Portal talk:Dogs

Notice from the Portals WikiProject
WikiProject Portals is back!

The project was rebooted and completely overhauled on April 17th, 2018. Its goals are to revitalize the entire portal system, make building and maintaining portals easier, support the ongoing improvement of portals and the editors dedicated to this, and design the portals of the future.

As of May 2nd, 2018, membership is at 60 editors, and growing. You are welcome to join us.

There are design initiatives for revitalizing the portals system as a whole, and for improving each component of portals. So far, 2 new dynamic components have been developed: Template:Transclude lead excerpt and Template:Transclude random excerpt.

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

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

From your friendly neighborhood Portals WikiProject. Hope to see you there. Sincerely,    &mdash; The Transhumanist   07:27, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Added Fading puppy syndrome
I've done a quick redlink fix by adding the Fading puppy syndrome article, but it probably needs some help both in content and styling. I'm only recently returned to active Wiki-ing, and have very little real knowledge of canines, so some help in refining this article would be appreciated. :) - Kenneaal (talk) 11:22, 15 May 2019 (UTC)

Scope of portal
, before now this portal has effectively been confined to domestic dogs, it appears you are broadening that scope to include wild canids. If that is your intention, then I suggest we look at changing the name of the portal to Portal:Canines. Cavalryman (talk) 00:12, 4 June 2021 (UTC).
 * That's an idea. I was thinking about utilizing the theme of WikiProject Dogs here, where it states atop it's main page, "WikiProject Dogs, a wikiproject dedicated to improving Wikipedia's articles relating to the family of mammals known as the Canidae and commonly referred to as "dogs", of which the domestic dog is but one of its members."


 * However, upon consideration, it actually seems best at this time to limit the portal to domestic dogs. As such, I have removed Dire wolf and Golden jackal from the Selected articles section for the time being (diff). North America1000 00:32, 4 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes we broadened the scope of WP:DOGS some time ago, since it is project space we didn’t think it was necessary to rename the project. I wouldn’t be adverse to broadening the scope of the portal, it may remove some of the Western (European/North American) bias seen in the content. Cavalryman (talk) 00:39, 4 June 2021 (UTC).
 * Well, for now, I already have a rather full plate improving the portal under its current scope. Expanding the scope means more time, energy and work. Need more time to ponder too. I guess I'll leave it at that for now regarding the formation of an opinion regarding this matter. North America1000 00:59, 4 June 2021 (UTC)
 * I suggest that most people visiting the Dog portal will be looking for domestic dogs. That their wild cousins already appear in some sections of the portal content is a bonus. (Nor did we rename WP:DOGS to WP:CANINES.) William Harris (talk) 05:27, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Portal improvements
Recent portal improvements include:
 * Overhauled portal with modernized wiki markup using transclusion from articles to display content, which provides readers with current, up-to-date information. A consensus approving the usage of transclusion templates in portals was formed at this Village Pump discussion.
 * Many high relevance new article selections have been added, including Featured-class and Good-class articles.
 * A new general images section is now present.
 * A new image banner atop the page was added.
 * A new topics section was added.
 * Additional updates, cleanup and layout changes have been performed. North America1000 01:30, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Portal link image
At the WP Dogs talk page here (perm link), there has been discussion about changing the image/graphic that appears in portal links. This can easily be performed at Module:Portal/images. Below is a synopsis.
 * The image that was in place for some time is the low-resolution, low quality and blurry File:Aussie-blacktri.jpg.
 * To improve the quality of the image, I replaced the above with File:Dobermann handling.jpg.
 * At the Dog WP talk page, another user objected to this, and the notion to add File:Dog Paw Print.png was brought forward, so this was then added to replace the dobermann image.


 * Later at the Dog WP talk page, a user objected to the paw print image. So, for the time being, I have reverted the image back to the File:Aussie-blacktri.jpg image (diff).
 * As I stated at the WP Dogs talk page discussion, an idea is to use an icon, such as those here at Commons.
 * Ideas about how to move forward are welcome here. Pinging those at the WP Dogs talk page discussion who were involved in the portal's link image: . North America1000 02:05, 4 June 2021 (UTC)
 * To be fair, I think the pawprint is better than either of the other options on offer, a similar option is File:Dog.svg which is used at Template:Dog-stub. As suggested by Kusma here, I too think icons for the dogs portal within dog articles is an unnecessary distraction and a simple link would be better. Courtesy ping to other members of the discussion at WT:DOGS & . Cavalryman (talk) 04:09, 4 June 2021 (UTC).
 * The "portals icon" might represent WP:PORTALS, but it certainly doesn't represent anything dog-related. I am against both the paw-print icon and the "scottie-dog" icon, because these are human representations and not a dog (in the biological sub-family sense). I have no position on the deployment of either a link or an icon. William Harris (talk) 05:18, 4 June 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree that no image is probably best. Link is enough, it is in a box, so it is visible for the users anyway. Any picture with a particular breed of dog is inadequate because does not represent other non-related to it articles. The paw is sort of universal, but still looks like a sticker in a kids book. I suggest no picture just link, or if all the other users agree there should be a picture, then a paw. LoraxJr 06:41, 4 June 2021 (UTC)
 * As I said elsewhere, a main purpose of the icon is to distinguish Portal:Dogs from other pages. The best choice depends on context.  If it's alongside other portals, we need an image to suggest dogs; if it's alongside doggy non-portals, we want an image to suggest portals, such as the puzzle piece icon.  (Nothing so far is specific to dogs; I'd make the same point about cats or Canada.)  Pictures of actual dogs look good when occupying most of a PC or phone screen but aren't ideal at 36×27 pixels.  A distinctive silhouette of a dog would identify it well amongst other portals.  The pawprint also works but might be mistaken for a different animal.  Certes (talk) 10:19, 4 June 2021 (UTC)


 * I also think File:Dog.svg (below) would be fine, as per Cavalryman's comment above. Some like the paw image, and some don't. Perhaps users may agree on something else. Most portals use an image, so it may be odd that the Dogs portal omits one in favor of a generic (and boring, in my opinion) portal puzzle icon, or having no image. Pinging all involved at this point: North America1000 08:33, 5 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Here is my preferred option: It may need to be cropped to bring it further into the foreground, but the contrast is nearly the same as the above image - and it is a real dog. William Harris (talk) 09:01, 5 June 2021 (UTC)
 * That works for me. Below is a cropped version I published at Commons. This cropped version is now my #1 choice, and it's a real dog. North America1000 09:09, 5 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Black Labrador Retriever - Male IMG 3323 (cropped).jpg


 * Support cropped black Lab, I was going to suggest it myself. Cavalryman (talk) 09:33, 5 June 2021 (UTC).


 * Support Those editors who frequent the Dog article, including interested members of WP:DOGS, went through a consultation process recently to derive the new montage of breeds that appear in the infobox of the Dog article. The ubiquitous Labrador Retriever was chosen for "centre-stage". William Harris (talk) 10:31, 5 June 2021 (UTC)


 * ✅ It's been over a week, and consensus is for File:Black Labrador Retriever - Male IMG 3323 (cropped).jpg to be used. Module:Portal/images/d has been updated accordingly. North America1000 23:54, 16 June 2021 (UTC)