I am forwarding the discussion to *wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org*mailing list. The wikipedians who haven't subscribed to the Wikimedia India mailing list can subscribe it by visiting https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l I have moved the email addresses of all to bcc.

Let all the Indic language Wikipedians benefit from these type of discussions. This list is one place where we can share our experiences. https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-lTo move forward, we need more co-operation from all the Indic language wikipedians since we have many things in common.That will benefit many of us.

Thanks

Shiju Alex

On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 4:36 AM, Ganesh Krishnamurthy < ganeshkmurthy@gmail.com> wrote:

Why isn't the e-mail distribution list, wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org being used? Using that will put these discussions at a central place. If you are not subscribed, please visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l and get yourself subscribed.

If you are going to translate the visible content on template, it does not matter if you change the name as well. You will not be able to overwrite the template anyway. You can still add interwiki links so that you let people know the related templates in other language wikipedias. My 2 cents.

Saravask and myself tried adding a translation layer that receives values in English fields, but displays them in other language. It was slowing things down, and so we decided not to proceed with it. But it is something that you can be tested further. This way the English template can be copied over anytime and a few changes will need to be made to the the transaction layer.

Regards,

Ganesh Krishnamurthy User:Ganeshk

On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 11:24 AM, Shiju Alex shijualexonline@gmail.comwrote:

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I assume that you are talking about this template: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Rapid_transit_in_India

Yes, leave the name of the template as is. And translate all the content that is visible to the user

Shiju Alex

On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 8:47 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan < rsrikanth05@gmail.com> wrote:

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So, if I coy Template:Rapid Transit in India to hiwiki, I leave it with the same name?

2009/8/21 Shiju Alex shijualexonline@gmail.com

Mahitgar,

...

Here is my experience.

You can name a template according to your wish *if you have any template that is specific to your wiki*.There is no harm in that. We have many templates in Malayalam Wiki with localized names. None of these templates have their counter part in English Wikipedia.

*But*, I won't recommend using a localized name for a template if you are copying a template from English wikipedia. You can very well localize the contents (NOT WIKI CODES) of any template according to your wish. Remember, a reader will see only the human readable output format of a template, and not the name of a template or the wiki codes inside the template.

My recommendation is, DONOT use *localized name* for templates especially if the template is a copy of an English wikipedia template. Localized *Template names* without the interwiki links will make the life of a future local wiki user very very difficult.

As you might be aware, many of the templates in English Wikipedia are related to each other. How you keep track of the changes in the templates (English wiki templates) if the name is localized and if there are no interwiki links added to the localized template. I might have created around 1000 templates in Malayalam Wikipedia. But I never went back to any template to update it nor I have added any interwiki links. If the name of the Template is in English, any interested user can always go back and check the same in English Wikipedia and update the same in local wiki. This type of update has happened many times in Malayalam Wikipedia.

As mentioned above, many templates are related to each other. So translating the name of some templates may lead to the non working of some other templates. Remember one or two wiki users cannot keep track of all the templates of a wiki. Also none of the users are going to be active in wiki forever.

My recommendation about the translation of the content of a template is, *translate only those content that is visible to the user. Leave the rest of the content as it is.*

Shiju Alex

On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 11:35 AM, Mahitgar from Marathi Wikipedia < mahitgar@yahoo.co.in> wrote:

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Dear All

Currently at Marathi language wikipedia we are working on creating subject wise projects like project for boatany,sport,India related articles etc.

We could achive good amount of localisation(Local language translation) of infobox templates for the article successfully.Still is done as per requirement by individuals who need it and have technical competance to do so.

But the defficulty we are facing is localisation project templates to put on articles they constitute. Their rating systems etc. Besides there are numorous project wise templates for each project on english wikipedia.

English wikipedia has got huge manpower and also more technical hands to create complex templates. Now at wikipedias like Marathi WIkipedia we are short of manpower and also enough technical exposure .I would like to know if any other Indian language wikipedia have tried to do so? if yes , then Whether you are importing/forking templates from english wikipedia , are you importing in bulk or as and when needed , are you keeping the english/roman nomanclature as is or you are translating at times and at times not, or you are translating it compulsory , Are you translating all the content in templates or you are translating it as much needed ,Are you using any bots if so how for which template purposes ?

How Wikipedia's in your mother tounge language is coping up with about difficulties in localisation of templates from english wikipedia.

Any body knows how German/french/Japanese and Chinese wikipedias are coping the same.

Can we get any smart way of doing the things and saving our time and energy for more valuable work on articles rather? Please let me learn from your experience.

Of course above subject is far mor important in little diversion to above subject I do have one more query Last but not least is I am not very conversant with how wikimedia india email list works. I usualy receive those messages not instantly but after a long time, How I do I ensure instant delivery of my message through list and how do i receive messages instantly.

Thanks and Regards

Mahitgar from Marathi Language wikipedia