Portal talk:United Kingdom

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This talk page is for the Portal about United Kingdom. Ensure this portal's details are listed in the Portal directory.

Discussion should centre on improving the Portal. Content disputes should take place on the appropriate article's talk page.

For discussion about Portals generally, please see the WikiProject on Portals.

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[edit] See also

Right, I have made a start. The lead needs refining, the list of categories and WikiProjects are both too long, and I'm not sure what "Other UK-connected Wikipedias" is for... -- ALoan (Talk) 16:02, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I've had another go. I'll leave it be for now.

Regarding "Featured article" and "Featured picture", I would propose changing these only once per week (rather than each day, as for the main page) - we could have a vote, or a Director, like the main page to select the next one, but my main concern would be to avoid any kind of "edit war" on the featured items.

I suppose we should have some sort of archive for featured articles, pictures and "did you know.." entries too - on the talk page for the relevant template, perhaps? -- ALoan (Talk) 17:02, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I think it looks great (trying to tweak a few things myself, though...), and the "Other UK-connected Wikipedias" is a very interesting idea - certainly something that sets it apart from the other WPortals in progress... Perhaps a link also to British and Irish current events, or a distillation thereof? -- Michael Warren | Talk 17:43, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Headings

Great portal. Just a minor note: I'm finding the red on blue headings very difficult to read. Could we try another colour combination please? -- Francs2000 | Talk [[]] 17:59, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Exactly what I was about to post when you edit conflicted me! :D Perhaps white-on-blue, to preserve the Union Jack colour scheme idea? Michael Warren | Talk 18:01, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

That's a lot better, much easier to read! -- Francs2000 | Talk [[]] 18:21, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

A further idea - could we have a small version of the Union Flag in the main heading itself (say, one at each end of 25px each) )? I don't have the HTML/wiki markup ability to do it myself. Then we could replace the large flag with something prettier, say, Image:United Kingdom satellite image.png (I've added the satellite image anyway, but we could have it larger if the flag goes somewhere else). -- ALoan (Talk) 12:13, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

How's that? I've made them 30px, and shifted the satellite map from right to left, increasing to 150px. -- Michael Warren | Talk 12:46, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Excellent - now I see what you have done, I could have done that myself! I was actually thinking of putting the mini-flags at the end of the header, but I think it looks fine. Thanks! -- ALoan (Talk) 14:40, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] UK Collaboration of the Week

I've recently done a major overhaul to the UK Collaboration of the Week, I'd really like to get this started again so this is an invitation to get involved (if anyone happens to be reading this). :) Talrias | talk 19:56, Mar 15, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Error with flag image

The logo for the UK flag seems to be playing up, see here. Any ideas why? --Cyr 13:31, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] British and Irish current events

This page looks like it is going to survive it's VFD, and whilst I've been updating it daily it takes a lot. I don't know if other people are interested? Hiding 18:20, July 14, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Space

There's a space next to "Did you know". Any suggestions as to what can fill it? -- Francs 2000 23:58, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Updates

Just to let you know that I aim to leave the update of the features until the end of October, by which time we should have an automatic update feature installed. -- Francs 2000 00:20, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Scotland Portal

Scotland Portal

The Scotland Portal is now up and running. It is a project in the early stages of development, but I think it could be a very useful resource indeed, perhaps more for general readers (the vast majority I presume), rather than committed editors, who may be more attracted by the great possibilities of the notice board format: Wikipedia:Scottish Wikipedians' notice board.

Give it a Watch, and lend a hand if you can. It is (hopefully) fairly low-maintenance, but if we run with the "News" section, that will take dedication: time which I cannot commit to presently myself. Most other boxes need replacment/update only weekly, fortnightly, or monthly, plus the occasional refreshment of the Scotland-related categories. Anyway, I assume this is how the other Portals are run, so we can follow their lead.

Please add the following code - {{portalpar|Scotland}} - to your own User page, and you will have the link to the portal right there for easy access. I will investigate how other portals use shortcuts too.

Assistance from Wikipedians in the rest of the UK, and indeed anywhere, would be greatly appreciated!--Mais oui! 08:47, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Well feel free to nick stuff from this one! -- Francs 2000

19:09, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

The new Scotland portal was created from the instructions at WP:P. Very easy, but it does mean that most portals look very similar. Have a browse and you will see. No "nicking" is necessary.--Mais oui! 22:46, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] London Portal

London Portal

Well given that London is the greatest city on Earth and the most wikilinked city on Wikipedia, it seems ridiculous that Bucharest had its own portal and London did not. So I made one. And made a right hash of it too. But anyway after figuring out how the boxes worked and after having about 4 hours work evaporate when Wikipedia crashed as I clicked "Save", it looks half decent. I've got some people from WikiProject:London helping, but not many of us have worked portals before...

Anyway, long story short, I reckon there should be a link to the London portal somewhere on the UK portal page. And I suppose there should be one to Scotland too...hmm...

As with the Scots, any help would be appreciated. Cheers, Deano 19:48, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

There already is, in with the other portals at the bottom of the page. If you want to include a separate one though I suppose it could go in the "Things you can do" box? -- Francs 2000

21:17, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Mmmm... yours is better than ours! NOW we may have to "nick" some ideas!!!--Mais oui! 21:24, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

All for one and one for all! But yeah, sweet - whack it in the "things to do" and I'll do the same for this in London portal. By the way, how come the photo of National Gallery on your featured article is not under the London images databank? Deano 21:38, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Search me, I got it from our own archive at Portal talk:United Kingdom/Picture -- Francs 2000

22:27, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Featured Article

Shouldn't the title of your featured article be wikified? At the very least, the featured article summary needs to have a "Read More..." link. All I see right now is "Hey Jude" in bold. AreJay 01:17, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] March updates...

..are needed.--cj | talk 00:28, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Thought people might be interested to know that there is an active discussion going on with people who think that United Kingdom should not be referred to as a country. Go here and follow the links. DJ Clayworth 16:47, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] July update

Can someone else update the Did you know section ready for July please? I shall be offline from Sunday. -- Francs2000 23:49, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Maureen Lipman "controversy" help request

There have recently been repeated attempts (possibly by multiple users) to insert biased text regarding an alleged controversy involving the British actress/comedienne Maureen Lipman. If there is indeed a public mainstream controversy about Lipman's comments, then there should be a neutrally stated version of events on the article. However, I can find no evidence of such a controversy, and the users inserting the text appear to be determinedly biased and anti-Lipman, as well as uninterested in providing sources. Please see the article talk page and the article history for full details. Please help sort this issue out, if you are interested. I am appealing here as this seems a relevant, neutral place to do so. I have tried to sort this issue out but there are anti-Lipman users on the other side . Thanks very much. Bwithh 14:31, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Try posting this to Wikipedia talk:UK Wikipedians' notice board: more people are likely to see it. -- Roleplayer 19:24, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cornwall

Should Cornwall be included along with the other constituent nations of the UK in the 'portals' section - not being an officially recognised consitutent part of the UK?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.157.251.127 (talk • contribs) 00:38, 22 July 2006.

Cornwall doesn't have the same status as the other nations in the 'portals' section and ideally the nations (Scotland, Wales etc) should sit separately from Cornwall. However, I would be pragmatic in this case and try to keep the portal screen clean and tidy without too much blank space. Cornwall needs to go somewhere and until portals for other regions come along I would leave it where it is. If we get portals for other regions (e.g East Anglia) then I would create a separate section (below the nations section) at that time. --Mark S (talk) 20:03, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Did you know?

How do you update the did you know section? It's currently a red link. -- Roleplayer 14:38, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

I knew there was something I was meant to do last month! You can just click on the red link and fill in the empty page, I tend to just harvest stuff from the main DYK suggestions. the wub "?!" 15:44, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Portals

With the flag you have for Europe, it should link to Portal:European Union. Joe I 05:03, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Not necessarily, see European flag. The flag isn't specific to the EU. the wub "?!" 23:43, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

On second thoughts I've added the EU portal as well. the wub "?!" 16:57, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Peer review request: History of Milton Keynes

I would welcome peer review at Wikipedia:Peer review/History of Milton Keynes/archive1, please - ideally to make FA on the UK portal on 23 January 2007, 40 years after designation. --Concrete Cowboy 22:24, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Well the featured articles on this portal only get changed once a month, and they are all drawn from actual featured articles that have passed FAC. Good luck, I'm sure you can do it! :-) If When it passes be sure to add it to Portal:United Kingdom/Featured, and if there's a free month ahead feel free to insert it. the wub "?!" 17:04, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I guessed (wrongly) that the standard for a UK FA might not be as high as for a worldwide FA. But I'm sure it would have to be at least GA and the feedback suggests that it needs a fair bit more work. Thanks anyway. --Concrete Cowboy 13:24, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Isle of Man

Wikipedia has a rather undeveloped Portal:Isle of Man. Since this island is a crown dependency of the UK, I was wondering if either (1) this portal would be interested in hosting some Man-related things, or (2) some people here would be interested in editing the Man portal to bring it up to speed. >Radiant< 11:02, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Randomisation

What do people think of changing the portal to use randomly selected featured content, similar to Portal:War and others. This would reduce maintenance (a few times sections have been left as red links at the start of a new month), and let viewers see a greater spread of our featured content. I've figured out most of what needs doing and am prepared to do the work myself, but won't have time to start until next week. Since it would be a pretty major change I thought it best to ask in advance. With these changes and other improvements I'm hoping to push towards featured portal status. the wub "?!" 18:38, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

I think it's a great idea. Good luck.--cj | talk 23:25, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Go for it. I was involved in setting the random articles on Portal:South East England and Portal:Kent. It makes a great improvement. MortimerCat 00:22, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Very good - well done. One comment - I am getting layout problems because the images are too wide. Don't we need to cater for people with 800x600? With sidebars, and spacing, the images are a bit too big for me. I think 250 wide should be ok, though - is there a reason for specifying 300? -- ALoan (Talk) 15:18, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Just my oversight. It would be nice if we could vary the image size, but being presentable to all is more important than being slightly nicer for some, so I'll lower the width to 250. Although having dropped my resolution to 800x600 to check, I can't believe I used to work like that! the wub "?!" 23:19, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Done, and they all still look wonderful. I suppose that's why they're featured :-) the wub "?!" 23:26, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox flag straw poll

Hello fellow editors. A straw poll has opened today (27th March 2007) regarding the use of flags on the United Kingdom place infoboxes. There are several potential options to use, and would like as many contrubutors to vote on which we should decide upon. The straw poll is found here. If joining the debate, please keep a cool head and remain civil. We look forward to seeing you there. Jhamez84 11:50, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Ulster banner on this page

I hate to bring this up, but this flag should not be in use on this page. Can anyone who has any questions or objections to it being removed please post here before it can be removed sometime in the next few days? Thanks. Fennessy 14:05, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Northern Ireland is not in Britain

Northern Ireland is not in GB, it's a part of the UK. Why is it then whenever I see a category such as "British Journalists" there is a sub-category of Northern Ireland ones. Whilst I realise it's a common error to confuse GB with UK, surely an encyclopaedia should not make that error in so many places MrMarmite 16:33, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

British people are (in short) citizens of the United Kingdom, not just Great Britain. Jhamez84 01:09, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unnecessary fragmentation

I was wondering what purpose is served by having category:English military writers as a sub-set of category:British military writers. I ask the same question about category:English actors, category:Welsh actors as sub-categories of category:British actors. This then leads to wonder how the classification is achieved ... by decision of an editor? ... by a self-identification statement from the person categorised? This sort of thing is bound to throw up anomalies: for instance, Winston Churchill is listed as English, though he was half-American and a British prime minister. Antony Hopkins is Welsh by birth, but initially British by nationality, and now American. If such sub-sets are really needed (which I doubt) surely, the information would be better much handled by lists within the parent (British) category. ROGER ^TALK 04:21, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

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