Portal talk:Brazil

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Portal:Brazil page.
This talk page is for the Portal about Brazil. Ensure this portal's details are listed in the Portal directory.
For discussion about Portals generally, please see the WikiProject on Portals.

Hi all. I've created the place holder for the time being because I'm asking some people to help with this project, and it isn't very nice to refer them to a red link. Not that what I've got here makes much of a difference, but still... Anyone who, unlike me, knows the first thing about wikicode and is willing is more than welcome to join the efforts. I'll be contributing with contents mainly. Regards, Redux 21:41, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Redux, you can copy my templates for the Belarus and Russian Wikiportals, make a few changes to have more of a Brazil flavour to the portal. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:29, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Thanks. I'd thought of doing that. I'm also thinking of taking..."inspiration" from the Australia portal. Redux 19:07, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Thats also a good idea. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 19:17, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Portal up and running!!! Redux 23:36, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Featured Article

Redux, about the "Featured Article," what I did is checked the article to see if it is actually a WP:FA. I would check there to see if any Brazilian articles are listed there. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:46, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I see only one: Portuguese_language. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:50, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)
My original thought exactly. I too ran that check and found that the only featured article was the Portuguese Language one. That was a pickle, since there aren't any other articles on Brazil there, and I thought that, although Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, the article wasn't "sufficiently", so to speak, about Brazil (it was way more general) to be included in the Brazilian portal. I then came to think that maybe the article could be "featured" as a reference to being featured in the portal. My reference was that all portals list a "featured picture", and there's no such thing in Wikipedia (I think, but if there is, the pictures I checked weren't featured), they were just being featured in their respective portal. You think that'd fly?
If not, I had already prepared the entry with the Portuguese Language article in the template, all we'd have to do is go there and revert to the 17:37, 26 Jun 2005 version and we'd be set. Redux 01:41, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Unless, we find an article and take it through the FAC process. That, you can do on your own and see what we can do. Look at WP:PR to see anything that we can work with. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 01:46, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)
It's worth a try. Let me see what I can come up with. Redux 01:54, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)
All right, I've nominated Empire of Brazil for peer review. If it passes, we'd even get to keep the picture that is up right now, since it is featured in that article as well. Here is the comment page for the article. Redux 02:07, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I commented already. I got two articles Featured, so I have some idea on what is needed. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:09, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Image issues

This may be related to the recent converson to Wiki 1.5. Me and Redux are trying to see what is going on and how to fix this problem. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 1 July 2005 04:40 (UTC)

The problem seems to have gone away on its own. Brion probably fixed it. Redux 1 July 2005 15:50 (UTC)
Actually, I did. Someone made a change to monobook.css that caused it, and I removed the relevant line. —Lowellian (talk) July 1, 2005 22:13 (UTC)
I stand corrected. Credit where credit is due. Thanks to Lowellian for fixing the problem! Redux 2 July 2005 02:03 (UTC)

[edit] Some articles that need the help of other Brazilians

Folks,

We need the help of many Brazilians as we can for certain disagreements in other articles which relates directly or indirectly to Brazil (this helping to avoid some editing-wars).

Your input is appreciated in the discussion pages of these articles :) --Pinnecco 11:20, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

Who discovery Brazil was Pedro Alvares Cabral, every brazilian child know this. --200.172.115.194 01:44, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
Please express your views on the issue in the talk page of the relevant article. Thanks, Redux 01:56, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
I don't know if the Pinzon version is correct but I wouldn't take the fact that every Brazilian child knows something as credible. We teach a lot of lies to kids. Someone needs to make some historic digging here to get the correct version. Nationalisms aside please. Rauh 00:11, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] New Featured Picture

Hello. What you think about change feature picture to Brasília? Is the capital of our country and many people in the world believe wronger that Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro it's the brazilian capital. Let me know what you think about the picture change. --Mateusc 22:05, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

Ok, I see a good image in the Brasilia article, I'll change the image in the portal. However, that's not part of the criteria for an image to be included in the Portal. The first and most important part of it, in fact cannot be observed here, which is that the image be actually featured (featured status), which no image of or pertaining to Brazil is at this point. That being the case, I tried to locate an image that would be really good (postcard-like, you might say), and the present Ipanema image was the best I could come up with. The chronic lack of good images (up to "portal standards") on Brazil is why I have not been rotating the featured image on the Portal (which is not supposed to be unchangeable). I'd welcome more suggestions for new images (to link an image without posting it,use the following code: [[:Image:name_of_file|name_of_file]]). Regards, Redux 01:35, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Featured article 2

I just wanted to point out that Mário de Andrade is a featured article, and could certainly be mentioned on this portal. Thanks. Chick Bowen 17:21, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Excellent tip! Thanks. I'll link it. And this will allow us to rename the section back to "Featured article", as opposed to "Selected article" (following some polemics in the general forum). Regards, Redux 21:51, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
Cool, thanks. Yes, I stumbled on the polemics earlier today. I couldn't help but be reminded of Clinton and "the meaning of 'is'"--who does get to decide what a word means? Thanks again -- Chick Bowen 01:19, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
Indeed. In fact, calling it a "polemics" might not even be accurate, since the general renaming was essentially based on one user's opinion. He expressed his views and immediately proceded to rename the sections on many Portals. I found it odd, since it would have been far better if consensus on the matter had been achieved beforehand. Especially when one considers that the word "featured" is defined as "given prominence", which can easily be interpreted as "the Portal gives prominence to this article", regardless of whether or not it is a Featured Article, which is a Wikipedia concept (something I spoke of when the subject was brought up in the context of this Portal, in one of the threads above). But still... Thanks again for the tip! Redux 16:05, 9 January 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Suggestion: a new box with recently added articles on Brazil

Hi, colleagues, I would suggest that we add to the portal a box with a listing of new articles on Brazilian subjects, so that we all keep an eye on them and add to the list as they come.

For example, I have recently added articles on Adoniran Barbosa (samba composer) and two of his funniest compositions, Trem das Onze and Samba Italiano; Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, Barão Geraldo, Barão Geraldo de Rezende, to name a few.--R.Sabbatini 01:45, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Hum, interesting. Yes, that could be an interesting addition to the Portal. We'd need to set a few parameters, though. For instance, the box should figure the article on Brazil "recently created". I'm thinking we should associate "recently" with "in a week". More than that (such as a month), and the box might get too long, and there's a relative limitation on the length that each box can dispose of, for layout reasons.
But there's a problem, or rather, an obstacle: mining the information. We'd need a reliable form of keeping track of articles on Brazil-related themes that are recently created. It can't be user-centered, and there'd be no point in creating this box and then never updating it, leaving the same articles on display as "recently created" for six months.
IMO, data mining is a big problem, so unless we can find a way of surmounting this obstacle, we couldn't create this new feature for the Portal :/ Regards, Redux 15:49, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi. What about doing something like this? It is an easier way to list Brazilian related articles, and we can add a simple wikilink to it in the Brazilian portal main page. Regards, Carioca 20:29, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
Good idea. Or one of us could just run a search with Brazil as an argument and select those articles that appeared, sorted by recency. --R.Sabbatini 20:31, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
I'm all for it, as long as we can assure that the content will stay fresh. For instance, there isn't a Brazil Wikiproject running right now. There's not nearly enough Brazilians interested in getting involved in projects such as this one. A while ago, a Brazilian user offered to do data mining for the Portal, which I promptly accepted, naturally. But then he just completely disappeared. If we can get this off the ground though, I even have a template in place for easy insertion in the Portal. It's the "Projects" template. It's only got a place holder in it, right now. Redux 11:32, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
I can find the new Brazilian related pages, as the new articles are listed in Special:Newpages. Maybe there is not enough Brazilian people interested in this Portal because they don't know that it exists? I can try to list some Brazilian users that could be contacted, if anyone is interested. Regards, Carioca 19:27, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
Newpages is a helpful tool, but it might not suit our needs exactly. First, the list is not sortable (there are no search boxes for us to type in key words), and even that wouldn't be decisive, since biographic articles might be trickier to locate, especially if they are stubs (which are sometimes poorly written). Not that we can't work around all of these things, but I fear we might loose patience after a while and stop updating the section properly — granted, if that ever happened, we could just take the section off the Portal.
About the Portal's visibility, I tried to make it as "visible" as possible: I placed templates in the Brazil article (although it has since been moved to a not-so-good location, under the wikitable — when it would be far better in a more conspicuous location, at the top of the article), as well as the main Category concerning Brazil, the Brazil-related stubs Category. I also announced the Portal's creation on the Village Pump (of course, that post is long gone by now). Over the months, several Brazilian (supposedly) users have contacted me, either here or through my own talk page, displaying interest in the Portal and willingness to contribute, but all of them eventually lost interest after a few contributions (mainly to the news section — which is maybe the trickiest section of the Portal: we need to be very selective of the news that will make it to the board; we can't overdo the "political news", since the Portal is meant for a global audience, and not just a local, or "national", public). Redux 21:54, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Another thing I'm considering how best to (if at all) make public through the Portal is this. Regards, Redux 23:49, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Hi. So, it seems that there is no easy way to track the Brazilian articles. About the portal visibility, there are new users that probably have never heard of it, and, as far as I know, the village pump may be unknown to some users (specially newbies). I don't know were to place the userboxes in the portal. There seems to be no good place to put it. Anyway, the portal is very beautiful and informative in its current form. Radically modifying it can be a bad idea Regards, Carioca 20:37, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for your words about the Portal :) Indeed, we would need someone with specific skills to keep tabs on the newest articles related to Brazil. As for the userboxes, I did not mean that they would themselves be included in the article. I was thinking more of a link to the page that lists the Userboxes. But I still haven't been able to figure out how to best insert this in the Portal, in a aesthetic manner — so maybe we won't do it after all, especially considering that the Userboxes for Brazilian places have not attracted any users interested in displaying them on their user pages, which means that they might end up deleted, for sheer lack of utility. And about making the Portal more visible, we could consider leaving welcome messages to new users who declare to be from Brazil, with a link inviting them to visit the Portal. Regards, Redux 23:19, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi. It is a really good idea to mention this Portal (with the Portal link) when welcoming new Brazilian users. Regards, Carioca 23:36, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Transwiki project

Kind of unrelated, but I started an article on the Contestado War as it's a featured article at the Portuguese Wikipedia. Problem is I don't know anything about it. Anyone interested?--T. Anthony 10:40, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

I hope you don't mind, but I started a new thread for your comment, since it had a completely different theme from the one in the thread where you posted originally. The contents of your post were not altered in any manner.
That is a very interesting project. There's a lot of content that can be translated from the pt.wp to our article (as you said, it's a featured article over there). All Portuguese-speaking users are more than welcome to join the translation effort. Regards, Redux 11:38, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Makes sense. I posted it late at night so wasn't thinking that good.--T. Anthony 23:33, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject

I couldn't find the Brazilian WikiProject nor Regional Notice Board, so I'm leaving the contact of an article I found that need some work: Arthur Moreira Lima (pianist). Thanks, and good wiking. Mariano(t/c) 08:49, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

I just started a WikiProject today- WP:BR. Please expand- I am new at the Projects.--Kungfu Adam (talk) 02:08, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
Excellent. The Portal had been working as a "rendez vouz" point for users interested in contributing to Brazil-related topics. A WikiProject will go a long way in helping us organize that effort, I hope. Regards, Redux 02:43, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

I suggest you take a look at the Argentine notice board, you might find things to borrow from us. I especially recomend you to have a board of new articles; that dramatically improves the quality of new articles by letting everyone new about them. Mariano(t/c) 07:45, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. The Argentina-related noticeboard does look interesting. We had actually discussed having a frame for new articles related to Brazil right here on the Portal, but we stumbled on the essential problem of data mining. There aren't too many users involved with Brazil-related themes on a regular basis, and a board of new articles needs constant updating if it is to serve its purpose. We decided against including it in the Portal because it would end up outdated, and I don't see how it could be different now, unfortunately. Redux 17:25, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, in our portal nobody maintains the new articles, you just put your article there when you've done a new one. It only needs occasional trimming. Whenever we find an orphan article that has probably not been seen by the group, and that might be interesting to report, you can also add it. Perhaps when you get more people. Don't forget to leave invitations to any user you think might want to contribute to Brazil-related articles, that worked pretty well for us. Some users had a short wiki-life, but others sticked up and quicly quality of of their edits. Mariano(t/c) 07:08, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copersucar-Fittipaldi

Hi. Just a quick note to say that I've got an article on the Copersucar sponsored Fittipaldi Automotive motor racing team set up by double Formula One world champion Emerson Fittipaldi and his brother Wilson undergoing Peer Review at present. If anyone wants to give a more Brazilian perspective on the only Brazilian team ever to compete in the World Championship, please see here. Thanks. 4u1e

[edit] A concern

I wish to address a minor concern here. Notice that all the featured portals on Wikipedia are linked to a Portal namespace. But the edit links in the portal boxes link to a template namespace. For more information about this, please read this subsection. Isn't it better to standardize this on Wikipedia? --Siva1979Talk to me 19:44, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

When I started the Portal, the template namespace was the standard namespace for the boxes that make up a Portal. This changed around the same time as the Portals, which used to be called Wikiportals, were moved from the project namespace to a namespace of their own. This Portal was moved too, but at the time nobody thought of moving the boxes that were assembled in the template namespace. At the time I didn't think it to be relevant to move them all to a different namespace, and since no technical problems seem to happen, they just lingered in their original namespace. I read the thread you indicated, and the error you found in the Singapore Portal doesn't seem to have happened here, since I've recently edited a couple of the boxes by clicking the "edit" button in the Portal page, and it opened the edit box for the template namespace pages normally. Have you tried to edit and was taken to an empty page? Redux 22:10, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
Yes, this situation happened in a few other portals. Well, although there are no pressing needs to change the namespace to a portal one, we should strive to be as consistent as possible about this. --Siva1979Talk to me 12:56, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
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