[Wikipedia-l] Cunc, tell us what you want?

[Erik Moeller]

Elian:

> I have nine browsers on my computer (needed for webdesign and some other
> purposes). Some don't even have a localize-option and do you think I
> bother to configure the rest? So I get english all the time.

I would think that you could at least bother to configure your main browser,
if you have one. If you don't, you're very far from the typical user.

Also:

> My mother doesn't even know that her browser has a localize-option and she
> doesn't speak english and - yes, she thinks also that webadresses always
> start with www. However, she would be a great contributor to the
> German wikipedia.

Her browser should respect the operating system's locale settings and not
require her to configure anything. I don't use IE/Windows so I can't check, but
if it doesn't do that, it's broken.

Besides, in both cases, I really don't see what the big deal is. You can
still click the language link which is *clearly visible* on the wikipedia
frontpage and bookmark your language Wikipedia. I think a state of things where
Wikipedia immediately works for those who have configured their browsers
properly and requires them to click a link for those who haven't is completely
acceptable. Your start page, on the other hand, requires *every* user to click an
entrypage link. And someone who so insists on the laziness of users should
know that many users will immediately close the Wikipedia browser window the
moment they notice they still have to click another time to get somewhere.

> Esperanto is not available as language option in all of my browsers.

I have just checked, it's available in both Mozilla and Opera. It's not
available in IE by default, but you can add it by simply adding "eo" to your
language list. Besides, if you speak Espearanto, I think you would be
intellectually independent enough to use a non-MS browser.

> De facto, by depending only on browser settings, we would deprive the
> Esperanto wikipedia of many possible contributors 

Those people who have not set their browser to prefer Esperanto, which they
can with all major browsers, can still easily click the Esperanto link. Your
extra page adds absolutely nothing to the user experience.

> Next, I want to see the progress of all wikipedias at one central place
> and not somewhere hidden at an obscure statistics page somewhere at the
> english (Main?) wikipedia where nobody of the non-english contributors
> bothers to look for regularly. 

Then create a translation of this page for your Wikipedia of choice. You'll
have to do that anyway, or do you want the "central place" information to be
English? I agree that the link (which would read "About the non-English
Wikipedias" on the English page, "..non-German.." on the German page etc.) could
be placed more prominently, perhaps right below the language bar.

> Lastly, I want to have a simple, not crowded page to search wikipedia
> where I am not disturbed by masses of text and I have to look very sharply
> to discover the small "search" field in one corner.

The search field is both in the upper right and lower left, which is good
design from a usability perspective because it makes it likely that the eye
notices it. I can't remember having ever searched for the search because I
intuitively looked in that place. Since we already have lots of links in the
sidebar, I wouldn't recommend adding another one there, but if you insist, that
would be the best place to put it. This link could lead to a more formal search
page.

Besides, I can think of very very few instances where I would want to search
language-neutrally, and many many cases where this would be highly annoying.
So the multi-language search, if we need it at all, should not be the
default.

> I think a wikipedia, each language on a separate URL without a centralized
> - and a really centralized - main page is a bundle of balkanized
> projects. 

By the same argument, if I translate my website into many different
languages and redirect the reader to his language by default, I create a balkanized
website. That doesn't make any sense. Balkanization comes from lack of
communication between the different language maintainers and contributors, lack of
consistent policies, use of different software etc. We're making good progress
in that area. 

Regards,
Erik

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