Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Quantum computing

 __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. ‑Scottywong | gossip _ 22:50, 17 August 2019 (UTC)

Portal:Quantum computing


Abandoned mini-portal on the narrow topic of quantum computing, with a fake DYK section. Fails the all three pillars of the WP:POG requirement that portals should be about "broad subject areas, which are likely to attract large numbers of interested readers and portal maintainers"
 * Quantum computing is a niche area of experimental computing. Computing is a part of every aspect of life in a modern developed economy, but quantum computing is a rare creature confined to research labs.  This is a field where the main issue is not its actual use, but its claimed potential see Quantum computing.
 * Wikipedia has limited coverage of the topic. Category:Quantum computing and its two subcats contain a total of only 105 articles
 * It has been unmaintained since its creation in late 2017
 * It has almost no readers. In January–June 2019, it had a |Portal:Quantum_Computing Daily average: 8 pageviews

The portal was created on 27 October 2017 by. The lead of WP:POG says "Do not expect other editors to maintain a portal you create" ... but that has not happened here. After creating the portal on 27 October 2017, Nerd1a4i made only 2 further edits to any part of the portal: one on 28 Oct (the day after creation) and one in April 2018.

This portal uses the old format of multiple subpages. Special:PrefixIndex/Portal:Quantum computing lists:
 * 4 selected articles, and 5 selected biogs. That's a total of only 9 articles, less than half the WP:POG minimum of 20.  2 of the 9 subpages (Selected article/1 and Selected biography/1) still use the old content-fork model.
 * Portal:Quantum computing/News was modified in July 2019 to self-update using the code . However, despite the 365-day scope, the search brings up only one new item. That reflects the narrow sscope of the topic.
 * Portal:Quantum computing/Did you know includes 3 items: Linear optical quantum computing, Quantum decoherence and Quantum supremacy. I can find no trace of any of the 3 ever being part of WP:DYK. So this is just a trivia section, contrary to WP:TRIVIA.  It misappropriates the name of WP:DYK.

Per WP:PORTAL, "Portals serve as enhanced 'Main Pages' for specific broad subjects". But the Wikiedia main page requires huge amounts of work; it is mainatined by several large teams of busy editors. A mini-mainpage also needs lot of ongoing work if it is going to value over the head article. And in this case, the portal is massively less useful in every respect than the head article Quantum computing and its collections of navboxes.

Two newish features of the Wikimedia software means 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 by right-clicking on this link to Quantum information, open in a private/incognito tab, and mouseover any link.
 * 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 Quantum computing, open in a private/incognito tab, and click on any image to start the slideshow

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

Those new technologies set a high bar for any portal which actually tries to add value for the reader. But this portals fails the basic requirements even of the guidelines written before the new technologies changed the game. With a scope of only 105 articles, a navbox can do the job much better. So I say just delete it. Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 20:17, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
 * It is sadly amusing that this portal uses the discredited "classical" content-fork model for a portal rather than any twenty-first-century design, for a technology that proposes to be revolutionary. Robert McClenon (talk) 01:48, 11 August 2019 (UTC)


 * Delete – The overall depth of coverage on Wikipedia about the topic does not meet the topical broadness aspect of WP:POG to qualify a portal. For an overview of available coverage on English Wikipedia for the topic, see Category:Quantum computing. North America1000 20:38, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

Robert McClenon (talk) 14:58, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Delete. Simply too narrow a topic per WP:POG. Britishfinance (talk) 00:38, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Delete - I concur with the analysis by User:BrownHairedGirl, and note that it only achieves 8 daily pageviews by renaming and redirecting. The article has 3354 daily pageviews.  Is User:Northamerica1000 now willing to (1) provide criteria as to what she considers to be too narrow a topic; (2) work with portal critics to identify portals that are agreed to be narrow topics; (3) at least leave alone other nominations of portals for deletion; (4) propose revised criteria for portals that can at least be discussed intelligently?
 * Delete per the thorough investigation by the nominator. This portal has very few views and has been abandoned since its creation, which both contrive WP:POG's mandate that portals be about subjects broad enough to attract large numbers of interested readers and maintainers. Abandoned junk like this lowers the quality of Wikipedia since it becomes outdated and misleading, which causes readers to lose faith in the information provided by this encyclopedia, especially given that science is a fast moving field. Given the niche nature of this topic and the swift abandonment of this portal, I am strongly against allowing recreation. Newshunter12 (talk) 03:29, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Delete this is a worthless portal that should have never been created.Catfurball (talk) 19:32, 12 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Note redirects: Portal:Quantum Computing. This will need to be checked when clearing backlinks. -- Brown HairedGirl  (talk) • (contribs) 23:56, 14 August 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.