Portal talk:Australia: Difference between revisions

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::Not really. I've (very occasionally) used this portal as a navigational tool and generically like the idea that any content-related page gets updated once in a while. On the other hand advance discussion of major changes per BRD never hurts, and if this discussion uncovers good technical or content reasons not to make these amendments then let's not. Sorry that's not more helpful - my interest in starting this section is just to create a relaxed forum to resolve this single editing question. -- [[User:Euryalus|Euryalus]] ([[User talk:Euryalus|talk]]) 07:32, 14 October 2019 (UTC)
::Not really. I've (very occasionally) used this portal as a navigational tool and generically like the idea that any content-related page gets updated once in a while. On the other hand advance discussion of major changes per BRD never hurts, and if this discussion uncovers good technical or content reasons not to make these amendments then let's not. Sorry that's not more helpful - my interest in starting this section is just to create a relaxed forum to resolve this single editing question. -- [[User:Euryalus|Euryalus]] ([[User talk:Euryalus|talk]]) 07:32, 14 October 2019 (UTC)
:::Thanks for your pleasant reply, which is appreciated. <span class="smallcaps" style="font-variant:small-caps;">[[User:Northamerica1000|North America]]<sup>[[User talk:Northamerica1000|<span style="font-size: x-small;">1000</span>]]</sup></span> 10:21, 14 October 2019 (UTC)
:::Thanks for your pleasant reply, which is appreciated. <span class="smallcaps" style="font-variant:small-caps;">[[User:Northamerica1000|North America]]<sup>[[User talk:Northamerica1000|<span style="font-size: x-small;">1000</span>]]</sup></span> 10:21, 14 October 2019 (UTC)
=== Comments and analysis by BHG ===
Per [[WP:Portal]], ''"Portals serve as enhanced 'Main Pages' for specific broad subjects"''. The list of articles is the core of any portal. It should be chosen on a transparent basis, and it should easily viewable and reviewable at any time by any reader or editor, as clickable links, without needing to edit the page or to search on the talk page. None of those apply to the portals restructured by NA1K.

I see three issues which need to be resolved with respect to this portal. Similar issues apply to the many other portals which NA1K has reworked:
# The failure to display a list of the articles in the portal. The list of articles is the core of any portal. Hiding it from scrutiny opens up a wide range from problems
# Criteria for selection of articles. These should be agreed by consensus and clearly stated, so that editors can review the list against the agreed criteria.
# The selection of cuisine as the only topic area for its own section

;List display
NA1K chose without prior discussion or notice to convert this portal into a format which does not display anywhere on the face of the portal or on a linked sub-page a list of the articles. This was a design choice; other models of single-page portal ''do'' display a list, e.g. [[Portal:Wind power]]. (I dislike the excessively bulky way that one displays its list, but that could be easily fixed).

Displaying the list of articles is important in two ways:
* So that readers can directly see the full set of articles. The model which NA1K used means that there is no way to see the full set, and readers are forced to purge the page to see one more excerpt from an undisclosed list of undisclosed size. This is a massive usability fail; it is equivalent to having a magazine or newspaper with no list of contents, and without even the ability to flick through the pages. The only way to see articles is to make repeated lucky dips, with no guarantee of ever seeing the full set.<br />No explanation has ever been given of why NA1K considers it is desirable to take the extraordinary step of hide the list of articles from readers
* To allow editors to easily monitor the set. It should be easily viewed, with clickable links, by any editor, to examine its suitability. A copy of the list on the talk page is not sufficient, because that is there is no indication on the face of the portal that it is available there, and there is no guarantee that it will be synchronised with the actual embedded list.<br />Reasons for performing these checks include:
*# reviewing the quality of articles (e.g. up-to-date? Free of clean-up tags? Of sufficient quality? Been vandalised? NPOV?)
*# to check for various forms of unconstructive list-making, e.g.
*#* adding off-topic articles to the list, (e.g. topics with no connection to Australia)
*#* promotion, e.g. promoting a minor musician or politician or business by adding them to the portal's list of articles
*#* monitoring for POV-pushing, which could be done in several different ways, e.g.<br />stacking the list of articles in one direction, e.g. giving undue emphasis to a particular political POV, a particular geographical area, a particular style of music<br />omitting topics which someone would prefer to get less attention<br />favouring one historical era over another (e.g. recentism)<br />
*#* pranking, e.g. adding excessive articles about hoaxes, or giving undue weight to the bizarre
*#* plain vandalism (e.g. adding Hitler, Stalin ad Pol Pot to a list of biographies)

;Criteria for selection of articles
Editors need to decide how articles should be selected. At one extreme, any editor could be free to add whatever they like, possibly subject to a quality threshold. At the other extreme, there could be a strict formulaic system such as a quota by topic area (politics, sport, geography, culture) with a requirement for balance by geography, history and POV.

So far as I can see, the selection by NA1K of articles for the cuisine section amount to the first extreme: I see no stated criteria anywhere for the choice. If criteria were applied, they have not been disclosed; it is equally possible that the choice was simply a ILIKEIT set of NA1K's personal preferences.

Editors here may decide that ILIKEIT selections are fine, or that anyone may apply their own criteria. However, either approach seems to me to be a) wrong in principle for an encyclopedia, b) a recipe for instability, if editors argue over personal preferences; c) even if stable, excessively privileging whoever adds an article.

I note that NA1K added a section for GA-class articles. However, I see that NA1K added only 20 such articles, whereas I just used AWB to cunt [[:Category:GA-Class Australia articles]]+subcats, and found an impressive 750 GA-class articles (we'll done Australian editors). There is no indication from NA1K oh how or why they selected those 20, and my attempts elsewhere to ask NA1K how they make such choice has elicited responses meaningless word-soup responses. For example, at [[WP:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Ghana]], when I challenged NA1K on what criteria had been used, their reply was simply vague and obfuscatory: {{tq|I assessed these articles relative to their suitability for this portal}}.

;Cuisine
The addition of a cuisine section was an undiscussed unilateral addition by NA1K. Regardless of its content or quality, it stands out as the only topic area to be given its only section on the portal.

I can see no reason for this choice other that NA1K has a personal interest in cuisine. However, in any objective selection of sub-topics for Australia, I find it hard to see any basis for giving such prominence to cuisine. [[Food]] is only a [[WP:Vital_articles/Level/2|level-2 vital article]], and it comes Australian cuisine comes low down in the category: hierarchy for Australia: [[:Category:Australia]] → [[:Category:Australian society]] → [[:Category:Food and drink in Australia]] → [[:Category:Australian cuisine]].

The choice of this topic area seems to me to give undue weight to one editor's personal interests, over more the broad topic areas such as history, geography, society, economy, environment, politics … and even to more significant sub-topics such as arts and culture, education, sport, military history, law, or crime.

If portals were simply magazines in which editors were encouraged to use to showcase their ow interests, then this magazine-steak choice would make sense. But I see nothing in [[WP:PORTAL]] to justify this widespread use of portals to promote one editors personal interests at over objectively broader and more significant topics.

It is up to Australian editors to decide whether they want the portal on their country to be developed in this way. But I hope that as they make their decision, they will consider where this could lead. If it's OK for an editor to add a randomly-chosen third-level topic, then logically the door is open for any editor to add a section on their ow pet sub-sub-topic: elections, cricket, snakes, cities, cars, whatever. Is that what editors really want? Or would they prefer the portal to develop according to the broad hierarchy of topics? --[[User:BrownHairedGirl|<span style="font-variant:small-caps"><span style="color:#663200;">Brown</span>HairedGirl</span>]] <small>[[User talk:BrownHairedGirl|(talk)]] • ([[Special:Contributions/BrownHairedGirl|contribs]])</small> 10:21, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Revision as of 10:22, 15 October 2019

Featured portalThis portal was identified as a featured portal before the process ended in 2017.
Portal milestones
DateProcessResult
February 2, 2006Featured portal candidatePromoted


Index

Archives

On this day section

I've started a set of subpages at Portal:Australia/Anniversaries, which has a subpage for every day of the year, so that notable events and anniversaries in Australian history can be considered. Hopefully, if approved by the community for inclusion on the portal page, it would not be hard to maintain, as a glance at the code of Portal:Germany, shows that there is an automated device so that the reference to the relevant day's subpage will automatically update itself at 0:00 every day. I've stuck a few random notable events in there just off the top of my head, etc. Regards, Blnguyen | Have your say!!! 02:33, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest that the set of pages needs to be nearly complete before the portal starts displaying them. Otherwise we'll get unsightly red links on the portal page. It would be a lot of work to complete these pages, and I'm not sure the benefits would be worth while.-gadfium 02:58, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, of course, but in time I think we could rummage together at least three or four anniversaries per day. It's just like the main page, and I think there could be more Australia content than German content on the English Wikipedia. Blnguyen | Have your say!!! 03:01, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • I think the proposal is good. I was thinking of it already, but not sure how to implement in the context of the years in Australia pages, which are of course an easy source of events. I would like to see the links back to those years too, eg for July 11 1916 being Gough's bithday, don't link to 1916 but instead 1916 in Australia, though piped to 1916, ie [[1916 in Australia|1916]]--A Y Arktos\talk 03:12, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
      • I think they (the German portal) just trawled through the data manually, unless someone creates June 8 in Australia, which would have the exact same effect anyway.
    • Could the update be UTC - 10 hours - ie midnight AEST? :-)--A Y Arktos\talk 03:14, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
      • I think so, there is a template that works out the day, with an offset of days, I don't think it would be difficult for the people who write these templates to create one with a deliberate time offset and then convert to days and months. I don't know what the WP policy is w.r.t changing the clock for regional portals not on GMT however.Blnguyen | Have your say!!! 03:20, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I like the proposal, though it would need to be completed before inclusion on the portal as either a new feature or replacement for DYK.--cj | talk 03:34, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Im all for this proposal and would be glad to help with finding notable historical events. michael talk 04:59, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Since we are drawing from a smaller pool of articles than Wikipedia, it might be a good idea to include notable births and/or deaths, and important cultural works - like the publication date for books etc. I've also got to say, I don't really see a great problem with having red links on a portal - red links often prompt people to write articles.--Peta 23:42, 24 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
      • Is "19xx in Australia" too going too fine-grained for the article topics? I mean, there were those world factbooks for each year in my local library when I was growing up and I agree their content would be great on Wikipedia, but with its extremely broad frame of reference I worry that fine-grain summary articles like these will be hard for researchers to find. Imagine you are looking for information about the goldrush in Australia and associated economical change... You have an idea it happened in the goldrush happened in the mid 1800s, but not sure exactly what year the most important dates happened. You are going to want an article more like "1850s in Australia".... What do you think? This is going to be particularly relevant for the pre-1788 years in Australia and pre-Renaissance years for most countries — Donama 00:50, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Have a look at one of the non redlinked years in Australia, for example 1962 in Australia. It links to the Timeline of Australian history which has major events per decade. It also links back to 1962 which from there links to decades - not too many clicks to get to a broader timeframe. I agree with you about pre 1788, but are we putting in dates pre 1788 (other than 1770 which I am in two minds about), there weren't that many records or consistent calendars around for dates relevant to Australia. However, if it was something like the Batavia or similar event you had in mind, no I wouldn't link back to 1629 in Australia--A Y Arktos\talk 01:11, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you're looking for events to add, try this ABC site--Peta 05:08, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Cool :) .Blnguyen | Have your say!!! 05:09, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Peta, per featured portal criteria, red links are limited to only contibution-encouraging aspects of portals (ie, to-do lists). This portal does not include a to-do list, but instead points to ACOTF. --cj | talk 05:25, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It would be my preference to not include pictures amongst the anniversaries because they are too variable; not all subpages will be of sufficient size to balance the image. In other words, the image should be a secondary aspect - the text should outweigh it. If images are included, they should be limited to dates with 4 or more anniversaries. Moreover, they should not be thumbnailed. Also, please ensure in adding dates that a uniform format is followed; the first letter of the anniversary after the hyphen should be capitalised in all instances, and all anniversaries should have full stops.--cj | talk 08:52, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The issue is, it is much easier to include pictures as we are building the items now rather than go back and add them later. I would like to add now and discuss later, rather than the other way around, if pictures are an agreed option. I think we should be able to find pictures for one in four events. The model I had in mind is Portal:Germany/Anniversaries/May where there is a picture for each day. I note they are not thumbnailed or captioned - the lack of captioning a consequence of not thumbnailing rather than editor's intention though looking at the code, but probably a Good Thing.--A Y Arktos\talk 23:35, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That seems reasonable. There are a few reasons to not thumbnail images on portals; firstly, they conflict with set backgrounds; secondly, they are not always aesthetically appealing (the box in a box issue); and finally, for this portal, they would be inconsistent. Capitions should always be included for images though, as they are still shown on mouse over.--cj | talk 07:23, 27 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
mouseover does not seem to work for me in mozila at present - but if it does for some, no probs--A Y Arktos\talk 11:31, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Every day in Portal:Australia/Anniversaries/June is now blue linked. Plenty of opportunities still for additions or replacements. Can we start from 1 June?--A Y Arktos\talk 23:37, 29 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As soon as all red links within those days are taken care of.--cj | talk 07:48, 30 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I see the red links as "contribution-encouraging aspects". The German portal seems to have achieved its blue links through the domination of births and deaths - few events per se doing a quick scan. I am not interested in merely a list of births and deaths - a light scattering only should be sufficient. I also see little point to linking to the common year for an Australian portal. Given the lack of interest from other editors to even add events, I can't see this going anywhere with the constraint put on it by Cyberjunkie's interpretation of "Red links must be restricted to only contribution-encouraging aspects, and limited at that." at Wikipedia:What is a featured portal?--A Y Arktos\talk 11:31, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'm actually quite happy with the response to this proposal – it has been the most concerted group effort this portal has seen. The catalogue will continue to grow over time, so I don't see any particular need to rush – the portal certainly isn't going anywhere. Peta's suggestion below to run it on AWNB may trigger further participation. The "contibution-encouraging aspects" comment refers to self-referential sections on portals, namely things to do, WikiProjects etc. Red links are confined to these sections. You can trust my interpretation of what is a featured portal?, because I wrote it. The reasoning behind the red link criterion, imported from Wikipédia française, which was more advanced vis-à-vis portals at that stage, is that because portals are meant to display quality snippets of the encyclopædia, red links serve only as a distraction.--cj | talk 05:52, 1 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A different proposal

Here's another proposal, why don't we have a dummy run on the notice board? I think the collaboration of the fortnight could be moved - (cj would it be possible to make the candidates box half as high and make a skinnier box for the collabortion of the fortnight? Or we could rename the box community and just have the collabotation and candidates in there.) and the box could go beneath in the news. Red links would be ok, and it would draw attention to the "project" since more people (probably) visit that page than look at the portal. Then when we have some more polished material it can appear on both the portal and the noticeboard.--Peta 02:29, 1 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I like this proposal, though I'm not exactly clear on what it is you want me to do?--cj | talk 05:52, 1 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
We need to free up a box, so I though we could have two boxes where the candidates box is now, one for the cotf and one for candidates - or we can just combine those things in one box.--Peta 05:59, 1 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I like the idea. I think Peta means merge the contents of Collaboration of the Fortnight and Other Candidates boxes at the AWNB to free up a box for the new Australian Anniversary content. -- Longhair 02:39, 2 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I made a change and think it looks ok. What do you think? Alignment in the middle right box could do with an expert tweak though. -- Longhair 11:05, 2 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Another (minor) problem being, the edit link actually edits the box contents, and not anniversary dates. -- Longhair 11:12, 2 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I suspect a page or two also needs to be renamed, plus the edit link problem. Other than that, I quite like it. I stole your userpage idea too AYArktos :) Thanks. -- Longhair 11:35, 2 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There seems to be a problem with the images being used. Compare the results on WP:AWNB with my user page and User:AYArktos for an example of the problem. -- Longhair 00:56, 4 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I can't spot it.--cj | talk 06:26, 4 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Appears to be fixed. What was happening was the image tags where being presented as such, and not an image. -- Longhair 06:27, 4 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Big dates

What happens on dates where there are lots of events (Jan 1, Nov 11 and Dec 10 spring to mind, but there will be more)? Does someone need to manually modify a template, or will the whole list appear?--Peta 21:50, 5 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If they are excessive, and distort the portal proper, then that may have to be done. But they are only temporary and none have yet struck me as too large. Still, maybe we should place a cap on the number of events per anniversary?--cj | talk 07:30, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • I think we will have to review to reduce to no more than five per day, but it is easier to review later and take out than provide guidelines up front. The criteria for removal might not be significance of the event but interest of the unusual - directing to an article that would not have come otherwise to the attention of the casual browser. It really comes down to refining the purpose of the Anniversaries list. Some events/articles have more than one date associated with them and are easier to move than others - eg a significant Australian was born, died and might have done something on particular days; they need only be mentioned once in the year's 365 days. I suggest review when a month is about to go live - we still have lots of blanks in July but it seems a bit early to be working on the clean up when so much is still being added generally throughout the year. Need to start the clean up in the last week of June.--A Y Arktos\talk 22:59, 9 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Images

  • I have been adding captions to images. In at least one case the caption had been removed. The mouseover does work if pop-ups is not enabled and is important information thus for general readers that they would not see otherwise.--A Y Arktos\talk 22:59, 9 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why does the faux-browsebar at the top link to categories instead of portals?--ragesoss 04:22, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Selected article suggestions

There was talk somewhere of a list of Featured Australian articles but I can't seem to find it. If we're running short of Australian content, there's always the Good article pool to chose from. -- Longhair 02:46, 2 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See this and this. I couldn't bear to see redlinks, so I quickly copied them from around Weeks 40/41, 2006. If I've stuffed this up, my apologies, but I figured these were better than nothing for a featured portal. Daniel Bryant 07:35, 26 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks very much Daniel. Eek, indeed! I've put fresh entries in.--cj | talk 07:45, 26 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

50,000 years

The portal says that Australia has been inhabited by Aboriginals for 50,000 years, whereas the Australia article says that it has been inhabited by Aboriginals for only 42,000 years. Please explain, --Spebi 22:45, 30 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Simply, the text in the introduction of this portal was taken from the Australia article, which has subsequently changed. I've updated the figure.--cj | talk 16:46, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use images

In particular, logos. What's the current status regarding the legitimacy of their use in portals? I see at least two in Portal:Australia/Anniversaries/August (A-League and Demons), and I always thought that they were off-limits, so I'm asking here for more input. Thoughts? Cheers, Daniel Bryant 11:50, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Under present policy, they are prohibited in portalspace. A proposal to allow them is currently being discussed, but looks unlikely to get up. I've removed the photos you pointed out. Thanks,--cj | talk 16:45, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Resolved

The portal was showing redlinks for "week 0" on selected items! I have copied materials from week 1 to temporarily remove the redlinks. Arman (Talk) 01:28, 31 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have fixed the problem now. There was an error with the function that automatically produces the week number of the year, and (I think) the ISO week number was Week 0 of 2008, but the year number still generated 2007, and as Week 0, 2007 didn't exist, hence the red links. I've fixed the problem so it manually displays the Featured selection of the first week of 2008, even though it's technically (according to the software) not 2008 yet. Spebi 01:32, 31 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Commonwealth Gazette

Hi, would any Australians be willing to help me get the text of two particular Gazettes? I am looking for the ones referenced in http://www.airwaysmuseum.com/Civil%20Air%20Ensign.htm, namely:

  • 6 June 1935 № 30
  • 4 March 1948 № 39

The topic is the Civil Air Ensign's specifications so I can create an exact image. I can't get Australia Gazettes from where I live. Thanks, ButterStick (talk) 09:55, 1 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You'd probably get a better answer if you try asking at the Australian Wikipedians' notice board, because not many people watch this page. Spebi 09:56, 1 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, will do. ButterStick (talk) 09:58, 1 January 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by ButterBar (talk • contribs) [reply]

Other portals

Portal:Tasmania's Related Portals box could be used here. feydey (talk) 18:28, 1 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

barlings beach nsw australia

Located between Batemans Bay and Moruya and by the village of Tomakin. This sandy beach is about one kilometre long with shrubbed sand dunes and grassed flats to the interior. It is crescent shaped and features Barlings Island and Long Nose Point to the north and Melville Point to the south. The beach faces south and, therefore, picks up southerly swell. The beach is affected, usually after mid morning, by strong north-easterly winds especially in summer. Sea temperatures usually vary between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius, with the coldest months being October and November. Wet suits are advisable in the non-summer seasons. Salmon, sting rays and dolphins are common. Whales can be seen in the migratory months. Several years ago a mother whale and its calf sheltered in the bay for a day or so.

Barlings, also known as Chunders, is patronised mainly by local Tomakin surfers who are more atune to the vagaries of the beach. Outsiders are quick to dismiss Chunders because of its famous close-out break, its unforgiving bach-wash, its sometimes dodgey paddle through the rocks, the presence of bluebottles after a strong southerly and suspect flotsam after a stong north-easterly. The north of the beach is sheltered from swell while the south can experience periods of strong surf-- usually followed by a flat spell. The sand banks are normally best after strong waves have shifted sand further out to sea. Right hand breaks are usually fast while the left handers are generally slower with a faster section close to the shore. Waves break into respective rips which can be hazardous to visitors.

To the north of the beach, between Barlings Island and Long Nose Point, are rocky coves and a sewage outlet. To the sooth, between Melville Point and the mouth Of the Tomaga River are Tomakin Cove (Little Beach) and Tomakin Beach (River Beach). The former is protected from waves. The latter has a long right hander on the river mouth with NE swell. Avoid a fast out going tide. In the middle, The Basin, provides a large fattish left/right hander. Be prepared to wait...

Always remember the surf is always far better and the girls are prettier at Broulee!!!! ECO

– — … ‘ “ ’ ” ° ″ ′ ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥ ± − × ÷ ← → · §
210.9.137.176 (talk) 02:47, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Subpages

I noticed that someone move protected the main australia portal page but not any of the subpages, e.g. Portal:Australia/Indices. This could potentially turn into a big problem.
Oli (talk) 05:30, 20 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Portal page looks awful

I don't know what has gone wrong, but the top of the portal page looks really awful. The map overlaps the text, the text is ragged and right-justified, and there is a big blob of useless whitespace. cojoco (talk) 16:27, 5 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've commented out some html in Portal:Australia/Intro which has fixed it. This is just addressing the symptoms. Perhaps something changed in MediaWiki which broke the layout. Someone more familiar with this portal can try reversing my change in a few hours and see if it now works, and perhaps report it at WP:VP/T if it still doesn't.-gadfium 17:42, 5 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Rock Eisteddfod Challenge results

Rock Eisteddfod Challenge results contains wrong Informations, but i did not know which edits are bad or good. Please check it. The edits of 18th January are bad, I am sure. --Diwas (talk) 06:36, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

But I do not need this list. Feel free to delete it. Greetings Diwas (talk) 06:44, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Integration with WikiProject

I've begun a discussion at Wikipedia:Australian Wikipedians' notice board#Integration with Portal regarding integration between this Portal and WikiProject Australia. LordVetinari 11:11, 28 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Error on portal page.

The Selected Article section overlaps the Indices section. Acalycinetalk 09:53, 6 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The effect may be browser-dependent, but I hope I've fixed it with this edit. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:15, 6 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Still there. Looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/P9z5HpR.png
I can't see what's causing that. What browser and version are you using? -- John of Reading (talk) 10:38, 6 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Currently I'm using Firefox 24.0 and it's fixed. I was using Safari 6.0.5 when it was bugged like that... I'm also using Mountain Lion on a Macintosh. Acalycinetalk 00:11, 7 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I added a clear:both to the header and it fixed it on my iPhone. How does it look on other browsers? — Mr. Stradivarius on tour ♪ talk ♪ 23:14, 8 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I just found out my previous fix didn't work in IE, so I've tried using a {{clear}} template in between the header div and the other divs. Let me know if you spot any issues with it. — Mr. Stradivarius on tour ♪ talk ♪ 06:24, 9 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The intro blurb for the portal cites Australia's population as 21 million, while the actual figure is more like 24: would someone with sufficient permissions to get to the template on which the intro is located like to fix it? Rpot2 (talk) 02:45, 5 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Rpot2: should be fixed, thanks for noticing the error. -- Euryalus (talk) 05:52, 5 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
No worries :-)
Rpot2 (talk) 22:44, 5 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I should also probably mention that, to stop it getting too out-dated, that stat will also need to be monitored, and updated whenever the population ticks over to the next nearest next million. Is using a bot for that worth-while? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rpot2 (talk • contribs) 05:58, 8 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal to delete all portals

The discussion is at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Proposal to delete Portal space. Voceditenore (talk) 15:09, 22 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]


Recognized content

Good articles


Status report from the Portals WikiProject

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals is back!

The project was rebooted and completely overhauled on April 17th, 2018.

Its goals are to revitalize the entire portal system, make building and maintaining portals easier, and design the portals of the future.

As of April 29th, membership is at 56 editors, and growing.

There are design initiatives for revitalizing the portals system as a whole, and for each component of portals.

Tools are provided for building and maintaining portals, including automated portals that update themselves in various ways.

And, if you are bored and would like something to occupy your mind, we have a wonderful task list.

From your friendly neighborhood Portals WikiProject.    — The Transhumanist   03:24, 30 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Portal:Darwin listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Portal:Darwin. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. UnitedStatesian (talk) 11:34, 15 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Portal:Newcastle listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Portal:Newcastle. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. -- Tavix (talk) 14:12, 27 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Portal:Norfolk Island listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Portal:Norfolk Island. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. -- Tavix (talk) 14:17, 27 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Portal expanded

The portal has been expanded with the addition of a new Good article section. The article selections listed below were added. Additional expansion, updating and cleanup was also performed. If anyone is interested, please feel free to discuss these changes here. North America1000 14:27, 20 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Good articles

1 * Brumby 2 * Green-head ant 3 * Cyclone Glenda 4 * 2010 Gascoyne River flood 5 * Glebe (rugby league team) 6 * Angie Ballard 7 * Australian Crawl 8 * 2010 Claxton Shield 9 * Black Tears 10 * Fighter Squadron RAAF 11 * Jack Fingleton 12 * Anthony Field 13 * Green Lantern Coaster 14 * Stuart Clarence Graham 15 * Great Northern Highway 16 * Frog cake 17 * Albany Highway 18 * Jennifer Blow 19 * Ivor McIntyre 20 * Kelsey Wakefield

  • Additional articles for the portal can be considered from those available in the table listed below.

Have collapsed the table as it was overwhelming the section on this page. Feel free to revert if preferred. -- Euryalus (talk) 05:14, 14 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Further discussion

Seems worth extending this talkpage discussion as there's now a minor edit war under way. An editor boldly added a Good Article section to the portal, along with some minor technical changes. Another editor has reverted those changes on the grounds they were undiscussed beforehand. In the spirit of WP:BRDD, let's now have a discussion to decide the content for this page. In passing, please note that this is about content, unlike the ANI discussion which is about alleged editor conduct. Pinging @Northamerica1000, BrownHairedGirl, and Kusma: as the three people so far involved, but of course anyone is welcome to offer a view. -- Euryalus (talk) 05:14, 14 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The blanket revert should be reverted as the edit summary is a complete fabrication in this case. That said we could easily pick some top level articles from many GAs and FAs....not seeing much of a problem with Norths picks though.--Moxy 🍁 05:23, 14 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the comment. As very much a passing suggestion: given how heated portal discussion sometimes are we should probably leave issues of other portals, and mass editing/reverting, for the ANI debate and just focus here this particular portal. Feel free to disagree, I just think we're more likely to get consensus from a simple content discussion about Portal:Australia. -- Euryalus (talk) 05:32, 14 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Your right in one sense ...my point was the work was already done. That said I created Wikipedia:WikiProject Australia/Featured and good content years ago that we can cross reference with Wikipedia:WikiProject Australia/Popular pages and Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/1 and see what we got to work with.--Moxy 🍁 05:53, 14 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • I support the blanket reversion being undone. The edits performed improved the portal, because 1) Using transclusions from articles provides readers with current, up-to-date information, 2) The Good article section was a logical starting point for more to be added as time goes on, and 3) The articles chosen for the GA section as a starting point serve to provide readers with diverse content about Australian people, geography and environment, sports, transportation, cuisine, military history, and other aspects. Many more GA articles are available.
I also added a Selected cuisine section, which served to functionally expand the portal's scope a bit more. That was also removed. I would like both sections restored, but at the very least, the GA section should be restored. North America1000 05:40, 14 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Not really. I've (very occasionally) used this portal as a navigational tool and generically like the idea that any content-related page gets updated once in a while. On the other hand advance discussion of major changes per BRD never hurts, and if this discussion uncovers good technical or content reasons not to make these amendments then let's not. Sorry that's not more helpful - my interest in starting this section is just to create a relaxed forum to resolve this single editing question. -- Euryalus (talk) 07:32, 14 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for your pleasant reply, which is appreciated. North America1000 10:21, 14 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Comments and analysis by BHG

Per WP:Portal, "Portals serve as enhanced 'Main Pages' for specific broad subjects". The list of articles is the core of any portal. It should be chosen on a transparent basis, and it should easily viewable and reviewable at any time by any reader or editor, as clickable links, without needing to edit the page or to search on the talk page. None of those apply to the portals restructured by NA1K.

I see three issues which need to be resolved with respect to this portal. Similar issues apply to the many other portals which NA1K has reworked:

  1. The failure to display a list of the articles in the portal. The list of articles is the core of any portal. Hiding it from scrutiny opens up a wide range from problems
  2. Criteria for selection of articles. These should be agreed by consensus and clearly stated, so that editors can review the list against the agreed criteria.
  3. The selection of cuisine as the only topic area for its own section
List display

NA1K chose without prior discussion or notice to convert this portal into a format which does not display anywhere on the face of the portal or on a linked sub-page a list of the articles. This was a design choice; other models of single-page portal do display a list, e.g. Portal:Wind power. (I dislike the excessively bulky way that one displays its list, but that could be easily fixed).

Displaying the list of articles is important in two ways:

  • So that readers can directly see the full set of articles. The model which NA1K used means that there is no way to see the full set, and readers are forced to purge the page to see one more excerpt from an undisclosed list of undisclosed size. This is a massive usability fail; it is equivalent to having a magazine or newspaper with no list of contents, and without even the ability to flick through the pages. The only way to see articles is to make repeated lucky dips, with no guarantee of ever seeing the full set.
    No explanation has ever been given of why NA1K considers it is desirable to take the extraordinary step of hide the list of articles from readers
  • To allow editors to easily monitor the set. It should be easily viewed, with clickable links, by any editor, to examine its suitability. A copy of the list on the talk page is not sufficient, because that is there is no indication on the face of the portal that it is available there, and there is no guarantee that it will be synchronised with the actual embedded list.
    Reasons for performing these checks include:
    1. reviewing the quality of articles (e.g. up-to-date? Free of clean-up tags? Of sufficient quality? Been vandalised? NPOV?)
    2. to check for various forms of unconstructive list-making, e.g.
      • adding off-topic articles to the list, (e.g. topics with no connection to Australia)
      • promotion, e.g. promoting a minor musician or politician or business by adding them to the portal's list of articles
      • monitoring for POV-pushing, which could be done in several different ways, e.g.
        stacking the list of articles in one direction, e.g. giving undue emphasis to a particular political POV, a particular geographical area, a particular style of music
        omitting topics which someone would prefer to get less attention
        favouring one historical era over another (e.g. recentism)
      • pranking, e.g. adding excessive articles about hoaxes, or giving undue weight to the bizarre
      • plain vandalism (e.g. adding Hitler, Stalin ad Pol Pot to a list of biographies)
Criteria for selection of articles

Editors need to decide how articles should be selected. At one extreme, any editor could be free to add whatever they like, possibly subject to a quality threshold. At the other extreme, there could be a strict formulaic system such as a quota by topic area (politics, sport, geography, culture) with a requirement for balance by geography, history and POV.

So far as I can see, the selection by NA1K of articles for the cuisine section amount to the first extreme: I see no stated criteria anywhere for the choice. If criteria were applied, they have not been disclosed; it is equally possible that the choice was simply a ILIKEIT set of NA1K's personal preferences.

Editors here may decide that ILIKEIT selections are fine, or that anyone may apply their own criteria. However, either approach seems to me to be a) wrong in principle for an encyclopedia, b) a recipe for instability, if editors argue over personal preferences; c) even if stable, excessively privileging whoever adds an article.

I note that NA1K added a section for GA-class articles. However, I see that NA1K added only 20 such articles, whereas I just used AWB to cunt Category:GA-Class Australia articles+subcats, and found an impressive 750 GA-class articles (we'll done Australian editors). There is no indication from NA1K oh how or why they selected those 20, and my attempts elsewhere to ask NA1K how they make such choice has elicited responses meaningless word-soup responses. For example, at WP:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Ghana, when I challenged NA1K on what criteria had been used, their reply was simply vague and obfuscatory: I assessed these articles relative to their suitability for this portal.

Cuisine

The addition of a cuisine section was an undiscussed unilateral addition by NA1K. Regardless of its content or quality, it stands out as the only topic area to be given its only section on the portal.

I can see no reason for this choice other that NA1K has a personal interest in cuisine. However, in any objective selection of sub-topics for Australia, I find it hard to see any basis for giving such prominence to cuisine. Food is only a level-2 vital article, and it comes Australian cuisine comes low down in the category: hierarchy for Australia: Category:AustraliaCategory:Australian societyCategory:Food and drink in AustraliaCategory:Australian cuisine.

The choice of this topic area seems to me to give undue weight to one editor's personal interests, over more the broad topic areas such as history, geography, society, economy, environment, politics … and even to more significant sub-topics such as arts and culture, education, sport, military history, law, or crime.

If portals were simply magazines in which editors were encouraged to use to showcase their ow interests, then this magazine-steak choice would make sense. But I see nothing in WP:PORTAL to justify this widespread use of portals to promote one editors personal interests at over objectively broader and more significant topics.

It is up to Australian editors to decide whether they want the portal on their country to be developed in this way. But I hope that as they make their decision, they will consider where this could lead. If it's OK for an editor to add a randomly-chosen third-level topic, then logically the door is open for any editor to add a section on their ow pet sub-sub-topic: elections, cricket, snakes, cities, cars, whatever. Is that what editors really want? Or would they prefer the portal to develop according to the broad hierarchy of topics? --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 10:21, 15 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]