User talk:Auric/Archive 15

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Archive 15

WP:IGNORINGATD

I don't think I had seen WP:IGNORINGATD before, so thanks for pointing that out. Certain editors live by that, including (and especially) the one you mentioned it to. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Xone of Contention for a perfect example of this. BOZ (talk) 14:56, 7 January 2017 (UTC)

New Wikiproject!

Hello, Auric! I saw you recently edited a page related to the Green party and green politics. There is a new WikiProject that has been formed - WikiProject Green Politics and I thought this might be something you'd be interested in joining! So please head on over to the project page and take a look! Thanks for your time. Me-123567-Me (talk) 18:27, 22 January 2017 (UTC)

Nomination of Playing for Keeps (novel) for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Playing for Keeps (novel) is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Playing for Keeps (novel) until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Sadads (talk) 03:20, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

New at the BLP Noticeboard

Greetings, Auric! I'd never had occasion to visit the BLP Noticeboard till posting my first request there yesterday. Checking hopefully for a response (none as yet), I became curious about the workings of the board and picked the single posting after mine as a sample. My skill set includes professional copyediting and proofreading, plus I'm polyglot and recently have become active in Wikidata, so the treatment I provided (taking some 40') stems from those approaches.Am bringing it to your attention here since you're evidently more experienced than I and might have some advice for me. Happy to make your virtual acquaintance! -- Cheers, Deborahjay (talk) 10:07, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

Changes to "kek"

Hey, the article is wrong. I am not familiar with wikipedia, but "kek" is satire, I have been a member of 4chan technology board for a long time. I don't think any articles have been written about that. Does this mean, even if an article is wrong, as long as it has a source it will be in wikipedia? (The article which claims kek worship is real, when in fact it is just satire). You can mail me at ****@gmail.com Thanks, and sorry if the edit violated some rule. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.196.158.46 (talk) 15:34, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

ExifTool

According to http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/ the most recent version seems to be 10.51 of 2 may 2017 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.116.198.16 (talk) 21:49, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

Actually, according to http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/history.html "Note: The most recent production release is Version 10.50. (Other versions are considered development releases, and are not uploaded to CPAN.)"--Auric talk 21:53, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

Schofield's Flowers

Do you have confidence that this is not basically a copyvio? They style seems to indicate it was taken from a printed source. DGG ( talk ) 03:59, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Sorry, can you be more specific? I can't find any article by that name.--Auric talk 12:52, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

sorry. It's a draft Draft:Schofield's Flowers DGG ( talk ) 16:38, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

I see. I don't think it's been copied direct, but I'd say it needs toned down. Also, some of the book references don't line up with the information they cite.--Auric talk 18:23, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Nomination of André Migner for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article André Migner is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/André Migner until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 15:27, 3 June 2017 (UTC)

ED edits

Hello Auric. I invite you to consider WP:CITESTYLE. WP allows for edits a la the Chicago Manual of Style, which says page ranges should be 123–45 (endash with next two+ digits) rather than 123–5 (endash single digit). I edited Erectile dysfunction in accordance with the CMS, so that all of the page range cites were consistent. Your revert now has "230–9" "775–88" "686–692" "2346–58" and other inconsistencies. (Consistent style should be "230–39" "775–88" "686–92" "2346–58" etc.) Thanks. – S. Rich (talk) 17:52, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

You are welcome to revert my change if you think it makes more sense, but from my perspective, the CMS is confusing. --Auric talk 17:59, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Inventing something IS creating the first of it.

Your reversion at J.P. Knight to replace "first" and "original" don't make sense, because by definition of the word "invention," creating the first one is built in. So don't be reverting that removal of those redundant words.

75.162.216.61 (talk) 22:09, 25 June 2017 (UTC)

Duly noted. But please be more polite in the future. That last sentence could be interpreted as a personal attack by some of the more touchy editors.--Auric talk 22:16, 25 June 2017 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

Thank you for your vigilance :)

Cpt.a.haddock (talk) (please ping when replying) 19:16, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

Yda Hillis Addis

Hi, Auric. I noticed that you changed Yda Hillis Addis's biography to state that she got divorced and disappeared in 1920. Do you have a source for that? I haven't found any source that gives a specific year she disappeared, but the best one I've found (http://www.independent.com/news/2007/jul/12/canine-conniption/) suggests that she divorced in the early 1890s and disappeared around 1900, similar to what the article originally stated. Tdslk (talk) 23:38, 17 July 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for catching this. Seems I forgot to change it after copy pasting from another article.--Auric talk 01:46, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

No problem. Thanks for fixing it and then adding a lot of new information! Tdslk (talk) 03:56, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

Murder of Kylie Maybury

Hi can you go through Murder of Kylie Maybury ? Paul Benjamin Austin (talk) 07:18, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

Notability of Dosho Port

I have created an article about a living Zen master, Dosho Port. It was reviewed and rejected by Seraphim System because the sources were deemed be inadequate. A subsequent review by worldbruce went into more depth and also considered the sources inadequate.

My problem is that within the world of contemporary American Zen, Dosho Port, is famous and respected. He has studied and practiced Zen for 40 years. He has studied with several of the most prominent Zen masters of the 20th century. He has taught at several Zen centers and is now the head abbot of the Nebraska Zen Center, one of the oldest Zen centers in the U.S. He is published. So within the world of Zen, Dosho Port is notable.

How to demonstrate this? The sources I cited in the article would be considered authoritative within the world of contemporary American Zen. In other contexts they might be considered inadequate, but that would be applying the wrong context.

Can you help me?

Thanks. TooTallSid (talk) 17:08, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

the awori "history"

The awori story is totally made up. Indeed, it details events which are supposed to have taken place hundreds of years ago and for which no contemporary document was written. Please inform the readers that the story is purley fictional. Wikipedia is not supposed to be supportive of fraud. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.64.76.108 (talk) 13:02, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

Regunta Yesurathnam

In addition to the article of "Regunta Yesurathnam" appearing under new articles, there is also an other one appearing under Draft:Regunta Yesurathnam which you have edited. This is for your information. Regards.Meher Mansion (talk) 16:55, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

Disappearance of Sheila Fox‎

Can you give Disappearance of Sheila Fox‎ a proofread/grammar check, please. Paul Benjamin Austin (talk) 08:07, 31 August 2017 (UTC)

!Arriba! La Pachanga

Thanks for cleaning up after me, I have been off the wiki for a bit and I am stretching my legs again. I noticed that you changed the infobox LAst album to prev title. IS there a reason? I am only curious. Thanks againspeednat (talk) 14:11, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

The infobox was changed because those parameters are deprecated now. See {{Infobox album#Chronology}}.--Auric talk 14:14, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

Thxspeednat (talk) 14:26, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

Draft:Blade Runner (franchise)

Would you be able by any chance to rewrite the opening paragraph of this draft? Rowan North (talk) 21:07, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

I tweaked it a little, but otherwise it seems fine.--Auric talk 22:02, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

Thank you. If you don't mind, could you also have a go at the Films sections Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 please? (And maybe the Novels section?) Whatever I type there seems to similar to what's on the sections pages themselves. Rowan North (talk) 18:12, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

Patrol

Hello Auric!

I am new to Wikipedia and created my first page Mario J Cerrito III I saw you did some edits on it. Thank you! I wanted to know if you could patrol the page. I did some research and found out that the page won't show up on google or other search engine results unless it's marked as patrolled. Do you have the ability to do that? I thank you very much for your edits and help. Cheers! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jugger21i (talk • contribs) 07:03, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your edits to the page I created for Mario J Cerrito III. Will it now show up when doing a google search or sometime soon? Also, what part of it exactly needs verification, I will try and see if I can improve it. Thanks! (Jugger21i (talk) 13:54, 8 September 2017 (UTC))

Thank you

Thank you dear Auric! I can't forget you even after an year. I can still remember when I was brand new you provide guidance to me for which I would always be grateful to you :-). Thanks once again. Without your support I could not have stayed here for an year ! You are a pure soul, God Bless you. Best wishes Anoptimistix (talk) 16:16, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Misha Kokaia

Hi, I have upgrading the Misha Kokaia article, but I can't find any internet info or sources to add to it. Do you know how to use the wayback machine or some other internet archive so that more sources can be added to it? If more sources and info can be added then I can add it to the List of people who disappeared mysteriously. Davidgoodheart (talk) 01:09, 23 September 2017 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I cannot. Using the wayback machine would require having sources and I have found none. It is possible that offline sources in Georgian exist, but I have no way to access these.--Auric talk 14:41, 23 September 2017 (UT

Hello Auric! You have done a lot of editing on the page I created Mario Cerrito iii someone tagged it for speedy deletion. I didn't realize there was a few pages made for this guy before. My arguement is that he is now pretty notable and has way stronger sources then before as I listed. I feel he deserves an article! Also, it's very discouraging to have an article I put so much time and effort in to be deleted. Can you take a look and see if you can get the deletion tagged removed since you edited the page. Much thanks. Jugger21i (talk) 23:47, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

hate you so much Auric

Arunyoshi (talk) 08:20, 30 September 2017 (UTC)

yey

	YOU have a hater
	yey Arunyoshi (talk) 08:21, 30 September 2017 (UTC)

Hi Auric! I feel I can talk to you since your rational. The page I created for Mario Cerrito iii was completely deleted even after you had reversed it. It was not put up for AFD or even debated. Just completely deleted! This is very discouraging for a new editor..... I felt it was a strong articl with many valid sources. It was like they don't care and just go and delete stuff. I know you're an administrator and have the power to do things. You edited a lot on it as well. I just don't want to see all my hard work go to complete waste because someone just wanted to delete something because of what they thought was "sock puppet"2600:387:3:803:0:0:0:94 (talk) 23:23, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

They even banned my account Jugger21i very frustrating. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:387:3:803:0:0:0:94 (talk) 23:23, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Editor's Barnstar
	for your work on Black Jungle Conservation Reserve, without which I'd have never promoted from AfC. 78.26 (spin me / revolutions) 15:14, 25 October 2017 (UTC)

Forced Adoption

perhaps you can tell me why all my editing was eliminated.

it was an attempt to improve accuracy as we advise and represent families in the E &W family Court, especially on adoption applications — Preceding unsigned comment added by WinstonSmith2 (talk • contribs) 12:34, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

For starters, you replaced the sentence "Forced adoption is the practice of removing children permanently from their parents and the subsequent adoption of those children, following intervention by the local education authority in the United Kingdom. " with "Forced adoption is the practice of taking children who are in Care and putting them forward for on of those children without their parents permission., following intervention by the local authority and taking them into Care in the United Kingdom."

There are several errors in that sentence, not the least of which is replacing local education authority with local authority, as if they were the same thing. There were other errors, but these are the most prominent. Overall, they seem to be the edits of someone who seeks to distort the article to their own viewpoint. Future edits should be more closely scrutinised for grammar and neutrality.--Auric talk 12:54, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

Forced Adoption Page

Auric,

I'm sorry but these are errors on British practice and would be clear to anyone who has worked in the Family Court or in the system.

This is what motivated me to start editing.

The department which deals with this is the Childrens' Services Department of the local council, not the Local Education Authority (schools and colleges only) department, This is what the social services department is now officially titled.

The practice by the local council and in court is to refer to them as the LA or Local Authority.

The official doctrine and practice is that children are taken into Care for various reasons of concern/parents' health/ circumstances/injuries to the child and an investigation undertaken and a Full Care Order obtained.

Meanwhile a Plan for the child has been drawn up, which can be various things; If adoption is recommended it is approved by the Family Court by means of a Placement Order as they are named, usually at the same time as the FCO

The court must also dispense with the need for the parents' permission for adoption, which is contained in the Placement Order.

Any other comments were not intended to be partisan but provide more objective detail as I regret to say the controversy between parties involved in it is hotting up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by WinstonSmith2 (talk • contribs) 10:19, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

References in David Franzoni

I added some references to the article David Franzoni ([1] [2]). It's a shor text, so I haven't done a hard effort, maybe I'll add some more informacion soon, but, how about removing the template BLP IMDb-only refimprove? Thanks. Greetings. Tajotep (talk) 23:51, 14 November 2017 (UTC)

New text under old

Hi! I saw that you reverted my edit to put new text first in the Piasa talk page. I like it that way so that the most relevant (presumably the most recent) content is encountered first by reader. In any case, I don't mind so much, but I am curious as to your reasons for preferring the opposite approach. Also, if there is any policy on the matter, I would be very grateful if you could post a link on my user talk page. Thanks! Jergas (talk) 19:18, 14 November 2017 (UTC)

Yep, I figured there might be a policy I was unaware of. Thank you very much for posting it on my talk page, and have a lovely day! Jergas (talk) 05:15, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

template caps

Please see WP:COSMETICBOT. The guidance there applies to humans as well. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 19:36, 17 November 2017 (UTC) My apologies. I didn't see you were fixing the missing underscores. I'll just slink away now... --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 19:38, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

Hi Auric! Again, thanks so much for your contributions to Draft:Cerrito productions I think you really helped the article. I resubmitted it for approval. Eagledelphia (talk) 03:14, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

Just so you know

I replaced that Lee W. Stanley cartoon you uploaded with a free one from earlier in his career (and then deleted your upload as nonfree and unused). DS (talk) 15:50, 28 November 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know.--Auric talk 20:36, 28 November 2017 (UTC)

arun1is2boss

Hey Aric I have noticed you have blocked my little brother's account may you please unblock it if possible please do so— Preceding unsigned comment added by Gamer11166 (talk • contribs) 14:14, November 30, 2017 (UTC)

I have not blocked his account. I suspect you have me confused with another user.--Auric talk 18:32, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

New Page Reviewing

Hello, Auric. As one of Wikipedia's most experienced Wikipedia editors, Would you please consider becoming a New Page Reviewer? Reviewing/patrolling a page doesn't take much time but it requires a good understanding of Wikipedia policies and guidelines; currently Wikipedia needs experienced users at this task. (After gaining the flag, patrolling is not mandatory. One can do it at their convenience). But kindly read the tutorial before making your decision. Thanks. — Insertcleverphrasehere (or here) 08:23, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

Your signature

Please be aware that your signature uses deprecated <font> tags, which are causing Obsolete HTML tags lint errors.

You are encouraged to change

--<span style="text-shadow:#FFD700 0.2em 0.2em 0.2em">[[User:Auric|<font color="#FC3700">'''Auric'''</font>]] [[User talk:Auric|<font color="#0C0F00">''talk''</font>]]</span> : --Auric talk

to

--<span style="text-shadow:#FFD700 0.2em 0.2em 0.2em">[[User:Auric|<span style="color: #FC3700;">'''Auric'''</span>]] [[User talk:Auric|<span style="color: #0C0F00;">''talk''</span>]]</span> : --Auric talk

Respectfully, Anomalocaris (talk) 08:22, 8 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. I had no idea.--Auric talk 20:17, 8 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks! —Anomalocaris (talk) 20:40, 8 December 2017 (UTC)

File:Outsider and others.jpg

Edit reverted - no reasons given in the FUR as to why the image needs to exceed the NFCC guideline as stated there - You also may wish to add the {{non-free no reduce}} template to the image rationale page to indicate that your image resolution purposely exceeds the 0.1 megapixels guideline, though this still requires you to include a valid rationale that explains this reasoning; large images using this template without a rationale to explain the large size may be reduced despite this. Ronhjones  ^(Talk) 19:51, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Auric!!


Hi Auric, I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year,
Thanks for all your help and contributions on the 'pedia! ,
   –Davey2010 ^{Merry Xmas / Happy New Year} 17:54, 24 December 2017 (UTC)

Merry Christmas

My very best wishes for this holiday season. May your heart be filled with happiness during this special time. --Crystallizedcarbon (talk) 08:36, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

I feel very disgruntled for being late.

I'm wishing you a merry Christmas and a Happy New year, and I'm glad you made Organizational Edits to Zubiri, Navarre, they were my very first feedback.

Again, sorry I'm late, but it's better that than never!

Sincerely, Zanygenius (talk) 16:47, 26 December 2017 (UTC)

Articles for Creation Reviewing

Hello, Auric. AfC submissions Random submission ~7 weeks 1,233 pending submissions to update I recently sent you an invitation to join NPP, but you also might be the right candidate for another related project, AfC, which is also extremely backlogged. Would you please consider becoming an Articles for Creation reviewer? Articles for Creation reviewers help new users learn the ropes of creating their first articles, and identify whether topics are suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia. Reviewing drafts doesn't take much time but it requires a good understanding of Wikipedia inclusion policies and guidelines; currently Wikipedia needs experienced users at this task. (After requesting to be added to the project, reviewing is not mandatory. One can do it at their convenience). But kindly read the reviewing instructions before making your decision. Thanks. — Insertcleverphrasehere (or here) 02:35, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

HNY

Happy New Year! Best wishes for 2018, —PaleoNeonate – 02:01, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

Happy New Year (2018)

	Cheers to you, Auric/Archive 15, we'll have best wiki-year ever!
	It seems as though it's been a long history though I've only been here for As of 19:22, Monday, January 1, 2018 (UTC), I joined Wikipedia 12 days 5 hours 36 minutes 24 seconds ago , and I just wanted to do something for everyone! -- If you are somebody I've worked with, thank you. If you don't know me, I hope to collaborate soon! Zanygenius (talk) 18:56, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. You might want to check out {{Age in years, months and days}} --Auric talk 19:59, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

@Auric: Yes, thanks for the ideZanygenius (talk) 20:27, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

P.S.My template looks a LOT better now that you've edited it. It will still take some work, but now we're closer to the goal. Also: Could we assign a bot to all the current counting templates on Wikipedia, or Multiple bots?

Sincerely, Zanygenius (talk page) 21:04, 31 December 2017 (UTC)

Cavaliers

Your edit naming Don in the Infobox is both contrary to Wikipedia standards (the line is for the date only and is used for only the date in every other corps' infobox) and is redundant (in that Don is given full credit for founding the corps in the body of the text)... GWFrog (talk) 01:39, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Okay, sorry. I don't like to remove information from an infobox if I can help it.--Auric talk 01:41, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

No problem... Thanx... GWFrog (talk) 06:04, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Album infoboxes

You've changed the infobox at Painted Rhythms: The Compleat Ran Blake, Volume 1 and Painted Rhythms: The Compleat Ran Blake, Volume 2 twice. I've undone once, with the explanation that "it's not clear if it was studio or in concert. The locations suggest the latter, but I've seen no statement of it being 'live', so it could be the former". Based on this, it's best to leave the studio/live parameter blank, in my view. I assume you're responding to a list that asks people to fill the parameter, hence your doing the same thing again, but let me know if you any evidence for them being Studio. EddieHugh (talk) 18:32, 14 January 2018 (UTC)

Thanks. I've changed it to other, since we can be sure that it is a recording.--Auric talk 14:21, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

Hello Auric I hope that I am not pestering you I just wanted to ask for some tips if you could please leave them on my talk page Gamer11166 (talk) 18:23, 19 January 2018 (UTC) Best regards, Gamer11166 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gamer11166 (talk • contribs) 18:21, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

Lots of edits and their summaries

Hi Auric,

Please may I ask that if you make dozens of edits (particularly in people's userspaces) you give a summary of what you've done? It took me a while to unpick why you made this edit to some notes languishing in a sandbox off my userpage.

Regards, Brammers (talk/c) 20:46, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

Sorry about that. Once I get going, it gets difficult to remember to do. As for why, I've been clearing out Category:Pages using infobox church with unknown parameters.--Auric talk 21:40, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

No worries – happens to all of us now and then! :) Cheers for the reply. Brammers (talk/c) 10:21, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

@Auric: My Userpage definitely looks a bit better now, so thanks. As long as it doesn't change the meaning or style of my page then you can make edits. But yes, you can edit my userspace 👍 Just decided to place here for c÷onveince

Sincerely, User: Zanygenius(talk page) 00:15, 21 January 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

<The title and this section is automatic>

	The Technical Barnstar
	I hereby award you this barnstar, the The Technical one, because of your Technical corrections to my pages. I wouldn't know how bad I messed up without you. I'm encourageing you to keep going. My pages look better already. From Zanygenius. Sincerely, User: Zanygenius(talk page) 21:07, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

Deletion of {{Persondata}}

Hi Auric,

I'm the bot who is deleting {{Persondata}}. I noticed your edit on User:AlensEriks/sandbox in which you added {{Persondata}}. This template is deprecated and deleted. Please stop adding {{Persondata}}. In case you want to support the Persondata project you can help with the migration of the dataset to Wikidata at KasparBot's tool. See Wikipedia:Persondata or contact my operator T.seppelt in case you have any questions.

Thank you very much, -- KasparBot (talk) 01:00, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for taking care of that. I didn't feel confident enough to delete it myself. Note that I didn't add it, I merely translated it.--Auric talk 11:18, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

arunisboss

You still have not replied to my latest enquiry and I am very disappointed, please leave a message on my user talk and Happy New Year! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gamer11166 (talk • contribs) 17:39, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

Sorry. You posted here in November and I replied then. Where did you post it?--Auric talk 17:57, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

I dot not get any mail in November as I was away. My request was for you to unblock Arunisboss/Arun1is2boss I am sorry if I sound rude I just like everything done efficiently. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gamer11166 (talk • contribs) 18:13, 19 January 2018 (UTC) Thank you Auric!! Are there any pages that you think I con create Gamer11166 (talk) 18:20, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Auric do you mind watching the page microclimates I made a change inn the Article because it needed citations. Do you think what I did was appropriate?

Gamer11166 (talk) 18:29, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Any pages that I could create?

Hey Auric I was wondering if there were any pages I could watch or create. Best regards, Gamer11166 (talk) 18:35, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Special Barnstar
	I hear by declare you a good editor and an experienced advisor. Gamer11166 (talk) 18:37, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Category:Wikipedians who like Black Mirror

Hey! I saw that you edited the article Black Mirror and thought maybe you would be interested in this new user category I created?-🐦Do☭torWho42 (⭐) 05:29, 28 January 2018 (UTC)

MfD nomination of User:Jooler/List of films featuring independent body parts

User:Jooler/List of films featuring independent body parts, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Jooler/List of films featuring independent body parts and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of User:Jooler/List of films featuring independent body parts during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Calton | Talk 02:17, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

PIUS LASISI JIMOH ARTICLE EDIT

Hi Auric,

Thanks for editing the article! Please can add infobox to the article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Motormoto (talk • contribs) 10:49, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

INFOBOX ADDED

HI AURIC, THANKS FOR ADDING INFOBOX TO THE ARTICLE. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Motormoto (talk • contribs) 18:43, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

Jacques Secretin

I didn't create the article, contact the creator and please check before posting message to wrong person. Many thanksApricotFoot (talk) 16:25, 1 March 2018 (UTC)

Sorry about that.--Auric talk 16:52, 1 March 2018 (UTC)

Underground New York listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Underground New York. Since you had some involvement with the Underground New York redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. _{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 07:45, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

Draft: Steven Benjamin Damelin

Hi,

You have placed the Wikipedia article regarding the mathematician Steven Benjamin Damelin as a Draft with comments re its authenticity. This article in totally factual with proof given in every statement, see carefully and methodically listed references. Moreover there is a link to Damelin's webpage through the University of Michigan. References given include but are not limited to links to awards, papers, exact articles speaking to Damelin's accomplishments in every single subject listed (re his research areas).

In fact comparing this article re other mathematicians listed on Wikipedia for example Sarnak:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sarnak
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Deift
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_J._Olver
 

All of who Damelin knows personally (Sarnak at Princeton is from South Africa and went to Witwatersrand as Damelin did), Deift was born in South Africa, now at NYU Damelin's first paper with Kuijlaars specifically mentions a problem they solved of Deifts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arno_Kuijlaars (Paper 4). Peter Olver at UMN is a close colleague of Damelin helping to organize a workshop with him in October at Umich:

This article should be published. Please do so and remove the emails below from the history as they are confidential communications to Damelin given as proof to you.

Thank you. Math1Geneology1 (talk) 23:58, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by "comments re its authenticity". The page is a draft and not an article. --Auric talk 13:01, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

Draft: Dioxide Materials

hi:

I see you did a quick edit of Draft: Dioxide Materials

I wonder if you could help me out further This was my first wikipedia article and I could use any suggestions to make it better Maselrich (talk) 19:23, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

Discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Bangladesh#Placename changes and Wikipedia policy

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Bangladesh#Placename changes and Wikipedia policy . Worldbruce (talk) 02:54, 6 April 2018 (UTC)

Draft:Richard Walter Thomas

@Auric:, Hi. Perhaps you can think of more work that can be done to improve the draft or share it with another who could be interested in advancing the work of this blend of issues. Smkolins (talk) 10:29, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

The wayback find...

Hi Auric - thank you for going to the trouble of finding that archived wordpress source. It's a self-published (blog) source and I recently removed several self-published sources from that article which was "based primarily on such sources." The BLP will likely be deleted (per the BLP's request). Thank you again. ^{Atsme📞📧} 23:48, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

Thank you

hi there, I am not sure if the page you helped me with will exist, but it was kind of you to help fix things i don't understand. Have a great day. Megamediamissus

Megamediamissus (talk) 14:39, 21 April 2018 (UTC)

Tom Switzer edits

Dear Auric,

Thank you for your warm welcome and for getting in touch regarding my edits to Tom Switzer's page. I do however have some concerns and I must say I am a little confused. I was flagged for saying I may have broken Wikipedia's vandalism policy despite my edits being factually accurate, as opposed to what appears there now. For example on the current page it states that Switzer is the incoming director of the Centre for Independent Studies, when in fact he has held that role since January. It states he is a research fellow at the IPA, which is incorrect. It states that he hosts Sunday Extra on ABC, which is not true. It states that he was raised in Sydney's Northern Beaches, which is not true. There are other factual errors but you get the idea. So, why were my edits taken down when they were 100% accurate and the page filled with errors allowed to remain?

ChurchillHayek (talk) 01:50, 23 April 2018 (UTC)

Invitation to WikiProject Portals

Hi,

I noticed your interest in portals. Here is what has been going on behind-the-scenes with them...

Currently, there are about 1500 portals, comprised of 150,000 pages in portal space, the rest beyond the 1500 being subpages. Most of those subpages contain an excerpt, copied and pasted from some article. Such excerpts never change, and they go stale over time (no longer matching the original source material).

The Portal WikiProject was rebooted on April 17th, and has grown to 68 members. We've been busy redesigning the portal model so that portals will not need all those subpages.

The design concept called "selective transclusion", which is used for migrating excerpts (moving them to the base page), does so by displaying part of an article the same as a template. An added benefit of this is that it also keeps them fresh, by always showing the current version of the content that is transcluded.

We are also working on ways to make excerpted content, and listed entries, dynamic, so that the material or links shown automatically change over time without the intervention of an editor. Selected articles, could be set up to change daily, for example, to present a different article each day. This can even be made to show a different article every time a user visits the page. Currently, we can do this from a set list. We're trying to make it so that the list is updated automatically from an external source that is regularly maintained.

Other automated solutions are being sought or developed for each section type of portals. To automatically update and archive news, did you know entries, and so on.

Once we get a fully automated design worked out, it will be applied to all the portals that do not have dedicated maintainers. This will reduce the amount of maintenance they need. A single editor will then be able to watch over far more portals than before, ideally, with each portal taking up only a single page in portal space.

The Portal WikiProject is dedicated to updating, upgrading, and maintaining the entire portal system and every portal in it.

Come check us out, and if you like what you see, feel free to join.    — The Transhumanist   05:31, 9 May 2018 (UTC)

WikiProject Portals update, 11 May 2018

We've grown to 73 members, and morale is high. Thank you for joining. Here is some news, and some tasks...

The RfC will be closed soon...

2018-05-11: preparations are being made to close the RfC. See Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Requests for closure#Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)/RfC: Ending the system of portals.

When there, be sure to notice the consultation link.

We're trying to get a prototypical single-page portal developed in time to show the RfC closers before they make their final decision. You can help. It's Portal:Humanism. So far, we've applied selective transclusion (automation) to excerpts, and have made the following sections without subpages: intro, selected article, selected biography, categories, related portals, wikiprojects, things to do, and wikimedia. Eight down, 4 to go, plus 2 formatting subpages (not sure we can migrate those). Automating every section, would also be nice.

Main objectives

Our main objectives currently, are:

1. Replace static excerpts with selective transclusions, so that the excerpts always stay fresh (that is, match the source content). We are now doing this on the portal base page as much as possible, to reduce the number of subpages that are needed. See #2...
2. Migrate the functions of subpages to the portal base pages. There are around 150,000 subpages in portal space. We aim to make these obsolete by using templates and other calls from the portal base pages.
3. Improve portal design to make portals self-update. Semi-dynamic sections update from a static list, as used in {{Transclude random excerpt}}. Fully-dynamic sections would update from a list maintained elsewhere on Wikipedia, like a category. We haven't found a way to do this yet, other than to create a bot (which we will probably need to do).

Maintenance pass #1: Upgrading the intro section

The intro section of many portals transcludes an "Intro" subpage that has an excerpt in it.

We're replacing that with a selective transclusion directly in the intro section, bypassing the subpage. Though, there's a little more to it...

For instructions, see: Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Transclude intro excerpt directly on the portal base page.

Please skip Portal:American Civil War, as that is specifically being maintained by hand.

Maintenance pass #2: Obsoleting the Wikimedia subpages

One of the sections on many portals links to sister projects on the subject. This needlessly takes a subpage. The subpage can be made obsolete by using the template {{Wikimedia for portals}} directly on the portal base page.

This has been done for several hundred portals so far.

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Obsolete a Wikimedia subpage for instructions.

Maintenance pass #3: calling the category tree from the portal base page

Certes figured out how...

{{subst:Text|<category|tree>}}{{subst:PAGENAME}}{{subst:Text|</categorytree>}}

For more information, see the thread Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Rendering PAGENAME inside categorytree tag doesn't work (it does now).

More to come...

In the meantime, see ya around the portals!    — The Transhumanist   15:22, 11 May 2018 (UTC)

Task request

Dear Portals Project WikiGnome,

There are a number of portals missing from the main list at Portal:Contents/Portals.

The missing ones are on a list at Portal talk:Contents/Portals#These are not listed yet.

Please place one or as many as you have time for on the main list. Instructions are included with the list of missing entries.

Thank you.    — The Transhumanist   08:31, 15 May 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update, 15 May 2018

We are at 74 members. If you know anyone who might find this WikiProject interesting, please invite them.

The RfC has ended

The RfC was closed May 11th, and a closing statement was posted May 12th which says "There exists a strong consensus against deleting or even deprecating portals at this time."

Ongoing tasks

Some major activities that we are in the middle of include:

• Adding the missing existing portals to the main portals list at Portal:Contents/Portals. Instructions are on the talk page. There are about 125 portals left to be processed. (There were 400). Keep up the good work!
• Development discussions on how to migrate the subpages to the base pages. There are around 150,000 subpages in portal space, associated with the various sections on a typical portal. We are trying to obsolete them section type by section type. Currently, we're working on obsoleting the intro subpages and the "selected articles" subpages. Please join in.

Other tasks

• The list of portals not ready to be listed on the main list can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#These are not listed yet (scroll down to see them - they are marked Not ready). They are incomplete. If you want a specific portal to work on, please consider choosing one from that list.
• Over the years, some incomplete portals (portals under construction) got added to Portal:Contents/Portals. Therefore, every portal listed there needs to be inspected, and any that are incomplete should be removed from that list and added to the not ready list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#These are not listed yet (scroll down to see it). On Portal:Contents/Portals, I'm already almost done inspecting the portals in the culture section, and so you can skip those. The types of things to look for are empty sections (most will have a redlinked subpage), lack of "selected" sections, portal stubs with just an intro and end sections, and very poor layout (like seriously unbalanced columns).

Portal-building resources

During his work on portals, Broter found a quote randomizer. It is {{Random quotation}}.

Trailblazer: approaching the one-page portal

Broter has transformed the Portal:Community of Christ so it is comprised of only 3 pages in portal space: the base page, its box-header subpage, and its box-footer subpage. Its other other subpages are now obsolete and are waiting for deletion. Nice job, Broter!

Well, that's all for now. See ya around the portals.    — The Transhumanist   06:37, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update, 25 May 2018

We have grown to 79 members.

Please provide a warm welcome to our latest additions, Wpgbrown, Cactus.man, JLJ001, and Wumbolo.

A lot is going on, much of it on the WikiProject's talk page, so be sure to go there and join in on any of the many discussions taking place there.

Elsewhere around the portal project, or related to portals, the following is happening...

New news template ready for testing

Evad37 has created a new template, with supporting lua module, to handle news in portals...

{{Transclude selected current events}} is ready to be tested in some actual portals. Let Evad37 know if you need help with the search patterns.

Noyster commented that "This is the best portal innovation since sliced bread!"

See the relevant discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals#Alternative to Wikinews.

Thank you, Evad.

Coming soon: Automatic article alerts (but there is a glitch)

Our WikiProject is now subscribed to the bot that makes automatic article alerts, but the subpage where they are posted has not been added to our WikiProject page yet because of a weird problem...

Featured portal nominations from two years ago keep popping up on there.

Please check Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals/Article alerts to see if you can figure out how to fix this.

Once that is remedied, it will be posted on our WikiProject page.

Thank you.

Note that, this will only track base pages, because to track the rest, we'd have to create over 140,000 talk pages for the subpages, and that just isn't worthwhile (as we're trying to remove the subpages anyways). Therefore, any alerts for subpages will still need to be posted manually.

New portal, still needs work

• Portal:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, courtesy of Mozart834428196. See also, the discussion.

Drafting a new portals guideline

Your input/editing is welcome on the draft-in-progress of a new guideline for portals.

See or work on the draft at User:Cesdeva/sandbox11.

See also the discussion at: Wikipedia talk:Portal guidelines#RfC on new portal guidelines

RfC on new TOC layout for main portal list

There is a proposal to change the look of the table of contents at Portal:Contents/Portals.

See: Portal talk:Contents/Portals#RFC on layout update.

Deletion discussion survivors

Thank you to those who have participated in portal deletion discussions. There are still some editors out there who despise portals, and this comes across in their argumentation style. Wow. Such negativity. But, there is some good news...

• Portal:Quidditch survived its 2nd deletion nomination
• Portal:Prehistory of Antarctica did the same

Current deletion discussions are posted on our WikiProject page.

Portal space clean up

While portal detractors are trying to get rid of portals via MfD, we have deleted many of them via speedy deletion (per {{Db-p1}} or {{Db-p2}}). Essentially, they were bare skeletons, with maybe a little meat on them. The plus here is that speedy deletion is without prejudice to re-creating the portals. They can easily be restarted from scratch without getting approval, or be undeleted by request by someone willing to work on them. We have kept track of these, for when someone wants to rebuild them. They are listed at Portal talk:Contents/Portals#These are not listed yet.

We are also removing subpages, the functions of which have been migrated to portal base pages. To see which ones have been removed, look for the redlinks in our watchlist.

There is also an MfD concerning some of these at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Redundant subpages of the Cornwall portal.

For subpages that need to be deleted, you can conveniently place this speedy deletion template at the top of each of them:

{{Db-g6|rationale=of subpage clean up – this subpage's function has been migrated to the portal base page and is no longer needed}}

Then an admin will come along and delete them.

Please help list the unlisted portals!

There are still 100 existing portals not yet presented on the main portal list at Portal:Contents/Portals. There were 400, so we've come a long way. Thank you! But we are not done yet...

Please list a couple of them. Every little bit helps. If each member of this project listed one more, it would almost all be done. Many hands make light work.

The list of missings, and instructions, are to be found at Portal talk:Contents/Portals#These are not listed yet.

I hope to see you there!

Wrapping up

These developments make up just the tip of the iceberg. I'll have more to report in the next update, soon.    — The Transhumanist   00:31, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Whoa, I missed one...

There's an article about the Portals WikiProject in the new issue of Signpost:

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2018-05-24/WikiProject report

Enjoy.

P.S.: We now have 80 members. Evad37 just joined!    — The Transhumanist   01:35, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

WikiGnome task...

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Add a missing Associated Wikimedia section

Even a single edit will help.

Thank you,    — The Transhumanist   21:26, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

Richard Ramirez.

Hello there Uric. I received your message thank you for Contacting me about making changes To the page about Richard Ramirez an His early life, You said use a relieable source I am using one myself I actually did live with Richard Ramirez from the period's between 1982-1984 I had ran away home myself at age 16 and went to San Francisco I was homeless an no where to stay,eat, or sleep I had just got into beautiful San Francisco an walking the streets late that evening when an elderly couple saw me walking up an down a sidewalk an asked me if I was ok an asked me were I was staying at an how old I am. I lied to them sorry I told them I was 18 they payed for me a motel room that night an I didn't know it but Richard Ramirez was staying in the nest room to mine I bumped into him late that night about 2:30 am I was going out to get something to eat from the money that nice couple gave me there where strong Thunderstorms going on that night an it was very dark an I bumped into someone an it turned out to be Richard we went to get something to eat together an came back to my motel room an started talking with each other an our great Friendship began. I will forever until the day I die Treasure my friendship an great memories of our friendship together that lasted up till the day Richard died.we where homeless an lived on the streets together an back then in 1982 when I first met him he was never once violent towards me or anyone at all. I know that for a fact, Richard snapped from all the years of being abused by his Father an a teacher at his school an yes Richard was also Sexually abused at an early age by a teacher at his school I know he was he told me about it. I stayed with him for 3 years an I really honestly miss my friend. Please fill free to contact me at TheSatanicdarkangelGmail.com. My name is Bravewolf yes that is my real legal name but I go by Brave. Brave57 (talk) 00:26, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Interesting. Unfortunately, this sort of information has to be accompanied with a citation from a WP:RS. Were you ever interviewed and had the account published in a major newspaper or magazine? Hopefully so, because only then could it be included.--Auric talk 00:38, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Portal

Hello! It was just because it included only other cities from Kosovo, and without any proper format or other non-city subject. I mean, i dont have any problem with updating those templates, but lets agree on content. What else can we add there? some important people, some relevant information's, historic events, etc... --Ąnαșταη (ταlκ) 23:38, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

My changes were in the proper format. Use the template {{Transclude lead excerpt||paragraphs=1-2}} to add the text. This prevents citations from breaking.--Auric talk 00:22, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #007, 31 May 2018

We have grown to 89 members.

This is the seventh issue of this newsletter. For previous issues, see our newsletter archive.

Welcome

A warm welcome to our nearly one dozen new members...

Our new members include:

• Evad37
• Checkingfax
• Grey Wanderer
• Voceditenore
• TestPAKISTAN
• Godsy
• Greatedits1
• Charlesdrakew
• Ww2censor
• Simon Burchell
• TheGridExe

Be sure to say "hi" and welcome them to the team.

The portal set has shrunk

There were 1515 portals, but now we have 1475, because we speedy deleted a bunch of incompleted portals that had been sitting around for ages, that were empty shells or had very little content. Because they were speedied, they can be rebuilt from scratch without acquiring approval from WP:DRV.

Maintenance runs on the portals set have begun

This is what we have been gearing up for: upgrading the portals en masse, using AWB.

More than half of the Associated Wikimedia sections have been converted to no longer use a subpage. This chore will probably be completed over the next week or two. Many thanks to the WikiGnome Squad, who have added an Associated Wikimedia section to the many geography-related portals that lacked one. The rest of the subjects await. :)

The next maintenance drive will be on the intro sections. Notices have gone out to the WikiProjects for which one or more portals fall within their subject scope. Once enough time has elapsed for them to respond (1 week), AWB processing of intro sections will begin.

Thank you, you

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your part in the RfC. I went back and reread much of it. I believe your enthusiasm played a major part in turning the tide on there. I'm proud of all of you.

Why reread that mess, you ask?

To harvest ideas, and to keep the problems that need to be fixed firmly in mind. But, also to keep in touch. See below...

Thank yous all around

I've contacted all of the other opposers of the RfC proposal to delete portals, to thank them for their support, and to assure them that their decision was not made in vain. I updated them on our activities, provided the link to the interviews about this project in the Signpost, pointed out our newsletter archive so they can keep up-to-date with what we are doing, and I invited them all to come and have a look-see at our operations (on our talk page).

Sockpuppet, and reverting his work

It so happened that one of our members was a sockpuppet: JLJ001. According to the admin who blocked him, he was a particularly tricky long term abuser. This is a weird situation, since the user was quite helpful. He will be missed.

This has been somewhat disruptive, because admins are doing routine deletions of the pages (portals, templates, etc.) he created, and reversion of his edits (I don't know if they will be reverting all of them). Please bear with them, as they are only doing what is best in the long run.

The following pages have been deleted by the admins so far, that I know of:

• Portal:Plymouth
• Portal:Bedfordshire
• Portal:Suffolk
• Portal:Norfolk
• User:JLJ001/tag
• Template:Non-standard portal flag
• Template:Portal flag

Automation so far, section by section...

• Intro – {{Transclude lead excerpt}}
• Selected article – {{Transclude random excerpt}}
• In the news – {{Transclude selected current events}}
• Associated Wikimedia – {{Wikimedia for portals|species=no|voy=no}}
• Categories – {{#tag:categorytree|{{PAGENAME}}}}

Automatic article alerts is up and running

Automatic article alerts are now featured on the project page.

Some super out-of-date entries kept showing up on there, so posting it on the Project page was delayed. Thanks to Evad37 and AfroThundr for providing solutions on this one. Evad37 adjusted the workflow settings per Wikipedia:Article alerts/Subscribing#Choosing workflows, to make sure only the appropriate page types show up. AfroThundr removed the tags from the old entries that caused them to keep showing up in the article alerts.

Other things that could use some automation

Noyster pointed out that it would be nice to automate the updating of the portals section at the Community bulletin board.

Another major component of the portal system is the main list of portals, at Portal:Contents/Portals. How would we go about automating the updating of that?

Please post your ideas on the WikiProject's talk page. Thank you.

Deletion discussion survivors

Keep in mind that we have already speedy deleted almost all of the nearly empty portals, which can be rebuilt without approval whenever it is convenient to do so. Other portals should be completed if at all possible rather than delete them through MfD (which requires approval from Deletion review to rebuild).

• Portal:Juanes – see the discussion

(Current deletion discussions are posted on our WikiProject page).

Portals needing repair

• Portal:Toys

Wrapping up

There's still more, but it will have to wait until next issue.

Until then, see ya around the project.    — The Transhumanist   12:00, 31 May 2018 (UTC)

Deleting unused and superseded portal subpages

Just a quick note about marking portal subpages for deletion. When you mark pages under WP:G6 please ensure that they are not transcluded, as recently this caused the deletion of Portal:Bandai_Namco as you nominated Portal:Bandai_Namco/Related Portals for deletion. In the future (if you don't usually already) use the tag <noinclude> to ensure that the deletion tag is not added to pages that it is transcluded onto. (For reference I discussed this with the deleting admin here).

If you want to you can use this list which allows you to list pages to be deleted without having to mark them for speedy deletion normally (however if you do use this you need to be careful that the pages are definitely to be deleted, that they are also only portal subpages and that they are deletable under WP:G6). The reason I use the list is to allow admins to use the D-Batch function in Twinkle so that they can delete the subpages more easily.

However, I would like to say thanks for helping to improve the portal system. Wpgbrown (talk) 14:58, 2 June 2018 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy

The article Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

No proof of notability, no references. Can't find anything except for a passing mention in a Kirkus review.

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Drmies (talk) 03:10, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

Nomination of Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Yngvadottir (talk) 15:52, 5 June 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #008, 7 June 2018

The WikiProject now has 92 participants, including 16 admins.

Welcome

A warm welcome to the newest members of the team:

• Keith D
• RL0919

Be sure to say hi.

Congrats

Pbsouthwood has just gotten through the grueling RfA process to become a Wikipedia administrator. Be sure to congratulate him.

The reason he went for it was: "For some time I expect to be busy with subpage deletion for Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals as mentioned above. The amount of work is expected to keep me busy for some time. I am primarly a content creator and contributor to policy discussions, but would be willing to consider other admin work on request, providing that I feel that my involvement would be appropriate and not too far outside my comfort zone."

New feature: Picture slideshow

Picture slideshow

• 
  Pocket Sacramento Canal
• 
  Sacramento from near the Sacramento River
• 
  Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
• 
  Tower Bridge
• 
  Capitol Mall, seen from the Capitol
• 
  Old Town Sacramento, the capital as it looked like in 19th century
• 
  US Bank Tower
• 
  State Capitol Building

Evad37 has figured out a way to let the user flip through pictures without purging the page. Purging is awkward because there is an intermediary confirmation screen that you have to click on "yes". In the new picture slideshow section, all you have to do is click on the > to go to the next picture or < to instantly show the previous feature. The feature also shuffles the pictures when the page is initiated, so that they are shown in a different order each time the user visits the page (or purges it).

It is featured in Portal:Sacramento, California. Check it out to the right.

Keep in mind that the feature is a beta version. Please share your comments on how to refine this feature, at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals#Refining the Picture slideshow.

The one-page portal has been achieved

We now have a one-page portal design. It isn't fully automated, nor is it even fully semi-automated, as there are still some manually filled-in areas. But it no longer requires any subpages in portal space, and that is a huge improvement. For example, Portal:Sacramento, California utilizes the one-page design concept. While is employs heavy use of templates, it does not have any subpages of its own.

I commend you for your teamwork

This is the most cooperative team I've ever seen. With a strong spirit of working together to get an important job done. Kudos to you.

In conclusion...

There's more. A lot more. But it will have to wait until next issue, but you don't have to wait. See what's going on at the WikiProject's talk page.    — The Transhumanist   02:07, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Writer's Barnstar
	hi Gamer11166 (talk) 17:45, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

Latest submission

Hi Auric! Thank you for your contributions to my latest submission. I wonder if you may be able to assist me in formatting a photo to accompany the article :) Please advise, thank you

Hemingway2018 (talk) 20:48, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

You can find guidelines at MOS:IMAGES.--Auric talk 21:11, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

AWB task requests, from the Portals WikiProject

1) Replace the intro box sections on portals with an upgrade. See details at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Tasks#AWB task: converting/upgrading intro sections.

2) Replace categories box sections on portals with an upgrade. See details at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Tasks#AWB task: Converting category sections.

Enjoy.    — The Transhumanist   08:09, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

WikiGnome task requests, from the Portals WikiProject

Here are some incremental tasks for you to consider. Do one, or many, as time allows. Every little bit helps...

Task #1

We're getting close to having the main portals list up-to-date, but we aren't quite there yet. There are about 75 portals not yet listed there.

Therefore the first task, of course, is to add as many of these as you can. They can be found at Portal talk:Contents/Portals#These are not listed yet. Instructions are there.

Task #2

The second task on this wish list is to convert one selected picture section to a picture slideshow section. The template to use for this is {{Random slideshow}}. Here are some examples of portals with a picture slideshow section: Portal:Bangladesh, Portal:Sacramento, California, Portal:Algae, and Portal:Reference works.

Note that selected picture sections display pictures from subpages (one subpage per pic), and that each picture would need to be listed in the {{Random slideshow}} template.

Tip: Some portals have only a single picture covered in the selected picture section. Replacing their selected picture sections with a slideshow would be easiest. Eight or more pictures make a decent slide show. Search for pictures at Wikimedia Commons.

Have fun! Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   09:52, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

Victor Romero

Hi! I started a deletion nomination of the article Victor Romero. The discussion is Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Victor Hugo Romero, I thought you might be interested in participating. --Jamez42 (talk) 16:49, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #009, 15 June 2018

(Article slideshow prototype)
Selected animals

• 
  The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BCE, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BCE. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, which are horses that never have been domesticated. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior. (Full article...)
• 
  The dog (Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from an extinct population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. The dog was the first species to be domesticated by humans, over 14,000 years ago and before the development of agriculture. Experts estimate that due to their long association with humans, dogs have gained the ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other canids. (Full article...)
• 
  The cat (Felis catus), also referred to as domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the cat occurred in the Near East around 7500 BC. It is commonly kept as a pet and farm cat, but also ranges freely as a feral cat avoiding human contact. Valued by humans for companionship and its ability to kill vermin, the cat's retractable claws are adapted to killing small prey like mice and rats. It has a strong, flexible body, quick reflexes, and sharp teeth, and its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. It is a social species, but a solitary hunter and a crepuscular predator. Cat communication includes vocalizations—including meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting—as well as body language. It can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by small mammals. It secretes and perceives pheromones. (Full article...)
• 
  A mouse (<abbr title="
  '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000020-QINU`"'
  ">pl.: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (Mus musculus). Mice are also popular as pets. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are locally common. They are known to invade homes for food and shelter. (Full article...)

Don't mind that box to the right. We'll be talking about that later, below.

Almost done...

With the portals upgrades?

No. :)

What is almost done is the updating of the main list of portals!

There are 23 portals left to be listed.

Kudos to the WikiGnome Squadron, for spearheading this.

Once it is fully updated, we need to keep it up to date. When you complete a portal, remember to add it to Portal:Contents/Portals.

Concerning portal upgrades, we are working on those section-by-section...

Associated Wikimedia section conversion task complete

The Associated Wikimedia sections of the entire set of portals have been upgraded. These are now handled on each portal base page (bypassing the previously used corresponding subpages), using the {{Wikimedia for portals}} template rather than reiterated copied/pasted code.

So, to be more accurate on reporting upgrade progress, that's one section down (for the whole set of portals), with (about) nine sections to go. (Skipping curated portals, regarding custom content sections, of course).

Further section conversions (using AWB)

Work is underway on converting Portals' introduction sections, and the categories sections.

If you would like to help, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Upgrade introduction sections and Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#AWB task: Convert category sections

Further section conversions (by hand)

Work has also started with converting selected picture sections to picture slideshow sections. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Install picture slideshows.

Quality rating system for portals under development

Currently, there is no quality rating for portals: in the Portals WikiProject box on each portals' talk page, it just says "Portal". But times are a changin'. Quality assessment is on the way, and you can help. See the discussion.

What's coming: excerpt slideshows

Evad37 has figured out a way to apply the picture slideshow feature to displaying article excerpts (now you can check out the provided box above). :) This allows us to bypass page purging to see the next selection, and you can even click through them rather quickly. Currently, the wikicode for doing this for article excerpts is a bit eye-boggling, and so we are looking into simplifying it. A streamlined version may be just around the corner.

Note that this is a prototype, not ready for widespread use. Click on the box in between the lesser than and greater than signs, to see what I mean. It was meant for pictures, and so the thumbnail feature doesn't apply to article prose very well. I've presented it even though it isn't ready, to show the direction portal development is heading. See the discussion.

Wow

I'm amazed at how rapidly portals are evolving. And we're still within a single generation of portal technological evolution. Imagine what they might be in 2 or 3 more generations of developments. Pretty soon, portals will be able to shake your hand. :)    — The Transhumanist   11:02, 16 June 2018 (UTC)

WikiGnome task request, from WikiProject Portals

Hi.

Portal:Tamil civilization could sure use a picture slideshow. See instructions at Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Install picture slideshows.

Please add as many pictures as you have time for. Even adding a single picture helps.

Thank you. Cheers,    — The Transhumanist   00:03, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

The portal is about an ancient civilization, that lasted between 200BC and 200AD. The picture you added is about a modern festival, with electric lights. I can't find any references that the picture is on-topic. Did the festival take place between 200BC and 200AD?    — The Transhumanist   01:08, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Sorry, I misread the situation.--Auric talk 01:18, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Hail mary

So putting the truth is considered being disruptive. Interesting. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:140A:2C1:0:5454:846B:C01A (talk) 04:29, 17 June 2018 (UTC)

What you did was WP:Blanking, you didn't actually add anything.--Auric talk 11:18, 17 June 2018 (UTC)

Not sure what you mean, I have only added one thing to it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:140A:2C1:0:5454:846B:C01A (talk) 00:31, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

According to your contributions, your only additions have been here, on my talk page.--Auric talk 00:34, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Thats not true but if it is, what are you complaining about? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:140A:2C1:0:5454:846B:C01A (talk) 00:41, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Actually, you seem to be the one complaining.--Auric talk 01:00, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Yet you are the one who first brought anything up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:140A:2C1:0:5454:846B:C01A (talk) 01:01, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Not so. See the top of this section.--Auric talk 01:03, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

So you didnt message me first? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:140A:2C1:0:5454:846B:C01A (talk) 01:04, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

This for instance, " Please stop your disruptive editing. If you continue to blank out or remove portions of page content, templates, or other materials from Wikipedia without adequate explanation, as you did at Talk:List of Hail Mary passes in American football, you may be blocked from editing. Thank you. Auric talk 13:04, 10 June 2018 (UTC)" Im not even sure what you mean by blank out, I have only made one change to an article in the last, I dont know how long and I certainly didnt remove anything.

I wouldn't consider a warning a message, exactly. Your contributions show only the blankings. I suppose if your contribution was WP:Revdeled it wouldn't show up. --Auric talk 01:13, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Still no idea what it is you think I did. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:140A:2C1:0:5454:846B:C01A (talk) 01:14, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Try clicking on the link that says "Contributions". Look at the three entries at the bottom for June 10, 2018. Notice how they're red? That means something was removed from that page. It's called blanking. --Auric talk 01:23, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

So seeing how I have only added stuff, not sure how that would be. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:140A:2C1:0:5454:846B:C01A (talk) 01:26, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

What exactly have you added? Diffs please.--Auric talk 01:29, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

How would I remember over the years. Do you recall every single thing you have added since you started on here? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:140A:2C1:0:5454:846B:C01A (talk) 01:31, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

No, but I can look in my contribution history if I need to. That's one of the benefits of registering an account.--Auric talk 01:34, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Then they should make it that you need to register. I dont make accounts unless I am required to. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:140A:2C1:0:5454:846B:C01A (talk) 01:37, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #010, 30 June 2018

We've grown to 94 participants.

A warm welcome to dcljr and Kpgjhpjm.

Rating system for portals

We are in the process of developing a rating system specifically for portals, as the quality assessment scheme for articles does not apply to portals. It is coming along nicely. Your input would be very helpful. See the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/General#Proposed new quality class assessments.

Better than a barnstar

One of our participants got involved with this WikiProject through interest in how the new generation of portals would be handled in WP's MOS (Manual of Style). It didn't take long before he got sucked in deeper. This has given him an opportunity to look around, and so, he has made an assessment of this WikiProject's operations:

I'm quite frankly really impressed and inspired by what's happening here. If you'd asked me a year ago if I thought portals should just be scrapped as a failed, dragged-out experiment, I would have said "yes". This planning and the progress toward making it all practical is exemplary of the wiki spirit, in particular of a happy service-to-readers puppy properly wagging its technological and editorial tail instead of the other way around, and without "drama". It's also one of the few examples I've seen in a long time of a new wikiproject actually doing something useful and fomenting constructive activity (instead of acting as a barrier to participation, and a canvassing/ownership farm for PoV pushers). Kudos all around. — SMcCandlish

Congratulations, everyone. Keep up the great work.

Slideshow development

We've run into a glitch with slideshows: they don't work on mobile devices.

Initially, we will need to explore options that allow portals to have slideshows without adversely affecting mobile viewers. See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Design#Mobile view support.

Eventually, we may need another way to do slideshows. If we do go this route, and I don't see why we wouldn't, then (user configurable) automatic slideshows also become a possibility.

TemplateStyles RfC passed

Once implemented, this will allow editors to create and edit cascading style sheets for use with templates. This will expand what we can do with portals. For more detail, see mw:Extension:TemplateStyles and Wikipedia:TemplateStyles.

Automation effort

We've run into an obstacle using Lua-based selective transclusion: Lua is incapable (on Wikipedia) of reading in article names from categories. Because of this, we'll need to seek other approaches for fully automating the Selected article section. We are exploring sources other than categories, and other technologies besides Lua.

Speaking of using other sources, the template {{Transclude list item excerpt}} collects list items from a specified page, or from a section of that page, and transcludes the lead from a randomly selected link from that list. Courtesy of Certes. So, if you use this in a portal, and if the template specifies a page or section serviced by JL-Bot, you've now got yourself an automatically updated section in the portal. JL-Bot provides links to featured content and good articles, by subject.

What is "fully automated"? When you create a portal using a creation template, and the portal works thereafter without editor intervention, the portal is fully automated. That is, the portal is supported by features that fetch new content. If you have to add new article names every so often for it to display new content, then it is only semi-automated.

Currently, the Selected article section is semi-automated, because it requires that an editor supplies the names of the various articles for which excerpts are (automatically) displayed. For examples, look at the wikisource code of Portal:Reptiles, Portal:Ancient Tamil civilization, and Portal:Reference works.

So far, 3 sections are fully automatable: the introduction section, the categories section, and the Associated Wikimedia section.

Where is all this heading?

Henry.

Or some other name.

Eventually, the portal department will be a software program. And we won't have to do anything (unless we want to). Not even tell it what portals to create (unless we want to). It will just do it all (plus whatever else we want it to do). And we will of course give it good manners, and a name.

But, that is a few years off.

Until then, building portals is still (partially) up to us.    — The Transhumanist   13:29, 30 June 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #011, 10 July 2018

We now have 97 participants.

Be sure to welcome our newest members, BrantleyIzMe, Coffeeandcrumbs, and Nolan Perry, with warm regards.

Work is proceeding apace. We have 2 major thrusts right now: converting the intro sections of portals, and building the components of the one-page automated model...

Converting the intro sections

We need everybody, except those building software components, to work on converting intros. If you have AWB, definitely use that. If not, then work on them manually. Even one a day, or as often as you can muster, will help a lot. There are only about 1,000 of them left to go, so if everyone chips in, it will go pretty quickly. Remember, there are 97 of us!

The intros for most of the portals starting with A through F have already been converted to use the {{Transclude lead excerpt}} template.

The standard wikicode for the automated intro that we want to put into place looks like this:

{{/box-header|Introduction|noedit=yes|}}
{{Transclude lead excerpt | {{PAGENAME}} | paragraphs=1-2 | files=1}}
{{Box-footer|[[{{PAGENAME}}|Read more...]]}}

That works for most portals, but not all. For some portals it requires some tweaking, and for others, we may have to use a different or more customized approach. Remember to visually inspect each portal you work on and make sure that it works before moving on to the next one.

Be sure to skip user-maintained portals. They are listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Portals#Specific_portal_maintainers.

AWB tips

I've started an AWB tips page, for those of you feeling a bit overwhelmed by that power user tool. Feel free to add to it and/or improve it.

Portal automation

We have some very talented Lua programmers, who are pushing the limits of what we can do in gathering data from Wikipedia's various namespaces and presenting it in portals. Due to their efforts, Lua is powering the selective transclusion core of our emerging automated portal design, in the form of selected article sections that rotate content, and slideshows.

To go beyond Lua's limits, to take full advantage of Mediawiki's API, we are in the midst of adding another programming language to the resources we shall be making use of: JavaScript. The ways that JavaScript can help us edit portals to boost the power of our Lua solutions, are being explored, which will likely make the two languages synergistic if not symbiotic. Research is under way on how we can use JavaScript to make some of the portal semi-automated features fully automatically self-updating, in ways that Lua cannot. Like gathering random members from a category and inserting them into a portal's templates as parameters. Once the parameters are in place, Lua does the rest.

If you would like to get involved with design efforts, or just keep up on them, see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Design.

When should we start building new portals?

Well, not at the present time, because building portals is quite time consuming. The good news is that we are working on a design that will be fully automated, or as close to that as we can get. And the new design is being implemented in the portal department's main portal creation template. This means, that not only will portals update themselves, their creation will be highly automated as well. That's the nature of templates. You put them in place, and they just... work.

What I'm getting at here, is that it would be better to wait to build lots of new portals until after the new design is completed. Because with it, instead of taking hours to create a new portal, it will likely take minutes.

That does not mean we should be idle in the meantime. The main reason most of us are here is because it became apparent that portals were largely unmaintained and had grown out-of-date. This had become so apparent that a proposal was made to delete all the portals and the portal namespace to boot. That makes our main objective in the short term to improve all the existing portals so that the community will want to keep them—forever.

Building lots of new portals comes later. Let's fix up the ones we have first. ;)

And on that note, I bid you adieu. Until next newsletter, see ya 'round the WikiProject.    — The Transhumanist   12:29, 10 July 2018 (UTC)

Reversion at Portal:Genocide

Hi Auric, You reverted my recent edit at Portal:Genocide with the edit summary "no files". As the Portal project is planning to edit this portal again, it would be helpful to know what you meant. If you intend to personally maintain the portal, please specify this in the portal maintenance template, by a yes in the manual parameter and your username as one of the maintainers, and we will leave further maintenance and upgrading to your discretion. Cheers, · · · Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 12:53, 13 July 2018 (UTC)

Simply put, there no files in the lead section of Genocide and no reason to include something that isn't there. The introduction approximates that used in the original Introduction, of the first two paragraphs.--Auric talk 12:56, 13 July 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #012, 15 July 2018

We have 97 participants.

Getting faster

Automation makes things go faster, even portal creation. One of the components Certes made was {{Transclude list item excerpt}}. I became curious about its possible applications.

So I worked out a portal design using it, the initial prototypes being Portal:Kyoto (without a "Selected pictures" section), and Portal:Dubai (with a "Selected pictures" section). Then I used Portal:Dubai as the basis for further portals of this type...

I was able to revamp Portal:Munich from start to finish in less than 22 minutes.

Portal:Dresden took about 19 minutes.

Portal:Athens took less than 17 minutes.

Did Portal:Florence in about 13 minutes.

Portal:Stockholm also in about 13.

Portal:Palermo approx. 12 minutes.

Why?

To see, and to show, what may become feasible via automation.

It now looks highly feasible that we could get portal construction time down to a few minutes, or maybe even down to a few seconds.

The singularity is just around the corner. :)

Slideshows

When using the {{Random slideshow}} template to display pictures, be sure to use the plural tense in the section title: "Selected pictures". That's because slideshows don't show up on many mobile devices. Instead the whole set of pictures is shown, hence the section title "Selected pictures", as it fits both situations.

In case you are curious, here is a list of the portals so far that have a slideshow:

• Algae
• Amphibians
• Anatomy
• Ancient Tamil civilization
• Athens
• Bangladesh
• Berkshire
• Birds
• Buckinghamshire
• Cenozoic
• Dresden
• Dubai
• East Sussex
• Fish
• Florence
• Florida

• Genocide
• Gilgit-Baltistan
• H. P. Lovecraft
• Hampshire
• Human body
• Humanism
• Isle of Wight
• Kent
• London transport
• Mammals
• Milan
• Munich
• Oxfordshire
• Palermo
• Prague
• Reference works
• Reptiles

• Sacramento
• Saint Petersburg
• Salem
• Scottish Islands
• South East England
• Stockholm
• Surrey
• Sydney
• Tamil People
• Telephones (empty – please add some pictures)
• Turin
• Underwater diving
• Vienna
• West Sussex

Progress on intro conversions

The intros for most of the portals up through the letter "O" have been converted, using this wikicode:

{{/box-header|Introduction|noedit=yes|}}
{{Transclude lead excerpt | {{PAGENAME}} | paragraphs=1-2 | files=1}}
{{Box-footer|[[{{PAGENAME}}|Read more...]]}}

Where the pagename didn't match the article title for the subject, the title was typed in.

Most of the portals that do not contain {{/intro}} or {{{{FULLPGENAME}}/Intro}} have not yet been processed.

About a thousand portals use the method of selective transclusion for the intro section. That's about two-thirds. That means we have one-third of the way to go on the intro section conversions.

Much more to come...

So much has been happening with portals that I can't keep up with it. (That's good). Which means, more in the upcoming issue. Until then, see ya 'round the project. Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   08:43, 15 July 2018 (UTC)

WikiGnome task requests from the Portals WikiProject

Here are some relatively minor tasks that are fairly repetitive, just the way you like '7em...

Add missing completed portals to Portal:Contents/Portals

Here are some new portals:

• Portal:Saint Petersburg
• Portal:Athens
• Portal:Dresden
• Portal:Florence
• Portal:Kyoto
• Portal:Palermo
• Portal:Stockholm
• Portal:Turin

Add panoramas

Here's a fun one, that really brightens up a page...

Add a panoramic pic to the top of geographic portals, such as cities, states, provinces, countries, regions, and continents.

Do one, here or there, as you feel like it. Do as many as you like. Every little bit helps.

Please do not add pics over 2 megabytes in size, as they can cause the portal scripts to time out, causing empty sections, or sections with error messages. Watch out, because some of those pictures are huge, like 12 megabytes or more. Less than one megabyte is best, if you can manage it.

Pictures can be found at commons:. Search strings that work well with the city name to find these are "skyline" or "panorama".

Geographic portals are listed in the Geography section of Portal:Contents/Portals. City portals are shown in parentheses.

Here is an example of the main template used to place panoramic pics:

{{wide image|Prague Panorama - Oct 2010.jpg|750px|border=no}}

Which looks like this:

Here are some examples of city portals with panoramas or panoramic skylines in their intro sections:

• Portal:Munich
• Portal:Prague
• Portal:Vienna

Have fun.    — The Transhumanist   02:17, 16 July 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #013, 18 July 2018

I got overwhelmed IRL (in real life) during the production of issue #12. So, here is a catch-up issue, to help bring you (and me) up to speed on what is happening with portals...

By the way, we still have 97 participants. (Tell all your friends about this WikiProject, and have them join!)

Panoramas!

One cool feature of some of the geographical portals is a panoramic picture at the top of the intro section.

Check these out:

• Portal:Kyoto
• Portal:Miami
• Portal:Seattle
• Portal:Houston
• Portal:Tokyo
• Portal:New Orleans
• Portal:Brisbane
• Portal:Calgary
• Portal:Moscow

The Portals WikiGnome squadron is busy adding panoramas to geographical portals that don't yet have one. Feel free to join in on the fun. See task details at Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Add a panorama or skyline to a geographic portal.

Caveat: avoid super-huge pics, as they can cause portal scripts to time-out. Please try to keep picture size down below 2 megabytes. Thank you.

Auto-populated slideshows

Speaking of pictures...

We now have two slideshow templates. You may be familiar with {{Random slideshow}}, in which the editor types in (or copies/pastes) a list of pictures he or she wants it to display.

Well, now we have another template, courtesy of Evad37, which accepts one or more page names instead, and displays a random image off of the listed pages. So instead of listing dozens of files by hand, you can include a title or three to be scanned automatically. It even lets you specify particular sections.

The new slideshow template is {{Transclude files as random slideshow}}.

Here's a sample, that grabs images from a single page:

Selected motorcycle or motorcycling pictures

• 
  BMW's first motorcycle, the 1923-1925 R32 (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)
• 
  A 1969 Harley-Davidson chopper, a replica of the 'Captain America' bike from Easy Rider (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)
• 
  Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (left) holding the handlebars of his 500 cc single cylinder Norton motorcycle (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)
• 
  Honda Super Cub, the archetypal underbone and the world's best-selling motor vehicle (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)
• 
  FIM Motocross World Championship, taking place at Mallory Park, England (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)
• 
  Logo of the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF) (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)
• 
  Joey Dunlop on his Honda RC30 ready for the Senior TT (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)
• 
  2015 BMW R1200RT Sport Touring Motorcycle (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)
• 
  Lucius Copeland 1894 (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)
• 
  A 1954 Triumph T110 (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)
• 
  Honda CB750 inline four, the first to be called a 'superbike', and the archetypal Universal Japanese Motorcycle (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)
• 
  Brough Superior SS 100 1925 (from Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling)

New Template:Box-header colour

Speaking of new templates, here's another one!

Also from Evad37, we have a new component for starting section boxes, that is color configurable, and that bypasses the need for box-header subpages altogether. It is {{Box-header colour}}.

For color support, see Web colors.

For the discussion in which this was inspired, see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Tasks#Colour combinations for accessibility.

(In case you didn't notice, the slideshow box above uses this new template).

BTW, don't forget to close your box with {{Box-footer}}.

Where are we on the redesign?

The answer to this question is quite involved, and would fill this page to overflowing. Therefore, this subject, including a complete update on where we are at and where we are going with portal design, is covered at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Design.

Where are we on portal conversion?

An AWB pass to convert intros on the portals has been completed. The pass couldn't convert them all (due to various formatting configurations, etc.).

All but about 170 portals now have introductions selectively transcluded on the base page. Not counting manually maintained portals, that leaves about 70 portals that either need their intros converted, or they need an intro.

Next, we'll be converting the categories sections!

What's the plan, man?

The course of action we have been taking goes something like this, with all steps being pursued simultaeneously...

1) Design a one-page automated portal model

2) Convert existing portals to that design (except those being manually maintained)

3) Remove subpages no longer needed

4) Develop further tools to empower editors working on portals

Later, when the tools are up to the task, filling in the gaps in coverage (with new portals) will also become practical.

Are we caught up yet?

Probably not.

Who knows what our programmers and editors have dreamed up while I was writing this.

See ya again soon,    — The Transhumanist   11:05, 18 July 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #014, 27 July 2018

Development of design continues, full speed ahead...

Excerpt slideshows are here!

Can you say "paradigm shift"?

Now, in addition to picture slideshows, we have slideshows that can display excerpts. Portals are not just for topic tasting anymore. Now they can be made useful for surveying Wikipedia's coverage of entire subjects. This gives a deeper meaning to their name. Hmmm. "Portals"... Doorways to knowledge.

Portal:Lithuania was redesigned using excerpt slideshows. Check it out.

For those of you who cannot wait to test out these new toys...

We have not one, but three excerpt slideshow components to pick from:

{{Transclude excerpts as random slideshow}}

For this one, you specify the page names where the excerpts are to be extracted from.

{{Transclude list item excerpts as random slideshow}}

This one accepts source pages from where the page names are gathered from list items. Then an excerpt from one of those pages is displayed. The selection of what is included in the slide show can be limited to a specific number from the collection (of the page names gathered), and that selection is renewed from scratch each time the page is purged.

For example, if you specify Template:World Heritage Sites in Spain as a source page, the slideshow will cycle through those sites. Now you don't have to type them in one-by-one. This greatly reduces portal creation time.

{{Transclude linked excerpts as random slideshow}}

Same as above, but gathers links instead of just linked list items.

Panoramic banners

{{Portal image banner}} displays a panoramic picture the width of the page, and adjusts its size, so it stays that way even if the user changes page view size. And it accepts multiple file names, so that the picture displayed randomizes between them each time the page is visited/purged.

Give resizing the page a try:

Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

You can now balance section boxes

Before:

Reptile types

• 
  
  

  

  Male gharial

  
  The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are 2.6 to 4.5 m (8 ft 6 in to 14 ft 9 in) long, and males 3 to 6 m (9 ft 10 in to 19 ft 8 in). Adult males have a distinct boss at the end of the snout, which resembles an earthenware pot known as a ghara, hence the name "gharial". The gharial is well adapted to catching fish because of its long, narrow snout and 110 sharp, interlocking teeth. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Aldabra giant tortoise
  (Aldabrachelys gigantea)

  
  Tortoises (/ˈtɔːrtəs.ɪz/ TOR-təs-iz) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like other members of the suborder Cryptodira, they retract their necks and heads directly backward into the shell to protect them. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Northern tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus punctatus)

  
  The tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) is a species of reptile endemic to New Zealand. Despite its close resemblance to lizards, it is part of a distinct lineage, the order Rhynchocephalia. The name tuatara is derived from the Māori language and means "peaks on the back". (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Clockwise from top left: veiled chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus), rock monitor (Varanus albigularis), common blue-tongued skink (Tiliqua scincoides), Italian wall lizard (Podarcis sicula), giant leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus fimbriatus), and legless lizard (Anelytropsis papillosus)

  
  Lizard is the common name used for all squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The grouping is paraphyletic as some lizards are more closely related to snakes than they are to other lizards. Lizards range in size from chameleons and geckos a few centimeters long to the 3-meter-long Komodo dragon. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Yacare caiman, Caiman yacare

  
  A caiman (/ˈkeɪmən/ (also spelled cayman) from Taíno kaiman) is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within the Alligatoridae family, the other being alligators. Caimans are native to Central and South America and inhabit marshes, swamps, lakes, and mangrove rivers. They have scaly skin and live a fairly nocturnal existence. They are relatively small-sized crocodilians with an average maximum weight of 6 to 40 kg (13 to 88 lb) depending on species, with the exception of the black caiman (Melanosuchus niger), which can grow more than 4 m (13 ft) in length and weigh in excess of 450 kg (1,000 Ib). The black caiman is the largest caiman species in the world and is found in the slow-moving rivers and lakes that surround the Amazon basin. The smallest species is the Cuvier's dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus palpebrosus), which grows to 1.2 to 1.5 m (3.9 to 4.9 ft) long. There are six different species of caiman found throughout the watery jungle habitats of Central and Southern America. The average length for most of the other caiman species is about 2 to 2.5 m (6.6 to 8.2 ft) long. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Common box turtle

  
  Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked turtles), which differ in the way the head retracts. There are 360 living and recently extinct species of turtles, including land-dwelling tortoises and freshwater terrapins. They are found on most continents, some islands and, in the case of sea turtles, much of the ocean. Like other amniotes (reptiles, birds, and mammals) they breathe air and do not lay eggs underwater, although many species live in or around water. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  An American alligator (top) and a Chinese alligator

  
  An alligator, or colloquially gator, is a large reptile in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae of the order Crocodilia. The two extant species are the American alligator (A. mississippiensis) and the Chinese alligator (A. sinensis). Additionally, several extinct species of alligator are known from fossil remains. Alligators first appeared during the late Eocene epoch about 37 million years ago. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Corallus caninus

  
  Snakes are elongated, limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (/sɜːrˈpɛntiːz/). Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have independently evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs at least twenty-five times via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal (see Amphisbaenia, Dibamidae, and Pygopodidae). (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Blanus cinereus, Spain

  
  Amphisbaenia /æmfɪsˈbiːniə/ (called amphisbaenians or worm lizards) is a group of typically legless lizards, comprising over 200 extant species. Amphisbaenians are characterized by their long bodies, the reduction or loss of the limbs, and rudimentary eyes. As many species have a pink body and scales arranged in rings, they have a superficial resemblance to earthworms. While the genus Bipes retains forelimbs, all other genera are limbless. Phylogenetic studies suggest that they are nested within Lacertoidea, closely related to the lizard family Lacertidae. Amphisbaenians are widely distributed, occurring in North America, Europe, Africa, South America, Western Asia and the Caribbean. Most species are less than 6 inches (15 cm) long. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus)

  
  Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae), the gharial and false gharial (family Gavialidae) among other extinct taxa. (Full article...)

Amphibian types

• 
  
  

  

  Various types of frog

  
  A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek ἀνούρα, literally 'without tail'). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" Triadobatrachus is known from the Early Triassic of Madagascar (250 million years ago), but molecular clock dating suggests their split from other amphibians may extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago. Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is in tropical rainforest. Frogs account for around 88% of extant amphibian species. They are also one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders. Warty frog species tend to be called toads, but the distinction between frogs and toads is informal, not from taxonomy or evolutionary history.
  
  An adult frog has a stout body, protruding eyes, anteriorly-attached tongue, limbs folded underneath, and no tail (the tail of tailed frogs is an extension of the male cloaca). Frogs have glandular skin, with secretions ranging from distasteful to toxic. Their skin varies in colour from well-camouflaged dappled brown, grey and green to vivid patterns of bright red or yellow and black to show toxicity and ward off predators. Adult frogs live in fresh water and on dry land; some species are adapted for living underground or in trees.
  
  Frogs typically lay their eggs in the water. The eggs hatch into aquatic larvae called tadpoles that have tails and internal gills. They have highly specialised rasping mouth parts suitable for herbivorous, omnivorous or planktivorous diets. The life cycle is completed when they metamorphose into adults. A few species deposit eggs on land or bypass the tadpole stage. Adult frogs generally have a carnivorous diet consisting of small invertebrates, but omnivorous species exist and a few feed on plant matter. Frog skin has a rich microbiome which is important to their health. Frogs are extremely efficient at converting what they eat into body mass. They are an important food source for predators and part of the food web dynamics of many of the world's ecosystems. The skin is semi-permeable, making them susceptible to dehydration, so they either live in moist places or have special adaptations to deal with dry habitats. Frogs produce a wide range of vocalisations, particularly in their breeding season, and exhibit many different kinds of complex behaviors to attract mates, to fend off predators and to generally survive. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Oscaecilia ochrocephala (Caeciliidae)

  
  Caecilians (/sɪˈsɪliən/; New Latin for 'blind ones') are a group of limbless, vermiform (worm-shaped) or serpentine (snake-shaped) amphibians with small or sometimes nonexistent eyes. They mostly live hidden in soil or in streambeds, and this cryptic lifestyle renders caecilians among the least familiar amphibians. Modern caecilians live in the tropics of South and Central America, Africa, and southern Asia. Caecilians feed on small subterranean creatures such as earthworms. The body is cylindrical and often darkly coloured, and the skull is bullet-shaped and strongly built. Caecilian heads have several unique adaptations, including fused cranial and jaw bones, a two-part system of jaw muscles, and a chemosensory tentacle in front of the eye. The skin is slimy and bears ringlike markings or grooves and may contain scales.
  
  Modern caecilians are a clade, the order Gymnophiona /ˌdʒɪmnəˈfaɪənə/ (or Apoda /ˈæpədə/), one of the three living amphibian groups alongside Anura (frogs) and Urodela (salamanders). Gymnophiona is a crown group, encompassing all modern caecilians and all descendants of their last common ancestor. There are more than 220 living species of caecilian classified in 10 families. Gymnophionomorpha is a recently coined name for the corresponding total group which includes Gymnophiona as well as a few extinct stem-group caecilians (extinct amphibians whose closest living relatives are caecilians but are not descended from any caecilian). Some palaeontologists have used the name Gymnophiona for the total group and the old name Apoda for the crown group'. However, Apoda has other even older uses, including as the name of a genus of Butterfly making its use potentially confusing and best avoided. 'Gymnophiona' derives from the Greek words γυμνος / gymnos (Ancient Greek for 'naked') and οφις / ophis (Ancient Greek for 'snake'), as the caecilians were originally thought to be related to snakes and to lack scales.
  
  The study of caecilian evolution is complicated by their poor fossil record and specialized anatomy. Genetic evidence and some anatomical details (such as pedicellate teeth) support the idea that frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (collectively known as lissamphibians) are each other's closest relatives. Frogs and salamanders show many similarities to dissorophoids, a group of extinct amphibians in the order Temnospondyli. Caecilians are more controversial; many studies extend dissorophoid ancestry to caecilians. Some studies have instead argued that caecilians descend from extinct lepospondyl or stereospondyl amphibians, contradicting evidence for lissamphibian monophyly (common ancestry). Rare fossils of early gymnophionans such as Eocaecilia and Funcusvermis have helped to test the various conflicting hypotheses for the relationships between caecilians and other living and extinct amphibians. ('Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Spotted salamander, Ambystoma maculatum

  
  Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten extant salamander families are grouped together under the order Urodela from the group Caudata. Urodela is a scientific Latin term based on the Ancient Greek οὐρά δήλη: ourà dēlē "conspicuous tail". Caudata is the Latin for "tailed ones", from cauda: "tail".
  
  Salamander diversity is highest in eastern North America, especially in the Appalachian Mountains; most species are found in the Holarctic realm, with some species present in the Neotropical realm. Salamanders never have more than four toes on their front legs and five on their rear legs, but some species have fewer digits and others lack hind limbs. Their permeable skin usually makes them reliant on habitats in or near water or other cool, damp places. Some salamander species are fully aquatic throughout their lives, some take to the water intermittently, and others are entirely terrestrial as adults.
  
  This group of amphibians is capable of regenerating lost limbs as well as other damaged parts of their bodies. Researchers hope to reverse engineer the regenerative processes for potential human medical applications, such as brain and spinal cord injury treatment or preventing harmful scarring during heart surgery recovery. The remarkable ability of salamanders to regenerate is not just limited to limbs but extends to vital organs such as the heart, jaw, and parts of the spinal cord, showing their uniqueness compared to different types of vertebrates. ⁤⁤This ability is most remarkable for occurring without any type of scarring. ⁤⁤This has made salamanders an invaluable model organism in scientific research aimed at understanding and achieving regenerative processes for medical advancements in human and animal biology. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina), a member of the family Bombinatoridae

  
  Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands.
  
  In popular culture (folk taxonomy), toads are associated with drier, rougher skin and more terrestrial habitats. However, this distinction does not align precisely with scientific taxonomy. (Full article...)

After:

Reptile types

• 
  
  

  

  Corallus caninus

  
  Snakes are elongated, limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (/sɜːrˈpɛntiːz/). Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have independently evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs at least twenty-five times via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal (see Amphisbaenia, Dibamidae, and Pygopodidae). (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Male gharial

  
  The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are 2.6 to 4.5 m (8 ft 6 in to 14 ft 9 in) long, and males 3 to 6 m (9 ft 10 in to 19 ft 8 in). Adult males have a distinct boss at the end of the snout, which resembles an earthenware pot known as a ghara, hence the name "gharial". The gharial is well adapted to catching fish because of its long, narrow snout and 110 sharp, interlocking teeth. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Yacare caiman, Caiman yacare

  
  A caiman (/ˈkeɪmən/ (also spelled cayman) from Taíno kaiman) is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within the Alligatoridae family, the other being alligators. Caimans are native to Central and South America and inhabit marshes, swamps, lakes, and mangrove rivers. They have scaly skin and live a fairly nocturnal existence. They are relatively small-sized crocodilians with an average maximum weight of 6 to 40 kg (13 to 88 lb) depending on species, with the exception of the black caiman (Melanosuchus niger), which can grow more than 4 m (13 ft) in length and weigh in excess of 450 kg (1,000 Ib). The black caiman is the largest caiman species in the world and is found in the slow-moving rivers and lakes that surround the Amazon basin. The smallest species is the Cuvier's dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus palpebrosus), which grows to 1.2 to 1.5 m (3.9 to 4.9 ft) long. There are six different species of caiman found throughout the watery jungle habitats of Central and Southern America. The average length for most of the other caiman species is about 2 to 2.5 m (6.6 to 8.2 ft) long. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Aldabra giant tortoise
  (Aldabrachelys gigantea)

  
  Tortoises (/ˈtɔːrtəs.ɪz/ TOR-təs-iz) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like other members of the suborder Cryptodira, they retract their necks and heads directly backward into the shell to protect them. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Clockwise from top left: veiled chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus), rock monitor (Varanus albigularis), common blue-tongued skink (Tiliqua scincoides), Italian wall lizard (Podarcis sicula), giant leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus fimbriatus), and legless lizard (Anelytropsis papillosus)

  
  Lizard is the common name used for all squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The grouping is paraphyletic as some lizards are more closely related to snakes than they are to other lizards. Lizards range in size from chameleons and geckos a few centimeters long to the 3-meter-long Komodo dragon. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Blanus cinereus, Spain

  
  Amphisbaenia /æmfɪsˈbiːniə/ (called amphisbaenians or worm lizards) is a group of typically legless lizards, comprising over 200 extant species. Amphisbaenians are characterized by their long bodies, the reduction or loss of the limbs, and rudimentary eyes. As many species have a pink body and scales arranged in rings, they have a superficial resemblance to earthworms. While the genus Bipes retains forelimbs, all other genera are limbless. Phylogenetic studies suggest that they are nested within Lacertoidea, closely related to the lizard family Lacertidae. Amphisbaenians are widely distributed, occurring in North America, Europe, Africa, South America, Western Asia and the Caribbean. Most species are less than 6 inches (15 cm) long. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  An American alligator (top) and a Chinese alligator

  
  An alligator, or colloquially gator, is a large reptile in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae of the order Crocodilia. The two extant species are the American alligator (A. mississippiensis) and the Chinese alligator (A. sinensis). Additionally, several extinct species of alligator are known from fossil remains. Alligators first appeared during the late Eocene epoch about 37 million years ago. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus)

  
  Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae), the gharial and false gharial (family Gavialidae) among other extinct taxa. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Northern tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus punctatus)

  
  The tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) is a species of reptile endemic to New Zealand. Despite its close resemblance to lizards, it is part of a distinct lineage, the order Rhynchocephalia. The name tuatara is derived from the Māori language and means "peaks on the back". (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Common box turtle

  
  Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked turtles), which differ in the way the head retracts. There are 360 living and recently extinct species of turtles, including land-dwelling tortoises and freshwater terrapins. They are found on most continents, some islands and, in the case of sea turtles, much of the ocean. Like other amniotes (reptiles, birds, and mammals) they breathe air and do not lay eggs underwater, although many species live in or around water. (Full article...)

Amphibian types

• 
  
  

  

  Various types of frog

  
  A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek ἀνούρα, literally 'without tail'). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" Triadobatrachus is known from the Early Triassic of Madagascar (250 million years ago), but molecular clock dating suggests their split from other amphibians may extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago. Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is in tropical rainforest. Frogs account for around 88% of extant amphibian species. They are also one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders. Warty frog species tend to be called toads, but the distinction between frogs and toads is informal, not from taxonomy or evolutionary history.
  
  An adult frog has a stout body, protruding eyes, anteriorly-attached tongue, limbs folded underneath, and no tail (the tail of tailed frogs is an extension of the male cloaca). Frogs have glandular skin, with secretions ranging from distasteful to toxic. Their skin varies in colour from well-camouflaged dappled brown, grey and green to vivid patterns of bright red or yellow and black to show toxicity and ward off predators. Adult frogs live in fresh water and on dry land; some species are adapted for living underground or in trees.
  
  Frogs typically lay their eggs in the water. The eggs hatch into aquatic larvae called tadpoles that have tails and internal gills. They have highly specialised rasping mouth parts suitable for herbivorous, omnivorous or planktivorous diets. The life cycle is completed when they metamorphose into adults. A few species deposit eggs on land or bypass the tadpole stage. Adult frogs generally have a carnivorous diet consisting of small invertebrates, but omnivorous species exist and a few feed on plant matter. Frog skin has a rich microbiome which is important to their health. Frogs are extremely efficient at converting what they eat into body mass. They are an important food source for predators and part of the food web dynamics of many of the world's ecosystems. The skin is semi-permeable, making them susceptible to dehydration, so they either live in moist places or have special adaptations to deal with dry habitats. Frogs produce a wide range of vocalisations, particularly in their breeding season, and exhibit many different kinds of complex behaviors to attract mates, to fend off predators and to generally survive. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina), a member of the family Bombinatoridae

  
  Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands.
  
  In popular culture (folk taxonomy), toads are associated with drier, rougher skin and more terrestrial habitats. However, this distinction does not align precisely with scientific taxonomy. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Spotted salamander, Ambystoma maculatum

  
  Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten extant salamander families are grouped together under the order Urodela from the group Caudata. Urodela is a scientific Latin term based on the Ancient Greek οὐρά δήλη: ourà dēlē "conspicuous tail". Caudata is the Latin for "tailed ones", from cauda: "tail".
  
  Salamander diversity is highest in eastern North America, especially in the Appalachian Mountains; most species are found in the Holarctic realm, with some species present in the Neotropical realm. Salamanders never have more than four toes on their front legs and five on their rear legs, but some species have fewer digits and others lack hind limbs. Their permeable skin usually makes them reliant on habitats in or near water or other cool, damp places. Some salamander species are fully aquatic throughout their lives, some take to the water intermittently, and others are entirely terrestrial as adults.
  
  This group of amphibians is capable of regenerating lost limbs as well as other damaged parts of their bodies. Researchers hope to reverse engineer the regenerative processes for potential human medical applications, such as brain and spinal cord injury treatment or preventing harmful scarring during heart surgery recovery. The remarkable ability of salamanders to regenerate is not just limited to limbs but extends to vital organs such as the heart, jaw, and parts of the spinal cord, showing their uniqueness compared to different types of vertebrates. ⁤⁤This ability is most remarkable for occurring without any type of scarring. ⁤⁤This has made salamanders an invaluable model organism in scientific research aimed at understanding and achieving regenerative processes for medical advancements in human and animal biology. (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Oscaecilia ochrocephala (Caeciliidae)

  
  Caecilians (/sɪˈsɪliən/; New Latin for 'blind ones') are a group of limbless, vermiform (worm-shaped) or serpentine (snake-shaped) amphibians with small or sometimes nonexistent eyes. They mostly live hidden in soil or in streambeds, and this cryptic lifestyle renders caecilians among the least familiar amphibians. Modern caecilians live in the tropics of South and Central America, Africa, and southern Asia. Caecilians feed on small subterranean creatures such as earthworms. The body is cylindrical and often darkly coloured, and the skull is bullet-shaped and strongly built. Caecilian heads have several unique adaptations, including fused cranial and jaw bones, a two-part system of jaw muscles, and a chemosensory tentacle in front of the eye. The skin is slimy and bears ringlike markings or grooves and may contain scales.
  
  Modern caecilians are a clade, the order Gymnophiona /ˌdʒɪmnəˈfaɪənə/ (or Apoda /ˈæpədə/), one of the three living amphibian groups alongside Anura (frogs) and Urodela (salamanders). Gymnophiona is a crown group, encompassing all modern caecilians and all descendants of their last common ancestor. There are more than 220 living species of caecilian classified in 10 families. Gymnophionomorpha is a recently coined name for the corresponding total group which includes Gymnophiona as well as a few extinct stem-group caecilians (extinct amphibians whose closest living relatives are caecilians but are not descended from any caecilian). Some palaeontologists have used the name Gymnophiona for the total group and the old name Apoda for the crown group'. However, Apoda has other even older uses, including as the name of a genus of Butterfly making its use potentially confusing and best avoided. 'Gymnophiona' derives from the Greek words γυμνος / gymnos (Ancient Greek for 'naked') and οφις / ophis (Ancient Greek for 'snake'), as the caecilians were originally thought to be related to snakes and to lack scales.
  
  The study of caecilian evolution is complicated by their poor fossil record and specialized anatomy. Genetic evidence and some anatomical details (such as pedicellate teeth) support the idea that frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (collectively known as lissamphibians) are each other's closest relatives. Frogs and salamanders show many similarities to dissorophoids, a group of extinct amphibians in the order Temnospondyli. Caecilians are more controversial; many studies extend dissorophoid ancestry to caecilians. Some studies have instead argued that caecilians descend from extinct lepospondyl or stereospondyl amphibians, contradicting evidence for lissamphibian monophyly (common ancestry). Rare fossils of early gymnophionans such as Eocaecilia and Funcusvermis have helped to test the various conflicting hypotheses for the relationships between caecilians and other living and extinct amphibians. ('Full article...)

Notice how the box bottoms line up. That readjusts even if you click the slideshow buttons.

The template used for this is {{Flex columns}}.

By the way, when you include more than one box in a column, any left over whitespace in that column is divided between them.

Box-header colour

You may have noticed the new {{Box-header colour}} template used above. It lets you pick the color locally (right on the same page). Before, this was handled on a subpage somewhere.

Testing, testing

Now that we have lots of toys to play with for making cool portals...

Don't forget, that the majority of views of Wikipedia these days are from mobile devices. We need to make certain that portals display well on those. So, remember to check your work on portals in mobile view mode...

To see a portal in mobile view mode, insert a ".m" into a portal's url, after "en", like this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Reptile

If you discover problems in a portal you can't fix, report them on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Design.

Until next time...

Have fun.    — The Transhumanist   00:56, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #015, 31 July 2018

Now that we have lots of toys to play with, it's play time!

Here are some fun activities to use our new toys on...

Fun activity #1: put the improved panorama template to use

Would you like to travel around the world? Well, this may be the next best thing...

Here's another fun toy to play with: {{Portal image banner}}

To see what it looks like, check out the panoramas at the tops of the following portals:

• Portal:India
• Portal:Melbourne
• Portal:Perth
• Portal:Monaco
• Portal:South Sudan
• Portal:Thiruvananthapuram
• Portal:Lithuania
• Portal:Brisbane
• Portal:Abu Dhabi
• Portal:Athens
• Portal:Barcelona
• Portal:Calgary
• Portal:Dhaka
• Portal:Dresden
• Portal:Edinburgh
• Portal:Florence
• Portal:Houston
• Portal:Miami
• Portal:Milan
• Portal:Moscow
• Portal:Munich
• Portal:Seattle
• Portal:Stockholm
• Portal:Turin
• Portal:Bermuda

The task: There are many geography portals that lack panoramas. Please add some. Please keep the file size down below 2 megabytes, and keep in mind that you may find quality banners at commons: at less than 200K (.2 megabytes). Good search terms to include with the place name are "banner", "cityscape", "skyline", "panorama", "landscape", etc.

Related task: There are also lots of geography portals that have panoramas used as gaudy banners (with print or icons splattered across them) or that display them in some random location on the page. In many cases, those pages would be improved by displaying the panorama as a clean picture at the top of the intro section, like on the examples above. This works best with banner-like panoramas. Please fix such pages when you come across them, if you believe it would improve the look of the page.

Taller images might be better suited displayed further down the page, or in the "Selected images" section.

Note that {{Portal image banner}} supports multiple images, and displays one at random upon the first visit, and each time the page is purged.

Fun activity #2: install "Selected images" sections

That is, image slideshows!

Over 200 have been installed so far. Just 1200 to go. (Be sure not to install them on portals with active maintainers, unless they want you to).

The title "Selected images" reflects the fact that not all images on Wikipedia are pictures, and encompasses maps, graphs, diagrams, sketches, paintings, pictures, and so on.

The toys we have to work with for this are:

{{Random slideshow}}

and

{{Transclude files as random slideshow}}

The task: Using one of the above templates directly on a portal's base page, replace static "Selected picture" sections, with a section like one of these:

Selected images

• 
  A discus (Symphysodon discus) is guarding its eggs. As for most cichlids, brood care is highly developed with both the parents caring for the young. Additionally, adult discus produce a secretion through their skin, off which the larvae live during their first few days.
• 
  The red lionfish (Pterois volitans) is a venomous coral reef fish from the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. The red lionfish is also found off the east coast of the United States, and was likely first introduced off the Florida coast in the early to mid 1990s.
• 
  Salmon fry hatching (Salmo salar) - the larva has grown around the remains of the yolk - visible are the arteries spinning around the yolk and little oildrops, also the gut, the spine, the main caudal blood vessel, the bladder and the arcs of the gills.
• 
  Koi are ornamental domesticated varieties of the common carp Cyprinus carpio, originated from China and widely spread in Japan. They are very closely related to goldfish. The word "koi" comes from Japanese meaning "carp".

Selected images

• 
  Old-growth European beech forest in Biogradska Gora National Park, Montenegro (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  Phylogeny of the Pinophyta based on cladistic analysis of molecular data. (from Conifer)
• 
  A thin transverse section showing the internal structure of conifer wood (from Conifer)
• 
  Wildfire near Yosemite National Park, United States, in 2013. The Rim Fire burned more than 250,000 acres (1,000 km²) of forest. (from Wildfire)
• 
  Pinaceae: unopened female cones of subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) (from Conifer)
• 
  A Russian firefighter extinguishing a wildfire (from Wildfire)
• 
  Charred landscape following a crown fire in the North Cascades, United States (from Wildfire)
• 
  A surface fire in the western desert of Utah, United States (from Wildfire)
• 
  A prescribed burn in a Pinus nigra stand in Portugal (from Wildfire)
• 
  National map of groundwater and soil moisture in the United States. It shows the very low soil moisture associated with the 2011 fire season in Texas. (from Wildfire)
• 
  Antarctic beech old growth in Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  Globosa, a cultivar of Pinus sylvestris, a northern European species, in the North American Red Butte Garden (from Conifer)
• 
  First-growth or virgin forest near Mount Rainier, 1914 (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  The northern spotted owl primarily inhabits old-growth forests in the northern part of its range (Canada to southern Oregon) and landscapes with a mix of old and younger forest types in the southern part of its range (the Klamath region and California). (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  Old-growth forest in the Opal Creek Wilderness, a wilderness area located in the Willamette National Forest in the U.S. state of Oregon, on the border of Mount Hood National Forest. It has the largest uncut watershed in Oregon. (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  Old-growth red cedar stump near Port Renfrew, British Columbia (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  The narrow conical shape of northern conifers, and their downward-drooping limbs, help them shed snow. (from Conifer)
• 
  A wildfire in Venezuela during a drought (from Wildfire)
• 
  A coniferous forest pictured in the coat of arms of the Kainuu region in Finland (from Conifer)
• 
  Wildfire smoke in atmosphere off the U.S. West Coast in 2020 (from Wildfire)
• 
  In Abies grandis (grand fir), and many other species with spirally arranged leaves, leaf bases are twisted to flatten their arrangement and maximize light capture. (from Conifer)
• 
  Smoke from the 2020 California wildfires settles over San Francisco (from Wildfire)
• 
  Virgin forest about 2,500 m (8,200 ft) above sea level in Shennongjia Forestry District, Hubei, China (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  Wildland firefighter working a brush fire in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, US (from Wildfire)
• 
  Lightning-sparked wildfires are frequent occurrences during the dry summer season in Nevada. (from Wildfire)
• 
  Charred shrubland in suburban Sydney (2019–20 Australian bushfires). (from Wildfire)
• 
  The 2020 Córdoba wildfires imaged by NASA's FIRMS (from Wildfire)
• 
  Cool temperate rainforest in Tasmania, Australia (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  Forest fires visible from a distance in Dajti National Park, Tirana, Albania (from Wildfire)
• 
  Eucalyptus regnans forest in Tasmania, Australia (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  Redwood tree in northern California redwood forest: According to the National Park Service, "96 percent of the original old-growth coast redwoods have been logged." (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  A Monterey pine forest in Sydney, Australia (from Conifer)
• 
  Sediment off the Yucatán Peninsula (from Wildfire)
• 
  Fire Propagation Model (from Wildfire)
• 
  Dry Mountain Fire Lookout in the Ochoco National Forest, Oregon, US circa 1930 (from Wildfire)
• 
  Aerial view of deliberate wildfires on the Khun Tan Range, Thailand. These fires are lit by local farmers every year to promote the growth of a certain mushroom. (from Wildfire)
• 
  Downed wood replenishes topsoil as it decays. (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  Ecological succession after a wildfire in a boreal pine forest next to Hara Bog, Lahemaa National Park, Estonia. The pictures were taken one and two years after the fire. (from Wildfire)
• 
  2003 Canberra bushfires, visible from Parliament House (from Wildfire)
• 
  Mist condensing over rainforest in Danum Valley Conservation Area, Malaysia (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew, British Columbia: Giant Douglas firs (left) and red cedars (right) fill the grove. (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  Global fires during the year 2008 for the months of August (top image) and February (bottom image), as detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. (from Wildfire)
• 
  Cupressaceae: scale leaves of Lawson's cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana); scale in mm (from Conifer)
• 
  Tāne Mahuta, the biggest kauri (Agathis australis) tree alive, in the Waipoua Forest of the Northland Region of New Zealand. (from Conifer)
• 
  Fungus Climacocystis borealis on a tree stump in the Białowieża Forest, one of the last largely intact primeval forests in Central Europe (from Old-growth forest)
• 
  Araucariaceae: awl-like leaves of Cook pine (Araucaria columnaris) (from Conifer)
• 
  Animation of diaphragmatic breathing with the diaphragm shown in green (from Wildfire)
• 
  Pinaceae: needle-like leaves and vegetative buds of Coast Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) (from Conifer)
• 
  Elk Bath, an award-winning photograph of elk avoiding a wildfire in Montana (from Wildfire)
• 
  Wildfire burning in the Kaibab National Forest, Arizona, United States, in 2020. The Mangum Fire burned more than 70,000 acres (280 km²) of forest. (from Wildfire)
• 
  A dirt road acted as a fire barrier in South Africa. The effects of the barrier can clearly be seen on the unburnt (left) and burnt (right) sides of the road. (from Wildfire)

The one on the left uses {{Random slideshow}} (which accepts file names), and the one on the right uses {{Transclude files as random slideshow}} (which accepts source pages from which the filenames are gathered).

The above section formatting is used on many of the pages you will come across, but not all. In those cases, use whatever section formatting matches the rest of the page.

Note that you may come across "Selected picture" sections done with {{Random portal component}} templates. That template call is the entire section. Replace it with a section that matches the other sections on the page, and put the new slideshow inside that.

For example, in Portal:California, this code:

{{Random portal component|max=21|seed=27|header=Selected picture|subpage=Selected picture}}

was replaced with this code:

{{/box-header|Selected images|noedit=yes}}
{{Transclude files as random slideshow
| {{PAGENAME}}
| Culture of {{PAGENAME}}
}}
{{Box-footer}}

And the new section blended right in with the formatting of the rest of the page. Note the use of the {{PAGENAME}} magic word. Plain article titles also work. Don't feel limited to one or two page names. But be sure to test each slideshow before installing the next one. (Or if you prefer, in batches - just don't leave them hanging). Report technical problems at the Portal design talk page.

Fun activity #3: upgrade "Selected article" sections

These sections, where unmaintained, have gone stale. That's because 1) the excerpts are static, having been manually copied and pasted, and 2) because they lack automatic addition of new entries.

They can be upgraded with:

{{Transclude random excerpt}}

or

{{Transclude list item excerpt}}

or

{{Transclude linked excerpt}}

All three of these will provide excerpts that won't go stale. The latter two can provide excerpt collections that won't go stale, by providing new entries over time. The key is to select source pages or source sections that are frequently updated, such as root article sections, mainstream lists, or navigation templates.

Where will this put us?

When the above tasks are completed for the entire collection of portals (except the ones with specific maintainers), we'll be more than half-way done with the portal system upgrade.

Keep up the great work.    — The Transhumanist   19:07, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Merger discussion for Eric Forman, Michael Kelso, Steven Hyde, and others

Articles that you have been involved in editing—Eric Forman, Michael Kelso, Steven Hyde, and others—have been proposed for merging with List of That '70s Show characters. If you are interested, please participate in the merger discussion. Thank you. —A L T E R C A R I  ✍ 15:57, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #016, 15 Aug 2018

Future portal tool

Discussions are underway on the design of a portal tool (user script) that will hopefully have features for modifying portals at the click of a menu item, to make editing them easier. It might do things like change the color for you, add to a selection, add a new section, move a section, and so on.

If you'd like to be involved and suggest features for the tool, please join us at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Design#What would you want a portal tool to be able to do?.

Progress report: upgrade of portals

As new portal components are built by our Lua gurus, those components are being used to upgrade portals. Each component automates a section of a portal in a particular way.

The sections that are mostly upgraded so far are the Intro, and the Associated Wikimedia section.

The sections currently undergoing upgrade are: Selected image, Categories, and the Intro.

The Intro? Isn't that done already?

Yes, and no.

The upgrade of the excerpt in intros is mostly complete (there are about 70 non-standard portals that still need it).

Now we are doing another upgrade of intros in the form of adding a panoramic picture at the top of the intro, on portals for which such a picture is available on Commons:. Dozens of panoramas have been added so far, and they are really starting to affect the look of portals — the portals that have them look really good.

Regions are the most likely subjects to have panoramas, but a surprising number of other subjects have banner-shaped pictures too. Some examples of non-geographic portals that they have been added to are:

• Portal:Underwater diving
• Portal:Sharks
• Portal:Reptiles
• Portal:Meat
• Portal:Cheese
• Portal:Cereals
• Portal:Tea
• Portal:Milk
• Portal:Wheat
• Portal:Rice
• Portal:Clothing

Speaking of pictures, several hundred Selected image sections have been upgraded to include image slideshows.

Progress report: design

The push for automation continues, with new components under continuous testing in the field. As problems are spotted, they are reported to our programmers, who have done a fantastic job of keeping up with bug reports and fixing the relevant Lua modules fast. I am highly impressed.

Construction time on new portals is now down to as little as a minute or less. Though not in general. If you are lucky enough to spot portals that fit the profile of the new tools (their strengths), then a portal can be complete almost as soon as it is created, with the added time it takes to find and add a panorama. Source page titles are not generally standardized, and so it source pages in many cases must be entered manually. Where source page titles follow a standard naming convention, portal creation for those subjects goes quickly.

So, we still have some hurdles, but the outlook on portals is very good. New features, and many improvements to features are on the horizon. I'll be sure to report them when they become available.

What will the portal of the future look like? That is up to you!

See you on the project's talk pages.

Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   20:59, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

With regard to Access dates added to Jacqueline Fernandez page

Hi Auric, Thank you for the changes made to the Jacqueline Fernandez page (Dpshow (talk) 11:45, 18 August 2018 (UTC))

David M. Lubin entry

Hi Auric!

Just wondering if you will contact me directly once David's page is looked at and sent for edits or whatever?

Violasusie2 (talk) 16:44, 21 August 2018 (UTC)Susie Pollock "violasusie" 8-21-18

Portals WikiProject update #017, 22 Aug 2018

This issue is about portal creation...

Creating new portals

Myself and others have been testing and experimenting with the new components in upgrading existing portals and in building new portals. They have now been applied in hundreds of portals.

The templates are ready for general use for portal creation.

They are still a bit buggy, but the only way we are going to work the rest of the bugs out is by using them and reporting the bugs as we come across them.

I look forward to seeing what new portals you create!

Be sure to report bugs at WT:WPPORTD.

The main portal creation template is {{box portal skeleton}}.

Portal creation tips

After starting a portal using {{box portal skeleton}}...

1. Placing a panorama (banner picture) at the top of the intro section is a nice touch, and really makes a portal look good. {{box portal skeleton}} doesn't automatically insert panoramas. So, you will need to do that by hand. They can be found at Commons:. For some examples, check out Portal:Sharks, Portal:Cheese, and Portal:Florence
2. The search term provided in the Did you know? and In the news sections is very basic and rarely matches anything. It is best to replace that term with multiple search arguments, if possible (separate each argument with a pipe character). For example, in Portal:Capital punishment, see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portal:Capital_punishment&diff=855255361&oldid=855137403 Searches in templates use Lua search notation.
3. Check the In the news and Did you know? sections for mismatches. That is, sometimes entries come up that shouldn't be displayed. If there are any, refine the search strings further, so they don't return such results.
4. Finish each portal you've created before creating a new one. We don't want unfinished portals sitting around.

Need a laugh?

Check out the Did you know? section on Portal:Determinism.    — The Transhumanist   01:52, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Attn: WikiGnomes

WikiProject Portals has a fun task for you...

There are lots of new portals.

Many.

Not a few.

Hundreds.

So, it's time for another round of "These are not listed yet".

Instructions and a list of the portals that have not been listed yet are included at that link.

List as many as you have time for, and pick away at the list at your leisure. Every single entry helps.

This is an especially fun task, because you get to browse the new portals while you are working on it.

Curious?

Dive right in. ;)

And of course...

...have fun!    — The Transhumanist   22:42, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

History of lute-family instruments

Hi, I saw you were looking and adding. Welcome. This is going to be a large article and I have no plan for how to expand this, so if you have any ideas, there's plenty of room! Jacqke (talk) 22:52, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #018, 04 Sept 2018

Bug hunt!

As you know, portals are now supported by a number of new templates, which are in turn supported by some new Lua modules.

Those templates and modules are being put to the test, in the new portals that have been created since this WikiProject rebooted, plus a number of existing portals that have been revamped.

The new portals, and revamped ones, can be found at Category:Single-page portals.

Please browse the new portals at your leisure, and report any and all problems that you spot. Post bug and other portal problem reports at WT:WPPORTD. Please report bugs, quirks, awkward aspects, or anything weird or off that you notice. Compliments and suggestions are also welcome. :)

When you report a bug, please indicate the portal's name, the section that the problem appeared in, and the name of the article appearing (first) in the section with the problem. Most problems will likely be encountered in the Selected general articles" section, due to quirks in a displayed article's wikicode that the lua modules don't handle yet. Your help in spotting those is of utmost value. Thank you.

Don't delete portal subpages just yet

For portals that have been converted to the single-page design, we are not deleting their subpages at this time, because we are working on ways to harvest the data from those pages. For example, the Selected picture subpages include filenames and captions that would be valuable for the image slideshows. Please don't delete portal subpages, for now. They'll be slated for d-batch speedy deletion after harvesting. Thank you.

Development notes

We are currently testing a feature added to {{Transclude files as random slideshow}} that allows it to accept both sourcepages and filenames. Courtesy of Evad37. This will pave the way for harvesting files and their captions from portal subpages, for use in image slideshows.

We need your help

The bulk of the work is being done by a handful of editors. But we can't do it all. We need help with spotting bugs, refining the search parameters in new/revamped portals (in the "Did you know..." and "In the news" sections), adding images to slideshows for a broader selection (they default to showing the images on the root article page but are capable of showing so much more), adding panoramic pictures at the top of the intro section of region portals (cities, counties, states, provinces, countries, continents, and other regions), to name but a few task types.

It is rewarding to be a part of the growing portal phenomenon. And you get to see its expansion and refinement up close.

Feel free to join in on the fun. ;)

Thank you,    — The Transhumanist   06:37, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Citation style

Please do not change citation styles in articles to be inconsistent, as you just did in pentagonal tiling. The article consistently uses {{citation}} (Citation Style 2); you changed one reference to {{cite book}} (Citation Style 1). The most obvious difference between the two styles is in their punctuation, but Citation Style 2 also works with the {{harv}} series of parenthetical citation templates and Citation Style 1 (in its default settings) does not. —David Eppstein (talk) 16:11, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

I changed it because |chapter= was flagged as unsupported and because "New York: W.h.freeman" isn't a journal. For some reason, it now seems okay.--Auric talk 16:21, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

Yes, changing the parameters was correct, because they were not correct before. Changing the template name from "citation" to "cite book" was the part that was wrong. I changed it back. —David Eppstein (talk) 19:19, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

Thanks.--Auric talk 19:24, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

AWB task request: please help with the backlog

Attention AWB'ers...

We have a growing backlog!

There are now 545 portals. Of those, 52 are of the new design.

Many of the new portals are orphaned or near orphaned, and need links pointing to them:

1. A portal link at the bottom of corresponding navigation footer template. E.g., Template:Machines for Portal:Machines. See examples of a portals link at the bottom of Template:Robotics and Template:Forestry.
2. A {{Portal}} box in the See also section of the corresponding root article for each portal. If there is no See also section, create one and place the portal template in that. (Rather than placing them in an external links section -- they're not external links).
3. A {{Portal}} template placed at the top of the category page corresponding to each portal.

If you have AWB laying around, please dust it off and crank it up! ;)

To make a list of corresponding templates, you can use AWB's make list feature to make a list of the pages in Category:Single-page portals. Then you copy that list to a sandbox, and replace \nPortal: with ]]\n* [[Template:, using WP:wikEd. That will give you a list of templates to work on. Then you set skip in AWB to skip the ones that already have the portal link.

To make a list of corresponding root articles, make a list of portal links, and then remove "Portal:" from the links.

To make a list of category links to process, make sure you use a leading colon (:) in the category links, like this: [[:Category:Blue Öyster Cult]].

All new and revamped portals can be found at Category:Single-page portals.

Thank you.    — The Transhumanist   20:38, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

History: Pulse Nightclub -

I realize you have documentation (which I cannot open) stating that the Pulse Nightclub was Dante's prior to becoming the Pulse nightclub. This is untrue. I worked in that building in 2000-2001 when it was a Boise Cascade Building Materials Distribution Division center. The company later moved to it's current location at the corner of Holden Avenue and S. Orange Ave. (75 W. Holden Ave.)  When Boise Cascade used that office, we had both buildings between Kaley and Esther and there was a hallway between the two buildings connecting them. I worked in the north building but frequently went back to the area where the Building Materials were located (in the Pulse building). I'm not sure where Dante's was located at the time they closed in 2003, but it certainly wasn't at that location. Boise Cascade's address when it was in that building was on Esther Street. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bgansel09 (talk • contribs) 19:04, 20 September 2018 (UTC) 

This might be better posted at Talk:Pulse nightclub. I had nothing to do with that source, although I did find a better link: [3], which says "Dante's has fired up the pizza ovens at the former Lorenzo's, 1912 S. Orange Ave., Orlando." which is the listed address of Pulse. --Auric talk 21:22, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #019, 22 Sept 2018

Portals progress report

Don't blink. You might miss something.

As of a few days ago, portals had doubled in about a month and a half.

Also, there were 98 incompleted portals in Category:Portals under construction. Now there are just 43.

The WikiProject page has been thoroughly revised

The goals, plans, and task sections have all been updated.

Orphaned portals need a home...

Many new portals are still orphans, and need links pointing to them:

1. A portal link at the bottom of corresponding navigation footer template. E.g., Template:Machines for Portal:Machines. See examples of a portals link at the bottom of Template:Robotics and Template:Forestry.
2. A {{Portal}} box in the See also section of the corresponding root article for each portal. If there is no See also section, create one and place the portal template in that. (Rather than placing them in an external links section -- they're not external links).
3. A {{Portal}} template placed at the top of the category page corresponding to each portal.

All new and revamped portals can be found at Category:Single-page portals.

Portal:Contents/Portals

This is the main list of portals.

Nearly 2,000 of the new portals need to be listed here.

They can be found at Portal talk:Contents/Portals#These are not listed yet. Instructions are included there.

Customized Portal Rating system is now in place

Portals now have a new rating system of their own designed specifically to support portal evaluation! We were trying to use the standard assessment system for articles, but that doesn't fit portals very well.

Many thanks to Evad37, Waggers, AfroThundr3007730, SMcCandlish, Tom, BrendonTheWizard, and Pbsouthwood for their work and input on this.

The new system can be found at the top of all portal talk pages, in the WikiProject portals box. Those with "???" ratings need to be assessed, which makes up most of the older portals.

Most of the new portals were started out with an initial "Low" level of importance when their talk pages were created. Those deserving higher importance should be promoted as you come across them.

Improving the new portals

The starting point for new portals included minimal parameters and content, in the form of default values in the template(s) used for their creation.

Embellishing embedded search strings

So, for the search strings in the "Did you know..." and "In the news" sections, this was the magic word {{PAGENAME}}, which represents the portal's name. Unfortunately, the resulting term is alway capitalized, which limits its effectiveness as a search string for anything but proper nouns. Results for those two sections can be improved, by replacing the "PAGENAME" magic word with multiple search strings, and search strings that begin with lower case letters. There is no inherent limit as to how many search parameters may be included. Lua search notation is used. The more general the subject, the more subtopic search terms you may want to include. For example, on Portal:Avengers (comics), {{PAGENAME}} turned up nothing. But, when more parameters were added, as in the wikicode below...

{{Transclude selected recent additions | {{PAGENAME}} | Iron Man | Spiderman | Antman | Hawkeye | The Hulk | Incredible Hulk | David Banner | Captain America | Scarlet Witch | Black Widow | Tony Stark | Nick Fury | Age of Ultron | Infinity War | months=36 | header={{Box-header colour|Did you know... }}|max=6}}

... that returned several results in the portal's DYK section.

Be sure you make the improvements to both the DYK section and the "In the news" section, as they both require the search strings.

Expanding the slideshow contents

The default starting selection for the image slideshow in most new portals is whatever images happen to be in the corresponding root article (via the PAGENAME magic word). You can improve image slideshows by adding more sourcepages and filenames as parameters in the "Selected images" section of portals.

See Template:Transclude files as random slideshow/doc for instructions.

More exciting things are to come...

Portals used to take about 6 hours or more to create. Now, for subjects that have particular navigation support, we've got that down to about one minute each, with even more content displayed than ever. True, that means the new portals pick you, rather than the other way around. Creating a specific portal that doesn't happen to have the requisite navigation support is still pretty time consuming. But, we are working on extending our reach beyond the low-hanging fruit.

And efforts are ongoing to keep shaving time off of the creation process. Eventually, we may get it down to seconds each.

In addition to improving automation, we're always looking for new features and improvements that we can add to portals, and there is plenty of potential to expand on the standard design so that new portals are even better right out of the starting gate. Additional designs are also possible.

On the horizon, there are many more portals waiting to be created. And we can expect to see at least a few more section types emerge. I never expected slideshows, for example, especially not for excerpts. Who knows where innovation will take us next?

Keep up the great work everyone.

Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   07:03, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

KISS NB

On Wikipedia, the general criteria for a party to be featured on the infobox is either of the following:

• Earn 5% of the vote province-wide
• Win a seat in the provincial legislature

KISS NB won just 0.10% of the province-wide vote and no seats to the Legislative Assembly. Thus, they do not meet the criteria to be included in the infobox. --Mr.Election (talk) 20:42, 26 September 2018 (UTC)

Oh, I see. Too bad, I liked the way it balanced things.--Auric talk 17:25, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #020, 12 Oct 2018

Whew, a lot has been happening.

A bit of defending of the portals has been needed. But, most activity recently has been directed upon maintenance and development of existing portals.

The majority of portals now use the new design, about 2400 of them, leaving around 1200 portals that still employ the old style.

Newest portals

• Aceh
• Aegean Sea
• Arthur Wellesley
• Azores
• Bashkortostan
• Birmingham
• Black Sea
• Canary Islands
• Carpathian Mountains
• Caucasus
• Columbia River
• Davao City
• Dnieper
• Easter Island
• Exploration
• Galápagos Islands
• Glasgow
• Great Wall of China
• Guangdong
• Kaliningrad Oblast
• Kanpur
• Kigali
• Kuril Islands
• Kuwait City
• Leeds
• Lhasa
• Loire Valley
• Lucknow
• Lviv
• Map projections
• Marseille
• Midwestern United States
• Missouri River
• Multan
• Mysore
• Niger River
• Northeast India
• Odessa
• Orchestras
• Panama Canal
• Peshawar
• Polynesia
• Poznań
• Pretoria
• Rat Pack
• Sammy Davis Jr.
• Shandong
• South China Sea
• Southern United States
• Suez Canal
• Svalbard
• Tatarstan
• Tigris River
• Visakhapatnam
• Volga River
• Western Ghats
• Western United States
• Yellowstone National Park
• Yosemite National Park

Please inspect these portals, and report problems or suggest improvements at WT:WPPORTD. Thank you.

MfDs

Since the last issue of this newsletter, Nineteen portals were nominated for deletion. All posted by the same person.

Two portals were deleted.

One resolved as "no consensus".

Sixteen resolved as "keep".

Links to the archived discussions are provided below:

1. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Air France
2. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Alexander Korda
3. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:August Derleth
4. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Average White Band
5. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Bee-eaters
6. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Ben E. King
7. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Benny Goodman
8. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Bill Bryson
9. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Billy Idol
10. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Billy Ocean
11. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Bob Hope
12. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Bobbie Rosenfeld Award
13. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Body piercing
14. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Canton, Michigan
15. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Compostela Group of Universities
16. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Diplo
17. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Diversity of fish
18. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Pebble Beach
19. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Peter, Paul and Mary

Many thanks to those who participated in the discussions.

To watch for future MfD's, keep in mind that the Portals WikiProject is supported by automatic alerts. You can see them at: Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Article alerts: portals for deletion at MfD

Creation criteria

There was also some discussion of creation criteria for portals. The result was that one of the participants in the discussion reverted the portal guidelines to the old version, which has the minimum number of articles for a portal included in there: "about 20 articles", a guideline that was in place since 2009.

Many of the portals that existed prior to April 2018 do not have that many (being limited to however many subpages the portal creator created), and therefore, these portals need to be upgraded to the new design (which automatically provides many articles for display). Using the new design, exceeding 20 articles for display is very easy.

Linking to the new portals

Efforts have been underway to place links to new portals (all 2200 of them created since April).

1. Link (portal button) from corresponding category pages.  Done
2. Link from See also section on corresponding root articles. Partially implemented
3. Link from bottom of corresponding templates. Partially implemented
4. Link for each portal on Portal:Contents/Portals. Partially implemented

Your help is needed. It is easy to access the page mentioned in #1, #2, & #3 from the portals themselves.

AWBers could do these tasks even faster (that's how the category pages were done), except #4...

Item #4 above pretty much has to be done by hand. (If you can find a way to speed that up, I would be very impressed). The links needing placement can be found at Portal talk:Contents/Portals#These are not listed yet. Instructions are included there.

The conversion effort: news sections

There are still around 1200 old-style portals that have only undergone partial conversion to the new design concepts, still relying on subpages with copied/pasted excerpts that have been going stale for years, out of date (manually posted) news entries, etc.

The section currently being tackled on these is news. You can help by deleting any news section on the old-style portals that has news entries that are years old (that is the dead giveaway to a manual news section). Be sure not to delete the news sections of portals that have up-to-date news, or active maintainers. For maintainers, look at the portal's categories, and/or check the participants list at WP:WPPORT.

Eventually, conditional news sections (that appear only when news items are available for display) will be added using AWB to all portals without a news section.

News items (and even the news sections themselves) are automatically generated for portals that were created using the Basic portal start page. On those portals, there is a hidden comment at the top of the page (that you can see in the edit window), that says this:

<!-- This portal was created using subst:Basic portal start page -->

Design development

Presently, we are in the process of implementing the new design features, creating new portals with them, and installing them in existing portals.

But, what about development of new new design features?

We have a wish department.

Post your wishes at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Design#Discussions about possible cool new features, and they might come true. Many have already, and for many of those, this is where they were posted.

Cascade effect

A resource that has been elusive so far will be obtained eventually: categories. That is, the ability to pull category member links to populate a page.

Rather than populate portals directly with such links, it may be more beneficial to the encyclopedia to utilize them in navigation footers, because portals already have the ability to generate themselves based on those.

So, this would create a cascade effect: auto-gathering entries from categories, would enable the construction of new navigation footers, that would in turn support the development of new portals.

The cascade effect would also be felt by existing portals, as existing navigation footers could be expanded using the category harvesting methods, which would in turn expand the coverage of portals that access those navigation footers.

You can help by providing leads about any potential category harvesting methods. Please report anything you know about harvesting categories at WT:WPPORTD. Thank you.

Looking into the future: the quantum portal?

One idea that has been floating around is the concept of a pageless portal. That is, a portal that isn't stored anywhere, instead being generated when you click on a menu item or button.

Many of the new portals were generated by a single click, and then saved via a second click.

Therefore, it seems likely that the portals of the future will employ the one-click concept.

Because of the need for customization by users, this concept would need to be augmented with a way to integrate user contributions. This could be done in at least two ways: posting an existing portal, autogenerating one from scratch if such does not yet exist, or have a special data page for user contributions that is folded into the auto-generated portal.

How soon? That is up to you. All that is needed are persons to implement it.

Until next time...

Keep up the good work on portals. They are improving daily. Thank you.    — The Transhumanist   04:16, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #021, 24 Oct 2018

Portals have passed the 4,000 mark.

More new portals...

Here's a list of portals created since the last issue

Please inspect these portals, report problems or suggest improvements at WT:WPPORTD, or develop them further (see below). Thank you.

What's next?

There is still lots to do...

There are many subject gaps that need to be filled. This can be done by creating new portals, or by adding Selected article sections to existing portals. To create a new portal, simply place {{subst:Basic portal start page}} on an empty portal page, and click "Preview". If the portal is complete, click "Save". After you try it, come share your experience and excitement at WT:WPPORTD.

Each new portal is just a starting point. Each portal of the new design can be further developed by:

• refining the search parameters to improve the results displayed in the Did you know and In the news sections.
• adding more specific Selected articles sections, like Selected biographies.
• inserting a Recognized content section.
• adding more pictures to the image slideshow.
• placing a panoramic picture at the top of the intro section (especially for geographic portals).

Besides the new portals, there are still about 1200 portals of the old design that need to be converted to the new design.

Many portals need to be de-orphaned, by placing links to them (in the See also section of the corresponding root articles, at the bottom of the corresponding navigation footer templates, and on the corresponding category pages).

Many of the new portals still need to be listed at Portal:Contents/Portals.

Bugs keep popping up in portals. These need to be tracked down and reported at WT:WPPORTD.

Tools are needed to make developing and maintaining portals quicker and easier.

Dreaming up new features and capabilities. Innovation needs to continue, to design the portal of tomorrow, and the portal development-maintenance-system of the future. Automation!

So, if you find yourself with a little (or a lot) of free time, pick an area (or more) above and...

...dive in!    — The Transhumanist   07:11, 25 October 2018 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Gravity (software)

The article Gravity (software) has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

Unable to find any reviews, or other references other than the one listed. Non notable software. Fails WP:GNG.

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Whispering 18:31, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Find A Grave edit.

I am really surprised that you removed the edit I put on this topic, and stating that there was not a reliable source for the information. Here is is what I posted and the source:

"Wikipedia does not allow the use of the dates of birth and death inscribed on gravestones pictured on Find A Grave as a source for this information, with certain editors all removing references and their cited source from Wikipedia pages indiscriminately. The organization has unilaterally developed the policy that "Find a Grave is not reliable because it relies on user-generated input without vetting by an editorial body."[27] However, any unreferenced dates of birth and death appear to be completely allowable on any Wikipedia page."

[27] "Template:Find a Grave". Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved November 2, 2018.

What I have quoted is the policy of Wikipedia ("Find a Grave is not reliable because it relies on user-generated input without vetting by an editorial body."), and backed by Wikipedia's own official statements. If that is not a reliable source, then I am afraid that there are no reliable sources available for any statement made and quoted anywhere in the world.

There are editors that will make an assumption based on a source, and not actually investigate the reliability of the source. they just spend hours a day deleting other editors contributions, and make no meaningful contributions of their own. I sincerely hope that you are not one of them. 2602:306:8091:7BB0:20FB:E4C7:F851:26F2 (talk) 01:48, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not considered a reliable source (WP:CIRCULAR) --Auric talk 14:54, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Your are not following Wikipedia guidelines! I quote from WP:CIRCULAR: An exception is allowed when Wikipedia itself is being discussed in the article, which may cite an article, guideline, discussion, statistic, or other content from Wikipedia (or a sister project) to support a statement about Wikipedia. 2602:306:8091:7BB0:8563:CDF0:F154:6C85 (talk) 18:42, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

I see. Well, I won't raise an objection if you decide to put it back. A reliable external source that discusses the problem would be nice, though.--Auric talk 19:22, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for actually taking the time to review the situation. In regard to the problem discussed, there is a very serious problem with some editors that seem to have a vendetta towards certain types of sources, and methodically, without even reviewing the source, delete entire paragraphs that refer to the source. This seems to be a particular problem with using Find A Grave as a basic source, even if the source if the information at Find A Grave is a photo of a grave marker. In contrast, over time I have found numerous references in articles, many of them in error, to birth and death dates that have absolutely no sources cited to back them up. This is a problem, but seems to be allowable (or just ignored), since these dates are never marked for a citation needed, or subject to wholesale removal, as Find A Grave sources seem to be. I actually know of one editor that does almost nothing but delete these references - sometime hundreds of them every day. This user fervently deletes all Find A Grave links she finds in Wikipedia, and now seems to be deleting the information at Wikidata also. The point of quoting sources isn't just reliability, it's being open of the provenance of a statement. Removing data based on sources that an editor doesn't like encourages people to provide no information about where the information they add is coming from. Citing a grave marker directly for what the marker states should be allowable, and can either be replaced when a more reliable source becomes available, and in the mean time can used with a certain amount of caution by the serious reader. 2602:306:8091:7BB0:8563:CDF0:F154:6C85 (talk) 02:57, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #022, 11 Nov 2018

Welcome AmericanAir88

Give a hearty welcome to AmericanAir88, who has adopted working on portals as one of his main purposes on Wikipedia. So far, he has created the following portals:

• Portal:Blueberries
• Portal:Olives
• Portal:Bananas
• Portal:Bone fractures
• Portal:Carbohydrates
• Portal:Cherries
• Portal:Coconuts
• Portal:Hartford Whalers
• Portal:Integumentary system
• Portal:Exercise
• Portal:Fatty acids

Way to go!

Where's Evad?

Evad disappeared from Wikipedia on October 18.

He has been, and will continue to be, sorely missed.

Hopefully, he is okay, on a Caribbean cruise or something.

The conversion continues

Portals of the old design, are slowly but surely being converted to the new single-page design.

One factor that has slowed things down is that for many sections, the section header call and section contents call are integrated into a template and buried in a lua module, locking them in on each portal. They have been that way for years.

This means that these sections can't be directly edited like the other sections on the same portal. So, search/replaces affect all the sections except those. So, upgrading headers on these portals, for example, misses the integrated sections and inadvertently results in 2 different header colors.

Before we can continue with the upgrade of these portals, the headers and section contents calls need to be restored to each portal, so that those can be edited in concert with the other sections on the portal, and worked on independently of each other.

This is underway, with a solution implemented on about 1/4 of the affected portals so far. Around 300 of them. The remaining 900 should be done within a couple weeks or so.

Going wide...

We now have banner-shaped pictures included in the introduction sections of 180 portals. The rarity of such pictures has made it difficult to find suitably narrow images for display across the tops of portals.

We have a solution for this, courtesy of FR30799386...

Most pictures are not banner-shaped. But, you can still use them as banners. Here's how:

{{Portal image banner|File:Blueberries .jpg |maxheight=120px |overflow=Hidden }}

Using both maxheight=120px and overflow=Hidden produces this:

Project's status

There are now 4,140 portals, with more being created almost daily. Prior to this project's reboot, portals were created at about the rate of 80 per year. Since April of this year, we've created about 2,600 new portals, or 32.5 years' worth at the old rate.

Of those new portals, about 3/4 of them need links leading to them. Almost all of them are linked to from the category system, but they still need links in article see also sections, at the bottom of navigation templates, and on the main portals list at Portal:Contents/Portals.

Of the 1500 portals created before the reboot, about 300 have been completely converted to the new design so far. About 1100 more have been partially converted, with intros, image slideshows, and associated wikimedia sections getting the most attention.

Discussion has resumed on the portal guidelines.

Until next issue...

See ya round the portal system!    — The Transhumanist   11:39, 11 November 2018 (UTC)

Portals wikignome task

We need Category:Portals with titles not starting with a proper noun added to the remaining portals it is applicable to.

Differentiating these from capitalized subjects will enable many types of tasks.

I've tried Hotcat to place the category on some of the portals. It is pretty fast.

Thank you.    — The Transhumanist   14:18, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

Roberto McCausland Dieppa. Wikiproject

Hi, I would be happy be a part of a wikiproject on the article

I created the aricle which was declined then a stub was created for it... . I would welcome some advise or mentoring. (Deanna Coakley  18:31, 24 November 2018 (UTC))  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Deanna Coakley (talk • contribs)  

History of the Lurs

Dear Auric, This paper is not related to Arabic at all. There are some problems in citing references but the paper text is well-prepared. Some citations are in Persian format, they will be corrected soon. By the way, thanks for your attention and helps. Best SHADEGAN (talk) 18:22, 24 November 2018 (UTC)

Thanks. I wasn't certain if it was Arabic or Persian.--Auric talk 18:38, 24 November 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #023, 25 Nov 2018

There are now 4,180 portals.

Will we break 5,000 by the end of the year?

I know we can. But, that is up to you!

( New portals are created with {{subst:Basic portal start page}} or {{subst:bpsp}} )

Happy Holidays

Hello everyone! Enjoy the holiday season and winter solstice (if it's occurring in your area of the world), and thanks for your work in maintaining, improving, and expanding portals. Cheers,    — The Transhumanist   06:51, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Season's Greetings}} to send this message

Jingling along

The following portals have been created since the last issue:

1. Advanced Micro Devices
2. Aqua Teen Hunger Force
3. Aquatic ecosystems
4. Blackberries
5. Blade
6. Blake and Mortimer
7. Climate
8. Democratic Party
9. Dua Lipa
10. Eels
11. Eggs
12. Emmy Awards
13. Fallout
14. Flutes and whistles
15. Geophysics
16. Ghost
17. Hartford Whalers
18. HBO
19. Hot sauces
20. International System of Units
21. Jawaharlal Nehru
22. Kendrick Lamar
23. KFC
24. Kingdom of England
25. M.I.A.
26. Marvel Comics
27. Marvel Entertainment
28. Minerals
29. Mixed martial arts
30. Money
31. MTV
32. Museums
33. National Hockey League
34. Natural resources
35. Nature
36. NBC
37. Nehru–Gandhi family
38. Orthoptera
39. PATH
40. Pears
41. Physiology
42. Ponds
43. Pope Francis
44. Potatoes
45. Presidents of the United States
46. Republican Party
47. Salad dressings
48. Santiago
49. Six Flags
50. Stan Lee
51. Starbucks
52. Stem cells
53. Systems of measurement
54. SZA
55. The West Wing
56. Tintin
57. Tomato sauces
58. Tove Lo
59. Viticulture
60. Waffles
61. Wendy's
62. White House
63. Will Smith
64. Winemaking

Keep 'em coming!

By the way, the above list was generated using this Petscan query. It can be easily modified by changing the date. The data page (under the Output tab) also has options for receiving the data in CSV or tabbed format, which some operating systems automatically load into a spreadsheet program for ease of use, such as copying and pasting the desired column (like page names).

In closing

We'll keep it short this issue.

Expect a flood next time. Or the one after that.

Cheerio,    — The Transhumanist   07:34, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Portal counter: 545

It auto-updates. To keep track of where we are at.

5,000, here we come!    — The Transhumanist   08:23, 5 December 2018 (UTC)

Scrith listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Scrith. Since you had some involvement with the Scrith redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. shoy (reactions) 13:30, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Auric! My very best wishes for this holiday season. May your heart and the heart of those around you be filled with happiness during this special time. --Crystallizedcarbon (talk) 09:59, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #024, 26 Dec 2018

Last issue, I mentioned there would be a flood, and so, here it is...

Portals status

We now have 4,620 portals.

And the race to pass 5,000 by year's end is on...

Can we make it?

The New Year, and the 5,001st portal, await.

( New portals are created with {{subst:Basic portal start page}} or {{subst:bpsp}} )

Evad is back!

After disappearing in mid-thread, Evad37 has returned from a longer than expected wikibreak.

Be sure to welcome him back.

Improved cropping is coming to Portal image banner

User:FR30799386 is working on making {{Portal image banner}} even better by enabling it to chop the top off an image as well as the bottom.

Many pictures aren't suitable for banners because they are too tall. Therefor, User:FR30799386 added cropping to this template, so that an editor could specify part of a picture to be used rather than the whole thing.

Upgrade of flagship portals is underway

Work has begun on upgrading Wikipedia's flagship portals (those listed at the top of the Main page).

So far, Portal:Geography, Portal:History, and Portal:Technology have been revamped. Of course, you are welcome to improve them further.

Work continues on the other five. Feel free to join in on the fun.

Spotting missing portals that are redirects

In place of many missing portals, there is a redirect that leads to "the next best topic", such as a parent topic.

Most of these were created before we had the tools to easily create portals (they used to take 6 hours or more to create, because it was all done manually). Rather than leave a portal link red, some editors thought it was best that those titles led somewhere.

The subjects that have sufficient coverage should have their own portals rather than a redirect to some other subject.

Unfortunately, being blue like all other live links, redirects are harder to spot than redlinks.

To spot redirects easily, you can make them all appear green.

Keep 'em coming!

And I'll see you next issue.

Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   08:02, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #025, 30 Dec 2018

We can now crop the tops of pics to make banners

Before, we could only cut off the bottom of pics.

User:FR30799386 has pulled it off, and made the upgrade to {{Portal image banner}}...

So, this:

Niagara falls, from the Canadian side

Becomes this:

Niagara falls, from the Canadian side

Here's the code for the above banner:

{{Portal image banner|File:American Falls from Canadian side in winter.jpg | [[Niagara falls]], from the Canadian side |maxheight=175px |overflow=Hidden|croptop=10}}

To see it employed in a portal, check out Portal:Niagara Falls.

About that end of the year goal...

We were racing against time to create 5,000 portals by the end of the year (just for the heck of it).

We made it. We've passed the 5,000 portals mark, with time to spare!

And the 5,000th portal is Portal:Major League Baseball, by Happypillsjr.

Congratulations!

What's next?

The 10,000th portal mark. But...

...there is plenty else to do in addition to building new portals:

1. The new portals need to be linked to from the encyclopedia.
2. On those portals about subjects that are not typically capitalized, the search parameters need to be refined/expanded, to maximize the chances of Did you know and In the news items being found and displayed.
3. A Recognized content section needs to be added to each portal that has a corresponding WikiProject.
4. Addition of a category on those portals that lack a subject category.
5. Implement the portal category system, adding the appropriate categories to each portal.
6. Upgrade, and complete (as per the tasks enumerated above), the old-style portals that are not regularly maintained, which have not been converted yet (about 1,100 of them).
7. Find and fix the remaining bugs in the underlying lua modules.
8. Build portal tools (scripts) to assist in the creation, development, and maintenance of portals.
9. Build a script to help build navbox footer templates, via the harvesting of categories, amongst other methods.
10. Update the portal building instructions.
11. Update the portal guideline.
12. Refine the programming of the portals to reduce their load time.
13. Design and develop the next generation of portals and portal components.

And whatever else you can dream up.

But most of all, have a...

Happy New Year!

Auric, thank you for your contributions to the Portals Project, and have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year.

Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   12:15, 30 December 2018 (UTC)

redlinks

the see also section should not have redlinks[4]--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 03:21, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

Sorry, I didn't see that until after the revert went through.--Auric talk 03:24, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

it happens...Happy New Year--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 03:38, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

Your draft article, User:Auric/Derek Boote

Hello, Auric. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "Derek Boote".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the {{db-afc}}, {{db-draft}}, or {{db-g13}} code.

If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Mgbo120 (talk) 20:37, 19 January 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #026, 20 Jan 2019

Well, here's the first issue of the new year. Enjoy...

New participants

A hearty welcome to new arrivals to the portals department:

• Emoteplump
• Pakieditor
• CASSIOPEIA
• Venomous Sniper
• DannyS712

Harvesting categories tool prototype

DannyS712 has created a user script prototype, User:DannyS712/Cat links, that can pull members from a category, a functionality we've been after since the project's revamp last Spring. Now, it's a matter of applying this technique to scripts that will place the items where needed, such as with a section starter script and/or portal builder script.

New portals since last issue

1. Academic publishing
2. Accounting
3. Adam and Eve
4. African Great Lakes
5. Al Green
6. Alternative views
7. America's Next Top Model
8. Andaman and Nicobar Islands
9. Angles
10. Applied mathematics
11. Arabic
12. Areas of mathematics
13. Atlanta metropolitan area
14. Atlantic Ocean
15. Big Bash League
16. Bijelo Dugme
17. Bill Cosby
18. Boats
19. Bombardier Aerospace
20. Bruce Willis
21. Canadian law
22. Cannons
23. Caribbean American
24. Chinese American
25. Chinese Canadians
26. Chinese gardens
27. Chris Brown
28. City
29. Common law
30. Criminal law
31. Czechoslovakia
32. Data
33. Data warehouses
34. DC Comics
35. Deities
36. DeKalb County
37. Destiny's Child
38. Differential equations
39. Discrete geometry
40. East Asia
41. Economy of China
42. Economy of India
43. Economy of Malaysia
44. Economy of the United Kingdom
45. Ellen DeGeneres
46. Email clients
47. E
48. Equations
49. European Americans
50. Filipino Americans
51. Football in Algeria
52. Fox Corporation
53. Fractions and ratios
54. Functional analysis
55. Game theory
56. Girlguiding
57. Gloucestershire
58. Grazhdanskaya Oborona
59. Greek diaspora
60. Habsburg Monarchy
61. Hilbert's problems
62. Hoodoo Gurus
63. Hyundai Motor Company
64. Iggy Azalea
65. Indian Ocean
66. Infinity
67. Information theory
68. Integrals
69. Irish diaspora
70. Irrational numbers
71. Italian diaspora
72. Japanese diaspora
73. J. Cole
74. Jennifer Lopez
75. Jessica Lange
76. John Fogerty
77. Kehlani
78. Kiev
79. K. Michelle
80. Knot theory
81. Kool & the Gang
82. Lakes in China
83. Lake Van
84. Leonardo DiCaprio
85. Limerick
86. Literary composition
87. Long Island Rail Road
88. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
89. Lukas Graham
90. Mathematical optimization
91. Matt Damon
92. Merchant ships
93. Metallic means
94. Metro-North Railroad
95. Microsoft Windows
96. Military of India
97. Miss America
98. Modulation
99. Moon landing
100. Mozilla
101. Music of Ireland
102. Narratives
103. Nashville
104. Nassau County
105. Norfolk
106. Nottinghamshire
107. One Life to Live
108. Overseas Chinese
109. Percentages
110. Probability distributions
111. Public Broadcasting Service
112. Quezon City
113. Raven-Symoné
114. R. Kelly
115. Rodeo
116. RuneScape
117. Sarah Silverman
118. Saturn rockets
119. Science and technology
120. Sesame Street
121. Seth MacFarlane
122. Ships
123. Shipwrecks
124. Shropshire
125. Spaceports
126. Space suits
127. Spanish diaspora
128. Steam locomotives
129. Suffolk
130. Suzuki
131. Tanks
132. Tensors
133. The CW
134. Thomas Aquinas
135. T.I.
136. TISM
137. Tom Cruise
138. Toni Braxton
139. Toyota
140. Transportation in the Philippines
141. True Blood
142. Violin
143. Virgin Group
144. Vladimir Putin
145. Volkswagen
146. Volume
147. Warner Bros.
148. Warships
149. Warwickshire
150. Washington D.C.
151. [[Portal:Watercraft|
152. Web syndication
153. Wikis
154. Witchcraft
155. Women's sports
156. World of Warcraft

What else is going on

There have been some discussions at Wikipedia talk:Portal guidelines.

DreamyJazz is working on a bot to place links to portals on root articles, category pages, and navigation footer templates.

Portal bugs are getting dealt with soon after they are reported.

Lots of wikignome activity (using Hotcat, etc.).

Keep up the good work.    — The Transhumanist   09:07, 20 January 2019 (UTC)

Portal:Podcasting

I changed the search from {{PAGENAME}} ("Podcasting") to "podcast", and some items turned up in "Did you know".

The default search only works well with place names and other proper nouns. To make it work for subjects that usually go in small case, we've got to change the search parameters manually.    — The Transhumanist   12:37, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for doing that.--Auric talk 15:06, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #027, 28 Jan 2019

Portal styles

For a visually intensive portal, see Portal:Hummingbirds.

If you find any other portals that stand out, please send me the links so I can include them in the next issue. Thank you.

Conversion continues

There are about 1100 portals left in the old style, with subpages and static excerpts. As those are very labor intensive to maintain (because their maintenance is manual), all those except the ones with active maintainers (about 100) are slated for upgrade = approximately 1000. We started with 1500, and so over a quarter of them have been processed so far. That's good, but at this rate, conversion will take another 3 years. So, some automation (AWB?) is in order. We just need to keep at it, and push down on the gas pedal a bit harder.

You can find the old-style portals with an insource search of "box portal skeleton".

Flagship portals: the portals on the Main Page

Speaking of upgrades...

The following portals are listed in the header at the top of Wikipedia's Main Page, and get far more traffic than all other portals:

1. Portal:Arts
2. Portal:Biography
3. Portal:Geography
4. Portal:History
5. Portal:Mathematics
6. Portal:Science
7. Portal:Society
8. Portal:Technology

Of those, all but one have been revamped to an automated self-updating single-page design.

The remaining one, Portal:Mathematics has manual maintainers, and has been partially upgraded.

As these are our flagship fleet, they need to be kept in top-notch condition.

Check 'em out, and improve them if you can.

And be sure they are on your watchlist.

New portals since last issue

• Accomack County
• Adair County
• Adair County
• Adams County
• Adidas
• Airbus
• Americas
• Bangladesh Armed Forces
• Bedfordshire
• Bicycles
• Boeing
• Chester County
• Conspiracy theories
• Corals
• County Durham
• Culture of the United States
• DC Universe
• Dragons
• Economy of Pakistan
• Electricity
• Ethnic groups
• European Union law
• Fatimid Caliphate
• Flanders
• Frederick County
• Fujian
• German language
• Global issues
• Greek mathematics
• Grisons
• Guangxi
• Hebei
• Henan
• Herefordshire
• History of North America
• Hollywood
• Hubei
• Hunan
• Hybrid
• Inner Mongolia
• Jet engines
• Jiangsu
• Johor
• Johor Bahru
• Julius Caesar
• Kuala Lumpur
• Lake Constance
• Lee Kuan Yew
• Lufthansa
• Lunar eclipses
• Magnetism
• Menstrual cycle
• Mustelids
• Mutations
• New York University
• Nord-du-Québec
• North Africa
• PepsiCo
• Pitcairn Islands
• Podcasting
• Quantum electrodynamics
• Quantum mechanics
• Rawalpindi
• Réunion
• Roads in Pakistan
• Rockefeller Center
• Sichuan
• St. Gallen
• State University of New York
• Temperature
• Tsunamis
• Veterinary medicine
• Vorarlberg
• Walgreens
• Walmart
• Weasels
• Xinjiang
• Yunnan

Keep 'em coming!

Deorphanizing the new portals

As you know, thousands of the new portals are orphans, that is, having no links to them from article space. For all practical purposes, that means they are not part of the encyclopedia yet, and readers will be unlikely to find them.

What is needed are links to these portals from the See also sections of the corresponding root articles.

Dreamy Jazz to the rescue...

Dreamy Jazz has created a bot to place the corresponding category link to the end of each portal (if it is missing), and place a link to each portal in the See also section of the corresponding root articles.

That bot, named User:Dreamy Jazz Bot, is currently in its trial period performing the above described edits!

To take a look at the edits it has made so far, see Special:Contributions/Dreamy_Jazz_Bot.

It shouldn't be long before the bot is processing the entire set of new portals.

Good news indeed.

Way to go, Dreamy Jazz!

And, that's a wrap

That's all I have to report this time around.

No doubt there will be more to tell soon.

Until then,    — The Transhumanist   13:09, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #028, 04 Feb 2019

Here's a quicky status report:

Old-style portals: 1,018

Single-page portals: 4,367

Total portals: 5,385

But of course, there has been more going on than just that...

Dreamy Jazz Bot is up and running!

Dreamy Jazz Bot has been approved and is now up and running.

What it does is places missing links to orphaned portals. It places a link in the See also section of the corresponding root article, and it puts one at the top of the corresponding category page.

We have thousands of new portals that have yet to be added to the encyclopedia proper, just waiting to go live.

When they do go live, over the coming days or weeks, due to Dreamy Jazz Bot, it will be like an explosion of new portals on the scene. We should expect an increase in awareness and interest in the portals project. Perhaps even new participants.

Get ready...

Get set...

Go!

Another sockpuppet infiltrator has been discovered

User:Emoteplump, a recent contributor to the portals project, was discovered to be a sockpuppet account of an indefinitely blocked user.

When that happens, admins endeavor to eradicate everything the editor contributed. This aftermath has left a wake of destruction throughout the portals department, again.

The following portals which have been speedy deleted, are in the process of being re-created. Please feel free to help to turn these blue again:

• Portal:Adidas
• Portal:AFC Asian Cup
• Portal:Airbus
• Portal:Anhui
• Portal:Bicycles
• Portal:Blue Cheese
• Portal:Boeing
• Portal:British Airways
• Portal:Carcinogen
• Portal:ComfortDelGro
• Portal:Construction
• Portal:Corals
• Portal:Cross-Strait relations
• Portal:Derry
• Portal:Duke University
• Portal:Electricity
• Portal:Ethnic groups
• Portal:Extraterrestrial life
• Portal:Flanders
• Portal:Fujian
• Portal:Gansu
• Portal:German language
• Portal:Gordon Ramsay
• Portal:Government of Australia
• Portal:Government of Canada
• Portal:Government of Hong Kong
• Portal:Government of Indonesia
• Portal:Government of Ireland
• Portal:Government of Japan
• Portal:Government of Malaysia
• Portal:Government of Russia
• Portal:Government of Singapore
• Portal:Government of Spain
• Portal:Government of Thailand
• Portal:Government of the United Kingdom
• Portal:Government of Ukraine
• Portal:Grapes
• Portal:Guangxi
• Portal:Guizhou
• Portal:Hasbro
• Portal:Hebei
• Portal:Heilongjiang
• Portal:Henan
• Portal:Hillary Clinton
• Portal:History of art
• Portal:History of North America
• Portal:History of Thailand
• Portal:Hollywood
• Portal:Hubei
• Portal:Hunan
• Portal:Hybrid (biology)
• Portal:Hydrogen
• Portal:Imperial College London
• Portal:Inner Mongolia
• Portal:Japan Airlines
• Portal:Jet engines
• Portal:Jet Engines
• Portal:Jiangsu
• Portal:Jiangxi
• Portal:Jilin
• Portal:Johor Bahru
• Portal:Julius Caesar
• Portal:JYP Entertainment
• Portal:Kedah
• Portal:Kelantan
• Portal:Kuala Lumpur
• Portal:Labuan
• Portal:Lee Kuan Yew
• Portal:Liaoning
• Portal:Lufthansa
• Portal:Magnetism
• Portal:McLaren
• Portal:Menstrual cycle
• Portal:Monash University
• Portal:Mutations
• Portal:Nanyang Technological University
• Portal:National University of Singapore
• Portal:Negeri Sembilan
• Portal:Nestlé
• Portal:Nike, Inc.
• Portal:Ningxia
• Portal:Nissan
• Portal:North Africa
• Portal:North Pole
• Portal:Pahang
• Portal:Penang
• Portal:PepsiCo
• Portal:Perak
• Portal:Perlis
• Portal:Qinghai
• Portal:Quantum electrodynamics
• Portal:Quantum mechanics
• Portal:S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Portal:Selangor
• Portal:Shanxi
• Portal:Sichuan
• Portal:SM Entertainment
• Portal:South Pole
• Portal:Subway (restaurant)
• Portal:Temperature
• Portal:Terengganu
• Portal:Uber
• Portal:Veterinary medicine
• Portal:Volvo Buses
• Portal:Walgreens
• Portal:Walmart
• Portal:Xinjiang
• Portal:Yahoo!
• Portal:Yale University
• Portal:YG Entertainment
• Portal:Yunnan
• Portal:Zhejiang

And the corresponding talk pages:

• Portal talk:Adidas
• Portal talk:Airbus
• Portal talk:Bicycles
• Portal talk:Boeing
• Portal talk:Carcinogen
• Portal talk:Corals
• Portal talk:Duke University
• Portal talk:Electricity
• Portal talk:Ethnic groups
• Portal talk:Flanders
• Portal talk:Fujian
• Portal talk:German language
• Portal talk:Girls' Generation
• Portal talk:Government of Australia
• Portal talk:Government of Canada
• Portal talk:Government of Hong Kong
• Portal talk:Government of Indonesia
• Portal talk:Government of Ireland
• Portal talk:Government of Japan
• Portal talk:Government of Malaysia
• Portal talk:Government of Russia
• Portal talk:Government of Singapore
• Portal talk:Government of Spain
• Portal talk:Government of Thailand
• Portal talk:Government of the United Kingdom
• Portal talk:Government of Ukraine
• Portal talk:Grapes
• Portal talk:Guangxi
• Portal talk:Hebei
• Portal talk:Henan
• Portal talk:Hillary Clinton
• Portal talk:History of art
• Portal talk:Hollywood
• Portal talk:Hubei
• Portal talk:Hunan
• Portal talk:Hybrid (biology)
• Portal talk:Imperial College London
• Portal talk:Inner Mongolia
• Portal talk:Jet engines
• Portal talk:Jet Engines
• Portal talk:Jiangsu
• Portal talk:Johor Bahru
• Portal talk:Julius Caesar
• Portal talk:JYP Entertainment
• Portal talk:Kuala Lumpur
• Portal talk:Lee Kuan Yew
• Portal talk:Lufthansa
• Portal talk:Magnetism
• Portal talk:Menstrual cycle
• Portal talk:Monash University
• Portal talk:Mutations
• Portal talk:Nanyang Technological University
• Portal talk:National University of Singapore
• Portal talk:Nike, Inc.
• Portal talk:North Africa
• Portal talk:PepsiCo
• Portal talk:Quantum electrodynamics
• Portal talk:Quantum mechanics
• Portal talk:Sichuan
• Portal talk:SM Entertainment
• Portal talk:Subway (restaurant)
• Portal talk:Temperature
• Portal talk:Veterinary medicine
• Portal talk:Walgreens
• Portal talk:Walmart
• Portal talk:Xinjiang
• Portal talk:Yale University
• Portal talk:YG Entertainment
• Portal talk:Yunnan

New portals since the last issue

• Portal:American_Horror_Story
• Portal:Bad_Religion
• Portal:Bicycles
• Portal:British_Airways
• Portal:Campania
• Portal:Ciara
• Portal:Derry
• Portal:Extraterrestrial_life
• Portal:Fujian
• Portal:Guangxi
• Portal:Imperial_College_London
• Portal:Islamic_Golden_Age
• Portal:Ivy_Queen
• Portal:Japan_Airlines
• Portal:Japanese_language
• Portal:Kate_Ceberano
• Portal:Labuan
• Portal:LL_Cool_J
• Portal:New_York_City_Police_Department
• Portal:Penang
• Portal:PepsiCo
• Portal:Perak
• Portal:Perlis
• Portal:Politics_of_Ukraine
• Portal:Quantum_mechanics
• Portal:Salads
• Portal:Selangor
• Portal:Shaquille_O'Neal
• Portal:South_Pole
• Portal:Supermarket
• Portal:Temperature
• Portal:Terengganu
• Portal:The_Fairly_OddParents
• Portal:The_Incredibles
• Portal:Vassar_College
• Portal:Voivod_(band)
• Portal:Yu-Gi-Oh!

Keep up the great work

Until next time,    — The Transhumanist   08:58, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

February 2019

Hi Auric,

"Parvatii Nair" - whom the wiki page is about, has informed me that there are three movies in her filmography in which she didn't act. The source is not accurate. She was offered the film, but later backed out. These movies are as follows:

1)Nimirndhu Nil 2014 Indira Tamil Cameo appearance 2)Janda Pai Kapiraju 2015 Vandhana Telugu Cameo appearance 3)Maalai Naerathu Mayakkam 2016 Kamini Tamil

Hence, I deleted those from her filmography.

These are shady films, having them in her filmography is damaging to her reputation. Hence I deleted them.

Can you go ahead and remove the content.

Thanks Markbulb (talk) 19:21, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

I can confidently say that Parvatii didn't act in those films. Willing to submit the required proof. Having those films in her filmography is a clear case of defamation and according to Wikipedia law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Libel,

Can you please remove it.

Thanks

Markbulb (talk) 19:56, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

Hello, I'm Auric. I noticed that you recently removed content from Parvatii Nair without adequately explaining why. In the future, it would be helpful to others if you described your changes to Wikipedia with an accurate edit summary. If this was a mistake, don't worry; the removed content has been restored. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks. Auric talk 17:49, 5 February 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Markbulb (talk • contribs)

I'm afraid I can't see that having those films in her filmography is "a clear case of defamation"? I've started a conversation at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard § Reliability of Indian news sources.--Auric talk 21:32, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #029, 13 Feb 2019

Where we are at:

Single-page portals: 4,704

Total portals: 5,705

The Ref desks survived the proposal to shut them down

You might be familiar with the Ref desks, by their link on every new portal. They are a place you can go to ask volunteers almost any knowledge-related question, and have been a feature of Wikipedia since August of 2005 (or perhaps earlier). They were linked to from portals in an effort to improve their visibility, and to provide a bridge from the encyclopedia proper to project space (the Wikipedia community).

Well, somebody proposed that we get rid of them, and the community decided that that was not going to happen. Thank you for defending the Ref desks!

Here's a link to the dramatic discussion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)/Indefinitely_semiprotecting_the_refdesk#Proposal_II:_Shut_down_the_Ref_Desks

The cleanup after sockpuppet Emoteplump continues...

The wake of disruption left by Emoteplump and the admins who reverted many (but not all) of his/her edits is still undergoing cleanup. We could use all the help we can get on this task...

Almost all of the speedy deleted portals have been rebuilt from scratch.

For the portals he/she restarted (many of which were done mistakenly, overwriting restarts and further development that had already been done), and/or tagged as the maintainer, see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Emoteplump&oldid=881568794#Additional_Portals_under_my_watch

10,000 portals, here we come...

We're at 5,705 portals and counting.

New portals since issue #28

1. Portal:Abitibi-Témiscamingue
2. Portal:Ahold Delhaize
3. Portal:AKB48
4. Portal:Åland Islands
5. Portal:Alaska Airlines
6. Portal:Albanian Civil War
7. Portal:Albertsons
8. Portal:Alevism
9. Portal:All in the Family
10. Portal:Alternative metal
11. Portal:Ambient music
12. Portal:Ancient Near East mythology
13. Portal:Ancient Roman religion
14. Portal:Andrew Cuomo
15. Portal:Anti-consumerism
16. Portal:Antimatter
17. Portal:Arameans
18. Portal:Arianism
19. Portal:Australian Crawl
20. Portal:Bali
21. Portal:Banten
22. Portal:Bengkulu
23. Portal:Black Lives Matter
24. Portal:Bluegrass music
25. Portal:Bonnie Tyler
26. Portal:Breakbeat
27. Portal:Calypso music
28. Portal:Cambridgeshire
29. Portal:Camila Cabello
30. Portal:Capcom
31. Portal:Capsicum
32. Portal:Celtic music
33. Portal:Central American music
34. Portal:Central Java
35. Portal:Central Kalimantan
36. Portal:Central Sulawesi
37. Portal:Chanel
38. Portal:Cinema of Australia
39. Portal:Cognitive psychology
40. Portal:Communication studies
41. Portal:Conservatism in the United States
42. Portal:Cortina d'Ampezzo
43. Portal:Cross-Strait relations
44. Portal:Cryptozoology
45. Portal:Danish folk music
46. Portal:Disco
47. Portal:Dyslexia
48. Portal:East Java
49. Portal:East Kalimantan
50. Portal:East Nusa Tenggara
51. Portal:Easy listening
52. Portal:Ed Sheeran
53. Portal:Ehime
54. Portal:Electricity
55. Portal:Electronica
56. Portal:Electronic rock
57. Portal:English folk music
58. Portal:Environmental technology
59. Portal:Experimental music
60. Portal:Extreme metal
61. Portal:Fall Out Boy
62. Portal:Finnish Defence Forces
63. Portal:Finnish folk music
64. Portal:Football in Croatia
65. Portal:Football in Jordan
66. Portal:Funk
67. Portal:Gamelan
68. Portal:General Mills
69. Portal:Germanic languages
70. Portal:German language
71. Portal:Government of Canada
72. Portal:Government of Hong Kong
73. Portal:Government of Indonesia
74. Portal:Government of Ireland
75. Portal:Government of Malaysia
76. Portal:Government of Russia
77. Portal:Government of Singapore
78. Portal:Government of Spain
79. Portal:Government of Thailand
80. Portal:Grapes
81. Portal:Green Party of the United States
82. Portal:Grinspoon
83. Portal:Gwen Stefani
84. Portal:Hardcore punk
85. Portal:Hardcore techno
86. Portal:Haskell (programming language)
87. Portal:History of art
88. Portal:History of North America
89. Portal:History of Thailand
90. Portal:Hollywood
91. Portal:Hotels
92. Portal:House music
93. Portal:Hungarian folk music
94. Portal:Hunters & Collectors
95. Portal:Hydrogen
96. Portal:Icelandic folk music
97. Portal:Indigenous music of North America
98. Portal:Insomniac Games
99. Portal:International field hockey
100. Portal:International trade
101. Portal:Iranian music
102. Portal:Islamophobia
103. Portal:Jambi
104. Portal:Jet engines
105. Portal:Jordin Sparks
106. Portal:Julius Caesar
107. Portal:Kannur
108. Portal:Kansas City Spurs
109. Portal:Kelly Rowland
110. Portal:Kirby
111. Portal:Kraft Heinz
112. Portal:Krasnoyarsk Krai
113. Portal:Kroger
114. Portal:Kuala Lumpur
115. Portal:Lampung
116. Portal:Larry Kramer
117. Portal:LeBron James
118. Portal:Lehigh Valley
119. Portal:Leicestershire
120. Portal:Liège
121. Portal:Liguria
122. Portal:Los Angeles Aztecs
123. Portal:Los Angeles Wolves
124. Portal:Macedonian language
125. Portal:Magnetism
126. Portal:Maithripala Sirisena
127. Portal:Maluku (province)
128. Portal:Mangoes
129. Portal:Marco Pierre White
130. Portal:McLaren
131. Portal:Menstrual cycle
132. Portal:Metalcore
133. Portal:Miami FC
134. Portal:Microblogging
135. Portal:Microtonal music
136. Portal:Midnight Oil
137. Portal:Minnesota Kicks
138. Portal:Mission: Impossible
139. Portal:Modernism (music)
140. Portal:Moheener Ghoraguli
141. Portal:Mondelez International
142. Portal:Music genres
143. Portal:Music of Bangladesh
144. Portal:Music of India
145. Portal:Music of Italy
146. Portal:Music of Japan
147. Portal:Music of Korea
148. Portal:Music of Latin America
149. Portal:Music of Micronesia
150. Portal:Music of North Africa
151. Portal:Music of Pakistan
152. Portal:Music of Serbia
153. Portal:Music of the Philippines
154. Portal:Music of the United States
155. Portal:Mutations
156. Portal:National Rugby League
157. Portal:Neoclassicism (music)
158. Portal:Netball
159. Portal:New York City Fire Department
160. Portal:Nick Jr.
161. Portal:Nobility
162. Portal:Nordic countries
163. Portal:North Africa
164. Portal:North Kalimantan
165. Portal:North Maluku
166. Portal:North Pole
167. Portal:North Queensland
168. Portal:North Sulawesi
169. Portal:North Sumatra
170. Portal:Norwegian folk music
171. Portal:Papua (province)
172. Portal:Peaches
173. Portal:Politics of Abkhazia
174. Portal:Politics of Afghanistan
175. Portal:Politics of Albania
176. Portal:Politics of Algeria
177. Portal:Politics of Andorra
178. Portal:Politics of Angola
179. Portal:Politics of Antigua and Barbuda
180. Portal:Politics of Argentina
181. Portal:Politics of Artsakh
182. Portal:Politics of Bahrain
183. Portal:Politics of Bangladesh
184. Portal:Politics of Bavaria
185. Portal:Politics of Belarus
186. Portal:Politics of Belgium
187. Portal:Politics of Belize
188. Portal:Politics of Benin
189. Portal:Politics of Bhutan
190. Portal:Politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina
191. Portal:Politics of Botswana
192. Portal:Politics of Brazil
193. Portal:Politics of Brunei
194. Portal:Politics of Bulgaria
195. Portal:Politics of Burkina Faso
196. Portal:Politics of Burundi
197. Portal:Politics of Cambodia
198. Portal:Politics of Cameroon
199. Portal:Politics of China
200. Portal:Politics of São Tomé and Príncipe
201. Portal:Politics of South Sudan
202. Portal:Politics of Sudan
203. Portal:Politics of Tanzania
204. Portal:Politics of the Republic of the Congo
205. Portal:Politics of Togo
206. Portal:Politics of Tunisia
207. Portal:Politics of Uganda
208. Portal:Pop rock
209. Portal:Rap rock
210. Portal:Ras Al Khaimah
211. Portal:Riau
212. Portal:Riau Islands
213. Portal:Ricky Martin
214. Portal:Royal Canadian Air Force
215. Portal:Rutland
216. Portal:Saxophones
217. Portal:Semiotics
218. Portal:Ska
219. Portal:Soca music
220. Portal:Soul music
221. Portal:Sound sculptures
222. Portal:Southeast Sulawesi
223. Portal:South Kalimantan
224. Portal:South Sulawesi
225. Portal:South Sumatra
226. Portal:Space: 1999
227. Portal:Special Region of Yogyakarta
228. Portal:Swedish folk music
229. Portal:Tamil language
230. Portal:Techno
231. Portal:Terry Brooks
232. Portal:The Living End
233. Portal:Thrissur
234. Portal:Trance music
235. Portal:Tyrant flycatchers
236. Portal:Veterinary medicine
237. Portal:Wayanad
238. Portal:Welsh folk music
239. Portal:West Champaran district
240. Portal:Western dress codes
241. Portal:West Flanders
242. Portal:West Java
243. Portal:West Kalimantan
244. Portal:West Nusa Tenggara
245. Portal:West Papua (province)
246. Portal:West Sulawesi
247. Portal:West Sumatra
248. Portal:Wildlife of India
249. Portal:Wildlife of Nepal
250. Portal:Windows 10
251. Portal:Winter War
252. Portal:Woodpeckers
253. Portal:Worcestershire
254. Portal:World economy
255. Portal:World Ocean
256. Portal:World Rally Championship
257. Portal:World views
258. Portal:XTC
259. Portal:Yahoo!
260. Portal:Yoruba people
261. Portal:You Am I
262. Portal:Young Wizards
263. Portal:Yugoslavs

Prior to 2018, for the previous 14 years, portal creation was at about 80 portals per year on average. We did over 3 times that in just the past 9 days. At this rate, we'll hit the 10,000 portal mark in 5 months. But, I'm sure we can do it sooner than that.

What's next for portal pages?

There are 5 drives for portal development:

1. Create new portals
2. Expand existing portals, such as with new sections like Recognized content
3. Convert or restart old-style portals into automated single-page portals
4. Link to new portals from the encyclopedia
5. Pageless portals

Let's take a closer look at these...

1: Creating new portals

Portal creation, for subjects that happen to have the necessary support structures already in place, is down to about a minute per portal. The creation part, which is automated, takes about 10 seconds. The other 50 seconds is taken up by manual activities, such as finding candidate subjects, inspecting generated portals, and selecting the portal creation template to be used according to the resources available. Tools are under development to automate these activities as much as possible, to pare portal creation time down even more. Ten seconds each is the goal.

Eventually, we are going to run out of navigation templates to base portals off of. Though there are still thousands to go. But, when they do run out, we'll need an easy way to create more. A nav footer creation script.

Meanwhile, other resources are being explored and developed, such as categories, and methods to harvest the links they contain.

2: Expanding existing portals

The portal collection is growing, not only by the addition of new portals, but by further developing the ones we already have, by...

• Improving and/or adding search parameters to better power the Did you know and In the news sections.
• Adding more selected content sections, like Selected biographies.
• Adding and maintaining Recognized content sections, via JL-Bot.
• Adding pictures to the image slideshow.
• Adding panoramic pics.
• Categorizing portals.

More features will be added as we dream them up and design them. So, don't be shy, make a wish.

3: Converting old portals

By far the hardest and most time-consuming task we have been working on is updating the old portals, the very reason we revamped this WikiProject in the first place.

There are two approaches here:

A) Restart a portal from scratch, using our automated tools. For basic no-frills portals, that works find. But, for more elaborate portals, as that tends to lose content and features, the following approach is being tried...

B) Upgrade a portal section by section, so little to nothing is lost in the process.

4: Linking to new portals

Or "portal deorphanization"...

Dreamy Jazz Bot is purring along.

And a tool in the form of a script is under development for linking to portals at the time they are created, or shortly thereafter.

5...

See below...

New WikiProject for the post-saved-portal phase of operations...

Saved portals, are portals with a saved page.

What is the next stage in the evolutionary progression?

Quantum portals.

What are quantum portals?

Portals that come into existence when you click on the portal button, and which disappear when you leave the page.

Or, as Pbsouthwood put it:

...portals that exist only as a probability function (algorithm) until you collapse the wave form by observing through the portal button (run the script), and disappear again after use...

Introducing...

Wikipedia:WikiProject Quantum portals (see it's talk page).

Keep on keepin' on

...'til next time,    — The Transhumanist   10:17, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Nomination of Tamara Hoover for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Tamara Hoover is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tamara Hoover until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Mccapra (talk) 01:35, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #030, 17 Mar 2019

Previous issue:

Single-page portals: 4,704

Total portals: 5,705

This issue:

Single-page portals: 4,562

Total portals: 5,578

The collection of portals has shrunk

All Portals closed at WP:MfD during 2019

Grouped Nominations total 127 Portals:

1. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/US County Portals Deleted 64 portals
2. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Districts of India Portals Deleted 30 Portals
3. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portals for Portland, Oregon neighborhoods Deleted 23 Portals
4. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Allen Park, Michigan Deleted 6 Portals
5. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Cryptocurrency Deleted 2 Portals
6. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:North Pole Deleted 2 Portals

Individual Nominations:

1. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Circles Deleted
2. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Fruits Deleted
3. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:E (mathematical constant) Deleted
4. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Burger King Deleted
5. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Cotingas Deleted
6. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Prostitution in Canada Deleted
7. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Agoura Hills, California Deleted
8. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Urinary system Deleted
9. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:You Am I Deleted
10. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Cannabis (2nd nomination) Reverted to non-Automated version
11. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Intermodal containers Deleted
12. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Adventure travel Deleted
13. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Adam Ant Deleted
14. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Benito Juárez, Mexico City Deleted
15. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Spaghetti Deleted
16. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Wikiatlas Deleted
17. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Greek alphabet Deleted
18. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Deleted
19. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Accounting Deleted G7
20. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Lents, Portland, Oregon Deleted P2
21. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Ankaran Deleted
22. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Jiu-jitsu Deleted G8
23. Portal:University of Nebraska Speedy Deleted P1/A10 exactly the same as Portal:University of Nebraska–Lincoln also created by the TTH

Related WikiProject:

1. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Quantum portals Demoted

(Attribution: Copied from Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#Portal MfD Results)

WikiProject Quantum portals

This was a spin-off from WikiProject Portals, for the purpose of developing zero-page portals (portals generated on-the-screen at the push of a button, with no stored pages).

It has been merged back into WikiProject Portals. In the MfD the vote was "demote". See Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Quantum portals.

Hiatus on mass creation of Portals

At WP:VPR, mass creation of Portals using semi-automated tools has been put on hold until clearer community consensus is established.

See Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Hiatus on mass creation of Portals.

The Transhumanist banned from creating new portals for 3 months

See Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#Proposal 1: Interim Topic-Ban on New Portals.

Until next issue...

Keep on keepin' on.    — The Transhumanist   09:38, 17 March 2019 (UTC)

You edited my Userpage

Hello there. I just noticed that you added the {{clear}} template to my userpage. I don't know much about it. What does it mean? And why did you decide to add it? GOLDIEM J (talk) 16:56, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

I added it because I noticed that the header you used was smushed up into a place where it wasn't completely visible. Adding that template makes it show up.--Auric talk 22:22, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

Thanks!

Re: List of lakes of New Zealand - I did a global replace to fix a problem then realised that it would affect the citations and went back and fixed them by hand. Unfortunately I must have missed some (which is why there were some "of"s which should have been "="s). Thanks for fixing my mess :) Grutness...wha? 02:14, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

For your good work.

		A glass of Thandai for you
		Here is a glass of Thandai for you. Thandai is a traditional Indian cold drink prepared with a mixture of almonds, fennel seeds, watermelon kernels, rose petals, pepper, vetiver seeds, cardamom, saffron, milk and sugar. For fixing the Hindi text at Chowkidar Chor Hai Thank you. DBigXrayᗙ 15:18, 27 March 2019 (UTC) For more Indian dishes, visit the Kitchen of WikiProject India.

Welcome to Night Vale #145

Hi! Thank you for your tireless efforts. The band as named on the podcast audio is Windows to the Sky but it is properly just "Windows to Sky". (WindowstoSky.com)

WTNV did get the name corrected in its printed references, just not in Meg's voiceover (so far). Also, the song is properly "No-Good Day", with a hyphen.  :)

I don't know how to edit properly and I didn't want to change your post in a way that others might edit back thinking I was the wrong one.

Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.175.202.45 (talk) 21:29, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Consensus

What is that word for you? Am i part of that consensus thing? Did i agree on anything being published about me. Ask me. The name i am bringing which is my family name is part of history of my ancestrals. You dont even know my family background. Dont publish anything wherein you dont know some of the truth in it. Like the article about University of the East you dont know the truth behind it. Like i resigned oh my. Did you know the truth behind it. Did i really resigned. Because its being read by many enthusiast in wikpedia all over the world. I hope you understand my stand point of view. I like wikpedia. Francis John Patrick M. Vicente (talk) 17:02, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Portal:Young Wizards

Portal:Young Wizards, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Young Wizards and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Portal:Young Wizards during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Fram (talk) 11:33, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Portal:Ghost (Swedish band)

Portal:Ghost (Swedish band), a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Ghost (Swedish band) and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Portal:Ghost (Swedish band) during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Legacypac (talk) 08:54, 14 April 2019 (UTC)

MfD nomination of 7 portals created by you

Portal:Stan Lee and 6 other portals created by you, have been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/8 more single-page-copy portals and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of these portals during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 23:47, 14 April 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for your review

I do appreciate your review on my sandbox Aric, I appreciate the adjusted image, would also call on you for a final review when I'm done before submitting. I do hope you assist in the review when I call to increase the chances of the approval. Thanks alot

Ohanwe Emmanuel .I. (talk) 17:51, 21 April 2019 (UTC)

MfD nomination of your Portal

Note. A portal which you created or substantially contributed to has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are most welcome and can participate in the discussion by adding your feedback at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Mixed bag of group portals. You are free to edit the content of the portal during the discussion, but you should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page. Such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you, –MJL ‐Talk‐^☖ 00:18, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Portal:Blake and Mortimer

Portal:Blake and Mortimer, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Blake and Mortimer and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Portal:Blake and Mortimer during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Legacypac (talk) 21:58, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

Nomination of Istvan Gaal (soccer) for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Istvan Gaal (soccer) is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Istvan Gaal (soccer) until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. BlameRuiner (talk) 10:28, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Portal:H. P. Lovecraft

Portal:H. P. Lovecraft, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:H. P. Lovecraft and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Portal:H. P. Lovecraft during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Legacypac (talk) 13:59, 24 April 2019 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Portal:H. P. Lovecraft

Portal:H. P. Lovecraft, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:H. P. Lovecraft (2nd nomination) and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Portal:H. P. Lovecraft during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Legacypac (talk) 15:05, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

two deleted cover images on my Wikipedia pages

Hi Auric,

How are you today? Great, I hope.

Will you please restore the two images on my Wikipedia pages that were removed moments ago. Neither picture is self-serving, but rather serves the read with a strong, accurate impression of the mood, tone, and general influence of the novel. Much objective, sensible, restrained work went into creating these covers so that they support the literature rather than promote it, so that they factually and genuinely represent it and contribute too numerous pages and wide topics dealing with the entire range of human knowledge.

Incidentally, the cover image of Ugly To Start With has been up on the John Michael Cummings page for more than a week.

The cover image of Don't Forget Me, Bro, was put up an hour ago.14:39, 26 April 2019 (UTC)14:39, 26 April 2019 (UTC)~~

The purpose of the images and, in fact, the entire page is to inform the public of good literature fostered by university professors and other writers. Personally, I am, in my opinion, a vehicle of language, not a writer promoting or selling my work on this respectable, ethical site.

Will you please consider restoring the two cover images.

I would be very thankful.

I hope you have a great day - and thank you for your help.

Kindly, — Preceding unsigned comment added by LankyKeller (talk • contribs) 14:39, 26 April 2019 (UTC)

I had nothing to do with that. You should contact LakesideMiners (talk · contribs) instead.--Auric talk 14:50, 26 April 2019 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Portal:Tintin

Portal:Tintin, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Tintin and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Portal:Tintin during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 22:15, 29 April 2019 (UTC)

making my Wikipedia page acceptable to standards

Dear Auric:

It is so very important to me that I get my page presented acceptably for Wikipedia as soon as possible. I earn a small living from writing and need my Wikipedia page free of negative tags. I have read the material suggested to me and cannot get a sense of where the line between objective fact and subjective information is drawn.

My Wikipedia page was created by middle school teachers some years back. I had toured my home state of West Virginia, and many favored my debut novel. They were enthusiastic about the advent of Wikipedia and took it upon themselves to create my page.

Since then, I have added material, feathering it in to theirs and largely matching their tone. Apparently, I have now made mistakes.

I have poor ability using Wikipedia to communicate with you; I am old school when it comes to sending messages; email is the best I can do.

Will you please take understanding and compassion upon me and help me make my page acceptable. I have worked my heart to the bone as a writer, having no running start in life at writing or, as a result, happiness.

May I earnestly and respectfully ask that you please softly edit my page for me, as you obviously have the knowledge and ability.

I would be very thankful.

Thank you very much,

John Michael Cummings — Preceding unsigned comment added by LankyKeller (talk • contribs) 17:46, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

LankyKeller - Please refer to the response I've left you on this page. Going to multiple editors and asking for the same thing isn't going to result in assistance coming to you any faster; it will annoy other editors when they see that you're doing this, and they'll be much less willing to offer any kind of help. Please see my response at the link provided, and it will provide you with the assistance that you need. Thanks :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 18:02, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #031, 01 May 2019

Back to the drawing board

Implementation of the new portal design has been culled back almost completely, and the cull is still ongoing. The cull has also affected portals that existed before the development of the automated design.

Some of the reasons for the purge are:

• Portals receive insufficient traffic, making it a waste of editor resources to maintain them, especially for narrow-scope or "micro" portals
• The default {{bpsp}} portals are redundant with the corresponding articles, being based primarily on the corresponding navigation footer displayed on each of those articles, and therefore not worth separate pages to do so
• They were mass created

Most of the deletions have been made without prejudice to recreation of curated portals, so that approval does not need to be sought at Deletion Review in those cases.

In addition to new portals being deleted, most of the portals that were converted to an automated design have been reverted.

Which puts us back to portals with manually selected content, that need to be maintained by hand, for the most part, for the time being, and back facing some of the same problems we had when we were at this crossroads before:

• Manually maintained portals are not scalable (they are labor intensive, and there aren't very many editors available to maintain them)
• The builders/maintainers tend to eventually abandon them
• Untended handcrafted portals go stale and fall into disrepair over time

These and other concepts require further discussion. See you at WT:POG.

However, after the purge/reversion is completed, some of the single-page portals might be left, due to having acceptable characteristics (their design varied some). If so, then those could possibly be used as a model to convert and/or build more, after the discussions on portal creation and design guidelines have reached a community consensus on what is and is not acceptable for a portal.

See you at WT:POG.

Curation

A major theme in the deletion discussions was the need for portals to be curated, that is, each one having a dedicated maintainer.

There are currently around 100 curated portals. Based on the predominant reasoning at MfD, it seems likely that all the other portals may be subject to deletion.

See you at WT:POG.

Traffic

An observation and argument that arose again and again during the WP:ENDPORTALS RfC and the ongoing deletion drive of {{bpsp}} default portals, was that portals simply do not get much traffic. Typically, they get a tiny fraction of what the corresponding like-titled articles get.

And while this isn't generally considered a good rationale for creation or deletion of articles, portals are not articles, and portal critics insist that traffic is a key factor in the utility of portals.

The implication is that portals won't be seen much, so wouldn't it be better to develop pages that are?

And since such development isn't limited to editing, almost anything is possible. If we can't bring readers to portals, we could bring portal features, or even better features, to the readers (i.e., to articles)...

Some potential future directions of development

Quantum portals?

An approach that has received some brainstorming is "quantum portals", meaning portals generated on-the-fly and presented directly on the view screen without any saved portal pages. This could be done by script or as a MediaWiki program feature, but would initially be done by script. The main benefits of this is that it would be opt-in (only those who wanted it would install it), and the resultant generated pages wouldn't be saved, so that there wouldn't be anything to maintain except the script itself.

Non-portal integrated components

Another approach would be to focus on implementing specific features independently, and provide them somewhere highly visible in a non-portal presentation context (that is, on a page that wasn't a portal that has lots of traffic, i.e., articles). Such as inserted directly into an article's HTML, as a pop-up there, or as a temporary page. There are scripts that use these approaches (providing unrelated features), and so these approaches have been proven to be feasible.

What kind of features could this be done with?

The various components of the automated portal design are transcluded excerpts, news, did you know, image slideshows, excerpt slideshows, and so on.

Some of the features, such as navigation footers and links to sister projects are already included on article pages. And some already have interface counterparts (such as image slideshows). Some of the rest may be able to be integrated directly via script, but may need further development before they are perfected. Fortunately, scripts are used on an opt-in basis, and therefore wouldn't affect readers-in-general and editors-at-large during the development process (except for those who wanted to be beta testers and installed the scripts).

The development of such scripts falls under the scope of the Javascript-WikiProject/Userscript-department, and will likely be listed on Wikipedia:User scripts/List when completed enough for beta-testing. Be sure to watchlist that page.

Where would that leave curated portals?

Being curated. At least for the time being.

New encyclopedia program features will likely eventually render most portals obsolete. For example, the pop-up feature of MediaWiki provides much the same functionality as excerpts in portals already, and there is also a slideshow feature to view all the images on the current page (just click on any image, and that activates the slideshow). Future features could also overlap portal features, until there is nothing that portals provide that isn't provided elsewhere or as part of Wikipedia's interface.

But, that may be a ways off. Perhaps months or years. It depends on how rapidly programmers develop them.

Keep on keepin' on

The features of Wikipedia and its articles will continue to evolve, even if Portals go by the wayside. Most, if not all of portals' functionality, or functions very similar, will likely be made available in some form or other.

And who knows what else?

No worries.

Until next issue...    — The Transhumanist   00:57, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

@The Transhumanist: Glad to see that you're still with us.--Auric talk 01:33, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay in the update; didn't mean to cause worry. I've been busy IRL. ;)    — The Transhumanist   01:46, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

Your draft article, User:Auric/The Sacred Seal

Hello, Auric. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "The Sacred Seal".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the {{db-afc}}, {{db-draft}}, or {{db-g13}} code.

If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Laosilika (talk) 17:45, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

Your draft article, User:Auric/Web of the Witch World

Hello, Auric. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "Web of the Witch World".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the {{db-afc}}, {{db-draft}}, or {{db-g13}} code.

If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Laosilika (talk) 17:45, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

Your draft article, User:Auric/R v. Wing Hem

Hello, Auric. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "R v. Wing Hem".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the {{db-afc}}, {{db-draft}}, or {{db-g13}} code.

If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Laosilika (talk) 17:45, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

Invitation to join the Fifteen Year Society

Dear Auric/Archive 15,

I'd like to extend a cordial invitation to you to join the Fifteen Year Society, an informal group for editors who've been participating in the Wikipedia project for fifteen years or more. ​

Best regards, Urhixidur (talk) 18:47, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Stuart Reid

Thanks - I thought I'd made the update, but maybe I forgot to hit publish. In any case, exactly what I meant to do. BubbaJoe123456 (talk) 14:34, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

Corina Smith

This has already been explained a million times, the article is after 2015, just look at the information.
I do not know why they try so hard to eliminate this article.
Now she is a relevant figure and no longer just references to social networks.
This article is not at all similar to the original article of 2015. Unless in 2015 they had a time machine and added information about the future?
There are worse articles and less relevant people in this encyclopedia:

• Abril Méndez
• María Lourdes Caldera
• Graciela Cánepa
• Tanya Callau
• Coraima Torres
• Valeria Henríquez

This article meets all the criteria, and other users have already given me the reason.
The article is totally new, with information of 2018 and 2019, please instead of eliminating it, take the time to examine it.
This was an effort and time invested.
Erickespinal26 (talk) 13:56, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

Was the previous article about a different Corina Smith? --Auric talk 14:03, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

Of course because previous article as far as I know, it was eliminated in 2015.

And this article has information of 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Now it is relevant and has even been nominated for awards, such as the Heat Latin Music Awards.

And I should have an article in this encyclopedia.

Erickespinal26 (talk) 14:28, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

That is not really what I asked. The current article is about "María Corina Smith Pocaterra (born 8 September 1991) better known as Corina Smith". The article creation dates have nothing to do with it. Was the previously deleted article about a different person, or the same person?--Auric talk 14:33, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

I do not know.

I never saw the previous article.

That's why I do not understand why they always try to eliminate this article, what, if it is legitimate.

Erickespinal26 (talk) 14:58, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

If you never saw the original article, then why did you post on the talk page that you had?--Auric talk 15:05, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

Save DJ kelblizz page

Please sir..help to save DJ kelblizz page....it was nominated for Delection.Wizkizayo (talk) 13:45, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

Air

Air is an archaic word but that is what the song sheet says. It is possible I am misusing. -- GreenC 20:59, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

I see. In my mind, "Aired to" has the meaning "Was shown on a television show/played on a radio station". "Sung to" is clearer and is used in the main text.--Auric talk 21:05, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

Similar to airing a grievance or airing dirty laundry (double meaning), but I can see how it would cause a double-take being so old fashioned and having new meaning with radio/tv. Still unsure if it means sung to or a background tune to a reading of the text (or either). Started a thread at Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Language#Air. -- GreenC 21:32, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

Untitled

Because your authority does not recognize the difference between endemic, epidemic, or pandemic episodes of reference; authoritarian convenience seems well enough that my edit is stricken from existence. Thank you, but not really! Attached is an elementary piece that may enlighten your ability to contrast relevant standard successive stages of progression. Outline...https://www.mansfieldct.org/Schools/MMS/staff/hand/immnotes.htm J.Canfield 12:26, 19 June 2019 (UTC)J.Canfield — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jdcanfield (talk • contribs)

The link you reference seems agree with me.--Auric talk 12:31, 19 June 2019 (UTC)

If it is cultural, it cannot be worldwide. Wherefore, it would be endemic. J.Canfield 12:52, 19 June 2019 (UTC)J.Canfield — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jdcanfield (talk • contribs)

Sorry, but this is also linked to the sourced term behavioral epidemic. Changing this to behavioral endemic does not make sense.--Auric talk 13:02, 19 June 2019 (UTC)

Notice of Fringe Theories Noticeboard discussion

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Fringe theories/Noticeboard regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you. Tgeorgescu (talk) 06:55, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Winston-Salem NC subtopic City Economy

Good Evening,

I gave the reason for removal from the above topic in that the information regarding food deserts/childhood poverty/per capita income, etc...is already covered under the subcategory Demographics and is thus duplicative. I reviewed the city pages of Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, High Point and Charlotte, North Carolina and there is no similar information discussed under the subcategory of Economy under their respective pages. The subcategory Economy is restricted to information regarding the economic/business functions of each of the respective cities. I trust this covers your concerns regarding the revision. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zalofromcamelcity (talk • contribs) 03:43, 12 July 2019 (UTC) ````

Fine, however, you also removed part of a cite, with the misleading edit summary, "Fixed typo", which is commonly used by vandals. Please be more transparent with your edits in the future.--Auric talk 10:36, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for your help.

So glad to see a human who can use bots well. Thank you for your help today. Wiki looks like a huge site and I do not know the terminology and the tagging system, will inevitably make mistakes. I am basically supporting my current wiki by using publicly available library source, National Central Library, and mainland Chinese sites. Where possible I excerpt the originals. And of course wiki references when available.

I have trouble with the external references, especially the Chinese. So any help would be appreciated. Hope you can help watch over this listing. I probably will add only 1-2 more vignettes and call it quits for a while.

Thank you again. QSandai (talk) 20:05, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for your help on Shen Yinmo, looks much better.

He was a great and unique 20th century Chinese cultural figure. More can be added but keeping it short is probably good. I may add more links and citations. QSandai (talk) 13:23, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Portal:H. P. Lovecraft

Portal:H. P. Lovecraft, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:H. P. Lovecraft (4th nomination) and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Portal:H. P. Lovecraft during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. ToThAc (talk) 03:28, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

Draft:Jean-François Gariépy

There is something weird going on here. You made a few edits to a draft BLP of Gariépy, which had briefly been in article space before it was draftified by User:Bearcat. There is also a user named Jean-François Gariépy, whom I am not pinging, who made some controversial edits to Camille Paglia that wound up at DRN. A pop-up account then tried to become involved in the dispute as a volunteer, which looked suspicious. I reported the pop-up account to sockpuppet investigations. It isn't Gariépy, but it is linked to two other accounts, one of which is the author of the draft BLP of Gariépy. The three socks have been blocked, which means that the draft no longer has an author unless a neutral editor (yourself? Bearcat? me?) wants to work on it. I don't know whether the socks are a meatpuppet or ghostwriter for Gariépy, or are an enemy of Gariépy, who is a controversial right-wing figure. As I said, I don't know whether the socks are for or against Gariépy. Robert McClenon (talk) 20:16, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Not on my end. I stumbled on the draft when searching for drafts mentioning Autism and corrected some errors I saw.--Auric talk 13:39, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

If no one edits it in the next six months, it will go away. It appears that the subject probably is notable, but that reworking the BLP to be neutral will be work, If no one edits it in six months, it will go away. Robert McClenon (talk) 23:07, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Wikipedia:WikiProject H. P. Lovecraft

Wikipedia:WikiProject H. P. Lovecraft, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject H. P. Lovecraft and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Wikipedia:WikiProject H. P. Lovecraft during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 04:46, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

Your thread has been archived

Hi Auric! You created a thread called Invites for a new WikiProject at Wikipedia:Teahouse, but it has been archived because there was no discussion for a few days. You can still find the archived discussion here. If you have any additional questions that weren't answered then, please create a new thread. Archival by Lowercase sigmabot III, notification delivery by Muninnbot, both automated accounts. You can opt out of future notifications by placing {{bots|deny=Muninnbot}} (ban this bot) or {{nobots}} (ban all bots) on your user talk page. Muninnbot (talk) 19:02, 16 September 2019 (UTC)