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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 64.229.176.235 (talk) at 19:32, 8 November 2006 (→"Currently tied": Instructions from the top of this page). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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Today's featured picture

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Main Page and beyond

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Picture of the Day 01-Nov-2006

Credit where credit's due — today's PoTD is an excellent example of a good candidate where the picture is of interest in itself, rather than the subject matter. Nice. Bazza 15:19, 1 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

New Rule: No politicking

A New Rule for Wikipedia: Wikipedia is not to be used to either promote or slander a candidate in a political campaign. Das Baz 16:35, 1 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds entirely reasonable to me. Seeing as people asserting their own views in debatable topics (*cough*Evolution*cough*), the last thing we need here is some retard spewing political propoganda. --HN-73r 23:02, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A new rule isn't really needed since politicking would be covered by WP:BLP, Wikipedia:Libel, and WP:SOAP (among others). Koweja 23:10, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If a new rule is really what you want, please propose it at the wiki-village pump. Good luck over there. --PFHLai 17:09, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Michelangelo - speed painter?

"On this day... 1512: The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (pictured) was repainted in fresco by Michelangelo."

Did he perhaps FINISH painting the ceiling on this day? Honuswagner 16:52, 1 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This was fixed after the user later posted to WP:ERRORS. - BanyanTree 17:40, 1 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

white stripes

i can't find this anywhere, and i just need to know -- what's with the white stripes being the main page image? i mean, the image always sitting in the top left that links to the main page. it's been like this for a few days and i don't get it. --dan 20:30, 1 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

okay it's gone back to the normal picture now, so crisis averted. i'm still curious what that was all about though. --dan 21:40, 1 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Montreal, Quebec

1817 - The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opened in Montréal, Québec.

There have been three discussions on this topic on this talk page and countless discussions about it in the Wikipedia Community. At this point I will restate the basic fact that in the English Language, Montreal and Quebec do not take accents. These names are the native names used by the native Anglo-Quebecer population, who have lived in Quebec for hundreds of years. Let me clarify in point form:

  • Anglophones have lived in Quebec for hundreds of years, forming a basic part of Quebec society (see Anglo-Quebecer)
  • The Island of Montreal is over 20% Anglophone
  • There are numerous municipalities throughout Quebec and on the Island of Montreal which are majority English-Speaking. Their inhabitants are Anglo-Quebecers and not foreign English speakers.
  • Anglophones form a minority within Quebec but are linked to the larger English-Speaking cultures around them.

Seeing as how a sizeable segment of Quebecers are in fact native English speakers who write Montreal and Quebec without an accent, writing those names in this way reflects both the English-Language norms and the form preferred by the native community when speaking English (even francophones tend to write it without an accent in English).

Montreal and Quebec are not names imposed on these places by modern day Anglophones Imperialists. In fact, calling them Montréal and Québec in the English language is disrespectful to both local customs and the native Anglophone Quebecer population. It is a politicized issue, and in choosing to write these placenames with an accent, Wikipedia's administrators show support for a contentious point of view which many Anglophones consider slightly offensive, demonstrating a lack of Neutral Point of View.

This may be avoided entirely by using the proper English names of Montreal and Quebec, which are accepted in both the larger English speaking community and the native Quebec population (for use in English), and are not considered offensive even to ultranationalists who would prefer the complete removal or assimilation of Anglo-Quebecer population.

I ask, then, why the Wikipedia administration continues to insult not only the Anglophone Quebecer population (by disregarding their existence) but also the Quebec population at large (by imposing their outside view of how things should be written rather than how Quebecers prefer to write them). It is especially troubling that the Bank of Montreal (no accent, but written with an accent in French as “Banque de Montréal”) was founded by Anglo-Quebecers and was originally designed to serve this minority population’s trade interests.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.53.137.52 (talk • contribs) .

Agreed. Accent marks removed. Not only per your explanation but because the article names don't include them. —Wknight94 (talk) 01:26, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. Please excuse my little diatribe. In fact I was only restating the reasons why the Wikipedia Community decided to use those names in the articles in the first place. --70.53.137.53 23:48, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I wrote that line with the accent mark on the letter E. I am rather surprised (and somewhat disturbed) that it would be considered disrespectful or offensive at all. I had no idea how this would be interpreted in such a manner. Please do not read too much into my use of accent marks. That's simply how I spell the words in everyday life, as I do with other loanwords like café, coup d'état, fiancée, resumé, Beyoncé Knowles, Renée, etc. I had no intention of insulting anyone and would like to apologise to anyone who found that insulting. --PFHLai 16:29, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The 10k's

There seems to be some disagreement about what to do with the 10k section of the links to other wikipedias that was removed by Raul because he felt it made the language links section too large. The way I see it there are four options, enumerated below, and I think it would help to have people express their preferences and why. Dragons flight 15:37, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ignore the 10k Wikipedias

Include a section of 10ks in {{Wikipedialang}}

  • This is my first choice, because I like seeing Wikipedias seperated by size. Dragons flight 15:37, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • I would prefer the Interwikis fully removed and the Wikipedialang template lengthened to include Wikipedias with at least 10k if not those with a much lower number of articles. After Raul's recent changes along with the previous change that drastically reduced those listed, a number of other language Wikipedias now do a much better job of promoting the small and growing Wikipedias, and, after previously having been reverted 4-5 times, it is disappointing that Raul seems now to have the upper hand in the war of attrition. I can no longer count the number of times now he has made these fly by night changes and then placed the burden of proof on those who favor the old custom of promoting the other, growing Wikipedias on the already substantial English one. Tfine80 01:37, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Include the 10ks in the {{MainPageInterwikis}}

  • I think this is the best option. What does a Wikipedia's size have to do with where in the list it comes. Better to treat all WPs the same and alphbetise them (Quality vs Quantity). The only concern is the total length of the list, there we need an arbitary cutoff. We don't need this scoreboard, it's not very academic and does nothing as a KPI. --Monotonehell 03:40, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Include 10ks in both interwikis and Wikipedialang

  • This is my second choice. I'd rather not have them in the interwiki bar, even though we have the space, because within an alphabetized list I think it obscures which Wikipedias are the largest (and hence most significant). Dragons flight 15:37, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • I like seeing as much languages as possible, as it is perfectly in line with all the idea of Wikipedia, and the less articles a wiki has, the more highlighting it needs. It is very rare that someone will refrain to click on a language because it has only 10k+ articles, but would have if it had 20k+, so no objections to interwiki.--SidiLemine 16:21, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • I don't see any harm in including small bits on the navigation bar and at the bottom of the page, esp. when their removal gets people upset. --PFHLai 16:35, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why keep the bad history as well?

Have any of use wondered, why does wikipedia keep the whole history of articles, even the bits that contain vandalism, i mean isn't that a waste of space. why not just keep the good history, not the bad history. To me, its seems like a stupid idea to include bad history.

Pece Kocovski 09:54, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Partly to maintain the transparency of the system and the accountability of individual editors -- once we allow people to easily remove edits from page history, we lose transparency, which means it's more difficult to hold people accountable for their edits. Edits which do need removal should see requests for oversight. Luna Santin 09:57, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Its not really a waste of space either. Text uses very, very little disk space on Wikipedia, at least compared to the images and other media. — Dark Shikari talk/contribs 11:02, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
And who judges what's good, and what's bad? Bazza 11:18, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The Decider, of course! — Dark Shikari talk/contribs 11:25, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, he doesn't decide over good and bad. Only what's best.--SidiLemine 11:57, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's also useful to keep track what "bad users" do. Repeat offenders can be more easily identified. And sometimes, things get removed by mistake. Keeping the 'complete' history makes it easy for anyone to restore old stuffs afterwards. --64.229.205.180 13:55, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Vandalism

Sorry for the most recent edit, a friend of mine was over and I (foolishly) left my account logged on. Andre (talk) 00:27, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yikes. Can't sleep, clown will eat me 00:28, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ouch. Not a big deal though, got reverted by an admin in under a minute. Gotta be careful as an admin :). — Dark Shikari talk/contribs 01:03, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Reverted by me, actually :) Andre (talk) 02:21, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's not the first time that's happened. Don't worry about it too much. Canderson7 (talk) 02:27, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Might I suggest new friends? I'm not an administrator but if my friends ever come over I don't have to worry about wikipedia's main page being changed even if I were become I avoid that sort of company. Nil Einne 07:42, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Urdu Wikipedia

The translation of "FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA" in Urdu language has been inappropriately done as it says "DAIRA ALMAARAF" instead it should say in Urdu "DAIRA ALMUARAF" (Giving it totally different sound and pronunciation)not having the facility to type in Urdu directly in this window may not express in the way I want but if you consider it is worth to change because of its educational and scholistic importance. Tasawar Janjuah

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 207.127.241.2 (talk • contribs) 03:43, 2006 November 4 (UTC).

Where is the bad translation ? If the error is in Urdu Wikipedia, please post your complaint at http://ur.wikipedia.org/ instead of here. You may need help from administrators there. --PFHLai 17:39, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia clone site

The following site uses wikipedia's layout without permission: http://gtfoutsider.com/wikisider/index.php?title=Alan —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.144.248.198 (talk • contribs) 06:06, 2006 November 4 (UTC).

This is allowed and common, so long as they don't use Wikipedia logos. They are using the free (as in liberty) MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia and numerous other wiki websites. —Centrx→talk • 07:03, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
For more information on this, please see Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks. --PFHLai 17:14, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Not really - the linked site is neither a mirror nor a fork. It is simply one of many sites running on the Mediawiki code and using the Monobook theme, both of which are released for use under the GPL license. — ceejayoz talk 23:57, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ooops. None of our content is used. My mistake there. Thanks, ceejayoz. --PFHLai 03:20, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bias!

What, no mention of the blatant inexcusable Malaysian bias on the main page? Borisblue 21:05, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

good point, I've even heard that combution engines, such as the one pictured, are used in Malaysia as well...
Not only that but the Malaysian Trades Union Congress is part of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and now therefore the International Trade Union Confederation. They're also part of the United Nations and so must have voted in the 2006 United Nations Security Council election. Oh and they're also a neighbour of the Philippines Nil Einne 07:32, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Erm. Spelling error

In the little panel thingy on the news about the article for saddam huisain being hanged or something, someone spelt the world "against" wrong. lol. its no big deal but i just had to say it. lol. maybe someone wants to fix it up? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Revert101 (talk • contribs) 10:49, 2006 November 5 (UTC).

Someone took care of that already. Next time, please report small mistakes like that at Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors. Thanks. --PFHLai 13:49, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Typo

V for Vendetta –Ketuanan Melayu – Slate industry in Wales

Should be a space after the first dash. --Zeality 00:24, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's odd, the space is there in Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 6, 2006. Anybody more familiar with the heap of transclusions that is the front page care to have a look what's happening? thanks. --fvw* 00:34, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm, now it isn't. I could have sworn I saw it last time I checked. Oh well, it's fixed now. Thanks for reporting this. --fvw* 00:35, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Can you consider adding a purge link like this after the number of articles? Sometimes the count isn't accurate.

7,004,410 articles in English (refresh) --67.124.38.149 01:42, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

FYI, I think <shift>-F5 will accomplish the same thing - on IE and Firefox anyway. —Wknight94 (talk) 01:47, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Is it really necessary to have an up-to-the-second count? I don't like the idea of having a "wipe the cache on the most viewed page on the entire website (with all its templates, too)" button readily available. — ceejayoz talk 02:53, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
On average, several articles are created every few seconds, with a somewhat slower rate of deletion as the new page patrol and deletion debates sort through new pages. It would thus be quite odd if the number at Special:Statistics was exactly the same as this number (7,004,410) by the time you clicked on it, simply due to the constant flux. - BanyanTree 02:56, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
User:67.124.38.149, may I suggest getting an account and putting the purge link on your own user page ? You can bookmark your userpage and use it as "your customized MainPage". -- PFHLai 06:09, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Add Persian to other languages

Can someone ADD Persian fa: to the In other languages bar, in the main page. --Kaaveh 04:50, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Please see above #Where are the interwiki links? and #Language template. Comments at #The 10k's are encouraged. Thanks. --PFHLai 05:55, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Same request but for arabic language. Is there a boycot for some languages?
Presently only languages with 20,000 articles are added. Whether or not this is the best approach is one of the things discussed at the links above. Dragons flight 09:28, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Arabic only needs a few more articles to pass the 20k mark at this point, anyway. It should be up there in a month or two. —Cuiviénen 16:55, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

US election

So, since this is obviously is going to come up tomorrow, what do we do about it? Do we wait until results begin to come in, report on "important" races, or provide a link to the relevant article, a la World Cup? Titoxd(?!?) 18:48, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See on-going discussion at Template talk:In the news#U.S. Congressional elections. --64.229.230.71 20:13, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Hell no we shouldn't mention it. It's taking place in the United States. Don't you think the conch shell collectors union strike in Karibati is more important? If not, you must be biased. --Descendall 01:05, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Biased? The bias is shown in not including Nicaraguan general election, 2006 on ITN. Daniel Ortega is President again, which was also yesterday's news. How come Tajikistan is chosen over Nicaragua? --64.229.222.233 14:06, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you think the Nicaraguan general election, 2006 article is updated well enough, please draft a headline and submit it at Wikipedia:In the news section on the Main Page/Candidates. Thanks. --PFHLai 17:32, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

On this day...

The Last spike link links to Last Spike which is a Disambiguation. It should probably link instead to Last_Spike_(Canadian_Pacific_Railroad). Kc4 01:57, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Done. In the future, please use WP:ERRORS for corrections like this. Thanks, BanyanTree 03:34, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia as a source for an academic paper

Is Wikipedia a valid source for an academic paper?

See Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia. - BanyanTree 03:36, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Short answer, hell no. Long answer see above. --Monotonehell 04:00, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you want good grades, don't cite any encyclopedia (Wikipedia, Britanica, Encarta...) unless you are quoting general statements verbatim. Read the references listed at the end of the article and use those as your source. --64.229.225.25 13:37, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Creative Commons images

I hope this is the right place to ask, but I have a quick question. I am a regular contributer to the articles such as Holden Commodore, Holden VN Commodore, etc. I originally had promotional images on each of these articles but they have since been removed. These images were only there temporarily until free images could be found. But then I came across the website richardlewis.is-a-geek.com/, who releases his work under the Creative Commons. The images I want to use are under the page richardlewis.is-a-geek.com/pictures/thumbs/commodore.htm. Would it be O.K. to use these? I have E-mailed the site owner, but am unsure if this will be enough. Regards OSX 06:28, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The copyright on most of the images on that page are not owned by the owner of the web page. I am pretty sure that the creative commons license used "Non-Commercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes." is not free engoug to be used on wikipedia and can only be used as fair use.--Clawed 07:41, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Creative Commons images under an NC or ND license are not allowed, at least not without an accompanying fair use rationale. GeeJo (t)⁄(c) • 08:52, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Any further questions? Try Wikipedia:Help desk. --64.229.225.25 15:10, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Seady weed dragon

Did anybody else make this spoonerism while reading PotD?.. just me then? :/ --Monotonehell 09:01, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You're not alone. In addition, because of the bright colours and the poor way Mediawiki thumbnails images, I thought the picture was a cartoon until I clicked to see it in full. GeeJo (t)⁄(c) • 09:05, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

archiving

Someone should archive this page. It's already over 129 kilobytes long... In wikipedia guidelines it states that a page should be archived at 32kb... I'm not good at editing so someone else should do it.205.188.116.138 23:47, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That guideline is for articles... not talk pages or non-mainspace pages. ---J.S (t|c) 00:56, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Uh, what? We don't archive articles at all. --Descendall 01:02, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That's more than Talk:Main Page/Archive 81. 205.188.116.138 is probably right. —Wknight94 (talk) 00:58, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I've moved most of the older talks from October to Archive 82. Hope this helps. -- PFHLai 05:52, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

$10,000 donation to Wikimedia

Did anyone else notice this $10,000 donation by the W. Glen Boyd Charitable Foundation, back on October 10th? Maybe we should have something on it in the Signpost... — BRIAN0918 • 2006-11-08 03:45Z

In the Signpost ? You may want to post at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Newsroom/Suggestions instead of here. Hope this helps. --PFHLai 05:34, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

On this day - Picture

Um, am I the only one who sees some girl holding a wine glass and not Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen? --Ouzo 05:52, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is the girl still there? She's gone? I don't see her anywhere on the Main Page. --64.229.222.233 14:08, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Clear your cache. (Ctrl-F5 on a PC, Apple-F5 on a Mac.) —Cuiviénen 18:24, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Current Events update

Pelosi (soon to be speaker of the house) and Rumsfeld (stepping down is big news). Bob Gates is slated to replace Rumsfeld. LILVOKA 17:58, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Try WP:ITN/C. --64.229.176.235 18:39, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
BTW, a picture of Rumsfeld or Gates would be better than that dome. And please protect whatever picture is placed on ITN. Thanks. --64.229.176.235 18:59, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Can someone stop this userUser:Necrothesp to do the vandalism

I have just chage all the mistaken categories relating Hong Kong to China.This userUser:Necrothesp claimed that he had the rignt to stop me from doing it ,and doing the vandalism to all of the article which I have made.Can someone help?Ksyrie

I would use the term vandalism very carefully! You have made a lot of very sensitive changes to reflect your own POV with no discussion whatsoever. -- Necrothesp 18:43, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
My POV,oh my god!Hong Kong isn't a country becomes my own POV,are you kidding? Can you just have look at the article Hong Kong?Ksyrie
Please discuss things not related to the current contents of the Main Page elsewhere. Try Talk: Hong Kong. Thank you. --64.229.176.235 18:52, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Currently tied"

The parties are not currently tied in the Senate. The Dems have 50; the Republicans have 49. Granted the Dems have to win Virginia to get over Cheney's tie-breaker, but the current wording is incorrect. savidan(talk) (e@) 19:30, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To report small errors, try WP:ERRORS. To suggest a rewrite, try WP:ITN/C. --64.229.176.235 19:32, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
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