[WikiEN-l] Topic warriors

Wed Sep 21 10:22:21 UTC 2005

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sam Korn [mailto:smoddy at gmail.com]
> Sent: 20 September 2005 6:24 PM
> To: English Wikipedia
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Topic warriors
>
>
> On 9/20/05, Worldtraveller <wikipedia at world-traveller.org> wrote:
>> Hm, personally I don't see too much of a link between portals and
>> projects.  Astronomy-related projects include telescopes and
>> astronomical
>> objects, neither of which would make a good topic for a portal, while a
>> wikiproject:astronomy would be too broad to work well as a project.  I
>> agree with MgM that the portals I listed in my earlier mail cover topics
>> much more suited to a project than to a portal.
>
> On the contrary.  I thought the entire intention of portals was to
> provide a comprehensive overview (I don't think that's an oxymoron) of
> a certain area.  I think an astronomy portal would be excellent.
> There should be the possibility of a good article every month to
> feature.  I guess some of the wikiprojects are too narrow: they should
> combine to form the portal.  If there is enough coverage to keep a
> portal going, we should have a portal.
>
> Sam

Sorry - I think I wasn't clear enough in what I was saying.  We have an
astronomy portal, and I think it's excellent :) But I think projects and
portals fulfil very different remits.  Projects are to improve and
organise content, and I think they work well when they concentrate on
narrow areas (such as telescopes).  A wikiproject:astronomy would be too
broad to be very useful.  Portals, though, are for displaying all the good
content that's out there, and I think they work best when they cover broad
areas - a portal:telescopes wouldn't be that interesting or viable.

A project:Doctor Who makes sense to me, to provide material which can then
be showcased in a portal:TV programs or suchlike, but a portal:Doctor Who
seems over-specialised and not of great interest to a general reader to
me.

Should there be some kind of mechanism for approving portals before they
are created?  And should there be a mechanism for proposing the removal or
merging of portals that are too narrow and specialised?

WT