Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Continents

 __NOINDEX__
 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the miscellaneous page below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the page's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the discussion was:  delete. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 08:42, 28 May 2019 (UTC)

Portal:Continents


Another drive-by navbox-cloned portal, created by @The Transhumanist (TTH) in September 2018.

It looks at first glance like a curated portal with an embedded list, but it's actually just a copy.

The technique is similar to manny fake-curated portals I have brought to MFD (e.g. Electricity, Julius Caesar, Habitats, and Shipwrecks, Australian literature and Ships) ... except that those were copied from categories, and this was copied from a navbox.

It goes like this:
 * 1) TTH creates the portal page, using {{subst:Basic portal start page}}, which draws its "selected articles" list from.
 * 2)    resolves to Template:Continents.  That makes an automated portal with all the links on the navbox in a single "selected articles" lists
 * 3) To create a sectioned list in the portal as in the navbox, TTH appears to have taken the contents of Template:Continents, and reformatted its as sections in the portal section.I verified that's how it was done by copying the list from the portal into WP:AWB, and using AWB's "list compare" to compare it with Template:Continents.  Perfect match, except for subsequent mods to the navbox.

The portal draws its "selected images" solely from the article "continents".

The first save of the portal was simply another example of automated redundant clones of a single navbox which were deleted at two mass deletions: one, and two, where there was overwhelming consensus of a very high turnout to delete a total of 2,555 such portals.

The copying involved in step 3 above simply makes the portal a content fork rather a live clone like the 2,555 mass-deleted pseudo=portals.

However, two newish features of the Wikimedia software mean the redundancy applies in either acse that the article and navboxes offers all the functionality which portals like this set out to offer. Both features are available only to ordinary readers who are not logged in, but you can test them without logging out by right-clicking on a link, and the select "open in private window" (in Firefox) or "open in incognito window" (Chrome).
 * 1) mouseover: on any link, mouseover shows you the picture and the start of the lead.  So the preview-selected page-function of portals is redundant: something almost as good is available automatically on any navbox or other set of links.  Try it on e.g. Template:Continents.
 * 2) automatic imagery galleries: clicking on an image brings up an image gallery of all the images on that page. It's full-screen, so it's actually much better than  a click-for-next image gallery on a portal.   Try it by right-clicking on this link to the article Continents.

Similar features have been available since 2015 to users of Wikipedia's Android app.

That makes the portal simply a bloated clone of the head article and its navbox. The portal's image-slideshow is simply a poor copy of the built-in-slideshow on the head article, and the the portal's "selected foo" article previews are already built into the navbox.

This redundancy has been belatedly acknowledged by TTH, who wrote at the start of this month New encyclopedia program features will likely eventually render most portals obsolete. For example, the pop-up feature of MediaWiki provides much the same functionality as excerpts in portals already, and there is also a slideshow feature to view all the images on the current page (just click on any image, and that activates the slideshow).

Maybe someday, someone with genuine expertise in geography will want build a curated portal which actually trues to meet the WP:PORTAL principle that "Portals serve as enhanced 'Main Pages' for specific broad subjects". A portal which actually added value would not simply try to replicate the navbox, but would add crucial geographers, geographic methodologies, and something about the evolution of knowledge of continents

So I propose that this portal and its sub-pages be deleted per WP:TNT, without prejudice to recreating a curated portal in accordance with whatever criteria the community may have agreed at that time. Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 04:44, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Delete - This portal was created in a wave of reckless portal creation. I don't see any likelihood of a better portal on this topic.  Each of the seven (or however many) continents is a broad subject area that may or may not attract readers, and probably will not attract a portal maintainer.  The article has 5864 daily pageviews (which is more than I would have expected), but the portal has 5 daily pageviews.  I am willing to support deletion without prejudice only because a discussion about prejudice would slow things down.  Robert McClenon (talk) 16:52, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Delete per WP:PORTAL, WP:MEATBOT, WP:REDUNDANTFORK.   SITH   (talk)   12:03, 24 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Delete - Automated portal,  0 subpages, created 2018-09-10 00:27:40 by User:TTH, useless navigation tool, redundant to the existing articles and navboxes, and of lower quality: Portal:Continents. Pldx1 (talk) 13:34, 26 May 2019 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.