Wikipedia:Featured portal candidates/Portal:Japan

The following is an archived discussion of a featured portal candidate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the portal's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured portal candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The portal was promoted by User:Caulde 12:10, 28 September 2008 [1].

Portal:Japan

Self-nomination. I have done a lot of work on Portal:Japan, and with the help of a couple of other editors, I think the portal is ready for a nomination. It currently has 37 selected articles (comprised of FAs, As and GAs) and 33 selected pictures (comprised of all of the Japan-related FP as well as many other great Japan pictures). Both of these are rotated randomly on the main page. The news section is automated by the bot. The DYK section is manually update with the featured Japan-related DYK articles and hooks that are featured on Wikipedia's main page. There is no selected biography component because there are only a few articles of a high enough quality that could fill the section, and those articles are very homogeneous. I would like there to be a quote section, but I cannot find a good reliable source of Japanese quotes, as WikiQuote is very, very limited and, again, homogeneous.

The geography tab is rather stagnant and very little updating is necessary. The one rotating component there is a Featured Prefecture section that is currently rotated by week. The projects tab features the Things-to-do component as well as a bit about WikiProject Japan and related projects and task forces. --Torsodog^Talk 23:11, 26 August 2008 (UTC) [reply]

Comments from Cirt (talk) (addressed)

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Comments

Missing - A Selected biography or other type of Selected content section in addition to the Selected article section. Cirt (talk) 23:45, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- Created new randomized biography section with 11 FA or GA articles in rotation. --Torsodog^Talk 23:56, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  - Um yea, but it would be best to have at least one more randomized subsection of Selected content - it is pretty much ubiquitous in other WP:FPORTs. Cirt (talk) 01:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    - Uh, what? I added a randomized biography section... --Torsodog^Talk 01:57, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      - Excellent, my mistake. Cirt (talk) 18:15, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Projects - The image use of the three userboxes at the top is a bit much, should be removed, IMO. Cirt (talk) 23:45, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- Removed. --Torsodog^Talk 00:11, 27 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  - Done. Thanks, Cirt (talk) 01:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Portal:Japan/Featured prefecture - Are these all Featured Articles? If not, then the subsection and subpage titles should not use the word "featured". Cirt (talk) 23:45, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- Will do. --Torsodog^Talk 23:56, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  - Okay, keep us posted. Cirt (talk) 01:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The bolded main article-title in all the "Selected" subsections should also be wikilinked. Cirt (talk) 23:45, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- Done. --Torsodog^Talk 23:56, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  - Thanks, Cirt (talk) 01:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Formatting on the Main Page is a bit off, pushing the right column over too much, should be adjusted somehow. Cirt (talk) 23:45, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- Changed to make the right side wider. --Torsodog^Talk 23:56, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  - Much better. Cirt (talk) 01:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Could use a "Selected quote" section. Cirt (talk) 23:45, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- As stated above, I simply don't have a reliable source of quotes to draw from. If someone can point me in the right direction, I will add this component. --Torsodog^Talk 23:56, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  - Try archives of books, newspapers, Japan is a pretty important country with a significant amount of history - this should not be too hard. Cirt (talk) 01:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    - Added Selected quote component with 14 selections so far. --Torsodog^Talk 06:00, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      - The quotes are all unsourced, see Portal:Comedy/Selected quote for an example of how to source the quotes on each individual subpage to satisfy WP:V. Cirt (talk) 18:18, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        Actually, they all do have sources, but they are either simply the url of the site I found them from or from the sourced quotes from WikiQuotes. Is this not enough? --Torsodog^Talk 18:50, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        Actually, they all do have sources... - Yeah, but if the sources aren't cited on the subpage, then no one else can really verify that. That's why the model at Portal:Comedy/Selected quote is the best way to go to avoid that problem. Cirt (talk) 05:41, 31 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Portal:Japan/Did you know - Could be reformatted for randomization, see the model in use at Portal:Oregon for an example. Cirt (talk) 23:45, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- Could be... but why? New japan-related DYKs show up on the main page almost daily and the Portal:Japan is updated accordingly. Isn't it better to have completely new DYKs instead of the same randomly rotated ones? --Torsodog^Talk 23:56, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  - Because with the current setup DYKs have to be updated manually, and this is prone to stagnation over time. Cirt (talk) 01:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    - I understand, but I have no reason to believe that this will happen to this portal anytime in the near future. WikiProject:Japan has several very active users. If I feel like this might happen, however, I could easily implement a randomization, but for the moment I think adding completely new content is the better way to go. --Torsodog^Talk 01:57, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      - Respectfully disagree, I think randomization is the better way to go. We have seen several WP:FPORTs become stale and stagnant precisely due to this rationale. Cirt (talk) 18:16, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        Look at this example I did in my sandbox. Bewareofdog 00:07, 30 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        Ah, that's actually very cool. I like this idea much more than simply having preset blocks of DYKs. I'll get started on implementing this idea ASAP, but feel free to set it up first if you are so inclined! --Torsodog^Talk 01:32, 30 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        
        I built off of BoD's first format edit by basically breaking the individual DYKs into sections. This allows for each of the 5 randomly selected choices to show only one picture as well as evenly spread out the DYKs so they are not too heavy in one specific category. Let me know what you think of this new compromise, Cirt. And agian, thanks BoD for the great suggestion. --Torsodog^Talk 07:31, 30 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        Not my cup of tea, but much better than the previous version. Cirt (talk) 05:43, 31 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        May I ask why? It is essentially the same thing as your randomized blocks of DYKs except there is a better degree of randomization, making it more interesting to the reader. Their eyes don't have to glaze over when they see one of the same DYKs because they know the other 4 are going to be different. Anyways, I'm confident this is probably the best solution for this particular section, so I believe I'm going to regard it as complete for now. --Torsodog^Talk 06:01, 31 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        Don't get me wrong, it's satisfactory, I had set up some portals with that type of formatting in the past - but it gets to be a bit harder to maintain over the long run, updating all the sets of seeds and all and making sure which one has a picture. Ideally also the subpages verify that the DYK hook was indeed on the Main Page at one point, compare use of <noinclude></noinclude> at Portal:Criminal justice/DYK/1 versus Portal:Japan/Did you know/1. Plus, when you have 20 or more sets of 3 hooks of subpages, it gets more and more dynamic and less likely that the average viewer will see them all enough to memorize all 60 or so hooks and get tired of a particular set. But that's just my take. Cirt (talk) 06:11, 31 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        Ah, makes sense. It is a bit harder to maintain, but I think (hope) in the long run it will be worth it. Anyways, thanks for all the help and suggestions to make the portal better! --Torsodog^Talk 19:16, 31 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Support. - Looks much, much better. Excellent work. Cirt (talk) 06:13, 31 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Support Excellent portal. Bewareofdog 21:12, 31 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
~~Comment~~ Support - This is really minor, but could the archive link for Did you know... and Selected quote be moved to the left side, with possibly a link to Wikipedia:Recent additions on Did you know...? Thanks, --Jh12 (talk) 05:12, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done! --Torsodog^Talk 05:55, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Good job! --Jh12 (talk) 06:04, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This page is currently inactive and is retained for historical reference.
Either the page is no longer relevant or consensus on its purpose has become unclear. To revive discussion, seek broader input via a forum such as the village pump.

Promoted. Cau lde 12:10, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.