Latest revision as of 14:11, 14 January 2025

Editing of this page by new or unregistered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. See the protection policy and protection log for more details. If you cannot edit this page and you wish to make a change, you can request unprotection, log in, or create an account.

Village pumps

policy

tech

proposals

idea lab

WMF

misc

• Refining the administrator elections process
• Blocks for promotional activity outside of mainspace
• Voluntary RfAs after resignation

• view
• edit
• history
• watch
• archive
• talk
• purge

Main Page error reports

• WP:ERRORS
• WP:MP/E

National variations of the English language have been extensively discussed previously: Misplaced Pages does not prefer any national variety of English. While Misplaced Pages strives to use language common to all English varieties, some spelling, grammar, or terminology may differ or be absent in a reader's preferred variety. Refer to the relevant style guide on national varieties of English and see a comparison of American and British English.

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

• Main Page queue

In the news

candidates

discussion

admin instructions

Did you know

nominations

discussion

queue

BotErrors

Protected pages

Commons media protection

Associated

• Error reports
• General discussion
• FAQ
• Help
• CSS
• Sandbox
  • CSS
• History
• Alternatives
• April Fools'

• It is currently 15:28 UTC.
• Purge the Main Page
• Purge this page

• 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 15:28 on 14 January 2025) 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. (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.

Errors in the summary of the featured article

Today's FA

Tomorrow's FA

Day-after-tomorrow's FA

Errors with "In the news"

Errors in "Did you know ..."

Current DYK

• ... that of the 156 Conestoga wagons (pictured) brought to the Braddock Expedition of the French and Indian War, only one remained intact by the campaign's end? That's not what the article seems to say. "Only a few wagons of the Braddock Expedition ultimately remained, and they were returned to their original owners when the vehicles arrived at Wills Creek in Pennsylvania." and "In total, 156 wagons are thought to have been employed for the disastrous Braddock Expedition, the only wagon to survive intact being that of William Douglas." meaning that only one wagon survives until now, but multiple survived the expedition (or else they couldn't have been sent back to their owners surely). Fram (talk) 09:06, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

  Also, surely it should be 'employed by' or 'taken on' the expedition 'during' the war, not 'brought to ... of'. Modest Genius 13:17, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

  A rewording does not seem to be in the scope of Errors. The definition of "brought" is "take or go with (someone or something) to a place." which seems close enough to "taken on". SL93 (talk) 02:16, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

  Pinging nominator PrimalMustelid. SL93 (talk) 18:03, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Sorry, but that is not what the source says. It says (I quote):

The number of Pennsylvania wagons that arrived back at Wills Creek has not been definitely established. For the service of their wagons, 30 owners received payment for a period greater than the 51 days, but of these, only 10 were paid for services beyond what appears to be July 20. Only the wagon of William Douglas, out of 146 wagons involved, seems to have survived the campaign intact. Inasmuch as the other owners were reimbursed for loss of their wagons, it is likely that those few that arrived back at Fort Cumberland were so badly damaged as to render them unserviceable, and therefore not worth driving back to eastern Pennsylvania.

In short, the writer is talking about the situation at the end of the campaign, where only the one appears to have survived the campaign in serviceable condition, the others being too damaged to be worth retaining.

Please note that I am about to log off so will not be able to respond further today. Gatoclass (talk) 18:13, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

So am I expected to emend the hook and/or article, or has the situation resolved itself? PrimalMustelid (talk) 18:34, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Can someone please pull or correct this? What's the purpose of this page? Fram (talk) 09:44, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Per Gatoclass, my read is that several wagons were in some form you could vaguely still call a wagon, not completely smashed to bits but not usable, a la a totaled car. Only one was actually intact. That could very much be clarified in the article, but as long as there's not a hook–source disagreement, I'm not currently seeing a need to pull. If another admin disagrees, they're welcome to hit the button. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 10:03, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

There is no indication that the wagons which were returned to their owners where "not usable". Only of the "those few that arrived back at Fort Cumberland were so badly damaged as to render them unserviceable" do we know that they were so badly damaged, but it seems (from Gatoclass' pst) that there were only 10 kept in use after 10 July anyway, the others either already damaged or sent back to their owners. There is no indication, in the source nor in the article, that all 155 other wagons were not "intact". Fram (talk) 10:13, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

I'm not following your logic at all. The source plainly states that Only the wagon of William Douglas, out of 146 wagons involved, seems to have survived the campaign intact. If it's the only one to have survived intact, then none of the others made it back to their owners, otherwise they too would have "survived intact". Gatoclass (talk) 12:20, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for proving my point. You state "none of the others made it back to their owners", but the article states "Only a few wagons of the Braddock Expedition ultimately remained, and they were returned to their original owners when the vehicles arrived at Wills Creek in Pennsylvania. " Like I already said in my opening post. It can't both be true at the same time that "none of the others made it back to their owners" and "a few wagons were returned to their original owners". Fram (talk) 12:33, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Yes, the article contradicts itself by misstating the source. But that can be fixed simply by editing the article to comply with the source, there is no need to pull the hook. Gatoclass (talk) 12:48, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

If only someone had pointed out yesterday that the hook and the article contradict each other, e.g. by stating about the hook "That's not what the article seems to say." with the relevant quotes. What an utter waste of time is this page and some of its responders yet again. Fram (talk) 13:03, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

If only someone had the ability to improve an article... the fifth bullet point at the top of this page might prove instructive. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 13:07, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Fram, with respect, the point of your original post was hardly crystal clear. It appeared to me that you were claiming only one of the wagons is still extant today. If you'd simply said the article contradicts itself, there would have been no room for misinterpretation.

Regardless, I have now edited the article to conform with the sources. Gatoclass (talk) 13:23, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

With similar quantities of respect, looking at this for the first time now, the original report was crystal clear in describing the problem IMHO. The hook and the article said different things. That's a problem whichever way you look at it, and had I seen this yesterday I would have certainly replaced the hook and pushed it back to a later date. Better to err on the side of caution and give time for the issues to be ironed out. Also, the article now says 146 wagons but the hook still says 156. Which is correct? Cheers  — Amakuru (talk) 13:38, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Not at all. On re-reading the original post, it still isn't at all clear that the poster is trying to point out a contradiction - or that a contradiction even exists, because wagons could have been "returned to their original owners" in a non-intact state. And if Fram was trying to simply point out a contradiction, what was the point of the statement meaning that only one wagon survives until now, but multiple survived the expedition (or else they couldn't have been sent back to their owners surely). That only confused the issue. So you may think the point was "crystal clear", but it seems every bit as confusing to me now as it did originally. Perhaps it only seems crystal clear to you because you had the benefit of this thread to clarify matters?

Regardless, thanks for pointing out the number error in the hook - fixed. Gatoclass (talk) 14:01, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

If quoting the hook and then stating "That's not what the article seems to say" immediately afterwards is not "trying to point out a contradiction"... Fram (talk) 14:17, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Well, every question raised here is an attempt to highlight a contradiction of some kind - the point I have tried to make is that the content of the contradiction you were attempting to highlight wasn't clear - at least to me. But there's no point dragging this out any further. There was a misunderstanding, these things happen, I suggest we just forget about it and perhaps resolve to do a little better next time. Gatoclass (talk) 14:43, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Next DYK

Next-but-one DYK

Errors in "On this day"

Today's OTD

Tomorrow's OTD

Day-after-tomorrow's OTD

Errors in the summary of the featured list

Next Monday's FL

(January 20)

"45 men have served in 46 presidencies". That's true now, but that text will still display on inauguration day. The extra presidency refers to President Grover Cleveland, but Trump is about to enter the same status. So the number of men won't change, but the number of presidencies will. Despite Martin Luther King day, 46 will be wrong after noon Eastern Time or 1700 UTC, January 20. Art LaPella (talk) 07:22, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

If someone remembers, this can be amended in real time on the day...  — Amakuru (talk) 07:26, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

OK. Art LaPella (talk) 07:34, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Friday's FL

Monday's FL

Errors in the summary of the featured picture

Today's POTD

Tomorrow's POTD

General discussion

• T:MP
• WT:MP

Usability and discoverability

I would expect the main page of the encyclopedia to prominently feature both a table of contents and a search feature. This page has a lot of trivia, which is a nice secondary function, but no longer seems to serve its primary functions very well. It does have a search feature, but it's a small icon up at the top in a bar of icons, rather than being front and center and already open with a box to type in words (in the style of a search engine, like ).

It's a bit weird we visibly link to Misplaced Pages:Contents/Portals, but the only link to Misplaced Pages:Contents (which is important enough it's linked to from every page on the site) is hidden behind the pancake menu icon in the upper left. We do have templates like Misplaced Pages:Contents/TOC navbar that could be used directly on this page as a better gateway to actual articles, for those that are curious but don't have any particular query in mind or are looking for inspiration. Beland (talk) 20:26, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Agree about the trivia, but remember opinions here come from the trivia writers. Last time I looked at portal usage statistics, it looks like a few people click to see what they are, and most of them don't click anything further. Art LaPella (talk) 03:55, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

This appears to be an objection to the WP:SKIN, not the contents of Main Page itself. The default skins on desktop and mobile both have a large search box or icon right at the top of every page. The desktop skin also has a link to Misplaced Pages:Contents in the menu shown on every single page. If you don't like the way that requires opening the menu before that link is visible, I suggest you bring it up on an appropriate talk page for the skin (perhaps Misplaced Pages talk:Vector 2022) or at the village pump. Modest Genius 14:09, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

• Main Page discussions