Makes sense! I actually hadn't factored in that sort of action (although it does happen), more: the order of the main page links on the root www.wikipedia.org page.
On 7 May 2015 at 03:51, Scott Hale computermacgyver@gmail.com wrote:
The accept-language header is the obvious place to start, but there is amble scope to combine multiple approaches together.
In addition to accept-language and geolocation data, any logged in user will have view/edit history related to multiple editions. If the user is requesting a specific article, (e.g., https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%99%AE%E5%A4%A9%E9%96%93%E9%A3%9B%E8%A1%8C... ) we also can take account of what editions actually have the article --- the vast majority of content on Wikipedia only exists in one language or a few languages. (I.e., the above link redirects me to create the article on en-wiki although it exists on ja-wiki and Japanese is my second preferred language by my accept-language header and is an edition I edit captured in my edit history)
This isn't an either-or question of which to use, but rather a question of how all these indicators can be used together to create the best experience. I would venture that most users don't change their accept-language header (not even possible on some mobile browsers!) and hence probably list give only one language. If so, geography and edit history can be signals for possible second languages beyond the one language in the accept-language header when hitting the homepage without a specific article.
Cheers, Scott
P.S. It looks like the Universal Language Selector already uses the accept-language header for its preference screen.
On Thu, May 7, 2015 at 5:58 AM, Oliver Keyes okeyes@wikimedia.org wrote:
As I've now said...4 times, I don't think we'd be using geolocation. We'd be using the accept-language header. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_header_fields#Accept-Language
On 7 May 2015 at 00:52, WereSpielChequers werespielchequers@gmail.com wrote:
When a reader comes to Wikipedia from the web we can detect their IP address and that usually geolocates them to a country. More often than not that then tells you the dominant language of that country.
If we were to default to official or dominant languages then I predict endless arguments as to which language(s) should be the default in which countries. The large expat community in some parts of the Arab world might prefer English over Arabic. India would want to do things by state, and a whole new front would emerge in the Israeli Palestine debate.
Regards
Jonathan Cardy
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