This is a Wikipediauser page. This is not an encyclopedia article or the talk page for an encyclopedia article. If you find this page on any site other than Wikipedia, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated and that the user whom this page is about may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia. The original page is located at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Thaddeus_Ballantine.
I'm here as an editor to help improve content and to participate in a truly awesome project such as Wikipedia is. I consider myself to be more of an editor than a content producer. I like to find references for obscure trivia that has been flagged. I don't like excessive wikilnks. I think they are one of the coolest things about Wikipedia, but used excessively make the body text more difficult to read. Most good things in life are best in moderation. I will bring up topics in the talk section though I don't like to debate. More that likely even if you are dead wrong I won't reply or join in the discussion unless you send a private message to me. I treat this page and my sandbox as testing ground for anything or to give me something to learn. Just remember be bold and give everyone the benefit of not having doubt in them.
What are portals? "Doorways to knowledge." Wikipedia's coverage of subjects can be extensive (mathematics, for example, is covered by tens of thousands of articles on Wikipedia). Portals are an alternative entry to a subject (besides its main article), and to that subject's coverage in the encyclopedia, in a way similar to how the Main Page provides sample fare from Wikipedia as a whole.
Portals may include features such as Selected article sections, Selected image, news, points of interest (Did you know?, Anniversaries), and links to related Wikimedia. Portals are more diverse than the Main page, and may include features such as panoramic banners, slide shows, category trees, topics lists, and whatever else portal designers can come up with.
A secondary purpose of portals is to provide bridges between reading and editing, and between the encyclopedia and the Wikipedia community. They may provide links to the related WikiProjects, Wikipedia's Reference desk, and so on. Portals are a hybrid between encyclopedia pages and project pages, and occupy their own special namespace, the Portal namespace. Therefore, all portal titles are preceded by the prefix "Portal:"
The list of all completed portals is Portal:Contents/Portals. A list of all portals, including those under construction, can be found at Category:All portals. The Portals WikiProject is dedicated to collaboratively building and maintaining portals, and further expanding on the Portal concept, such as with automated features, and is always looking for new participants.
