[WikiEN-l] Serious problems with interlanguage links

[Carl Beckhorn]

On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 12:16:47AM +0000, Ian Woollard wrote:
> Well, let's take an example, like:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket
> 
> Down the side are a huge number of links including the French one:
> 
> http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fus%C3%A9e_spatiale
> 
> This title translates as 'Space Rocket'.
> 
> Now straight away we are in trouble. The English wikipedia's Rocket
> article is about the general case of rockets- any vehicle that is
> propelled by a rocket engine, including a rather awesome Russian
> torpedo, some drag racers, aircraft, and the worlds fastest train
> (Mach 8.5!!!), whereas the French article is about only space rockets.

Indeed - so the enwiki article should not link to the french one, since they
are not about the same topic.

> But there's nowhere else to go. And this feature is working exactly as intended.

Could you explain what you mean by "intended"? I have long thought that the 
intention of ill links is for articles that cover exactly the same subject. 

> The problems are many fold. Linked articles can have a definition that
> makes them a subset, partial overlap or superset. 

In each of those cases, it seems to me that no interlanguage link is 
appropriate. 

> There is absolutely no reason to think that these links are
> transitive in practice or theory.

In theory, there is plenty reason for the links to be transitive. Since that
is the best way to automatically extend the links to other wikis via ill bots.

- Carl