[Foundation-l] hiding interlanguage links by default is a Bad Idea, part 2

[James Alexander]

On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 3:39 PM, Aryeh Gregor
<Simetrical+wikilist at gmail.com<Simetrical%2Bwikilist at gmail.com>
> wrote:

> In the absence of further data, the only real argument I saw for
> restoring the interlanguage links by default is to show how
> international Wikipedia is and raise awareness about how many other
> languages are supported.  In this case they aren't actually meant to
> be clicked on, so a low click rate isn't a problem.  They're more of
> an advertisement.  This is a fairly reasonable argument -- the huge
> size of the language list is a plus, not a minus, from this
> perspective.  I don't know if it outweighs concerns about clutter,
> though.  Maybe.
>

It isn't a bad argument, I know I consider it a good one, but the biggest
problem I see at the moment is that I don't think normal users have any IDEA
that they are hidden over there. I have yet to meet a reader who realizes
that. I said earlier that I had had 5 people ask me why we got rid of the
language links. I've had 2 more ask since then ask and 2 of the original 5
call me up and ask me to explain where the button was to show the languages
because even after I told them it was there they couldn't find it. I would
love to see a survey that asked readers if they saw them but I don't know
exactly how you could word it. Obviously I'm someone who wants them there
(for many reasons, the international component not a small one among them)
and so am bias about it but I just don't see the argument that having them
there causes to many issues.

I also don't totally understand the "the user just has to click once and
then they're set" argument. I've found that even as a user who is wandering
around logged in I find myself having to click to open up the language links
several times a day. I keep forgetting to throw something into my global.js
so that it isn't an issue for me personally but :/

James Alexander
james.alexander at rochester.edu
jamesofur at gmail.com