Portal talk:Spaceflight/Archive 1

message: *I realize space is mostly dark, and it looks great in space, but the black background doesn't look good and probably never will because the images and other elements aren't designed to go on a black background. —Doug Bell talk•contrib 17:20, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Changed it again, without seeing a need for prior discussion. (Sorry!) The changes were minor: titlebars are now "darkest midnight blue" and borders are "deep space deep purple". Barely noticable to my eye, but then again age-related blindness may have already set in! Sdsds 02:10, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Black background 

message: A request has been made for International Space Station to be peer reviewed to receive a broader perspective on how it may be improved. Please make any edits you see fit to improve the quality of the article. // Duccio (write me) 22:47, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  ISS peer review 

message: i'm experimenting with the idea of tabs at Portal:Space.. although some people are opposed to merging portals, my hope is that this portal will be able to merge Portal:Spaceflight, Portal:Space exploration, and Portal:Astronomy.. the reason for merging is that i believe there is a fairly high probability that a reader interested in one of those portals, will be interested in the other two. since there is a good amount of overlap of content as well, rather than dividing the portals up with a razor sharp knife, it seems more benificial to merge them. does anyone have comments or suggestions? Mlm42 16:41, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds like a plan to me. I was here as a Wikipedian for quite a while before I even discovered that the other portals existed, so anything that will make them easier to find from one another is a good idea in my book. Personally my top choice would be to merge Spaceflight and Space exploration, but I'm prepared to get behind any sort of reasonable compromise. MLilburne 17:10, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm still not sure if a merger is a good idea, and I would like to see a demonstration (in userspace) before I support any such proposal. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 13:47, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: well, i've been trying to put something together at Portal:Space; i don't see a need to use userspace first? Mlm42 15:28, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

text: Oh, I thought you meant to integrate content from here first. Obviously I was wrong, so I am going to have to Oppose the proposal per my concerns in earlier discussions on this subject. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 19:43, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Portal:Space 

message: I updated the /Intro component of the portal, using material from the current version of the Spaceflight article's lead. This is my first edit of a portal. Is there some proper procedure I should have followed? Sdsds 21:55, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Updated /Intro 

message: I propose to change the "Selected article" from Apollo 11 to Orion (spacecraft). Any objections? Sdsds 01:27, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Please don't!. The system is automatic. If you look at Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article, you will see that there is a cue of articles. Instead, please can you create an article about Orion Here, and it will appear as the selected article next week. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 11:49, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Slick! I started late and flailed a bit, but it seems like I've managed something functional (and even used that cool template). Thanks for your help! Sdsds 16:15, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: And looking ahead, it seems next week might be the 5-year anniversary of, The Slowest and Fastest Train in the Universe. That would be counting its birth as the delivery of the Mobile Transporter by STS-110. Can I nominate something related to that for Week 14? Or am I getting greedy? Sdsds 18:03, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proposed new selected article 

message: I just want to share with y'all how much fun I've been having over the past weeks hacking away at various components of Portal:Spaceflight. It has been a great place for me to learn a bit about how portals work, and what it takes to maintain one. So: thanks for bearing with my attempts here as I've slowly climbed the portal learning curve! What amazes me most is that there aren't lots of other people who want to have this kind of fun. Where are all the budding young rocketry students who could by vying for a chance to control what goes into the portal? (That question is only semi-rhetorical. ;-) I guess there's still a lot to learn about how to promote a community of portal users and contributors. Any suggestions on how to go about that? Sdsds 03:24, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Portals are fun 

message: I'm requesting at Portal talk:Biography assistance with the Portal:Spaceflight biography section, and directing comments about that request here. (Sdsds - Talk) 01:01, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The only featured articles that really fit into this category are Chris Kraft, Glynn Lunney and Joseph Francis Shea, all written almost entirely by yours truly. The articles on Wernher von Braun and Neil Armstrong are good, but not FA quality. Everything else is really B-class or below. You can take a look at Space exploration articles by quality to get at least a sense of what's out there. We need to do better, I think. MLilburne 16:54, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Assistance with Portal Spaceflight biographies 

message: This portal is being discussed in Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Space/Reorganisation#Portal:Spaceflight. Input from people who participate in this portal is welcome. — Pious7 19:49, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Discussion about this portal 

message: I recently added Don Puddy to WP as a mere stub and a humble one at that.  Just wondering if there is interest in creating something more for WP in terms of biographies on flight controllers at NASA? —Gaff ταλκ 06:40, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've certainly focused on flight controllers in my time at Wikipedia. What kind of "something more" were you thinking? MLilburne 07:26, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  NASA flight controller biographies 

message: I added a "Key topics" box right near the top of the portal page, because Wikipedia:Portal/Guidelines says linking to important topics is required for a portal. Although the Intro box (above key topics) links to some important spaceflight topics, it can't link to them all! (sdsds - talk) 04:53, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Key topics box 

message: Several things. Firstly, I've added a status indicator, which displays alerts when there is content missing from the portal. Critical is displayed when content is actually missing (eg. there is no selected article for the current week). Warning is displayed when the queue for content is nearly empty. In the case of something which is updated monthly, this means there is no content for the next month. In the case of something which is updated more frequently, this means there is no content for the next week. Nominal means that it does not really need attention. The template is also designd so that anybody involved in maintaining the portal can place a copy on their userpage, should they wish. It might also be a good idea to ask a few of the related wikiprojects to take a copy. The code to add it is . All parameters are optional. The "align" parameter can be set to "left", "right", or "center", "colour" is a hexadecimal RGB value for the background colour, "colourname" is the name of the desired background colour (eg. Red). Seeing as both "colour" and "colourname" do the same thing, only one should be set (if any). Width is the width of the box in pixels (there is no need to add "px" to the end). Note that the biography section is currently displaying "critical", not because there is a problem, but simply because the section has yet to be reconfigured for automatic rotation.
Secondly, seeing as it was so rarely updated, I've automated the selected picture system, in the hope that it will at least provide some variety in what is displayed. I intend to do the same with the selected biography section soon.
I have also switched the selected article system from standard years to ISO years, which will prevent the problem seen over the last few days of 2007, where the portal attempted to call Week 1's article (which didn't exist).
Finally, I have restarted the "on this day" project, which was proposed, started and died in late 2006. This is intended as a daily system to replace the current "selected anniversaries". See Portal:Spaceflight/On This Day and Portal:Spaceflight/On This Day/Index. I would appriciate some feedback on this before it gets much further, as I don't want to complete it and then find out that it is not wanted. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 22:18, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I have now converted the selected biography to rotate as well. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 10:26, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

text: I noticed we've had the same did you know... section for three days short of two years. I have set it to rotate as well, and am about to add it to the status indicator. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 11:04, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

text: That is done. It updates fortnightly, status warning one month in advance. I've also replaced the "things you can do" section with a direct transclusion of the to do list. It looks exactly the same, but is much more accessible. In addition, I have vectorised the logo image, which improves quality when viewed at resolution other than default, and loading time. The filename for the vectorised logo is :Image:RocketSunIcon.svg (on Commons). Finally, I would like to raise a couple of issues. The left column is too long, and the right one is too short. We need to either move content from left to right, or add something new to the right column. Any ideas? Finally, I think the WikiProjects box looks ugly, and needs to be changed. How about a simple list of projects, without the purple box? --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 20:28, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: About "on this day". It's empty starting tomorrow. I really like the idea and I think we should continue it. What sort of technique did you use to gather jan. 1 trough 12 ? I might be able to tackle a couple of days. Contribute a bit :D --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:08, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I've writing brief entries for all orbital launches, and other significant events. I would appriciate it if tomorrow's section is left empty for now, as it is the only item which is not currently being displayed, so I am using it to test the status indicator. As for sources, http://www.astronautix.com/thisday/index.htm contains a lot of information. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 20:34, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

text: Okay, the test was successful, so addition of content can resume. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 12:46, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

text: The status indicator doesn't seem to like leap years. It is currently giving a warning for OTD, but OTD is fine. I cannot find the cause of the bug, but I suspect it is leap-year related, and if this is the case, it will only happen for one week every four years, so there isn't much point wasting time with debugging it. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 13:58, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: It's worse than I thought. This is not leap year related, and it's going to happen every two or three months. I'm working on it. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 14:05, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Fixed. Duplicate variable name in the code used to calculate days remaining in the month. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 14:08, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Changes

message: :Closed, consensus is to merge. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 00:09, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Completed. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 01:06, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Further discussion

message: :Copied from my talk page:
Hi! I would suggest to adjust the schedules of the "selected" items, after I gained some experience running the Portal:Space exploration by myself for "forever": Images are much easier to come by than articles! Cycle the "selected image" once per week, and cycle articles/bios once a month.
Also, I experimented with the "random" feature on the portal, and this may be something useful for the merged portal, as well.
::-- Comment left by Awolf002
:My reply, copied from User talk:Awolf002
I think the exact rotation spans would be best discussed at Portal talk:Spaceflight, but in my opinion, it would be best to have both the selected article and picture rotating weekly, and the biographies monthly. I agree with your comment about pictures being easier to rotate, and so I think that it would be a good idea to rotate these on a weekly basis, however I think that there should be no problem with keeping the article rotation weekly as well. In my experience at Portal:Spaceflight, there's been no problem in keeping the page up-to-date, and we've only missed one week since around this time last year. With the status indicator which I have developed, it should be easy to prevent this happening again. Assuming the merger goes ahead, which seems very likely, we will presumably have a few more people working on the portal, making it easier to maintain. Randomisation may be something to look at for the "did you know..." section.
I am copying this here as I feel this is the best place to discuss it. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 19:45, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, the status indicator helps a lot! Let's try for awhile to see if we can keep up the pace! (sdsds - talk) 06:56, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rotation intervals 

message: How about adding a "selected quote" to the portal? I think there's enough material to change it weekly or fortnightly. Any comments? --GW… 00:17, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Selected quote 

message: Kudos to everybody who has done so much good work on the spaceflight-related articles, but there's some shocking grammar in some of them. Given that this is a subject of interest to so many people, might I suggest an effort to fix things a bit - if everybody just spent a few minutes fixing one of the articles about the Apollo program it would be a start. I plan to do my bit.... Regards Davidelit (talk) 17:39, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Also there's a fair bit of overlinking. Whay on earth (or off it...) would there be a link to "curved groove" in the Apollo 15, Return to Earth article, for example? Davidelit (talk) 17:43, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Grammar

message: I suggest updating the portal page so that when featured material has not been provided through the content rotation mechanism a plea is inserted using the #ifexist mechanism and content from a static sub-page is appended as well. Then whenever anyone gets motivated they can over-ride the static sub-page by providing material through the current content rotation mechanism. (sdsds - talk) 15:53, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Interesting idea; it's not immediately clear to me how easy that would be to implement. I assume you mean that if there is a static subpage, say for November 2010, then that subpage would appear on the portal for all of November. One of the advantages of having the random portal component is that every time you reload the page there is something new. I think this probably exposes readers to more content (which is the main purpose of portals anyway), and I think this is why so many portals use random portal components, not just because it's less work. Mlm42 (talk) 19:53, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

text: Upon rereading your suggestion, maybe I have misinterpreted it.. Mlm42 (talk) 19:55, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I gather this template may be of use, according to Wikipedia:Featured portal candidates:  Colds7ream (talk) 19:58, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Sdsds' proposal would be very easy to implement. I would be inclined to say that while in the short term random components would be helpful for providing a greater variety of content, in the long term they would probably result in less exposure since there would be a finite number of articles in rotation, and it is unlikely that these would be frequently changed. My suggestion would be to have a selected article for each month, and use random content if an article is not provided. This should be fairly simple to implement, and omissions could intentionally be made in the monthly rotation in order to showcase the random content once or twice a year. --GW… 22:42, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds like a plan - would anyone know the correct way to code that? As an aside, can we move the components already in place on the HSF portal over directly? I also suggest we rewrite the blurbs so they all meet the Featured Portal Criteria, just for forward planning purposes. :-) Colds7ream (talk) 17:10, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I could code that. --GW… 17:21, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Excellent! :-D Colds7ream (talk) 17:48, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

text: Appropriate ones can be chosen depending on whether they're related to the date, have recently been improved, and so on. Also keeps more people active in maintaining the portal, as if it simply runs on automatic people needn't do anything to it. Makes it stale. Colds7ream (talk) 16:00, 13 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Oh, I see; and maybe what sdsds was suggesting is a static page, but with a "show new selections" option, which would then show random content. Yes, that's a great idea, if it could be implemented. Mlm42 (talk) 17:28, 13 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Static content for featured sections when dynamic content is not provided 

message: So what's happening with the portal merge? What still need to be merged? Anything? Mlm42 (talk) 04:17, 8 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Past a few pieces of random content that haven't been transferred over to Spaceflight I can't see much difference between the two now. ChiZeroOne (talk) 04:16, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

text: Oh and on a related note I forgot to mention we have another portal well within Spaceflight's scope, Portal:European Space Agency.  Don't know what we want to do with this? ChiZeroOne (talk) 07:19, 9 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Aye - we just need to move over the last of the content from HSF and we can redirect it, as far as I'm aware. Colds7ream (talk) 13:55, 9 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Have we got any further on this in the last year? The merger seems to be taking a while... --W. D. Graham (previously GW) 22:41, 2 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Portal merge progress? 

message: Somebody has created Portal:Human Health and Performance in Space. I've proposed merging it here, since we have enough difficulty keeping this one active I strongly doubt that another portal would remain active long. --W. D. Graham 23:13, 21 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Portal:Human Health and Performance in Space 

message: Just a shout out: Spacex has created a flickr account fith some of their more recent photos released under CC-BY-NC 2.0 generic: https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacexphotos
Tought maybe you want to look at them, see if you can't use some of them. --2A02:8108:1A80:16C:C9C9:59F2:C003:1419 (talk) 10:51, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  SpaceX Photos 

message: After months of boggling, I finally figured out how to add to the featured archive queue. I will now be editing the featured items. I've already added two pictures (The transit of the Moon over the Earth by DSCOVR, and the scale photo of Pluto and Charon from New Horizons), and I plan to add and edit biographies and articles. --Kitch (Talk : Contrib) 18:37, 14 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Finally cracked the featured template code! 

message: 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    07:46, 2 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Notice from the [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals|Portals WikiProject]]