Wikipedia:Portal peer review/University of Oxford/archive1

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Portal:University of Oxford[edit]

My first foray into the world of portals. Where can I improve? I'm particularly looking for advice about the "sister links" section: I've used the suggested standard template for links to other Wikimedia projects, but only the Commons link actually does anything worthwhile, so should I just link to Commons? Similarly, there's a hardly-worthwhile "in the news" section since Wikinews isn't exactly overflowing with Oxford stories. Does this matter? Should I remove it? Opinions welcome. Bencherlite ^Talk 23:53, 2 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, one optinion, which might not be worth much. You could of course yourself write some of the wikinews articles for the portal. I know a few other portal managers do that. Another option, which is perhaps less frequently done, might be to add some sort of "this day in history" section, with some sort of rotation (maybe weekly or monthly) about various articles which have made the Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries section which relate to Oxford or its students or staff. Given the huge reputation Oxford has, and the probably large number of articles about Oxford-related people out there, you might have enough to make such a section workable. John Carter (talk) 15:22, 4 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've in fact headed over to Wikinews since I started this portal, and written two articles relating to the University, creating a related category in the process; if I can keep this going, then there should be a steady trickle of stories. I like the idea of a "this (time period) in history" section, so I'll see what I can find for that. Do you happen to know of any portals that have such a section, so I can see one in operation? Thanks for your helpful review. Bencherlite ^Talk 15:27, 4 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The selected anniversaries section looks good, if maybe a bit long. Having said that, I'm frankly stunned at the number of articles you were able to include so quickly. Maybe if they can be brought down to a weekly basis, or, alternately, daily basis, maybe adding other details of some of their lives, like dates of battles, publication date of books or papers, dates awarded titles or offices, to ensure that there are daily entries, that might be a bit less imposing, although, if you want to emphasize the number and amount of people related to Oxford, a longer section would probably do that better. Actually, horrible as it sounds, I don't actually know if other portals do this yet, although I am trying to set up some of the Christianity portals to include this material myself. But I looks good, except perhaps the length. John Carter (talk) 15:25, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think you're right about the length, and am already working on switching to an "On this day..." format with daily entries. I've found at least one name I can use for Feb 29, which was my main worry, so I'm sure I'll find stuff for the other 365 days. Bencherlite ^Talk 15:42, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In my opinion, the scope of this portal is very small. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 06:59, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, only just noticed your comment. What would you like to see included as well? I've got articles about the university and colleges, biographies of academics and alumni, plenty of photos, DYKs etc. Do you want more content in each, or more sections, and if so what? Or, as I fear, by "scope" do you mean that you think that it fails 1(a) of the criteria ("broad and interesting" subject). Well, there's more than 800 years of history and thousands of alumni from all over the globe, with a world-wide recognition factor. I would have thought that's quite broad enough, as compared (say) to a Featured Portal about one TV cartoon, however great Homer and Bart are. Seriously, though, am I wasting my time in trying to get this to Featured status? More comments, please! Bencherlite ^Talk 08:38, 15 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, fair enough. What is the stats on number of GAs and FAs used in the portal? OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 22:36, 16 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Selected article: 13 articles – 4 FAs, 5 FLs, 1 FLC, 1 GA (another, University of Oxford, is used as the lead article) and 2 Bs.
Selected biography: 29 articles – 13 FAs, 16 GAs
29 quotations; 28 sets of 3 x DYKs (all ex-Main Page); 30 pictures (including a few FPs)
All randomised. 13 x 29 x 29 x 28 x 30 = 9,183,720 possible combinations.
Usual standard other components, including Wikinews with a steady trickle of stories.
As noted above, I'm working towards a daily "on this day" feature (with a fall-back using "#ifexist" of a monthly "selected anniversaries"). When I have finished the 366 days, there'll be over 3.3 billion possible combinations of sub-pages in the course of a year. How's it looking at the moment? Bencherlite ^Talk 17:44, 17 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Stats updated (one of the FLCs is now an FL). Bencherlite ^Talk 22:28, 3 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.