Portal talk:Ukraine

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Featured portal The Ukraine Portal is a featured portal, which means it has been identified as one of the best portals on Wikipedia. If you see a way this portal can be updated or improved without compromising previous work, please feel free to contribute.
January 21, 2007 Featured portal candidate Promoted
Ukraine Portal
This page is within the scope of WikiProject Ukraine. If you would like to participate, please join the project and help with our open tasks.
NA This article has been rated as NA-Class on the assessment scale.
This talk page is for the Portal about Ukraine. Ensure this portal's details are listed in the Portal directory.

Discussion should centre on improving the Portal. Content disputes should take place on the appropriate article's talk page.


For discussion about Portals generally, please see the WikiProject on Portals.

Contents

[edit] Background color

I changed the "Ukraine Wikiportal/Український Вiкiпортал" background color. It's now the blue color of the flag, previously it was bright blue, but I didn't like that.--Berkut 19:04, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Sure, I don't mind that at all. So far, the portal is located at my userspace and I only sent a note to a couple of users for test-drive. Shortly, we'll move it to Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Ukraine and, hopefully, it will be edited mercilessly for its own good from then on. Feel free to play with it further. If other users also notice it and start editing now, I would not mind it at all. Cheers to all! -Irpen 19:23, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Standard Wikiportal template

I'm going to take about 45 minutes to re-make this using the latest version of the Wikiportal template (this one was copied from an older template). This will require moving the sub-articles, so the portal may look quite broken for a bit. Please bear with me, and let me know if I mess anything up. —Michael Z. 2005-05-28 21:38 Z

The newer version looks better, I think. I notice that Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Ukraine/UCOTW is not on the portal's front page. Is this temporary? I think it is useful to have it on front page as well as the suggestion to add the New Article Notice board to the watchlist.

Also, the "be timid" advise for new editors, as it is now, might not get clicked by new editors. They are new, so they are less likely to have experience browsing the WP. I would have the suggestion for newcomers to read what's there more conspicuous. Objections? Maybe the current text of the warning I wrote is too strong. If so, please modify it. I think it's great we are getting this off the ground. Great weekend to all! Irpen 02:47, May 29, 2005 (UTC)

I rolled the collaboration and Wikiproject boxes into one, so the content of the UCOTW box is now included in the "Wikiprojects and collaborations" box, and editable at Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Ukraine/Wikiprojects. The collaboration box messed up the layout, because with its margin it was wider than 100%, so for now I reduced everything to very plain text. Sorry for that; feel free to edit as desired.
Same goes for the "bold & timid" note. I just tried to simplify the copy without removing anything, but please edit at will. Cheers. —Michael Z. 2005-05-29 05:15 Z
I made some small changes to two templates. There seem to be a cache problem at the server right now. At least not all of my changes show up at the frontpage outline. Probably, would go away by itself. Maybe what I did could be done better. So, please edit. Cheers, Irpen 06:48, May 29, 2005 (UTC)
I am just curious why the main article about Ukraine contains a wrong image of the coat of arms: the one with a lion and a cossack (it is also on the template). The only official (small) coat of arms is currently the trident. I'll try to find an image of the trident.Sashazlv 03:37, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
Found. Use. Sashazlv 03:49, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks! I just used the same image that was in the Ukraine article. If this CoA is not official, we should change it there too. Could you or anyone just confirm for sure that the CoA in the main UA article is not correct? (I am not at all and expert in these things). Sasha, could you raise the issue in the talk:Ukraine article that it uses a wrong CoA? Irpen 07:39, May 30, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] COA

From the Constitution [1]:

  • The state symbols of Ukraine are the State Flag of Ukraine, the State Coat of Arms of Ukraine and the State Anthem of Ukraine.
  • The State Flag of Ukraine is a banner of two equally-sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow.
  • The Great State Coat of Arms of Ukraine shall be established with the consideration of the Small State Coat of Arms of Ukraine and the Coat of Arms of the Zaporozhian Host, by the law adopted by no less than two-thirds of the constitutional compositio n of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
  • The main element of the Great State Coat of Arms of Ukraine is the Emblem of the Royal State of Volodymyr the Great (the Small State Coat of Arms of Ukraine).

I think the small COA is the trident, here's something else I found [2]:

The current state emblem (officially known as the "small" or "minor" coat of arms) is a gold Trident of St. Volodymyr the Great on a blue shield (much like the one shown on your rendition of the Border Guard Flag). As correctly stated in your excerpt from the Ukrainian Constitution, the small coat of arms is to become the central element in the great coat of arms. However, this decision has become stalled in parliament, mainly due to opposition from the Communists, who would like to see an emblem at least partially recalling the Soviet period.

I don't think the "Great" COA has been adopted yet... --Berkut 09:12, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Sounds convinsing. Than we should put the small CoA into main Ukraine and article, of course, here. I will cross-post the above discussion to talk:Ukraine and wait a bit for responses. I don't expect objections, so we can replace the image there soon. Thanks, guys. Irpen 16:08, May 30, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Ready to go live

I think this Wikiportal is good to go. —Michael Z. 2005-05-30 23:40 Z

I don't object. Do we need to modify the "be timid" warning? If everyone thinks we can go live with it as is, let's go. I am sure the rest is in shape to go. Does anyone else want to say anything? Irpen 06:16, May 31, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Text wrapping around CoA

The text does not wrap around the coat of arms nicely. --Berkut 19:39, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Tried to address is. Does it look better now? If not, please revert. Irpen 20:53, May 31, 2005 (UTC)
Hmm, the text just goes on behind the picture. --Berkut 00:19, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I don't see that. Maybe I simply don't understand what the problem is or maybe it is browser sensitive. Sorry, I am of no help. Maybe you or others can fix it. Irpen 00:56, Jun 1, 2005 (UTC)
Yeah, the problem does not show in IE, only in Firefox --Berkut 09:02, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I will write User:Zscout370 asking for his advise. I seem to remember he was able to solve a similar problem in Russian portal. Are we ready to go live after that? -Irpen 20:05, Jun 4, 2005 (UTC)
I just tweaked the formatting for the edit links. The COA looks okay in Firefox/Mac for me now. How does it look from over there? —Michael Z. 2005-06-5 00:51 Z
Yeah, it looks fine now, wraps and everything. --Berkut 02:01, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Another announcement board added

I modified the Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Ukraine/Wikiprojects window and added Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Ukraine/Ukraine-related Wikipedia notice board. Please see the latter for the reasons and feel free to modify anything. BTW, should we try to feature the info about 70+ years between the first two UA presidents at WP:DYK page? -Irpen 01:48, Jun 9, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Time to go live?

I updated the news section to include a modern event that the Portal doesn't look outdated. So, we can go live, I think. There is still a problem with edit buttons in sections. Several browsers (particularly Opera) show them all right. Netscape shows them in hardly distinguishable from the background color and MSIE simply doesn't show them or show some but not all. Maybe it is a color problem? But I would say, let's go. Maybe someone will fix these bugs when we are live. Objections? -Irpen 03:36, Jun 16, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Michael Z's nomination for adminship

I've been nominated for adminship. Most of you have probably collaborated with me on some Ukraine-related articles. If you have a minute, please have a look at my nomination and leave a comment. Cheers. —Michael Z. 2005-06-24 17:17 Z

To this I just want to add that Michael didn't ask for the nomination. Ezhiki and myself took an initiative to do this. I am sure he will be a fine admin. Congrats, Michael! -Irpen 17:33, Jun 24, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Time to go live? Time to go live? Time to go live?

I just updated the news. The news column does not seem outdated now. So, content-wise the portal is acceptable to go live. We still need a layout fix. I would love to do that, but I have no idea how? Anyone? I could ask for help from other users, for example at Russia Portal, but if someone new starts playing with it now, we may end up getting a complete overhaul and that perhaps is not the best thing to do right now. Thanks a lot to all! -Irpen July 1, 2005 05:31 (UTC)

[edit] Moved to Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Ukraine

I just moved the portal and its talk page to a location above. I have not yet placed links to it but it will be becoming visible.

There is a layout problems best seen with MSIE in WP classic skin. Some edit buttons in the upper right-hand corner are scrambled and some are missing. Part of the problem may be in the fact that portal is not composed of "Templates", like for example the Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Russia. So, the WP puts automatically second edit buttons to what it sees as "chapters". I don't know anything at all about those things, sorry. --Irpen July 6, 2005 20:16 (UTC)

[edit] Edit links for portal's windows

Yes, it does look a bit ugly with double "edit". I'll see what can be done. Do not promise anything. Sashazlv 7 July 2005 06:02 (UTC)
Have a look at User:Sashazlv/Try. If you like what you see, copy it to Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Ukraine. Sashazlv 7 July 2005 06:40 (UTC)

Seems way better! Double edit buttons are gone. One more thing, the edit links (not duplicated now) are hidden in the background color. Take a look if you can in MSIE, classic skin setting. It is less of a problem in monobook skin, because there is a graphic link pictogram there. Is changing the background color an only option? Thanks a lot! --Irpen July 7, 2005 18:23 (UTC)

I'm no expert, but you should be able to over-ride the default link colours in HTML. I don't know how Wikipedia handles this, though... -- mno July 7, 2005 18:28 (UTC)

The double edit links are still there when viewed on IE 6 on Windows 2000. Sometimes the second link is directly below the first link, sometimes they overlap slightly, sometimes other things happen. I can provide a screenshot if needed. -- mno July 7, 2005 22:24 (UTC)

They are there at main Portal, but not at the link sent by Sasha above. At least I don't see them there. --Irpen July 8, 2005 01:38 (UTC)
Ah right, I see. I thought that you had already moved in the necessary changes into the portal to fix it. Sorry. -- mno July 8, 2005 02:44 (UTC)

And I see Sasha placed the corrected version here and linked it to a Ukraine article as well. Great job, all of us! I just moved the link to the top of UA article, at least for now, to get it going. We need to change the color of edit links to, perhaps, green. But that would be done while in the live mode. I will try to figure out how to do it. --Irpen July 8, 2005 21:43 (UTC)

Also, for now I moved the link to the portal to the top of the most prominent UA-related articles: Ukraine, History of Ukraine, Ukrainian language and Ukrainians. That would hopefully be a good jumpstart. If for someone doesn't like this for stylistic reasons, feel free to move it down. --Irpen July 8, 2005 21:53 (UTC)
I tried to play with Sasha's version after he eliminated the double edit buttons. What I wanted to accomplish was to make the "edit" links of a color different from blue because they are hardly seen at the background. Maybe white would be a good option (personally, I think yellow would be overdoing it. Anyway, I didn't succeed and gave up for now. If anyone know's how to change the color of the edit links, please do so
I don't think we should override the default style. Instead, we could put the "edit" link just below the heading. See User:Sashazlv/Try. There, I have also corrected the links. Sashazlv 20:55, 9 July 2005 (UTC)
Sasha, I moved your version into the portal page. I think, your way is excellent! I don't see any more styllistical issues and we all can now consentrate on content. Thanks to Sasha, Michael and everyone else who was involved into this. Cheers, --Irpen 21:18, July 9, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Added purge button

I've added a {{purge}} button at the bottom of the page, to more easily reset the page following new transclusions. Cheers!  BD2412 talk 01:57, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Selected picture/Ukrainian paintings

Irpen, good comment re: Chernivtsi University picture. Still, I reverted the selected picture back as CU picture brings geographic variety to the portal (something else aside from Dnieper and Kiev pictures, which are great at any rate). Other portals have a separate portal box for paintings so your pic was incorporated into the one I created (copy/paste). The portal probably needs to be adjusted after this addition.--Riurik 01:45, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I see your point and I don't mind the diversity. I simply have an issue with this particular photo which looks clearly too amatourish for the Portal's page. I also have no objection to the idea of separating the images to the "selected picture" and "selected painting". --Irpen 03:01, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
Point taken; let's replace the CU picture.--Riurik 04:07, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
Suggestions for Selected Picture Box
  1. pictures of/related to Ukraine
  2. rotation would occur every 5-7 days
  3. prospective pictures preferably should be posted ahead on Proposed Featured Picture page in order to be examined by other editors
  4. pictures ought to vary geographically, if applicable
  5. description of a picture should contain at least one inner wiki link to another Ukraine related article
  6. ...
  7. ...

--Riurik 02:19, 11 August 2006 (UTC)


  • The painting was rotated. Any preferences for a selected picture. There are a few new choices in the Propose picture section, or perhaps anyone has something else in mind. I was also thinking about finding an appropriate picture & maybe painting to correspond to the upcoming day of independence next week.--Riurik 21:51, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GA Section

Should we possibly add a Good Article section to this portal, as we have one now (possibly more to come...)? Any thoughts on the matter? —dima • talk • sb • 02:32, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps instead of having a "feature article" section we can have a "selected article" section on the portal. This will allow the use of FA and GA articles, as well as those deemed by UA portal editors worthy of being posted on the front page. Thanks for formatting the portal.--Riurik 17:01, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Yes, I think that that should work out fine... Perhaps we should rotate the articles every week or so, and propose next selected article on the talk, like we do with selected images? —dima • talk • sb • 17:06, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Sounds good.--Riurik 17:30, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
OK, so what shall we choose to be the next article to replace the T-34? —dimæ [diskussion—archiv] 17:44, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

How about Verkhovna Rada?--Riurik 18:21, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

It's good, but how about something not related to Kiev, like Lviv Railway Station, Ukrainian karbovanets, Odessa Opera Theater, or pehaps, Yalta? (We have not had any city articles on the Selected Article before....) Also, were you nominating the article about the Verkhovna Rada or the VR building? —dimæ [diskussion—archiv] 18:52, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
I am not sure if Verhovna Rada is the best choice. Yalta sounds interesting, but the article seems a bit short still. How about Lviv? -- mno 19:22, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
I think that will be fine. But we should make the text about the article a bit larger than a paragraph, IMO... —dimæ [diskussion—archiv] 19:24, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

To reply, VR as an institution, not a building. Maybe later, as locations outside Kiev, should be brought up. I like Lviv over Yalta if only b/c the former is less known then the latter (i.e. Yalta Agreement). The karbovanets article is also good, but currently is too short. Lengthwise, the selected article ought to look good to the eye and be informative enough--Riurik (discuss) 19:32, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Please take a look at Portal talk:Ukraine/Featured article and keep it up to date. --Irpen 01:11, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] DYK section

Is there a place where we store all Ukraine portal related DYK articles (for history's sake and ease of access later), while beginning to delete some older entries since the DYK section is getting really large? I did not want to just delete some without asking this.--Riurik (discuss) 03:34, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, move them to Portal talk:Ukraine/Did you know. --Irpen 05:48, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
Done.--Riurik (discuss) 15:42, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Portal:Ukraine

Hello, I am the sysop of th german vision of the portal:Ukraine, maybey the sysop of the english one, can connect me, to combine the 2 portals nearer then now.

You can also send mee a message, if you have any ideas of connecting the german portals about the diviedes states of the USSR, like the russian portal, or the portal moscow.

Therefore Please check User Manecke!

With greatings manecke!

In my book, DDima and Irpen are the portal:ukraine sysops.--Riurik (discuss) 06:20, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

That's a huge exaggeration, at least for Irpen. While I indeed initiated the Portal, I only laid out an initial draft and editors which much better than myself artistic and web-design talents built it to a current form. Now, most of the work is done by Riurik and DDima. As for me, I still keep an eye on this, but I hardly administer this portal. --Irpen 05:55, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Russian and Ukraine

Russia and Ukraine is the same thing historically. Ukraine was only independent for 10+ years. Therefore, Russian portal and the ukranian portal should be merged ASAP. --Mikey Mousey 06:12, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Please do not troll. --Irpen 06:20, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
I feel sorry for Mikey. Not only does he have his facts wrong, but he can't count or spell. Bandurist 20:45, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
The topic is over. That account was used only for vandalism and has been blocked indefinetely. Solarapex 00:10, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 800X600 display problems

Screen shot #1
Screen shot #1
Screen shot #2
Screen shot #2

Here are two screen shots using IE at 800X600. Shot #2 shows a too-wide image, causing the right column to not start just below the intro as it should, in shot #1. The solution is to make all images small enough for the coulmns at the lower resolution. Rfrisbietalk 05:09, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

  • I have made the images, smaller. Does it still screw up? —dima/s-ko/ 05:14, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
    • 270px seems to be as big as they can go for a 50% column width. Portal:Religion is a workable example for 300px images with a 60% column width. Rfrisbietalk 05:32, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Portal looks

The portal is looking better than ever. It is a pleasure to use.--Riurik (discuss) 23:48, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I have formated the portal so the featured article and anniversaries will update every month, but we should add some more anniversaries to the months as on some there are only one or two... —dima/s-ko/ 19:12, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Zaporizhian Sich Article

Article Zaporizhian Sich is declared within the scope of the Russian History WikiProject (see discussion page). Why dont make it a part of the Ukrainian Project, which seems to be more natural? Articles on Zaporozhean Cossaks in general contain too many official Russian history propaganda. Ans-mo 12:47, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Articles can be within the scope of many WikiProjects which apply. Feel free to add {{WikiProject Ukraine|class=|importance=}} and rate the article on its class and importance.. —dima/talk/ 21:05, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Did you know?..

I don't know if you have noticed but in the Did you know section it says that Russian is the most common first language in Ukraine. It is not right. Please revise the statement. Thank you. --Sakura-org 16:52, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

The DYK section contains text that was on the Main Page, and it appeared on the Main Page with that text. So it should stay as it is. However, I agree, the text should have been revised [before it was posted on the Main Page], probably to second most common language in Eastern and Southern Ukraine... before posted on the main page, but it's too late now. —dima/talk/ 20:25, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
It was revised on the main page. I remember I complained about it and the change to

second most common language in Eastern and Southern Ukraine... or something like that was made. Sakura-org talk 18:14, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Geographical Names in English Wikipedia. Useful reference =

There are many editing wars going on as to spelling Ukrainian geographic names, mostly due to some Russian Wikipedians that try to get their way even though it is wrong. But, anyway, I would like you to verify spelling of Ukrainian geographical places with the United States Board on Geographic Names (aka US BGN) (http://gnswww.nga.mil/geonames/GNS/index.jsp). I want to emphasize that the U.S. Board on Geographic Names governs how geographic names must be spelled in official documents in the U.S. This should help you solve many editing wars. Solarapex 01:02, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] AIDS Epidemic

It is very well known that this decease is a problem in Ukraine, but is it really getting worse? I've read an article recently that states quite the contrary. See Engilsh version here. Regards, Bogdan що? 02:15, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ukrainian Church in Lourdes

I created a new subsection on the Ukrainian Church in Lourdes in the article Lourdes. Any help in expanding it would be appreciated--Orestek (talk) 05:27, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Folklore Expert Needed

I have added Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (song) and And Quiet Flows the Don (novel) to this WikiProject. The song is said to be based on a traditional Ukrainian folk song, mentioned in the novel. I would appreciate it if this can be verified. Links to the song text, with an English translation, would be very helpful, and an addition to the article on the song. I started a Ukrainian folk song category, in case anyone wants to expand on that. Pustelnik 01:33, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I have read that as well, but I doubt it. It may be a furfy. It seems that Canadian Country and Western stars Mickey and Bunny and the Drifter's V translated the song into Ukrainian and sang itt that way. They did the same with the Beatle's tunes and songs like "This is made for you and me" and"You are my sunshine" which ;later became a hit for the marenych trio. Bandurist (talk) 00:00, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hutsul Regiment

Hi everyone! I know this was a Polish Army regiment, but as it consisted mostly of Hutsuls, I thought you would be interested. Obviously, help is appreciated. I have read some opinions that it was the best regiment of the Polish Army in September 1939. So check out 49th Hutsul Rifle Regiment Tymek (talk) 20:39, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Sounds interesting. I'll copy this to the announcements page as well.--Riurik(discuss) 06:52, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Translation request

Can someone go to the link here: Portal_talk:Scouting/Scouting_news#Why? and translate the Ukrainian news article so we can put it in Portal:Scouting News section? We'd at least need enough for the news link. — Rlevse • Talk • 19:36, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Police and military

Under Main topics are articles about the military forces of Ukraine placed under Police forces. Police forces should either split up, or get a new name? Helge Høi (talk) 09:42, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Armed forces is also an alternative option, and even though implies the exclusion of police/interior forces, it may be a better title. I suspect those topics were grouped together to avoid further extending the table size.--Riurik(discuss) 01:17, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
Fixed.--Riurik(discuss) 06:01, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] A discussion on Banach and Ukrainian science is being censored by anti-Ukrainian nationalists

There is an on-going systematic effort by User:Nihil_novi and few other extreme nationalist characters to archive the content of the discussion page Talk:Stefan_Banach.

The discussion on this page contains many arguments and references on Ukrainian roots of Stefan Banach and on his contributions to Ukrainian mathematics.

Polish chauvinists attempted to initiate the discussion of the censorship purge of the article on Banach. To create a semblance of a "vote" supporting their censorship, User:Nihil_novi attempt to hide into the archive the discussions of the Banach Ukrainian roots and his contributions to Ukrainian mathematics.

The section Stefan Banach#Contributions to Ukrainian mathematics contains important and non-redundant facts on Banach's contributions to Ukrainian science and Ukrainian mathematics in particular. There are substantial plans to continue the work on expanding this particular section, as well as other sections of Stefan_Banach.

The on-going attempts of Polish extreme nationalist characters to impede the establishment of NPOV on Banach must be stopped!

Please review the above matter and support the complaint against the anti-Ukrainian censorship at Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Complaint —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.210.14.5 (talk) 06:29, 12 May 2008 (UTC)