Nether Portal Ideas

A few ideas of how to improve Nether Portals.

Nether Portals could be built in different shapes aside from rectangles, allowing for more building opportunities. They could also be built horizontally (like the End Portal). Throwing dye into a Nether Portal could also dye the portal that color, allowing for color coordination of what portals lead where.

Another idea involves broken portals and Crying Obsidian. If the player attempts to light a portal frame that contains Crying Obsidian, the portal explodes and converts some of the nearby blocks into Netherrack. Some of the obsidian in the portal frame would also be converted into more Crying Obsidian. This would provide a new way to obtain Crying Obsidian by converting regular obsidian.