Wikipedia:Portal peer review/Geography/archive1

Portal:Geography
Statistics: Five rotating images in the Intro, 20 Selected articles, all FA-class, 20 Selected biographies, all FA-class, 20 Selected pictures, all FP-class, 20 sets of 3 DYK hooks, all with free-use images, 20 Selected quotes, all with free-use images, an In the news section, and a Rotating In this month section.

Looking for any feedback/comments prior to WP:FPORTC. Thanks, &mdash; Cirt (talk) 20:53, 12 November 2012 (UTC)
 *  Notified: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geography, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geology , Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Science, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Oceans , Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mountains ‎, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Europe ‎, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Antarctica, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject South America, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject North America, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Africa ‎, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Asia, Australian Wikipedians' notice board, User talk:Cirt. &mdash; Cirt (talk) 21:05, 12 November 2012 (UTC)


 * I strongly oppose having a Wikinews section in any portal, especially one that links to the main page. Quite simply, they're too inconsistent and generate content too slowly, so adding a Wikinews tie in to the portal drops the overall quality significantly. Taking this tie in specifically as an example, we're drawing from the Wikinews "World" latest news feed. Of the three items in there now, only one is really a geography item, another is a political item, and the third is a military item. The "World" page itself warns that "this category is not used consistently across Wikinews". The feed has three items in it, two from November 8 and one from November 10. That's great... except that the item immediately prior to those three is from March 5. We need to drop our wishful idealism that one day Wikinews will be a functioning project, and accept that they're too unreliable to include in portals.  S ven M anguard   Wha?  22:12, 12 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Done. DIFF. Thank you for the helpful recommendation, &mdash; Cirt (talk) 22:13, 12 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Great! The columns are now unbalanced though. I recommend moving DYK to the left side, either above or below the in this month, to fix the balance.  S ven M anguard   Wha?  22:16, 12 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Done. DIFF. Thanks again for the polite suggestion, &mdash; Cirt (talk) 22:18, 12 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I can only say that the portal looks really great and I couldn't find a single thing I would change. --Tobias1984 (talk) 14:17, 23 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks very much, focusing on Portal:Society at the moment but will come back to this one after that one's done. :) &mdash; Cirt (talk) 04:03, 24 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Overall it looks great, but a few suggestions:
 * The categories section is unbalanced, with more lines on the right than on the left.
 * The In This Month section should be in chronological order, in my opinion.
 * Also in In This Month, I think there should be rotating content for each month. After all, a lot more than four geography-related events happened per month!
 * Overall, there's some empty space on the bottom right. It's not a big deal, but maybe the Quote section could be squeezed into there. But it's really not a big deal.
 * Some of the DYKs are a bit off-topic, such as articles about the Court of Arbitration (New South Wales), the Southern black bream, the Sapporo Factory, the bar jack, and so on. Everything somehow relates to a place, but I suggest including only articles related to geography as a subject. Most of the DYKs are relevant; just a few are really off.
 * Again, the portal is fine as is, but a few improvements would really make it great.  ---   ypnypn (talk) 03:45, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks very much for these comments, I will get on addressing them soon point-by-point, and then respond back here. :) &mdash; Cirt (talk) 03:57, 6 December 2012 (UTC) &mdash; Cirt (talk) 19:49, 16 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Reply to comments by Ypnypn
 * 1) I've fixed the category alignment.
 * 2) The In this month section is in chronological order, by date of the month the event occurred, because it's modeled after sections in other portals called 'Selected anniversaries.
 * 3) If you wish to have more entries per month, that's a great idea, perhaps you could help me select additional relevant dates, if so, feel free to post at Portal talk:Geography and we can collaborate on that. :)
 * 4) The space there is not present on every re-cache of the portal, and really having a tiny bit of space is okay for increased dynamism for the reader so it's different on each purge of the portal main page.
 * 5) I'll go through and tighten the DYK relevancy, good point.
 * Update: I've removed those specific selections from DYK as noted above by . I'll now go through and add more selections into rotation that are more directly relevant to Geography. Thanks again for the helpful suggestions, &mdash; Cirt (talk) 19:47, 4 February 2013 (UTC)


 * For such a big topic, 5-20 items per rotation seems a bit low. Adding a few more would both improve the portal, and show the ever-important "portal is being actively updated" aspect that featured portals ask for. Adam Cuerden (talk) 19:57, 25 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Hey there, thanks for commenting! I agree, that's a good suggestion. Most appreciated, &mdash; Cirt (talk) 21:01, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks again for the idea, this will make this more of a dynamic portal with a good deal more randomization. :) &mdash; Cirt (talk) 21:14, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
 * 1) I've expanded the article selections rotation to 30.
 * 2) Added ten selections to featured pictures, those are now up to 30 as well.
 * 3) Updated and added rotations into DYK selections, that section is also up to 30 sets of 3 hooks each per set.
 * 4) Added an additional ten selections into rotation for quotes, that's now up to 30 as well.