Appropedia:Languages

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Although Appropedia has started in English, we wish to welcome contributors in all languages. So far there is some material in Spanish, and within the Appropedia community of editors there at least a couple of other languages spoken (and this will no doubt increase).

Naming

The article should be created with a prefix for the language, followed by a colon, and the title in that language. For simplicity and clarity, use the same prefixes as in Wikipedia etc. So, for example, a page in Indonesian about absorption wells will have the title id:Sumur resapan.

When linking, it is important to add a colon before the language prefix, e.g. [[:id:Sumur resapan]].

Which languages?

All people should be catered for, ideally. Where people know more than one language, priority should be given to languages which are most widespread - for example, Indonesian rather than Madurese, and Spanish rather than Quechua. At the same time, if skilled literate users are eager to begin work in a target language, that is enough to begin the work.

This is a guideline, and not part of the official policy. There may be a good argument for putting certain practical pages such as how-tos into the mother tongue. And if a person is passionate about a language and wants to translate into that language, we are happy to encourage that.

Question: What are the minimum resources needed to support a language?

Presumably we need various resources in the target language, and they need to be verified as accurate and clear
- disclaimer
- copyright notices
- basic help pages

Long-term solution: Subdomains

Ultimately we will probably want to use the same approach as Wikipedia, Wikibooks and Wiktionary, using subdomains (e.g. en.wikipedia.org for English, id.wikipedia.org for Indonesian, es.wikipedia.org for Spanish, etc). However, that requires being certain that there is a viable editing community in that language.

Separate subdomains will be (decided by consensus? approved by (a committee?) based on whether there is are enough active editors to justify a separate wiki.

Interlanguage links - "This topic in other languages"

While there are no separate subdomains, it is suggested that links to such articles are placed on the relevant page, under the heading "This topic in other languages" - which may be placed after "See also" and before "External links."

If Appropedia creates different subdomains for different languages, we can then imitate the interlanguage links approach used by Wikipedia etc, where for example [[id:Sumur resapan]] creates a hidden link, adding the link to the list of "this article in other languages" in the left column or under the page header.

Userboxes

Let people know which language you speak with a language userbox.

These have not been made yet. Should we import language userboxes wholesale from Wikipedia, or another Wikimedia project? Can we simplify categorization using bots? I suggest putting everyone who speaks a language into the basic category for that language, as well as into a subcategory. So, the base category should not be used specifically for native speakers, and there should be no userboxes that are as vague as just "This user speaks Swahili" - there should be some indication of level, or native-speaker status. It doesn't quite make sense to have subcategories with only one person. --Chriswaterguy · talk 17:56, 25 April 2007 (PDT)

External links

Translation the Wiki Way - ideas for improving information sharing between languages. Vision & How You Can Contribute is an example of this technique, soliciting help for translating a 17 page document on influenza.