Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/November 2

Frequently asked questions Q1: Why is [Insert event here], an event that is "more important and significant" than all the others that are currently listed, not posted? A1: Relative article quality along with the mix of topics already listed are often deciding factors in what gets posted. Any given day of the year can have a great many important or significant historical events. The problem is that there is generally only room on the Main Page to list about 5 events at a time, so not everything can be posted. As stated on verifiable article over a poor one versus trying to determine objectively how much a subject is important or significant. Keep in mind that the quality requirements only apply to the selected bolded article, not the other links. Thus, an event may qualify for multiple dates in a year if there is an article written in a summary style and an article providing detailed content; if one of those pages have cleanup issues, the other page can be bolded as an alternate. Another criterion is to maintain some variety of topics, and not exhibit, just for example, tech-centrism, or the belief that the world stops at the edge of the English-speaking world. Many days have a large pool of potential articles, so they will rotate in and out every year to give each one some Main Page exposure. In addition, an event is not posted if it is also the subject of this year's scheduled featured article or featured picture. Q2: There are way too many 20th-century events listed. Why aren't there more events from the 19th century and before? A2: The short, basic reason is the writing articles about recent events. If you would like to further help mitigate the systemic bias in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias . Q3: This page seems to be biased toward events based in [Insert country or region here]. What can be done about it? A3: This again is attributed to the systemic bias of Wikipedia. Many users are generally more interested in working on good, well-written articles pertaining to their home country. Since this is the English Wikipedia, there will be more English-speaking users, and thus more articles pertaining to English-speaking countries. And if there are more users who are from the United States, there will probably be more well-written articles about events based in the United States. Again, if you would like to further help mitigate the systemic bias in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias . Q4: Why is the birthday/death anniversary of [Insert name here] not listed? A4: There are only four slots available for birth and death anniversaries. As with the events, article quality and diversity in time period, geography, and reason for notability are all contributing factors in whether an article gets selected for inclusion. Q5: Are the holidays/observances listed in any particular order? A5: Yes, there is a specified order: International observances first, then alphabetically by where observed. Q6: Some of the holidays/observances that are listed have dates in parentheses beside them. What do they mean? A6: There are two reasons that some holidays/observances have dates next to them: Non-Gregorian-based holidays/observances are marked with the current year as a reminder to others that their dates do in fact vary from year to year. Independence Days , and other holidays celebrating the nationhood of a country are generally marked by the year of the significant historic date being observed.

Is the text "The BBC Television Service launched as the world's first regular, public all-electronic high-definition television service." misleading? According to the article, the point is that it was the first all-electronic service. The article puts high-definition into quotes, because it is not HD as the term is now understood. It was just higher than previous mechanical services. --163.153.230.190 (talk) 12:39, 3 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It was certainly considered high-definition at the time. See

chat} 16:35, 3 November 2011 (UTC)[reply

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I think that "at the time" is the key phrase, and would be why it is in quotes in the article. I think that the term high-definition has a different meaning to a reader who assumes that the article was written recently. From a current POV, the technology would be described as standard-definition. Should we put quotes around the term here? --163.153.230.190 (talk) 11:58, 4 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wouldn't hurt, I suppose.

chat} 16:45, 4 November 2011 (UTC)[reply

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