User talk:Ilya (usurped)/Main Page/iTemp/Archive

Selected Articles

Let's talk a bit about the very idea of putting Births, Deaths and Anniversairies.

For me, the list of Selected Articles is inadequate, because:

Deaths: it's from Anglo-Saxon point of view.
- Detailed example: right now I (--Ilya 22:19, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)) look at the main page and I see:
  1. William Roth - US Senator
  2. Heydar Aliyev well, if you are still sure his depth is planet's cataclism this can go to 'News'
  3. Keiko 'killer whale widely known (???) for a role in the first of three Free Willy movies' (what's that???)
  4. Paul Simon - US politician
  5. Rubén González - musicin from Cuba
  6. Capture of Saddam Hussein - may be it's important
  7. Paul Martin - hm, Canadian PM
  8. Bill Janklow - oh... US representative... I firstly thought he's a former senator....
  9. Robert Mugabe - one more african dictator... is it so crucial?
  10. Gemini 6A - 5th manned... in this series... oh and are you really interested in it?
  11. United States Bill of Rights - it's interesting...
  12. Gone with the Wind - ah, Mitchell... but what for remembering novel each year?
  13. Bosman ruling - sorry, I particularly don't like football
  14. Netscape Navigator is Netscape Co's problem, not mine
  15. Alabama - US State
  16. South Pole yes, somebody got to it at last...
  17. Our Lady of Guadalupe. Thank you, it's an interesting educational article. It's better than I thought. I would appreciate it at 'New Articles'
Think a bit what does mean 'Anniversary'. Remember that when you say 'This event is on 5 Nov' you are working only with Gregorian calendar and if you say 'it's today 5 Nov and thus 10 years from the event' this statemant will be false in Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and other calendars.
Resume: I think the present contents of Selected Articles (all above items) violates NPOV. It's OK when it's not the Main Page
Proposal: let's restrict In the news to the most important events, move Deaths, Anns to another start page and add New Brilliant Prose instead
And I suggest adding 'Universal calendary' on Main page: "Today is 14 Nov ... in Common Western, .. in Arabic, .." --Ilya 12:23, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)
- I strongly object to this. This is, after all, the English Wikipedia. RickK 01:40, 16 Dec 2003 (UTC)~

The point is not for you to know what those articles are about. The point is for you to click on the links to learn about these subjects.

Clearly I did it to write all the comments I wrote. And after I did it looks rather obvious for me that 1/2 of these events isn't interesting for people outside US (while for me the other half is strange enough too) --Ilya

Then don't read them. "only" 7/17 topics were US related. This is not done on purpose - rather, when choosing articles for the main page, we choose more complete ones. How do you know people aren't interested? --Jiang | Talk

Note that just because you don't know that Bill Janklow is a representative and not a "former senator" doesn't mean other people don't know. Your views are not representative of everyone's views.

Yes, I agree. Let's go to something real now. --Ilya

Just because you don't like football or think Mugabe has no significance doesn't mean other people think the same way.

"I don't agree with the style of Deaths but I will defend your right to write it in your way". Still, I think our Main Page should be more culturally neutral. --Ilya

Doesn't everyone die? --Jiang | Talk

You do, however, have a point in that the anniversaries are western-centric. Then again, where is the Gregorian calendar not used?

And where is English not used? Why do we have Wikipedia in different languages? --Ilya 00:17, 16 Dec 2003 (UTC)

And this is the English wikipedia. All our articles are written in English. --Jiang | Talk

And still we have French one, Mandarin one etc. Ilya

Recent deaths should not be going anywhere. Maybe anniversaries can be scrapped. --Jiang | Talk 23:04, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Let's count News+Deaths: 9 articles = 3 US Politicians + 1 Canadian PM + 1 Very Important Event You Know What + 1 Keiko ; what remains is 1 Alyiev + 1 Mugabe + 1 Gonzales. And look above about Anniversaries.

My proposal:

What's going on
Road map - Kyoto protocol - Taiwan elections European constitution - Politics of Georgia - Iraq war Scientific headlines: 2^20996011-1 is prime New articles: Kings of Ireland - Dagesh Beatty's theorem - Heydar Aliyev Brilliant prose: Ibn Battuta - Japanese language Crushing by elephant - Quantum mechanics - Noam Chomsky

Today is...
16 December 2003
Shawwal 22, 1424
21 Kislev, 5764
23 day of 11th month of Sheep year

This data now works at Wikipedia:Experimental Main Page. --Ilya 12:23, 16 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I think my proposal fits better into Encyclopedia scheme --Ilya 03:32, 16 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I like the brilliant prose list a lot and prefer it to the "anniversaries" thing we have going now for many reasons: highlights our good articles, encourages us to use and improve our brilliant prose listing, provides a less haphazard way to include articles, etc. But I don't understand the distinction you're making between "news" and "actualities", which is not a frequently-used English word. DanKeshet

I want to very much commend your inclusion of Scientific headlines. This would be a good idea in the perpetual struggle to lift people's attention from trivialities to more significant and perhaps lasting events. Admittedly, not all science stuff is equally interesting to all of us, but just including the category of such headlines gives a strong, and in my view, good, signal. BTW, if I were the benevolent dictator of Wikipedia (which, alas, I'm not, I'm not even an admin), I'd call the category Sci-tech headlines, since I maintain the view that technology/engineering is at least as generally and culturally important as science. --Wernher 09:09, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Main Page/iTemp

File:Ilya itemp.jpg

So, I've got some beta version of my experimental Main Page. Here's (low-res) snapshot. Look at the page. Add comment. And please try at least to understand what I'm saying before replying.

I'm really sorry if you don't like this picture hanging on this wall and taking your time. Delete it if you think it's burden. ilya 01:01, 27 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Not bad, but I'm afraid I prefer the current Main Page. It looks lessy busy/messy, and yet it contains more useful links. -- Timwi 01:11, 27 Dec 2003 (UTC)

May you describe what links? ilya

Everything in the two boxes titled "Selected Articles" and "Encyclopedia". Also, you have links to random articles on Wikipedias in other languages; I don't think I like that. -- Timwi 01:40, 27 Dec 2003 (UTC)

They are not random. Certanly, as for those languages I understand better, they are what I've read and recommend (such as de:Deutscher Bauernkrieg) and for languages I don't understand they are almost random (Hebrew kibbutz). But this looks like a matter of taste. One can hardly expect when one man selects 30+ articles that others will agree.
I really do not understand the usefulness of Encyclopedia section (Family and consumer science, Statistics, Handicraft... I do not object the articles, but why them on the main page?). In my plan, thi goes to Wikipedia:Browse -- just the same, if you want, but not Main Page
As for Community you can find main links at the right of the page, while others will be accesible via what I called Wikipedia:Central (which is separated from Main Page to make the MP more understandible for newcomers.)
Selected articles is a matter of taste. If we first speak about some general scheme, then we can vote and see what should be placed. You see, I've put 30 articles what I like. Suggest yours, and let's make a deal.
If you are not interested in Main Page/iTemp feel free not replying; this will be for others. 194.85.64.47 13:39, 27 Dec 2003 (UTC)