Talk:Main Page

Main Page error reports

To report an error in current or upcoming Main Page content, please add it to the appropriate section below.

• Where is the error? An exact quotation of all or part of the text in question will help.
• Please offer a correction if possible.
• References are helpful, especially when reporting an obscure factual or grammatical error.
• Time zones: The Main Page runs on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, currently 06:12 on 20 March 2022), not adjusted to your local time zone.
• Do not use {{edit fully-protected}} on this page, which will not give you a faster response; it is unnecessary as this page is not protected and will in fact cause problems if used here. (See the bottom of this revision for an example.)
• Done? Once an error has been fixed, rotated off the Main Page or acknowledged not to be an error, the report will be removed from this page; please check the revision history for a record of any discussion or action taken, as no archives are kept.
• No chit-chat: Lengthy discussions should be moved to a suitable location elsewhere, such as the relevant article or project talk page.
• Please respect other editors. A real person wrote the blurb or hook for which you are suggesting a fix, or a real person noticed what they honestly believe is an issue with the blurb or hook that you wrote. Everyone is interested in creating the best Main Page possible; with the compressed time frame, there is sometimes more stress and more opportunities to step on toes. Please be civil to fellow users.
• Can you resolve the problem yourself? If the error lies primarily in the content of an article linked from the Main Page, consider first attempting to fix the problem there before reporting it here if necessary. Text on the Main Page generally defers to the articles with bolded links. In addition, upcoming content is typically only protected from editing 24 hours before its scheduled appearance; in most cases, you can be bold and fix any issues yourself.

Administrators: Clear all reports

Errors in "On this day"

Tomorrow's OTD

• Nowruz: this should be on the same day as the equinox, i.e. March 20 (today), instead of March 21. — RAVENPVFF · talk · 00:00, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Errors in the summary of the featured list

Friday's FL

(March 25)

Monday's FL

(March 21, tomorrow)

Errors in the summary of the featured picture

Notice to administrators: When fixing POTD errors, please update the corresponding regular version (i.e. without "protected" in the page title) in addition to the Main Page version linked below.

General discussion

Wikipedias in other languages

The main page showcases Wikipedias in other languages, but only "some of the largest". I'd like to suggest that, since Wikipedia is committed to multilingualism and linguistic diversity, the main page should at least sometimes feature minority language Wikipedias. Some of the smaller Wikipedias will never reach the size of the larger ones so it's not a level playing field, but they need promoting Gnangbade (talk) 12:36, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

We don't have the space to list every language. What criteria would you choose to promote some languages but not others? --Jayron32 12:38, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

No, I'm not suggesting that the main page should list every language. But would it be possible to designate regular dates (perhaps once a month?) when minority language Wikipedias would be randomly chosen for featuring in this space? Gnangbade (talk) 18:40, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

I think the original post makes valid point; so does the answer. Is there a way to measure frequency of activity at the smaller sites? If so, offering pats on the back once a week in lieu of the 50,000+ sites could be "polite."--Georgia Army Vet Contribs Talk 15:34, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

Yes, frequency of activity is measured and "pats on the back" would be one way forward. But the Kabiye Wikipedia which I administrate would never get as far as a pat on the back because there is so little activity (so far...) I'd suggest that the main page should sometimes intentionally highlight minority language Wikipedias that don't get high frequency of activity as a way of promoting them. Gnangbade (talk) 18:48, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

I like this idea. Another variation would be that one minority language is always featured, the one chosen alternating each day. Beneath the "50,000+ articles" category could be the statement, "There are a further ## smaller wikipedias in other languages, for instance the Kabiye Wikipedia". How many such wikipedias are there actually? Jmchutchinson (talk) 20:06, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

I don't know the exact answer to your question, but the irony is that most Wikipedias fall in this category and are practically invisible Gnangbade (talk) 13:45, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia currently exists in 323 languages, but the main page only features Wikipedias with 50,000+ articles. This excludes 225 of them (70%). Gnangbade (talk) 09:28, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

Perhaps have the smaller one mentioned be randomly selected each time the page is loaded. Is that technically feasible? ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 17:09, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

Yes that's the kind of thing I had in mind Gnangbade (talk) 20:20, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

I don't see how this would be useful to our readers. The purpose of the Main Page is to direct readers to useful information and encyclopaedia articles they might find interesting, not promote other projects or congratulate other-language editors who probably won't see the link anyway. If anything, I'd prefer to see a reduction in the number of languages listed on the MP, not an increase. The wikipedia.org page already advertises many minority languages. Modest Genius ^talk 13:10, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

I think we should remember that, worldwide, multilingualism is the norm. Many, perhaps even most, readers of the main page are bilinguals who are reading English as a second or third language. These users may well find that the existence of a Wikipedia in their first language constitutes "useful information and encyclopaedia articles they might find interesting". It would also be a way of making a clear statement that Wikipedia considers all languages to be worthy of development, not just the ones with big populations. Gnangbade (talk) 13:55, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

I appreciate the second language issue, but as I say, wikipedia.org already alerts readers to the numerous other languages available, and the MP already has a link to the full list on meta. I don't think we need to reproduce the same information in a third location. If a user has clicked on the link for the English Wikipedia, they shouldn't be surprised to find material in English. If they did so by accident, or without going through the wikipedia.org page, every article has a list of alternative languages in the sidebar. Modest Genius ^talk 13:05, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

Is it about the interlanguage links in the sidebar, or the wide template at the bottom? Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 06:54, 11 March 2022 (UTC)

the wide template at the bottom Gnangbade (talk) 17:11, 11 March 2022 (UTC)

My intuition tells me that not a lot of people click these links anyway because they are hidden deep down on the page. I might be wrong, however, and I guess it could be measured somehow using pageviews statistics. Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 11:57, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

Also to me it makes sense to promote the smaller language Wikipedias. I suggest we could promote the other languages when they reach a certain mark, like 10, 20, or 50'000 articles. We could include them for a certain amount of days in the sidebar after having reached such a goal, maybe WMF could also help.Paradise Chronicle (talk) 22:56, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

Yes, that would be one way of doing it Gnangbade (talk) 06:24, 17 March 2022 (UTC)

Proposal to change portal links on the Main Page

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) § Proposal to change portal links on the Main Page. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 01:21, 15 March 2022 (UTC)