What are portals?

Further information: What is a featured portal?

The concept of a portal originated in the Polish and German Wikipedias. In early 2005, the portal concept was imported to the English Wikipedia and the first Wikiportals were established. Later that year, a special namespace (Portal:) was created for portals.

The idea of a portal is to help readers and/or editors navigate their way through Wikipedia topic areas through pages similar to the Main Page. In essence, portals are useful entry-points to Wikipedia content.

How to find portals

Main articles: Wikipedia:Portal/Directory and Portal:List of portals

All portals should be listed at the directory of portals, which also details their founding dates and whom you can contact with regard to a particular portal. If you have created a portal, you must list it here. Portal:List of portals lists all portals of reader-ready quality.

Portals are also largely inter-accessible, with users able to navigate from one portal to another. Universal features such as the browsebar, which links to top-level portals, and the portals template, which links to Portal:List of portals, allow for convenient browsing. Moreover, portals are also categorised according to hierarchy. Portals in most instances will also link to their Related portals (those which are lateral to them) and their Subportals (those which descend from them).

In the main namespace, the top-level portals are linked to directly from the Main Page and individual portals are linked from relevant articles using {{portal}}. These templates should be located at article ends in See also sections (or equivalents).

How to create a portal

Main article: Wikipedia:Portal/Instructions

There is no single standard design for portals, but the most widely used layout is the "box portal". The use of this design is recommended due to the ease with which it can be created and maintained. For further ideas on portal design, browse existing portals and see the featured portals. For step-by-step instructions on how to set up a new portal refer to the instructions page.

How to make a good portal

Main article: Wikipedia:Portal/Guidelines

Most portals contain the following for readers:

• A selected article and/or picture
• Links into the main category for the topic and possibly subcategories (some portals actually appear in the description page for the main category)
• General info about the subject, or links thereto
• Links to other portals (using templates) and for editors.
• Links to related WikiProjects. You can use {{Wikimedia}} to add Wikimedia Sister Projects' links to your portal (links to news, images and so on).

• Links to specific articles or tasks
• Collaboration of the week, month, etc.

You may want to embark on an effort to fill the related categories with appropriate articles if this has not been done already (or add it to the portal's "todo" list so visitors can help out).

How to get involved

Main article: Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals

Just as with Wikipedia at large, portals can be edited by anyone. However, it is important to pay due regard to the established work of others. Editors are always needed to maintain individual portals; if you would like to participate in the upkeep of a particular portal, note your intention on its talk page, list yourself as a maintainer in the directory of portals, and get to work!

A WikiProject on Portals has been founded to co-ordinate portal activity. The current objectives are to develop standards for all portals and to ensure maintenance. Other tasks include the integration and categorisation of portals.

Immediate attention is needed at portals listed in Category:Portals under construction.

See also

• Portal:List of portals
• Wikipedia:Featured portals

Portals:  Featured (Criteria, Candidates) | List | Directory | WikiProject | Guidelines | Instructions | Peer review | Category