Portal talk:Main/Archive 2006

This is the discussion for the Main Page. Here the layout and contents of the Main Page can be discussed, including the encyclopedia categories.

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Collaboration of the Week

I've posted this on Ten Forward as well. I think a big problem with MA right now is that while we are all willing a make little changes, nobody really wants to do the major work on something like an episode summary, or major event (ie Earth-Romulan War, and Babel Crisis) I think a partial sollution would be to create a Collaboration of Week on the main page. It would be the main focus, and after a week is replace with another major page needing attention. Jaz 02:30, 7 Jan 2006 (UTC)

I took the bait and overhauled the Earth-Romulan War.  :) Aholland 22:48, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

IRC alert

It has been suggested to me by Matthew Fenton that we post an alert on the main page for a few days telling people about the new Memory Alpha IRC channel. Because the "chat" link is already in the navigation bar at the left, I don't feel this is particularly necessary, but others may find it useful. What do you guys think? --From Andoria with Love 19:48, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Umm, if they don't notice the link on the navigation bar it seems unlikely that they'll notice this... Then again, I guess things on the nav bar do blend together sometimes. I don't know, it couldn't hurt. --Vedek Dukat ^{Talk | Duty Roster} 01:33, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Trek News

I have a suggestion... since the "Did You Know" section has not been changed since Jesus Christ walked the Earth, and since they're just random bits of trivial info that we appear to be running out of, I thought maybe we could replace that template with one for news relating to Star Trek and those involved with the franchise. This would entail things such as upcoming Trek productions and events, releases for DVDs, books, and games, updates on what Trek cast and crew are doing, death notices, marriages, etc. What does everyone think about that? --From Andoria with Love 19:32, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Definitely gets my support - remove "Did you Know", add something like "News", and perhaps merge that with the template for DVD releases while we're at it. Shran, perhaps you can already create that template and link it here to show everyone what might be the future content? -- Cid Highwind 19:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Example

Here's an example of what this template might look like:

Latest News

Article of the Week

Comedian Sarah Silverman, the actress who played Rain Robinson in VOY: "Future's End", is set to star in her own comedy series on Comedy Central. She has also joined the cast of the film School for Scoundrels, opening in July. [1] CBS, which recently came into possession of the Star Trek television franchise as well as Trek-themed public attractions, is planning to sell Star Trek: The Experience operator Paramount Parks. [2] Teresa E. Victor, the long-time assistant to actor Leonard Nimoy and an occasional actress on Star Trek films, has died. She was 62 years old. [3]

Template:ArticleOfTheWeek — From Memory Alpha's Featured Articles

What do ya'll think? (Go ahead and make any modifications you see fit to the layout). --From Andoria with Love 20:02, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

• Looks excellent, and love the colors. I've been waiting awhile for the 'Did you Know' section to be updated, but this would be even better. It has my full Support. - Adm. Enzo Aquarius 20:19, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

• I agree about the colors, but as Cid pointed out on IRC, we need to find out some kind of color code to match the news items with (i.e. blue for cast/crew news, green for studio news, yellow for production news, black for death notices, red for marriages, etc.) The colors were Cid's idea, btw. ;) --From Andoria with Love 00:00, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Just a hint: we already have a news section on the mainpage, it's currently filled with outdated DVD releases (which should be removed completely). If you want to put the news on it, please use this section. I oppose to the removal of the Did You Knows, if we can't find someone to update them we should change the mode to a monthly rotation filled with the material of the archive, it's still interesting for new guests visiting the MA. --Memory 00:41, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

This is a great idea so long as someone is willing to keep it up to date. I don't want this discussion to fade into obscurity - we need to either move the DYKs to the current "latest DVDs" section or put news in that section. It would seem like news comes before trivia, but at the same time, I think it's a lot easier to keep trivia updated than news. I might start the project Memory hinted at if I get time - I'm already planning a way to salvage the Did You Know process. --Vedek Dukat ^{Talk | Duty Roster} 20:08, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

If this is approved, I will certainly try my damndest to update it. Also, I would think that news takes prescedence over trivia, but that's just one little blue-skin's opinion. :P --From Andoria with Love 20:10, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

In Defence of the Did You Knows?

I love the Did You Knows, because very often a couple of of them I didn't. In fairness it is updated less than a feature like that demands, but instead of removing it, why not halve it in size. The Did You Know Trivia would go further and its a welcoming element on a page for Trekkies that aren't as knowledgable sa the rest of you.

In addition, I think a news page would inevitably become US based and while yes if Sarah Silverman gets her own sitcom it is of minor interest to a Trekkie, I bet the news page won't give me a heads up when its on in the UK. The wonderful thing about the content of Memory Alpha is that its written from the most inclusive stance, and the front page could do with reflecting that. Igotbit 10:31, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Discussions?

Should we add a link to important discussions on the main page (e.g. AoTW, Votes for featured articles, votes for deletion, etc.)? These would attract more people to these discussions and there may be more votes all in all.  :) --Galaxy001 22:28, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

No. Most of these discussions require you be an active member for at least a week, so it's not really necessary. Jaz ^{talk | novels} 22:35, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

So you think it would attract non-activists? That makes sense then... --Galaxy001 22:42, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

We do have links to some things on the recent changes page, but I think people who are interested will find most pages relevant to them, e.g. AotW is linked to on MA:FA, which is linked to on the main page. There are a few pages, such as MA:CS, which are pretty obscure - but in the case of CS, I raised the issue on IRC a little while ago and now it's under "utilities" on the recent changes page. If there's anything you think should get more attention somehow, feel free to bring it up on Ten Forward or IRC. --Vedek Dukat ^{Talk | Duty Roster} 01:26, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Whopper 1

I think adding a question mark after Did you know would be best, its not a run on sentence, and it would be more organised. Whopper 00:16, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Shatner note

I added a note about William Shatner's birthday, its formatted to be removed at the end of the day. -- Captain M.K.B. 15:23, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Removed. -- Cid Highwind 09:15, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Fix Spanish lk

I'd do it, but I can't edit the main page. Under the different language MAs, the Spanish link needs to be changed to http://memory-alpha.org/es/wiki/portada. -Platypus Man | Talk 13:30, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Those links can be edited via Template:International. However, there seems to be something wrong with the "es" prefix - we could add a direct link as suggested above for the moment, but I'm not sure if we should. -- Cid Highwind 09:16, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Banner announcements

I think it might be time to adopt some sort of policy for the use of those banner announcements... condolences after the death of major actors/production personnel are okay, but I think recent ones might be going a little overboard... ;) -- SmokeDetector47^{( TALK )} 03:04, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

As my first official action, I concur. Besides deaths, since they're kind of sudden and implied, should a mini-vote be made? Policies though, definitly. (Hm, I wonder which recent ones you are speaking of?) (Thanks though blue skin) - AJ 03:12, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

I think he's also referring to our inclusion of wishing William Shatner a happy 75th birthday, so it's not just me. :P Anyways, I guess banner announcements should only be used for deaths. (And you're welcome, pink skin. ;)) --From Andoria with Love 03:36, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

I was thinking things like birthdays, etc. would work quite well in a new box similar to what Shran proposed above, since the "Did You Know" box is not frequently updated and it's somewhat difficult to find appropriate ones and write them. Something like "Recent events" or "Current events" or "Star Trek birthdays" or "This day/week in Trek history" or something like that... as long as the community keeps it relatively up to date, that is. :) But I feel only messages that are important enough to be the first thing someone sees when visiting Memory Alpha should be death notices of major individuals or some other really, really important announcement like the upcoming 40th anniversary or the launch of a new series/movie. -- SmokeDetector47^{( TALK )} 03:58, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

User:Florian K has a bot that takes information from the Memory Alpha archive and places them on templates. This should in time make it no longer necessary to update our daily templates in MA/de. MA/en is much larger, so the bot could really find something here -- Kobi - (Talk) 08:59, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

I, too, think that we should banner announcements sparingly, if at all. With a possible "News" section and perhaps a "Today in Trek history" feature as suggested, there wouldn't be too much left to be placed in an extra announcement. Perhaps we could simply start a "calendar" template and see where that brings us. Naming suggestion: "Template:Calendar/MM/DD". Via {{Template:Calendar/{{CURRENTMONTH}}/{{CURRENTDAY}}}}, information about the current day could then be included somewhere. Today would then be: Template:Calendar/04/19. -- Cid Highwind 11:37, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Oooh, a calendar template. I like that idea. :) --From Andoria with Love 02:35, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Main page suggestion

User:Cid Highwind/Main Page

Given the discussion above, I decided to post this suggestion here, although I'm still working on it. It already makes use of some features that are still being discussed, namely "portals" (see MA:TF), a weekly DYK template (see Template talk:DidYouKnow) a news section and a "Daily history" section (see above). Anything below the heading "Old one" is, obviously, the current main page, which would later be removed. Feel free to comment here, on the other relevant discussions or the talk page of that suggestion. -- Cid Highwind 11:48, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Any comments on this suggestion? -- Cid Highwind 20:28, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

It looks good. Although I hope you would keep the content of the bottom parts of the current main page. Like "Encyclopedia" and "Community". It also incorporates the suggestion from TF about putting the language links in a more prominent location. --Bp 20:34, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I like the idea, however, I feel that news will tend to be out dated. I think we should go with your idea, but have a back-up (ie picture of the day) for when we are short on news. Jaz ^talk 20:38, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Spanish Memory Alpha

Could someone add the spanish memory-alpha link to the main page?

vandalism on main page

Ugh! Will someone fix that?--Kchisho1970 22:01, 29 April 2006 (UTC)!

And please ban whoever the is sicko that put that up!--JDB

Wikipedia protects the images on its main page. I think we should do the same. Jaz ^talk 22:38, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Memory Alpha Link on BSG Wiki

Because of the commonaility between Ronald D. Moore with both Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, we added you to our main page under "Friends". http://www.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page (On the Bottom). :) --Shane 20:20, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Language

We should put a template at the bottom of the page that told all our languages and had links to them. Do we have a version in Klingon?--Gangsta-Easter-Bunny 22:53, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

There are links to other versions both in the sidebar and at the bottom of the page already. No one's started a Klingon version yet... -- SmokeDetector47^{( TALK )} 04:55, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Ron Moore archive

Some of you may remember Ronald D. Moore's chat sessions while he was working on DS9. I don't think his behind-the-scenes perspective has been incorporated into Memory Alpha yet, but here is a link to an archive of his posts.--StAkAr Karnak 19:17, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

in the press

Is it worth showing the readers that memory-alpha was in the NY Times - how cool is that? http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia_in_the_news#July_2006 [Gil] ([talk]) 04:00, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

ENT Did you know?

The entry regarding "Broken Bow" is incorrect. Williams was a Commander, not an Admiral. Can someone fix it? --Kevin W. 02:32, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

It says on the main page that "In a Mirror, Darkly" was the 700th episode to be hour-long. Funny, since there are only 500 or so ST episodes altogether.

Let's do the math: 79/80 TOS + 178 TNG + 176 DS9 + 172 VOY + 98 ENT = 700+, (you could also add to that + 21 TAS + STM) --Alan del Beccio 22:18, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

703/704 of the live action TV episodes all together (darn you Alan, beat me to it). --OuroborosCobra ^talk 22:24, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

I cannot see how I made such a miscalculation. Still is does not explain how you can say it is the 700th hour-long episode when, to my knowledge, all episodes of Star Trek are around 45 minutes long. Perhaps this is me, opening the proverbial can of worms. --Optrirominiluikus 06:54, 6 October 2006 (CET)

Oh come on now, that is just being overly nitpicky. Sure, they are about 45 minutes of footage, but they air on TV over a one hour period due to commercials. The term is still "1 hour program", due to how they air. That is what the industry means when they say "1 hour drama", or "30 minute drama", it is how long the program takes up air time, including commercials. --OuroborosCobra ^talk 05:00, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Ah. Ok. --Optrirominiluikus 15:45, 6 October 2006 (CET)

Majel Barrett's Did you know

"...that Majel Barrett Roddenberry shares a writing-story credit for..."

Surely that's 'story-writing' not 'writing-story'!Ehdee 00:44, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

DVD Releases

For STar trek the animated series there is no region release date, however if you visit the official star trek dvd site (http://www.startrekuk.co.uk) and click on the release schedule they hav it slated for release on December 4th.

Munnp001 16:51, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

And that (region 2) release date has been confirmed by the new Star Trek Magazine. --Jörg 16:55, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

In a Mirror, Darkly portion

the "pre-credits sequence" is properly referred to as the "teaser". Deevolution 23:14, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Memory Beta?

Those friggin non-cannon scumbags ripped our name! Isn't that some sort of infringement? Just thought I'd bring it up...--CaptainCaca 23:23, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

The name "Memory Alpha" comes from something in Star Trek (see Memory Alpha), so it would not be infringement at all. In addition, Memory Beta (by the way, in the future, it would be a good idea to provide a link yourself) is the non-canon Star Trek wiki. That does not make them scumbags. They are covering something we are not, the information from the novels and such. THere is nothing wrong here. --OuroborosCobra ^talk 23:31, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

As a scumbag administrator from "Memory Beta", I must admit that I my heart has been well and truly warmed by the support shown from fellow wikipedians. We are in the selecting a new name from the wiki based on a choice of Memory Beta or Memory Prime. There are two reasons for this (1) we recognise the success that "Memory Alpha" has been, and see our wiki as an extension that features Expanded Universe information, as stated by OuroborosCobra, and (2) both the names have been mentioned both on-screen and in print.

So we are not rip-off merchant's, we are simply complementing the excellent work done here on Memory Alpha. Some users have expressed some concerns about this practise, as several users from MA have come over and called our wiki "quaint" and "less-real". I didn't share these concerns until today. How sad :-(.--The Doctor 00:02, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Please do not take the opinion of one disgruntled member as the opinion of all, or even a large number, or even a small number of us. I have a great deal of respect for what you guys do at your wiki. The only reason I myself do not contribute there is that I do not have any of these novels, and not that many of the games, and therefore do not have the knowledge. What you guys do is not less "real" (how can two things that are both fictional be more "real" than one another anyways), just covering a different area. --OuroborosCobra ^talk 00:07, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Don't get me wrong, we have had some contributers from Memory Alpha that has been very helpful with the wiki, and by no means take the opinions of a few to be held by all, it's just dis-heartening when you read such comments. I'm aware that the wiki had been abandoned for over a year and could be regarded as some sort of joke. But know we have some new administrators and members who are really picking the wiki up, and we would love to gain the numerous contributers you have here to help improve our database. Over the last 9 months we've moved from having 1,000 articles, to nearly 6,000 and continue to grow. :-).--The Doctor 00:17, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, CaptainCaca that almost qualifies as a personal attack, if you could be a little nicer to visitors it'd be appreciated. And as stated, both come from episodes of Star Trek; how should we feel if one of the TOS writers (the one in question has probably passed, I fear) came by and said "ugh, these scumbags copied off the name of that planet we did." Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and in this case shows a unification among Trekkers that is... I dunno, good. (P.S.: A cannon is a weapon that shoots projectiles.) - AJ Halliwell 00:53, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Links to German MA

Could someone please change the links to the (supposed) German memory alpha from /pl/ to /de/? (on the main page and in the lower left section) Thanks

This is a known issue, which will be fixed once Wikia's developers find the time. Thanks. -- Cid Highwind 15:56, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Now, that's ridiculous ... Please change the link. Today is Nov 18th and the link is still wrong. -- 85.176.117.96 13:05, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

It is better to fix the specific problem. As has been said, this needs to be done by the Wikia developers, not Memory Alpha editors or admins. Be patient. --OuroborosCobra ^talk 13:06, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

Main_page

Why was Main Page moved? Looks slightly odd without the H1 -- also.. anyone scrolled to the bottom of this page recently :-\ Mafeu 12:20, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

I moved the page - to remove the H1. That could have been done in other ways, but since we have that working for portal namespace anyway, and the Main Page is a portal page, I chose to do it that way. About removing the H1 itself, don't you think it looks slightly silly (at least superfluous) if the welcoming page says "Main Page - from Memory Alpha"? Removing that H1 has become standard on most big wikis by now, probably for exactly that reason. -- Cid Highwind 12:46, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Encyclopedia Rubric

Can we have this back? It was a very efficient and fast method of finding almost anything with a minimum of effort, slick looking too. It was helpful, so why did we ditch it? Also do we really need Two search fields on the same page?? -- Foravalon 22:46, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

This stuff is going to be in the Portals that are linked in the "Browsing MA" part. That is still being worked on, see Portal:Main/Prototype with Panels. Those Xes will be replaced with some icons for each topic. Also, The double search, we might make the Main Page full width (no left side bar). At least that is an idea, but even if not it will probably stay. --Bp 06:13, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

more loose

Sombody hacked the main picture of quark before it became a featured article.... someone should fix it.

Also, The Voyage Home was the last film to not have Herman Zimmerman involved. The late Jack T. Collis was the designer there. Mr. Zimmerman worked on all films from Star Trek V through Nemesis.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0956717/

Lighter protection

The Main Page is currently protected from being edited by all users without sysop privileges. I recommend lifting the protection to only include unregistered and newly registered users to allow legitimate users who lack sysop privileges but who have contributed to the Main Page (such as bp) to more easily edit the Main Page. Does that make sense? --From Andoria with Love 21:41, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

I oppose. The main page is the first thing people see. If we are going to protect things like the featured article pictures, and picture of the day, etc., simply because they are on the main page, why would we open up that very page to the possibility of vandalism? I have other reasons as well... --OuroborosCobra ^talk 21:47, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

There would be a possibility of vandalism... if protection was lifted entirely. I don't think those users who have been contributing or who will contribute legitimately are going to vandalize the Main Page. By only protecting the page from editing by new and anonymous users, we ensure that only trusted contributors edit the Main Page. --From Andoria with Love 22:21, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

If that were the case, why would we have a sysop level protection from any article period? Also, those things I pointed out that are currently protected are at the sysop level, so my argument still stands. --OuroborosCobra ^talk 22:25, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm all for a lighter protection... after all, that's what "wiki" stands for. Page protection should be the exception, not the norm, and while I don't think that we need to completely open up the main page for anonymous edits, letting logged in users edit seems to be a good thing... unless there's a sudden increase of vandalism, in which case we could protect again. -- Cid Highwind 22:33, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, the sysop level protection is there just in case. For example, some user may come along, make some legitimate edits, then get pissed off at something or someone and go on a vandal spree. So the sysop-only option is just there mainly as a precaution. --From Andoria with Love 22:38, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

It also makes sense against other types of "unwanted" edits besides vandalism - think edit wars between contributors etc. -- Cid Highwind 22:41, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, those, too. :) --From Andoria with Love 22:45, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

So why would we not want that same protection on the main page, the first thing people see? --OuroborosCobra ^talk 23:44, 28 December 2006 (UTC)