Subject: better handling of alternate languages in wiki

From: Alvaro Herrera <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:25:51 -0400

Hi,

So, with help from Stefan and the great guys at #wikimedia we now have
the neat-looking links to FAQs in other languages, in the english FAQ
and also in each translated FAQ.  And it's updated automatically
whenever someone adds another translation as a subpage (so wiki/FAQ/fr
for the french translation, for example).

Therefore I propose we use the Mediawiki multilanguage stuff for
handling content in languages other than english.  This is very easy --
we just need to add {{Languages}} to the top of each translated page,
and put them in a subpage.  So for example the spanish initial page
should be wiki/Main_Page/es (in fact I already did that, and now
wiki/Español is a redirect to that one).

So, for a start this means that the main page needs to have a
{{Languages}} inserted at the top; and the "Alternate Languages"
subsection should probably be removed.

Can I get some opinions on this?

-- 
Alvaro Herrera                                http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
The PostgreSQL Company - Command Prompt, Inc.

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From: Dave Page <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:49:52 +0000

> Can I get some opinions on this?

As I see it the major issue with that idea (which I don't object to in
principle) is that those sections not only contain content that is
only available in that language, but also content that is only
relevant in that language - eg. links to other resources. Those issues
should be relatively easy to overcome, but will need some coordination
rather than simply swapping out the links on the front page.

-- 
Dave Page
EnterpriseDB UK:   http://www.enterprisedb.com

---

From: Guillaume Lelarge <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:01:43 +0100

Hi,

Alvaro Herrera a écrit :
> [...]

I find this really interesting.

> {{Languages}} inserted at the top;

I would prefer to see a box on the left, as wikipedia does.

> and the "Alternate Languages"

No. For example, in the french section, there are articles available
only in French. I don't want to lose them. Where will I put them if the
"alternate languages" subsection disappears?

-- 
Guillaume.
 http://www.postgresqlfr.org
 http://dalibo.com

---

From: Cédric Villemain <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:39:27 +0100

> "alternate languages" subsection disappears?

perhaps in the postgresql.fr website, and if the english version become avaible
then move it to the wiki.postgresql.org ?

I don't like see more things in french than in english in a website which is
primary english.

- --
Cédric Villemain
Administrateur de Base de Données
Cel: +33 (0)6 74 15 56 53
http://dalibo.com - http://dalibo.org

---

From: Alvaro Herrera <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:20:28 -0400

> I would prefer to see a box on the left, as wikipedia does.

Well, Wikipedia has separate sites for each language (though they use
"interwiki links" for the boxes on the left).  If you see a way to make
that work, feel free to point it out.

> "alternate languages" subsection disappears?

I don't mean to remove the actual pages, only the subsection in the main
page that points to them; we would still have the language-specific
content in the language-specific pages.  I'm not suggesting any content
change (and certainly I'm not suggesting to dike it out to a
postgresqlfr.org page), only a presentation change.

-- 
Alvaro Herrera                                http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support