Talk:Main Page/Archive 18

Done, but with errors on.

Is anyone else getting this error in their browser status bar when they go to the Wikinews main page? I'm using IE6. When I double-click the message it tells me that the error is on line 569, char 6, and that the error is an "Unexpected call to method or :I think I remember looking into that before, and it was something in wikibits.js, which is beyond our control (Thats controlled by the mediawiki devs). but don't quote me on that. Bawolff ☺☻ 05:34, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Maybe one of them would like to look into this ... hint hint :) Wikisoup 22:35, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Well before filing a bug about it, we'd need to know exactly where the error is. (Line 569, char 6, what file?). Which I can't really figure out, because there are no errors on firefox Bawolff ☺☻ 22:39, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Now the line number has changed. The whole error message reads:

Line: 590

Char: 5

Error: Unexpected call to method or property access.

Code: 0

URL: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page

Wikisoup 16:58, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

And it is in wikibits.js. Matt/TheFearow | ^userpage | ^contribs 18:42, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Message has changed again. It reads:

Line: 275

Char: 4

Error: 'load_extratabs' is undefined

Code: 0

URL: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page

Wikisoup 17:54, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Looks like someone fixed it! Good job stranger! Thanks Wikisoup 19:46, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

That is to due with the comment system. I'm not sure who fixed it, probably BrianMc. The first error is probably still there, Bawolff ☺☻ 00:54, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism

It seems there is some petty vandalism, false headlines and the like. Mostly involving Lesbians, Hookers, or Britney Spears. Could someone please take it down?

Done DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 01:04, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

archives

How does archiving work for this page? When does stuff get moved to the archive? Who does it? Is it automated? Does everything get archived at once, or just one topic at a time? Is there a page that explains this? Thanks! Wikisoup 18:28, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Unlike wikipedia with their fancy bots and stuff, we manually do it. When the page gets long, and we got bored we archive stuff (Create a new archive page, or append onto existing, and move comments there). There is no page explaining (Its pretty self explanatory; there is probably a page somewhere in wikipedia). Bawolff ☺☻ 00:56, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Bawolff! (and this page looks nice and tidy now) Wikisoup 17:18, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

MS Explorer

Why dont we merge the 2 articles? - Andy Yen Tah Li —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.237.153.162 (talk) 04:13, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

Finnish Wikinews

Finnish Wikinews has started. Could somebody add an interwiki link to the Finnish edition into your main page? Thanks in advance. –Ejs-80 01:12, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Done Adambro 01:33, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Actually, it should be just be just before sv: (Svenska). Thanks! --AtteL 14:46, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Fixed. Adambro 07:25, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Featured image concerns

Why is an image of the 2005 riots in Paris on the front page? Police officers involved with the incident in question have said that they are entirely unrelated. This is sensationalism, get it off. Black-Velvet 08:28, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

There are cars torched in France in this story, yes? Well this is a picture of a car being torched in France. I don't see how it is not appropriate. And I don't care what the police said. What triggered the 2005 unrest was a perceived injustice by the police against teenagers, basically the same thing here. Ok, they may be "unrelated" but they are very, very, similar and are a release of the very same underlying tensions. --SVTCobra 08:51, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Until we get free images from the current event, I can't think of a more appropriate image. If we could use this image which is from Villiers-le-Bel, how would that be less sensationalistic? --SVTCobra 08:56, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I guess I'll agree with you there. But headlining stories with images from separate events is a sneaky journalistic trick that imposes simplifying relational categories, often with ideological purpose. 123.2.58.254 10:58, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, we are left to do this all the time, because we do not have enough cameras "out there" and we can't buy photos from the wire services. We use one oil spill to illustrate another, we use a picture of one battle in Iraq to illustrate another, one of a football match to illustrate another, and on and on. Luckily, if one feels that there is a bias or "sneaky journalistic trick" anyone can change the picture to different one. So, feel free to find a better free image. --SVTCobra 11:51, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

I think this image is acceptable if there is no other image but it should be clearly marked as being from 2005. eg- a box a the top saying 2005 image. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anonymous101 (talk • contribs) 17:22, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Colombia?

There are important news in Colombia regarding the hostages held by FARC including former presidential candidate ingrid betancourt and three american contractors among 20 other colombian military and police members, politicians and civilians which have been in captivity for 10 years. Any info on this?--24.218.27.89 23:21, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

right box of the main page is too long

I think it would look better if the left and right sides of the main page where the same size (or atleast within a couple of lines). At the moment the right side is a whole "This day in history" too long i suggest:

• moving this day in history to older news or just beneath
• removing oil prices (are they relevant at the moment perhaps a link for those interested?)
• removing Latest sports standings (perhaps expanding the sports portal could permanently contain the link) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.45.210.78 (talk) 19:40, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I agreed so I've made some changes, should be fixed now.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 22:26, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Tickersource

Can we have the tickersource in mainspace or templatespace? — Nearly Headless Nick ^{C} 06:18, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

See template talk:Ticker. Bawolff ☺☻ 06:34, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Interviews

I know it sounds ridiculously ambitious. But may as well ask. Can anyone get an interview with any of the current U.S. presidential candidates? Fephisto 17:43, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

• We've already done two (Tom Tancredo and Sam Brownback); and Duncan Hunter's interview is complete but not yet transcribed/published. --David Shankbone 18:56, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
  • I guess I missed them. Fephisto 01:57, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Ron Paul's 'Money Momb'

I'm new here and can't figure out how to change this, but this needs to be fixed.

"Ron Paul's money momb rocks Political world" - What is a Momb? Some clown wants to insert his politics into the story. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.248.35.235 (talk) 23:22, 16 December 2007 (UTC) ron paul has a strong internet backing that are willing to do anything to make him president

i would not be suprised if there are *spies* at wica

doing little but making sure ron paul myspace foxnews newscorp rupert murdoch

does not get investigated

HELLO WIKINEWS

Hello, perhaps everybody here at wikinews has heard of me, I am presidential candidate Uga Man. I would like to be interviewed. I offered this challenge to one of your editors but apparently he is not up to the job. Please leave your questions at my talk page. Thank you for your time. --Uga Man 04:28, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

As your campaign page says, you are not eligible for the office. An interview seems pointless. --SVTCobra 01:03, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

I am still eligible to run. The campaign has been gaining alot of momentum. I received the endorsement of Lawrence Cohen. Great progress is being made, this is once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for wikinews.--Uga Man 01:53, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Great, too bad he's not Larry Cohen. I assume you saw what happened on E Pluribus Wiggum. The risks are great. --SVTCobra 02:08, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

What an interesting opportunity. I'll take this.--Bill Saturn 19:04, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

• Once in a lifetime for us? We don't think so. We just published an interview with the President of Israel and have published two interviews with notable presidential candidates. See: US presidential candidate Duncan Hunter speaks to Wikinews and Sam Brownback on running for President, gay rights, the Middle East and religion. Also see our other original reporting articles. —FellowWiki Newsie 19:43, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Novelty articles

There seems to be an increasing number of worthless novelty articles. Today its "world record attempts". (Err, that's yesterday, your time.)
I know that mainstream media pad out news with these stories, but that's because they want non-news-watchers to tune in. Surely people who choose to read something like wikinews can be trusted to have attention spans greater than the average consumer goldfish?
When you average six articles a day, adding six urban-legend/contest/world-record/press-release-cum-ad articles doesn't equal twelve articles, it doesn't even equal six. -- 203.57.68.20 00:43, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Corrected article title from 6th January

To fix the "palenstinian" typo, I moved Bush urges US allies in Middle East to support Israeli-Palenstinian peace talks to Bush urges US allies in Middle East to support Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but I don't know what needs to happen to fix up the dynamic Wikinews:2008/January/6. Could someone take a look? Hv 13:02, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

thanks for fixing that! the dynamic pages are corrected by purging the cache - the 'Refresh' links on the Main page or the Newsroom will do the job. reg, –Doldrums(talk) 13:59, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Heath Ledger photo

Is a copyvio. See Photo by Kevin Mazur, 2007-11-13. ©Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com. Photo ID 15134415. Lupo 12:28, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

removed. –Doldrums(talk) 14:32, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Remainer of Explanation

Sorry, my hand hit the enter key :) Let's see if we can trust the community enough to let some editing be done Feel free to RV Thunderhead - (talk - email - contributions) 00:34, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Latest updates

Under Latest Updates, oil prices and sports scores are currently listed. How about also including other commodities (such as metals) and also stock info (maybe just DJIA). Bengl 20:04, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

I am working on getting market data on the main page but unfortunately it is quite hard --User:Anonymous101 Talk 16:49, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Slow?

Why is it taking so long for somebody to interview me? Why is this website so slow? --Uga Man 01:53, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

It has been decided that you will probably not get an interview. That has been made clear.--Anonymous101 16:17, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Superbowl Win

I dont understand why the superbowl win is headline news in wikipedia and wikinews, its seems unfair that it gets so much coverage for a sport that is only contested by 1 country, i didnt see a headline article about New Zealand winning the Wellington sevens for rugby, a competition contested by nations across the globe, including the US, who admittedly were totally awful, coming second to last. I just feel its biased towards the americans on wikinews, and if a news worthy article on the sevens was written, i HIGHLY doubt itd make the wikipedia frontpage news. Taifarious1 03:47, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

If you disagree feel free to change the main story. --Anonymous101 19:20, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

The real reason we do not have a story on the Wellington Sevens is that you didn't write it. But to be fair, the Superbowl is an event that is broadcast to many nations and is viewed by far more people than the Wellington Sevens. --SVTCobra 19:34, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't matter which is viewed more, etc. We want people to contribute news from their countries and to help Wikinews to be international. We want you to write about what you are interested in. Want to write about Rugby? No problem. See Wikinews:Writing an article to get started! —FellowWiki Newsie 20:17, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Actually, it is my understanding that the Wellington Sevens is broadcast to far more nations than the superbowl, 136, to be exact, far superceeding the superbowl, which has a global viewership of only 100,000,000. Less than 1/3 of the US population. 122.57.114.23 08:02, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

That's patently false. Are you confusing the Wellington Sevens with the Rugby World Cup? --SVTCobra 16:40, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Slowness on the main page

Something about the Javascript news ticker is slowing my XO-1 laptop to the point of unuseability whenever I view the main page. Is there something that can be done about this? --12.169.167.154 07:41, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Don't think so except for removing the news ticker. --Anonymous101 16:18, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

there's been some discussion earlier about this. –Doldrums(talk) 16:32, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

I believe using css clip property as opposed to rewriting the html each tick would siginificantly improve performance (still needs to test). Try adding the following to your special:mypage/monobook.js (or equiv)

addOnloadHook(function () {window.setTimeout((function () {importScript("User:Bawolff/Sandbox/tick.js");}), 300)});

Anonymous and Scientology

The protests got underway a few hours ago. Start covering them! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.151.43.40 (talk) 04:32, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

New Design

Yes! Keep it! Looks *great* --David Shankbone - (talk) 14:51, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. This is a huge improvement. Booticon - (talk) 15:25, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

I completely agree. Very clean design. -- IlyaHaykinson - (talk) 16:36, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Agreed, bravo. -- Zanimum - (talk) 16:48, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Bug or feature - You decide! –Doldrums(talk) 20:15, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

the layout doesn't work very well for 1024x768 resolution - it either leaves behind a big white space below the main lead or the fourth lead wraps around the floated box to extend full length across the page. –Doldrums(talk) 19:32, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Remember that the old layout didn't even work at all below 1024x768 :) AzaToth - (talk) 19:39, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

if i'd known this earlier, i wouldn't have been editing WN on a computer with just that resolution for the last two years :) two columns flowing independent of each other (i.e. a table, as in old design) holds together for the lower resolution - it doesn't look pretty but doesn't have the problem i pointed out. –Doldrums(talk) 19:54, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

what you have pointed out is a feature, not a problem :) --Skenmy^(t•c•w) 19:55, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

@Image: Feature, per the previous versions of the image. It's very unfortunate that it has landed right on the threshold of it spilling over. --Skenmy^(t•c•w) 20:18, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

More has been acomplished at wikinews in the last week then the last 6 months imho [not just refering to this, but big part of what I'm refering to]. Good work. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:10, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

I know as a non-contributor my opinion is nothing, but it looked better before. Just my opinion. - Ian Lee 01:45, 16 February 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.122.212.192 (talk)

As a non-contributor, your opinion is valued the same, if not more then everyone elses, as it is easy to ask the contributors for an opinion. Its hard to ask the people we don't talk to for opinions. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:50, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

In regards to at smaller resolutions. I was just testing it (on 640x480 to 1280x1024, but i was using the fake resize window, not real res changing), except for a few minor issues (one word of headline is on the left of the floated main lead, and the rest below it, or only part of the last lead expands to full the main box. that needs to be fixed, but its not horrible), it seems to resize quite well. I don't see any problem with the last lead taking up the entire page width on small resolutions. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:00, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Leads brilliant!

This is brilliant, the lead articles are changing very frequently now. Other than the Jaslene Gonzalez interview, nothing has stayed on the front page for more than 12 hours, as far as I know. This is so much better than the old design, which often could have articles for four, five days. Brilliant. One suggestion, can we make the bottom right lead an "original reporting" lead? Like obviously, all four could promote original articles, but could we guarantee that at least one is a Wikinews Exclusive? -- Zanimum - (talk) 21:01, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Further redesign?

Seriously, It's nothing compared to the genius of the full idea: User:AzaToth/Main Page redesign (but you have to look at it in Firefox; there are still issues with Explorer. --David Shankbone - (talk) 16:50, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't know David, to me, the main body of that design looks too crowded. 66.212.192.58 17:48, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

That was totally me. Oof. Booticon - (talk) 17:49, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

I disagree - I think the key to success with this design will be to assign real estate to certain sections, that people become accustomed to where to find things. I think after you look at it a couple of times, you'll see that it removes a lot of unnecessary white space that can use to organize the work we do. --David Shankbone - (talk) 18:00, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't know either. It also looks a little overkill for me. White space is good. -- Zanimum - (talk) 18:25, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

The idea is that we are going to be expanding our content and our scope of coverage, and the only "real estate" we have is on the main page for this work to be presented. White space can look good, but not the way we do it. The only thing we have right now is the front page; the idea is to use the front page as a TOC, with main headlines, to other places where the "Bureaus" and Portals can do more of the grunt work. The "Bureaus" and portals will create their own "Sections" (similar to "Metro" "Business" etc.) that will increase in importance as our coverage of those things increases. I think a first step (in order to make these things run more smoothly) to that is the creation of the Wikinews:Wikipedia Bureau to expand our coverage of ArbCom, admin and general Wikipedia topics. That proposal could stand to have some participation, so please vote: Wikinews:Water_cooler/proposals#Proposal:__Create_Wikinews:Wikipedia_News_Bureau Creating a new "Wikipedia News Watchdog" that writes from NPOV will be likely to draw the most new contributors to help, and once we have people here they are more likely to engage in other activities. As our contributor base grows, and the types of contributors, the need for this will be more apparent than it is now. But it's an exciting time to be part of Wikinews. --David Shankbone - (talk) 19:38, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

I like having the main page sorted by bureaus, as you call them. That would really help people browse. But I'd just want a bit more breathing space than what's provided currently on the proposed redesign. -- Zanimum - (talk) 20:48, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

I think think this design is amazing. Yes, it is crowded but that is exactly what news websites are! Look at all the information on the BBC News website. A lot of front page information adds a depth to the site. Also, it is easy to find the right kind of information needed on this site. What about adding a ticker?—DanielWinter - (talk) 09:25, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

One small fix

When the fourth lead story has a small amount of text and a large image, the two columns underneath it wrap around the image. I'd like to add an extra <br style="clear: right;"/> at the end of Template:Main Page Leads to force the "Latest news" and "Start a new article/Wikinews exclusives/etc." columns to start beneath the image. I experimented with this in the Sandbox, and can make a more permanent demonstration if people want to see the difference. Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 02:27, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Or, you know, someone could be bold and actually do it. Thanks, GW Simulations! Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 12:22, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Gah. Now the length of the 2nd + 3rd leads is greater than the 1st, and this is causing the 3rd lead to wrap underneath the 1st. I don't know enough XHTML to know how to fix this. Anyone got any ideas? Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 23:17, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Its hard because it varies with resolution. My attempt at fixing is at user:Bawolff/sandbox/leads. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:20, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Mark Bunker Interview Lead kinda broken in FF 2.0.0.12

Here's a link to a screenshot. Maximized in Firefox, IE7 is fine. Having the headline broken up like that is kinda confusing. Booticon - (talk) 05:58, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes we're aware of the issue. Bawolff ☺☻ 04:11, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

It's an issue of for what resolution wikinews should look best in; And as an result of some non-existing features in CSS, either large ammount of whitespace or wrapped lines are to be choose from. AzaToth - (talk) 15:17, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

WAP

A WAP portal was linked earlier. Instead of using an external site, shouldn't we convince the powers to be to set up something similiar to http://en.wap.wikipedia.org ? Bawolff ☺☻ 06:13, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

See also Wikinews WAP. Bawolff, I will also add your above comment to that thread (hope you don't mind). —Preceding unsigned comment added by SVTCobra (talk • contribs) 02:42, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

New design requires more attention to synopsis

Please keep in mind that with Aza's new brilliant design, that four the four leads - the blue box lead, two sub leads, and featured article, all need to have brief paragraphs written describing the article. First, the design begs for that; second, we are creating too much white space in some views by continuing to only put one sentence; and third, it makes us look more professional to do so. Don't go crazy, but don't go too sparse. --David Shankbone - (talk) 04:23, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

And there is way too much padding on the blue box lead - I would say decrease it by a third, and flesh out the article with a few more sentences as a synopsis with the new space. --David Shankbone - (talk) 04:25, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

I personally liked padding, not sure why, but I thoght it made things look better. But thats just my opinion. Bawolff ☺☻ 00:43, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

what the hell is up with all the "national hockey league news?"

First of all this is a north american league, second of all hockey is one of the least popular of the "popular" sports. Yet every day there is a "National hockey league news" headline on wikinews 165.124.116.82 20:19, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Nothing wrong with that. I enjoy the hockey news. But nonetheless not everyone is going to like every news piece we or anyone else writes. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 20:21, 25 February 2008 (UTC)