Last modified: 2014-01-24 02:47:31 UTC
It is currently not obvious that this box exists and how you enable it. We need to make this more obvious as it is an important part of working with Wikidata and people don't find it.
May I add: it isn't just "don't find it"; it simply isn't there! Unless we add a Babel tag onto our userpage or enable the custom labelLister gadget, there's no way of realising it even exists. One consequence of this is that lots of people have been unwittingly adding non-English labels to items, thinking that all native names should go there regardless of language.
Yeah, we definitely need to find a way to make this more easy to find. Maybe put a buttom along the [edit] buttom that appears along the label? Something like [edit: english][change language] so that you can click there and select on which language you want to add the label. Also, we can set up something on the Preferences, or the ULS, to help people select "secondary languages" so that the box appears. Cheers.
I think there is a general problem. For Statements and List of pages linked to this item ALL details are immediately visible. For Labels, Descriptions and Aliases only one (your current language) or a few (the languages in the babel) are shown. We should list ALL Labels, Descriptions and Aliases. If space is an issue: list them as current but show at the bottom: (More) which shows ALL. The Gadget Labellister is not intuitive. It should NOT be necessary to have such a gadget. What might be a further problem is that the Label, Description and Aliases have no mentioning in which language they are. Maybe rename "In other languages" to "Label, Description and Aliases" or so, and show the current language there as well. The [edit] could the be removed from the top.
Suggestion for a fix: Add the "in other languages" box by default with 3 languages and add a little link to an explanation how to configure it properly.
Change 89859 had a related patch set uploaded by Bene: Add an option in the user preferences to choose additional languages https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/89859
We discussed the best approach for this with Alolita from the language team yesterday. Ultimately the user's language should be stored in ULS and global profile so it is available on all wikis. (This is not possible yet.) However until then we can make a very good educated guess for which languages the user speaks by asking ULS. It can provide a list of 3 languages based on the location of the user. We should be using these suggestions and display the "in other languages" box for users who have no babel box set on their user page. Bene*: Setting this back to new as the patch doesn't address the issue I believe.
(In reply to comment #6) > Bene*: Setting this back to new as the patch doesn't address the issue I > believe. Agreed. It needs to be a button on the item description page, not the user preference page. Deryck
Change 106689 had a related patch set uploaded by Tobias Gritschacher: Don't get extra languages for anon users https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/106689
Main change: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/106257/ Additional change: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/106689
Change 106689 merged by jenkins-bot: Don't get extra languages for anon users https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/106689
The patch didn't solve any of the original bugs. On the item page, is still impossible to: 1. Edit the name and description of an item in languages that aren't explicitly declared on the #Babel tag on one's userpage 2. Add aliases in languages other than English 3. For those who don't have a #Babel tag on their user page, there is no suggestion on the item page that they should do so.
It did. This bug never was about showing all labels or adding aliases. My original request was fulfilled. Please see bug 60369, bug 53344 and bug 41994 for those.
I'm not entirely convinced it solved your problem. When there is no Babel box on my userpage, the "in other languages" box on the item page disappears completely without a single trace.
