Дана Friday 11 September 2009 00:29:54 Erik Moeller написа:
2009/9/9 Tisza Gergő <gtisza(a)gmail.com>om>:
The LanguageSelector extension [1] can
automatically set the interface
language based on browser settings, which is nowadays the norm for
every serious multilanguage web page. It is not used on WMF wikis,
because it would interfere with caching.
I'm not convinced using the browser language settings for anything
other than suggestions is a good practice, as it doesn't necessarily
relate at all to language speaking ability of the user behind the
browser (think Internet cafes, shared computers, etc.). I notice that
it's possible to disable this behavior in the extension and just use
it as a UI language picker, which I agree would be useful if we can
make it work efficiently.
I believe I can say as a professional that you are correct, albeit it is my
opinion that the browser settings can be usefully used as long as you leave
the user quick, simple and obvious ability to change the language on his own.
One thing that would be *extremely* useful regardless is the ability to keep a
language throughout the browsing session. This would mean that on, say,
Italian Wikipedia, you could have a link to Wikimedia Commons like
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Pagina_principale?uselang=it - and when
someone clicks on the featured picture *the interface would stay in Italian*
and then when someone clicks on Entra / Registrati *the interface still stays
in Italian*, and when someone actually registers the interface becomes
Italian in his preferences and so on. This would do a lot for acceptance of
Commons among the Wikipedias, and from there I see other useful ways it could
be used. If this is done, recognition of the browser language could be more
easily be experimented with.