Talk:Main Page

Main Page error reports

To report an error in content currently or imminently to appear on Main Page, use the appropriate section below. Reports should contain:

• Where is the error? An exact quotation using {{!xt}} of the text in question helps.
• Offer a correction if possible using {{xt}}.
• References are helpful, especially when reporting an obscure factual or grammatical error.
• Time zones. The Main Page runs on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, currently 01:53 on 6 June 2026) and cannot be 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.)
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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

Qojin doesn't get married at 23; Genghis rejects the proposal discussed in "Qojin was around 23 years old when this proposal occurred, making her older than usual for a bride of the time period." Instead, her page says she marries a different person sometime between 1023 and 1026, when she could be anywhere from 23 to 27. Bernanke's Crossbow (talk) 01:07, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

A possible emendation could be: "... that Genghis Khan's daughter Qojin got married between ages 23 and 27, older than usual for a Mongol woman?" Bernanke's Crossbow (talk) 01:08, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

Can't believe I missed that; fixed, cc @Vermont, Dclemens1971, Lajmmoore, and Jolielover. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 01:17, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

Errors in "On this day"

Errors in the summary of the featured list

Monday's FL

(June 8)

Wednesday's FL

(June 10)

Friday's FL

(June 12)

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.

General discussion

Unequal column widths in main page layout

Currently, the main page has a two-column layout where the left column has a width of 55% and the right column has a width of 45%. I don't think this looks very good; it seems uneven and unintentionally misaligned.

I think this issue would be much less apparent if the two columns weren't directly below the "Welcome to Wikipedia" text, which is center aligned. Older revisions of the main page where the "Welcome to Wikipedia text" isn't center-aligned and the Spanish Wikipedia's main page both have unequal columns but don't have the "lopsided" feeling, since it's harder to notice and looks more intentional without a centered element right above the columns.

I know this issue has been brought up multiple times before (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), but I want to see if people think any differently about it now. — alpine0x37 (talk · contribs · block user) 18:43, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Here's a mockup of what a main page with equal column widths would look like. — alpine0x37 (talk · contribs · block user) 19:12, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

I've always found this strange and raised a similar concern when the 'Welcome' text was moved to centre aligned a few years ago (though couldn't find that discussion in the archives on a quick search). I understand the 55/45 balance is deliberate, but I don't know what the actual reasoning for it was. It's sufficiently close to 50/50 to have little effect, but sufficiently far off that it looks odd. It should be easy enough to adjust the main page balance to accommodate 50/50 e.g. by having one more item in ITN or OTD. Perhaps there's some other reason for the imbalance that I'm missing? Modest Genius ^talk 12:22, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

It's been 55:45 since the modern-style Main Page was deployed in February 2004, though the history has a couple of brief times it was tweaked to try and avoid length-balance issues by giving one side more space (example).

The very first test version of that was I think this, which was 40:60 (the FA was on the right; it switched to left shortly afterwards and became 60:40). But nothing on Wikipedia talk:Main Page/Test seems to mention the imbalance. I wonder if it was just an early arbitrary choice to get the columns balanced? Andrew Gray (talk) 17:42, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

Yes, the instituting diff for 55:45 was this one with the text of not enough space on the right?. 60:40 did look like it was squishing the right column quite a bit. The prior main page was 53:47, which had different kinds of content on the main page (just to make the point, the version before the content change). Going further back I see 58:42, 60:40, and 61:39, which is the ratio at which the columns were introduced in January 2003 for the 2nd birthday. IOW, it's always been slightly offtilt, and from what I can see regardless of whether the content above was centered or had its own lean. We seem to like imbalance in our main page. Izno (talk) 05:22, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

Just go to a single column and all issues with balance ( between columns, berween section)would be automatically solved forever, never to return. User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 22:42, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

Village pump has idea

WP:VPP. _{In solidarity}Wikipedian12512 (Talking is fine | contribs) 17:15, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

Which discussion are you referring to? There are several there. RudolfRed (talk) 18:36, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

The main page one. _{In solidarity}Wikipedian12512 (Talking is fine | contribs) 19:12, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

TAFI _{In solidarity}Wikipedian12512 (Talking is fine | contribs) 19:12, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

I've already left a notice to that discussion here before, see Special:Diff/1354705702, which was made via Template:Please see. Should that notice be revived in the place of this (unclear) section? - BlueEleephant (talk · contribs) 21:58, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

Sea of blue

The Main Page's subtitle has always had an annoying quirk: the fact that it links both the words "free" and "encyclopedia" despite them being near each other, thereby violating MOS:SEAOFBLUE:

Do not place links next to each other that appear to be a single link, as in [[chess]] [[tournament]] (chess tournament). Instead, consider using a single and more specific link, such as [[chess tournament]] (chess tournament). If this is not possible, consider omitting one of the links (chess tournament) [...]

I don't see the need to violate or overrule this guideline, on the main page no less! I, as I'm sure many other readers, have often been confused after clicking what I thought was a link to free encyclopedia but which turned out to only be a link to one of the two words. To fix this annoyance, as NebY nicely explained in their edit summary, if we're going to unlink one of two words on sea-of-blue grounds, it should be the overlinked everyday word used in an ordinary way, not the term we're using in a particular way as linked.

Plus, encyclopedia is the very first wikilink in the Wikipedia article, which arguably makes its presence on the main page redundant. So, this is my proposed change:

−

[[free content|free]] [[encyclopedia]]

+

[[free content|free]] encyclopedia

FaviFake (talk) 13:30, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

Support. But also "free" is also a everyday and widely understood term, and could also be unlinked — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 13:47, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

The reason why it's link it's to distinguish it (free as in speech) from free as in beer (the "gratis versus libre" ambiguity). FaviFake (talk) 13:55, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

We link to Free content, which is highly specific, talking of "copyright and other legal limitations" in the first paragraph. Of course, Wikipedia is also free of charge and freely available, but that remains true of most of the internet and even of other online encyclopedias such as Britannica, but they're not free content and thus neither available for copying nor editorially constrained by that availability as Wikipedia is. NebY (talk) 19:40, 5 June 2026 (UTC)