New user accounts on Wikimedia Commons automatically get a
greeting from [[User:Wikimedia Commons Welcome]]. However, this
greeting is in English and not all users speak English. At the
top of the message there is a list of links to translations in
other languages, but I think there is a better way.
Since most new user accounts on Commons (about two thirds) are
created by SUL, and arrive through a link that specifies the
uselang= parameter, wouldn't it be very easy to set the user
preference for user interface language from the uselang parameter
when the account is created by SUL?
The greeting template (and other templates, such as deletion
requests) could then access the user's interface language setting
through a {{USELANG}} magic word, and present the corresponding
translation.
This way, new Swedish speaking users (who typically arrive from
the Swedish Wikipedia, one that doesn't allow local uploads) could
be guided to the Swedish language village pump and find a
community there.
--
Lars Aronsson (lars(a)aronsson.se)
Aronsson Datateknik -
http://aronsson.se