Wikipedia:Portal peer review/Current events/Canada/archive1

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[edit] Current events: Canada

I've never really done a current events portal. They seem to be quite rare and relatively 'plain'. I wonder what it would take for a current events-based portal to become featured, or perhaps it never could. Anyway, any advice, suggestions, or comments to making this portal a little bit extrodinary would be great. Mkdw^talk 09:39, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi, Mkdw. Considering the Current events portal is, far and away, the most visited portal according to WikiCharts, I see no reason why portals in this group can't become featured. In fact, it's about time we go our first one on the books! :-) I'm not exactly sure what that would look like either, but I'm willing to help out. I'll take a closer look in the near future and share some impressions. Rfrisbie^talk 21:53, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

• Comments: For starters, I'll assume the Current events portal is the main model for comparison, with some common general portal features thrown in for good measure. :-) Rfrisbie^talk 22:54, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • To promote "crossover" traffic, you might try {{browsebar}} at the top of the page. As a reader of news after I'm done reading the Canadian news, I like to see what else is going on in the world. Having the bar at the top allows me easy access to all the other countries and their news. Also, I found that the other portals that were being maintained well keep this bar at the top and will most likely become a standard once a Current events portal becomes featured. Mkdw^talk 07:01, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
    • I had thought about that. I eventually found several reasons to keep {{Portal:Current events/News Browser}} at the top of the page.
      • I don't think it's an either/or question. I was thinking of just adding the new one above the other. Rfrisbie^talk 12:59, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
  • The color schemes appear to come from three different styles. You might try adding the same "shade" of body to the daily items on the left as is on the right.
  • Remove the box-in-the-box for Things you can do.
  • Split "Related pages" in two boxes - projects and portals.
  • The Current events box on the bottom is redundant with the boxes on the top. Pick one.
    • The top one. Mkdw^talk 07:01, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
  • More images all around would make it look more like a "regular" portal, but you already knew that. :-)

I've seen some of the other portals you have assembled and I would be thrilled to collaborate with you on this 'groundbreaking' portal. Mkdw^talk 07:01, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

That would be fun! :-) Rfrisbie^talk 12:59, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Suggestions by Sd31415 (talk • contribs)

I hope these suggestions aren't the same as Rfrisbie's.

1. In the lead story box, this is too much spacing. However, if you want to keep it that way, I suggest adding a space after the "Request a Lead Story..." line.
2. There is extra spacing before the top daily box.
3. I was wondering, do the maroon headers match the blue theme?

   Since this is the Canadian current events portal, I wanted to keep the theme of blue used in all current events portals while mixing in a red that wasn't intrusive. I also had the concern that I did not want this portal to 'become' the Portal:Canada or exactly similar. A character of its own. If the maroon isnt working, is there another Canadian colour scheme you can think of. Its always worth a shot. Mkdw^talk 07:01, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

   Ahh... Whatever you choose works fine, then. S.D. ¿п? § 12:56, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

4. I don't think YOU has to be capitalized in the "Things you can do" box. Instead, you could italicize it.

   Done. Mkdw^talk 07:28, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

5. The "Things you can do" box needs some cleaning up. I suggest removing red links from the "News Sources" column, removing capital letters, removing underlines, and maybe deleted some …'s. The …'s seem to be used a little too much on the left column.
6. In the "Archive" box, delete the extra • after 2007.

   Done. Mkdw^talk 07:01, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

7. Is the horizontal line necessary in the "Related Pages" box?

   I'm hoping to make it two boxes. Mkdw^talk 07:01, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

   Okay, then you could have "Related Portals" & "Related Projects". S.D. ¿п? § 12:56, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

8. In the "Elections" box, spaces are needed before and after the & in the "27&30: DR..." line.

   Done. Mkdw^talk 07:28, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

9. Possible having the formatting of the "Lead Story," "Related Pages," etc. boxes match that of the daily items, elections, etc. boxes?

   The conflict I have is that the template for the {{Portal:Current events/News Browser}} is used on all the current events portal and the colour scheme has been used to match the main Portal:Current events. The same thing with the calendar. The only thing we could do is either created our own template with matching colours, but we'd lose the benefit that everytime those templates or calendar is updated, we would not receive the updates and have to do it ourselves. At this time there are not enough active contributors to do it. I also don't want to make it look like a copy of the main Portal:Current events. Its the Canadian current events portal and I think if it is to be featured, will need its own look. Mkdw^talk 07:28, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

   With any template, it's always possible to make an atribute (e.g., color) a parameter. It's then possible to customize the parameter as needed. See {{Portal nav footer}} for an example. Rfrisbie^talk 13:04, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

   I matched the "Current events" box colors to the portal colors to show how it's done. I didn't change the border width (from 2px to 1px) but that's possible too. Rfrisbie^talk 16:47, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't see why this portal won't eventually be featured. ;) Cheers! S.D. ¿п? § 00:24, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for all your suggestions, I agree with them all. Mkdw^talk 07:01, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

• There's some sort of display problem with the left column box borders. They are 1px too narrow. Rfrisbie^talk 16:47, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I made a simple fix for now. Rfrisbie^talk 13:22, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

• I added the border-width=2 parameter value to /box footer so that all boxes have 2px borders. Rfrisbie^talk 17:11, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

• A bit different, but I think this can become featured. Serious fonting issues. Comments:
  • Don't capitalize/make bold/make italic words to highlight them, "you", "ADD", "SUGGEST", whatever.
  • "Lead Story" > "Lead story". WP:MSH. "Current Events..." > "Current events...". "News Sources" > "News sources". "Events by Month" > "Events by month".
  • "Request a Lead Story" > "Request a lead story". "Previous Lead Stories" > "Previous lead stories".
    • Done. Mkdw^talk 03:26, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
  • There are two widely accepted styles of linking to news sources, either with a read more link or the name of the website, choose one of them and use it for all the news entries. Also "(Read More...)" > "(Read more...)".
    • News stories are a bit different. The "read more" commonly found on Portals is only practiced with articles that have internal links. In previous featured portal reviews, it has been the concensus that news stories cite their article and source by listing the publisher name: BBC, CBC, CNN, etc. etc.. The Portal:Current events/Canada is also a current events portal and should follow the standard for citing sources which is also the same. Listing the story link as the publisher name. Mkdw^talk 03:26, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
      • The problem is that the "read more" format is also used, and so are a few others. The format on all external links should remain the same, and by publishers name in this case. Michaelas10 (Talk) 14:57, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Headers are either large and black-colored or small and red-colored. I suggest making all small and black-colored. Italics are optional but aren't recommended.
  • "WikiProjects" section should go above "Related portals". "Events by Month" should go above both.
  • "Archive" > "Archives".
    • Good catch, done. Mkdw^talk 03:26, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Add suggestions and archival pages for quotes.
    • I'll start work on the suggestion page. The quotes section has about 10 quotes that automatically rotate every 10mins. Mkdw^talk 03:26, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
      • In that case, link to the page where the rotated items are seen. Michaelas10 (Talk) 21:04, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Capitalize the main subject for each news entry per the "In the news" section on the main page. Michaelas10 (Talk) 11:10, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
    • Could you clarify this one? Capitalizing the subject is not an english language practice, or a Wikipedia:naming convention, or done on the main page. The subjects are capitalized on the main page because all the subjects are names of countries or people, to which one would naturally capitalize. However, if the subject was 'storm' you could not have a sentence like "In 2005, more than six-hundred Storms occurred". Mkdw^talk 03:26, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
      • I'm sorry then, I meant "make bold". Michaelas10 (Talk) 14:57, 21 January 2007 (UTC)