Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Mathematical analysis
Bonsai portal on the topic of mathematical analysis, with low readership, abandoned 5 days after its creation in 2008. Only 4 sub-topics (last addition 2008) and a single fake DYK. Redundant to the head article mathematical analysis.
(Note: the portal was created as Portal:Analysis, and moved[1] to its curent title in April 2019 by @UnitedStatesian, to match the name of the head article).
This portal was created[2] on 8 April 2008 by Tompw (talk · contribs), who also created the sub-pages. However, their last edit[3] to any part of the portal was on 13 April 2008 (see their portal-space contribs). Since late 2006, the lead of WP:POG has said "Do not expect other editors to maintain a portal you create." I will AGF that despite being the creator of 4 portals (Portal:Mathematical analysis, Portal:Algebra, Portal:Topology, Portal:Discworld) and editor of many others, Tompw somehow managed to remain unaware of that prominent guidance.
Whatever the reasons for the creator's rapid abandonment, portals need ongoing maintenance, and this one hasn't had it.
Special:PrefixIndex/Portal:Mathematical analysis shows a slim set of sub-pages:
- /Selected article/1, /Selected article/2, /Selected article/3, and /Selected article/4 were all created between 8 and 11 April 2008 by Tompw or Cenarium (talk · contribs). Since those first few days, the only edits to any of them have been trivia such as formatting and disambiguation. Nobody has updated any of the content.
- Portal:Mathematical analysis/Did you know consists of just one item added on 8 April 2008 by Tompw, since when it has many minor tweaks since as liking, but remains about the same topic (Gudermannian function). That topic has no connection to the scrutinised curation process at WP:DYK, which exists to showcase new or expanded content. This item is just a factoid selected and summarised without scrutiny, usurping the good name of WP:DYK to create a piece of random WP:TRIVIA.
WP:POG requires that portals should be about "broad subject areas, which are likely to attract large numbers of interested readers and portal maintainers". It also guides that "the portal should be associated with a WikiProject (or have editors with sufficient interest) to help ensure a supply of new material for the portal and maintain the portal". This portals fails on at least three of the four counts:
Broad topic. I'm not sure. Category:Mathematical analysis looks v well-populated. This may indicate a broad topic, or maybe a narrow topic covered in copious detail. But either way, it matters little, because of the next three points.
High readership. Fail. The portal's January–June 2019 daily median of only (16 views per day is trivially low.- Lots of of maintainers. Fail. I can find no non-trivial changes to the portal since the creator abandoned the portalon 13 April 2008.
- Associated WikiProject. Fail. There is no WP:Mathematical analysis, and WP:WikiProject Mathematics hasn't even added its banner to the portal's talk page. A search of WT:WikiProject Mathematics talk archives for "Portal:Mathematical analysis" gives no hits, and asearch for the old name "Poartl:Analysis" gives only the second of these two posts from 2019: a Feb 2019 lament about the flood of portalspam, with subsequent discussion, plus an April 2019 question by Legacypac asking "Which of these approx 30 Portals does the math project provide support to or are you interested in managing?". Legacypac's plea brought only one response, and no offers of maintenance.
It's long past time to stop luring readers to this 11-year abandoned page. Time to just delete it. I also oppose re-creation, because of the long-term failure of the fundamental requirements for a portal. BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 23:30, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
- Note to closing admin. I don't want in any way to prejudge the outcome ... but if you close this discussion as delete, please can you not remove the backlinks? I have an AWB setup which allows me to easily replace them with links to the next most specific portal(s) (in this case Portal:Mathematics), without creating duplicate entries. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 23:41, 12 September 2019 (UTC)