On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 17:05, Nathan <nawrich(a)gmail.com> wrote:
...in 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
bringing the U.S. into
World War II. Not that you'd know that from the "On this day" section
of the main page. I guess there is an iron rule that nothing mentioned
in any other part of the main page makes it into the "On This Day"
section (a Today's Featured Picture is an image of lifeboats rescuing
sailors from a ship damaged in the attack), but that seems like a
strange rule to me.
I can see the motivation behind that rule. Would you really want the "On
this day" section, featured article, featured image, and DYK to be given
over to the Pearl Harbor attack every December 7th? What about devoting the
whole Main Page to the creation of the United Nations every October 24th, or
to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand every June 28th, or to the
Battle of Talikota every January 26th*, or to the founding of Rome every
April 21st? All were extremely notable historical events, after all, and
adding those would keep us from being too US- or UK-centric.
The rule is arbitrary, and I'd be fine allowing 2 mentions of the same
event. But having a fixed limit like that keeps the Main Page from becoming
overrun by history-related articles; it spreads the newbie influx around; it
lets us catch a wider field of potential editors; and, because our articles
are skewed to relatively recent topics in the Anglosphere, it helps reduce
our systemic biases by forcing consideration of other topics.
*Yes, I had to look that date up. Article needs work, btw; anybody have
good sources on south Indian history?
--
Jim Redmond
[[User:Jredmond]]