[Foundation-l] [Wikitech-l] FlaggedRevs status/news?

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
The Hebrew language community has a really outstanding record when it comes
to localisation; both the MediaWiki messages and the messages used in
extensions used by the Wikimedia Foundation are completely localised at this
moment. This requires dedication that brings a big benefit to its community.


I do appreciate your sentiment about localising on life data. It makes
sense. The problem that you highlight is that it is not obvious what many of
the messages stand for. To alleviate this problem, Betawiki includes
messages explaining what these messages stand for. They are the "qqq"
messages. This is the kind of information that needs to be entered once and
benefits all the people who localise the same message in another language.

Typically it is the developer who knows best what a message is intended for.
In practice it is often people who work on the localisation who add these
pointers. Making sure that the "qqq" messages are correct and informative is
one way in which developers can make sure that their extension. their
functionality is well received. In the process they improve our localisation
environement and stimulate a higher quality exerience.

When I ask for localisation like I do for FlaggedRevs, I make the argument
personally without linking it to the policies of the language committee.
When the people who are to use new functionality all speak English, there is
no issue. However this is not the case for many of the languages that we
support.

The best way to localise is by getting it done and then regularly
maintaining the localisation. In this way both readers and editors are
supported optimally and, when a request for a new project is done,
localisation is not a factor.
Thanks,
      GerardM

On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 10:12 PM, Dovi Jacobs <dovijacobs at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Gerard wrote: "Given that it is important for the editors to understand
> what is intended with Flagged Revisions. I would argue that localisation
> prior to implementation is essential."
>
> I would like to remind Gerard that the requests for FlaggedRevs are based
> on the
> consensus of live wiki communities that are flourishing, building education
> materials in
> their local languages, who value localization of the software and
> contribute to it, and yet
> do NOT necessarily agree with Gerard on localization as a prerequisite to
> functionality.
>
> On the contrary, many of us believe that unlocalized messages, when viewed
> live and actually used for real material (not on a test wiki) are far easier
> to localize little by little
> (wiki style) over a period of time. The Hebrew Wikisource indeed began this
> way: Many
> basic messages were not localized initially, and the initial contributers
> along with building
> content on the wiki also localized the messages over time. Had substantial
> localization
> been required in advance the wiki would probably have never been created
> and the
> localization would thus never have been done...
>
> Gerard, you and the Language Committee have been given authority to require
> substantial
> localization before setting up a new language wiki. For better or worse.
> But you have NO
> authorization to prevent active communities from getting extensions
> implemented
> that they have requested.
>
> We at the Hebrew Wikisource intend to finish translating the interface over
> time, at
> Betawiki, as we encounter the system messages in real contexts. We have
> already been
> waiting for implementation for quite a long time. We ask the developers to
> honor our
> community request and consensus. Gerard is entitled to his opinions, but
> not
> to force his notions on active Wikimedia communities.
>
> Dovi
> > Hoi,
> > I think it makes sense to have functionality like FlaggedRevs be
> localised
> > prior to it being enabled. Given that it is important for the editors to
> > understand what is intended with Flagged Revisions. I would argue that
> > localisation prior to implementation is essential. I do appreciate
> > discussion this.
> >
> People often do not complain when they think it is normal that new
> functonality comes without localisation. It does not have to be this way;
> you can have new functionality localised by keeping your localisation up to
> date at Betawiki.
> Thanks,
>      GeradM
>
>
>
>
>
>
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