Difference between revisions of "Talk:Main Page"

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("Discover" photo mistake)
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Feskekôrka should probably say Feskekörka[[User:129.116.32.61|129.116.32.61]] 00:05, 24 February 2009 (EST)
 
Feskekôrka should probably say Feskekörka[[User:129.116.32.61|129.116.32.61]] 00:05, 24 February 2009 (EST)
  
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== Edinburgh ==
 
Why on earth did Wikitravel post this today (03/04/2009) : Oddly E is the only letter in the alphabet that's doesn't have a national capital starting with it, unless you count in Edinburgh, Scotland. EDINBURGH IS THE CAPITAL OF SCOTLAND, SO WHY WOULD YOU NOT COUNT IT?  THE FACT SHOULD READ, EDINBURGH IS THE ONLY CAPITAL TO BEGIN WITH LETTER E.  <small>—The [[Wikitravel:Using_talk_pages#Talk_page_formatting|preceding]] comment was added by [[User:62.25.109.197|62.25.109.197]] ([[User_talk:62.25.109.197|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/62.25.109.197|contribs]]) {{{2|}}}.</small>
 
Why on earth did Wikitravel post this today (03/04/2009) : Oddly E is the only letter in the alphabet that's doesn't have a national capital starting with it, unless you count in Edinburgh, Scotland. EDINBURGH IS THE CAPITAL OF SCOTLAND, SO WHY WOULD YOU NOT COUNT IT?  THE FACT SHOULD READ, EDINBURGH IS THE ONLY CAPITAL TO BEGIN WITH LETTER E.  <small>—The [[Wikitravel:Using_talk_pages#Talk_page_formatting|preceding]] comment was added by [[User:62.25.109.197|62.25.109.197]] ([[User_talk:62.25.109.197|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/62.25.109.197|contribs]]) {{{2|}}}.</small>
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Some people don't consider Scotland a country, since it is part of the United Kingdom where London is the capital. Just as they don't consider Alberta to be a country since it is part of Canada (Alberta's capital is Edmonton, another "E"). I do consider Scotland its own country, but again, some people don't.[[User:ZeekLTK|ZeekLTK]] ([[User talk:ZeekLTK|talk]]) 09:51, 13 June 2013 (EDT)
  
 
== Spam ==
 
== Spam ==
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:Thanks Travelgeek! In the section "Discover" we are featuring 4 articles, with [[Americans in Cuba]] as the top one. That's why we put a car in Cuba as a featuring picture:) I hope this explains it. Thanks a lot for staying alert! All the best, [[User:IBAlex|IBAlex]] ([[User talk:IBAlex|talk]]) 13:46, 20 May 2013 (EDT)
 
:Thanks Travelgeek! In the section "Discover" we are featuring 4 articles, with [[Americans in Cuba]] as the top one. That's why we put a car in Cuba as a featuring picture:) I hope this explains it. Thanks a lot for staying alert! All the best, [[User:IBAlex|IBAlex]] ([[User talk:IBAlex|talk]]) 13:46, 20 May 2013 (EDT)
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== June DOTM ==
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Okay, so today is June 1st. Why is Barcelona ''still'' the Destination of the Month? Shouldn't there be a new one?[[User:Travelgeek|Travelgeek]] ([[User talk:Travelgeek|talk]]) 16:04, 1 June 2013 (EDT)
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: Hello Travelgeek! you are perfectly right, thanks for noticing. Be sure the DOTM will be changed tomorrow at the very latest; perhaps it required some adjustments before publishing, I don't know. As the DOTM's choice is multilateral (votes, etc.) we have to wait a little bit more for the main admin as they keep records of these factors. Thanks again! [[User:PierrB|PierrB]] ([[User talk:PierrB|talk]]) 02:22, 2 June 2013 (EDT)
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:: Hey, Travelgeek! Thanks for staying alert! :) Sorry for putting June's DOM with a short delay but here it is...[[Hong Kong]]. Would you like to help us choose [http://wikitravel.org/en/Wikitravel:Destination_of_the_Month_candidates#Nominations_for_Off_the_Beaten_Path June's Off the Beaten Path destination]? We would be happy to get your suggestions. Thanks! [[User:IBAlex|IBAlex]] ([[User talk:IBAlex|talk]]) 14:33, 4 June 2013 (EDT)

Revision as of 08:09, 1 July 2013

Wikitravel's Main Page is highly visible to users and is protected from editing except by administrators.


IMPORTANT NOTE: Please take general discussions about Wikitravel to the travellers' pub. This talk page should be about the Main Page itself, not about Wikitravel in general.


Archived discussions:

Talk:Main_Page "type the code shown" bot-trap

Swept in from the pub:

Couldn't Talk:Main Page be protected with one of those "type the code shown" (code is displayed in a small image, which you have to read and type into a text box) bot-traps? ~ 203.144.143.4 15:12, 19 December 2007 (EST)

This is what I was trying to describe: WikiPedia:CAPTCHA ~ 203.144.143.4 13:40, 13 January 2008 (EST)


Page protection.

I have placed a one-month protection against anonymous users editing this talk page due to continuous vandalism (see Wikitravel:Protected page policy) and also because the vandalism appears to be from Spambots (a violation of the Wikitravel:Script policy). Since the script appears to use anonymous proxies, we cannot screen them without also harming individuals who legitimately use anonymous proxies. -- Colin 21:26, 6 February 2008 (EST)

Travel News

Should the recent earth quake in China be added to travel news? It seems like quite a major event.--Kanata Kid 09:04, 20 May 2008 (EDT)

Big Sur ablaze, dated: July 3rd... on the main page?? Still?? This news is so old. How dated and irrelevant can Wikitravel get?

In general we don't want to be completely irrelevant, but instead aim to be approximately 80% irrelevant. Thanks for asking! -- Ryan • (talk) • 19:54, 2 August 2008 (EDT)

Disclaimer

Discussion copied from Wikitravel:Votes for deletion:

Quick question—don't we have a disclaimer somewhere absolving Wikitravel & contributors from lawsuits deriving from harm arising from following Wikitravel advice? I can't seem to find that anywhere. --Peter Talk 01:57, 25 July 2008 (EDT)

I just happened across it in shared:Copyleft#Things for users to know, and remembered reading this query back here. Perhaps there should be a link titled Disclaimer on the Main Page that links to it? Tarr3n 05:53, 25 July 2008 (EDT)
Sorry to have wandered off topic on the vfd page, but that seems like a good idea to me. I'll copy this discussion to Talk:Main Page. --Peter Talk 01:01, 17 August 2008 (EDT)

In summary, I think it's worthwhile to link our "you're responsible for yourself, we're not" disclaimer on the Main Page. I'd think the best place to do this would be on the bottom bar, along with CC-by-SA, Terms of Use, etc., but I'm uncertain of how to change that. --Peter Talk 01:06, 17 August 2008 (EDT)

YIPPIE!!!

I live in ottawa, and its destination of the month!!!!! for good reason to, its a beautiful city. :D i know i shouldnt post this here, but i just got sooo excited. i promise i wont do it again. :) --70.48.59.216 20:27, 2 September 2008 (EDT)


Star nominations

...discussion carried over from Wikitravel talk:Star nominations

Instead of placing the extra burden of reminding everyone on the nominator, how about just making the Star nom process more visible to users. Why not put another heading under the "Featured Articles" info box on the Main Page informing everyone that there is an article under review for a star and asking them to join in. If possible (from a technical standpoint), it would have an auto-updating banner saying "Three days left to comment!" If we don't advertise the nom process better, then it's always going to have a limited pool of people who participate, as mentioned above.

Does anoyone agree or disagree with adding this to the Main Page? Asterix 18:10, 4 September 2008 (EDT)

Ok, so I'm going to leave this for another 2 weeks and then, barring any objections, I'm just going to go ahead and add it anyway. I was thinking that it would take the form of a new heading under the existing "Newest Star Articles" heading... Under this would be a link to the newly nominated article(s) itself. I guess that the heading above would stay there permanently and the individual article links would be added and removed 3 weeks later by the nominator as an extra step in the nom process. Asterix 14:00, 9 September 2008 (EDT)
I'd rather not see this on the main page, mostly because I think it may draw more attention from new users, who are less familiar with our MoS and what a Star article should be. Those who've been around a while and know what we're looking for in a star article probably already have that page watchlisted, though it is unfortunate that many of us haven't been commenting lately. Sadly it takes a lot of work to critique it right, and while I used to be really into that, lately I'd rather be working on maps! – cacahuate talk 20:44, 9 September 2008 (EDT)
Objection noted... thanks for your comment. Personally though, I don't see anything wrong with drawing new users into any process on WT. Isn't that kind of the point of a wiki? Anyone else have an opinion? Asterix 12:34, 10 September 2008 (EDT)
I'll side with Asterix on this one, part of the point of drawing attention to the star nominations on the main page would be to bring new users aboard, who would then develop familiarity with our manual of style & become future veteran Wikitravel editors. --Peter Talk 12:46, 10 September 2008 (EDT)
Well I don't feel that strongly about it, but I would definitely say if you move forward with it to make it an addition to and not replacement of the "new star articles" section, I think it's far more important to have quick access to our best articles and promote those – cacahuate talk 20:21, 10 September 2008 (EDT)
Yeah, the front page retail prices are what would give me some pause, although I'm very much on the fence. We've had a lot more voices in this latest round of 2, so perhaps just putting a well-phrased plea in the pub will help with things. Another option for this, if we decide not to put it on the main page, is to put a big advertisement for the star nom process on the Project Page. --Peter Talk 20:36, 10 September 2008 (EDT)
That's a MUCH better idea, that seems like the perfect place for it. A plea in the pub could also be for users to watchlist the starnom page so they see new noms when they come along – cacahuate talk 21:02, 10 September 2008 (EDT)
I’m not too stuck on either option, but it does seem odd that Collaborations of the month get onto the main page and the Star noms -- which, by virtue of being a potential star, are the ultimate in collaborations -- don't? The star nom heading would definitely not replace the star section, as mentioned already above it would go underneath it -- it's arguable whether it would be beneficial to trim the star list back to say 3 stars and not 5? If it were me I would have star articles first, star noms second, and collaborations third in this info box... I think that would showcase the "process" more. Also, it seems like the main page is a good place to entice new users and bridge the gap between "users" and "contributors." However, really I'm not all that bothered and will go along with the consensus... as long as it's a considered one. Asterix 15:24, 11 September 2008 (EDT)

Protection level?

According to the protect tab for this page, registered users should be able to edit the Main Page. User:Windhorse tells me that this is not the case. Can anyone else confirm whether it is possible for a non-admin registered user to edit the Main Page? Thanks! --Peter Talk 23:49, 17 September 2008 (EDT)

There's no edit button available for non-admin. Log off and enter main page... You'll notice that the edit button is no longer visible. WindHorse 23:55, 17 September 2008 (EDT)
That's true, but you should be able to edit via the "view source" tab. --Peter Talk 23:59, 17 September 2008 (EDT
You are correct. Sometime ago I tried to edit the Main Page without logging in, and saw a tag stating that the page is locked to prevent editing. I assumed, therefore, that only admin had the special privilege. Mea Culpa. WindHorse 01:57, 18 September 2008 (EDT)

Australasia & Oceania

Why does it say Australasia & Oceania? Isn't this a bit double? It doesn't say Asia & Middle East, or Russia & Europe, so why did they put this here? I think it's better if it just says Oceania, as Australasia is a subregion of Oceania. 77.250.22.126 06:36, 13 October 2008 (EDT)

I second that. AHeneen 00:46, 5 November 2008 (EST)
Alright, let's go with it... if anyone objects, speak up here or change it back – cacahuate talk 03:42, 5 November 2008 (EST)
I agree...c'mon I hate it when people call the continent Australia. Keep smiling, ee talk 14:21, 10 November 2008 (EST).
Um, but the continent is Australia, you can hate it but you can't change it! As for the Oceania grouping, I think its the best one. Please comment on my proposal in Talk:Oceania to remove Australasia altogether. --Inas 16:16, 10 November 2008 (EST)

I agree we should remove Australasia all the way. —The preceding comment was added by Swagle (talkcontribs)

It's been gone from the main page for years; what are you talking about? LtPowers 21:54, 10 February 2011 (EST)

Discover section is broken (stuck)

Apparently the auto updates haven't been working for days... can someone swap the items manually? Thanks! Raffikojian 11:19, 16 November 2008 (EST)

title for cotm

collaboration of the month sounds like an award for an article that has seen good collaboration, rather than the current focus for improvement this month. At best, it doesn't get attention for the article it needs. at worst, it showcases what can be a poor article. I'm considering an experiment to change the title words on the main page to try and attract people there to improve it. The idea would be to leave it that way until the end of the month, as see if it attracts any more attention to the current cotm articles. if it fails, we can change it back at the end of the month. --Inas 18:26, 17 December 2008 (EST)

The idea here is to say, look at our good articles, and here are some that are not so good yet, can you help. See if it draws any more traffic to those articles. --Inas 17:41, 18 December 2008 (EST)
I donno I don't really see Cotm as an award, other than it's been awarded attention so people can help it out. edmontonenthusiast [ee] .T.A.L.K. 17:43, 18 December 2008 (EST).
My philosophy is if someone tells you they have misunderstood what is written, there is always someone else who has had the same misunderstanding. It is easy to criticise the reader, and say that the meaning was obvious, and they should have understood what was written. This course of action is inevitably futile. It is always the responsibility of the writer, to make it clear to the reader exactly what is meant, and always the failure of the writer should this not occur.
I was using wikitravel for over a year, before I realised that CotM was not a list of articles who had had the most collaborators over the past month, but rather a list of articles that needed improvement over the next month. I'm not saying that my expression of the concept is better than the previous expression, but I am saying that it needs to be improved. --Inas 18:45, 18 December 2008 (EST)
Good point! Well, maybe you should talk with Peter as he's funneling the new Cotm, you might want to tell him to get a new name aswell! edmontonenthusiast [ee] .T.A.L.K. 18:49, 18 December 2008 (EST).
I don't think that is as important as the title on the main page. Once people get as far into the concept as proposing, voting, etc, I'm sure they know what it means. It is just people visiting the main page that I'm concerned about. Anyway, I'll be really interested to see if we have any more edits. Gold Coast is still sitting at close to no edits at all, after being CotM for a couple of weeks. --Inas 18:57, 18 December 2008 (EST)
Well I don't know any other way than changin the name, and if you change it 1 place, change it the other. Not to mention collaboration means "To work together", so meaning Collaboration of the Month: Articles to Work on for the month. So long as you know what "collaboration" means you should be able to get it. If not, don't guess, learn! And if you are saying we go with a simpler term, I would advise not as I did once and people preferred the one already done cause it's original. Inas, if you find it isn't getting anything, then do some yourself, you live in the country. Also, I think we need better organisation / criteria for Cotms. Like I am almost sure there'll be a bunch for the Edmonton cotm, cause I'm recruiting, I think we need that. A solid number of people who will definitely work on it, plus whoever else. Anyways, that's getting off topic. edmontonenthusiast [ee] .T.A.L.K. 19:07, 18 December 2008 (EST).
Horses for courses. Recruiting people is good. Having a sponsor to coordinate the changes is good. Doing stuff yourself is good too. But, we are talking about the best use of the main page real estate here. Some quick punchy words to get a passing visitor involved in improving a destination article. Clear and concise, not ambiguous. The meaning of collaboration is obvious, sure, but as I just said, it could equally mean an award for the best collaboration last month, especially when placed adjacent to the star articles. --Inas 18:34, 5 January 2009 (EST)

Factually incorrect info on main page

I'm not a regular here, but the main page says "The free trolley-style buses that roam Austin, Texas are known as 'Dillos -- short for Armadillo Express." This used to be correct, but is no longer correct, the Dillos now cost $.50. http://www.capmetro.org/riding/fares_2.asp

OK. The discover section on the main page is automated from a list of interesting facts and has not been working correctly since December. As soon as that bot gets fixed, the info on the main page can be fixed. Thanks for letting us know of this! AHeneen 11:52, 24 January 2009 (EST)
It can be manually updated, I took care of it at Template:Discovercacahuate talk 17:28, 24 January 2009 (EST)

Update "Discover"

Can someone update the Discover section manually please? Thanks --Raffikojian 19:07, 29 January 2009 (EST)

I agree, seeing the same things for 2-3 months is quite boring. AHeneen 20:13, 29 January 2009 (EST)

Gothenburg

The article says "Holy mackerel! The fish market in Gothenburg, Sweden is called Feskekôrka (Fish Church) because of the shape of its building."

Feskekôrka should probably say Feskekörka129.116.32.61 00:05, 24 February 2009 (EST)


Edinburgh

Why on earth did Wikitravel post this today (03/04/2009) : Oddly E is the only letter in the alphabet that's doesn't have a national capital starting with it, unless you count in Edinburgh, Scotland. EDINBURGH IS THE CAPITAL OF SCOTLAND, SO WHY WOULD YOU NOT COUNT IT? THE FACT SHOULD READ, EDINBURGH IS THE ONLY CAPITAL TO BEGIN WITH LETTER E. —The preceding comment was added by 62.25.109.197 (talkcontribs) .

Some people don't consider Scotland a country, since it is part of the United Kingdom where London is the capital. Just as they don't consider Alberta to be a country since it is part of Canada (Alberta's capital is Edmonton, another "E"). I do consider Scotland its own country, but again, some people don't.ZeekLTK (talk) 09:51, 13 June 2013 (EDT)

Spam

The travel news "comic strip" is spam. Someone should delete it... —The preceding comment was added by 58.191.155.98 (talkcontribs) .

Pictures w/Travel News

Just a thought. Would probably need to edit the "newsitem" template to add this, but I don't think having a couple more photos would be too bad (look at the number of photos on Wikipedia). Comments? AHeneen 02:29, 15 March 2009 (EDT)

It looks like a small photo could be entered directly into the text field of the newsitem template. 75px is about right, maybe 100 at the most. LtPowers 11:59, 15 March 2009 (EDT)

Ooh, good idea! If you don't mind, I'm going to copy this discussion and put it over at Wikitravel talk:News Expedition, since I haven't seen either of you two post there and we're already talking about a redesign of the News section. PerryPlanet Talk 21:29, 15 March 2009 (EDT)

Proposed new design for Travel News

somethings wrong...
File:Travel-news-format2.png
something is still wrong...

As I'd previously been discussing on Wikitravel talk:News Expedition, I think the Travel News section here could do with a bit of a change. I've created a suggested redesign of the Travel News section at Wikitravel:News Expedition/Travel news proposal and I'd like to hear what people think about it. Some personal issues that I have that this resolves are:

  • It's a real pain keeping news articles in sync with Travel news.
  • It would be nice to more than three news items at one time (especially since items are often of local interest, so having more items makes the news more likely to be relevant).
  • It makes more sense to separate breaking news/alerts from general news items that are planned and known well in advance.

I think it makes sense to limit the number of news articles in each section to 7±2 (although I'd imagine the "Travel alerts" section wouldn't ever get that large). Also note that the "Current and Upcoming Events" section is for events that are currently happening or are in the future (some of them in the sample aren't, but that's because I created the sample 1.5 weeks ago (-: ). Anyway, please check out the suggested redesign and provide any feedback that you have. Thanks! JYolkowski 20:30, 16 March 2009 (EDT)

Since no-one's complained here and there have been several positive comments on Wikitravel talk:News Expedition, I'll go ahead with this. Thanks, JYolkowski 20:25, 23 March 2009 (EDT)
I like the idea, but something about it's implementation is not quite right... (see image) --Stefan (sertmann) Talk 22:33, 23 March 2009 (EDT)
Doesn't look that bad on my system, but what's with the nested table and double border? Jpatokal 23:44, 23 March 2009 (EDT)
I agree. I'd be perfectly happy with it if you can do away with the redundant outer box. Texugo 00:03, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
Fixed, but the "Featured Articles" section doesn't work right in IE. It's much wider than in Firefox. LtPowers 09:04, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
Thanks, the redundant border was a typo. My screen's only 1024 pixels wide so I didn't see the gap that's pictured in the screen print above (nice monitor, BTW). I think the problem is with the table to the right of it; it's set to have a fixed width of 25em. Previously, with the text in the news articles, the news table expanded to fill all of the space it could, but it doesn't anymore. I'll have to think about how to fix that; suggestions would be welcome. Thanks, JYolkowski 18:48, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
The news table still expands to fill the available width -- at least it does after my fix. The 25em (I expanded it from 20em since the news section needs less width now) is precisely the problem in IE -- for some reason the "Featured Articles" header is the correct width but the box that surrounds the "Featured Articles" section is too wide. LtPowers 22:25, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
Those that are having problems, how does this look? Better/worse? Thanks, JYolkowski 16:35, 25 March 2009 (EDT)
I hate that my laptops widescreen is causing such a racket, but... er... worse (see picture 2) --Stefan (sertmann) Talk 17:17, 25 March 2009 (EDT)
Still, I think it's worth fixing since it's the Main Page. I added a width="100%" to the bottom table, so hopefully that should both bring the two boxes together and expand Travel News as wide as it can go. Is it looking better now? Thanks, JYolkowski 20:34, 25 March 2009 (EDT)
Yup, all good from here. --Stefan (sertmann) Talk 20:35, 25 March 2009 (EDT)
Looks good to me. LtPowers 20:44, 25 March 2009 (EDT)

(unindent) I've applied the change to the Main Page. If this has made the page look a lot worse in someone else's browser and it's not easily fixable, feel free to undo and I'll take another crack at it tomorrow. Cheers, JYolkowski 20:57, 25 March 2009 (EDT)

Changes to the Grey Box

I think Antarctica should be added to the grey box at top as it's a continent as much as the other listings are. We could also add North Pole beside it (I'd prefer "Arctic" to keep the alpha. order, but Arctic can imply parts of Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, & Scandanavia). To balance the odd number of listings, I think we could split Travel topics & Phrasebooks. For some reason, I felt like alternating the alphabetical order between columns and came up with:

Wikitravel is a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable worldwide travel guide. So far we have 27,967 destination guides and other articles written and edited by Wikitravellers from around the globe. Check out the Help page to see how you can edit any page right now, or the Project page for more information about Wikitravel and getting involved.

AHeneen 03:24, 18 March 2009 (EDT)

Apologies, but I don't see any reason to link to directly link articles with so few destinations. Antarctica and the Arctic are covered under "Other destinations", and I think that's entirely appropriate. LtPowers 08:42, 18 March 2009 (EDT)
The basis for being a destinatino on the main page isn't being a continent (Oceania, Middle East, Central America aren't). The North Pole is only related to Antartica in as far as it is relatively chilly, and isn't a continent either. The rationale for regions to be listed on the main page just seems to me that they are the best ones to list on the main page, much like the nine-destination rule. Antartica and the North Pole are always going to be controvercial choices for the best, just based on the number of people who go there. Its like nominating High Plains for the United States article page. Geographically it is just as valid as San Francisco, and probably a nicer place to visit, but... --Inas 22:13, 23 March 2009 (EDT)

Nonsense

What is this nonsense about "E" being the only letter that doesn't start a national capital?

What national capital starts with X? - Ed 10:04, 31 March 2009 (EDT)

Yeah, didn't include Y,X and Z when I came up with that, since they a semi characters that only ever sees use in foreign loanwords in my alphabet, but was surprised later to find that it was only X that also was missing when I remembered that they should probably be included in any English count - dunno, I still find it interesting, in a geeky sort of way :)

Q = Quito U = Ulaanbataar Y = Yeravan Z = Zagreb

--Stefan (sertmann) Talk 10:25, 31 March 2009 (EDT)

There's none with X. The others there are. [1] --Sagechu 17:55, 31 March 2009 (EDT)

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, so the fact is meaningless.

Edinburgh is not a national capital. However, Yerevan is often (especially on old maps) spelled Erevan. Irregardless, there is nothing which starts with an X. AHeneen 00:45, 7 April 2009 (EDT)
Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland.--xgmx (T | C | D | R) 23:17, 12 June 2009 (EDT)

Travel Alerts and Current Events

Just out of curiosity, is there a rule for when to post these? Previously, they were posted on the day on which they occurred (or on the day that a news article was written about it). This month, someone posted all of the "future events" that were written for May, so new news is not featured at the top as it should be. (I had added information about the Okayama Villas and Smithsonian Museum, but they were moved to the bottom to make the dates chronological.) I agree that the chronology makes sense, but I don't like future news being put on the homepage... Is there a rule about when to post the events that are listed as "future events" once their month becomes current? ChubbyWimbus 03:18, 17 May 2009 (EDT)

Let us remove these alerts until there is some automated way to keep them current./Johan Jönsson 16:27, 24 October 2012 (EDT)

Front Page

moved in from pub:

Along with the Collaborations of Month, we have a few other prominent embarrassments on our front page, the news section and the discover sections...

Wikitravel News Team

I'd like to float the idea of starting a News Team, and while that might sound ambitious for the amount of regulars we have around here, I was merely toying with the thoughts of writing up a couple of user names on a project page somewhere, and set it as a personal goal for these users to come up with two travel related news stories per month, which really shouldn't be all that hard.

Rotating discover

What's the status of that bot, can anyone reprogram it? I was thinking (without knowing anything about the scripting) we could divide these into two categories - a date specific category which shows up once in the relevant time frame, and a rotating category where we add all the old (and any new) general discover items and rotate between them on a daily basis, and use these to fill up where we don't have any date specific items. We should already have so many of these items, that it would be a decent time frame between the individual items showing up. --Stefan (sertmann) Talk 20:12, 5 February 2009 (EST)

I think having an expedition or the like for the news is a good idea and sounds interesting. I definitely agree we could do a better job with the news. I'd be curious to know what the bot's status is too. JYolkowski 21:36, 10 February 2009 (EST)
Same here, having a "News Expedition" sounds like an excellent idea! The news section is rather pathetic as it stands now. PerryPlanet Talk 14:30, 11 February 2009 (EST)
I've created Wikitravel:News Expedition. Anyone who's interested, I'd invite you to visit that page and discuss. Thanks, JYolkowski 22:39, 11 February 2009 (EST)

Left Side Bar

Is anybody else seeing this: <label for

It is appearing instead of the search bar, toolbox, and other language listings on the Main Page. ChubbyWimbus 12:06, 19 July 2009 (EDT)

Not me. --Peter Talk 19:23, 19 July 2009 (EDT)
It was doing that for 2 days, but now it's back to normal. ChubbyWimbus 23:04, 19 July 2009 (EDT)

Star Articles

I think the list of star articles on the Main Page should be limited to 5 or 6, like the Travel Alerts and Events. ChubbyWimbus 16:05, 24 July 2009 (EDT)

Go for it.... would look better if the boxes were aligned – cacahuate talk 17:01, 24 July 2009 (EDT)
I'd go for seven to keep the boxes better aligned. --Peter Talk 18:55, 24 July 2009 (EDT)
Well whether we do 6, 7, or 9, the Wikitravel:Main page guidelines should be updated accordingly. LtPowers 10:01, 25 July 2009 (EDT)
Interesting. On that note, the "Travel News" section would need updated, as well. I remember reading a discussion (somewhere) that stated either 5 or 6 as the number that should be on the main page, but the Main page guidelines says 3. ChubbyWimbus 15:04, 25 July 2009 (EDT)

Article Request

Can I request a Bicolano Language phrasebook? Thanks —The preceding comment was added by 89.100.206.201 (talkcontribs) .


You can, but don't hold your breath. Filipino ought to be enough to get you anything you really need in the Philippines. If you're off exploring on your own and find a place where no one speaks Filipino, Tagalog, or English, I think you're beyond the point where Wikitravel can help you. LtPowers 21:03, 24 August 2009 (EDT)

Oceania

Oceania is now placed between Asia and Europe... I know that's because it was "Australasia" first, but maybe it's time to make the list alphabetically again? Globe-trotter 08:35, 16 September 2009 (EDT)

Samoa Switches Driving Side from Left to Right

The article says just the opposite. Driving switched from Right to Left. MMKK 12:17, 16 September 2009 (EDT)

Good call. My appologies! ChubbyWimbus 22:41, 16 September 2009 (EDT)

Misc

"disproportionate amount of festivals" is incorect. Maybe it should be "disproportionate number of festivals"? —The preceding comment was added by 125.237.123.124 (talkcontribs) .

  • Fixed. LtPowers 09:23, 4 November 2009 (EST)

Suggested Feature: Keyword Search

Realize it may involve a major software effort, but I have often visited destination pages while interested only in mention of a specific name, item or topic not specifically called out by our format. Could we find out from other contributors and/or users if such is worth the effort? Regards, jdh

Our search function is a full-text search, so it should return any articles that mention your search term. do you have a specific example that isn't working? LtPowers 14:51, 30 January 2010 (EST)

Was thinking of keyword search that would apply only to all content of a "page" you've already reached, e.g., if at "Saint Thomas" and looking for "boxes", current search will return all mentions of "box", etc., anywhere in the wiki. Thanks for prompt response, dh

That seems like a standard task for the find function built into your browser, which operates only on the current page. Ctrl-F in most software. - D. Guillaime 16:56, 3 February 2010 (EST)

Great idea, thanks. jh —The preceding comment was added by Hennejohn (talkcontribs)

Editing Discover

I've spotted a spelling error in Discover - Arc of the Covenant should be Ark of the Covenant, but can I figure out how to edit a current Discover entry to correct it?? Doh. Help? Andyfarrell 15:20, 4 March 2010 (EST)

See Template:Discover, which is where the magic happens. -- Ryan • (talk) • 17:32, 4 March 2010 (EST)
/scratches head/ It works but I've no idea why it works! Thanks Ryan. Andyfarrell 18:32, 4 March 2010 (EST)

Tromso on main page

For clarity consider inserting "beer" after Mack's. Otherwise it looks as if you are using what in England is known as a "grocer's apostrophe"!Shep 13:26, 15 March 2010 (EDT)

Linking to other language versions

I just went through the Main Pages and Recent Changes pages and noticed that many are not linked to all language versions.

There should be 20 links on each page, but these are short: Main Page:

  • Russian
  • Romanian
  • Polish
  • Dutch
  • Korean
  • Italian
  • Hungarian
  • Hindi
  • Hebrew
  • French
  • Spanish
  • German
  • Catalan
  • Arabic

On the "Recent Changes" pages, these are missing language links:

  • German
  • Arabic
  • Polish
  • Romanian
  • Portuguese
  • Dutch
  • Italian
  • Hungarian
  • Hindi
  • Hebrew
  • French
  • Finnish (also links to itself)
  • Spanish
  • Catalan

The most commonly missing one is Korean, but some are missing even more. I couldn't do anything on the specialpages in any of the language versions to add them. ChubbyWimbus 00:22, 18 March 2010 (EDT)

Washington D.C.

"unparalleled in size and scope throughout the history of mankind" with reference to museums. What exactly does this mean? Unparalleled in size and scope I can accept but museums have only existed for 1% of the history of mankind, if that, so it is a strange hyperbole. Or do our American friends think the history of mankind began with Columbus? Shep 14:56, 16 April 2010 (EDT)

Of course not, history started with the American Revolutionary War.  :)
I read the "scope" as referring to the contents of the museums instead — which is if anything over-restrictive, since much of the Natural History museum's collection far predates mankind. Perhaps removing the words "throughout the history of mankind" would make it sufficiently clear without denigrating the range of the collections? -- D. Guillaime 15:16, 16 April 2010 (EDT)
I guessed as much. Just can't resist an occasional dig at Americans! Perhaps has a collection of free, public museums unparalleled in size and scope, covering the history of mankind, and the lion's share ....? Shep 02:23, 17 April 2010 (EDT)
I'll have to disagree. The museums cover not just human history, but the entirety of existence (courtesy of the astronomical-focused Air and Space Museum). And if we're going to be precise, human history goes only as far back as our stories, and our preserved stories go back only some 4,000 years. Anything before that was prehistory. Granted, museums were around for only about a fourth of that time, but if ever there were a place for superlatives, it's in the lead to a travel guide. --Peter Talk 09:58, 20 April 2010 (EDT)

Kakadu offensiveness

I dont know how to edit the main page and just tried to do it for the last hour but failed. BUT PLEASE the Destination of the month - Kakadu National Park section on the Main Page is extremely offensive and needs to be edited ASAP. The Gagadju people are NOT extinct!! And articles like this one perpetuate the false portrayal of Indigenous people in Australia as historical relics instead of living, thriving, growing and changing communities like everyone else on the planet. PLEASE CHANGE IT ASAP!!! —The preceding comment was added by 109.186.102.98 (talkcontribs)

According to Wikipedia, the language is extinct, the last speaker having died in 2002. LtPowers 09:00, 29 November 2010 (EST)
to [User:109.186.102.98|109.186.102.98] : upon reading the article, i think the issue you brought is ok by now (contributor, 09:16gmt 17-03-2011)

Please edit the Kakadu feature on the main page

The Gagudju people are not extinct and nor is their language! This article is extremely offensive and perpetuates the false portrayal of Indigenous people in Australia as historical relics instead of living, growing, thriving, changing communities like everyone else on the planet. Please change it ASAP!!

From Wikipedia and trying to find other reputable sources, it seems that there were only 6 speakers in 1981 and the last of them died in 2002. I'm sure there are many people with some Gagudju in their ancestry, but the research suggests the authentic speakers and culture are gone. Do you have some reputable source to dispute that? I have no problem changing it, but if this is fact, then it's not offensive, just a sad reality that many indigenous people are forced into. ChubbyWimbus 15:52, 29 November 2010 (EST)

Suggestion: Make Log-on Page Secure

As I long-on, the link shows just HTTP. If not difficult to set up, should that process not be secure? hennejohn 7:20 PM EST 3 Feb 2011

Hennejohn, please just use "~~~~" to sign your posts, then you don't have to type the link, date, and time manually. Please.
As for your question, feel free to go to Wikitravel Shared, which is where we record bugs and feature requests, and leave a note, but don't hold your breath waiting for a response from the site owners. LtPowers 21:19, 3 February 2011 (EST)


Mobile counterpart

Sometime now there is a mobile counterpart, not mentioned here or anywhere else, "m.wikitravel.org".

Its content is somehow different from the content of this site. The difference is not a chronological one, because it misses info that were included earlier in the relevant pages.

Also, upon clicking on "tech requests" or "bug reports" on the left of this page, by this same present Firefox browser takes me to the mobile site, although it shouldn't.

Does anyone know anything about this, obviously relevant, site? Does anyone know how it is related, how it is copying material, why all these issues exist?

I bring this here because upon setting it locally did not get any attention. Upon bringing it to "related projects" did not have a chance either. (contributor, 9:04gmt 17-03-2011)

The way I understood the announcement, is that m.wikitravel.org is merely a mobile optimized mediawiki skin, running on the same database as the rest of the site. The same caching issues that have been plaguing the main site for a while, might be at play here, but I never really noticed any difference --Stefan (sertmann) talk 08:24, 17 March 2011 (EDT)
Well, then check and compare these two:

It is not only the article-less towns that are not mentioned, although even these should be included. (Contributor, as above, 17:32gmt, 21-03-2011)

The only difference I see there is that on the mobile site, the text "Nafplio - A good base to explore surrounding area which includes" is inexplicably missing. I assume it's some sort of formatting issue. There's nothing obvious that would be causing this error. You'll have to contact Internet Brands, or leave a bug report on shared; I don't think there's anything we contributors can do about it. LtPowers 16:01, 21 March 2011 (EDT)
I agree, it is a strange error, contributors are not expected to know much. I was expecting that some Site Keepers would be around, but... maybe some time later. I know the history of this particular article for two years now, i have added some towns after the inclusion of the missing, so the error is not time connected.

Also i was expecting that some words would appear somewhere here for the related mobile site, but i can see nothing at all. Even as a link "if you prefer the mobile version.." etc. This last one is more important than a missing part of an article. This is something that people involved in the infrastructure should set, i think, not contributors. (Contributor, as above, 07:57gmt, 22-03-2011)

Three months later and still not even a word or an action on the issue. Is this some kind of a secret issue? (Contributor, as above, 13:05gmt, 16-06-2011)

I already told you where to go to leave a bug report. As you noted, there's very little we can do, even as admins. LtPowers 15:31, 16 June 2011 (EDT)
Thank you LtPowers. More being the only one talking on this. But it is not about the error, so as to report a bug. The error only gave me a clue for the difference of the underlying mechanism. It is that there's a whole counterpart site growing and not even a word about it from the grower. Such as whether it is related or just a content copier, how it works etc. Not even a word that even exists one such out there, by the host/owner/creator. Anywhere. I agree about "we". But being not the initiator i cannot say/write anything about the intentions, ownership, mechanisms etc of someone else 's work. Only hypothesize. Only that on DNS level it is directing here or there by browser detection. Also that the creator probably is not interested in informing anyone for quite a long time.(Contributor, as above, 07:53gmt, 17-07-2011)

Wikievent

The link to Wikievent is incorrect and it should be http://wikevent.org/ –sumone10154 23:52, 30 March 2011 (EDT)

It's not wrong; Wikevent appears to be having problems. Go to your link and try going to any other page on the wiki. LtPowers 09:40, 31 March 2011 (EDT)

Intro sentence needs a re-write...

"Wikitravel is a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable worldwide travel guide."

  • Free: Yes.
  • Complete: Hardly.
  • Up-to-date: Compared to what?
  • Reliable: Maybe, but not from what I've seen.

It's nice to be ambitious, but maybe be more truthful. --71.141.243.12 18:54, 16 April 2011 (EDT)

You missed a few words in there. It's not "Wikitravel is a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable worldwide travel guide". We're in the process of creating it, right now. Maybe you'd like to help, instead of criticizing our mission statement. LtPowers 18:58, 16 April 2011 (EDT)

this website is

f**cked up. It keeps signing you out every 10mins and errors keep popping up when you try to make an edit?? —The preceding comment was added by Eddi1 (talkcontribs)

I've also been getting random timeouts when editing for the past ten days or so that make the site significantly less usable. An email sent to the Internet Brands technical support list got no response. -- Ryan • (talk) • 19:00, 11 May 2011 (EDT)
I am completely tired of it, I have stopped editing now as it is often impossible or near impossible to upload a larger edit, or if broken down to a series of edits the time outs and page load failures are so mind numbingly frequent that any flow or continuity of the edit becomes obscured. I hope the problem is resolved one day soon. When it is I may return to editing here. -- felix 11:48, 30 May 2011 (EDT)
A more up-to-date discussion can be found at Wikitravel:Travellers' pub#Site times out. It sounds like IB is finally aware of the problem, although since today is a holiday in the US I wouldn't expect any action until later in the week. -- Ryan • (talk) • 11:51, 30 May 2011 (EDT)
Hi Ryan, Yes I read the Travellers pub comments tonight but my experience is the same. I am currently in a different location and the problem seems to remain unchanged from that when I tried a few days ago. Indeed even this edit has been problematic with a couple of failed page loads.-- felix 12:11, 30 May 2011 (EDT)

Granola drop out

Out of interest (see DOM, Frankfurt), what on earth is one of those? Granola I believe is a breakfast cereal virtually unknown outside the US.--Burmesedays 09:54, 19 July 2011 (EDT)

"Granola", as an adjective, refers to "earthy", "hippie" types. LtPowers 11:56, 19 July 2011 (EDT)

Wikitravel Extra

There are fairly prominent links on the Main Page to Wikitravel Extra, but that site seems hugely neglected if not nearly dead at this point. While I never personally used it, browsing it tonight shows that almost all recent activity is advertising and spam. As a result, should it still be featured on the Wikitravel home page ("More on Wikitravel Extra")? There is a link to Extra in the left nav of every page, which seems more than sufficient for a site that seems to be on life support, so I would propose removing the additional links in the main content area of the home page. -- Ryan • (talk) • 00:34, 13 October 2011 (EDT)

Main Page space is scarce; I support freeing up some. LtPowers 08:58, 13 October 2011 (EDT)
Agreed. It's sad that the fledgling Extra site died with the changing of the guard (along with so many other projects to develop the site)... --Peter Talk 19:53, 13 October 2011 (EDT)
I agree too. --globe-trotter 04:34, 14 October 2011 (EDT)
I've removed that section from the page. It's a shame that Extra has been so neglected, but in its current state it doesn't warrant such prominent promotion on Wikitravel. Should it ever be revived then restoring the main page links would obviously be something to reconsider. -- Ryan • (talk) • 10:23, 14 October 2011 (EDT)
Seems to be attracting 'massage' parlour advertising. -- felix 23:18, 17 March 2012 (EDT)

Typo

How do I edit the main page? "Tienanmen" should be "Tiananmen." Ikan Kekek 22:22, 7 January 2012 (EST)

You're looking for Template:Discover, which you should be able to edit. LtPowers 15:21, 8 January 2012 (EST)
What about this time? I edited Tunisia, but the changes don't show up here, and it's embarrassing to read "somtimes milded" in a description of harissa. Ikan Kekek 13:23, 18 June 2012 (EDT)

Incompatibility with Firefox 9.0.1

The MediaWiki software used for wikitravel.org needs to be updated for use with Firefox 9.0.1. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/913376. As of now, the menu on the left appears at the bottom of the page, below all the text on the right. —The preceding comment was added by 117.192.143.197 (talkcontribs)

Well at least it's not just me. Please report all bugs and issues on Wikitravel Shared. Thanks! LtPowers 21:29, 18 January 2012 (EST)

Edit protection

Since, contrary to the longstanding Wiki ethos of Wikitravel you seem to have decided to make the Main Page PERMANENTLY non-editable and protected from editing even by experienced editors such as myself, it might be an idea to change the current HTML remark at the top from

<!-- Attention all spammers: Don't bother editing this. Posting any link here will LOWER its Google ranking. Any changes will be quickly reverted (removed, deleted). The appropriate complaints WILL be made to your ISP. PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE EDITING THE MAIN PAGE! The Main Page is the main welcome point for most new readers of Wikitravel, so we would prefer that changes first be discussed on the talk page: [[Talk:Main Page]]. Please discuss any proposed changes there ***BEFORE*** editing this page..

to something like

<!-- The Main Page is the main welcome point for most new readers of Wikitravel and is permanently protected to prevent vandalism. If you spot any howlers or think that any changes need to be made, discuss them on its discussion page: [[Talk:Main Page]].

don't you think? --118dot93dot73dot30 16:19, 22 April 2013 (EDT)

Top "Beaches"?

Under the Main Page heading "Top Beaches" there is a list of holy sites like Jerusalem, Mecca, the Vatican, Varanasi, and Lhasa. I think someone may have forgotten to change the subheading's title.Travelgeek (talk) 20:15, 17 May 2013 (EDT)

Thank you for catching that so fast! ;) Oops... --IBobi (talk) 20:47, 17 May 2013 (EDT)

"Discover" photo mistake

Under the heading "Discover" at the bottom of the main page, this is one of the bullet points:

  • Trekking in Nepal where you can see some of the world's highest mountains, including Mount Everest (picture).

However, the photograph is of a car in Cuba, not of Mount Everest. I think someone accidentally forgot to change the explanation of what the picture was. Travelgeek (talk) 08:35, 18 May 2013 (EDT)

Thanks Travelgeek! In the section "Discover" we are featuring 4 articles, with Americans in Cuba as the top one. That's why we put a car in Cuba as a featuring picture:) I hope this explains it. Thanks a lot for staying alert! All the best, IBAlex (talk) 13:46, 20 May 2013 (EDT)

June DOTM

Okay, so today is June 1st. Why is Barcelona still the Destination of the Month? Shouldn't there be a new one?Travelgeek (talk) 16:04, 1 June 2013 (EDT)

Hello Travelgeek! you are perfectly right, thanks for noticing. Be sure the DOTM will be changed tomorrow at the very latest; perhaps it required some adjustments before publishing, I don't know. As the DOTM's choice is multilateral (votes, etc.) we have to wait a little bit more for the main admin as they keep records of these factors. Thanks again! PierrB (talk) 02:22, 2 June 2013 (EDT)
Hey, Travelgeek! Thanks for staying alert! :) Sorry for putting June's DOM with a short delay but here it is...Hong Kong. Would you like to help us choose June's Off the Beaten Path destination? We would be happy to get your suggestions. Thanks! IBAlex (talk) 14:33, 4 June 2013 (EDT)
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