Hello all,
Comments from a technical perspective would be appreciated at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Proposal:_Mo...
I really don't know why the main page was put in the article namespace in the first place - if a developer could at least drop by to clarify that it would be appreciated. I don't know exactly where the developers stand on this, but I would think that as developers you would be in a better position to understand what the appropriate thing to do is.
On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 7:58 PM, Remember the dot rememberthedot@gmail.com wrote:
Hello all,
Comments from a technical perspective would be appreciated at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Proposal:_Mo...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28technical%29#Proposal:_Move_main_page_to_Wikipedia_namespace
I really don't know why the main page was put in the article namespace in the first place - if a developer could at least drop by to clarify that it would be appreciated. I don't know exactly where the developers stand on this, but I would think that as developers you would be in a better position to understand what the appropriate thing to do is.
I don't see what the developers have to do with it, it's purely a community choice. The second-largest Wikipedia, the German one, already has such a change done. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Hauptseite I even know of some wikis that have it in the Portal namespace... it really doesn't make a different where the page is from a developmental standpoint.
I really don't know why the main page was put in the article namespace in the first place
I think the main page pre-dates the existence of multiple namespaces, so there was no choice when it was created. I don't know why it wasn't moved when the Wikipedia namespace was created. There is no technical reason for it being in the main namespace (as evidenced by dewiki having it elsewhere), so it's purely a community decision.
Thomas Dalton wrote:
I really don't know why the main page was put in the article namespace in the first place
I think the main page pre-dates the existence of multiple namespaces, so there was no choice when it was created. I don't know why it wasn't moved when the Wikipedia namespace was created. There is no technical reason for it being in the main namespace (as evidenced by dewiki having it elsewhere), so it's purely a community decision.
And, just to clarify, it can be changed by local administrators: just edit [[MediaWiki:Mainpage]] and change it to point to whatever title you want to be the main page.
In most cases, I believe the main page is perfectly appropriate for the primary namespace -- its content is targeted directly at end users.
Where some wikis may prefer for it to be in a different namespace, this is a simple matter of customizing the value of [[MediaWiki:Mainpage]].
-- brion vibber (brion @ wikimedia.org)
On Jul 19, 2008, at 16:58, "Remember the dot" rememberthedot@gmail.com wrote:
Hello all,
Comments from a technical perspective would be appreciated at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Proposal:_Mo...
I really don't know why the main page was put in the article namespace in the first place - if a developer could at least drop by to clarify that it would be appreciated. I don't know exactly where the developers stand on this, but I would think that as developers you would be in a better position to understand what the appropriate thing to do is.
-- Remember the dot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Remember_the_dot _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 12:26 AM, Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org wrote:
In most cases, I believe the main page is perfectly appropriate for the primary namespace -- its content is targeted directly at end users.
However, in that case they should probably be content with the nstab used for the main namespace. In the default software that's "page", which is fine for the main page. Wikipedia has changed it to "article", which is inappropriate for the main page, and this annoys some people. "Project page" would be more appropriate. "Portal" might be even more appropriate, at least if anyone actually used portals. The main page certainly fits the definition of portals better than anything.
The distinction is not, frankly, one I would worry about.
OK, many thanks for the explanations. Portal:Wikipedia is not a bad idea.
Simetrical wrote:
On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 12:26 AM, Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org wrote:
In most cases, I believe the main page is perfectly appropriate for the primary namespace -- its content is targeted directly at end users.
However, in that case they should probably be content with the nstab used for the main namespace. In the default software that's "page", which is fine for the main page. Wikipedia has changed it to "article", which is inappropriate for the main page, and this annoys some people. "Project page" would be more appropriate. "Portal" might be even more appropriate, at least if anyone actually used portals. The main page certainly fits the definition of portals better than anything.
The distinction is not, frankly, one I would worry about.
Note that: 1. The default software message was formerly "article", but was changed to "page" to be more general ("content page" is more exact, though - every page in every namespace is "page"). Wikipedia still uses "article" for obvious reasons. 2. Some projects use scripts to hide the main page title and to change the nstab to "main page" or similar title.
wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org