Wikipedia:Featured portal review/Biology

The following is an archived discussion of a featured portal review. Please do not modify it. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page or at Wikipedia talk:Featured article review. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of this discussion was Keep. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 18:15, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Portal:Biology[edit]

Notified: WP:BIOLOGY and its parent project, WP:SCIENCE; Ausir (talk · contribs), Cyde (talk · contribs) (names in the Directory) and Papa Lima Whiskey (talk · contribs) (carried out the Sept 2008 updates). Samsara (talk · contribs), who nominated the portal for FPo status, is no longer active, so no message left.

Fails 1(d) "well-maintained" and 1(a) "useful". Note that the Featured portal criteria say that portals that are not updated for three months are summarily delisted.

Selected biography (Louis Pasteur) not updated since September 2008, so more than 2 years ago.
Selected picture (Staph. aureus) not updated since September 2008 either.
DYK not updated since Dec 2008, so approaching 2 years as well.
Article (cougar) not updated since June 2010, so just over three months - and before that, it had been prion since (you guessed it) September 2008.

As relying on updates by portal maintainers, associated WikiProjects or passers-by clearly isn't working, the portal needs to be changed to one using random subpages, with a proper level of decent content for the article, biography and picture section. The DYK section needs to be expanded to use only hooks that have appeared on the main page through DYK, and lots of them, in random subpages. There is a working "biology news" section at Wikinews, so perhaps a news section ought to be added here. A lot of work is needed to bring this up to current standards. Bencherlite ^Talk 11:05, 5 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see the need to restrict content to DYK, but the attitude that says that we have to restrict ourselves in that way makes me less surprised that you're short of portal maintainers. Papa Lima Whiskey (talk) 08:18, 14 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I wasn't intending to come across as having an "attitude", so my apologies if I inadvertantly gave that impression. I said that DYK hooks should be taken from the WP:DYK selections because (a) that seems to be the standard that has evolved in more recent FPo noms (this portal was promoted in August 2006), and (b) it has the advantage that the hook has been checked by someone else. Bencherlite ^Talk 09:18, 14 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I note that the selected article, picture and biography have been updated today by MisterDub (talk · contribs); DYKs are still old. I don't know whether MisterDub intends to revamp the portal to move to random subpages, or to keep up with regular rotation of articles, so I will invite MisterDub to comment here. Bencherlite ^Talk 18:55, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm kind of a newb here, so I'm not sure how to make the portal use random subpages, but I was planning to update it every so often (perhaps once a month like the Physics portal, if not more frequent). Maybe I can learn how to do the random subpages (could anyone point me to a resource for this?) and do that at a later date. MisterDub (talk) 19:40, 1 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Lots of the more recently created portals use random subpages, so you can click on "edit" at e.g. Portal:Barack Obama or Portal:Law of England and Wales to see two slightly different ways of setting up the subpages. Suggestion: if you can come up with, say, 10 FA/FL/GA pages for a "selected article" section, I'll convert that to a random subpage section to get you started. Bencherlite ^Talk 22:12, 1 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: Any updates on how the above is moving along? -- Cirt (talk) 18:50, 21 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Well, MisterDub hadn't edited after 1 November until 28 December, so I don't know whether the offer of monthly updates is still available or, indeed, realistic and reliable. I've left a message on MD's talk page asking for an update here if possible. Bencherlite ^Talk 14:31, 31 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I apologize for my absence as of late... holidays and all. The offer is still available and I will begin working on changing the current information immediately, in addition to compiling a list of articles for future use. Again, my apologies. MisterDub (talk) 16:41, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Any further updates on status of this? -- Cirt (talk) 20:27, 3 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

User:MisterDub made updates in April 2011. The only component that was not updated is the DYK section (which is not a big deal). It appears that the majority of the concerns have been appropriately addressed. Closing this as keep. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 18:12, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.