Talk:Main Page/Archive 37

message: "Leonard Shoen was an entrepreneur who founded the first American vehicle rental company called U-Haul in 1945" should be "In 1945, entrepreneur Leonard Shoen founded U-Haul, the first American vehicle-rental company."  JHCC 14:48, 12 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Updated. - UtherSRG  (UTC) on ,   
*Maybe it's just me, but doesn't that say exactly the same with just a few more commas? I'd love to hear why you think this was a grammatical error. Mgm|(talk) 16:10, May 12, 2005 (UTC)
*:the old version says the company was called U-Haul in 1945. It's still called U-Haul. The company was founded in 1945. Yes it says mostly the same thing, but it is distinctly clearer. - UtherSRG 17:59, May 12, 2005 (UTC)
*Oops, that's not what I meant, but you're right. People could certainly interpret it that way. 82.172.23.66 22:10, 12 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Another Grammatical Error on the Main Page 

message: This summer's Wikimania conference in Frankfurt is excellent news. COngratulations! But why is it held in Germany and not the good old US of A? Does it mean that the German contributors value Wikipedia more than we do here? I'm not trying to be Americentric (is that the word? :)), but it seems somewhat strange considering the size of the English edition, founding fathers' background and stuff. Will there be a similar conference in New York or elsewhere in the US? KNewman 12:39, May 16, 2005 (UTC)
:I suppose the whole 'international' bit of the conference title would sound a bit hollow were it to be held in the US. I also remember some discussion on the difficulty of travel and visas to the US for some people. Take a look at  for the reasons Frankfurt won the toss. Seabhcán 12:54, 16 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Germany is the natural place to hold the conference if you want an international, not American, conference. I'm sure the vast majority of the Wikipedians are from Europe anyway, and travel to the US would be expensive, while it is easy to reach Germany for most Europeans, in addition to the bad reputation the USA has among many Europeans and others these times.
[anonymous]
* I agree with the anonymous, besides German people are known to be very serious. I'm just commenting to see if someone could order www.wikipedia.org by languages with the bigger number of articles what it was supposed to do, now it isnt in that way.-Pedro 02:37, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Wikimania '05

message: I know, it must be some weird-shaped concert hall based in Los Angeles, I know it was planned by Walt Disney or his family?  Esa-Peeka Salonen or Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor of the Los Angeles Orchestra, is that the way you spell him?
:You can ask this question at Wikipedia:Reference desk. DJ Clayworth 20:04, 17 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  What is [[Disney Hall]]? 

message: When posting for English articles, are we supposed to use the King's English or American English?  It is quite disquieting when, on the same page, you see words like "colour" spelled differently in the same paragraph.  So which is it?
:See Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#National_varieties_of_English. DJ Clayworth 20:04, 17 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  King's English or American English 

message: Is there a way to get the text to wrap around the images in these? For me, at least, the first bullets next to the pictures are all stretched out down the page in a narrow column beside the picture. Then again, I have my favorites bar up - without it, the box does look somewhat better. But I imagine I'm not the only one who sees things this way. --User:Jenmoa 03:09, 19 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  In the News/Did You Know box 

message: Where are the language links in the left hand column. I know that the the other languages box is there, but I still think the main page should have the links there - for political correctness. tommylommykins 15:30, May 19, 2005 (UTC)
:The main page is different though, really. There is a whole section devoted to other languages underneath the pink and blue boxes. If we had interwiki links we'd have to decide which were worthy of inclusion, or have the big Wikipedias like de: and ja: buried amongst some that have two articles and an untranslated interface. Because this is the main page and not an article, we are free to do things a little better, and I think the present set-up with languages in groups according to how many articles they have does the job quite nicely. — Trilobite (Talk) 15:43, 19 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: But why can't we do that for every wikipedia.The interwikilink box is still there on every other wikipedia. 82.36.229.45 19:52, 19 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: That's up to the other Wikipedias. There is no site-wide standard layout for main pages. One possible reason is that until quite recently www.wikipedia.org just redirected to the English Wikipedia, and some people will still be linking to en.wikipedia.org as if it were the international portal. Because of this we still need to give the other languages a whole section on the page with a link at the top. — Trilobite (Talk) 20:12, 19 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Language links 

message: For the past week or so, "In the News" and "Did you Know" (the right part of the screen, the blue block) has been displaying without wordwrap, compressing "Today's Featured Articles" and "Selected Annivesaries" to where only a few words fit per line. One must scroll to the right very far to read news / did you know and down very far to read featured / anniversaries. I am using IE 5, and have been for a while. I haven't changed my browser or operating system in the past month or so, or even in the past year, so I don't know why this just happened. Did the code of the main page change? I think this is what Jen is talking about.
:I don't know. I don't have to scroll to the right at all. And I think mine's always been this way. :) But if we could just get it to wrap like the picture in Selected Anniversaries, that might fix it. =\ --User:Jenmoa 18:57, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  In the News / Did you Know not wrapping correctly 

message: I don't like the image in the top right corner: "other language". It looks like an ad.  =Nichalp (Talk)=
*I can only speak for myself, but I'm open to suggestions. Do you have any alternatives? Mgm|(talk) 20:22, May 23, 2005 (UTC)
::I would prefer a text link. The region on the right side of the page is a favourite for ads in other websites. (If an image is retained, it should be less flashy).  =Nichalp (Talk)= 06:11, May 24, 2005 (UTC)
:::I don`t dislike the placement or use of the image myself, but suggestions to changes: 1. The picture/banner should link to `other languages`, not to itself :) 2. The text could be more descriptive. What about `Wikipedia in other languages` or `In other languages`? -Antwelm 10:54, 2005 May 24 (UTC)
::::Well, the inability for images to link to articles is part of the software, I believe, and will be changed with the next release.  It's ridiculous, but it's the way it is right now. :D Cigarette 14:29, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Other language image 

message: What would you think about changing the links at the top of the page (Culture | Geography | History | Life | Mathematics | Science | Society | Technology) to link to portals, not categories?  Personally, I think portals are much more helpful than the messy category pages in getting to the information I want.  Take a look at the Life, Science, Math,  and History wikiportals, and compare them to :Category:Personal life, :Category:Science, :Category:Mathematics and :Category:History.  There's no comparison in professionalism and ease of use, in my opinion.  Of course, right now there are only four wikiportals that correspond with eight category links on the main page.  But if someone would make the other four to the same quality as these, would the links be changed to direct to the portals?  Thoughts on this? --Spangineer ∞ 23:24, May 24, 2005 (UTC)
:Wow, Portals are cool. Much more in the wiki spirit. I vote for change to Portals. We could have links to 'base' portals (Math, Science etc) and also have featured portals to more obscure subjects. Seabhcán 10:43, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I couldn't agree more. We should link to the portals there. -- Zantastik  talk 09:04, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Portales, not Categories 

message: I would like to thank whoever pushed to have the Wikipedia logo link to the front page. I've been reflexively clicking that for ages to get back to the main page, despite the fact that I know it never works. Just noticed today that it works. Hooray for intuitive interface! - Defenestration 03:25, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Main Page Link 

message: Can I edit the main page?--Bluejean 03:49, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: No, the main page is one of the very few exceptions that we only allow administrators to edit. This is because vandalism on the main page is seen by many more people than elsewhere, and reflects badly on us. If you have a suggestion for new items for "In the News" or for "Did you Know", see the box at the very top of this talk page for the appropriate places to put it. If you see an error on the main page, please point it out here.-gadfium 04:30, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hey 

message: i just spent last couple of minutes clicking the random article link in wikipedia and found to my suprise that most of the article i came across were in fact couple of pages long and were not a stub.  where do you people think wikipedia is heading?
i recon that in a decade all other encyclopedeas will be obsolete or will have to merge in order to keep up with wikipedia's growth rate.  even encarta has now began allowing user editing, although any editing has to be approved by an editor first.  
although i have some doubts if wikipedia will be able to maintain its organisation of articles in order, already there are many article which are basically on the same topic but are placed under slightly different names.  i certainly hope that the community and the designers will be able to come up with solutions for these problems.  i would really hope that wikipedia will be able to expand into more technical topics, like details of complier error messages and specific, very technical, medical topics, i dont c why it cant happen.  wikipedia has no limits on space so pretty much any article is acceptable.  if only wikipedia can get a wider community of users.
i also would really like a spell checker for the editing section and a more visual editing environment.  i also think that there should be a simple 10 star review system of articles, a review for quality of language, review for point of view, and correctness.  
the "discussion" section should be made into a standard forum type, because at the minute the layout does make it difficut to read through suggestions, or at least more difficult then would have been if it was a standard forum, like phpbb.
will wikipedia ever be perfect?  no, there will always be some topic, some section not covered properly.  and vandalism, although fixed quickly, is still present for the time it is not detected.  
i also dont understand why wikipedea doesnt place google adds on all the pages.  they are not as intrusive as banners, and certainly will help to fund wikipedea to buy more bandwidth and space and fund better development and conferences and so on.
i also think there should be a stub and orphan of the day.  stubs/orphans which havent been touches for a long time should be presented on the front page thus "advertising" them for further development.
   --GregLoutsenko 21:08, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: some thoughts

message: I dunno what shenanigans were going or whatever, but some hairy dude's picture was posted along with his address and his phone number. 
Probably some ultra nerd hacking the page or somehow being allowed to update it that way, but I managed to take a screen shot before it was fixed.  Funny as hell if you ask me.
:You don't have to be an ultra nerd to edit Wikipedia. See the very first sentence on the main page: "Welcome to Wikipedia, the free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit." You might want to have a look at the introduction or our replies to common objections if this concept intrigues you. — Trilobite (Talk) 10:53, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Current events page hacked... 

message: I think the voyager is on the "verge" of leaving.  A cusp would an 
actual or metaphorical change change in direction.
: Someone else fixed this already. -- 199.71.174.100 05:02, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Cusp?

message: Why is Stevenson described as a Scottish composer on the Main Page? The article states he was born in Blackburn (Lancashire, England) and gives his nationality as British. Although the article links to a page on scottishmusiccentre.com, nowhere does this page assert that Stevenson is Scottish. 
"Ronald Stevenson was born in 1928 in Blackburn, Lancashire, Scots on his father's side and Welsh on his mother's. He is keenly aware of his Celtic heritage." - http://www.ronaldstevensonsociety.org.uk/index.asp
:Why Scottish? Why not Welsh? Are male genes somehow more significant than female ones? Best of all would be British, I imagine. Filiocht | Blarneyman 13:13, May 27, 2005 (UTC)
::Well, given that he is a he, that Y is arguably a bit more important than the X.  Wouldn't it be best to file him under whichever nationality he self-identifies with, whether that is Welsh, Scottish, British, Celtic, or Mongolian? -- ALoan (Talk) 14:17, 27 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  New articles: Ronald Stevenson 

message: I just read a great book.  I am a young white woman with black friends but confused on how people feel about races of todays times. I found the way I think I feel in the book The Fall of Rome by Martha Southgate.  One paragraph stood out, "...I agreed that the acts of the past were heinous.  But men have always enslaved other men.  Only we (blacks) seem unable to let that past go or to allow it to truly stengthen us.  Instead we turn on one another with it, competing with tales of suffering and woe."
: Do you mean you just finished reading a good book, or have you literally just read the entire book from beginning to end, in one sitting? Or do you mean 'read' as in 'to read a book', i.e. "all I do is read a good book"; as opposed to, say, "not only do I read a good book, I also like to smell it as well"? Are you a young, attractive white woman?-Ashley Pomeroy 01:51, 28 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Nothing; it's either a poor attempt at advertising or random cack. The main page's discussion area is often a good place to find candidates for Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense, however; witness also the short section just above this one. Don't forget to sign your contributions; you seem fairly knowledgeable of how Wikipedia works.-Ashley Pomeroy 14:30, 28 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  I didn't forget. I'd rather not sign. -- ID-less, 15:22, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Good Book 

message: Will the publishing industry ever face reality about recorded song compositions?  'The Temptations' is the theme of the titled songs recorded, as is 'The Beatles', 'The Rolling Stones', and 'Snoop Dogg' as other examples.  The entertainment industry will put anyone on stage who resembles album cover photographs and can carry the tunes.   >beadtot
:What the heck? 216.158.31.195 17:32, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Record album themes and song titles 

message: The second word in Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 29, 2005 should not be capitalized. -- 199.71.174.100 00:06, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I've fixed it. Thanks for pointing that out.  ✏ OvenFresh² 00:10, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Please fix 

message: You people should start posting the etymology of names. I wanna be able to type a name and get the etymology for it.
:Good idea, but we already have some such articles. The first two names I thought of at random had articles on Wikipedia, with etymologies (see Michael and John (name)). But I'm sure there are many we don't have. If you want to make specific requests, try asking on the Requested Articles page under People". --Heron 10:38, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Wiktionary already has quite many first names with some etymology. If you are itnerested in name etymology that might be worth checking. I haven't used wiktionary a lot so I don't know of the quality of it. Jeltz talk 13:25, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Etymology of names 

message: (discussion entry mis-posted May 27; forgot subject line)
"Senate seats are divided among the provinces, so that Ontario, Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and the Western provinces are equally represented." 
Instead of Maritimes provinces, it should read Atlantic provinces. Otherwise Newfoundland is not included.
Thanks!
: Both Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 27, 2005 and Canadian Senate pages need to be fixed. In both cases, Maritime provinces, which redirects to Maritimes, should be replaced with a link to Atlantic Canada. I've just fixed Canadian Senate. (Anyone could have done this, including User:24.89.195.176 who did this.) However, Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 27, 2005 is only editable by sysops while it is protected. -- 14:59, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: If you read the article, Newfoundland and Labrador isn't included in one of those divisions.  --Azkar 22:13, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  If you read this article, Atlantic Canada includes Newfoundland and Labrador. One of these pages needs some fixing .... -- 22:53, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Front page article on Canadian Senate 

message: Current results show that "With about 83 percent of the votes counted, the referendum was rejected by 57.26 percent of voters, the Interior Ministry said. The treaty was supported by 42.74 percent, the ministry said." that is not a narrow defeat. from  could the text be changed somehow. 578 (Yes?) 20:38, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed, narrow is the Irish divorce referendum (50.25% yes, from memory). This is a HUGE defeat, especially for an EU vote. --Kiand 21:01, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  EU vote 

message: .
An article on the main page of this should be added. Andros 1337 00:57, 31 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  In the news - WWIII - Boeing vs. Airbus 

message: Hi,
I am desperately looking for the name of a tv series. It was based in Hawaii and was a detective show. There was a guy with long black hair who used to drive a jeep and always wore those flowery hawaiian shirts. There was a women who usually got the cases and he helped her solve them. she had i think red bobbed hair. There friend owned a bar on the beach and his name was Rick but i think he had a nickname spider becasue he had a tattoo of one on his arm. If anyone has the name of this show please email it to me at saje_4short@yahoo.co.uk.
:The only show that fits your description that I can think of is Hawaii Five-O Magnum, P.I..
:In future, please consider posting such requests on Wikipedia:Reference desk.  You are also expected to check back where you posted the question for an answer.  It is very unlikely that someone would actually email you.  Plus, you are posting your email address in a very visible place, which may (and will) lead to enormous amounts of spam.—Ëzhiki (erinaceus amurensis) 17:49, May 31, 2005 (UTC)
::i agree with this being the wrong place, but i don't think it's either of those shows. they seem half right, but somehow it more sounds like Silk_Stalkings. it is also very possible you are mixing shows. Boneyard 21:11, 31 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: ok after sleeping a night on it, it isn't Silk_Stalkings for sure, those were police detectives and you were looking for a private detective aggency right? the two main characters had a private detective office, where the show usually came a few times per show. was the intro some song that had a line like "anywhere the wind blows"? and the logo was spinning with a smoking gun? Boneyard 07:04, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  finally, it came to me, with some searching of the text of the title song i found it. the show is called "sweating bullets", personally i knew it as "tropical heat", but it seems to have run under both names. the info i found doesn't mention anything about hawaii though, it was on an island though, in a town called key marriah, which would more point to florida i guess. Boneyard 10:11, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Find Name of TV Series 

message: I'd just like to point out that for some reason, there is no longer any edit conflict notice.  →  JarlaxleArtemis 23:02, Jun 1, 2005 (UTC)
:Jarlaxe, under what circumstance did you not get the expected notice? (I just got one a little while ago). If two people are editing different sections, I believe MediaWiki is smart enough to integrate both edits. — Knowledge Seeker দ 06:07, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, edit conflict merging was introduced in a recent (i.e. last 6 months or so) revision of the MediaWiki software. If the two users' edits are to separate sections or paragraphs or something like that, it will accept the later edit without a conflict notice. You still, however, get the notice if you edit the same text as the other person. - Mark 08:08, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit Conflict Notice 

message: :The Netherlands votes in a consultative referendum on the proposed European Constitution. Early indications suggest that Dutch voters have rejected the treaty by a wider margin than was seen in Sunday's French referendum, with 63% voting 'no'.
This makes it appear that the French referendum had 63% voting no. How about:
:The Netherlands votes in a consultative referendum on the proposed European Constitution. Early indications suggest that 63% of Dutch voters chose to reject the treaty - a wider margin than was seen in Sunday's French referendum.
--Fangz 23:35, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Misleading 'In the News' wording? 

message: : Wikipedia has not only improved my knowledge for subjects that I need help learning in school currently, but it also broadens my knowledge of the world and everything that is happening, has happened, and will happen. Not saying I am a genius because of Wikipedia and its outrageously enormous encyclopedia, but I am a lot smarter than I would be without Wikipedia. I actually enjoy reading about and learning about certain subjects that don't pertain to any part of my life except for the obvious reason, which would be increasing my knowledge. For instance, I recently became interested with the subject of Philosophy, Wikipedia allows me to further my research and quench my thirst for studying Philosophy. I have learned all about Nihilism, Pragmatism, Rationalism, Absurdism, Idealism, and Realism. Those are just a couple to name of the many different kinds of philosophies there are out there. I have even developed a theory of my own that basically states that the future outcomes of the universe that people will endure are constantly changing every split second. If anyone wants to help me develop this theory please say so! And also, I'm sure there are theories close to this, but not exactly like this because I use a different reason for why the universal outcome of everything is always changing. Anyways let me know if you're interested in this theory.
Sincerely, Alexj420 (talk) 23:21, 18 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  To Better Understand the World and Its History.