[WikiEN-l] Serious problems with interlanguage links

[Carl Beckhorn]

On Sat, Dec 06, 2008 at 03:22:55PM +0100, Eugene van der Pijll wrote:
> Lukasz Bolikowski schreef:
> > A short introduction: let's say that two articles are connected if there
> > is an interlanguage link from one to the other in at least one
> > direction.  Next, let's say that if A-B and B-C are connected, then A-C
> > are too.
> 
> Hold it right there. That assumes that every wikipedia divides its
> content into pages in the same way. Since content policy is made at
> the level of individual projects, this assumption is incorrect.

The assumption that if A-B and linked and B-C is linked then A-C are linked 
is perfectly reasonable. If page A on wiki A is not on the same topic as 
page B on wiki B, there really shouldn't be an interlanguage link. 

For example, if wiki A has separate articles on "Beer" and "Wine" and wiki B
has only one article on "Alcoholic beverage", no interlanguage link is appropriate. 
Otherwise, we run into the sorts of problems described by L. Bolikowski above.

I realize that, historically, this principle was violated, and some interlanguage
links were set up on the principle of "find the closest article that does exist, even
if it is not on the same topic". I don't think that's sustainable given the current
sizes of the wikimedia projects, because we will need to rely more on automated
tools to manage interwiki links.  

We can resolve the issue of different divisions of material, to some extent, by 
pointing the interlanguage link to a redirect that ''would be'' the exact same topic 
if the article were located there. In the example above, that means creating redirects
on wiki B from "Beer" to "Alcoholic beverage" and from "Wine" to "Alcoholic beverage".
Then we can set up the interwiki links from A to B as desired.

 - Carl