Translating the wiki

I still think that aiming for word by word or even page by page translation will just lead to even more outdated stuff than localized content will contain anyway.

Some people seem to think that the proposal is 'Should there be wiki content in different languages? YES/NO.'

It's not this: there will be the aim to have good information available in as many languages as possible whatever the outcome.

The issue is: should all those translations be available on the same site (and if so, how will that be managed to make sure everything is kept up to date)?

Or, would it be better to allow diaspora* community members from different language communities to create and manage their own content, which may differ from the English text (and perhaps be more relevant to speakers of those languages)? These could be contained in subdomains of the English wiki, for example de.wiki.diasporafoundation.org for a German wiki.

It's not a question of whether we should have information available in different languages, it's a question of what is the best way to present, store and manage that information.

If we go for the translated content on one site, speakers of other languages will be restricted to some extent to keeping to the English text. If we allow separate wikis for different languages, users of those languages can create wikis that are best for speakers of those languages.

The wiki in English is only created by English-speaking community members, so it's no more 'official' or authoritative than what could be created in other languages. And if we allow speakers of other languages to create their own wikis, they might for example create a page which is missing in the English version and which could usefully be translated into English to help English-speakers.

There is already one extant independent non-English wiki - Le guide du parfait débutant, a guide for new users in French. And there are probably others - certainly there have been in the past. So whether or not we keep to strict translations from English all on the one site, there can and should be information available in as many languages as possible.

This proposals intention is not to restrict non English content in the main wiki to translations of the English content, but whether about if we want to allow any form of non English content in it at all. There's absolutely nothing said about the scope and organization of non English content, intentionally. That's planned for follow up proposals.

Sorry, I got in a bit of a muddle, thinking of the WebTranslateIt translations, which may not apply to the wiki.

But the main point I intended to make is that this proposal is not about whether or not there should be wiki content in different languages, but whether it should be collected all in the main wiki, or in different places (to be decided in a different proposal).

Alright, you do want translations in the main wiki. Next step: How.

I see a couple of options:

1. Allow arbitrary pages with non English titles and content, for example "Häufig_gestellte_Fragen"
2. Suffix page names with the language name, for example "FAQ_for_users_(Deutsch)", only allow translations / interpretations of English content
3. Nest pages under the English ones, for example "FAQ_for_users/de", only allow translations / interpretations of English content
4. Give each language its own namespace, allow arbitrary content inside, for example "DE:Häufig_gestellte_Fragen"
5. Give each language its own namespace, allow only translations / interpretations of English content, for example "DE:FAQ_for_users"

I'm voting for 4.

I vote for either 4, or using a different subdomain for each language.

I realise this second option isn't strictly having the content in the main wiki, but I think a lot of people who voted on that misunderstood the proposal, and wouldn't actually object to this. I think it would be tidier and still give the result they were hoping for.

I'm happy iwth arbitrary content. There's nothing more authoritative about the English content - after all, some of it was written by me, and there are certainly plenty of speakers of all languages who could write better articles than I can.

@goob do you know a mediawiki extension that allows that? I thought one has to setup and maintain distinct installations of it to do that and that's a burden I wouldn't want to put on @dennisschubert's shoulders.

I don't, I'm afraid. I was guided by your earlier comments, which suggested that was a desirable solution. It seems neater to me than having pages on the same topics in different languages all mixed in together, but if it would add burden to Dennis or anyone, forget it.

If you can categorise wiki content in different languages in different namespaces on the main wiki, and that gives the same kind of notional separation, that sounds like a good solution.

In either case, I vote for option 4: separate space (however this is achieved); independent content.

My earlier comments where about handing out the subdomains to local communities wishing to host their own wiki.

A related question is, with a vote to have content in different languages hosted on the main wiki what do we do about wikis already hosted on separate sites? For example, there is http://wiki.forodiaspora.com.ar/ in Spanish.

I'm happy with such wikis to remain independent, but do those who voted for content in different languages feel that all Diaspora wiki content should be hosted in the one wiki?