A couple of thoughts occur to me.
The solution on github seems to be Javascript-reliant, which can
run into script-blocking issues. I don't know what proportion of
visitors might be using computers with script-blocking, and what
proportion of those would think/know how to/have permissions to
overcome it. Or using computers/browsers where JS is inclined to
break. It might be completely minimal, but I thought it was worth
mentioning.
For a GeoIP solution, this relies on good information about what
languages are relevant to GeoIPs. Do we have such a good set of
data? I'm thinking particularly of language communities outside
their traditional homelands, Cantonese in Liverpool for example.
Also, language density is a complicating factor. If you use a
list of 10 languages based on GeoIP, then in some areas it's more
than enough, while in others it's a fraction of the local
languages. I'm not sure what the best way to overcome that one
is.
I'm also concerned that a measure like this will tend to reinforce
the dominance of major languages on the net. People will not
necessarily take that extra step to check the language list just
in case their language is on it, especially for lesser-wikified
languages; adding an extra step always pretty much makes things
more unlikely. I wonder whether the huge list we see at present
encourages people to search for their own language, while a small
list that doesn't immediately show it is less encouraging. The
many wiki-readers who don't edit will presumably not have any
preferences saved, so would potentially have to set their language
choices every visit - or might simply not bother if it's unlikely
to offer many articles anyway. So they would simply read the
English/French/Russian articles, and the minority wikis would be
further neglected and the language further undermined. This is
obviously all speculation; I'd be interested to see any hard
information on this. It's a different set of problems from those
of interlang editors but one worth considering, particularly as
you're talking about making this the default. Minority languages
have a hard enough time as it is...
In terms of link ordering, it would perhaps make sense for
articles related to a particular language to emphasise those links
(either in a "Relevant to this article" section, or by formatting
of some kind)? So articles on French people, things and places
might highlight French - although of course there's other French
languages to consider so that could get complicated.
--Shimmin
On 19/04/2013 10:05, സുനിൽ (Sunil) wrote:
I suggest the list of languages should be displayed
according to the size/quality also
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