Portal talk:Solar System

My Opinion of How this Portal Should Work

I haven't worked on portals before, but when I saw a great featured article, Solar System, having a poor (under construction) portal, I decided to help give this portal a facelift. Now that it is usable (although there is still work to do), I think that the discussion should change to how this portal can continue to be usable and interesting. Therefore, I have posted my thoughts on how this portal should be maintained.

The selected article should change on the first of each month and go down the list headings in the Topics box (excluding the main Solar System article). This has already been partly done via the switch from Sun to Mercury, so I think that the others working on this portal agree with this point. There should be discussion on whether it cycles or new articles are chosen similar to images after the list is done (see next paragraph).

The selected image should similarly switch weekly as there are a lot of images out there. The image should be chosen on this talk page from Wikipedia's featured pictures on objects in the Solar System and there should be a few featured images waiting to be added at the right time so that lack of consensus doesn't ever make the image change late. There should be an archive of the old articles and pictures (I'll get to work on archives immediately after posting this).

People should go through new articles relating to the Solar System and take interesting facts and add them to the Did You Know section. It must be diverse to get people to go to articles of varying content. When it gets too large, someone should create an archive of the oldest facts and remove them. In fact, anything that has regular changing content should have an archive created so that people can look at old things, similarly to how Portal:Astronomy or even the main page has archives (archives would of course be subpages of this portal).

Boxes of primarily link content should go on the right (or the very bottom of the left if there's too many on the right). Meanwhile, boxes of primarily text content should go on the left (one or two could probably be added without compromising design). This kind of organization would make the portal better as even some well-done portals seem quite random in the way they sort their boxes.

We should tell projects where this portal could fit in about this portal and those that agree to help maintain this portal should be added in the "WikiProjects" box. This way, the portal gets added help and is made better while the people viewing this portal see the projects that help with this portal and might decide to join them. Hopefully several projects will help on this portal.

I personally think that this portal has a lot of potential and it would be a good compliment to a good featured topic. I will thus try to help regularly maintain this portal. I hope that everyone interested can agree on how to maintain this portal so it can one day be a featured portal to compliment the many related featured articles. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 19:07, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

• I revised the statement a bit now that it's been a while since I posted this. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 16:01, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Portal peer review

Solar System

All constructive comments are welcome. I have worked on this portal that was previously heavily under construction because it is on a featured topic and a featured topic deserves a featured portal. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 01:17, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

•  Doing... I'll get to the points as I have time. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 11:07, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
  •  Done. Nominated for featured status. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 02:12, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Hey, pretty good looking so far, just a few small things:

• Intro - The solar system in the beginning sentence should be linked.
  •  Done — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 11:07, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
• Article - Article name should be linked in beginning sentence.
  •  Done — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 11:07, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
• Pic - Credit should go directly under the pic, centered.
  •  Done — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 20:15, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
• Did you know - should have an archive.
  •  Done — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 20:15, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
• Projects and Portals - you should add other ones such as Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomy, Portal:Spaceflight, Portal:Space exploration, Wikipedia:WikiProject Space exploration, Portal:Space, Wikipedia:WikiProject Space, Portal:Astrology, Wikipedia:WikiProject Astrology, and maybe some others on Wikipedia:WikiProject_Space/Projects.
  • Y Partially Done. I think that having that many portals/projects clutters the portal. I only took portals directly relating to the Solar System (Portal:Sun, Portal:Mars) and the parent portal (Portal:Astronomy). As for the projects, I'll add WikiProject Moon and WikiProject Mars as they are child WikiProjects of WikiProject Solar System. Again, too many can become clutter. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 20:15, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
    • Please add atleast space, as the solar system is part of it. Joe I 23:53, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
      •  Done — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 01:25, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
• Topics - Should be more comprehensive. Add key topics underneath each object, such as Sunspot, The Sun in human culture, Solar deity and Chromosphere, for the sun. Add another section for general topics such as Formation and evolution of the Solar System and Stellar evolution. Include lists.
  •  Question: How would I format this and keep the portal uncluttered? I took a minimalistic approach to topics (only the major articles, from the featured topics set shown) because people can easily find what they're looking for in the categories. Would a "More" link work here instead of adding half a dozen or more new links to an already long list? — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 20:15, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
    • Here are a few of the more clean looking ways to place topics, tho I have to say, just because you have alot of topics listed, it doesn't have to look cluttered. The more comprehensive your portal is, the more relevant to the subject. Portal:Science/Articles (the format fits with yours, just downsize it), Portal:Literature/Topics, Portal:Psychology/Psychology topics, Portal:Disasters/Disasters topics, Portal:Cats/Cats topics. And yes, a more would work, as long as it follows a partial listing (Sun - other article, other article, other article, more...) Joe I 23:53, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
      •  Done, although comments would be welcome as I reformatted the portal a little to do so. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 22:51, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
• Categories - You need a cat section.
  •  Not done. It already exists (as "Major Categories"). I cut out categories that are too small to (again) prevent clutter - people can find them by going to the main Solar System category. There were some very small and obscure categories in Category:Solar System. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 20:15, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
    • My bad, I think I just skipped over your cat box assuming it wasn't there. That should work fine, and you could do without the note. Joe I 23:53, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
      •  Done — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 01:25, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
• Are there older selected articles and pics, or did these just start last month? If there are older ones please add them to the archive.
  •  Not done. There aren't older ones. When I took over this portal, it was still heavily under construction. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 20:15, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
    • This is such a large and well defined topic, you shouldn't have much trouble finding more. Joe I 23:53, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
      •  Done. Added 8 from Wikipedia:Featured_pictures/Sciences/Astronomy that relate to the Solar System to the 3 already there. There's more but I don't want to go too far in advance. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 01:25, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Joe I 03:42, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Featured portal candidacy

Portal:Solar System

I have finished addressing all of the comments at its peer review. I think Portal:Solar System should be featured because I put hard work in it to ensure that it is well-designed, good-looking, and unique. It meets all of the featured portal critera as I went through the list.

This portal showcases the best articles on the subject. All the planets and dwarf planets combine with the Sun forming a featured topic. This is showcased in the "Article of the Month" section. Once Earth finishes its FAC, the rest of the queue will be complete. Currently it only goes up to Venus because Earth's introduction might be rewritten and there is still plenty of time before the portal page gets to Earth. Most featured pictures on the subject are included in the "Picture of the Week" section. All featured articles on the subject are included in "Major Topics" and bolded to draw attention to them. Contribution is encouraged by an organized box titled "What You Can Do," which (even with the title) encourages participation more than on the average portal.

The Solar System portal is is useful, attractive, ergonomic, and well-maintained. This portal covers a broad topic (the Solar System) and provides many links to enable people to go exactly where they want. It encourages people to participate in the many space-related WikiProjects, not just the Solar System one. A plethora of images are used, especially with links in the right column, to make an ordinarily dull page look more interesting. It is organized layout means that boxes with links are on the right and bottom while the changing content people would read and check regularly is on the left. This logical organizational scheme increases its usability by allowing people to read down only one column if they're looking for something specific.

This portal is well-maintained in that it will not run out of images anytime soon (and when it does, there are more out there and it can cycle back to old images as wel) and "Article of the Month" will never run out because there are so many articles on the topic. It would take over 7 years to just go through those in the "Major Topics" box. I am willing to check up on this portal periodically to ensure that it doesn't run out of content to feature and stays up-to-date.

In addition to all of the above, the Solar System portal's content is designed to point the viewer into other locations. It does this using almost every method available to a portal. In summary, this portal is designed to be a central point for people to go to if they're interested in learning about the Solar System. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 02:06, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

• A very good portal, I cant see anything wrong here. Hossen27 04:47, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
• Two things first:A nomination page/procedure should be added for articles and pics, and the small font for "Small bodies" in the topics, should be changed to match the other headings. Again, Portal:Space exploration and Portal:Space should be added. Question, the project, Wikipedia:WikiProject Solar System, shows only 43 total articles. How can this possibly be enough to support a portal? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Searchme (talk • contribs) 05:49, 1 May 2007 (UTC).
  • I fixed the font. The nomination page/procedure is currently not necessary at the moment - the article cycle should last for many months (currently it is going through the Solar System featured topic in order). Similarly, this relatively new portal is going through the featured images relating to the Solar System and there is no demand to start a proccess for image nominations until it is closer to running out in a few months. I added links to the portals. Wikipedia:WikiProject Solar System only shows 43 total articles because it covers only general articles - there are many articles on Wikipedia related to the Solar System not under that project. This is more of a problem of the WikiProject and not the portal (I do link to related WikiProjects in the appropriate box, not just the Solar System one). The space-related WikiProjects are curently being reorganized, hopefully that fixes problems with lack of coverage in some areas and too much overlapping coverage. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 20:50, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
    • I have gone through and added roughly 20 articles from the Solar System category to the WikiProject's coverage. I will add more from subcategories and this portal when I have the time. It would help if I were given a minimum number so I can stop after a certain point as there are probably a lot of articles that can qualify and it would take a lot of time. — Pious7_Talk^Contribs 14:39, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
• Support - A really neat portal. --Vaishu2 08:49, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
• Support It is overall a nice portal. Good work. Joe I 04:11, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

---

MichaelManaloLazo-Thur Oct 1, 2009 at 14:15 inside Isetann Cinerama Complex Shopping Centre in Quiapo,Manila,Metro Manila,Philippines. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.92.245.5 (talk) 06:10, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Update

Someone could update this portal? It's so ugly and out of date! The Portuguese model looks much better than this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.83.135.27 (talk) 00:15, 15 September 2013 (UTC)

Notice from the Portals WikiProject

WikiProject Portals is back!

The project was rebooted and completely overhauled on April 17th, 2018. Its goals are to revitalize the entire portal system, make building and maintaining portals easier, support the ongoing improvement of portals and the editors dedicated to this, and design the portals of the future.

As of May 2nd, 2018, membership is at 60 editors, and growing. You are welcome to join us.

There are design initiatives for revitalizing the portals system as a whole, and for improving each component of portals. So far, 2 new dynamic components have been developed: Template:Transclude lead excerpt and Template:Transclude random excerpt.

Tools are provided for building and maintaining portals, including automated portals that update themselves in various ways.

And, if you are bored and would like something to occupy your mind, we have a wonderful task list.

From your friendly neighborhood Portals WikiProject. Hope to see you there. Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   07:45, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

No Consensus - Proposed Action

This portal was recently nominated for deletion, and the MFD was closed on 28 August 2019 as No Consensus. The following points were noted either by the Keep editors or by the closer:

1. This portal is now said to have a maintainer. That will require periodic attention to the portal, not just some drive-by edits.
2. Outdated content in content forked subpages was identified. The subpages all need to be reviewed. At a minimum all of the subpages that no longer match the articles (which are updated through normal editing) need to be reforked. A better idea would be to add new subpages also. An even better idea would be to replace the content forks with transclusion of the lede.
3. Any new scientific information about the solar system, e.g., based on robotic space exploration, should be reflected in the portal.

Addressing those points within the next two months is a minimum for addressing the concerns raised in the MFD. If these points are not addressed in two months, this portal is likely to be nominated for deletion again.

If there is really a desire to demonstrate that portals in general can be improved, here are a few suggestions for design improvement:

1. Use categories to select solar system bodies, such as moons, dwarf planets, or small solar system bodies, for display.

Robert McClenon (talk) 18:55, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

Solar System is upper cased. Other than that, good advice. Randy Kryn (talk) 19:46, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

@Robert McClenon: There is no need to threaten another MfD one day after the old was closed. Thanks for the ToDo lists and improvement idea(s) though. I have already major changes planed for the layout of the portal. But the outdated content will be addressed first. --Hecato (talk) 19:50, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

Experience has shown that there have been many MFDs for portals in past years that have been closed due to unkept promises of maintenance. Robert McClenon (talk) 20:22, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

Hecato, I am sure that @Robert McClenon no threat of another MFD. Take it as an assessment of probability as near-certainty, rather than threat: multiple maintainers, actively maintaining ... or MFD again. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 00:04, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

Thanks. Consider me informed of the probabilities. --Hecato (talk) 00:11, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

Links to this portal

Portal:Moon, Portal:Mars, and Portal:Jupiter have all been deleted at MFD.

I have converted all the links to each of them into links to Portal:Solar System. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 02:27, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

Template:Portal pictures

Hecato, would you like me to update the "Selected picture" box using new template {{Portal pictures}}? It allows using POTDs as inputs. Demo with just four pictures, any number of pictures can be used: {{Portal:Solar System/box-header|Selected picture}} {{Portal pictures|function=slideShow|2007-04-28|2019-07-18|2018-07-14|2007-06-11|more=[[Portal:Solar System/Selected picture|More selected pictures]]}} {{Box-footer}} —⁠andrybak (talk) 23:23, 21 November 2020 (UTC)

• @Andrybak: Yes, that would be great. Please feel free to update it. --Hecato (talk) 00:27, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

  Done: Portal:Solar System/Selected picture. —⁠andrybak (talk) 00:41, 24 November 2020 (UTC)