Steve Bennett schrieb:
Why exactly do we have these "interwiki" links that go to projects with no connection to WikiMedia? Why not just use templates:
{{youtube|foo}} (which might expand to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%7B%7B%7B1%7D%7D%7D%7C%7B%7B%7B1%7D%7D%7D at YouTube.com]
rather than
[[YouTube:foo]]
for instance.
Why is it preferable that they be in the software itself?
Templates produce server load and have to be created on every wiki where a youtube link has to be used. So you can use the interwiki links in every project without having to import dozens of templates and looking after their dependencies. But you are right, they do not always look very nice.
Regards, Marco