On 10/25/02 11:41 AM, "Stephen Gilbert" <canuck_in_korea2002(a)yahoo.com>
wrote:
--- erik_moeller(a)gmx.de wrote:
<browser
localization redirect>
Is there any problem with that? I strongly agree
with Cunctator and others
that a static, language-"neutral" frontpage is a
very, very bad idea, esp.
from a usability perspective.
Yes, this is what I want as well. The only objection
that has been raised (to my knowledge) is that people
may get directed to the wrong language. I don't
understand this objection, as we should be using the
language preference setting in each visitor's web
browser. Also, a person would still be one click away
from any other language, and he could set a language
in his Wikipedia preferences should he desire.
Summary of the text below: "Fine with me, as long as 'www.wikipedia.org'
doesn't redirect to 'en.wikipedia.org'."
1) There doesn't seem to be any major philosophical objection to a browser
localization redirect of "http://www.wikipedia.org/".
I only see a secondary philosophical objection. The objection is based on
the argument that first people should be encouraged to contribute to the
Eng-lang Wikipedia before others, not from the principle that English is
better, but from the principle that "from a strict efficiency point of
view, the goal of a comprehensive and neutral encyclopedia would benefit
from dealing with issues in only one central article with as many actors as
possible debating/working together rather than several different articles
with only a couple of persons in each place, even though they are updating
their own articles from the other wikis", as Anthere eloquently put it. (I'm
not claiming she advocates this position. She just described it well.) This
objection would be pretty much obviated with better backend integration and
interlanguage tools.
It's not a major objection, especially since the plan is to integrate the
backend.
2) I would very much like to see a test implementation of this before it
gets put on the live site.
3) If this could be implemented without redirecting English to
"en.wikipedia.org" (thus introducing a new URL schema) that would be good,
until or unless all the consequences of a new URL schema are worked out.