Wikipedia talk:Community Portal

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This page is for the discussion/improvement of the Community Portal only. The Community Portal is semiprotected for vandalism reasons. Large changes to it should be discussed here first.
For general questions about Wikipedia, please consult the Wikipedia FAQ first.
For other questions regarding factual topics, please use the Wikipedia:Reference Desk.
For discussion unrelated to the Community Portal, please visit the Village pump forums.
Community Portal sections

Community Portal sub page list
Redesign
Designs and redesigns
(previous designs)

Please draft layout changes here:
Community Portal/Draft
Archive
Archives
Archive 1 Archive 2 Archive 3
Archive 4 Archive 5 Archive 6
Archive 7 Archive 8 Archive 9
Archive 10 Archive 11 Archive 12
Archive 13

Contents


[edit] Core articles with problems

Greetings. I used a perl script to make a list of articles listed as "core topics" that are also tagged with cleanup messages. It's at Wikipedia:Core topics - 1,000/with problems. FYI. – Quadell (talk) (random) 15:25, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Collaboration redux

Aren't both 'Good Article Collaboration of the week' and 'Core Topics Collaboration' dead? They seem inactive and should be removed. Cheers! Wassupwestcoast 05:45, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Done. --Quiddity (talk) 06:17, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
I would have liked to have been told about this at the core topics talk page! It's now more like monthly rather than fortnightly, and the last collaboration was extremely quiet, it's true - but the Sept/Oct one on fuel was in fact very successful. I'll keep updating the community portal subpage anyway, and if you want to add us back in to the portal, please do. Walkerma (talk) 04:17, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
Egads, most sorry. I'd checked Core topics COTF, and saw all the "Nominations & votes" were from June/July, so assumed Wassupwestcoast was correct. I've added it back. -- Quiddity (talk) 06:34, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
That's true about lack of recent voting. I suspect this portal provides most of the "new blood" for votes, so I appreciate you restoring it! For some reason we've had very few votes recently, and you're right, I do need to get a few people energised! People often lose interest on collaborations after two years or so. Walkerma (talk) 04:48, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Today's featured list

Can the discussion for a potentially big "event" be added? --Howard the Duck 13:59, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

It's already mentioned in the Community Bulletin Board, if that's what you mean? Otherwise, what do you mean? ;) --Quiddity (talk) 19:13, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help out

The bulletin board is actively maintained, but the other parts of this page have issues. I would like to only talk about the "Help out" section right now. The main issue with the section as a whole is that the left side needs trimming and/or the right side needs expansion to bring a more balance to the "white space". I am breaking this into the three respective sections to talk about exactly where to trim/expand and of course to update.--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Things to do

Overall there is an issue of style. The original items where all posed as conversation questions but new items have not been. Either we need to ditch the old style or come up with a bunch of new questions and be vigilant in maintaining this style with future additions. I would prefer to ditch the question style, purely because that appears to be what happens naturally. Making all items pure statements would help to trim it as well. When I claim that a link is "bad" below, I mean it does not direct people to something to do. Not necessarily that the idea itself is bad.--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

  • Respond to a request for comment, Wikiquette alert or provide a third opinion.
    • First link is bad although the process is active. However RFC's are already handled quite well in the bulletin board maybe they should drop from here. Second link is good and active. Third link is good and questionably active.--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Adopt a basic topic list to develop and maintain a table of contents to a major subject on Wikipedia.
    • This link is bad, although the process is active. Needs a better link--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
      Done. -- Quiddity (talk) 06:29, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Give a requested editor review.
    • Link is good and backlogged.--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Can you draw or take pictures? Make a requested image.
    • Link is OK, but it directs you on how to request pictures rather than how to find request to fulfill. Activity is questionable.--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
      Done. -- Quiddity (talk) 06:29, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Peer review or give feedback on some articles.
    • Both links are good and active.--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Make recommendations on articles listed at Good article review.
    • Link is OK and backlogged. It is the right place but instructions for reviewers are hidden while instructions for listing/delisting are prominent. It is impossible to simply direct this link to reviewing information with #.--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Respond to the Reward board or Bounty board.
    • First link is good but questionably active. Second is good and active.--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Are you good at photo editing? Then try cleaning up some of these images, or helping out at the Graphics Lab.
    • First link is informational. Second is bad is instructional, but has too much focus on placing the tag. Third is OK but a very jumbled and backlogged category. Fourth link is good. I would like to rework the stuff at the second link into the category page but that is a little beyond the scope here. --BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Can you use GIS tools? Help make requested maps.
    • First link is informational. Second is good and questionably active.--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Can you communicate in another language? There are articles that need translation into English. You can also proofread a finished translation.
    • Link is good and active.--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Let SuggestBot suggest pages for you to improve.
    • Link is OK and active. I would change the link to this however.--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Update pages with old (ref or note template) citations to the new references format.
    • Link is bad and appears inactive. The link explains how to use the tool but not what articles need the tool. Page and talk haven't been edited since June. I think this item can be dropped entirely--BirgitteSB 21:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fix-up projects

Good means there is something to fix up at the link. Categories can't be Bad or Inactive.--BirgitteSB 22:33, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Great job, much thanks. I'll try to take a look at some of these, but you're welcome to do whatever you feel is best. I'm the only regular/active maintainer here I think, and would appreciate any help :) -- Quiddity (talk) 06:19, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for cleaning up the page, it looks much nicer. I have been busier than I expected lately.--BirgitteSB 18:19, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] patrolling newpages

The recent changes to the newpages specialpage involving the patrolled/unpatrolled status of articles shows an enormous backlog on patroling new pages. Could patrolling new pages be made part of the open tasks of the community portal? Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 15:08, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

I added it to the bulletin board for a week. The open tasks feature is more complicated. I am honestly not sure how it works but you might be better asking at Wikipedia talk:Community Portal/Opentask.--BirgitteSB 15:41, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Blank page

When I click Wikipedia:Articles written by a single editor, which is linked from this article, I get a blank page. Not a typical "not found" error, just blank. Art LaPella (talk) 04:27, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

It's a really really big page ("This page is 238 kilobytes long.") I've been getting that blank page problem recently too (in various places), I think it might be related to size? Refresh page cache (ctrl-F5 or shift-F5) usually works to fix it. I've looked around WP:VPT, but couldnt find anything recent or in the faqs, so I guess it's just a normal WP:SIZE#Technical issues thing. I've left a note at Wikipedia talk:Articles written by a single editor asking them to split it. -- Quiddity (talk) 06:13, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Auld Lang Syne

One of the things a lot of people do around the beginning of a year is review the previous year. I wonder if it might make sense to perhaps place on the community portal a note indicating that maybe any developments in wikipedia over the past year might be included in the History of Wikipedia article, or maybe a separate article on 2007 in Wikipedia. If that would be agreeable, please respond below so that I can try to rejuvenate the Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipedia and maybe get some more input on whether or not establishing some sort of informal hall of fame of retired editors at Wikipedia:WikiProject Hall of Fame which probably makes more sense as a work group of the above project anyway. John Carter (talk) 14:32, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

nobody here but us bears. (do what thy will ;) -- Quiddity (talk) 06:38, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Editing interface

I have no idea if this is the right place to bring this up, but:

On the wikipedia edit page (ex. here), the text "... license your contributions under the GFDL*," uses an asterisk to denote the footnote at the bottom of the page, "^ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2... ." Is there a reason the footnote uses a asterisk/caret combination instead of the number/caret one used in most of the articles? Just for consistency's sake, should this be changed, or is this just because there is only one footnote? Beast of traal T C _ 02:56, 21 January 2008 (UTC) Beast of traal

You want to ask at MediaWiki:Edittools. -- Quiddity (talk) 20:03, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
Thanks. Beast of traal T C _ 04:00, 22 January 2008 (UTC)Beast of traal

[edit] how do I start a new page?

any help please —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rice92 (talk • contribs) 15:49, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Your first article. More at Help:Contents/Editing Wikipedia#Creating pages - how to: :) -- Quiddity (talk) 19:56, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] I need some help

Umm...I'm a noob and I need to know how to create an article without searching for an article name that doesn't exist. Anyone know how? Jaewonnie (talk) 19:29, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

replied at usertalkpage. -- Quiddity (talk) 21:27, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] country of orgin on film here on english wikipedia is poor ?

Many of the filmarticles here lack the information about which country movies have been made - or the information is hidden in the article. Such a basic information should be in the top text. Something like this: Rambo is an american action-movie from 1985 starring Stallone. Basic information on a movie is: 1: Title - orginale title - country og orgin - category - year of release - starring actors/directors--Ezzex (talk) 20:26, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

The place to discuss that, would be Wikipedia:WikiProject Films. This is just the page for discussing the Community Portal. Thanks. -- Quiddity (talk) 17:53, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Unimpressed

Wikipedia is getting so boring. A lot of the pages are too rich in text. There should be a bigger fair use policy for pictures. Furthermore, every time I edit something, whether it be a wrestling personality or somebody, a mod just reverts my contributions for no reason. Also, I made a page called Jack Deth about a character who appears in multiple films. There are far worse articles on here that have nothing, but are still remaining. What gives? This has to be said. Beyond a joke, well and truly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.235.160.40 (talk) 08:39, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Replied at user talk. —Vanderdecken∴ ∫ξφ 18:05, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] INTERWIKI

Czech:Doporučuji vám přidávat do vašich šablon takzv. interwiki, což jsou mezyjazykové odkazy. Wikipedie je MNOHOJAZYČNÝ projekt, takže interwiki slouží jako zobrazení onoho článku v jiném jazyce. Tady máte návod, jak interwiki dělat:

Category:Lesotho-stub
 
 
 
cs:Šablona:Lesotho-pahýl

Napíšete to pod kategorii a když si ukážete náhled, tak se to objeví v levém rámečku dole. Příklad je zde. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Turbo4000 (talk • contribs) 13:50, 17 May 2008 (UTC)