Tips for resolving interwiki conflicts

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

Hierdie is 'n opstel. Dit gee die mening en idees van enkele gebruikers op Meta-Wiki weer, maar word waarskynlik nie deur almal ondersteun nie. Dit is ook nie 'n amptelike beleid of riglyn op Meta-Wiki nie, maar dit mag wel een op ander Wikimedia-projekte wees. Voel asseblief vry om hierdie bladsy soos nodig by te werk, of gebruik die kletsblad om groot wysigings voor te stel. هذه نصيحة. تعبر عن آراء وأفكار بعض مستخدمي ميتا-ويكي لكن قد لا تكون مدعومة على نطاق واسع. هذه ليست سياسة على ميتا-ويكي، لكنها قد تكون سياسة أو إرشاد في مشاريع ويكيميديا آخرى. لا تتردد في تحديث هذه الصفحة عن الحاجة، أو استخدم صفحة النقاش للتعديلات الجوهرية. Ovo je esej. Sadrži misli i ideje nekih korisnika Meta-Wikija, ali ne mora nužno da bude široko prihvaćen. Ovo nije pravilo na Meta-Wikiju, ali može da budi pravilo ili uputa na drugim projektima Wikipedije. Slobodno promijenite ovu stranu po potrebi ili koristite stranu za razgovor za veće promjene. Açò és un assaig. Expressa les opinions i idees d'alguns usuaris de Wikimedia o del Meta-Wiki però pot ser que no tingui un ampli suport. Això no és una política del Meta-Wiki, però pot ser política o guia d'estil en algun altre projecte Wikimedia. Sentiu-vos lliures d'actualitzar aquesta pàgina quan faci falta o utilitzeu la pàgina de discussió per a proposar-hi canvis d'importància. Dette er et essay. Det udtrykker visse Wikimedia- eller Meta-Wiki-brugeres holdninger og idéer, som ikke nødvendigvis deles af et flertal. Dette udgør ikke en politik på Meta-Wikien, men det kan være en politik eller et regelsæt på et andet Wikimedia-projekt. Du er velkommen til at ændre denne side efter behov, eller til at foreslå større ændringer på diskussionssiden. Dies ist ein Essay. Er drückt die Meinungen und Ideen einiger Meta-Wiki-Benutzer aus und wird eventuell nur von wenigen Benutzern unterstützt. Dies ist keine Richtlinie aus dem Meta-Wiki, kann aber Richtlinie oder Leitsatz in anderen Wikimedia-Projekten sein. Tu dir keinen Zwang an und aktualisiere diese Seite falls nötig, oder benutze die Diskussionsseite, um größere Veränderungen vorzuschlagen. This is an essay. It expresses the opinions and ideas of some wikimedians or Meta-Wiki users but may not have wide support. This is not policy on the Meta-Wiki, but it may be policy or guideline on other Wikimedia projects. Feel free to update this page as needed, or use the discussion page to propose major changes. Esto es un ensayo. Este texto expresa opiniones e ideas de algunos usuarios pero éstas no tienen un amplio consenso. Esto no es una política de Meta pero sí puede serlo en otros proyectos. Sea usted libre de actualizar esta página o use su página de discusión para proponer cambios mayores. Jen eseo. Ĝi esprimas la opiniojn kaj ideojn de iuj Vikipediistoj aŭ uzantoj de Meta-Wiki, sed eble ne havus vastan subtenon. Ĝi ne estas la regularo de Meta-Wiki, sed ĝi eble estas regularo en aliaj projektoj de Wikipedia. Laŭvole ĝisdatigu ĉi tiun paĝon laŭ bezono, aŭ uzu la diskuto-paĝon por proponi grandajn ŝanĝojn. این صفحه یک انشا است. این صفحه نظر و ایدهٔ برخی از کاربران فراویکی را بیان می‌کند اما ممکن است از حمایت گسترده‌ای برخوردار نباشد. این صفحه یک سیاست در فراویکی نیست، اما ممکن است سیاست یا رهنمودی در دیگر پروژه‌های ویکی‌مدیا باشد. آزادانه آن را به روز کنید، و برای تغییرهای بزرگ از صفحهٔ بحث استفاده کنید. Tämä on essee. Se ilmaisee joidenkin wikimedialaisten tai Meta-Wikin käyttäjien mielipiteitä tai ajatuksia, mutta sillä ei välttämättä ole laajaa kannatusta. Tämä ei ole Meta-Wikin käytäntö, mutta saattaa olla käytäntö tai ohje muissa Wikimedia-hankkeissa. Päivitä tätä sivua tarpeen mukaan tai ehdota isoja muutoksia keskustelusivulla. Ceci est un essai. Il exprime les opinions et les idées de certains contributeurs de Meta-Wiki, mais peut ne pas renconter le soutien des autres. Il n'est ni une règle ou une recommandation sur Meta-Wiki, mais peut l'être sur d'autres projets Wikimédia. N'hésitez pas à modifier cette page si besoin est, ou à proposer des changements majeurs sur la la page de discussion. Dit is in essay. It jout mieningen en ideeën wer fan guon meidoggers op Meta-Wiki, mar it is net sein dat eltsenien it der mei iens is. Dit is ek gjin offisjeel belied of rjochtline op Meta-Wiki, al kin dat wol sa wêze op oare Wikimedia-projekten. Fiel jo frij om dizze side wêr't dat nedich is bij te wurkjen of om grutte wizigings út te stellen op de oerlisside. עברית: דף זה הוא מאמר. הדף מבטא את הדעות והרעיונות של חלק מהמשתמשים במיזמי קרן ויקימדיה או במטא־ויקי, אך ייתכן שאין להם תמיכה נרחבת. דף זה הוא לא דף מדיניות במטא־ויקי, אך ייתכן שהוא דף מדיניות או דף הנחיות במיזמי ויקימדיה אחרים. הרגישו חופשיים לעדכן את הדף לפי הצורך, או השתמשו בדף השיחה להצעת שינויים משמעותיים. Ovo je esej. Sadrži mišljenja i ideje nekih korisnika Meta-Wikija, ali ne mora nužno biti široko prihvaćen. Ovo nije pravilo na Meta-Wikiju, ali može biti pravilo ili uputa na drugim Wikimedijinim projektima. Slobodno promijenite ovu stranicu po potrebi ili koristite stranicu za razgovor za predlaganje većih promjena. Ez egy esszé. Néhány Wikimédia- vagy Meta-Wiki-felhasználó véleményét fejezi ki, de lehet, hogy nem kapott széles körű támogatást. Nem irányelv a Meta-Wikin, de irányelv vagy útmutató lehet más Wikimédia-projektekben. Szabadon frissítheted ezt a lapot, ha szükséges, vagy használd a vitalapot, ha nagyobb változtatást szeretnél javasolni. Isto es un essayo. Illo exprime le opiniones e ideas de alcun wikimedianos o usatores de Meta-Wiki, ma pote non esser appoiate per le consenso general. Isto non es un politica del Meta-Wiki, ma pote esser un politica o directiva in altere projectos de Wikimedia. Sia libere de actualisar iste pagina in caso de necessitate, o usa le pagina de discussion pro proponer major alterationes. Ini adalah sebuah esai. Esai ini menyatakan pendapat dan gagasan dari beberapa Wikimediawan atau pengguna Meta-Wiki dan mungkin tidak didukung oleh komunitas secara meluas. Esai ini bukan kebijakan Meta-Wiki, tapi mungkin saja merupakan kebijakan atau pedoman di proyek-proyek Wikimedia lainnya. Silakan memperbarui halaman ini seperlunya, atau gunakan halaman pembicaraan untuk mengusulkan perubahan besar. Questo è un saggio. Esprime le opinioni e le idee di alcuni contributori di Meta-Wiki, ma può non incontrare il sostegno di altri. Non è una raccomandazione o una linea guida su Meta-Wiki, ma lo potrebbe essere su altri progetti Wikimedia. Non esitate a modificare questa pagina se occorre, o a proporre modifiche rilevanti nella sua pagina di discussione. この記事はエッセイです。何人かのメタウィキの利用者の意見と考えを表していますが、幅広い支持を得ているとは限りません。メタウィキの方針ではありませんが、他のウィキメディア・プロジェクトの方針かガイドラインであるかもしれません。必要に応じてこのページを遠慮なく編集し、大きな変更の提案にはこの記事のノートを使用してください。 이 문서는 수필입니다. 이것은 일부 사용자의 의견을 나타낸 것으로, 총의를 얻지 않았을 수 있습니다. 이 문서는 메타위키 정책은 아니지만, 다른 위키미디어 프로젝트에서 정책이나 지침으로 사용하고 있을 수도 있습니다. 이 문서를 편집하거나 주요 내용을 바꿔야 한다면 토론 문서를 이용해 주세요. Ова е есеј. Во него е искажано мислењето и идеите на извесни викимедијанци или корисници на Мета-Вики, но не значи дека тоа ужива широка поддршка. Ова не претставува правило на Мета-Вики, но може да виде правило или напатствие на други проекти на Викимедија. Најслободно менувајте ја страницава, или пак користете ја страницата за разговор ако сакате да предложите некои поголеми промени. हा एक निबंध आहे. यामध्ये काही विकिपीडिया सदस्यांची किंवा मेटा-विकि सदस्यांची मते आणि कल्पना मांडण्यात आल्या आहेत. त्यांना बहुतांशांचा पाठिंबा असेलच असे नाही. हा निबंध मेटा-विकिवरील धोरण मांडत नाही, पण इतर काही विकिमीडिया प्रकल्पांमध्ये हा निबंध धोरण किंवा मार्गदर्शक तत्व म्हणून वापरला जात असणे शक्य आहे. आवश्यक असेल तेव्हा विनासंकोच हे पान संपादित करा किंवा काही मोठे बदल सुचविण्यासाठी चर्चा पानाचा उपयोग करा. Ini adalah sebuah karangan. Ia menyatakan pendapat serta buah fikiran sesetengah ahli wikimedia atau pengguna Meta-Wiki tetapi tidak semestinya mempunyai sokongan yang meluas. Ini bukannya polisi di Meta-Wiki, tetapi ia mungkin merupakan polisi atau garis panduan di projek-projek Wikimedia lain. Silakan mengemaskini laman ini jika perlu, atau gunakan laman perbincangannya untuk mengusulkan perubahan-perubahan yang besar. Dit is een essay. Het geeft de meningen en ideeën van enkele gebruikers op Meta-Wiki weer, maar wordt waarschijnlijk niet door iedereen gesteund. Dit is ook geen officieel beleid of richtlijn op Meta-Wiki, maar dat kan het wel zijn op andere Wikimedia-projecten. Voel u vrij om deze pagina als nodig bij te werken, of om de overlegpagina te gebruiken om grote wijzigingen voor te stellen. Aquò es una redaccion. Exprimís las opinions e las idèas d'unes contributors de MetaWiki, mas pòt rencontrar pas lo sosten dels autres. Es pas una règla o una recomandacion sus MetaWiki, mas o pòt èsser sus d'autres projèctes Wikimèdia. Esitetz pas a modificar aquesta pagina se fa mestièr, o a prepausar de cambiaments màgers sus la la pagina de discussion. Ten artykuł jest esejem. Wyrażone są w nim opinie i pomysły niektórych wikimedian lub użytkowników Meta-Wiki, ale niekoniecznie mają szersze poparcie. Nie jest to zasada obowiązująca na Meta-Wiki, ale może to być zasada lub zalecenie na innych projektach Wikimediów. Możesz aktualizować tę stronę w razie potrzeby lub skorzystaj ze strony dyskusji artykułu aby zaproponować większe zmiany. Isto é um ensaio. Ele expressa as opiniões e idéias de vários wikimedianos ou usuários do Meta-Wiki mas pode não ter grande respaldo. Isto não é uma política no Meta-Wiki, mas pode ser uma política ou orientação em outros projetos da Wikimedia. Sinta-se livre para atualizar esta página quando necessário, ou use a página de discussão para propor alterações maiores. Acesta este un eseu. Aici sînt exprimate opiniile şi ideile unor utilizatori de pe Meta-Wiki, dar este posibil să nu aibă accepţiune majoritară. Aceasta nu are titlu de politică pe Meta-Wiki, dar poate fi politică sau ghid de reguli pe alte proiecte ale Wikipediei. Poţi să îmbunătăţeşti această pagină după cum crezi adecvat, sau să foloseşti pagina de discuţie pentru a propune schimbări majore. Это эссе. Оно выражает мнения и идеи некоторых пользователей Мета-вики, но может не пользоваться широкой поддержкой. Эссе не является правилом Мета-вики, но, вероятно, может быть правилом или руководством в других проектах Викимедиа. Вы можете обновлять эту страницу как считаете нужным или воспользоваться страницей обсуждения, чтобы предложить масштабные изменения. Ово је есеј. Садржи мисли и идеје неких корисника Мета-Викија, али не мора да буде широко прихваћен. Ово није правило на Мета-Викију, али може да буде правило или упутство на другим пројектима Викимедије. Не устручавајте се да промените ову страну по потреби или користите страну за разговор да бисте предложили веће промене. Den här sidan är en essä. Den är inte en av Wikimedias policys eller riktlinjer, och återspeglar kanske endast författarnas åsikter. Uppdatera sidan om det behövs eller diskutera innehållet på diskussionssidan. หน้านี้เป็นข้อเขียน แสดงถึงความคิดหรือไอเดียของผู้ใช้วิกิมีเดียหรือเมต้าวิกิบางคนซึ่งอาจจะยังไม่ได้รับการสนับสนุนกว้างอย่างขวางนัก นี่ไม่ใช่นโยบายบนเมต้าวิกิ, แต่อาจเป็นนโยบายหรือแนวทางของโครงการอื่น ๆ ของวิกิมีเดีย อย่ากังวลในการแก้ไขหน้านี้ตามที่คุณต้องการ หรือใช้หน้าอภิปรายในการเสนอการเปลี่ยนแปลงใหญ่ ๆ Đây là một bài luận. Nó thể hiện ý kiến và ý tưởng của một số thành viên Wikimedia hoặc Meta-Wiki và có thể không được đồng tình một cách rộng rãi. Đây không phải là quy định tại Meta-Wiki, nhưng nó có thể là quy định hoặc hướng dẫn tại các dự án khác của Wikimedia. Xin hãy thoải mái cập nhật trang này nếu cần, hoặc sử dụng trang thảo luận để đề xuất những thay đổi lớn. 这是一篇论述。它只表达了部分维基人或元维基使用者的意见及观点，此等观点可能未获得广泛支持。这不是元维基的政策，但可能是属于其他维基计划的政策或指引。如有需要，欢迎更新本页面，或在讨论页提出修改的建议。 这是一篇论述。它只表达了部分维基人或元维基使用者的意见及观点，此等观点可能未获得广泛支持。这不是元维基的政策，但可能是属于其他维基计划的政策或指引。如有需要，欢迎更新本页面，或在讨论页提出修改的建议。 這是一篇論述. 它只表達了部分維基人或元維基使用者的意見及觀點，此等觀點可能未獲得廣泛支持。 這不是元維基的政策，但可能是屬於其他維基計劃的政策或指引。如有需要，歡迎更新本頁面，或在討論頁提出修改的建議。 [translate]

 I said it in Hebrew—I said it in Dutch—
     I said it in German and Greek:
 But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
     That English is what you speak!    —Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark, Fit the Fourth

This is a list of ideas for fixing hard problems in interwiki links, also known as the dreaded Interwiki conflicts.

[edit] Really simple things

These tips only require you to do very simple things, such as installing a piece of free software or making your worldview more positive.

[edit] Be bold and ignore all rules

It is right for everything you do in Wikipedia, and it is required here a bit more than for other things. When you just browse foreign Wikipedias, you are a tourist; when you fix them, you're a volunteer missionary. Know that you are doing a good thing, helping fellow people. It will be worth your time and effort.

[edit] Don't count on the bots

The bots are helpful, but limited. They don't know human languages, so they can only do their work when humans did it well before them. Sometimes humans make mistakes and then bots are helpless or even harmful.

Remember that in a conflict between a bot and a human editor, the human is right by definition. If you don't like something that the bot does, it is almost certainly a bug or a limitation. "Almost", because the bot may be doing that because of a community decision. In this case, Be Bold and consider fixing the community.

[edit] Use Mozilla Firefox

Please, get Firefox and use it.

This tip is relevant for nearly everything you do on the web, but is particularly useful when browsing foreign wikis and fixing interlanguage links. Mozilla has excellent tabbed browsing and several free and very useful add-ons, which will make your work more fun and productive.

Disclaimer: Mozilla Firefox on Windows is not so good at handling the Tibetan script, which is a bummer, but it shouldn't bother you much if you're just fixing interwiki links.

[edit] Use tabbed browsing

Tabbed browsing is not a new idea, but it is not yet used by all people. In the case of interlanguage links, it is extremely useful, as it lets you quickly open several web pages simultaneously to compare them.

Mozilla Firefox has particularly good tabbed browsing, but essentially all modern browsers have it too. Learn to use efficiently:

• Ctrl-T usually opens a new tab (T stands for Tab)
• Ctrl-W closes the current tab (W stands for Window)
• middle click on a link opens it in a new tab
• middle-click on the tab itself closes it.

Remember: The middle click is your friend!^[1]

[edit] Install all possible fonts, keyboards and writing systems on your computer

How to do this really depends on your operating system, but do yourself a favor and install absolutely everything you can.

Microsoft Windows supports foreign languages quite well since 2000 (Windows ME being a particularly unfortunate exception). Go to your Control panel, browse through "Regional and language options" and make sure you have all boxes checked in the "Languages" tab. If you're unsure about anything, ask your system administrator or an eight-year-old kid next door.

Mac and GNU/Linux systems also support foreign languages well. Consult the manuals for your version of KDE, Gnome, XFCE or Mac OS for language support installation instructions.

You can find useful free fonts here: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&cat_id=FontDownloads

Consider installing Code2000. It includes almost all of Unicode. It's not free-as-in-freedom software, but its licensing terms are somewhat less obnoxious then of many other non-free software and you can essentially use it for free or after paying a very small amount of money.

Try browsing Wikipedias that use less common scripts - Gothic, Tibetan, Amharic, Buginese, Cherokee. If you see squares or question marks instead of letters, look for the font installation instructions on the main page.

[edit] External editor is your friend

Firefox has a pretty good editing field and some add-ons may make it even better, but for some tasks you may find an external editor more useful.

On Windows your best options are Notepad and Notepad++. Notepad is the text editor that comes with Windows. It has pretty stable Unicode support and also supports right-to-left very well, but it's not good for almost anything else. For advanced tasks such as sorting, clever search-and-replace, etc., you should try Notepad++. Its only notable weakness is the problematic support for right-to-left languages.

If you use GNU/Linux, you probably already have a favorite text editor. vi and emacs are not great for right-to-left editing, but are editing powerhouses for anything else. If these Unix-style programs are too hard for you, consider some of the editors that come with your KDE or Gnome installation, such as Kate or gEdit. Much like Notepad++, they support Unicode well and have many advanced features, but you need to get used to their flaky right-to-left support.

Word processors such as OpenOffice or Microsoft Word are not supposed to be used as text editors, but you may try using them. Both of them have good Unicode and right-to-left support and do most of the simple tasks needed for interwiki editing right.

The original author of this article has never seriously used a Mac, so consider writing the paragraph about Mac editors right here.

[edit] Install and use a few Firefox add-ons

• Transliterator (formerly ToCyrillic) - this is an unbelievably simple and useful add-on does two things: First, it lets you easily type in foreign scripts without messing with your operating system's keyboard settings and without having to memorize foreign and confusing keyboard layouts. Second, it lets you transliterate text from Latin to foreign characters and vice-versa. It supports several types of Cyrillic transliteration and also Georgian, Cherokee, Japanese Kana, Chinese Pinyin and several other writing systems.
• Install spelling dictionaries for a few useful languages. It may come handy when you'll want to edit a few words in a foreign wiki to appear friendly and considerate.
• Feel free to add more add-ons that you find useful!

[edit] Use Unified login and set up a user page

Merge your accounts and set up your Single-User Login (SUL). See Help:Unified login.

Set up a user page that tells what you're doing. If you don't know the language of the target wiki well enough to write it, use English or whatever seems fit.

Using a unified user account and explaining the editors in the target wiki what you're doing goes a long way towards preventing them from reverting your precious edits and blocking you for vandalism out of silly misunderstanding.

[edit] Use edit summaries

Use meaningful edit summaries. Point to a discussion in Interwiki synchronization if there is one.

Even if you do use meaningful edit summaries, be patient when a resident editor in the target wiki accuses you of vandalism, racism or spam. It happens. If you know that you are acting in Good Faith, it's not supposed to hurt you.

[edit] Fix other things on the way

When fixing interwiki links, you may find other things to fix. Wrong spacing, invalid templates, tables, or images. You may also encounter vandalism - friends of gays sometimes vent their frustration in foreign languages. Be bold and fix it.

When you are fixing an article in a foreign language that you encounter for the first time, read the article on it in the Wikipedia in a language you know well. Consider improving that article. Consider reading a little about its grammar and syntax. If you are not sure that you know what syntax is, read the article about it, and consider improving it, too.

[edit] Resolving the conflict

Here we get to the actual work.

[edit] Find yourself an article to work on

As of this writing, full lists of pages with static interwiki conflicts are ready only for the Wikipedias in Hebrew, in Russian and in Esperanto. You can start working on the Esperanto list right now:

• eo:Vikipedio:Interlingvaj ligiloj/Ligiloj de pluraj esperantaj artikoloj al unu alilingva artikolo

Lists for other languages are being gradually prepared. Esperanto should be reasonably readable for almost anyone, but if you really want to work with the Wikipedia in your language as the starting point, drop a line to Amir E. Aharoni and ask him to prepare a list for you.

If Amir is lazy busy In Real Life, try contacting interwiki bot operators. These can be easily found in the Recent changes on any Wikipedia. They will gladly provide a list of conflicts to work on.

Of course, you can also run into an interwiki conflict by sheer chance. In any case, good for you. Start working.

[edit] Open all the foreign articles to which a given Wikipedia is linked

"All" literally means "All". "Linked" means not just "directly linked" - the indirect links are the ones that are causing the conflict!

You can of course use a bot to do that for you, but bots have several disadvantages: they are hard to install for many people that aren't well-versed in programming and their output about interwiki conflicts is very confusing. This is the reality at the time of this writing and the bots' software is constantly improving, but the point is that even with the best bot is you'll have to read some of the foreign article anyway, even if the bot doesn't report that it causes a conflict! So forget the bot and use your browser.

To open all links, open an article in one Wikipedia and middle-click all the interwiki links in its sidebar. This will open directly linked articles in separate tabs. For articles with a lot of interwiki links, such as San Marino that may mean a lot of links and opening too much tabs may make your browser's memory usage go crazy and is not too convenient with all the scrolling back and forth. So be wise and don't open them all at once, but do it gradually - for example, open 10 tabs, close them, open the next 10 etc.

Opening a page adds it to your browser's history and that means that the link to it will be colored differently. In the default settings unvisited links are usually blue and visited links become purple. After you open all the directly linked articles, go over all of them and check whether any of them still has blue links. Middle-click on all the blue links that you encounter.

At this point you may notice that the blue links that you have opened are articles that you already saw earlier. There may be two reasons for this. One is that the link was to a redirection page - it eventually leads to the same article, but the redirection page is not listed in your browser's history, so it remains blue. Another reason may be that the link is not spelled exactly the same as it appears in the foreign Wikipedia, most often because its first letter is small and not capital. Yet again, the link leads to the same article, but your browser doesn't know it. Bots do not handle such things perfectly, so they should be corrected: interwiki links should be spelled precisely and consistently and they should not point to redirects.^[2]

Repeat this operation until you have visited the whole "cloud" of interwiki-linked articles.

[edit] Sorting the pages

Every time you open an article, make short notes about it. For example, our starting point is an imaginary article called "Article name" in the English wiki. Your list may look like this:

* en:Article name - is about articles
* de:Artikelname - is about articles
* ru:Заголовок - is about titles in general
* fr:Nom - is about names in general
* ru:Артикль - is not about articles as pieces of text, but about the grammatical article
* en:Title - is both about titles as names and as aristocratic titles
* ru:Название - is about names of things
* he:שם - is about names in general
* de:Artikel - is about grammatical article

When you're finished with this list, sort it by topic:

about encyclopedic articles:
* en:Article name
* de:Artikelname
 
about titles in general:
* ru:Заголовок
 
about titles as names and as aristocratic designations:
* en:Title
 
about names in general:
* fr:Nom
* he:שם
 
about names of things:
* ru:Название
 
about the grammatical article:
* ru:Артикль
* de:Artikel

Now this starts to look like a list with which you can start an Interwiki synchronization discussion, but it still can be improved a little. For example - go on, be bold and split [[en:Title]] to [[en:Title (name)]] and [[en:Title (aristocratic designation)]].

At this point you should sort the links in every group according to the language code. This actually contradicts the rules of some Wikipedias - for example the English Wikipedias sorts languages by their names and their codes, Hebrew and Hungarian Wikipedias put English first, etc. (See Interwiki sorting order for a full list.) However, you should nevertheless sort them this way, because it will help you avoid duplicates - you don't want to put more than one link to the same language in one article. When you actually make the correction, you should try - as much as you can - to sort the links according to the local rules; however it will be done by the bots anyway, so don't bother too hard.

[edit] Request for comment

Now, publish your list at Interwiki synchronization. Even if no significant discussion will follow, it is still useful as a task list for yourself, and as a central page to which you can link when you want to leave a useful edit summary in foreign Wikipedias.

If you are not sure that everyone will agree with your changes, consider writing a comment at least on some of the articles' talk pages saying that you plan to update the interwikis and linking to the Interwiki synchronization that you just created.

[edit] Start fixing!

Have you made a sorted list of all the relevant pages? Do you think there is a consensus for it? Then the real fun begins.

This paragraph describes a manual process. If you are very nice, have some spare time and can program a bot that will do it automatically, go on and do it. Furthermore, this process will become easier when the Interlanguage extension will be enabled. (Soon, hopefully.)

Open the first article in the first group of articles in the list that you created. Take a deep breath and replace all the interlanguage links in it with the new links upon which you have decided. Make sure you removed the link to the same language - if you're in the English WP, you don't need an en: link in the article. Now save the page. The new links will appear at the sidebar. Go on and middle-click them and repeat the procedure. To explain the local editors what you're doing, link to the list you created in meta:Interwiki synchronization.

[edit] Aftermath

Consider checking the pages you fixed with an interwiki bot; if you cannot operate a bot yourself, ask a bot operator. You may be surprised at the results.

Check that your changes were not reverted soon after you made them. It happens that the people in the foreign Wikipedia misunderstand your good intentions. Suggested times: check all foreign pages once after an hour, and again after about a week. If you see that your changes were reverted and mixed up, explain the user that did it what happened. If he doesn't understand your language, well ... we never told you that it is supposed to be so easy ;)

[edit] Language

[edit] Learn to read foreign alphabets

This doesn't mean "learn a lot of foreign languages" - we'll get to that in a minute. This just means that you should learn to read non-Latin alphabets. (If you are reading this essay in English, it is assumed that you can read the Latin alphabet.)

Knowing foreign alphabets won't make you able to actually understand foreign languages, but you'll be able to read many foreign words and names, which appear frequently in encyclopedias. This is quite helpful - often it is enough to understand what the article is about.

Knowing Cyrillic is very useful, as it opens for you the large Wikipedias in Russian (ru), Ukrainian (uk), Serbian (sr) and Bulgarian (bg). It is also used by the small, but growing, Wikipedias in Mongolian (mn) and in the languages of the former USSR - Belarusian (be-x-old, be), Chuvash (cv), Ossetian (os), Chechen (ce) and others.

If you master Cyrillic, then the Greek alphabet should be a breeze (and vice-versa). It is only used in the Greek Wikipedia (el), but studying it is easy and you'll be able to brag in front of your friends that you know the Greek alphabet and read street names when you finally stop editing Wikipedia and go to a quiet vacation in Greece or Cyprus instead.

Georgian (ka) and Armenian (hy) are significantly different from Latin and they are only used by these two languages. On the other hand, they are very simple and straightforward, so you may try them.

The Hebrew alphabet is troublesome - it omits most vowels and is written right-to-left. Nevertheless, knowing it is very useful, as the Hebrew Wikipedia is in the top 40 by article count at the time of this writing and is quickly growing. (See below for tips about right-to-left writing.)

Once you master Hebrew, try Arabic - like Hebrew, it omits vowels and is right-to-left; it is also cursive, which means that most letters in a word are connected and many of them have different shapes depending on their position in the word. It sounds a bit tricky, and it really is a bit tricky, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to understand some key words in the pretty big Wikipedias in Arabic (ar), Urdu (ur) and Persian (fa).

Japanese (ja) and Chinese (zh-*) are terribly hard. Their writing systems have thousands of characters, so mastering them takes years. The Wikipedias in these languages are very large, however, so you should at least learn a few tricks that may help you. First, learn to see the difference between Kanji and Katakana in Japanese. There are less than 100 Katakana characters and they have a rather simple shape and style which becomes recognizable after very little practice. They are used for transcribing foreign words and names, such as Mozart, Computer and McDonalds, and this piece of knowledge may often help you guess what the article is about.

Chinese doesn't have anything like Katakana. Chinese is all very hard. Sorry. But there's always machine translation (see below).

At first look Korean (ko) appears as hard as Chinese and Japanese, but actually it is very simple. It is not an ideographic writing system, but almost an alphabet. Read the article Hangul for more on that. After a few hours' practice you'll be able to read foreign names in it very easily.

The Cherokee Wikipedia (chr) is still small, but you may encounter articles in it on your interwiki fixing trips. Some letters of the Cherokee syllabary appear similar to Latin letters, but actually they have nothing to do with it. To decipher this script, you may use the Transliterator extension for Firefox (see above).

The author of this essay doesn't know much about Indic scripts, such as Devanagari, Tamil, Thai or Tibetan, but if you do, consider replacing this paragraph with a few encouraging words, telling how easy it is to learn them. (Yeah, right.)

[edit] Learn a lot of languages

Well, this is hard.

But what may help you is any knowledge in one language in every group. For example, if you know one Slavic language well, then you'll be able to read any other Slavic language and more or less understand what the article is about.

Here's an ultra-simplistic cheat sheet for language groups relevant for Wikipedia:

• North Germanic, a.k.a Scandinavian languages - Danish (da), Swedish (sv), Norwegian (no, nn). Icelandic (is) is also related, but quite different, although it is similar to Faroese (fo).
• Slavic languages are all very close. Learning one of them is probably the biggest favor you can do to yourself as an interwiki links fixer. In written form the Slavic language are mostly mutually intelligible. This means that learning Russian (ru), for example, will not only make you able to read "Crime and Punishment" and "War and Peace" - a good thing by itself - but will also help you understand Polish (pl), Ukrainian (uk), Serbian (sr), Bulgarian (bg), Czech (cs), Slovak (sk), Slovene (sl), Croat (hr), Bosnian (bs), Macedonian (mk), Belarusian (be, be-x-old) and a few other smaller Wikipedias.^[3]
• German (de) is close to its many regional varieties - bar, nds, als, pdc and others. Dutch (nl) and Afrikaans (af) are also rather similar to them. If you know German and bothered to learn the Hebrew alphabet, you'll be able to read Yiddish (yi) quite easily.
• Romance languages are all quite similar. The major ones are French (fr), Spanish (es), Italian (it), Portuguese (pt), Catalan (ca), Galician (gl) and Romanian (ro). There are also the smaller Wikipedias in regional Romance languages, among them Occitan (oc), Aragonese (an), Sicilian (scn), Lombard (lmo) and others. Latin (la) has similar vocabulary, but a very different grammar; nevertheless, understanding what the article is about shouldn't be hard if you know any other Romance language. The popular artificial languages Esperanto (eo), Ido (io) and Interlingua (ia) use much the same vocabulary as the Romance languages and their grammar is very simple; learning one of them may also help you get started with the natural Romance languages.
• Turkish (tr) is similar to other Turkic languages, such as Azeri (az), Uzbek (uz), Tatar (tt), Kazakh (kk), Turkmen (tk) and Uyghur (ug).
• The two major Semitic languages, Hebrew (he) and Arabic (ar), are quite similar to each other. If you know one of them well, the other one won't seem completely foreign. Their alphabets are significantly different, but once you study the right-to-left tricks in one of them, it will work the same way in another. Besides, you'll be able to read the Bible or the Qur'an in their original tongue. The Maltese language (mt) is very close to Arabic and it is written in the Latin alphabet, which makes learning it even simpler; unfortunately the Wikipedia in this language is still developing.^[4]

Basque (eu) is not similar to absolutely anything. Albanian (sq) and Greek (el) are Indo-European, like Slavic, Germanic and Romance, but it doesn't help you much. Finno-Ugric languages, such as Finnish (fi), Hungarian (hu), Estonian (et) or Moksha (mdf), are not similar to anything else and they are hardly similar to one another. Bummer.

And of course, African, Asian and Native American languages are not similar to anything European, but that's the fun of it.

Strangely enough, English is not very close to any other language, except Scots (sco), whose Wikipedia is unfortunately quite small. It is related to German, Dutch, Frisian (fy) and the Scandinavian languages, but even the most remote members of the Slavic family, such as Czech and Russian, are still closer that English and German.

[edit] Use machine translation

For languages you don't know, you may try using machine translation. Here's a list of popular free machine translation sites:

• Google Translate
• Yahoo! Babel Fish

Feel free to add more sites that may be useful!

Machine translation is imperfect, but it may give you an idea about the content of the article.

[edit] Use the embassy

Most Wikipedias, even the smallest ones, have an embassy, where you can try to get help about their respective language, local editing policy, etc. There are links to all embassies from the English Wikipedia Embassy.

A tip: when you find a list of users who speak your language, check their contributions. Sometimes well-meaning Wikipedians write their name in the embassy, but later retire from the project, but remain listed as ambassadors. The one who made the latest contributions is more likely to reply to you promptly.

[edit] Take a look at categories

If machine translation doesn't help you much, consider taking a look at the categories into which the foreign article is sorted. Just click on all the categories and look at the interwiki links of the categories. It may give you very useful clues! If the categories don't have interwiki links, try looking up their names in a dictionary or a machine translation site.

[edit] Take a look at the existing interwikis

It's a bit of a circular argument, but the existing interwiki links on a foreign may hint at the article's content. Since it's those links that you are fixing, don't trust this blindly, but try it when all else fails.

[edit] See also

• Interwiki conflicts
• Interwiki synchronization
• en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Interlanguage Links/Ideas from the Hebrew Wikipedia
• The Zen of Interwiki, by EVula

[edit] References