- For an explanation of portals, see Wikipedia:Portals
 | This is a WikiProject, an area for focused collaboration among Wikipedians. New participants are welcome; please feel free to participate!
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Welcome to the new and improved WikiProject Portals. This project was rebooted on 4/17/2018, and is dedicated to the technological evolution of Wikipedia's portal system.
If you would like to improve Wikipedia's portals, and make them more dynamic, you've come to the right place...
Breaking news
We interrupt this broadcast, to bring you this special report...5...4...3...2...1...
2018-04-24: The discussion about the RfC proposal to delete all portals appears to have swayed heavily in favor of keeping portals, but the RfC may run until around May 8th, so it may be too early to call the result. Over 400 editors have participated in the debate so far, and it has become a long and intricate document...
Several editors have gotten together and summarized the key arguments, data and proposals from the RfC in Wikipedia:Consultation on the future of portals.
New Project tasks
The following tasks in this section are all new, and were enacted on 17 April 2018 (UTC).
Current focus
The most important activity right now for this WikiProject is to revitalize Wikipedia's portal system...
It follows a huge debate in April 2018 (see here) which has attracted a very wide spectrum of views. These range from: "I don't use them, relatively few others do, so let's get rid of them all"; through: "they're still useful and provide an alternative route for some users to discover a new subject", to: "people put lots of work into them, please don't get rid of them all".
The contents of much of the portal system has certainly grown out of date. Most (but not all) of this can be automated in various ways, to reduce the need for manual updating by editors. Many of the initial edits in this effort may need to be done by hand (to set things in motion).
The purpose of Portals as "topic tasters", providing an alternative and potentially attractive route for new users to sample articles across a broad subject areas, is perhaps also rather misunderstood.
Many of the tasks included below pertain to upgrading and updating the entire portal system, and there are links to design discussions on upgrading particular features. In addition, maintenance is a renewed priority, and that is covered too. You are welcome to join in on the fun...
Reassess function and purpose, minimum content criteria and promotion/branding
See questions we need to ask ourselves on this section of our talk page.
Inspect portals
Get familiar with the issues involved with revamping them. Help identify what needs to be done, and what portions of that can be automated. Inspect as many as you have time for, and share what you learn on this WikiProject's talk page.
They are listed at Portal:Contents/Portals and Portal talk:Contents/Portals#These are not listed yet.
Please keep your eyes open for, and report the following:
- Portals will fully automated news feeds
- Fully automated portals
Add missing entries to Portal:Contents/Portals
If you like WikiGnome tasks, this section is for you...
There is a list of unlisted portals at Portal talk:Contents/Portals#These are not listed yet.
Each item in that list needs to be processed as explained below. Please do as many as you have time for. Every little bit helps...
First, look at a portal on the list, and inspect it to see if it is completed. If it isn't, either complete it, or mark the entry "
Not ready" with the ((Not ready)) template. That will let others know it needs work.
If an entry on the list is a completed portal, add it to Portal:Contents/Portals. After you've added it, please mark that entry in the list as "
Done", using the ((done)) template.
Most incomplete portals have one or more empty sections that have nothing more than a red subpage link in the middle of them.
Thank you.
Participate in design efforts & discussions
The talk page is divided into major areas of discussion, each covering a portal design component or issue:
Check portals at Category:Portals under construction
Attention WikiGnomes:
Please inspect as many portals in this category as you have time for, and remove the category from those that are complete.
Also, feel free to complete those that are not, or any portion of them.
The upgrading and updating of specific section types are covered below.
Thank you.
Upgrade root excerpts in intro sections
Swap out old excerpts with "selective transclusions"...
Many portals include an intro section with an intro to the portal's main topic, in the form of an excerpt from the lead of the corresponding article.
The problem is, that most of the excerpts are static (they were copied and pasted) and go stale over time, needing to be refreshed from time to time from the root article. This is tedious to do by hand, and is a chore prone to being forgotten.
We are developing a new template ((Transclude lead excerpt)) which displays the current version of an article's lead each time the page is accessed. For an example of its use, see this diff. Beware that the Lua module behind this template is still in alpha testing and may not yet be robust. Improvements are being discussed on the talk page at Creating a template called Transclude lead excerpt.
There is also a Mediawiki extension with a similar aim.
Below is a list of portal intro pages with root article excerpts. When ready, please replace the static excerpts with selective transclusions as described above. After you've made the replacement, please mark that entry below with Done, using the ((done)) template. If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, please post them at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals#Discussions about selective transclusion of intro excerpt. Thank you.
Portal introduction pages (long list)
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Automated conversion service
If you would like your portal's selected pages converted to use ((Transclude lead excerpt)) semi-automatically using JWB, please list it here. You can copy (not cut) the entry from the list above and paste it below. Once converted, the portals will be removed from this list and you can check that the result is what you were hoping for. Note that this automated process may make the resulting extract much longer or shorter than before. Please look at the results!
I nominate Portal:Latter Day Saints. The Intro is already transcluded.--Broter (talk) 05:06, 30 April 2018 (UTC)
Process news subpages
Some portal news sections have static news posts that are are years out of date. These should be cleared.
The User:JJMC89 bot/Wikinews importer runs hourly, and can be used to provide a stream of up-to-date news items on a subject.
Complete a portal
If you'd like to work on a whole portal that was started but not finished, and get it ready for Wikipedia's readership to view, pick one from the list below.
(WikiGnomes) When you find a portal (from the missing list) that is a work-in-progress (isn't complete), please add it to the list below:
- Portal:Prehistory of Africa
- Portal:Prehistory of Antarctica
- Portal:Prehistory of Asia
- Portal:Prehistory of Europe
- Portal:Prehistory of North America
- Portal:Prehistory of Oceania
- Portal:Prehistory of South America
- Portal:Grand Canyon
Invite your friends!
Let them know we are going to be having a lot of fun. ;)
Article alerts: portals for deletion at MfD
- For archives, see: Portals for deletion at MfD.
- 2018 April 24 - Portal:Baltimore - Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Baltimore
- 2018 April 23 - Portal:Football - Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Football
- 2018 April 22 - Portal:Quidditch - Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Quidditch
- 2018 April 22 - Portal:Blu-ray - Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Blu-ray
- 2018 April 22 - Portal:Muhammad - Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Muhammad
- 2018 April 22 - Portal:Belemnoids - Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Belemnoids
Tools
Watchlist
For your convenience, a list of all portal pages is provided below. (It is possible to get all portal pages into your watchlist, but it is difficult and tedious). The list is current as of 4/22/2018.
The list of all portal pages is useful for getting a bird's eye view of:
- What's in portal space
- Monitoring activity on the portal pages using the Related changes feature in the sidebar menu
The list was too long to get onto a single page (there are 149,069 pages in portal space), and so it is split up into 4 parts:
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Portal/List of all portals/Page 1 (A-C)
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Portal/List of all portals/Page 2 (D-J)
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Portal/List of all portals/Page 3 (K-R)
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Portal/List of all portals/Page 4 (S-Z)
SearchSuite
Portals have subpages.
Search is kind of cludgy for looking at these.
SearchSuite enhances Wikipedia search results. It has a feature (menu item) that reformats search results to one-line entries, which is convenient for looking at portal subpages as a list. It has another menu item that formats the links (asterisk-style, with link delimeters) for copying/pasting into an editor. And another for sorting the results. Each feature works on the output of the others, and the script remembers the setting of each menu item between pages. When one is turned on, it stays on for all searches.
Templates
Portal components
- ((Transclude lead excerpt)) – dynamic excerpt that always matches the source.
- ((Transclude random excerpt)) – same as above, but specify multiple sources for alternating display.
Project members
If you'd like to receive task requests and project-related updates on your talk page, please add your name below. Also, please indicate if you are a user of AWB or JWB, and if you know Lua. Follow your name with an asterisk if you do not wish to receive project-wide updates. Those marked with 2 asterisks have not been confirmed as wishing updates.
- Abyssal (talk · contribs)
- Andrewa (talk · contribs) (I use neither)
- Bermicourt (talk · contribs)
- Daniel Case (talk · contribs) **
- Dunarc (talk · contribs) - Limited time means I am not sure if I can be of much help, but I have edited a few portals from time to time and happy to keep doing so. Do not use any of the above.
- Emir of Wikipedia (talk · contribs) (AWB)(JWB)
- Ganesha811 (talk · contribs) - I use neither, happy to take on small to mid-sized tasks to help
- Hiding (talk · contribs) **
- Iazyges (talk · contribs) (AWB)
- Javert2113 (talk · contribs)
- Kirbanzo (talk · contribs) - I know the background importance of portals to the site.
- Mercurywoodrose (talk · contribs) - use none of them. already heavily edited a number of portals, so member by default
- Mhhossein (talk · contribs) (AWB)
- Nerd1a4i (talk · contribs) (I use neither)
- Nick Moyes (talk · contribs) (AWB)
- Nigos (talk · contribs)
- Nihonjoe (talk · contribs) - No AWB, no JWB, don't know Lua but wouldn't mind learning it
- Northamerica1000 (talk · contribs) Have performed maintenance, fixes and updating to various portals
- Paulmcdonald (talk · contribs) (old school clunky Wiki coder))
- Pbsouthwood (talk · contribs). I am registered for AWB, but have hardly started to learn how to use it.
- Redolta (talk · contribs) - (Don't know AWB, JWB, or Lua)
- RockMagnetist (talk · contribs)
- Samee (talk · contribs) — AWB
- SirGents (talk · contribs) ** - General maintenance
- Slambo (talk · contribs)
- The Transhumanist (talk · contribs) (AWB)(JS)
- Tisquesusa (talk · contribs), no AWB, JWB, Lua Help to get the automatic update function in would be great, the main point why portals are considered "dead"; not automatically updated for Featured, DYK and Pictures.
- Ｔｏｍ (talk · contribs) - International Collaboration / Knowlegde exchange Homewiki de:WP ==> de:P:WF
- Vermont (talk · contribs) - AWB
- Ɱ (talk · contribs) (awb)
WikiGnomes
If you prefer WikiGnome tasks and would like to receive WikiGnome-oriented updates on your talk page, please add your name below. Also let us know if you are an AWB or JWB user.
- Certes (talk · contribs) JWB
- Polyamorph (talk · contribs) (AWB - though I haven't used it for a while!)
- PratyushSinha101 (talk · contribs)
- Nigos (talk · contribs)
- TriNitrobrick (talk · contribs)
Specific portal maintainers
This is a list of editors who work on specific portal(s) or in specific areas, in case you need to contact someone about those.
- Ask123 (talk · contribs) - Interested in Portal: Swimming
- Ancheta Wis (talk · contribs) - focus on Portal: Science
- Balablitz (talk · contribs) - Creator and maintainer of Portal:Trichy
- Bermicourt (talk · contribs), lead editor on most of Germany's state and regional portals
- Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia
- East Frisia, Eifel, Elbe-Elster, Elbe Sandstone Mountains, Elbe-Weser Triangle, Franconia, Harz Mountains, Lüneburg Heath, Lusatia, North Palatine Uplands, Ore Mountains, Palatine Forest, Pomerania, Rhön, Silesia, Westerwald
- East Germany, Holy Roman Empire, Alps, Mountains, Peak District, Tyrol
- Broter (talk · contribs) - Maintainer of Portal:Latter Day Saints, Portal:LDS Church, Portal:Book of Mormon. Creator of Portal:Community of Christ, Portal:History of the Latter Day Saint movement. In politics I created the Portals: Portal:Right-wing populism, Portal:Republican Party and Portal:Geert Wilders.
- BusterD (talk · contribs) - co-maintainer of Portal:American Civil War
- Cplakidas (talk · contribs) - maintainer of Portal:Byzantine Empire
- DavidCane (talk · contribs) - maintainer of Portal:London Transport
- DaGizza (talk · contribs) - maintain, will try to improve, or create Indian/Aussie related portals
- Ddstretch (talk · contribs) - Creator and one of the Maintainers of the Cheshire portal; I may help set up other county portals for England.
- Effer (talk · contribs) - Maintainer of PlayStation.
- Eruditescholar (talk · contribs) - creator and maintainer of Portal:Lagos
- Hawkeye7 (talk · contribs) - Portal:Nuclear technology. Been meaning to update this one for a while
- JarrahTree (talk · contribs) - watcher of Portal:Australia and related state portals
- Kirill Lokshin (talk · contribs) - maintainer of Portal:War
- Kpalion (talk · contribs) – sole editor of Portal:Poland
- Master of Time (talk · contribs) – Mostly focus on updating current storms and sometimes anniversary material in the Tropical cyclone portal
- Maxim (talk · contribs) Might as well add myself, as I'm one of two users who maintain on a somewhat regular basis Portal:Ice hockey.
- Mercurywoodrose (talk · contribs) - sole editor and maintainer of Portal:San Francisco Bay Area, fixed up a number of others as well, not active on them
- Mhhossein (talk · contribs) - I restored Portal:Shia Islam after it was deleted. I also created Portal:Ashura.
- Montanabw (talk · contribs), for Portal:Horses, I'm the only person who even keeps an eye on the portal any more, the creator of the portal, who raised it to featured portal quality, has retired from WP.
- Nerd1a4i (talk · contribs) - creator of Portal:Quantum Computing which I'm working on. Willing to help out with other portals, but I'm still learning how to edit portals.
- Nick Moyes (talk · contribs) - Alps Mountains, Plants
- Nihonjoe (talk · contribs) - Generally sole editor and creator of Portal:Speculative fiction (featured), also sometimes edit Portal:Normandy, Portal:Anime and manga, Portal:Studio Ghibli, and Portal:Japan
- Paulmcdonald (talk · contribs) One of several involved at Portal:College Football.
- Pbsouthwood (talk · contribs). Lead editor on Portal:Underwater diving
- RockMagnetist (talk · contribs) Updated Portal:Earth sciences.
- SirGents (talk · contribs) - General maintenance, especially on the war portal
- Slambo (talk · contribs) - lead editor on Portal:Trains
- Teblick (talk · contribs) - Creating a portal for the 1940s decade.
- The Transhumanist (talk · contribs) - Created/maintaining Portal:Thinking
- Tisquesusa (talk · contribs) will try to find time to improve the Prehistory of South America portal.
- Vishal14k (talk · contribs)- Created Portal:Hisar and maintaining it.
- Waggers (talk · contribs) - creator and maintainer of Portal:South East England and most of its sub-portals, with a specific focus on Portal:Hampshire. I can use both AWB and JWB but don't know Lua very well.
- BrendonTheWizard (talk · contribs)- The portals for partially recognized / unrecognized political entities are currently inactive and I intend to fix this. Today I am launching Portal:Limited recognition and I will monitor related portals & WikiProjects to update and feature articles on this topic. Brendon the Wizard ✉️ ✨ 13:27, 27 April 2018 (UTC)
- Armanaziz (talk · contribs)- Portal:Bangladesh, Portal:SAARC and Portal:Bengal.
Newsletter archive
Support pages
Userboxes
- ((User WikiProject Portals)) creates
 | This user is a participant in WikiProject Portals. |
- ((User WikiProject Portals/2)) creates
 | This user is a participant in WikiProject Portals. |
Related pages
- List of country portals
- List of shortcuts/Portal shortcuts
- List of U.S. state portals
- List of Wikipedians by featured portal nominations
- Portal namespace (setting-up debate)
- Translation/Portal:Companies
