User talk:Gazamp/Archive 2

WikiProject Portals update #023, 25 Nov 2018
There are now 4,180 portals.

Will we break 5,000 by the end of the year?

I know we can. But, that is up to you!

( New portals are created with  or   )

Happy Holidays
Happy Holidays text.png Hello everyone! Enjoy the holiday season and winter solstice (if it's occurring in your area of the world), and thanks for your work in maintaining, improving, and expanding portals. Cheers,  &mdash; The Transhumanist   06:51, 26 November 2018 (UTC)


 * Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Season's Greetings}} to send this message

Jingling along
The following portals have been created since the last issue:


 * 1) Advanced Micro Devices
 * 2) Aqua Teen Hunger Force
 * 3) Aquatic ecosystems
 * 4) Blackberries
 * 5) Blade
 * 6) Blake and Mortimer
 * 7) Climate
 * 8) Democratic Party
 * 9) Dua Lipa
 * 10) Eels
 * 11) Eggs
 * 12) Emmy Awards
 * 13) Fallout
 * 14) Flutes and whistles
 * 15) Geophysics
 * 16) Ghost
 * 17) Hartford Whalers
 * 18) HBO
 * 19) Hot sauces
 * 20) International System of Units
 * 21) Jawaharlal Nehru
 * 22) Kendrick Lamar
 * 23) KFC
 * 24) Kingdom of England
 * 25) M.I.A.
 * 26) Marvel Comics
 * 27) Marvel Entertainment
 * 28) Minerals
 * 29) Mixed martial arts
 * 30) Money
 * 31) MTV
 * 32) Museums
 * 33) National Hockey League
 * 34) Natural resources
 * 35) Nature
 * 36) NBC
 * 37) Nehru–Gandhi family
 * 38) Orthoptera
 * 39) PATH
 * 40) Pears
 * 41) Physiology
 * 42) Ponds
 * 43) Pope Francis
 * 44) Potatoes
 * 45) Presidents of the United States
 * 46) Republican Party
 * 47) Salad dressings
 * 48) Santiago
 * 49) Six Flags
 * 50) Stan Lee
 * 51) Starbucks
 * 52) Stem cells
 * 53) Systems of measurement
 * 54) SZA
 * 55) The West Wing
 * 56) Tintin
 * 57) Tomato sauces
 * 58) Tove Lo
 * 59) Viticulture
 * 60) Waffles
 * 61) Wendy's
 * 62) White House
 * 63) Will Smith
 * 64) Winemaking

Keep 'em coming!

By the way, the above list was generated using this Petscan query. It can be easily modified by changing the date. The data page (under the Output tab) also has options for receiving the data in CSV or tabbed format, which some operating systems automatically load into a spreadsheet program for ease of use, such as copying and pasting the desired column (like page names).

In closing
We'll keep it short this issue.

Expect a flood next time. Or the one after that.

Cheerio,  &mdash; The Transhumanist   07:14, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

See the diffs
To see how I modified the portal, check out the diffs. Portals are now mostly parameter-driven. Master the parameters, and you master portals.

Parameter specifics are covered in the instructions to each template.

You'll be a master in no time! &mdash; The Transhumanist  18:43, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

P.S.: If you have any questions, any whatsoever, please feel free to fire away! &mdash; The Transhumanist  18:47, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

P.P.S.: I look forward to seeing what other portals you create! &mdash; The Transhumanist  18:48, 27 November 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks! This really helps - it's just what I needed... Gazamp (talk) 18:51, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Portal tip #1
There are two basic approaches to creating portals of the new design:
 * 1) Find subjects that have support in place
 * 2) Create a portal on whatever interests you

The first approach is by far the fastest, because, with the right resources in place, it results in almost instant portals.

What support?

A like-named navbox footer template, and pictures on the portal's corresponding root article.

Try creating Portal:Convicts in Australia, to see what I mean. All it will need is the category name changed in the Subcategories section, and add the corresponding category (Category:Convictism in Australia) to the bottom of the page.

Have fun. &mdash; The Transhumanist  19:22, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Portal tip #2: Making more Selected sections
You can have more than one Selected articles section. Here's how:

Portal:NASA would make an excellent portal.

However, the navigation footer isn't named Template:NASA, and so you'll get an error message in that section.

Checking the bottom of the NASA article, we discover 2 juicy navigation templates!

You could use them both in the same section, or better yet, make a section in the portal for each.

Like this:

Note that  are needed only when posting to non-portal pages, like talk pages. &mdash; The Transhumanist  19:40, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Portal:Stonehenge
I really like this one you did. I've touched it up a bit. &mdash; The Transhumanist  10:07, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for December 3
An automated process has detected that when you recently edited List of British postage stamps, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page CEPT ([//dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/dablinks.py/List_of_British_postage_stamps check to confirm] | [//dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/dab_solver.py/List_of_British_postage_stamps?client=notify fix with Dab solver]).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:26, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Philatety Portal
With this edit you removed a load of links and critical information and now there are just 3 big images and loads of empty space. I think it looks dreadful and sparse. If that's you best effort it's hardly worth having. ww2censor (talk) 22:49, 3 December 2018 (UTC)


 * I have reverted my edits to Portal:Philately. I hope this is OK. Apologies, Gazamp (talk) 18:26, 4 December 2018 (UTC)

Portal:Demography
Thank you for creating this portal! You filled a blatant gap. Nice catch.

I've renamed it from Portal:Demographics, added topics to the topics section (I copy/pasted them from Category:Demography while displaying them with the userscript User:The Transhumanist/ViewAsOutline-Category.js, and filled in or changed some parameters so that the various sections auto-generated. I also added another cattree to the subcats section, and moved that section down to the one-column area because it became so big.

I hope you like the changes, and that you find these techniques useful in your own portal work.

Keep up the great work, and keep the new portals coming!

Sincerely,  &mdash; The Transhumanist   03:56, 5 December 2018 (UTC)

Portal tip #3: Official maintainers of portals
Some portals have dedicated maintainers who watch over and maintain them.

Maintenance status, and/or maintainers may be specified in the categories at the bottom of the portal, in the Portal maintenance status template at the top of the portal (in the wikicode), or in the project's participants list at WikiProject_Portals.

It is worth checking these before converting an old-style portal.

I accidentally did the same thing to Portal:American Civil War, and got my ass chewed. Portals maintainers can be very, well, very...

...expressive. {  &mdash; The Transhumanist   06:35, 5 December 2018 (UTC)

Portal tip #4: refining the internal search parameters
Each portal has a search built-in that powers its Did you know and In the news sections.

Unfortunatey, the default search term isn't that great. It's the magic word. That just generates the subject of the portal, which is always capitalized, and in many cases, pluralized. That works great for terms that are usually capitalized, like person and place names, but not for the rest.

So, it helps to add to or replace the default search parameter with other search terms. You can put in as many as you like, separated by pipes (|).

By the way "%s" means space in Lua search notation.

And you can specify groups with "[]" square brackets. "[Aa]" means big A or little a, and apple with either would look like this: [Aa]pple

For more info on Lua search parameters, see.

Some examples of portals with improved Did you know and In the news search parameters include:


 * Portal:Even-toed ungulates
 * Portal:Odd-toed ungulates
 * Portal:Marvel Comics
 * Portal:Apes
 * Portal:Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)
 * Portal:Bats
 * Portal:Carnivorans

Remember, the search parameters should be specified in both the Did you know and In the news sections.

I hope you liked this tip.

Sincerely,  &mdash; The Transhumanist   07:58, 5 December 2018 (UTC)

Portal counter:
It auto-updates. To keep track of where we are at.

5,000, here we come! &mdash; The Transhumanist  08:16, 5 December 2018 (UTC)

Portal titles should be plural
Just a heads up...

For items that have a plural, the portal should be named for the plural.

For example, Portal:Tigers, instead of Portal:Tiger.

I've renamed Template:Rose to Template:Roses, and Portal:Rose to Portal:Roses. Nice portal, by the way.

Portal titles generally match the corresponding category. See Category:Roses.

When renaming a navbox template, be sure to also update its name= in its wikicode (near the top of the page in the wiki editor). That controls the view and edit links displayed on the template itself.

You are doing a great job pushing the project forward into new content territory.

Keep the new portals coming!

Sincerely,  &mdash; The Transhumanist   02:36, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Power search: SearchSuite.js
I wrote a userscript for making Wikipedia search results more powerful.

It's SearchSuite.

It provides several menu items on the search results page to reformat the results for ease of use.

It can show the results as a straight list, which is extremely useful when searching for templates, for example.

I hope you like it. &mdash; The Transhumanist  10:25, 10 December 2018 (UTC)


 * Got it, thanks! Gazamp (talk) 18:16, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Refining a portal's internal search parameters can make a big difference
Each portal has a conditional Did you know, and a conditional In the news, section that only show up when there are results to display. Unfortunately, the default search parameter is, which is always interpreted as the portal title capitalized. Take a look at Portal:Suffragettes.

By changing the search parameters in this edit, the Did you know section is activated and displays 5 results. Makes quite a difference, because the lua program wasn't searching for the title with a small "s", or for its singular. Now it searches for both of those.

For subjects that are not usually capitalized or pluralized, changing the search parameters is needed in order for those 2 sections to show anything.

Keep up the good work, and keep those new portals coming! &mdash; The Transhumanist  08:08, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

 * Thank you! Gazamp (talk) 19:06, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for December 16
An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Ryan Zinke, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page John Kelly ([//dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/dablinks.py/Ryan_Zinke check to confirm] | [//dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/dab_solver.py/Ryan_Zinke?client=notify fix with Dab solver]).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:30, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

WikiProject Portals update #024, 26 Dec 2018
Last issue, I mentioned there would be a flood, and so, here it is...

Portals status
We now have 4,620 portals.

And the race to pass 5,000 by year's end is on...

Can we make it?

The New Year, and the 5,001st portal, await.

( New portals are created with  or   )

Evad is back!
After disappearing in mid-thread, Evad37 has returned from a longer than expected wikibreak.

Be sure to welcome him back.

Improved cropping is coming to Portal image banner
User:FR30799386 is working on making Portal image banner even better by enabling it to chop the top off an image as well as the bottom.

Many pictures aren't suitable for banners because they are too tall. Therefor, User:FR30799386 added cropping to this template, so that an editor could specify part of a picture to be used rather than the whole thing.

Upgrade of flagship portals is underway
Work has begun on upgrading Wikipedia's flagship portals (those listed at the top of the Main page).

So far, Portal:Geography, Portal:History, and Portal:Technology have been revamped. Of course, you are welcome to improve them further.

Work continues on the other five. Feel free to join in on the fun.

Spotting missing portals that are redirects
In place of many missing portals, there is a redirect that leads to "the next best topic", such as a parent topic.

Most of these were created before we had the tools to easily create portals (they used to take 6 hours or more to create, because it was all done manually). Rather than leave a portal link red, some editors thought it was best that those titles led somewhere.

The subjects that have sufficient coverage should have their own portals rather than a redirect to some other subject.

Unfortunately, being blue like all other live links, redirects are harder to spot than redlinks.

To spot redirects easily, you can make them all appear green.

What's new in portal space?

 * 1) Portal:17th century
 * 2) Portal:18th century
 * 3) Portal:Absinthe
 * 4) Portal:Abuse
 * 5) Portal:Academic degrees
 * 6) Portal:Acari
 * 7) Portal:Acipenseriformes
 * 8) Portal:Actas
 * 9) Portal:Actinopterygii
 * 10) Portal:Activision
 * 11) Portal:Aerobatics
 * 12) Portal:Aeroflot
 * 13) Portal:Aesop
 * 14) Portal:Afrosoricida
 * 15) Portal:Aichi
 * 16) Portal:Airlines
 * 17) Portal:Air traffic control
 * 18) Portal:Akon
 * 19) Portal:Alan Turing
 * 20) Portal:Alfred Nobel
 * 21) Portal:Alice Paul
 * 22) Portal:Allahabad
 * 23) Portal:Allgemeine-SS
 * 24) Portal:Allium
 * 25) Portal:Aluminium
 * 26) Portal:Alvarezsauroidea
 * 27) Portal:Alveolata
 * 28) Portal:Amazon
 * 29) Portal:Amino acids
 * 30) Portal:Ancient Greek philosophy
 * 31) Portal:Andalusia
 * 32) Portal:Andes
 * 33) Portal:Animax
 * 34) Portal:Antennas
 * 35) Portal:Anthrax (American band)
 * 36) Portal:Antibiotics
 * 37) Portal:Antidotes
 * 38) Portal:Antifungals
 * 39) Portal:Antimony
 * 40) Portal:Antivirus software
 * 41) Portal:Aquifers
 * 42) Portal:Arachnids
 * 43) Portal:Armadillos
 * 44) Portal:Armour
 * 45) Portal:Art movements
 * 46) Portal:Arvicolinae
 * 47) Portal:Asanas
 * 48) Portal:Association of Southeast Asian Nations
 * 49) Portal:AstraZeneca
 * 50) Portal:Asturias
 * 51) Portal:Asus
 * 52) Portal:Atoms
 * 53) Portal:Automation
 * 54) Portal:Aylesbury
 * 55) Portal:Aztecs
 * 56) Portal:Bags
 * 57) Portal:Banks
 * 58) Portal:Basalt
 * 59) Portal:Batgirl
 * 60) Portal:Bats
 * 61) Portal:Bay Area Rapid Transit
 * 62) Portal:Beijing Subway
 * 63) Portal:Belo Horizonte
 * 64) Portal:Ben Affleck
 * 65) Portal:Binondo
 * 66) Portal:Biodiversity of Colombia
 * 67) Portal:Biomes
 * 68) Portal:Blue Origin
 * 69) Portal:Board games
 * 70) Portal:Boca Raton, Florida
 * 71) Portal:Bruno Mars
 * 72) Portal:Budapest Metro
 * 73) Portal:Buffalo, New York
 * 74) Portal:Bullying
 * 75) Portal:Busan Metro
 * 76) Portal:Buteoninae
 * 77) Portal:C++
 * 78) Portal:Cairo Metro
 * 79) Portal:Canadian art
 * 80) Portal:Character encoding
 * 81) Portal:Character encodings
 * 82) Portal:Charity
 * 83) Portal:Chemical engineering
 * 84) Portal:Chemical synthesis
 * 85) Portal:Chickenpox
 * 86) Portal:Chili peppers
 * 87) Portal:Chongqing Rail Transit
 * 88) Portal:Climate
 * 89) Portal:Communication
 * 90) Portal:Community of Madrid
 * 91) Portal:Computer files
 * 92) Portal:Concurrent computing
 * 93) Portal:Conservation biology
 * 94) Portal:Containers
 * 95) Portal:Contract bridge
 * 96) Portal:Convicts in Australia
 * 97) Portal:Copenhagen Metro
 * 98) Portal:Crochet
 * 99) Portal:Cucurbita
 * 100) Portal:Culture of Albania
 * 101) Portal:Culture of Argentina
 * 102) Portal:Culture of Armenia
 * 103) Portal:Culture of Assam
 * 104) Portal:Culture of Australia
 * 105) Portal:Culture of Austria
 * 106) Portal:Culture of Azerbaijan
 * 107) Portal:Culture of Bahrain
 * 108) Portal:Culture of Bangladesh
 * 109) Portal:Culture of Belarus
 * 110) Portal:Culture of Belgium
 * 111) Portal:Culture of Belize
 * 112) Portal:Culture of Bengal
 * 113) Portal:Culture of Cornwall
 * 114) Portal:Culture of Djibouti
 * 115) Portal:Culture of England
 * 116) Portal:Culture of Kerala
 * 117) Portal:Culture of Somalia
 * 118) Portal:Culture of West Bengal
 * 119) Portal:Curitiba
 * 120) Portal:Databases
 * 121) Portal:Data mining
 * 122) Portal:Data storage
 * 123) Portal:Deforestation and desertification
 * 124) Portal:Delta Air Lines
 * 125) Portal:Demi Lovato
 * 126) Portal:Demography
 * 127) Portal:Desalination
 * 128) Portal:Development of the human body
 * 129) Portal:Disease
 * 130) Portal:Disney Princess
 * 131) Portal:Dmitri Mendeleev
 * 132) Portal:Dublin
 * 133) Portal:DVD
 * 134) Portal:Eating
 * 135) Portal:Electronic components
 * 136) Portal:Elizabeth Cady Stanton
 * 137) Portal:Elizabeth I of England
 * 138) Portal:Ellie Goulding
 * 139) Portal:Embedded systems
 * 140) Portal:Embroidery
 * 141) Portal:Emmeline Pankhurst
 * 142) Portal:Emmy Awards
 * 143) Portal:Enugu
 * 144) Portal:Euro
 * 145) Portal:Eurostar
 * 146) Portal:Even-toed ungulates
 * 147) Portal:Executables
 * 148) Portal:Experimental aircraft
 * 149) Portal:Falkland Islands
 * 150) Portal:Fibers
 * 151) Portal:File sharing
 * 152) Portal:File systems
 * 153) Portal:Frankfurt
 * 154) Portal:Gaels
 * 155) Portal:Galicia (Spain)
 * 156) Portal:Gardens
 * 157) Portal:Gemstones
 * 158) Portal:Geotechnical engineering
 * 159) Portal:Geothermal power
 * 160) Portal:Glass
 * 161) Portal:Glass production
 * 162) Portal:GLONASS
 * 163) Portal:Guangzhou Metro
 * 164) Portal:Habitats
 * 165) Portal:Hall of Fame for Great Americans
 * 166) Portal:Helicopters
 * 167) Portal:Helmets
 * 168) Portal:Helsinki
 * 169) Portal:Hilary Duff
 * 170) Portal:Hiroshima
 * 171) Portal:History of computing
 * 172) Portal:Honey bees
 * 173) Portal:Honolulu County, Hawaii
 * 174) Portal:Hubble Space Telescope
 * 175) Portal:Hummingbirds
 * 176) Portal:HVAC
 * 177) Portal:Hymenoptera
 * 178) Portal:Intermodal containers
 * 179) Portal:International Council for Science
 * 180) Portal:International Space Station
 * 181) Portal:Interstate Highway System
 * 182) Portal:IOS
 * 183) Portal:IPv6
 * 184) Portal:Ithaca, New York
 * 185) Portal:James Webb Space Telescope
 * 186) Portal:Jammu and Kashmir
 * 187) Portal:JavaScript
 * 188) Portal:Jay-Z
 * 189) Portal:John Major
 * 190) Portal:Kabul
 * 191) Portal:KFC
 * 192) Portal:Khuzestan Province
 * 193) Portal:Launch vehicles
 * 194) Portal:Laundry
 * 195) Portal:Lenovo
 * 196) Portal:Leo Tolstoy
 * 197) Portal:Library classification systems
 * 198) Portal:Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
 * 199) Portal:Longevity
 * 200) Portal:Los Angeles International Airport
 * 201) Portal:Love
 * 202) Portal:Lyra (constellation)
 * 203) Portal:MacOS
 * 204) Portal:Macroeconomics
 * 205) Portal:Madrid
 * 206) Portal:Mail
 * 207) Portal:Malaria
 * 208) Portal:Malware
 * 209) Portal:Manhattan Project
 * 210) Portal:Mao Zedong
 * 211) Portal:Marrakesh
 * 212) Portal:Mathematics and art
 * 213) Portal:Mattel
 * 214) Portal:Mayotte
 * 215) Portal:Media culture
 * 216) Portal:Media manipulation
 * 217) Portal:Medications
 * 218) Portal:Men
 * 219) Portal:Metalworking
 * 220) Portal:Metropolitan Transportation Authority
 * 221) Portal:Michael Faraday
 * 222) Portal:Microeconomics
 * 223) Portal:Milan Metro
 * 224) Portal:Military aircraft
 * 225) Portal:Military deception
 * 226) Portal:Mixed reality
 * 227) Portal:Modern history
 * 228) Portal:Mood disorders
 * 229) Portal:Morpeth, Northumberland
 * 230) Portal:Moscow Metro
 * 231) Portal:MPEG
 * 232) Portal:MTR
 * 233) Portal:Multihulls
 * 234) Portal:Museums
 * 235) Portal:Music of Scotland
 * 236) Portal:NASA
 * 237) Portal:National anthems
 * 238) Portal:Natural language processing
 * 239) Portal:Neoplasms
 * 240) Portal:New Delhi
 * 241) Portal:Northern Cyprus
 * 242) Portal:Nuclear weapons
 * 243) Portal:Nuts
 * 244) Portal:Odd-toed ungulates
 * 245) Portal:Ores
 * 246) Portal:Organ transplantation
 * 247) Portal:Orthoptera
 * 248) Portal:Oslo
 * 249) Portal:Palmyra
 * 250) Portal:Pan-Africanism
 * 251) Portal:Panasonic
 * 252) Portal:Parrots
 * 253) Portal:Parties
 * 254) Portal:Peanuts
 * 255) Portal:Peanuts (comic strip)
 * 256) Portal:Perl
 * 257) Portal:Permaculture
 * 258) Portal:Pesticides
 * 259) Portal:Physical fitness
 * 260) Portal:Physiology
 * 261) Portal:Plant nutrition
 * 262) Portal:Porcelain
 * 263) Portal:Ports and harbors
 * 264) Portal:Pre-Columbian era
 * 265) Portal:Prehistoric Scotland
 * 266) Portal:Private transport
 * 267) Portal:Programming languages
 * 268) Portal:Programming paradigms
 * 269) Portal:Prostitution
 * 270) Portal:Protests
 * 271) Portal:Psychological manipulation
 * 272) Portal:P. T. Barnum
 * 273) Portal:Public housing in the United Kingdom
 * 274) Portal:Public transport in Helsinki
 * 275) Portal:Public transport in Istanbul
 * 276) Portal:Pueblos
 * 277) Portal:Pune
 * 278) Portal:Quilting
 * 279) Portal:Racing
 * 280) Portal:Radiation
 * 281) Portal:RAID
 * 282) Portal:Rail transport in Argentina
 * 283) Portal:Rail transport in Finland
 * 284) Portal:Rail transport in Germany
 * 285) Portal:Rail transport in Israel
 * 286) Portal:Rail transport in Malaysia
 * 287) Portal:Rail transport in Norway
 * 288) Portal:Rail transport in Singapore
 * 289) Portal:Rail transport in Spain
 * 290) Portal:Rail transport in Sri Lanka
 * 291) Portal:Rail transport in Thailand
 * 292) Portal:Rail transport in the United Arab Emirates
 * 293) Portal:Realism (arts)
 * 294) Portal:Recycling
 * 295) Portal:Religion in China
 * 296) Portal:Religion in Egypt
 * 297) Portal:Religion in Iran
 * 298) Portal:Religion in Israel
 * 299) Portal:Religion in Mexico
 * 300) Portal:Religion in Mozambique
 * 301) Portal:Religion in Myanmar
 * 302) Portal:Religion in Norway
 * 303) Portal:Religion in Pakistan
 * 304) Portal:Religion in Poland
 * 305) Portal:Religion in Portugal
 * 306) Portal:Religion in Romania
 * 307) Portal:Religion in Scotland
 * 308) Portal:Religion in South Africa
 * 309) Portal:Religion in Sweden
 * 310) Portal:Religion in Thailand
 * 311) Portal:Religion in Turkey
 * 312) Portal:Religion in Zimbabwe
 * 313) Portal:Republic of Artsakh
 * 314) Portal:Revolutions
 * 315) Portal:Reykjavík
 * 316) Portal:Rhythm
 * 317) Portal:Rocket engines
 * 318) Portal:Rodenticides
 * 319) Portal:Roofs
 * 320) Portal:Roscosmos
 * 321) Portal:Roses
 * 322) Portal:Rowing
 * 323) Portal:RuPaul
 * 324) Portal:Saint Helena
 * 325) Portal:Sales
 * 326) Portal:San Juan, Puerto Rico
 * 327) Portal:San Marino
 * 328) Portal:São Paulo
 * 329) Portal:Scottish art
 * 330) Portal:Scottish clans
 * 331) Portal:Sex work
 * 332) Portal:Shinkansen
 * 333) Portal:Shipbuilding
 * 334) Portal:Silk
 * 335) Portal:Simple living
 * 336) Portal:SkyTrain (Vancouver)
 * 337) Portal:South Ossetia
 * 338) Portal:Space Shuttles
 * 339) Portal:SpaceX
 * 340) Portal:Spike Lee
 * 341) Portal:SQL
 * 342) Portal:Starbucks
 * 343) Portal:Statue of Liberty
 * 344) Portal:Stem cells
 * 345) Portal:Stonehenge
 * 346) Portal:Street newspapers
 * 347) Portal:Stuttgart
 * 348) Portal:Submarines
 * 349) Portal:Suffragettes
 * 350) Portal:Susan B. Anthony
 * 351) Portal:Systems
 * 352) Portal:Tallinn
 * 353) Portal:Tashkent
 * 354) Portal:Telephony
 * 355) Portal:Tents
 * 356) Portal:Tigers
 * 357) Portal:Tobacco
 * 358) Portal:Tomatoes
 * 359) Portal:Toronto Transit Commission
 * 360) Portal:Tortoises
 * 361) Portal:Transnistria
 * 362) Portal:Transport in Afghanistan
 * 363) Portal:Transport in Barcelona
 * 364) Portal:Transport in Belgium
 * 365) Portal:Transport in Bristol
 * 366) Portal:Transport in Bucharest
 * 367) Portal:Transport in Buckinghamshire
 * 368) Portal:Transport in Cardiff
 * 369) Portal:Transport in Chennai
 * 370) Portal:Transport in China
 * 371) Portal:Transport in Edinburgh
 * 372) Portal:Transport in Glasgow
 * 373) Portal:Transport in Guyana
 * 374) Portal:Transport in Hong Kong
 * 375) Portal:Transport in India
 * 376) Portal:Transport in Ireland
 * 377) Portal:Transport in Israel
 * 378) Portal:Transport in Kiev
 * 379) Portal:Transport in London
 * 380) Portal:Transport in Somerset
 * 381) Portal:Transport in Tamil Nadu
 * 382) Portal:Transport in Tiruchirappalli
 * 383) Portal:Transport in Vietnam
 * 384) Portal:Transport in Warsaw
 * 385) Portal:Tuberculosis
 * 386) Portal:Twitter
 * 387) Portal:Umayyad Caliphate
 * 388) Portal:United States Armed Forces
 * 389) Portal:United States Congress
 * 390) Portal:USB
 * 391) Portal:Valencian Community
 * 392) Portal:Vijayawada
 * 393) Portal:Voting
 * 394) Portal:Washington Metro
 * 395) Portal:Waterfalls
 * 396) Portal:Weapons
 * 397) Portal:Weaving
 * 398) Portal:Web browsers
 * 399) Portal:Websites
 * 400) Portal:Wendy's
 * 401) Portal:Women's prisons in the United States
 * 402) Portal:Woodworking
 * 403) Portal:World Chess Championships
 * 404) Portal:Yangtze

Keep 'em coming!
And I'll see you next issue.

Sincerely,  &mdash; The Transhumanist   08:08, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

We're almost there
We just hit 4,940 portals.

We have 3 more days left in the year to make it to 5,000.

We're almost there! &mdash; The Transhumanist  09:30, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

We can now crop the tops of pics to make banners
Before, we could only cut off the bottom of pics.

User:FR30799386 has pulled it off, and made the upgrade to Portal image banner...

So, this:

Becomes this:

Here's the code for the above banner:

To see it employed in a portal, check out Portal:Niagara Falls.

About that end of the year goal...
We were racing against time to create 5,000 portals by the end of the year (just for the heck of it).

We made it. We've passed the 5,000 portals mark, with time to spare!

And the 5,000th portal is Portal:Major League Baseball, by Happypillsjr.

Congratulations!

What's next?
The 10,000th portal mark. But...

...there is plenty else to do in addition to building new portals:


 * 1) The new portals need to be linked to from the encyclopedia.
 * 2) On those portals about subjects that are not typically capitalized, the search parameters need to be refined/expanded, to maximize the chances of Did you know and In the news items being found and displayed.
 * 3) A Recognized content section needs to be added to each portal that has a corresponding WikiProject.
 * 4) Addition of a category on those portals that lack a subject category.
 * 5) Implement the portal category system, adding the appropriate categories to each portal.
 * 6) Upgrade, and complete (as per the tasks enumerated above), the old-style portals that are not regularly maintained, which have not been converted yet (about 1,100 of them).
 * 7) Find and fix the remaining bugs in the underlying lua modules.
 * 8) Build portal tools (scripts) to assist in the creation, development, and maintenance of portals.
 * 9) Build a script to help build navbox footer templates, via the harvesting of categories, amongst other methods.
 * 10) Update the portal building instructions.
 * 11) Update the portal guideline.
 * 12) Refine the programming of the portals to reduce their load time.
 * 13) Design and develop the next generation of portals and portal components.

And whatever else you can dream up.

But most of all, have a...



Happy New Year! , thank you for your contributions to the Portals Project, and have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year.

Sincerely,  &mdash; The Transhumanist   11:54, 30 December 2018 (UTC)

Help reviewing proposed edits?
Hi!

I see you are a member of the Wikipedia project for journalism. I was a journalist for 25 years so it's a topic that interests me. Anyway, I have a conflict of interest with respect to the article about the journalist Jonathan Swan as a paid consultant to his current publisher, Axios. I think the article can be massively improved and I've made a series of proposed changes here: Talk:Jonathan_Swan. If you could take a look, it would be much appreciated. I don't make edits directly on the article because of the WP: COI policy. Thanks! Ed BC1278 (talk) 19:16, 1 January 2019 (UTC)BC1278

Ways to improve Donald Heflin
Hello, Gazamp,

Thanks for creating Donald Heflin! I edit here too, under the username Rosguill and it's nice to meet you :-)

I wanted to let you know that I have tagged the page as having some issues to fix, as a part of our page curation process and note that:-

The tags can be removed by you or another editor once the issues they mention are addressed. If you have questions, leave a comment here and prepend it with. And, don't forget to sign your reply with. For broader editing help, please visit the Teahouse.

Delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.

signed,Rosguill talk 23:58, 12 January 2019 (UTC)

WikiProject Portals update #026, 20 Jan 2019
Well, here's the first issue of the new year. Enjoy...

New participants
A hearty welcome to new arrivals to the portals department:
 * Emoteplump
 * Pakieditor
 * CASSIOPEIA
 * Venomous Sniper
 * DannyS712

Harvesting categories tool prototype
DannyS712 has created a user script prototype, User:DannyS712/Cat links, that can pull members from a category, a functionality we've been after since the project's revamp last Spring. Now, it's a matter of applying this technique to scripts that will place the items where needed, such as in a section starter script and/or portal builder script.

New portals since last issue

 * 1) Academic publishing
 * 2) Accounting
 * 3) Adam and Eve
 * 4) African Great Lakes
 * 5) Al Green
 * 6) Alternative views
 * 7) America's Next Top Model
 * 8) Andaman and Nicobar Islands
 * 9) Angles
 * 10) Applied mathematics
 * 11) Arabic
 * 12) Areas of mathematics
 * 13) Atlanta metropolitan area
 * 14) Atlantic Ocean
 * 15) Big Bash League
 * 16) Bijelo Dugme
 * 17) Bill Cosby
 * 18) Boats
 * 19) Bombardier Aerospace
 * 20) Bruce Willis
 * 21) Canadian law
 * 22) Cannons
 * 23) Caribbean American
 * 24) Chinese American
 * 25) Chinese Canadians
 * 26) Chinese gardens
 * 27) Chris Brown
 * 28) City
 * 29) Common law
 * 30) Criminal law
 * 31) Czechoslovakia
 * 32) Data
 * 33) Data warehouses
 * 34) DC Comics
 * 35) Deities
 * 36) DeKalb County
 * 37) Destiny's Child
 * 38) Differential equations
 * 39) Discrete geometry
 * 40) East Asia
 * 41) Economy of China
 * 42) Economy of India
 * 43) Economy of Malaysia
 * 44) Economy of the United Kingdom
 * 45) Ellen DeGeneres
 * 46) Email clients
 * 47) E
 * 48) Equations
 * 49) European Americans
 * 50) Filipino Americans
 * 51) Football in Algeria
 * 52) Fox Corporation
 * 53) Fractions and ratios
 * 54) Functional analysis
 * 55) Game theory
 * 56) Girlguiding
 * 57) Gloucestershire
 * 58) Grazhdanskaya Oborona
 * 59) Greek diaspora
 * 60) Habsburg Monarchy
 * 61) Hilbert's problems
 * 62) Hoodoo Gurus
 * 63) Hyundai Motor Company
 * 64) Iggy Azalea
 * 65) Indian Ocean
 * 66) Infinity
 * 67) Information theory
 * 68) Integrals
 * 69) Irish diaspora
 * 70) Irrational numbers
 * 71) Italian diaspora
 * 72) Japanese diaspora
 * 73) J. Cole
 * 74) Jennifer Lopez
 * 75) Jessica Lange
 * 76) John Fogerty
 * 77) Kehlani
 * 78) Kiev
 * 79) K. Michelle
 * 80) Knot theory
 * 81) Kool & the Gang
 * 82) Lakes in China
 * 83) Lake Van
 * 84) Leonardo DiCaprio
 * 85) Limerick
 * 86) Literary composition
 * 87) Long Island Rail Road
 * 88) Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
 * 89) Lukas Graham
 * 90) Mathematical optimization
 * 91) Matt Damon
 * 92) Merchant ships
 * 93) Metallic means
 * 94) Metro-North Railroad
 * 95) Microsoft Windows
 * 96) Military of India
 * 97) Miss America
 * 98) Modulation
 * 99) Moon landing
 * 100) Mozilla
 * 101) Music of Ireland
 * 102) Narratives
 * 103) Nashville
 * 104) Nassau County
 * 105) Norfolk
 * 106) Nottinghamshire
 * 107) One Life to Live
 * 108) Overseas Chinese
 * 109) Percentages
 * 110) Probability distributions
 * 111) Public Broadcasting Service
 * 112) Quezon City
 * 113) Raven-Symoné
 * 114) R. Kelly
 * 115) Rodeo
 * 116) RuneScape
 * 117) Sarah Silverman
 * 118) Saturn rockets
 * 119) Science and technology
 * 120) Sesame Street
 * 121) Seth MacFarlane
 * 122) Ships
 * 123) Shipwrecks
 * 124) Shropshire
 * 125) Spaceports
 * 126) Space suits
 * 127) Spanish diaspora
 * 128) Steam locomotives
 * 129) Suffolk
 * 130) Suzuki
 * 131) Tanks
 * 132) Tensors
 * 133) The CW
 * 134) Thomas Aquinas
 * 135) T.I.
 * 136) TISM
 * 137) Tom Cruise
 * 138) Toni Braxton
 * 139) Toyota
 * 140) Transportation in the Philippines
 * 141) True Blood
 * 142) Violin
 * 143) Virgin Group
 * 144) Vladimir Putin
 * 145) Volkswagen
 * 146) Volume
 * 147) Warner Bros.
 * 148) Warships
 * 149) Warwickshire
 * 150) Washington D.C.
 * 151) [[Portal:Watercraft|
 * 152) Web syndication
 * 153) Wikis
 * 154) Witchcraft
 * 155) Women's sports
 * 156) World of Warcraft

What else is going on
There have been some discussions at Wikipedia talk:Portal guidelines.

DreamyJazz is working on a bot to place links to portals on root articles, category pages, and navigation footer templates.

Portal bugs are getting dealt with soon after they are reported.

Lots of wikignome activity (using Hotcat, etc.).

Keep up the good work. &mdash; The Transhumanist  08:16, 20 January 2019 (UTC)

An invitation to discussion
I kindly invite you to the discussion on Template talk:Infobox election to decide whether to bold the winner in the election infobox. Lmmnhn (talk) 19:23, 20 January 2019 (UTC)

Portal styles
For a visually intensive portal, see Portal:Hummingbirds.

If you find any other portals that stand out, please send me the links so I can include them in the next issue. Thank you.

Conversion continues
There are about 1100 portals left in the old style, with subpages and static excerpts. As those are very labor intensive to maintain (because their maintenance is manual), all those except the ones with active maintainers (about 100) are slated for upgrade = approximately 1000. We started with 1500, and so over a quarter of them have been processed so far. That's good, but at this rate, conversion will take another 3 years. So, some automation (AWB?) is in order. We just need to keep at it, and push down on the gas pedal a bit harder.

You can find the old-style portals with an insource search of "box portal skeleton".

Flagship portals: the portals on the Main Page
Speaking of upgrades...

The following portals are listed in the header at the top of Wikipedia's Main Page, and get far more traffic than all other portals:


 * 1) Portal:Arts
 * 2) Portal:Biography
 * 3) Portal:Geography
 * 4) Portal:History
 * 5) Portal:Mathematics
 * 6) Portal:Science
 * 7) Portal:Society
 * 8) Portal:Technology

Of those, all but one have been revamped to an automated self-updating single-page design.

The remaining one, Portal:Mathematics has manual maintainers, and has been partially upgraded.

As these are our flagship fleet, they need to be kept in top-notch condition.

Check 'em out, and improve them if you can.

And be sure they are on your watchlist.

New portals since last issue

 * Accomack County
 * Adair County
 * Adair County
 * Adams County
 * Adidas
 * Airbus
 * Americas
 * Bangladesh Armed Forces
 * Bedfordshire
 * Bicycles
 * Boeing
 * Chester County
 * Conspiracy theories
 * Corals
 * County Durham
 * Culture of the United States
 * DC Universe
 * Dragons
 * Economy of Pakistan
 * Electricity
 * Ethnic groups
 * European Union law
 * Fatimid Caliphate
 * Flanders
 * Frederick County
 * Fujian
 * German language
 * Global issues
 * Greek mathematics
 * Grisons
 * Guangxi
 * Hebei
 * Henan
 * Herefordshire
 * History of North America
 * Hollywood
 * Hubei
 * Hunan
 * Hybrid
 * Inner Mongolia
 * Jet engines
 * Jiangsu
 * Johor
 * Johor Bahru
 * Julius Caesar
 * Kuala Lumpur
 * Lake Constance
 * Lee Kuan Yew
 * Lufthansa
 * Lunar eclipses
 * Magnetism
 * Menstrual cycle
 * Mustelids
 * Mutations
 * New York University
 * Nord-du-Québec
 * North Africa
 * PepsiCo
 * Pitcairn Islands
 * Podcasting
 * Quantum electrodynamics
 * Quantum mechanics
 * Rawalpindi
 * Réunion
 * Roads in Pakistan
 * Rockefeller Center
 * Sichuan
 * St. Gallen
 * State University of New York
 * Temperature
 * Tsunamis
 * Veterinary medicine
 * Vorarlberg
 * Walgreens
 * Walmart
 * Weasels
 * Xinjiang
 * Yunnan

Keep 'em coming!

Deorphanizing the new portals
As you know, thousands of the new portals are orphans, that is, having no links to them from article space. For all practical purposes, that means they are not part of the encyclopedia yet, and readers will be unlikely to find them.

What is needed are links to these portals from the See also sections of the corresponding root articles.

Dreamy Jazz to the rescue...

Dreamy Jazz has created a bot to place the corresponding category link to the end of each portal (if it is missing), and place a link to each portal in the See also section of the corresponding root articles.

That bot, named User:Dreamy Jazz Bot, is currently in its trial period performing the above described edits!

To take a look at the edits it has made so far, see Special:Contributions/Dreamy_Jazz_Bot.

It shouldn't be long before the bot is processing the entire set of new portals.

Good news indeed.

Way to go, Dreamy Jazz!

And, that's a wrap
That's all I have to report this time around.

No doubt there will be more to tell soon.

Until then,   &mdash; The Transhumanist   13:12, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

WikiProject Portals update #028, 04 Feb 2019
Here's a quicky status report:


 * Old-style portals:   1,018
 * Single-page portals: 4,367
 * Total portals:       5,385

But of course, there has been more going on than just that...

Dreamy Jazz Bot is up and running!
Dreamy Jazz Bot has been approved and is now up and running.

What it does is places missing links to orphaned portals. It places a link in the See also section of the corresponding root article, and it puts one at the top of the corresponding category page.

We have thousands of new portals that have yet to be added to the encyclopedia proper, just waiting to go live.

When they do go live, over the coming days or weeks, due to Dreamy Jazz Bot, it will be like an explosion of new portals on the scene. We should expect an increase in awareness and interest in the portals project. Perhaps even new participants.

Get ready...

Get set...

Go!

Another sockpuppet infiltrator has been discovered
User:Emoteplump, a recent contributor to the portals project, was discovered to be a sockpuppet account of an indefinitely blocked user.

When that happens, admins endeavor to eradicate everything the editor contributed. This aftermath has left a wake of destruction throughout the portals department, again.

The following portals which have been speedy deleted, are in the process of being re-created. Please feel free to help to turn these blue again:


 * Portal:Adidas
 * Portal:AFC Asian Cup
 * Portal:Airbus
 * Portal:Anhui
 * Portal:Bicycles
 * Portal:Blue Cheese
 * Portal:Boeing
 * Portal:British Airways
 * Portal:Carcinogen
 * Portal:ComfortDelGro
 * Portal:Construction
 * Portal:Corals
 * Portal:Cross-Strait relations
 * Portal:Derry
 * Portal:Duke University
 * Portal:Electricity
 * Portal:Ethnic groups
 * Portal:Extraterrestrial life
 * Portal:Flanders
 * Portal:Fujian
 * Portal:Gansu
 * Portal:German language
 * Portal:Gordon Ramsay
 * Portal:Government of Australia
 * Portal:Government of Canada
 * Portal:Government of Hong Kong
 * Portal:Government of Indonesia
 * Portal:Government of Ireland
 * Portal:Government of Japan
 * Portal:Government of Malaysia
 * Portal:Government of Russia
 * Portal:Government of Singapore
 * Portal:Government of Spain
 * Portal:Government of Thailand
 * Portal:Government of the United Kingdom
 * Portal:Government of Ukraine
 * Portal:Grapes
 * Portal:Guangxi
 * Portal:Guizhou
 * Portal:Hasbro
 * Portal:Hebei
 * Portal:Heilongjiang
 * Portal:Henan
 * Portal:Hillary Clinton
 * Portal:History of art
 * Portal:History of North America
 * Portal:History of Thailand
 * Portal:Hollywood
 * Portal:Hubei
 * Portal:Hunan
 * Portal:Hybrid (biology)
 * Portal:Hydrogen
 * Portal:Imperial College London
 * Portal:Inner Mongolia
 * Portal:Japan Airlines
 * Portal:Jet engines
 * Portal:Jet Engines
 * Portal:Jiangsu
 * Portal:Jiangxi
 * Portal:Jilin
 * Portal:Johor Bahru
 * Portal:Julius Caesar
 * Portal:JYP Entertainment
 * Portal:Kedah
 * Portal:Kelantan
 * Portal:Kuala Lumpur
 * Portal:Labuan
 * Portal:Lee Kuan Yew
 * Portal:Liaoning
 * Portal:Lufthansa
 * Portal:Magnetism
 * Portal:McLaren
 * Portal:Menstrual cycle
 * Portal:Monash University
 * Portal:Mutations
 * Portal:Nanyang Technological University
 * Portal:National University of Singapore
 * Portal:Negeri Sembilan
 * Portal:Nestlé
 * Portal:Nike, Inc.
 * Portal:Ningxia
 * Portal:Nissan
 * Portal:North Africa
 * Portal:North Pole
 * Portal:Pahang
 * Portal:Penang
 * Portal:PepsiCo
 * Portal:Perak
 * Portal:Perlis
 * Portal:Qinghai
 * Portal:Quantum electrodynamics
 * Portal:Quantum mechanics
 * Portal:S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Portal:Selangor
 * Portal:Shanxi
 * Portal:Sichuan
 * Portal:SM Entertainment
 * Portal:South Pole
 * Portal:Subway (restaurant)
 * Portal:Temperature
 * Portal:Terengganu
 * Portal:Uber
 * Portal:Veterinary medicine
 * Portal:Volvo Buses
 * Portal:Walgreens
 * Portal:Walmart
 * Portal:Xinjiang
 * Portal:Yahoo!
 * Portal:Yale University
 * Portal:YG Entertainment
 * Portal:Yunnan
 * Portal:Zhejiang

And the corresponding talk pages:


 * Portal talk:Adidas
 * Portal talk:Airbus
 * Portal talk:Bicycles
 * Portal talk:Boeing
 * Portal talk:Carcinogen
 * Portal talk:Corals
 * Portal talk:Duke University
 * Portal talk:Electricity
 * Portal talk:Ethnic groups
 * Portal talk:Flanders
 * Portal talk:Fujian
 * Portal talk:German language
 * Portal talk:Girls' Generation
 * Portal talk:Government of Australia
 * Portal talk:Government of Canada
 * Portal talk:Government of Hong Kong
 * Portal talk:Government of Indonesia
 * Portal talk:Government of Ireland
 * Portal talk:Government of Japan
 * Portal talk:Government of Malaysia
 * Portal talk:Government of Russia
 * Portal talk:Government of Singapore
 * Portal talk:Government of Spain
 * Portal talk:Government of Thailand
 * Portal talk:Government of the United Kingdom
 * Portal talk:Government of Ukraine
 * Portal talk:Grapes
 * Portal talk:Guangxi
 * Portal talk:Hebei
 * Portal talk:Henan
 * Portal talk:Hillary Clinton
 * Portal talk:History of art
 * Portal talk:Hollywood
 * Portal talk:Hubei
 * Portal talk:Hunan
 * Portal talk:Hybrid (biology)
 * Portal talk:Imperial College London
 * Portal talk:Inner Mongolia
 * Portal talk:Jet engines
 * Portal talk:Jet Engines
 * Portal talk:Jiangsu
 * Portal talk:Johor Bahru
 * Portal talk:Julius Caesar
 * Portal talk:JYP Entertainment
 * Portal talk:Kuala Lumpur
 * Portal talk:Lee Kuan Yew
 * Portal talk:Lufthansa
 * Portal talk:Magnetism
 * Portal talk:Menstrual cycle
 * Portal talk:Monash University
 * Portal talk:Mutations
 * Portal talk:Nanyang Technological University
 * Portal talk:National University of Singapore
 * Portal talk:Nike, Inc.
 * Portal talk:North Africa
 * Portal talk:PepsiCo
 * Portal talk:Quantum electrodynamics
 * Portal talk:Quantum mechanics
 * Portal talk:Sichuan
 * Portal talk:SM Entertainment
 * Portal talk:Subway (restaurant)
 * Portal talk:Temperature
 * Portal talk:Veterinary medicine
 * Portal talk:Walgreens
 * Portal talk:Walmart
 * Portal talk:Xinjiang
 * Portal talk:Yale University
 * Portal talk:YG Entertainment
 * Portal talk:Yunnan

New portals since the last issue

 * Portal:American_Horror_Story
 * Portal:Bad_Religion
 * Portal:Bicycles
 * Portal:British_Airways
 * Portal:Campania
 * Portal:Ciara
 * Portal:Derry
 * Portal:Extraterrestrial_life
 * Portal:Fujian
 * Portal:Guangxi
 * Portal:Imperial_College_London
 * Portal:Islamic_Golden_Age
 * Portal:Ivy_Queen
 * Portal:Japan_Airlines
 * Portal:Japanese_language
 * Portal:Kate_Ceberano
 * Portal:Labuan
 * Portal:LL_Cool_J
 * Portal:New_York_City_Police_Department
 * Portal:Penang
 * Portal:PepsiCo
 * Portal:Perak
 * Portal:Perlis
 * Portal:Politics_of_Ukraine
 * Portal:Quantum_mechanics
 * Portal:Salads
 * Portal:Selangor
 * Portal:Shaquille_O'Neal
 * Portal:South_Pole
 * Portal:Supermarket
 * Portal:Temperature
 * Portal:Terengganu
 * Portal:The_Fairly_OddParents
 * Portal:The_Incredibles
 * Portal:Vassar_College
 * Portal:Voivod_(band)
 * Portal:Yu-Gi-Oh!

Keep up the great work
Until next time,   &mdash; The Transhumanist   09:00, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

WikiProject Portals update #029, 13 Feb 2019
Where we are at:
 * Single-page portals: 4,704
 * Total portals:       5,705

The Ref desks survived the proposal to shut them down
You might be familiar with the Ref desks, by their link on every new portal. They are a place you can go to ask volunteers almost any knowledge-related question, and have been a feature of Wikipedia since August of 2005 (or perhaps earlier). They were linked to from portals in an effort to improve their visibility, and to provide a bridge from the encyclopedia proper to project space (the Wikipedia community).

Well, somebody proposed that we get rid of them, and the community decided that that was not going to happen. Thank you for defending the Ref desks!

Here's a link to the dramatic discussion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)/Indefinitely_semiprotecting_the_refdesk#Proposal_II:_Shut_down_the_Ref_Desks

The cleanup after sockpuppet Emoteplump continues...
The wake of disruption left by Emoteplump and the admins who reverted many (but not all) of his/her edits is still undergoing cleanup. We could use all the help we can get on this task...

Almost all of the speedy deleted portals have been rebuilt from scratch.

For the portals he/she restarted (many of which were done mistakenly, overwriting restarts and further development that had already been done), and/or tagged as the maintainer, see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Emoteplump&oldid=881568794#Additional_Portals_under_my_watch

10,000 portals, here we come...
We're at 5,705 portals and counting.

New portals since issue #28

 * 1) Portal:Abitibi-Témiscamingue
 * 2) Portal:Ahold Delhaize
 * 3) Portal:AKB48
 * 4) Portal:Åland Islands
 * 5) Portal:Alaska Airlines
 * 6) Portal:Albanian Civil War
 * 7) Portal:Albertsons
 * 8) Portal:Alevism
 * 9) Portal:All in the Family
 * 10) Portal:Alternative metal
 * 11) Portal:Ambient music
 * 12) Portal:Ancient Near East mythology
 * 13) Portal:Ancient Roman religion
 * 14) Portal:Andrew Cuomo
 * 15) Portal:Anti-consumerism
 * 16) Portal:Antimatter
 * 17) Portal:Arameans
 * 18) Portal:Arianism
 * 19) Portal:Australian Crawl
 * 20) Portal:Bali
 * 21) Portal:Banten
 * 22) Portal:Bengkulu
 * 23) Portal:Black Lives Matter
 * 24) Portal:Bluegrass music
 * 25) Portal:Bonnie Tyler
 * 26) Portal:Breakbeat
 * 27) Portal:Calypso music
 * 28) Portal:Cambridgeshire
 * 29) Portal:Camila Cabello
 * 30) Portal:Capcom
 * 31) Portal:Capsicum
 * 32) Portal:Celtic music
 * 33) Portal:Central American music
 * 34) Portal:Central Java
 * 35) Portal:Central Kalimantan
 * 36) Portal:Central Sulawesi
 * 37) Portal:Chanel
 * 38) Portal:Cinema of Australia
 * 39) Portal:Cognitive psychology
 * 40) Portal:Communication studies
 * 41) Portal:Conservatism in the United States
 * 42) Portal:Cortina d'Ampezzo
 * 43) Portal:Cross-Strait relations
 * 44) Portal:Cryptozoology
 * 45) Portal:Danish folk music
 * 46) Portal:Disco
 * 47) Portal:Dyslexia
 * 48) Portal:East Java
 * 49) Portal:East Kalimantan
 * 50) Portal:East Nusa Tenggara
 * 51) Portal:Easy listening
 * 52) Portal:Ed Sheeran
 * 53) Portal:Ehime
 * 54) Portal:Electricity
 * 55) Portal:Electronica
 * 56) Portal:Electronic rock
 * 57) Portal:English folk music
 * 58) Portal:Environmental technology
 * 59) Portal:Experimental music
 * 60) Portal:Extreme metal
 * 61) Portal:Fall Out Boy
 * 62) Portal:Finnish Defence Forces
 * 63) Portal:Finnish folk music
 * 64) Portal:Football in Croatia
 * 65) Portal:Football in Jordan
 * 66) Portal:Funk
 * 67) Portal:Gamelan
 * 68) Portal:General Mills
 * 69) Portal:Germanic languages
 * 70) Portal:German language
 * 71) Portal:Government of Canada
 * 72) Portal:Government of Hong Kong
 * 73) Portal:Government of Indonesia
 * 74) Portal:Government of Ireland
 * 75) Portal:Government of Malaysia
 * 76) Portal:Government of Russia
 * 77) Portal:Government of Singapore
 * 78) Portal:Government of Spain
 * 79) Portal:Government of Thailand
 * 80) Portal:Grapes
 * 81) Portal:Green Party of the United States
 * 82) Portal:Grinspoon
 * 83) Portal:Gwen Stefani
 * 84) Portal:Hardcore punk
 * 85) Portal:Hardcore techno
 * 86) Portal:Haskell (programming language)
 * 87) Portal:History of art
 * 88) Portal:History of North America
 * 89) Portal:History of Thailand
 * 90) Portal:Hollywood
 * 91) Portal:Hotels
 * 92) Portal:House music
 * 93) Portal:Hungarian folk music
 * 94) Portal:Hunters & Collectors
 * 95) Portal:Hydrogen
 * 96) Portal:Icelandic folk music
 * 97) Portal:Indigenous music of North America
 * 98) Portal:Insomniac Games
 * 99) Portal:International field hockey
 * 100) Portal:International trade
 * 101) Portal:Iranian music
 * 102) Portal:Islamophobia
 * 103) Portal:Jambi
 * 104) Portal:Jet engines
 * 105) Portal:Jordin Sparks
 * 106) Portal:Julius Caesar
 * 107) Portal:Kannur
 * 108) Portal:Kansas City Spurs
 * 109) Portal:Kelly Rowland
 * 110) Portal:Kirby
 * 111) Portal:Kraft Heinz
 * 112) Portal:Krasnoyarsk Krai
 * 113) Portal:Kroger
 * 114) Portal:Kuala Lumpur
 * 115) Portal:Lampung
 * 116) Portal:Larry Kramer
 * 117) Portal:LeBron James
 * 118) Portal:Lehigh Valley
 * 119) Portal:Leicestershire
 * 120) Portal:Liège
 * 121) Portal:Liguria
 * 122) Portal:Los Angeles Aztecs
 * 123) Portal:Los Angeles Wolves
 * 124) Portal:Macedonian language
 * 125) Portal:Magnetism
 * 126) Portal:Maithripala Sirisena
 * 127) Portal:Maluku (province)
 * 128) Portal:Mangoes
 * 129) Portal:Marco Pierre White
 * 130) Portal:McLaren
 * 131) Portal:Menstrual cycle
 * 132) Portal:Metalcore
 * 133) Portal:Miami FC
 * 134) Portal:Microblogging
 * 135) Portal:Microtonal music
 * 136) Portal:Midnight Oil
 * 137) Portal:Minnesota Kicks
 * 138) Portal:Mission: Impossible
 * 139) Portal:Modernism (music)
 * 140) Portal:Moheener Ghoraguli
 * 141) Portal:Mondelez International
 * 142) Portal:Music genres
 * 143) Portal:Music of Bangladesh
 * 144) Portal:Music of India
 * 145) Portal:Music of Italy
 * 146) Portal:Music of Japan
 * 147) Portal:Music of Korea
 * 148) Portal:Music of Latin America
 * 149) Portal:Music of Micronesia
 * 150) Portal:Music of North Africa
 * 151) Portal:Music of Pakistan
 * 152) Portal:Music of Serbia
 * 153) Portal:Music of the Philippines
 * 154) Portal:Music of the United States
 * 155) Portal:Mutations
 * 156) Portal:National Rugby League
 * 157) Portal:Neoclassicism (music)
 * 158) Portal:Netball
 * 159) Portal:New York City Fire Department
 * 160) Portal:Nick Jr.
 * 161) Portal:Nobility
 * 162) Portal:Nordic countries
 * 163) Portal:North Africa
 * 164) Portal:North Kalimantan
 * 165) Portal:North Maluku
 * 166) Portal:North Pole
 * 167) Portal:North Queensland
 * 168) Portal:North Sulawesi
 * 169) Portal:North Sumatra
 * 170) Portal:Norwegian folk music
 * 171) Portal:Papua (province)
 * 172) Portal:Peaches
 * 173) Portal:Politics of Abkhazia
 * 174) Portal:Politics of Afghanistan
 * 175) Portal:Politics of Albania
 * 176) Portal:Politics of Algeria
 * 177) Portal:Politics of Andorra
 * 178) Portal:Politics of Angola
 * 179) Portal:Politics of Antigua and Barbuda
 * 180) Portal:Politics of Argentina
 * 181) Portal:Politics of Artsakh
 * 182) Portal:Politics of Bahrain
 * 183) Portal:Politics of Bangladesh
 * 184) Portal:Politics of Bavaria
 * 185) Portal:Politics of Belarus
 * 186) Portal:Politics of Belgium
 * 187) Portal:Politics of Belize
 * 188) Portal:Politics of Benin
 * 189) Portal:Politics of Bhutan
 * 190) Portal:Politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * 191) Portal:Politics of Botswana
 * 192) Portal:Politics of Brazil
 * 193) Portal:Politics of Brunei
 * 194) Portal:Politics of Bulgaria
 * 195) Portal:Politics of Burkina Faso
 * 196) Portal:Politics of Burundi
 * 197) Portal:Politics of Cambodia
 * 198) Portal:Politics of Cameroon
 * 199) Portal:Politics of China
 * 200) Portal:Politics of São Tomé and Príncipe
 * 201) Portal:Politics of South Sudan
 * 202) Portal:Politics of Sudan
 * 203) Portal:Politics of Tanzania
 * 204) Portal:Politics of the Republic of the Congo
 * 205) Portal:Politics of Togo
 * 206) Portal:Politics of Tunisia
 * 207) Portal:Politics of Uganda
 * 208) Portal:Pop rock
 * 209) Portal:Rap rock
 * 210) Portal:Ras Al Khaimah
 * 211) Portal:Riau
 * 212) Portal:Riau Islands
 * 213) Portal:Ricky Martin
 * 214) Portal:Royal Canadian Air Force
 * 215) Portal:Rutland
 * 216) Portal:Saxophones
 * 217) Portal:Semiotics
 * 218) Portal:Ska
 * 219) Portal:Soca music
 * 220) Portal:Soul music
 * 221) Portal:Sound sculptures
 * 222) Portal:Southeast Sulawesi
 * 223) Portal:South Kalimantan
 * 224) Portal:South Sulawesi
 * 225) Portal:South Sumatra
 * 226) Portal:Space: 1999
 * 227) Portal:Special Region of Yogyakarta
 * 228) Portal:Swedish folk music
 * 229) Portal:Tamil language
 * 230) Portal:Techno
 * 231) Portal:Terry Brooks
 * 232) Portal:The Living End
 * 233) Portal:Thrissur
 * 234) Portal:Trance music
 * 235) Portal:Tyrant flycatchers
 * 236) Portal:Veterinary medicine
 * 237) Portal:Wayanad
 * 238) Portal:Welsh folk music
 * 239) Portal:West Champaran district
 * 240) Portal:Western dress codes
 * 241) Portal:West Flanders
 * 242) Portal:West Java
 * 243) Portal:West Kalimantan
 * 244) Portal:West Nusa Tenggara
 * 245) Portal:West Papua (province)
 * 246) Portal:West Sulawesi
 * 247) Portal:West Sumatra
 * 248) Portal:Wildlife of India
 * 249) Portal:Wildlife of Nepal
 * 250) Portal:Windows 10
 * 251) Portal:Winter War
 * 252) Portal:Woodpeckers
 * 253) Portal:Worcestershire
 * 254) Portal:World economy
 * 255) Portal:World Ocean
 * 256) Portal:World Rally Championship
 * 257) Portal:World views
 * 258) Portal:XTC
 * 259) Portal:Yahoo!
 * 260) Portal:Yoruba people
 * 261) Portal:You Am I
 * 262) Portal:Young Wizards
 * 263) Portal:Yugoslavs

Prior to 2018, for the previous 14 years, portal creation was at about 80 portals per year on average. We did over 3 times that in just the past 9 days. At this rate, we'll hit the 10,000 portal mark in 5 months. But, I'm sure we can do it sooner than that.

What's next for portal pages?
There are 5 drives for portal development:
 * 1) Create new portals
 * 2) Expand existing portals, such as with new sections like Recognized content
 * 3) Convert or restart old-style portals into automated single-page portals
 * 4) Link to new portals from the encyclopedia
 * 5) Pageless portals

Let's take a closer look at these...

1: Creating new portals
Portal creation, for subjects that happen to have the necessary support structures already in place, is down to about a minute per portal. The creation part, which is automated, takes about 10 seconds. The other 50 seconds is taken up by manual activities, such as finding candidate subjects, inspecting generated portals, and selecting the portal creation template to be used according to the resources available. Tools are under development to automate these activities as much as possible, to pare portal creation time down even more. Ten seconds each is the goal.

Eventually, we are going to run out of navigation templates to base portals off of. Though there are still thousands to go. But, when they do run out, we'll need an easy way to create more. A nav footer creation script.

Meanwhile, other resources are being explored and developed, such as categories, and methods to harvest the links they contain.

2: Expanding existing portals
The portal collection is growing, not only by the addition of new portals, but by further developing the ones we already have, by...
 * Improving and/or adding search parameters to better power the Did you know and In the news sections.
 * Adding more selected content sections, like Selected biographies.
 * Adding and maintaining Recognized content sections, via JL-Bot.
 * Adding pictures to the image slideshow.
 * Adding panoramic pics.
 * Categorizing portals.

More features will be added as we dream them up and design them. So, don't be shy, make a wish.

3: Converting old portals
By far the hardest and most time-consuming task we have been working on is updating the old portals, the very reason we revamped this WikiProject in the first place.

There are two approaches here:
 * A) Restart a portal from scratch, using our automated tools. For basic no-frills portals, that works find. But, for more elaborate portals, as that tends to lose content and features, the following approach is being tried...
 * B) Upgrade a portal section by section, so little to nothing is lost in the process.

4: Linking to new portals
Or "portal deorphanization"...

Dreamy Jazz Bot is purring along.

And a tool in the form of a script is under development for linking to portals at the time they are created, or shortly thereafter.

5...
See below...

New WikiProject for the post-saved-portal phase of operations...
Saved portals, are portals with a saved page.

What is the next stage in the evolutionary progression?

Quantum portals.

What are quantum portals?

Portals that come into existence when you click on the portal button, and which disappear when you leave the page.

Or, as Pbsouthwood put it:

...portals that exist only as a probability function (algorithm) until you collapse the wave form by observing through the portal button (run the script), and disappear again after use...

Introducing...

WikiProject Quantum portals (see it's talk page).

Keep on keepin' on
...'til next time,   &mdash; The Transhumanist   10:22, 14 February 2019 (UTC)