User:Jguk/Reader Portals

Reader Portals

 * By jguk, 2 May 2005

New development
During the week Wikipedia got its first Portal (outside of the Main Page) that was specially designed with readers in mind. Previously, the English Wikipedia had imported the idea of WikiPortals from the German Wikipedia, but these were very much with editors and WikiProjects in mind, rather than the reader. Now we have a Portal that puts the reader first.

The idea of the Readers Portal is to help readers navigate through the various categories, lists and articles Wikipedia has in a way that has not yet been currently possible. The opportunity is also taken to direct readers towards the articles that are particularly key to the subject, and towards larger, more developed pages. Featured articles pertaining to the subject covered by the portal are also highlighted.

The first Reader Portal
After much discussion as to where the portal should be located, it currently resides at Portal:Cricket. However, as it is still in an experimental stage, and the developers of the portal do not claim it to be perfect, all constructive suggestions, and edits, to improve the Portal are more than welcome.

The controversy
When the Reader Portal was first launched, it was placed on Cricket with the page on the sport being moved to Cricket (sport). This led to opposition from people who were informed with a post on the Village Pump. Neutrality listed the page for deletion arguing it should be in Wikipedia namespace. After discussions that were at times heated, and which led to Neutrality at one time listing SPUI on Requests for arbitration without going through the normal dispute resolution process, the page has ended up at Portal:Cricket, where it currently (at least for now!) resides. Now the page name makes it clear that it is not a normal article, but keeps it in the readerspace, it is hoped that this particular controversy will die a quick death.