Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article: Difference between revisions

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Please place new requests at the TOP of the list. The order should be newest requests (top) to oldest requests (bottom). New additions should be at the top, so they're easier to spot.

I would be delighted if this article was to be featured on the Main Page on December 14, which is Strickland's twenty-eighth birthday. Thanks! Extraordinary Machine 22:28, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like this to be featured on December 31st, since its the last day of the year and the last of the world's semi-retired battleships happen to be members of this class. If this is not possible then sometime in December or January will do. Thanks. TomStar81 02:55, 29 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

January 24th will be the 1,965th anniversary of Claudius' rule, as dated from the Praetorian's declaration of allegiance. LaurenCole 02:10, 29 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (August 1, 10 BC–October 13, 54), previously Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, was the fourth Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24 41 to his death in 54. Born in Lugdunum in Gaul (modern-day Lyon, France), to Drusus and Antonia Minor, he was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy.

Claudius was considered a rather unlikely man to become emperor. He was reportedly afflicted with some type of disability, and his family had virtually excluded him from public office until his consulship with his nephew Caligula in 37. This infirmity may have saved him from the fate of many other Roman nobles during the purges of Tiberius and Caligula's reigns. His very survival led to his being declared emperor after Caligula's assassination, at which point he was the last adult male of his family. Despite his lack of political experience, Claudius proved to be an able administrator and a great builder of public works. His reign saw an expansion of the empire, including the conquest of Britain. He took a personal interest in the law, presided at public trials, and issued up to 20 edicts a day. However, he was seen as vulnerable throughout his rule, particularly by the nobility. Claudius was constantly forced to shore up his position - resulting in the deaths of many senators and knights. He also suffered tragic setbacks in his personal life, one of which resulted in his murder. These things negatively impacted his reputation among the ancient writers. More recent historians have revised this opinion.

The omnipotence paradox is a philosophical paradox which arises when attempting to apply logic to the notion of an omnipotent being. The paradox is based around the question of whether or not an omnipotent being is able to perform actions that would limit its own omnipotence, thus becoming non-omnipotent. Some philosophers see this argument as proof of the impossibility of the existence of any such entity; others assert that the paradox arises from a misunderstanding or mischaracterization of the concept of omnipotence. In addition, several philosophers have considered the assumption that a being is either omnipotent or non-omnipotent to be a false dilemma, as it neglects the possibility of varying degrees of omnipotence.

Just curious, what is the relevance of Dec 25 for this article? Won't Isaac Newton (his birthday's on that date), or naturally, Christmas be better choices? Borisblue 19:11, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Christmas would not be a good choice, see posts in the Christmas thread below. As for Isaac Newton, it doesn't really matter much either way, but he would be mentioned on the main page under anniversaries anyway, so it would be better to have something else. Yeltensic42.618 21:47, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The featured article of the day should generally not have anything of great importance to do with that date. Christmas will already be on the main page that day under Holidays. Sir Isaac Newton wasn't born on our December 25th, but the December 25th in the Julian Calendar. That's our January 4th.. — BRIAN0918 • 2005-11-30 22:06

But I don't see any reason for this particular article. It seems like a deliberate effort to "counter" or "contrast with" a holiday that's important to many people. Better to put this on a different day, and have something completely irrelevant (or have Christmas or Isaac Newton, as above) for December 25. -- SCZenz 22:12, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I requested this particular article, that is all. As for "countering" the holiday, that would only be true if our featured article on Omnipotence paradox was not NPOV. If you think the article contains a POV, then propose that it be fixed. I understand that the holiday is important to many people, but still don't know what their concern is about. It is a well-written, neutral article that recently completed FAC and discusses the topic of omnipotence paradox. In any case, Wikipedia doesn't actively avoid offending certain groups or beliefs (see Wikipedia:Content disclaimer). Again, Isaac Newton was born on January 4th, not December 25th. And Christmas will be featured under the "Holidays" section of the main page, along with a picture of a Christmas tree, and an entry on the Christmas carol "Silent Night". I think that's plenty of the same thing for one main page. Don't you? — BRIAN0918 • 2005-11-30 22:18

OK, so neither Isaac Newton or Christmas makes sense for December 25. I still maintain that this doesn't either; an article can be NPOV but still give the appearence of POV-pushing if it's liked from certain places, and I think that's what featuring this on December 25 would do. And I say, when the effort is very minimal, it's nice to avoid offending peoples' beliefs. Just put this some other day. -- SCZenz 22:25, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

How about scheduling Warsaw Uprising (previously at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 6, 2004) for August 1, 2006? Not that we didn't have time for it :) Halibutt 07:08, 16 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

What's the point of having it as today's featured article again? Particularly when there are a number of FAs that have never been on the main page listed below, and more created every week. Leithp (talk) 16:19, 24 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the rules are that any given article must wait at least five years after a TFA appearance before they are eligible for TFA again. Saravask 16:23, 24 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I was wrong. I got the idea that Raul654 said that at Wikipedia_talk:Featured_articles#Featured_Articles_returning_to_the_Main_Page (which I read a while back). But this is not a rule; instead it was a proposed rule put forth by someone else. Raul654 turned it down. Saravask 17:57, 24 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Rule? Where? (I mean, clearly we have lots of FAs that have not been on the Main Page and no sign of running out any time soon, so there is no need to repeat. OTOH, I think the de-featured, re-written, re-featured Hubble Space Telescope has a decent claim for a second go on the Main Page). -- ALoan (Talk) 17:43, 24 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a rule. It's just a policy I have chosen to adopt. I do not feel we should be refeaturing articles at this time. Raul654 04:12, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The "Deep Throat" of Watergate fame, which made FA a few weeks ago. PedanticallySpeaking 19:16, 1 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Christmas (literally, the Mass of Christ) is a holiday in the Christian calendar, usually observed on December 25, which celebrates the birth of Jesus. According to the Christian gospels, Jesus was born to Mary in Bethlehem, where she and her husband Joseph had traveled to register in the Roman census. Christ's birth, or nativity, was said by his followers to fulfill the prophecies of Judaism that a messiah would come, from the house of David, to redeem the world from sin. Most of the familiar traditional practices and symbols of Christmas, such as the Christmas tree, the Christmas ham, the Yule Log, holly, mistletoe, and the giving of presents, were adapted or appropriated by Christian missionaries from the earlier pagan midwinter feast of Yule. In predominantly Christian countries, Christmas has become the most economically significant holiday of the year, and it is also celebrated as a secular holiday in many countries with small Christian populations.

Surprised this hasn't been featured on the front page yet. Please consider featuring this article on its day of observance (December 25). Brisvegas 06:15, 30 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

May I tentatively suggest that, rather than 25 December, Christmas could instead be on the front page on 5 December (the night upon which, according to our article, many children in Germany put shoes out on window sills) or 7 January (when a number of Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas). It would be an interesting counterpoint to put the Omnipotence paradox article on the day after. -- ALoan (Talk) 14:51, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I think it would probably be best not to have this on the day of observance, because it would already be mentioned on the main page anyway; I think some other date around that time would be better, perhaps the 26th? Yeltensic42.618 18:01, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, if you check out the page history you'll see that we talked about this a little. (there was a big flamewar and Raul put a stop to it) AngryParsley ^{(talk) (contribs)} 18:56, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed. I think that having the article featured immediately or soon after the 25th would be the worst possible world, though, since it would just make it look like we tried to get the article featured in time, but failed. Having it appear a bit early seems like the best compromise, as it avoids having any of the possible main-page redundancy featuring it on the 24th or 25th would, plus it will give people interesting little factual tidbits to exchange on Christmas, whereas having the article appear after Christmas would totally squander its potential to ride the Christmas wave for the sake of attracting new people into reading Wikipedia articles and learning interesting information about a subject they may have taken for granted :o -Silence 19:39, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I'd say the 18th would be the best - one week before the day and just as excitement is building. violet/riga (t) 18:58, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, around then sounds fine to me. -Silence 19:35, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Same here. I hadn't thought of that about the post-25th problems, but that does make sense. -Yeltensic42.618 02:32, 29 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Before the 25th would be best. Christmas is celebrated on the 24th in some parts of Germany (and other parts of the world too), including the gifts, lighting the tree, and all that kind of Christmas stuff -- the two Christmas days (25th/26th) are usually reserved for christmas parties whereas the 24th is basically the private and clerical celebration (i.e. Christmas mass, and celebration with your closest relatives).

Besides, it's a bit pointless to explain Christmas when the (commercial) season is almost over. -- Ashmodai 21:30, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

• Could I just say that in the spirit of good will to all men (except one!) I would be quite happy for Sicilian Baroque to be on the front page on 25th December. Sorry Raul, er.. is there something caught in your throat? - you seem to be choking. Giano | talk 21:45, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

• I say we feature History of the Jews in Poland on December 25th. It's delightfully festive! -Silence 06:34, 29 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

• Oh, never mind, that one's going up December 11th. Didn't even notice. -Silence 06:37, 29 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

For 25 December, how about Zion National Park? -- ALoan (Talk) 13:18, 29 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

How about Omnipotence paradox for that date? — BRIAN0918 • 2005-11-29 18:14

No no no! Would anyone understand it do you thing Brian? Anyway it seems a very dreary page, we need some light, colour, excitement and something to drag them in from an alcoholic overfed stupor. Imagine the scene, the children have put their newly opened (and noisy) computer games away and gone to bed, others can all at last regain the family computer, having first fed the dishwasher, and have a light hearted laugh, as they/we crumble neurofen into our last glass of chianti for the day. Well that's my Christmas, once I've carried my mother-in-law up the stairs! We need something light upbeat/semi religious perhaps. C'mon it's Christmas. PS My mother-in-law is available for hire over the period, (all major credit cards accepted) she stacks a good dishwasher, usually before one has finished eating, and after her fourth chianti sings a passable Aida Giano | talk 19:35, 29 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

We avoid choosing articles on the basis of what day it is. Also, Wikipedia is intended for a very wide audience (that being "everyone single person on the planet in their own language"), and so we can't assume that all or even most of our readers celebrate Christmas; for that reason, it would not be very fitting to observe Christmas by having "something light upbeat/semi-religious". We need to just get on with business as usual here on Wikipedia, and try to ignore what day it is. Yeltensic42.618 17:52, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed completely. This is exactly how TFA should work. — BRIAN0918 • 2005-11-30 18:18

Hey, Isaac Newton's birthday is on Dec 25, why not him? Borisblue 19:13, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

• Why not? Could he have some tinsel in his wig? Giano | talk 19:50, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

We have to keep it in mind that Wikipedia is supposed to have a global perspective; even if we happen to be "Westerners", we are not necessarily writing for a "Western" audience. Christmas is a very entrenched part of Western culture, even among non-Christians such as myself, but that is not the case everywhere. Having Wikipedia aim to observe Christmas wouldn't necessarily be religious bias, but it would be cultural bias. The same goes for any other holiday. I'm not saying we should never have holidays or religions or anything as the featured article; I'm just saying we shouldn't feature them with the goal of observing them by doing so. Yeltensic42.618 21:42, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

• ........I'm sure you're right. Giano | talk 22:13, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Sir Richard O'Connor (August 21, 1889 – June 17, 1981) was a British Army general who commanded the Western Desert Force (WDF) in the early years of World War II. O'Connor was the field commander for Operation Compass, in which he and the WDF completely destroyed a much larger Italian army. This victory nearly drove the Axis from Africa entirely, and led Adolf Hitler to send the Deutsches Afrikakorps under Erwin Rommel, to try and reverse the situation.

O'Connor was later captured and spent over two years in an Italian prisoner of war camp for senior officers. He made a number of escape attempts with General Sir Philip Neame and Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton De Wiart, and was eventually successful. O'Connor commanded VIII Corps in Normandy in 1944 and later during Operation Market Garden. In 1945 he was general officer in command, Eastern Command in India, and then headed the North West Army in the closing days of British rule in the subcontinent. He held the highest level of knighthood in four different orders of chivalry.

Leithp 18:49, 25 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Just got featured status, has enough "real-world" appeal to be on the front page. Date doesn't matter, but November 23 might be nice.--Sean Jelly Baby? 17:23, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

D'oh. Lost out to a Gwen Stefani song ;) Any other date any seven days after 23 November would work, as those were all Saturdays ;) 30 November, 7 December, 14 December...etc. Oh and support :) --JohnDBuell 12:52, 17 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I am not sure if you need anything specific to be done for each article to get on the main page, but just let me know and I can fix it up for you. Zach (Sound Off) 07:48, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

In computing, phishing is a form of social engineering, characterised by fraudulent attempts to acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details. This is done by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication, such as an email or instant message. The term phishing was coined by crackers attempting to "fish" for accounts from unsuspecting AOL members; ph is a common hacker replacement for f, and is a nod to an older form of hacking known as "phone phreaking". The first recorded mention of phishing is the program AOHell's "CC/PW Fisher". The term has also appeared in the printed edition of the hacker newsletter "2600 Magazine" in the fall of 1995, and in the alt.2600 hacker newsgroup in January 1996.

--ZeWrestler ^Talk 14:55, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Yes it did appear earlier in the printed zine, with the first mention I can find being in Fall 1995. It was also in use around 1994 in the AOHell program's "CC/PW Fisher" first seen in version 2.0 Beta 5 (but also mentioned in 3.0's documentation) it later became "Phisher" by version 3.5 released in mid-late 1994.  ALKIVAR™ 01:18, 26 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Carding and spoofing are not synonomous with Phishing, Carding is selling merchandise purchased with a stolen card. Spoofing is pretending to be one thing while being something else. While related these subjects are not the same.  ALKIVAR™ 03:19, 5 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Raul, I have taken the liberty of making a list of the FAs that were not on the Main Page as of August 18, 2004 and have still not been there, and are still listed. I sincerely hope you are giving priority to these.

• Quatermass and the Pit
• Louis Armstrong
• Roy Orbison
• Igor Stravinsky
• 2004 Democratic National Convention
• Charles Graner
• Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
• Privy Council
• Tynwald Day
• Ralph Yarborough
• Hereditary peer
• Order of the Thistle
• Olympic Games
• ASCII
• C programming language
• Java programming language
• Markup language
• Phonograph cylinder
• Quantum computer
• Telephone exchange

-- Earl Andrew - talk 05:00, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I know people like to have recent FAs on the front page, but can we recognise some more of these old ones too, please? -- ALoan (Talk) 18:44, 9 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Banging my drum again, but there are now lists of the featured articles by date promoted, also listing if (and when) they were on the front page: see, for example, Wikipedia:Featured_articles_nominated_in_2003. The older ones surely deserve their day in the sun. -- ALoan (Talk) 11:16, 9 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

And again - go on, some of these deserve it. -- ALoan (Talk) 16:23, 17 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

We should mention the RSS feed somewhere, probably as a link to Wikipedia:Syndication. See Wikipedia:General complaints#RSS Feed for Featured Articles. Bovlb 14:37:25, 2005-08-14 (UTC)

Here are two templates that should be of interest to those with new FA articles either about to appear on the front page or that have appeared there. Simply insert the date the article appeared/will appear on the front page and paste the template into the talk page.

Template:Mainpage date to come

and

Template:Mainpage date

Thanks to Hydnjo for coming up with this.--Alabamaboy 19:04, 10 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

• As much as I would love full credit, this template is actually the result of a collaboration between Rick Block and myself. hydnjo talk 22:41, 10 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I'm going to create the 2006 TFA archive sometime in the next few weeks to a month. If anybody has any ideas on improvments, then please tell me about them. :) --mav 18:17, 21 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]