Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors

To report an error in content currently or imminently on the Main Page, use the appropriate section below.

• Where is the error? An exact quotation of the text in question helps.
• Offer a correction if possible.
• References are helpful, especially when reporting an obscure factual or grammatical error.
• Time zones. The Main Page runs on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, currently 10:11 on 17 June 2024) and is not adjusted to your local time zone.
• Can you resolve the problem yourself? If the error lies primarily in the content of an article linked from the Main Page, fix the problem there before reporting it here. Text on the Main Page generally defers to the articles with bolded links. Upcoming content on the Main Page is usually only protected from editing beginning 24 hours before its scheduled appearance. Before that period, you can be bold and fix any issues yourself.
• Do not use {{edit fully-protected}} on this page, which will not get a faster response. It is unnecessary, because this page is not protected, and causes display problems because this is not a talk page. (See the bottom of this revision for an example.)
• No chit-chat. Lengthy discussions should be moved to a suitable location elsewhere, such as the talk page of the relevant article or project.
• Respect other editors. Another user wrote the text you want changed, or reported an issue they see in something you wrote. Everyone's goal should be producing the best Main Page possible. The compressed time frame of the Main Page means sometimes action must be taken before there has been time for everyone to comment. Be civil to fellow users.
• Reports are removed when resolved. Once an error has been addressed or determined not to be an error, or the item has been rotated off the Main Page, the report will be removed from this page. Check the revision history for a record of any discussion or action taken; no archives are kept.

Administrators: Clear all reports

Errors in the summary of the featured article

Please do not remove this invisible timestamp. See WT:ERRORS and WP:SUBSCRIBE. - Dank (push to talk) 01:24, 29 September 2022 (UTC)

Errors in "Did you know ..."

Current DYK

Drake equation

• ... that Drake discovered an ancient Chinese city?

@Generalissima, AryKun, AirshipJungleman29, and Ganesha811: Standard practice at DYK is that hooks that perform this kind of mislead are best reserved for (and, in fact, valuable hooks for) April Fools' Day. Since it's early in the run, I suggest we pull this and save it, as it's not really fit for a non-prank set. Lots of people are going to read the hook, think one thing, and then click away (or think we're lying for no good reason). theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 01:11, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

I would be heavily opposed to pulling it. We can have the occasional bit of humor outside of April Fools. Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 01:14, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

humor's fine, but we should generally make it a point to not deliberately mislead our readers outside of things like April Fools' Day. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 01:18, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

I don't think it has much of a chance to actually mislead though; would anyone serious believe it applies to Drake (musician) rather than someone else with the fairly common surname? I mean, there's another example just on the front page today. Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 01:20, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

truly a rare thing in a given conversation when I'm the person with less faith in our readership... anyways, yes, I think someone could reasonably believe that, as it is theoretically possible. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 01:26, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

If Frederick Seguier's name wasn't genuinely Drake, I'd be more hesitant, but I don't see the issue. It's not a stretch or a distortion of anything. In this case, I saw no issue. —Ganesha811 (talk) 01:45, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

I also did a double take at this one enough to check the talk page. Actually, I expected it to be Francis Drake, but this isn't even the same person! It appears deliberately misleading, like saying "That M.J. opened an ice cream shop?" when the initials really referred to someone named Max Jacobs. There are better things to come up with than pure clickbait, it was not the right call. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 05:12, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Surely you're not suggesting impure clickbait would have been better? Levivich (talk) 05:21, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

I've never heard of Drake the musician. Secretlondon (talk) 08:47, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

There's no error, dude called Drake discovered ancient Chinese city. Make it boring if you want but there isn't an error. AryKun (talk) 06:22, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

• Note that there's no primary topic for Drake. In the context of exploration, I first thought of Sir Francis Drake.

As the ancient city presumably had inhabitants and visitors back in its day, I reckon it would be better to say "re-discovered" rather than suggesting that Drake was the first person to find this city.

Andrew🐉(talk) 06:38, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

I too thought the hook was hinting at Sir Francis Drake. There is a musician named Drake? After Sir Francis, the next one I would tend to think of is Drake Maijstral. —David Eppstein (talk) 07:32, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

The irony is that Francis Drake is also mentioned in the "On This Day", which makes it even easier to assume that it was specifically picked to coincide with it. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 07:47, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

The issue of disambiguation often arises at ITN where there's a stubborn resistance to the idea of making the subject clear. For example, see the recent death of Simon Cowell. Andrew🐉(talk) 09:26, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Zxcvbnm, it is not true that the DYK item was placed to coincide with the OTD item. It actually happened the other way around. AirshipJungleman29 placed "Drake" into the DYK queue with this edit. And PFHLai rearranged the OTD set a whole week later with this edit. I suggest that you should not make baseless allegations. Schwede66 09:40, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

I really don't consider this lying or misleading. The guy's name was Drake. What more can you want? ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 10:11, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Two Roosters Ice Cream

@Johnson524, BeanieFan11, and Ganesha811: in Two Roosters Ice Cream, Tripadvisor, PNC Arena, and Discover Durham are not reliable sources (Poole College of Management is also questionable). More controversially, this could be considered a WP:NCORP fail, depending on how narrowly you construe the regionality requirement in WP:AUD. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 01:17, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

I've removed one of the Tripadvisor claims where that reference was the only source. Schwede66 01:40, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

I did consider the WP:NCORP issue, but decided that the case was marginal - I wouldn't be a clear vote for deletion, so fine to let the DYK go ahead. Good point on the Tripadvisor source, though. Would we say Discover Durham is unreliable? It's boosterish, of course, but not necessarily inaccurate. —Ganesha811 (talk) 01:46, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

yeah, it'd be WP:USERGENERATED, I'd reckon. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 01:48, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Looking at how it's used in the article, I'd also say it's more WP:NOR. I agree it's an issue and will remove the sentence from the article. —Ganesha811 (talk) 01:49, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Manganese nitrides

• ... that making the manganese nitride Mn₂N requires a sponge?

@Bernanke's Crossbow and SL93: I'm iffy about this citing a primary-source paper from 1894; particularly because the next paragraph of the article seems to contradict the "requires" by providing an alternate means of synthesis. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 01:26, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

My understanding is that the alternate synthesis is for a different type of manganese nitrate, not Mn2N. I added Mn2N to the hook to account for this. —Ganesha811 (talk) 01:48, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Another, small, change to the same item: Delete the "the", as there is no previous reference as to what manganese nitride it references. —DocWatson42 (talk) 02:00, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

hmm? the "the" refers to Mn2N, as I understand it... theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 02:04, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Yes, "the" is fine here, it is effectively saying "the manganese nitride with the formula Mn2N" (as opposed to the other manganese nitrides). Black Kite (talk) 02:20, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

• This was discussed at Wikipedia_talk:Did_you_know#Prep_6. The points I made were actioned. Andrew🐉(talk) 06:48, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Why did the salamander cross the road?

• ... how salamanders cross the road (pictured)?

This hook has an unconventional structure which doesn't state a plain fact. The hook is not one of those proposed in the nomination so it's not clear where it came from. One reader thinks it's wonderful though.

(later)

A detailed search turns up an extensive discussion of the salamander hook buried in Wikipedia_talk:Did_you_know#"First"_hooks. There ought to be a central place where the history of an article is discussed and tracked. Like its talk page...

Andrew🐉(talk) 07:20, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Errors in "On this day"

Errors in the summary of the featured list

Friday's FL

(June 21)

Monday's FL

(June 17, today)

Errors in the summary of the featured picture

Notice to administrators: When fixing POTD errors, please update the corresponding regular version (i.e. without "protected" in the page title) in addition to the Main Page version linked below.

Any other Main Page errors

Please report any such problems or suggestions for improvement at the General discussion section of Talk:Main Page.