Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Computer security
- The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the miscellaneous page below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
The result of the discussion was: delete. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 08:10, 29 May 2019 (UTC)
Abandoned, static mini-portal.
Created[1] in January 2007 by Jacroe (talk · contribs).
The list of sub-pages at Special:PrefixIndex/Portal:Computer security confirs that there is no selection or rotation of of content, just static pages:
- Portal:Computer security/Selected article. Same topic (Jdbgmgr.exe virus hoax) since 2007[2]
- Portal:Computer security/Selected picture showed the same mage from 2012 to 2016,[3] and no image since the file was deleted in late 2016 as a copyvio[4]
- Portal:Computer security/Selected biography. Same biog (Bruce Schneier) since 2008
- Portal:Computer security/Computer security topics, a much hacked-about list (see history) which amounts to an outdated list of tools and viruses for persnal computers, rather than an overview of topics as can be seen at the head article computer security and it ssidebar Template:Information security
- Portal:Computer security/Computer security news. Same wikinew link 2016
- Portal:Computer security/Did you know. Same three items since 2011[5]. Per WP:DYK, "The DYK section showcases new or expanded articles that are selected through an informal review process. It is not a general trivia section" ... but this 8-year-old list loses the newness, so its only effect is as a trivia section, contrary to WP:TRIVIA.
WP:POG#How_often_to_update? says that unless automated, the content selection should be updated monthly, or preferably weekly. Even on a monthly cycle, this pseudo-portal has missed hundreds of updates.
In theory, this a broad topic. But in practice, it has not met the WP:POG requirement that portals should be about "broad subject areas, which are likely to attract large numbers of interested readers and portal maintainers". In Jan–Feb 2019 it got 56 pageviews per day, which is four times the abysmal median of 13 per day for all portals, but still on;ly 2.7% of the 2,068 daily views of the head article. But it has consistently failed to attract maintainers.
Per WP:PORTAL, "Portals serve as enhanced 'Main Pages' for specific broad subjects". But this is massively less useful in every respect than the head article Computer security and its sidebar navbox Template:Computer security.
Two newish features of the Wikimedia software means that the article and navbox offers all the functionality which portals like this set out to offer. Both features are available only to ordinary readers who are not logged in, but you can test them without logging out by right-clicking on a link, and the select "open in private window" (in Firefox) or "open in incognito window" (Chrome).
- mouseover: on any link, mouseover shows you the picture and the start of the lead. So the preview-selected page-function of portals is redundant: something almost as good is available automatically on any navbox or other set of links. Try it on e.g. Template:Computer security
- automatic imagery galleries: clicking on an image brings up an image gallery of all the images on that page. It's full-screen, so it's actually much better than a click-for-next image gallery on a portal. Try it by right-clicking on the article Computer security.
Similar features have been available since 2015 to users of Wikipedia's Android app.
That sets a high bar for any would-be-portal-builder to vault if they try to satisfy the WP:PORTAL principle that "Portals serve as enhanced 'Main Pages' for specific broad subjects". It would take a lot of work to make a portal which genuinely offers more than the head article Computer security with its sidebar {{Computer security}}.
But maybe someone will find a way to make such a better portal, and a team of editors to maintain it ... so I propose that this portal and its sub-pages be deleted per WP:TNT, without prejudice to recreating a curated portal in accordance with whatever criteria the community may have agreed at that time. BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 15:23, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Delete - The metrics tell a different story than usual. This portal has 56 daily pageviews, both in 1 Jan 2019 - 28 Feb 2019, and in 1 Jan 2019 - 30 Apr 2019. That is higher than most portals. The head article has 2068 daily pageviews. But the portal isn't being maintained, by an originator who edits a few times a year. So the problem is that viewers may think that the portal is a way to learn about the subject. There is a way to use Wikipedia to learn about the subject. It is articles, links, categories, and articles. The portal is distracting the readers whom it does attract, because they may think that it is useful. This is a clear case where we should be open to a new portal if someone wants to develop one. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:18, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Comment - The issue here is not Wikipedia and computer security, which needs to be improved with regard to the prevention and handling of compromised accounts. Wikipedia doesn't have a problem with hacking to gain unauthorized access to data, because in Wikipedia the malicious alteration of data is called vandalism and we have our own protocols for dealing with that. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:18, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Delete - Abandoned draft of a portal, 13 subpages, created 2007-01-06 05:57:46 by User:Jacroe. Never went alive. Nothing to keep. Portal:Computer security. Pldx1 (talk) 13:12, 26 May 2019 (UTC)
- The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.