Hello! Just thought I'd drop by to comment on your work on the Paris portal. As I've said before, it looks extrememly impressive. However, I should warn you that your opening section is teetering on POV... we tried something like that with London and it didn't go down well...

Other than that it's looking pretty smart! Keep it up! Deano 20:27, 3 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Well... as much as it pains me to say it, it is what I consider to be the best bit - the opening section. Specifically, the lines

"Your guiding beacon through the city of light.

Find with ease everthing Wiki concerning the city of Paris, capital of France.

The City, its history, its people, its life, its talents, its sights, its attractions, its tastes...

Geographic portals are always liable to be slightly POV because they are usually maintained by locals from that area. However, they must remain encyclopediaic (dunno if that's a word or not!) and refrain from anything that promotes the page, the subject or pretty much anything... It sucks, I know! Deano 20:47, 3 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Well I think that may well be the issue... I think I am right in saying that no other portal has any sort of introduction other than stating its name. And some don't even have that.

There are two schools of thought about portals at the moment. One is that all should look the same - have the same format and structure so that users benefit from consistency. The other (the one I subscribe to) is that each portal should be individual and best reflect the subject area with which it is dealing.

Your portal elegantly fits into the latter - very individualistic and quite different.

Unfortunately, we came to an assumed compromise whereby portals could look how they wanted, as long as they followed a similar structure and maintained the key attributes to a good portal. The problem for you is that your first box is absolutely unique to the Paris portal - every other portal on wikipedia has a section of its main article as its opening box (i.e. P:L has the opening to London; Portal:Christianity opens with text from Christianity).

Basically... I think your introductory box is too good... too unique!!! Which annoys me, because I totally support greater individuality for portals. Hopefully you understand what I mean! Just browse throught other portals on the namespace, and you'll see it first-hand! Deano 21:10, 3 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to interject my deux-cents and state that the format of the French Portal should not be changed, for the following reasons: a) after the purely decorative introduction, the content and layout of the portal is similar to most of the other portals I have seen, so users who like the familiarity can simply scroll down to find what they need, and b) this is a rather unusual portal because it is focused on such a narrow topic. The arguement could probably be made that since this portal is very much a sub-category portal, it can get away with more individualism than the Engineering Portal or the Culture Portal. However, if these arguements don't stick, perhaps a highly visible in-page link at the top to the Introduction box would help. or an elegant left-hand side menu so that users unfamiliar with the format could easily find what they need? Perhaps also the top section could be used as an introduction page, with a link at the bottom and a 5 or so second redirect to the regularly formatted page?

Also, I would invite you to read Wikipedia:Portal, where it is stated that There is no one standard design for portals, but the most ubiquitous layout is the "box portal". The box design is certainly recommended, but by no means absolute. I would also invite you to view the Food Portal for a similar setup of title image above introduction box, Portal:Europe for a quite non-standard layout, and Portal:Dragonlance for another Portal that has gone it's own direction.

On a completely unrelated note, Promender, in the course of working on the Engineering Portal, I came across some Wiki Meta-Code that will allow you to automatically change information on the page based on the date, so that you can keep the featured article or picture rotating based on the day, saving you some time. If you would like, I could easily set up the code for your Portal once I finish with the Engineering Portal.

Good luck with your continued work on the French pages, and thank you for the images you donated to the wiki commons. I will be leaving for France soon, and poking around the French pages has been exciting.

Sincerely,

Brandon (Âme Errante 03:28, 23 June 2006 (UTC))[reply]

Seems that no-one has yet done this so.... Welcome!

Hello ThePromenader/Archive 0, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page
• Help pages
• Tutorial
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you have any questions, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome!  Ian13 20:29, 3 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hello again! Just took a glance in poping-by to see how you are doing, and you seem to be getting along well, which is nice to see. I wish you all the best in helping making WP even better than you already have. Ian¹³ 18:11, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent work indeed, from one who loves all things French (in my perfect world, I'd have an apartment in Paris and go there often...) I have a lot of French subjects on my watchlist to check for vandalism. Happy editing! Antandrus (talk) 22:35, 3 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very very much indeed, and glad to know you're there! Take care! ThePromenader 11:10, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, (trying to speak English because I have not so many occasions ;)

If I understand correctly, CIG929394 is not really an administration, but an organization that helps civil servants managing their career inside the administration. I had never heard of it before.

BTW, your web site is stunningly beautiful. Hope it will reach my district (13th)... Thbz 08:51, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there! I'd like to invite you to explore Wikimedia Canada, and create a list of people interested in forming a local chapter for our nation. A local chapter will help promote and improve the organization, within our great nation. We'd also like to encourage everyone to suggest projects for our national chapter to participate in. Hope to see you there!--DarkEvil 17:11, 20 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This article has been protected for over two weeks, and I think it may be time to move on and see if the participants can edit it cooperatively. As one of the editors involved in the dispute, how do you feel about this proposition? --Tony Sidaway 12:51, 4 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I am of course for removing the page lock - there are many I know who would like to contribute there, especially in light of recent suggestions - but I fear that without an agreement from both parties the page will be returning to its 'business as usual' of stall and revert-appropriation. This is a cycle that has been going on since months now and has been a great waste of time to all: I do not want this to begin again, so if there is no agreement I think this situation needs mediation, and this preferably by parties knowledgable about Paris and its real workings. Thanks for asking. THEPROMENADER 23:21, 5 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I have removed your notice from the community bulletin board because it is not intended for individual articles. Just imagine if everyone would post what they are working on and what help their need... it would soon get out of control. I hope you understand. I see you have some editors interested in France to help you out, also a number of WikiProjeckts. You should ask them. Good luck, Renata 15:21, 11 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, sorry. I did not mean that it was abusive. It was not! It is just a regular, good faith mistake we always make. I made much dumber mistakes in my wiki life :) I just wanted to explain why I removed it. By "you have some editors interested in france to help you out" I meant that I saw a bunch of talk page notes from various editors who are obviously interested in France. Also there are a couple of wikiprojects related to France/Paris. I suggest looking there. Renata 17:08, 11 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi ThePromenader. Thanks for leaving a message on my talk page. I would be pleased to contribute to the Paris related articles. Do continue to correspond either on this tralk page or my own and discuss which sections need attetion. I am knowledgeable on both history and transport as shown by my uploads on the Commons and few edits here and there. Regards, Captain scarlet 20:27, 11 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Go get some sleep and come back refreshed with one proviso. Remember, this is just an encyclopedia article we are talking about, not life and death situations. Green Giant 01:44, 16 May 2006 (UTC)== Featured Pic Cantidate ==[reply]

FYI people are brutaly honest on Feature Picture Candidates. It is perfectly acceptable to nominate pictures of your own. Don't listen to anyone who says what they know what an FP is. Its a tough process, I encourage you to keep trying. -Ravedave 20:06, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No problem, there is lots of newbie biting that happens at FPC and I have tried to address it there with little sucess. The only thing I have improved is that people no longer seem to be downright insulting, but newbs are still not helped along in any way. -Ravedave 23:31, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

FYI when creating edits please make new uploads and add new thumbnails. This helps people late to the game see what has been fixed. Thanks. -Ravedave 15:38, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bonjour,

j'ai remarqué que la carte de France Image:France jms.gif que vous aviez déposé sur le serveur a un petit défaut. Il se trouve au niveau de la frontière entre les deux régions administratives Poitou-Charentes et Aquitaine. Il ne s'agit pas d'un gros défaut, je pense même qu'il peut passer inaperçu pour une grande majorité des français. Je l'ai remarqué au premier coup d'œil car je viens du Poitou-Charente et je travaille à Bordeaux. C'est d'ailleurs sur l'article concernant Bordeaux que je l'ai tout de suite remarqué. En fait, la position et les coordonnées de Bordeaux sur la carte sont bonnes mais on peut voir que la ville se trouve à quelques kilomètres du département de la Charente-Maritime, ce qui n'est pas tout à fait le cas dans la réalité. Pour résumer, le problème est que sur cette carte le territoire de la Charente-Maritime est plus large au Sud par rapport à la réalité. Je ne sais pas d'où vient cette petite erreur étant donné que le reste de la carte me semble tout à fait correcte. Donc voilà ce serait bien de trouver une autre carte et d'essayer de la coriger. Je vous propose de comparer la frontière avec celle de la carte de France de l'article concernants les départements français (celle-ci Image:Départements de France.svg) pour mieux constater l'erreur.16@r 17:28, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Please do not empty categories without seeking consensus to take them out of the system on Categories for deletion. Thank you. CalJW 19:56, 24 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]