Wikipedia:Featured portal candidates/Portal:Scotland

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The following discussion is archived. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

[edit] Portal:Scotland

This portal, on the nation of Scotland, was recently revamped by myself and Anthony. It now features a more eye-friendly layout, a better structure for automatic updating of the selected article, picture and quotes based on CURRENTWEEK and CURRENTMONTH. This is based around the archive structure (article, picture and quotes) which make it easy to update with new content to keep the portal dynamic.

All in all, I believe this portal meets the featured portal criteria - it is based off the base portal template and has good structure therefore; it has a broad scope of content; it has Wikiproject links; it is well-maintained, with (at present) three month's worth of content stored ready for automatic switchover, with no shortage of available options to add (and will be done in the near future); it is attractive and pleasant on the eye; and it promotes Scottish content in what I believe to be a very good manner.

I hope that you can spare a couple of minutes of your time to comment on this FPOC. Cheers, Daniel Bryant 02:52, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Note from co-author: the selected articles, quotes and pictures have now been set up ~ Anthony 17:21, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Support as nominator. Daniel Bryant 02:52, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Support meets all criteria, attractive, useful. Itching to delete that redirect though... P:S, honestly. – Riana ऋ 02:58, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
    • Redirect deleted per discussion. Daniel Bryant 03:11, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Support Very nice portal, although the colour scheme appears virtually the same as Portal:Science.--cj | talk 03:09, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
    • Hrm, I'd never even seen that portal before - I used the Scotland colours that existed in the old version of the portal, and made it more readable by using white more. Ah well, thanks for the support. Daniel Bryant 03:11, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Support as co-author. The excellent organisation - Selected articles, pictures and quotes have all been set up, and the addition of excellent aspects such as "Scottish Categories". Definitely one of Wikipedia's best ... not to blow my own horn, or anything ;) ~ Anthony 06:30, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Support - good topic coverage.  The Transhumanist    18:47, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Support I know whats involved in getting a portal to look this good. Well done. Dfrg.msc 04:06, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Weak support Support. Ah, didn't review portals in a while.
  • Do something about those three stubby paragraphs in the lead. Add examples for "inventions and discoveries".
  • Yup. Michaelas10 11:33, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • I'm getting tired of saying this, but "Topics" > "Main topics"/"Major topics".
  • Y Done ~ Anthony 20:36, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Done ~ Anthony 20:44, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Create a place where people could nominate articles, pictures, and quotes. It may or may not be on the same page as the archives.
  • Please link it from the portal's main page. Michaelas10 11:33, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • I don't see any reason that this should be done. This is a pesky practice of un-necessary self-referencing that is present on too many portals, IMV.--cj | talk 12:23, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • I agree this is a bit self-referencing practice, but portals normally contain a lot more such content and sections (e.g. "Things you can do", "Featured content"). It is essential readers become aware of this system without needing to look at the talk page. Michaelas10 12:35, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • I disagree: the readers don't need to know about the maintenance of portals. Things you can do sections are a different kettle of fish insofar as they are fulfilling one of the fundamental functions of a portal – to promote contribution to the encyclopædia.--cj | talk 13:12, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • I agree with Cyber - the maintenance and discussion over content of a page should occur at the talk page, not the content page; hopefully we can come to a compromise over this - your requested edit, a location to nominate Selected Pictures/Quotes/Articles, but in a more appropiate location? ~ AGK 17:06, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • I'm unsure editors could quickly realize it should be done in the talk page, since the vast majority of the portal link it from the sections (e.g. "Archive • Nomination"). Noting them about the maintenance of the portal directly would bring more good than harm. Michaelas10 17:25, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • That is a trend consistent throughout the encyclopedia - maintenance/content discussions are undertaken at a talk page; however, would a note at the bottom suffice? ~ AGK 18:21, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • No, that might be even more self-referential. Perhaps a better solution to this would be linking it from "Things you can do"? Michaelas10 21:21, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Clever compromise. I'd be content with that.--cj | talk 00:41, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep date formatting constant.
  • Could you provide a bit more information on this? Cheers ~ Anthony 20:43, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Any locations where we've not complied with this ~ Anthony 21:35, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
  • It's inconstant among much of the selected content and introduction. Michaelas10 22:02, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Y Done, fixed all dates to follow the format [[Month Day]], [[Year]]. Daniel Bryant 03:00, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • "Related portals" should be threated as a "See also" section; I recommend having it nearly in the bottom of the portal.
  • Y Done, moved to the second-last box, just above the interwiki links. Daniel Bryant 03:00, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • And just for a future reference, please use randomized display. Thanks. Michaelas10 19:48, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Isn't that what we're using now? Daniel Bryant 03:00, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • No, you're using the CURRENTWEEK, CURRENTMONTH system, which is great, but randomisation is easier. Say there are no updates for a while - your whole portal then shows up as ugly redlinks. With {{random portal component}} you won't have this problem. If you want to see how it's done, check out P:CHEM </plug> :) – Riana ऋ 03:38, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Oh, I see. Well, it's too late to change it now, but that's an ingenious idea which I'm sure both myself and Anthony will remember in the future if we decide to revamp another portal :) Cheers, Daniel Bryant 03:48, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Yeah, I wouldn't recommend changing it now - it's a pretty laborious process to get off the ground initially! Once it's in place, though, you'll wonder why you ever did it any other way :) – Riana ऋ 03:52, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

A few small things:

  • Intro - Link Scotland in the intro.
    Y Done — linked text "Scotland" to Scotland ~ Anthony 12:29, 5 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Quote - {{cquote}} has a spot for author and origin, please use it.
    Y Done ~ Anthony 12:29, 5 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Articles - Link the article in first sentences.
    Y Done. Daniel Bryant 02:59, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Pics - Links, if it's bold, please link it. A photo credit should appear underneath the photo.
    Y Done, both. Daniel Bryant 03:05, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Suggestions - Please add a link to Portal talk:Scotland/Suggestions on the archive pages as well.
    Y Done, I think. Daniel Bryant 03:11, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Lists should appear in either the cat or topics. Joe I 06:09, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
    Both Anthony and myself are confused by what you mean here. Could you possibly clarify? Cheers, Daniel Bryant 03:16, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
    Either Category:Scotland-related lists should appear in Portal:Scotland/Categories, or selected lists from Category:Scotland-related lists should appear in Portal:Scotland/Major topics, under(beside) the heading "Lists"
    Ah, OK, I see - thanks for the clarification and the suggestions. I've implemented the first one, so I guess that's Y Done. Thanks again for the suggestions! Daniel Bryant 10:34, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Support Looks good. :) Joe I 20:06, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.