On Friday 25 October 2002 12:53 pm, wikipedia-l-request@wikipedia.org wrote:
I merged my little script with the fine layout from the other page. Please try again http://mitglied.lycos.de/manske/wiki/test.php (Sorry for the banner, I can't help it)
I included the English and German intro, as well as the localized search function. The word "Search" and the intro will appear in English for all other browser settings, as English is the default for languages that don't have an intro text of their own.
Known problems:
- Neutral or localized logo is needed
- Maybe an unobstrusive link in or close to the intro to the English
wikipedia, as an anchor for anyone who is stuck on a foreign PC ("This page in English")
- Works only for Phase III wikipedias (.org)
Magnus
Looks like a good mock-up and I assume it is possible to automatically update article and language counts even without a combinded database. However it is still a static page and since we are a Wiki then this should be on a wiki page, no? But then, which wiki do we choose?
We might be part of the same project but we ain't all on one database yet.
Without its own Recent Changes, random page function, article search etc that queries /all/ languages and a unified log-in for /all/ languages at www.wikipedia.org I don't think this page will be that useful -- even for first time visitors.
Having one intro page for the whole project seems to indicate that Wikipedia is one single product on one unified wiki - we aren't there yet (we're not even all on the same software version yet!). And until we are one wiki I don't think a pointer page will be that useful in and of itself. NOTE: If a fork is threatened over there not being a language neutral page at www.wikipedia.org then it /would/ be useful to put up the static page. But IMO this really should be done right to begin with and not half now and half later.
In the meantime I do think it would be a good idea to go ahead and implement the language sniffer idea so that somebody with a localized browser will be directed to the same language as the browser is set (however, I don't think we should redirect people to stub wikis - that makes us look bad). This would require more tweaks to each of the different language's Main Pages (such as placing even more emphasis on en.wiki's Main Page that there are in fact other languages and for non-English wiki's to do the same). We can then work towards having a multilingual Phase IV with a combined database. IMO, when Phase IV goes live, then and only then would a unified Main Page really make sense and be truly useful.
Implementing the sniffer idea does logically require the English Wikipedia to move to en.wikipedia.org - otherwise there would be no obviously reinforced way for somebody with a German localized browser to go directly to the the English Wikipedia's Main Page by typing in the URL.
--Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
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