[WikiEN-l] Promoting non-en Wikipedias (was In defence of Google)

[Thomas Dalton]

> Start by formalising this concept, and producing a special interface
> for people who are reading the non-local version of their Wikipedia.
> For example, a user in the .fr domain whose language settings are set
> to FR reads a page on EN.  The interface could simultaneously present
> him with the english and french versions of the article (assuming they
> exist) and perhaps suggest to him that he might like to contribute to
> the FR version.

I like the way you're thinking, but I'm not sure I like your idea. How
about (once single sign-on is set up), a global setting where you can
put (in order) your preferred languages. Then, whenever you click on a
link, you can have it set to either:

1) Take you to the article in the language which is highest on your
list of preferred languages out of the languages that have an article
on that subject (judged by the presence of interwiki links)
2) Take you to the article in the same language as the article you
were reading, but with a very noticeable message at the top saying
"This article also exists in LANGUAGE" if there is an article in a
language you prefer. It should also say if another of your preferred
languages has it as a featured article.
3) Do exactly what it does now, for those that don't like change.

If you are reading an article in one language, and another of your
preferred languages doesn't have an article on that topic, it would be
great if, next to "Edit this page" was a "Create this article in
LANGUAGE" link - although if you clicked it, it would need to suggest
you look for an article in that language that simply isn't linked and
link it, before starting from scratch.