. It is a lot easier to start with something simple and decide that a couple things really need to be added back.
Raul654 , Have you considered the advantages of the following ordering of the 5 items?
Note that Other languages coming last would be natural, as this is English Wikipedia. Ancheta Wis 16:39, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
Would it not be better to have it with FAQs before Ask a Question to stop people asking the same questions over and over again ? Robmods 19:08, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
I was just wondering if it would not be better to have the link say "Frequently Asked Questions" instead of "Wikipedia FAQs"? I could understand the need for using the acronym when it was a little link beneath the other languages mini banner to the right, but I think it can change with this new layout. While FAQ is a pretty well know internet acronym, I still think it is better not to assume people know what it means, at least not on the front page. The "Wikipedia" in "Wikipedia FAQs" seems sort of redundant for a link on the wikipedia main page to me. -- Codemonkey 19:51, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
Since there are some spaces left until the bottom on most displays, how about adding more languages? (about 25?) Just an idea.. -- WB 05:15, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
The topic/category links should be restored for all of the reasons they were there before, they aid in navigation to particular topics, not just the daily featured articles. If search worked well, maybe this wouldn't be required, but it doesn't. dml 01:29, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
To me, the top 3 lines are grouped too tightly. How about a gap between the article count and the 5 key links, which would also give more prominence to the latter? Martpol 12:50, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
A couple of things. I am a little concerned over the relatively large amount of changes on the main page recently. I think that if something is drastically changed, fine, but it should be given the reqired amount of time for people to form an opinion about it before being reverted back. Also, the portal link is (in my opinion, and in others too I believe) an important link if we want portals to grow (and improve, as some have noted they are not all perfect portals). The category links, while controversial, have stirred up such an uproar that I thinks it's best they stay. As it currently stands the template takes up little room and flows well. Lets see what happens next... - Trevor MacInnis( Talk | Contribs) 04:00, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
It's very useful and doesn't seem to be easy to find by newbies.-- Fito 03:14, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
I agree, and if you called it something like "A-Z" then it would fit neatly just after "Browse" on the top lines. 193.113.48.17 11:11, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks, Filiocht :) -- Fito 21:32, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Because the main page of wikipedia is entitled Main Page, there doesn't seem to be a place to put an article on main pages.
The main page looks ugly when it is viewed on a mobile PDA. The real problem is that the search box is at the bottom of the page (you have to scroll down past DYK and ITN and ARTOD etc. If I go to wikipedia from my mobile I want to look somthing and not read the article of the day. Could we make a second main page especially made for PDAs like google does ( http://www.google.com/pda)? Broken S 14:20, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
{{Sofixit}} ;) →Raul654 14:23, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
The Wikipedia:Community_Portal might be willing to cede a little space for PDA users, just a little link to a dedicated page. Ancheta Wis 16:45, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
Is it me or is the Main Page smaller now? -- Thorpe talk 15:06, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
It seems this discussion is already over for the most part, but I'd still like to register my opinion in case it comes up again. It seems ridiculous to me that Raul654 is pushing so hard to remove the language template. It originally included just random languages. He tried to shorten it to only those with over 1000 articles, which at the time was not a particularly large group. Eventually I semi-convinced him to allow all with over 100. A few months later, though, he apparently changed his mind, removing those with less than 1000 from the template, resulting in an edit war and the eventual protection of the template. I've mostly stayed away from it since, but it'dnt surprise me if he's kept gradually cutting off the lower section of the list. A few large Wikipedias still have relatively exhaustive lists, including even languages with less than 100 articles. It seems, however, that most have opted for a 100+ or sometimes a 1000+ template. Raul keeps complaining that it bloats the mainpage. It doesn't really increase loadtime much. He and others also complained that it was a problem for mobile users. Well, last time I checked, the rest of Wikipedia was hardly usable on my cellphone, so perhaps that problem should be resolved BEFORE worrying about mobile users' rates? -- Node 21:40, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
If the meta language page is now going to be a subset of the main page for the links to other language wikipedias, it needs to be a lot more user-friendly, especially to people who do not read English well or at all. Currently, clicking on the main link in the long vertical list doesn't even link to the Wikipedia, but the respective Wikipedia article about the language itself. One has to click on the two letter code in the second slot to actually access the Wikipedia. Until this is repaired or another solution is identified, shouldn't the language box be reinstituted on the main page? Tfine80 05:01, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I really see no compelling reason to remove Template:Wikipedialang from the Main Page; it was at the bottom and didn't significantly affect load times. It's no great achievement in design to reduce the amount of scrolling. Yes, it makes sense to have the sidebar links for the sake of consistency, but it's also nice to have the size-ordered version (which I have always preferred to the uglier, messier and necessarily language-neutral one on the Wikipedia portal), as it provides additional information. I do see compelling reasons not to link to Meta in the new menu of links, as it's a completely different site and likely to confuse newcomers. It's more for our internal use than a navigational tool that should be so visibly featured. I advise to restore Template:Wikipedialang, or to link to it instead of the page on Meta.-- Eloquence * 12:01, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I would also like to add that the Japanese Wikipedia (the fourth largest), the Portuguese Wikipedia (the ninth largest), and the Swedish Wikipedia (the seventh largest) also have very inclusive language boxes. The Italian Wikipedia has a language box as well. So by no means is the use of sidebar links a universal standard. In fact, it appears that the language boxes are more likely to exist on more developed Wikipedias than others. Tfine80 16:13, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I concur with the above opinions. Ultimately, being the biggest of the Wikipedias, the English language Main Page continues to serve the function of a gateway and should continue to link to the other language 'pedias in a prominent manner. Granted, the size of the current template leaves a bit to be desired, but then it should be redesigned rather than eliminated entirely. The sidebar is not an obvious place to look, nor does it draw the eye as well as the template used to do. -- khaosworks ( talk • contribs) 16:59, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I like the idea of trimming the main page a bit, but like others I'm a little dismayed to see the disappearance of the other languages box. This is going to repeat what some others have said, but here goes anyway.... Rightly or wrongly, en is still viewed as the flagship Wikipedia instead of just one of many language editions, and even those who know that there are other language editions may not be aware of the extent of our multilingualism. It probably wouldn't occur to plenty of speakers of
Faroese or
Bambara that anyone would have bothered to set up a Wikipedia in their language, and since people are most likely to arrive at en we have a special responsibility to advertise our multilingual nature. Articles in the English Wikipedia feature very prominently in Google searches, and we've achieved a great deal of international fame because we're the biggest edition. Google "Wikipedia" and it's the English main page that comes top, not the multilingual portal. There is still an attitude amongst some that en is the main project and the other languages are subsidiary. This is worryingly common amongst our editors, but is even more universal in media reporting of Wikipedia, which often ignores their existence entirely. The move from www.wikipedia.org to en.wikipedia.org was done too late, the redirect from www. to en. was replaced by a portal far too late and even then was met by a lot of whining from the Anglocentrics, and even now for legacy purposes
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_article takes you to the English Wikipedia, which leads people to link to that as if it were the correct URL. Thus we have a special responsibility here to remind visitors that Wikipedia is not an English-language website, but a multilingual one of which one part of many is in English. A good way of doing this is to have a big box down the bottom of the English main page telling people what we have to offer in other languages. Interwiki links of the kind found in the sidebar of article pages are simply not appropriate for the main page. The usual way of doing things with interwikis is to list every single language in which an equivalent page exists, but this is not appropriate for the main page because there would be over 200 links with nothing to indicate which had hundreds of thousands of articles and which were totally inactive. As has been said, people seeing a list of interwikis from which most links are omitted have only the obscure link to the meta list (which is totally unsuitable as a navigational aid) to indicate to them that Wikipedia exists in anything other than the languages that are listed. The old other languages box linked to all editions with over 1000 articles, whereas we now appear to have only the top twenty listed as interwikis. I would have thought we could at least have linked to all those with over 10,000 articles. Is the Indonesian Wikipedia with its 13,000 articles considered inactive and not worth bothering about? Attempts to lower the prominence of Wikipedias in other languages under the guise of making the main page easier to navigate do piss me off a little. Let's bring back the other languages box please. It would be nice if those who agree with its restoration in some form could make their views known here. —
Trilobite 17:31, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
My position is probably clear from the section above, but I concur with the above comments in favor of restoring the list as well. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 18:54, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I agree we have to restore the language box. I think sometimes experienced editors forget that the vast majority of Wikipedia's casual readers have very little understanding of how it works, and I would dare say there are many many readers of en who have no idea that there is also a Wikipedia available in their native language.-- Pharos 19:18, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I just changed the "Other languages" link to point to www.wikipedia.org, as that seems to be the be the best list of Wikipedias in other languages. – AB C D ✉ 18:26, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
Just yesterday the main page linked to the portal homepage. For those of us who are maintaining portal pages, it would be nice to know whether or not we'll be linked to from the front page, since that affects visitor numbers rather substantially. Personally I feel wikipedia should be glad for the communities that are willing to maintain portals. We should try to drive users to these subcultures within wikipedia if we can. Jacoplane 23:35, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I am very disappointed about the taking away of the Wikipedialang template. It was a very good feature and it enabled fast navigation to other language editions. It was also good for new users who wanted to go to their own language Wikipedia. The new system with interwiki links places the languages in alphabetical order and only seems to include those over 20,000 articles. That's a bad move, not only because it alienates those Wikipedias under that level of articles, but also because the languages are no longer ordered according to size. Before, there was a very clear delimitation of Wikipedia's larger than 50,000 articles, larger than 10,000 articles, etc. That gave new users an easy way of seeing which Wikipedias are the most comprehensive. At the very least we should have a poll on the inclusion of the Wikipedialang template. I think it's an unjustified step by Raul654. And, by the way, the Main Page looks ugly now. It doesn't look tastefully simple, just stripped-down as if we're on Internet Explorer 3 or something. The kanji icon and everything else was much better. Who else thinks they should be brought back? Ronline 09:03, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
As so many people seem to want it back, I've been bold and restored the other languages template. Filiocht | The kettle's on 12:36, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
On the Main Page, why not make the 'search box' more promient, since that is what most people go to first?
I suggest making it a little bigger, at the top, and in the center, like.......uh, Google does.
Other than that, what a terrific site!!! Keep up the good work!
Dave Bergt Houston, TX
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=&fulltext=Search. It should load faster, though. Longbow4u 17:16, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
I wrote the search functionality of the inputbox extension due to repeated requests here to have a more prominent search box. After I tried to add it to the Main Page, it was quickly reverted without much discussion, and since its main purpose was Wikinews, I didn't bother to get into an argument about it. However, it seems clear that several people would like more visible search functionality on the Main Page.
In my opinion, having a nice Google style box in a highly visible location is going to help newcomers. The extension also supports relabeling buttons, which could be used to find a more descriptive label for "Go", a button that newbies often don't understand. (Unfortunately, Google's "I'm feeling lucky" is trademarked.) Since this is such a significant departure from the current Main Page design, it seems like the kind of decision where a straw poll would help to reach a decision.-- Eloquence * 04:02, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Mabye the seachbox on the monobook skin justs needs to be moved from the sidebar- its very obvious using a skin like classic.-- nixie 05:00, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Another idea might be to have a link to a Search page along with Wikipedia FAQs, Browse, etc. etc. In fact, I'd suggest rearranging those items anyways. If you added the search, I think "Search, Browse, Wikipedia FAQs, Ask a Question, Portals" would be the best order, as that seems to me the hierarchy of what a new user might be looking for when first using Wikipedia. If I were a new user, "Portals" wouldn't mean squat to me. Cigarette 06:53, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Since the locking of the main page templates, I have often been somewhat at a loss whenever I've found errors of precision or infelicities of phrasing on the main page. Should I request a fix here, or at the template's talk page, or at the template-within-a-template's talk page, or at the Wikipedia_talk:yadda yadda, or where? Quoting Template_talk:Did_you_know: Please discuss errors on the template at Talk:Main Page. Am I interpreting this correctly? If in point of fact Talk:Main Page is the right place to make such requests, I think that point should be made in the page-opening triage section to set our minds at ease.
Specific point: the current DYK includes the following: ...Sir Conrad Hunte was a West Indian cricketer who in 1965, set the record for the highest Test series aggregate of 550 without scoring a century? This misunderstands his feat, or perhaps it's just phrased badly; either way, it needs to be changed: he didn't set a record for highest score, he set a record for highest-score-without-a-century. That phrase is indivisible. Improved version: ...Sir Conrad Hunte was a West Indian cricketer who in 1965 set the record (550 runs) for the highest Test series aggregate score without scoring a century. Note that I've also added the word "score" to make the blurb a little clearer for non-cricket-followers; and I've corrected the comma error after 1965 by deleting it (alternatively, that comma could be kept and another one added after the preceding "who": ...[a] cricketer who, in 1965, set...
Thanks for your help. Doops | talk 08:40, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Look, it's been several hours now. Please please somebody fix that cricketeer story in the DYK, as outlined in my comment above — before it disappears forever and with it our chance to get it right! I'm sorry if my other ramblings camouflaged the immediate point; let me restate it: his record was not the highest aggregate total which just happened to occur without a century; it was for the highest-aggregate-total-without-scoring-a-century-along-the-way. And that unmatched comma is just embarrassing. Doops | talk 16:14, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
How about a "most popular articles" and/or a "highest increase in popularity" chart on the main page? Maybe the top 5 or 10 articles for each.
(1) We have a webalizer back thanks to Kate. It uses sampling from the squids. It's linked to from my user page. (2) No, it doesn't belong on the main page. THe whole idea as of late has been to *remove* unnecessary clutter from the main page. →Raul654 00:36, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
Seems to change faster than... Anyway, my latest 2¢ is that A-Z doesn't belong smack in the middle of the line. It probably is the least useful (I think) way to navigate. If it must be there at all then it should be at the very end. BTW, the reason for my comment about A-Z is that I've found wikiwax much easier to navigate for an alpha search. -- hydnjo talk 23:07, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
W. G. Collingwood, John Ruskin's secretary and assistant was a noted scholar of Norse history and art: missing comma after "assistant". Doops | talk 05:52, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks, fixed. -- Sundar \ talk \ contribs 10:22, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
"Researchers photograph a live giant squid off of Japan's Ogasawara Islands. " This was on the Main Page on 29 September 2005 and I could not edit it.
Get rid of of after off.
--John on 29 Sept. 2005
I've been playing. Rough results of playing at http://tom.me.uk/2005/9/MainPage.html - really interested to hear comments. Thanks, Tom- 11:09, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
pls. fix the DYK entry about Gerwani and Suharto. It should spell president and not predsident. Thanks-- Gurubrahma 12:57, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
This usage, which I see on the main page today, is logically ridiculous. Please... either "one of the few" or, better, specify the number as: "one of only three". Too Old 16:09, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
The Canadian Supreme Court has ruled governments can sue tobacco companies for damages back 50 years. This might be worthwhile for the front page news section. Here is a link [2] - Jord 20:31, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
....someone ban this "BMXican CrooKed" person
I would just like to know, generally, what people think of the Categories (i.e., Technology, History, Geography) being on the main page. Many of them appear broken on lower resolutions or in IE. Also, the pages seem very long, nearly unwieldly. Each has only one link to the main article of that subject, and it is not clearly marked. I belive they need to be simplified and slimmed down. Anyone have differing opinions? - The Kooky One 21:54, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
Dear people at Wikipedia,
Please, can this notice be placed in Bold on the main page of Wikipedia where it says “Any one can edit or write an article”.
“No Original Research Neutral Point Of View Verifiability and a note about GNU free license.”
It would improve clarity. It would save a newcomer like me from afd and copyvio notices.
Best regards, Nirupma Kapoor neeray 16:13, 30 September 2005 (UTC)
For the last few days both at home and work (different ISPs) I've been getting older versions of pages returned by a cache - just now I got the September 29 feature article until I hit the Refesh button in my browser (until now this has never been necessary to get the latest main page). I always come to Wikipedia though a bookmark button to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and I use IE 6 on XP. Is anyone else seeing this? Has something changed recently that's making cache/proxy servers want to keep the old Main Page around for longer rather than fetch a new one? Or is it Wikipedia's squids? I'm in Seoul, South Korea if that makes any difference. -- JackSeoul 15:02, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
Hi, I was utterly confused by the sentence "For the first time, researchers observe wild gorillas using tools." on the main page. To me, this meant that for the first time, researchers had been able to use tools to observe gorillas. Obviously, it means that gorillas are now using tools, but could this be written any clearer? -- Shane Drury 15:13, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
A series of explosions kills at least 22 in resort areas of Jimabaran Beach and Kuta in Bali, Indonesia.
Shouldn't that be "A series of explosions kill at least 22..."? -- 222.153.190.49 23:13, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
"The economy of India is the fourth largest in the world, with a GDP of $3.363 trillion at PPP, and is the tenth largest in the world, with a GDP of $691.9 billion"
It can't be both the fourth and tenth largest simulateously. While an explanation for this is present in the article itself, it did not make it into the summary. - 68.162.222.88
The news section about Bali bombing has typo. It should be Jimbaran, not Jimabaran. Hayabusa future 07:46, 2 October 2005 (UTC)
It is just me, or does this make it sound like the researchers never bothered to use tools before? :-)
"The socio-economic problems India faces are the burgeoning population, growing inequality," Whether inequality is necessarily a bad thing is strictly philosophical/ethical. I vote to take it off. [Alan]
This project is increasing in popularity. We all know that from looking at the stats. Unfortunately we also know that from the sometimes very slow response time. I think it's time to get ahead of the curve rather than trying to catch up with it. Whereas be bold is one of our tenets, then lets do it on the hardware side. If it means calling for a $100,000 or $1,000,000 special collection then lets do it. "In for a dime, in for a dollar", Geesh, lets not stifle for lack of servers. We can collectively raise whatever it takes, just tell us. We don't want to recommend this wonderful project only to hear back that this project doesn't respond in a timely manner. Like it or not, Google has set the standard for response time and we are lacking. Just in composing this little edit, "Show preview" has been do damn frustrating that... well nevermind, I'm a dedicated user, but I can only imagine what the new user thinks of us. My grandkids aren't going to stare at a non-responsive window for thirty or sixty seconds. They are going to think that something is wrong and move on. Please excuse my rant here but it stems from real feedback from real new users that I have recruited. (Show preview just took 2 min and 42 secs so I'm not being encouraged to go take a look at this edit, what it is, is what it is). Where is the the best place to post this comment? -- hydnjo talk 02:28, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
Could we make him the Rev. Dr. please? Doops | talk 03:47, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
Can anyone tell me how the author(s) of the Wikipedia main page know that Tom DeLay's departure from the role of House Majority Leader is temporary? -- Cat5nap 05:08, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
The link to Ulysses under DYK should link to Ulysses (novel) not the disambiguation page. Thanks -- Muntfish 10:23, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
The Nobel Foundation has today begun announcing the winners of the 2005 Nobel Prizes. Two Australians won the prize for Medicine and Physiology today, for their research into Heliobacter and stomach ulcers. The rest will be announced at daily intervals. Obviously, we cannot put each one in the "In the News" box. But maybe something saying "The winners of the 2005 Nobel Prizes are being announced all this week in Stockholm" or something like that. They are, after all, very important. What does everyone think? Batmanand 10:43, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
I know this isn't directly related to the main page, but close. Does anyone know what happened to the wikipedia logo on the welcome page? I know it's been off a few days and wondered why this hasn't been fixed. The Wookieepedian 17:44, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
![]() | 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. |
Archive 40 | ← | Archive 42 | Archive 43 | Archive 44 | Archive 45 | Archive 46 | → | Archive 50 |
The front page should only contain headlines and links. No Content. Cyrus Zahababian
There is too much stuff on this page. It doesn't really need to be the front page of a newspaper, does it?
Yes. Yes it does. R e dwolf24 ( talk) 04:07, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
I think that the main page is just one big link fest! That was my very first thought when first visiting the Wikipedia about a year ago. It looked grey with so many links! I really think that the News section is unnecessary. If I want news I can check the news at about 100 different sites on the internet. Whilst I think that it is sort of ‘cool’ to demonstrate the Wikipedia ability to be changed to reflect very current news events, I think this should be demonstrated on a smaller box. I also think that a sample article box could be taken from each main category (perhaps the main 6) and arranged in a row with different colours for each box and perhaps even an icon like the French version of the Wikipedia has. This would make the invaluable resource the Wikipedia is, contain a friendlier front end and let’s face it, can you name one other website with almost 100 hyperlinks on the very first page, with every one in a bright blue? In this modern day and age, search engine technology is the accepted and preferred way of accessing content; indexes are a thing of the past. Please admins, be bold! Lewispb 21:53, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
Raul654 has decluttered the main page. Howsabout some comments? R e dwolf24 ( talk) 06:36, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
After discussion with some others, most of whom thought the main page was far too cluttered, I've decided to be-bold and try trimming it down. Here's a rought list of changes:
All in all, I think it's a lot better looking. Less cluttered, with important links more obvious to newbies now. →Raul654 06:39, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
How can I find a list of new articles - I really enjoy seeing what is new?-- Porturology 08:06, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
The changes are much better and long overdue. The one thing I think needs putting back, however, is the new pages (and orphans) links: I don't think they are particularly good to have there from a usefulness point of view, but in previous discussions we've concluded that it is necessary to speed up the Google spidering of our newest pages. violet/riga (t) 08:45, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
Great job. It is a lot easier to start with something simple and decide that a couple things really need to be added back.
Raul654 , Have you considered the advantages of the following ordering of the 5 items?
Note that Other languages coming last would be natural, as this is English Wikipedia. Ancheta Wis 16:39, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
Would it not be better to have it with FAQs before Ask a Question to stop people asking the same questions over and over again ? Robmods 19:08, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
I was just wondering if it would not be better to have the link say "Frequently Asked Questions" instead of "Wikipedia FAQs"? I could understand the need for using the acronym when it was a little link beneath the other languages mini banner to the right, but I think it can change with this new layout. While FAQ is a pretty well know internet acronym, I still think it is better not to assume people know what it means, at least not on the front page. The "Wikipedia" in "Wikipedia FAQs" seems sort of redundant for a link on the wikipedia main page to me. -- Codemonkey 19:51, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
Since there are some spaces left until the bottom on most displays, how about adding more languages? (about 25?) Just an idea.. -- WB 05:15, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
The topic/category links should be restored for all of the reasons they were there before, they aid in navigation to particular topics, not just the daily featured articles. If search worked well, maybe this wouldn't be required, but it doesn't. dml 01:29, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
To me, the top 3 lines are grouped too tightly. How about a gap between the article count and the 5 key links, which would also give more prominence to the latter? Martpol 12:50, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
A couple of things. I am a little concerned over the relatively large amount of changes on the main page recently. I think that if something is drastically changed, fine, but it should be given the reqired amount of time for people to form an opinion about it before being reverted back. Also, the portal link is (in my opinion, and in others too I believe) an important link if we want portals to grow (and improve, as some have noted they are not all perfect portals). The category links, while controversial, have stirred up such an uproar that I thinks it's best they stay. As it currently stands the template takes up little room and flows well. Lets see what happens next... - Trevor MacInnis( Talk | Contribs) 04:00, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
It's very useful and doesn't seem to be easy to find by newbies.-- Fito 03:14, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
I agree, and if you called it something like "A-Z" then it would fit neatly just after "Browse" on the top lines. 193.113.48.17 11:11, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks, Filiocht :) -- Fito 21:32, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Because the main page of wikipedia is entitled Main Page, there doesn't seem to be a place to put an article on main pages.
The main page looks ugly when it is viewed on a mobile PDA. The real problem is that the search box is at the bottom of the page (you have to scroll down past DYK and ITN and ARTOD etc. If I go to wikipedia from my mobile I want to look somthing and not read the article of the day. Could we make a second main page especially made for PDAs like google does ( http://www.google.com/pda)? Broken S 14:20, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
{{Sofixit}} ;) →Raul654 14:23, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
The Wikipedia:Community_Portal might be willing to cede a little space for PDA users, just a little link to a dedicated page. Ancheta Wis 16:45, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
Is it me or is the Main Page smaller now? -- Thorpe talk 15:06, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
It seems this discussion is already over for the most part, but I'd still like to register my opinion in case it comes up again. It seems ridiculous to me that Raul654 is pushing so hard to remove the language template. It originally included just random languages. He tried to shorten it to only those with over 1000 articles, which at the time was not a particularly large group. Eventually I semi-convinced him to allow all with over 100. A few months later, though, he apparently changed his mind, removing those with less than 1000 from the template, resulting in an edit war and the eventual protection of the template. I've mostly stayed away from it since, but it'dnt surprise me if he's kept gradually cutting off the lower section of the list. A few large Wikipedias still have relatively exhaustive lists, including even languages with less than 100 articles. It seems, however, that most have opted for a 100+ or sometimes a 1000+ template. Raul keeps complaining that it bloats the mainpage. It doesn't really increase loadtime much. He and others also complained that it was a problem for mobile users. Well, last time I checked, the rest of Wikipedia was hardly usable on my cellphone, so perhaps that problem should be resolved BEFORE worrying about mobile users' rates? -- Node 21:40, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
If the meta language page is now going to be a subset of the main page for the links to other language wikipedias, it needs to be a lot more user-friendly, especially to people who do not read English well or at all. Currently, clicking on the main link in the long vertical list doesn't even link to the Wikipedia, but the respective Wikipedia article about the language itself. One has to click on the two letter code in the second slot to actually access the Wikipedia. Until this is repaired or another solution is identified, shouldn't the language box be reinstituted on the main page? Tfine80 05:01, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I really see no compelling reason to remove Template:Wikipedialang from the Main Page; it was at the bottom and didn't significantly affect load times. It's no great achievement in design to reduce the amount of scrolling. Yes, it makes sense to have the sidebar links for the sake of consistency, but it's also nice to have the size-ordered version (which I have always preferred to the uglier, messier and necessarily language-neutral one on the Wikipedia portal), as it provides additional information. I do see compelling reasons not to link to Meta in the new menu of links, as it's a completely different site and likely to confuse newcomers. It's more for our internal use than a navigational tool that should be so visibly featured. I advise to restore Template:Wikipedialang, or to link to it instead of the page on Meta.-- Eloquence * 12:01, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I would also like to add that the Japanese Wikipedia (the fourth largest), the Portuguese Wikipedia (the ninth largest), and the Swedish Wikipedia (the seventh largest) also have very inclusive language boxes. The Italian Wikipedia has a language box as well. So by no means is the use of sidebar links a universal standard. In fact, it appears that the language boxes are more likely to exist on more developed Wikipedias than others. Tfine80 16:13, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I concur with the above opinions. Ultimately, being the biggest of the Wikipedias, the English language Main Page continues to serve the function of a gateway and should continue to link to the other language 'pedias in a prominent manner. Granted, the size of the current template leaves a bit to be desired, but then it should be redesigned rather than eliminated entirely. The sidebar is not an obvious place to look, nor does it draw the eye as well as the template used to do. -- khaosworks ( talk • contribs) 16:59, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I like the idea of trimming the main page a bit, but like others I'm a little dismayed to see the disappearance of the other languages box. This is going to repeat what some others have said, but here goes anyway.... Rightly or wrongly, en is still viewed as the flagship Wikipedia instead of just one of many language editions, and even those who know that there are other language editions may not be aware of the extent of our multilingualism. It probably wouldn't occur to plenty of speakers of
Faroese or
Bambara that anyone would have bothered to set up a Wikipedia in their language, and since people are most likely to arrive at en we have a special responsibility to advertise our multilingual nature. Articles in the English Wikipedia feature very prominently in Google searches, and we've achieved a great deal of international fame because we're the biggest edition. Google "Wikipedia" and it's the English main page that comes top, not the multilingual portal. There is still an attitude amongst some that en is the main project and the other languages are subsidiary. This is worryingly common amongst our editors, but is even more universal in media reporting of Wikipedia, which often ignores their existence entirely. The move from www.wikipedia.org to en.wikipedia.org was done too late, the redirect from www. to en. was replaced by a portal far too late and even then was met by a lot of whining from the Anglocentrics, and even now for legacy purposes
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_article takes you to the English Wikipedia, which leads people to link to that as if it were the correct URL. Thus we have a special responsibility here to remind visitors that Wikipedia is not an English-language website, but a multilingual one of which one part of many is in English. A good way of doing this is to have a big box down the bottom of the English main page telling people what we have to offer in other languages. Interwiki links of the kind found in the sidebar of article pages are simply not appropriate for the main page. The usual way of doing things with interwikis is to list every single language in which an equivalent page exists, but this is not appropriate for the main page because there would be over 200 links with nothing to indicate which had hundreds of thousands of articles and which were totally inactive. As has been said, people seeing a list of interwikis from which most links are omitted have only the obscure link to the meta list (which is totally unsuitable as a navigational aid) to indicate to them that Wikipedia exists in anything other than the languages that are listed. The old other languages box linked to all editions with over 1000 articles, whereas we now appear to have only the top twenty listed as interwikis. I would have thought we could at least have linked to all those with over 10,000 articles. Is the Indonesian Wikipedia with its 13,000 articles considered inactive and not worth bothering about? Attempts to lower the prominence of Wikipedias in other languages under the guise of making the main page easier to navigate do piss me off a little. Let's bring back the other languages box please. It would be nice if those who agree with its restoration in some form could make their views known here. —
Trilobite 17:31, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
My position is probably clear from the section above, but I concur with the above comments in favor of restoring the list as well. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 18:54, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I agree we have to restore the language box. I think sometimes experienced editors forget that the vast majority of Wikipedia's casual readers have very little understanding of how it works, and I would dare say there are many many readers of en who have no idea that there is also a Wikipedia available in their native language.-- Pharos 19:18, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I just changed the "Other languages" link to point to www.wikipedia.org, as that seems to be the be the best list of Wikipedias in other languages. – AB C D ✉ 18:26, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
Just yesterday the main page linked to the portal homepage. For those of us who are maintaining portal pages, it would be nice to know whether or not we'll be linked to from the front page, since that affects visitor numbers rather substantially. Personally I feel wikipedia should be glad for the communities that are willing to maintain portals. We should try to drive users to these subcultures within wikipedia if we can. Jacoplane 23:35, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I am very disappointed about the taking away of the Wikipedialang template. It was a very good feature and it enabled fast navigation to other language editions. It was also good for new users who wanted to go to their own language Wikipedia. The new system with interwiki links places the languages in alphabetical order and only seems to include those over 20,000 articles. That's a bad move, not only because it alienates those Wikipedias under that level of articles, but also because the languages are no longer ordered according to size. Before, there was a very clear delimitation of Wikipedia's larger than 50,000 articles, larger than 10,000 articles, etc. That gave new users an easy way of seeing which Wikipedias are the most comprehensive. At the very least we should have a poll on the inclusion of the Wikipedialang template. I think it's an unjustified step by Raul654. And, by the way, the Main Page looks ugly now. It doesn't look tastefully simple, just stripped-down as if we're on Internet Explorer 3 or something. The kanji icon and everything else was much better. Who else thinks they should be brought back? Ronline 09:03, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
As so many people seem to want it back, I've been bold and restored the other languages template. Filiocht | The kettle's on 12:36, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
On the Main Page, why not make the 'search box' more promient, since that is what most people go to first?
I suggest making it a little bigger, at the top, and in the center, like.......uh, Google does.
Other than that, what a terrific site!!! Keep up the good work!
Dave Bergt Houston, TX
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=&fulltext=Search. It should load faster, though. Longbow4u 17:16, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
I wrote the search functionality of the inputbox extension due to repeated requests here to have a more prominent search box. After I tried to add it to the Main Page, it was quickly reverted without much discussion, and since its main purpose was Wikinews, I didn't bother to get into an argument about it. However, it seems clear that several people would like more visible search functionality on the Main Page.
In my opinion, having a nice Google style box in a highly visible location is going to help newcomers. The extension also supports relabeling buttons, which could be used to find a more descriptive label for "Go", a button that newbies often don't understand. (Unfortunately, Google's "I'm feeling lucky" is trademarked.) Since this is such a significant departure from the current Main Page design, it seems like the kind of decision where a straw poll would help to reach a decision.-- Eloquence * 04:02, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Mabye the seachbox on the monobook skin justs needs to be moved from the sidebar- its very obvious using a skin like classic.-- nixie 05:00, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Another idea might be to have a link to a Search page along with Wikipedia FAQs, Browse, etc. etc. In fact, I'd suggest rearranging those items anyways. If you added the search, I think "Search, Browse, Wikipedia FAQs, Ask a Question, Portals" would be the best order, as that seems to me the hierarchy of what a new user might be looking for when first using Wikipedia. If I were a new user, "Portals" wouldn't mean squat to me. Cigarette 06:53, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Since the locking of the main page templates, I have often been somewhat at a loss whenever I've found errors of precision or infelicities of phrasing on the main page. Should I request a fix here, or at the template's talk page, or at the template-within-a-template's talk page, or at the Wikipedia_talk:yadda yadda, or where? Quoting Template_talk:Did_you_know: Please discuss errors on the template at Talk:Main Page. Am I interpreting this correctly? If in point of fact Talk:Main Page is the right place to make such requests, I think that point should be made in the page-opening triage section to set our minds at ease.
Specific point: the current DYK includes the following: ...Sir Conrad Hunte was a West Indian cricketer who in 1965, set the record for the highest Test series aggregate of 550 without scoring a century? This misunderstands his feat, or perhaps it's just phrased badly; either way, it needs to be changed: he didn't set a record for highest score, he set a record for highest-score-without-a-century. That phrase is indivisible. Improved version: ...Sir Conrad Hunte was a West Indian cricketer who in 1965 set the record (550 runs) for the highest Test series aggregate score without scoring a century. Note that I've also added the word "score" to make the blurb a little clearer for non-cricket-followers; and I've corrected the comma error after 1965 by deleting it (alternatively, that comma could be kept and another one added after the preceding "who": ...[a] cricketer who, in 1965, set...
Thanks for your help. Doops | talk 08:40, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Look, it's been several hours now. Please please somebody fix that cricketeer story in the DYK, as outlined in my comment above — before it disappears forever and with it our chance to get it right! I'm sorry if my other ramblings camouflaged the immediate point; let me restate it: his record was not the highest aggregate total which just happened to occur without a century; it was for the highest-aggregate-total-without-scoring-a-century-along-the-way. And that unmatched comma is just embarrassing. Doops | talk 16:14, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
How about a "most popular articles" and/or a "highest increase in popularity" chart on the main page? Maybe the top 5 or 10 articles for each.
(1) We have a webalizer back thanks to Kate. It uses sampling from the squids. It's linked to from my user page. (2) No, it doesn't belong on the main page. THe whole idea as of late has been to *remove* unnecessary clutter from the main page. →Raul654 00:36, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
Seems to change faster than... Anyway, my latest 2¢ is that A-Z doesn't belong smack in the middle of the line. It probably is the least useful (I think) way to navigate. If it must be there at all then it should be at the very end. BTW, the reason for my comment about A-Z is that I've found wikiwax much easier to navigate for an alpha search. -- hydnjo talk 23:07, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
W. G. Collingwood, John Ruskin's secretary and assistant was a noted scholar of Norse history and art: missing comma after "assistant". Doops | talk 05:52, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks, fixed. -- Sundar \ talk \ contribs 10:22, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
"Researchers photograph a live giant squid off of Japan's Ogasawara Islands. " This was on the Main Page on 29 September 2005 and I could not edit it.
Get rid of of after off.
--John on 29 Sept. 2005
I've been playing. Rough results of playing at http://tom.me.uk/2005/9/MainPage.html - really interested to hear comments. Thanks, Tom- 11:09, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
pls. fix the DYK entry about Gerwani and Suharto. It should spell president and not predsident. Thanks-- Gurubrahma 12:57, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
This usage, which I see on the main page today, is logically ridiculous. Please... either "one of the few" or, better, specify the number as: "one of only three". Too Old 16:09, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
The Canadian Supreme Court has ruled governments can sue tobacco companies for damages back 50 years. This might be worthwhile for the front page news section. Here is a link [2] - Jord 20:31, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
....someone ban this "BMXican CrooKed" person
I would just like to know, generally, what people think of the Categories (i.e., Technology, History, Geography) being on the main page. Many of them appear broken on lower resolutions or in IE. Also, the pages seem very long, nearly unwieldly. Each has only one link to the main article of that subject, and it is not clearly marked. I belive they need to be simplified and slimmed down. Anyone have differing opinions? - The Kooky One 21:54, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
Dear people at Wikipedia,
Please, can this notice be placed in Bold on the main page of Wikipedia where it says “Any one can edit or write an article”.
“No Original Research Neutral Point Of View Verifiability and a note about GNU free license.”
It would improve clarity. It would save a newcomer like me from afd and copyvio notices.
Best regards, Nirupma Kapoor neeray 16:13, 30 September 2005 (UTC)
For the last few days both at home and work (different ISPs) I've been getting older versions of pages returned by a cache - just now I got the September 29 feature article until I hit the Refesh button in my browser (until now this has never been necessary to get the latest main page). I always come to Wikipedia though a bookmark button to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and I use IE 6 on XP. Is anyone else seeing this? Has something changed recently that's making cache/proxy servers want to keep the old Main Page around for longer rather than fetch a new one? Or is it Wikipedia's squids? I'm in Seoul, South Korea if that makes any difference. -- JackSeoul 15:02, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
Hi, I was utterly confused by the sentence "For the first time, researchers observe wild gorillas using tools." on the main page. To me, this meant that for the first time, researchers had been able to use tools to observe gorillas. Obviously, it means that gorillas are now using tools, but could this be written any clearer? -- Shane Drury 15:13, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
A series of explosions kills at least 22 in resort areas of Jimabaran Beach and Kuta in Bali, Indonesia.
Shouldn't that be "A series of explosions kill at least 22..."? -- 222.153.190.49 23:13, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
"The economy of India is the fourth largest in the world, with a GDP of $3.363 trillion at PPP, and is the tenth largest in the world, with a GDP of $691.9 billion"
It can't be both the fourth and tenth largest simulateously. While an explanation for this is present in the article itself, it did not make it into the summary. - 68.162.222.88
The news section about Bali bombing has typo. It should be Jimbaran, not Jimabaran. Hayabusa future 07:46, 2 October 2005 (UTC)
It is just me, or does this make it sound like the researchers never bothered to use tools before? :-)
"The socio-economic problems India faces are the burgeoning population, growing inequality," Whether inequality is necessarily a bad thing is strictly philosophical/ethical. I vote to take it off. [Alan]
This project is increasing in popularity. We all know that from looking at the stats. Unfortunately we also know that from the sometimes very slow response time. I think it's time to get ahead of the curve rather than trying to catch up with it. Whereas be bold is one of our tenets, then lets do it on the hardware side. If it means calling for a $100,000 or $1,000,000 special collection then lets do it. "In for a dime, in for a dollar", Geesh, lets not stifle for lack of servers. We can collectively raise whatever it takes, just tell us. We don't want to recommend this wonderful project only to hear back that this project doesn't respond in a timely manner. Like it or not, Google has set the standard for response time and we are lacking. Just in composing this little edit, "Show preview" has been do damn frustrating that... well nevermind, I'm a dedicated user, but I can only imagine what the new user thinks of us. My grandkids aren't going to stare at a non-responsive window for thirty or sixty seconds. They are going to think that something is wrong and move on. Please excuse my rant here but it stems from real feedback from real new users that I have recruited. (Show preview just took 2 min and 42 secs so I'm not being encouraged to go take a look at this edit, what it is, is what it is). Where is the the best place to post this comment? -- hydnjo talk 02:28, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
Could we make him the Rev. Dr. please? Doops | talk 03:47, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
Can anyone tell me how the author(s) of the Wikipedia main page know that Tom DeLay's departure from the role of House Majority Leader is temporary? -- Cat5nap 05:08, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
The link to Ulysses under DYK should link to Ulysses (novel) not the disambiguation page. Thanks -- Muntfish 10:23, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
The Nobel Foundation has today begun announcing the winners of the 2005 Nobel Prizes. Two Australians won the prize for Medicine and Physiology today, for their research into Heliobacter and stomach ulcers. The rest will be announced at daily intervals. Obviously, we cannot put each one in the "In the News" box. But maybe something saying "The winners of the 2005 Nobel Prizes are being announced all this week in Stockholm" or something like that. They are, after all, very important. What does everyone think? Batmanand 10:43, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
I know this isn't directly related to the main page, but close. Does anyone know what happened to the wikipedia logo on the welcome page? I know it's been off a few days and wondered why this hasn't been fixed. The Wookieepedian 17:44, 3 October 2005 (UTC)