Talk:Main Page/Archive 27

Wikinews main page is big-picture not useful due to choice of articles

As of today (Jun 24) the latest 10 stories are 8 death stories and 2 soccer stories. Sorry, this is not actually keeping people up to date with news. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 2620:72:0:60c:7080:8083:7466:d352 (talk • contribs) 20:22, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

We publish articles that are submitted and pass review. Feel free to read WN:PILLARS and WN:WRITE, and then submit your own articles. (Yes, I'm serious. For contribution we do recommend creating an account.) --Pi zero (talk) 20:44, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

'Allen Bond' dead

Prominent Australian businessman and one time America's Cup winner Alan Bond has died. A new editor has written. Australian businessman, Alan Bond, dies aged 77. I was wondering if he could/should go on the front page here? 220 of Borg (talk) 05:33, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

There are at least two articles about that story on the review queue. I'm not so sure either one will pass review, as both fail to explain in the lede why the story is relevant. Everything that gets published appears, at least briefly; see the first pillar at WN:PILLARS. --Pi zero (talk) 09:53, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

Update: Okay, there are at least three articles about it on the review queue. What a mess. I know from recent unpleasant experience it's quite hazardous to attempt in-depth reviews on more than one article about the same story, as one may lose track of which details have been addressed in which version. -(  --Pi zero (talk) 10:03, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

I want to say that...

@Pi zero: @Leugen9001: @Green Giant: @Bddpaux: @Blood Red Sandman: @Ayub407: and @Cirt:.
Here on Talk of main page, once an IP editor said that Wikinews is very slow. Frankly, the Wikipedia Main Page has been a much better news source than WikiNews lately Now, I see that we are maintaining our pace with the on goings while Wikipedia is not! I appreciate this work. It is a great team work!
Keep it up mates.
User:Acagastya 14.139.242.195 (talk) 01:55, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia has never, in all its years, published a news article. It can't, ever; that's inherent in its philosophy and workflow. It has a non-news ethic and the principles it does embrace can only be approached statistically over a non-news timeframe.

Wikinews does work well when it's sufficiently active, yes. (Hence my long-term efforts to aid expert tasks so we can sustain such activities better.) --Pi zero (talk) 11:00, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

@Pi zero: Yes, I am aware hat WP doesn't publish news, the user as well as I were talking about the "In the news" section. I am just saying, that we are progressing better day by day!
14.139.242.195 (talk) 13:44, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Whatever the case, thanks for the 'Thanks'!! --Bddpaux (talk) 17:04, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Thank you ! -- Cirt (talk) 09:33, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

As a long-term Wikipedian, I only got involved with ITN once and I have to say that did not enjoy it at all, unlike the way I've enjoyed contributing here. At the time I asked why the main page has its own news section, when logically it should show a summary of the Wikinews main page. The response was partly dismissive, partly defensive and I gave up on having anything to do with that part of Wikipedia. Equally I still feel that the On This Day section should have been based at Wikinews (because some newspapers have similar albeit small sections) and the Featured Picture section should have been based on the Commons Featured Pictures. It just seems duplicative effort but a distinct inertia has settled into large parts of Wikimedia, with a severe unwillingness on the part of some users to change anything other than tiny, almost irrelevant details. I find that mindset very odd given that wikis are part of the continuing evolution of the internet and I can see no reason to just shrug one's shoulders and say "well this is how we've always done it" (bearing in mind that internet usage is a very recent phenomenon). I'm sure that there was resistance from the print media against broadcast news or online news when they started but these days I'm pretty sure that more people listen to radio news, watch television news or read news online than sit down and read a paper, not that I'm knocking printed news. Anyway that's my personal opinion. Green Giant (talk) 10:08, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

Mali Radisson Blu hotel

Why is there no information about the terrorists taking hostages in Mali? Axl (talk) 11:19, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

We only publish articles that someone writes. --Pi zero (talk) 12:15, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Wikinews Thai

How do you open wikinews??? Pitpisit (talk) 09:26, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

@Pitpisit:Hello there! For a Wikiproject to be started, you need to request it at meta.wikimedia.org. But if you are asking about Thai Wikinews, it already exists at th.wikinews.org that was closed

Meta has a page about this at:

Proposals for closing projects/Closure of Thai Wikinews

So now, it is under incubator stage. If editors keep on contributing to it at incubator, and bring it up to date, another request can be made to bring out of incubator again.
14.139.242.195 (talk) 14:00, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Also, the specific procedure for a new language of a sister project is at Meta:Language proposal policy. I'm not exactly sure how it's different if the language project used to be open and was closed; usually, the old project doesn't exist and if someone goes there they are redirected to the incubator. Perhaps you could ask a member of the language committee for advice, such as User:MF-Warburg. --Pi zero (talk) 12:59, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

@Wintereu: that was me. To access Bleach Reporter, I need a VPN. This was u:acagastya, and it is college IP.
14.139.242.195 (talk) 14:00, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

I will open wikinews by present project [1] But I dont have Language committee/Status/wn/th I cannot create them When will open? /When will verification and final decision? Pitpisit (talk) 22:03, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

.

why most news here about sport?, where is another news? --FPP (talk) 17:41, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

@FPP: Just recently, the articles submitted to us have been mostly sports articles. We review for publication what our writers choose to submit. --Pi zero (talk) 17:53, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Hey there! Your question is absolutely correct and having sports news in a greater number is not correct, but it is because of me. I am a football fan and write about football. Being a tennis lover as well, I tried to cover some of the Aus Open events. I do write other news, but not regularly. I wrote about Alan Rickman dies at 69 due to cancer. After all, since anyone can contribute here, one chooses something of his or her own interest.
Agastya Chandrakant ⚽️ 🏆 🎾 🎬 🎤 📰 19:50, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Unprotect/delete copyright violation for Brussels bombing

Commons file File:Atentado terrorista en el Aeropuerto de Bruselas (Bélgica).jpg is a copyright violation from https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/bilder/bruessel-233~_v-videowebl.jpg via https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/bilder/bruessel-235.html but can't be tagged for speedy by a normal user because it's cascade-protected from Main Page here on Wikinews. --Closeapple (talk) 15:41, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

Deleted from Commons. It still needs to be removed from Main Page. --Closeapple (talk) 15:53, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

All taken care of now. --Pi zero (talk) 17:40, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

What a piece of shit

This news source is a joke, why is there only soccer shit in the front page? There's an election, ISIS, DNC corruption and more, and all you care about is soccer???? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 2602:304:cd00:3be9:e5ed:1529:da0b:7d2f (talk • contribs) 00:06, 31 July 2016‎

This is a wiki. You're evidently a member of the English-language internet community. See WN:PILLARS, then WN:WRITE. --Pi zero (talk) 00:44, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

Typo on front page - Main Lead, "Former Alberta premier Jim Prentice killed in plane crash"

There's a typo in the first sentence: "Tormer premier of the Canadian province...." on the front page's ML. "Tormer" should be changed to "Former." As a new user of less than 4 days, I don't have editing privileges on the Front Page. Thanks.

--Leftcoastbanana (talk) 18:29, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

@Leftcoastbanana: Thank for the heads-up. We don't make the leads easy to find (perhaps somewhat on purpose), but I suspect they're not actually protected; the're in separate templates {{Lead article 1}}–{{Lead article 5}}. At any rate, looks like acagastya got it: diff. --Pi zero (talk) 19:22, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

Edit protection request on 17 January 2017

A Wikidata on the Wikinews Main Page is needed. Lots of links of other language pages should be moved to Wikidata. Oh, wait. There is already Wikimedia main page. Also, the navigational templates should be de-collapsed or extended or shown. It's not good for most readers to just use the left panel if they want to go to other sister projects or other Wikinews languages. --George Ho (talk) 10:09, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Actually, the bottom parts should be unveiled and de-coded and/or be revised to not use the templates. --George Ho (talk) 11:54, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

I'm afraid I can't tell what change is being asked for. I can't even tell for sure whether or not it's relevant to this request that en.wn does not remove interwikis once they're also on Wikidata. --Pi zero (talk) 14:04, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Current version:

|colspan="3"|
{{Dynamic navigation noncentered
|BGCOLOR=#f9fcff
|TITLE=Wikinews in other languages
|CONTENT={{Wikinewslang}} 
|SMALLCONTENT=
|EXT=NavOnce
}}
|-
|colspan="3"|
{{Dynamic navigation noncentered
|BGCOLOR=#f9fcff
|TITLE=Sister projects
|CONTENT={{Sisterprojects}} 
|SMALLCONTENT=
|EXT=NavOnce
}}

Proposal #1:

== Wikinews languages ==

{{Wikinewslang}}

== Wikinews's sister projects ==

{{Sisterprojects}}

Proposal #2: Something similar to the source code of c:Template:Main Page Template. However, I don't know how to execute it.

Compare this to other language pages, like the French Wikinews. --George Ho (talk) 19:49, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Comparison with fr.wikinews is not a wise one, I would say. I have observed that they have good number of articles published each day, which is wonderful! But many of those articles are below minimal length, as per en.wikinews's guidelines. Thus we can't have small stories, which are actually supposed to be Wikinews:Shorts. Thus, their layout cannot be mirrored.
Agastya Chandrakant ⚽️ 🏆 🎾 🎬 🎤 📰 20:23, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Sorry, bad example. I was going to mention one of Main Pages of any sister projects, but I don't want to be spotted to evade loopholes. I would say Wikimedia Commons or Wikidata Main Page? How about other language sites? --George Ho (talk) 21:43, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

@George Ho: Why change the current default-collapsed treatment of those materials at the bottom of the page?

@AGastya: How does that decision relate to the differences in output profile between en.wn and fr.wn? --Pi zero (talk) 20:58, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Sorry for not explaining my reasons more. I just got irritated by the collapsing thing. I found "collapsing" irksome. I'm sure many readers found it irksome as well. They are more likely to go to the bottom path if they want to go to other sister projects. With the banners de-collapsed, they can see big icons and go there. I think Main Page of English Wikinews is as of now the only Main Page that collapses the portions. --George Ho (talk) 21:43, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

If the proposals are not the answer, what about Template:Dynamic navigation noncentered or any other navigational templates? --George Ho (talk) 21:48, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

I agree that we should promote other Wikimedia projects for an overall growth. But, this is a news website. The main page is one of the most important elements. For example, on Wikipedia, most of the readers want to read about a particular article, not what is the featured article of the day. Here, the readers do not know where to go (it is news). The main page informs the events happening all over the world. The question is, would someone come to Wikinews to read a news article or to find a link to sister projects? Mobile sites would not display the sister project links. If I am correct, those links are invisible on all other projects except Wikidata.
Agastya Chandrakant ⚽️ 🏆 🎾 🎬 🎤 📰 18:37, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Mobile versions of all projects do the same thing to all of their own pages. We can add that in meta-wiki if we can. Meanwhile, the desktop version might need some improvement. We still believe that readers can surf anywhere. Let's assume that most readers can do both. --George Ho (talk) 18:45, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Since the question is limited to desktop version, it is easy to find on the left hand side/ scrolling down.
Agastya Chandrakant ⚽️ 🏆 🎾 🎬 🎤 📰 19:01, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Well... visible... somewhat. However, overlooking the left panel is also... prevalent. Readers are distracted by huge leading stories enough to overlook the left hand side. The scrolling down part... is, if uncollapsed, easier and more visible. It happens to most Main Pages of other sister sites. Collapsing the scrolling down part, however, irritates most readers, like me. --George Ho (talk) 19:51, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

It's a plausible idea. I've tried a version of it on the page, to see how it looks; should probably add the little edit links, like other below-the-fold sections (such as {{main about}}) have. --Pi zero (talk) 20:01, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Another thanks to admins for this, especially Pi Zero. I already sent a public thank-you note to Pi Zero. Well... I'll just edit the leads from time to time if I have time. I'll leave other minor issues to you, admins. --George Ho (talk) 23:15, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Selecting any of seven stories published on Wednesday

Right now, we have Theresa May, Nigerian refugee camp bombing, bombing in Maui, Russian guy seeking political asylum, and a dead NASA guy. Meanwhile, the airplane crash in Kyrgyzstan and Manning release are pushed out. All of these are very news-y. I don't know how to select which story is most important. However, I would put the May speech in the top lead because the EU-UK situation is still ongoing and more important. The two bombings and airplane crash are just death stories. I don't know how important the Russian artist is. Manning's release is very political, but I want to replace the Russian guy with Manning. However, that would be seen as too US-biased. I want to replace the NASA guy with Manning's release, but the guy was known for walking on the moon. Maybe the Nigerian camp bombing, but death tolls are huge attractions. --George Ho (talk) 02:03, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

"Just death stories" eww you mean didn't happen in America so you don't care. Sorry if this post isn't in the right place. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.28.13.167 (talk) 03:18, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

For my part, I recommend against overthinking the choice of leads. Basically I give everything its moment in the spotlight, usually keep the five most recently published articles unless there's a reason to deviate from that, and try to put an article with current gravitas in the number one spot. Beyond that, well, I've got rules of thumb to help decide where to put stuff, but I try not to get worked up about it. (It's an interesting point that the mobile view of the main page has a fundamentally different layout since the five are presented linearly; on the desktop view, leads 2 and 4 have a certain psychological precedence over 3 and 5 because they're on the left, as English text is read left-to-right.) --Pi zero (talk) 04:12, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Okay... shall I re-spotlight the Manning release and push the Russian artist out then? --George Ho (talk) 04:36, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

You need a new story to replace the news about Pyotr Pavlensky. While you can argue that Chelsea Manning's article might be more important than XYZ's article, but replacing the recently published article with an article that is currently sixth in the latest news table with conflict with NPOV. I Don't understand why do you even want to do that? I understand that Chelsea Manning's article spent less time in lede, but this is a news website. You can not stick to one forever. If it was an Original Report, I think it would be still there in the lede template. The US campaign trail articles spent longer time in lede. But it is not the same case. Even I can ask, why do you want to remove Pyotr Pavlensky's article? He used to perform painful acts just to fight for the basic rights of the country. He may or may not be guilty but he has a significant effect of Russia. There will be no end to these discussions. In the main space, we have to maintain NPOV, and for synthesis articles, the queue is the best thing, I would say. First In. First Out.
Agastya Chandrakant ⚽️ 🏆 🎾 🎬 🎤 📰 07:54, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

How about ordering dates, i.e. when events occurred? For example, commutation of Manning's sentence happened on Tuesday, while the asylum request and death of retired astronaut happened on Monday. --George Ho (talk) 09:34, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

FIFO in the order of the publication. There might be a case of two events happening on the same day, but we don't know the time. Better to follow the publication time until there is any OR/ other part of the big event is published.
Agastya Chandrakant ⚽️ 🏆 🎾 🎬 🎤 📰 09:44, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Sometimes, there are articles written on the day that event happened. But the article is reviewed on the other day for some reason. If we follow the time when the event took place, such articles would not get a place in the lede. What about them? (a recent example)
Agastya Chandrakant ⚽️ 🏆 🎾 🎬 🎤 📰 09:52, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

...Okay. For now, I'll do the publication time for the time being until... the time to make changes is right. Now I'm barely experienced to the Main Page. Actually, I wanted English Wikinews to flourish. I hate to see it stagnate or flounder. If it happens, something could be done. Right? Meanwhile, the request above to unveil the banners is still ongoing. --George Ho (talk) 10:14, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

By deciding Chelsea Manning's article over death news/ XYZ event, which was published recently, we would reflect that we care about a particular topic more than others (we we do not). And this can be discouraging to those who does not write articles about the events in G7 countries/ BRICS.
Agastya Chandrakant ⚽️ 🏆 🎾 🎬 🎤 📰 17:19, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Okay, I can abide to NPOV indefinitely... Meanwhile, I am proposing to add two more "lead article" templates at WN:Water cooler/proposals, though the proposal seems to lack some fanfare. --George Ho (talk) 08:17, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

January 18, 2017 has been one of the best days I have witnessed on Wikinews. So many news articles were published, and it feels like a dream come true. But, sometimes, there is no news article for a week. If there are seven lede templates, we wold be offering very old news to the readers. And because of that, we need to switch between the layouts. Tedious task.
Agastya Chandrakant ⚽️ 🏆 🎾 🎬 🎤 📰 08:24, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Miswrite

"Malaysian authorities on Friday arrested North Korean man Ri Jong Chol, 46, on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother to Kim Jong Un, leader of North Korean leader. He died in Malaysia on Monday morning." from front page should read "the half-brother to Kim Jong Un, leader of North Korea." --Marshallsumter (talk) 16:16, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Done; thanks. --Pi zero (talk) 16:36, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Two stories about Jong Nam's death in the main page

Shall we have two developing stories about Kim Jong Nam's death? To me it looks awkward. I want to switch the older one with the studies report about homophobia and sports. Thoughts? --George Ho (talk) 22:05, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

@George Ho: I have no objection if you wish to do that; it seems harmless enough. Were we to do that too often, at a time of low output, we might eventually have a problem with needing to de-lead an article so we can archive it, but we're not there yet. And the homophobia report has some staying power, as a lead. --Pi zero (talk) 22:13, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Done. --George Ho (talk) 00:44, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

To me, having at least two related stories about one event, like Jong Nam's death, on the Wikinews Main Page would affect its balance. I prefer having five different unrelated stories about unrelated events. By the way, how are de-leading an article and "archiving" (do you mean "full protection"?) related? --George Ho (talk) 03:39, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

@George Ho: Unrelated stories is something not easy to achieve. When I wrote the UEFA Euro 2016 articles, two articles were there in the lede. But when two stories, one with the update on the previous one, like "Manchester United sacks van Gaal after winning FA Cup", and "Manchester United appoints José Mourinho as new manager", we replace the older story with the newer one.
acagastya 07:54, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Oh... I realize I must distinguish "related" and "updated" next time. I checked Lead #1, lead #2, lead #3, lead #4, and lead #5 at the time of publication. I would consider the UEFA Euro '16 a "category" as the three stories from that "category" were slightly not related to each other. Nevertheless, how do you describe it in your own way? --George Ho (talk) 09:15, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

I was aware, when updating the leads, that one article was kind of an update of the other. It was a near thing, which lead to replace; most times I make the other call, and I was probably distracted this time by the fact that our output is slow atm.

Yes, our use of archive is kind of overloaded. The 24-hour horizon we generally describe as "when the archive policy kicks in". However, the verb form, "archive the article", refers to putting the article into "the archives", fully protecting it. The act of archiving an article, of putting it into the archives, removes it from the main page. It is the last milestone that all successful articles must pass in their lifecycle (any particular curation action won't usually be to all the articles systematically). --Pi zero (talk) 12:59, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Image of Emmanuel Macron

The original version of commons:File:Emmanuel Macron campaign poster in Paris 2 (cropped).jpg is nominated at Commons for deletion due to copyright concerns. There are other images of Emmanuel Macron as replacements. --George Ho (talk) 18:52, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

Somehow, the image is immediately deleted. I added the colored map of France, separated by districts, as a stopgap image, though it's shielded from general view. --George Ho (talk) 18:55, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

Redesigning the Main Page

In response to Acagastya's comments about redesigning the Wikinews Main Page via sandbox, here's my draft redesign. Compare that to the other (ugly-looking) one just for brainstorming. --George Ho (talk) 12:53, 13 May 2017 (UTC); clarified. 12:55, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

I created another draft. Almost the same outlook, but the coding is different. I'd like to copy and paste the whole code, but that may interfere the archive coding. --George Ho (talk) 13:05, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

Compare the coding to that of Wikibooks and Wikisource. --George Ho (talk) 13:12, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

What is changed (all told), from the current main page? --Pi zero (talk) 13:16, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

In the latest working draft, I separated the {{Main page header}} from the table. Therefore, it can be free to grow taller or smaller or wider. Also, I eliminated class="the_table" as unnecessary; class="the_table" has borders outside the whole Main Page, so eliminating it would eliminate the borders. I broke one table into two tables; between two tables is the {{Main page portals}}. Also, I separated the "{{sisterprojects}}" and "{{Wikinewslang}}" sections from the table. However, I put the projects section above the languages one. --George Ho (talk) 13:29, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

Almost forgot: In the first draft I did, I changed ! into | to de-bold the header. Even separating the header from the table also de-bolds the header. --George Ho (talk) 13:34, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

Evidently, you did not work out why we really require the classes and ids you removed. For the mobile site, (which, by the way, is really good. I assume SGN designed it. Thanks a lot) it gives the feel of the five articles published recently, and one button to create the articles how it should be. Your edits (1) (2), on the other hand, added the "Welcome to Wikinews", "Donate" and other links, "Latest News", "Continents", "Categories", "recent interviews", "Original reporting", "About Wikinews", "Wikinews's best work", "Sister projects", "Wikinews in other languages" and other information which a) makes the mobile site looks congested b) should not be on a mobile site. Mobile site should me carefully designed to provide most important information (news, for a news website) and minimise clutter.
acagastya 13:49, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

It also messed up with the alignment of the lead articles.
acagastya 13:50, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

Compare the mobile sites of Spanish, French, Russian Wikinews with Portuguese. And then with Catalan to see the difference.
acagastya 14:00, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

Not surprising that tinkering with the main page is tricky; it's complicated markup. A general remark on the concept of decoupling different elements: it could cause strange things to happen under varying screen-size conditions.

I'm leery of making the header taller; it seems to me Wikiversity and Wikibooks don't have the same interest as Wikinews in making the header very slim (vertically). On the other hand, as pointed out, Spanish Wikinews does have a much taller header; I think I like getting straight to the current articles, though I can see how one might want to emphasize various more general facilities of the site. Perhaps that is something to revisit as we get other infrastructure improvements on-line that are now in development, so there are more interesting things to link to. On a related note, I'm working slowly on a major overhaul of our archives splash page (for the curious, User:Pi zero/Archives).

Btw: no page-specific CSS page for the main page. MediaWiki:Common.css/Main Page. The specific CSS for the main page is in MediaWiki:Common.css. --Pi zero (talk) 14:27, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

One month later

I was thinking, pi zero. How about going to mw:Project:Support desk or wmf:Staff and contractors#Technology and ask for help? Would that be okay? --George Ho (talk) 10:04, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

There are certain things to be taken care of, and asking someone who doesn't know what are the problems, restrictions, limitations, conditions (...) will not be a good idea. You can ask them to share design templates, but I strongly believe that if we are going to redesign it, it must be done by someone who knows about this project from the inside.
acagastya 10:41, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

I contacted Eloquence, the creator of the Wikinews Main Page, about this discussion. Tempodivalse (talk · contribs), the one who redesigned the page into this one of previous versions, is no longer active. I may contact others more by looking at history logs. --George Ho (talk) 16:07, 29 June 2017 (UTC); see below, 16:38, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

My err. I realized that ShakataGaNai did this version of the Main Page, while Tempodivalse redesigned most of it before ShakataGaNai. --George Ho (talk) 16:38, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

@George Ho: There's a lot of history you're missing. Eloquence and Tempodivalse each played huge, political parts in the history of the project. Neither is involved now. Both have complicated histories here, in Tempo's case I'd even say fraught. I've actually talked to Tempo in recent times, though, which is not the case with Eloquence. (Tempo doesn't go by Tempo anymore, though.) --Pi zero (talk) 17:04, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up about Tempo. If neither party is willing to be involved in the project, who else inside can redesign the Main Page? --George Ho (talk) 17:07, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

So I got the email. Not that we don't all stand on each other shoulders as we build, but yes the current main page design was mostly my re-work from 2009. So the design is going on 8+ years old. I took the initiative at the time to overhaul the homepage completely and it's stuck. For a very very long time. I also noticed that a number of the other language WN's picked up the design (and/or their own modifications there of). Honestly, I think you guys should go crazy. Rip it apart, rebuild it, make it better, throw out what sucks. You're not going to offend me and I don't think you're going to offend any of the other team - especially since most of us from that era are terribly inactive. Also keep in mind the version of Mediawiki and what was supported at the time (hell, what web technology was supported at the time) was VERY different to what ya'll got now. --ShakataGaNai ^{^_^} 16:52, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

Pi zero and Acagastya, I found Wikinews:Main Page/Test. Therefore, we can work on redesigning the Main Page in the "Test" subpage. Also, after some reworking, we can no longer use {| and |} anymore. Meanwhile, I found out Harej did some coding on the Main Page table, but the guy is inactive for two year. Thoughts? --George Ho (talk) 21:52, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Also, I found this: Wikinews:Sandbox/Main Page compact. --George Ho (talk) 22:07, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

@George Ho: At one time or another, many folks have tinkered around with redesigning the main page. Some went further with it than others. Some were more serious than others, and that didn't always correlate with how far they went with it; I recall we once had a troll who got into that game. I think if one really wants to do it, the place to start is why. What does one want to accomplish? For my own part, left to my own devices, so many things have much higher priority I'd likely never get to it, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't help out with a well-thought-out concept. But I'm interested in an overarching purpose. --Pi zero (talk) 23:44, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

The place to start is... "why". Hmm... Here goes. What's the purpose of redesigning the Main page? I'll get to that later. Now, I shall explain my early purpose of redesigning the Main Page. I initially thought about redesigning the desktop version of the Main Page. The big grey solid border looks ugly. The font of headlines and subheaders looks less attractive. The font looks dull and bland. And all that. At least the icons look timeless. Then again, it's all about appearances. I do not know what viewers want, but thousands of users see what's on the Main Page every day. Indeed, the Main Page displays something published and newsworthy because... the project is news-oriented. Also, it is the facet of the project. Therefore, I figured that users also want a good-looking Main Page on Wikinews. Maybe if redesigned, the users would be awed and surprised, and the redesigned Main Page would attract/gain more views.

However, I only thought about desktop viewers until I realize back then that mobile users matter also. This changed or expanded my purpose of redesigning the Main Page. The mobile version has all five leading stories. I have wondered how to redesign the coding of the Main Page without affecting the mobile version and mobile users. Also, I figured that the Main Page can rely less on coding basics and more on more complex coding that is more mobile-friendly and more supportive of older browsers, like <div></div>. Then again, I mostly thought about desktop users. Other parts of the Main Page are not shown on the mobile view due to bandwidth and all that.

My current purpose of redesigning the Main Page I will explain now. Moments ago, I realize that sandbox and test pages do not display the Main Page coding in "mobile view". Therefore, I have decided to put the desktop users first for now and figure out how to redesign the Page and test the changes out for both desktop and mobile view. If the changes don't work well for the mobile view of the Main Page, we can rewrite the coding over and over until the mobile view is displayed successfully. Thoughts? --George Ho (talk) 00:37, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

Almost forgot: I plan to create User:George Ho/Main Page and have it used for testing. Alternatively, I can try existing sandboxes, like Main Page/Sandbox3, Main Page/WideSandbox3, Main Page/Sandbox4, Wikinews:Sandbox/Main Page compact, or Wikinews:Main Page/Test. --George Ho (talk) 00:41, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

@George Ho:

• "I figured that the Main Page can rely less on coding basics and more on more complex coding that is more mobile-friendly and more supportive of older browsers, like <div></div>." This sounds daunting. Is there documentation somewhere about how to write stuff for older browsers and mobile view and such? It's disturbing to think that the wiki table markup, which I would have thought was meant to provide an especially robust and widely client-compatible facility, might instead have been added to wiki markup and then effectively abandoned (which seems almost like deliberate sabotage of wiki markup).
• If those other pages don't produce the same mobile view, why not? What is the governing principle? --Pi zero (talk) 01:10, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

--Pi zero (talk) 01:10, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

I found meta:Help:HTML in wikitext. Also, external links can provide the instructions on writing the codes. I might provide more if you need more. --George Ho (talk) 02:40, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I found out that mobile versions of Sandbox and Test subpage may not display the exact code of the current revision of the Main Page do not display well there. Maybe using Sandbox for testing doesn't work well in mobile version. --George Ho (talk) 23:47, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Intriguing discussion about Wikiversity's Main Page is worth reading: v:Wikiversity:Colloquium#Main page learning project. --George Ho (talk) 04:47, 1 July 2017 (UTC)

Corona Virus Update in Gensan

Yesterday in General Santos City, September 19, 2020, there were 39 new confirmed cases. It had the highest confirmed cases in a day since the pandemic. Exposure is still suspected to be a local transmission.

General Santos City has a total of 242 coronara virus cases. Total active cases is 153, 8 deaths, and 81 recoveries.

Source: DOH CHD 12 Cynogabriel (talk) 11:28, 20 September 2020 (UTC)

Interesting point of view

Point of view is not only expressed by what you write, but also choice of coverage. I notice the main page has not one but two articles covering the CentOS EOL (which is admittedly important) but nothing about the Electoral College meeting (which is the big U.S. news of this week) or the coronavirus (which is the really big news not only this year but, in the U.S., even just this week.) (That being said, I like the coverage of third-party and international political candidates – keep up the good work!) 108.31.98.86 (talk) 23:24, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

If you want to write about those articles, please feel free to write. How does that have anything to do with how many CentOS articles are there?
•–• 08:36, 19 December 2020 (UTC)