Talk:Bloomingpedia

Updating auto date templates

If for some reason the auto date variables aren't updating the templates for the front page. You can use this link to make the wiki update itself.

Updating/adding to featured articles

This article gives a list of current proposed featured articles.

Submitting your own Mystery Picture

If you'd like to submit your own Mystery Picture of the Week, see these guidelines for details.

Including Travel information

I like the page that WikiTravel has for Bloomington. Would it be possible to modify the Bloomingpedia front page to incorporate some of the elements they use? -- Benfulton 12:08, 25 February 2007 (EST)

Of course. We can at least try them and see how well they work. I think of the front page as mostly a page to spark people's interest. It could be that having some more sections with period information would be useful. Try to keep the featured article and mystery picture of the week there though. Just ask if you need help making templates, etc. You might also put a link back to Bloomingpedia on the wikitravel.org page to get some more visitors. Thanks Ben. -- Mark 13:35, 25 February 2007 (EST)

(I've done that, actually. They said it was against WikiTravel policy.) -- Benfulton 19:18, 25 February 2007 (EST)

Portals

Actually, I think that we really need to work on the portals that are linked to in the top bar. I think that if we do it well, the portals can really act as guides to the things you can do and see in Bloomington. You can check out one of wikipedia's portal pages and see what they have there. That's not quite what I'm getting at, but its kinda the same idea. I think Bloomingpedia portals could be more of guides to Bloomington in the different topics that each portal covers. Right now we just have links to some of the categories and articles from them, but I think people should feel free to write semi-neutral paragraphs that talk about things that you can see and do in Bloomington. Like the business section could give some quick facts about businesses in Bloomington and then go on to cover some of the ways you can get started making your own business. It would be useful for people to know what types of businesses are on the up and where some popular places to open shop are. There are many possibilities for what the portals can be. I think we just need to dive in and start editing and see where they go. -- Mark 18:00, 26 February 2007 (EST)

I concur, Mark. The Portals pages are really under-utilized and could be so much more. Technically speaking, is a Portal:article page really different, or is the Portal: just another namespace resource, like the Bloomingpedia: pages? Chris Eller 09:30, 27 February 2007 (EST)

It seems that the editorial content on the front page under sections like "Where To Eat in Bloomington" isn't really encyclopedic in nature and biased in a way that (in my brief time checking around Bloomingpedia) should not be. As an example, under where to eat, it's suggested that people go to 4th street. Certainly there are a lot of restaurants there, but perhaps a better approach would be to highlight groupings of restaurants, such as 4th street, the square, around 3rd and 37, around the College Mall, etc.--Schalliol 21:59, 26 August 2007 (EDT)

My goal for those initial sections was to make the front page more friendly to first-time viewers. I don't object to having restaurant groupings, but I'd prefer not to see septic lists of links that the viewer's eye will simply skip past. --Benfulton 22:39, 26 August 2007 (EDT)

I agree that your goal is met with this section. I just thought that it might make sense to at least articulate how I thought some might view such listings. I'd guess that Wikipedia editors might have an issue, although I don't know that Bloomingpedia has to really be an impartial encyclopedia. While I haven't spent a great amount of time here, it seems that the biggest value of Bloomingpedia is its direct usefulness to Bloomington residents and visitors, who would benefit from such content.--Schalliol 08:52, 27 August 2007 (EDT)

Jon, welcome aboard. Please note that Bloomingpedia is an open and editable source of information for things in and around Bloomington. Your thoughts on the content and direction of any page are always valid and all you need to do is hit the "edit" tab to work your thoughts into the grand scheme of things. Please take some time to read the Bloomingpedia:Policies and Direction article to get a feel for the nature of Bloomingpedia. The Bloomingpedia Council has decided the general tone of articles on Bloomingpedia be from a Neutral Point of View and Objective, while these sound like being impartial, they are not indended as such. You can't have articles with local color and flair while being impartial. You can, however, ensure that your edits are factual and don't contain libel or opinion masquerading as fact. Opinions are also welcome, as long as they are clearly indicated as such. I'm sure we're all looking forward to reading your contributions. Chris Eller 09:13, 27 August 2007 (EDT)

Thanks! All of this makes sense.--Schalliol 11:31, 27 August 2007 (EDT)