Intro - some thought about the wiki translations

[Frank W. Kooistra]

On Tuesday 02 September 2008 07:32:00 you wrote:
> Hi Frank,
>
>   Welcome to the documentation team.

> after discussing modifications here. So how precisely do you
> suggest to make it better ?
>
>   As for the big level structure, so far we have been thinking about how
> to clearly separate user and developper oriented pages, with a half
> conclusion that we should categorize better (I am not sure how, though.
> Must check the guidelines.). I think that the "Key pages" navigation box
> can potentially give a multi-page narrative story, or structure chapters
> if you prefer.
 http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Om_2008.8
> http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/FreeRunner_Overview
>
>   I agree that we have too many navigation boxes. IMHO the three on the
> left column should be revised to two, but see above about the left
> navigation. I also think that having "Table of content" + "Key pages" +
> "Language chooser" + the usual wiki header stuff is bad, but I don't
> have time to propose and implement a better page layout. If you want
> ideas on what to do, I would say that giving a more uniform look to all
> the "Key pages on Om 2008.8" would be an easy, significant and visible
> contribution.
>
>   As for translation, we have been too busy with content to think about
> it. I guess we are waiting for the translators to team up themselves and
> take charge. Here is another exciting task for you !
>
>   Replacing "Main page" with something else is technically beyond the
> power of wiki editors.
>
> Yours,
> Minh

Dear Minh

Thank you for you warm welcome. 
You explanation is most appreciated and understood. 

The ongoing discussion in de doc group about catagories, namespaces  made me 
realise i did not fully understand the use and importance. 

I bought a book about media wiki to update my knowledge ( Professional Wikis 
by Mark S. Choate wrox publisher)

I have been looking at the Wiki as a user and with a translators view 

As far as i can see now, part of the problems we have ie because we really 
have one wiki in English with translated pages intertwined.  
I do not think we can solve the mix up  by just having a language dependent 
Navigation bar as on the left side.  

A later mail of you ( Re: Deleting outdated/unused pages of 17:41) actually 
came with several suggestions. Point five and six looked the most appealing 
to me. I cannot fully comprehend yet if and how point 5 : each language gets 
its own namespace,  will solve the translation issue . I will look into that.

On the translation side ( i only did make some minute changes)  I also focused 
more on what is usefull text to translate.  As a matter I admire the courage 
and effort of William and Brenda in their clean up acts - shesheni. Please do 
not delata all !

I als wonder If Dutch need a translation at all. I do see the Dutch 
translation more like a preamble to Dutch manual for the products, which i 
think will be a kind and appreciable effort necessary for a real product. 

I do see the progress achived so far ! some time ago i gave up wading through 
all the pages wondering what openmoko stood for. 


Kind regards, 

    

-- 
Frank W. Kooistra

Neo FreeRunner  on the way
 
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