7 ms·

> I almost never use the left hand side bar (and I have a feel almost no one does) If you speak different languages, the left hand bar is very useful to switch

> I almost never use the left hand side bar (and I have a feel almost no one does) If you speak different languages, the left hand bar is very useful to switch between different language versions of an article.

cuddlybacon 6y ago
True. But the gif in the article indicates they intend to move the language selector to a more prominent location.
- rmetzler 6y ago
  While the language selection on mobile Wikipedia is in a very prominent spot, I often struggle to find it, because it’s just some Asian sign I can’t make sense of. I hope they don’t do this on desktop too.
bakuninsbart 6y ago
I use that quite a lot, because google periodically just refuses to acknowledge that I usually want my links in English despite living in Germany. English quality is often times a bit better, but it is also useful to check in multiple languages, as sometimes you get different information, especially on more controversial topics.
- em-bee 6y ago
  or regional ones. topics that relate to the german area are usually more detailed in german. same for other areas and languages to the point that it can be worth it to use machine translation to look into a foreign local topic
  - bakuninsbart 6y ago
    That's how it should be at least, but not always! - Probably the best department for german literature is in Princeton, and my favorite scholar on german existentialism, Walter Kaufmann, also an American at Princeton.
- 867-5309 6y ago
  try changing your IP address, OS language/region and browser language to English
  - DoctorOetker 6y ago
    I'm not aware IP addresses have language settings associated with them? since when is this the case? any links for further information?
    - _jal 6y ago
      For a bunch of different reasons, many sites will try to guess where you are located based on your IP address. One misguided thing some sites do is select language based on that lookup. Although it wouldn't surprise me if some countries try to legislate about that and everyone with an international presence has to do it.
    - 867-5309 6y ago
      the technology is called IP Geolocation. IP addresses are able to be resolved to countries, cities, towns and in some cases more granular than that, depending on the ISP. since around ten years ago but databases have matured since then. what I was trying to get at was masking your actual IP address by way of proxy server or VPN, to make it appear as if you are connecting from another place. it also aids anonymity and bypassing geoblocked content
- fireattack 6y ago
  I have the same problem, so I just save English UI as bookmark/search engine and start from there. https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en It would prioritize English result. I actually have three languages of Google on my bookmark bar precisely because of this, and they work like a charm.
pwdisswordfish4 6y ago
This. And it’s the one thing that annoys me to no end about the mobile version, that the list of language editions isn’t there at all.
- jdlrobson 6y ago
  The language button is right at the top of the page. If anything its more accessible on mobile?
  - thaumasiotes 6y ago
    Well, it's secret on mobile. I had the same problem - I wanted to switch languages on mobile wikipedia, but the page appears to provide no way to do that. Functionality that has been carefully designed so you won't find it isn't really an improvement over functionality that isn't there.
    - tasogare 6y ago
      > Functionality that has been carefully designed so you won't find it The button is labeled 文A, which is quite common for translation service, and is just under an article title so it’s literally the most visible UI element. It’s difficult to make it more accessible than that...
      - kossTKR 6y ago
        Pretty sure 99 out of a 100 don't know what "文A" means. I've had the same complaint, - never once did it occurs to me that "文A" meant translation. This to me is a testament to the fact that most buttons should actually be text unless extremely common like the hamburger menu, but even that's debatable.
        webmaven 6y ago
        > This to me is a testament to the fact that most buttons should actually be text unless extremely common like the hamburger menu, but even that's debatable. I agree, especially on mobile (even in 2020, many users — who often just got used to the hamburger menu — don't realize that the vertical ellipsis is a symbol for "menu" or "more options", it often just looks like a random decoration to them), although on a desktop website or app you (hopefully) have the option of hovering the mouse pointer (even accidentally) over any unfamiliar bit of UI gubbins to get a clue. I'll note though that the specific example of "文A" is, in fact, a text label. The first Chinese glyph even translates as "text".
rasz 6y ago
There is room for improvement here. Wiki could detect language preferences based on accept-language Header. "en-US,en;q=0.9,pl;q=0.8" is a pretty good indication I want English and Polish translations to be the first one listed. Alternatively/additionally you could let logged in users define sort order/preferences. As is now I have to inject ['.vector-menu-content-list .interlanguage-link.interwiki-en', '.vector-menu-content-list .interlanguage-link.interwiki-pl'].forEach(el =>{ if (document.querySelector(el)) { el.style = '' let lang = document.querySelector(el) lang.parentNode.insertBefore(lang, lang.parentNode.firstChild) } })
- fireattack 6y ago
  They already adjust the list by the frequency you visit them. They don't by default show all 100+ language links anymore for a while.
  - 3131s 6y ago
    Right, I did not like this change at all... I use the langlinks across many languages, way more so than the average user so my use case is different.
    - fireattack 6y ago
      The list is meant to change according to your usage, not the average user. Of course, you have to log in.

cuddlybacon 6y ago

True. But the gif in the article indicates they intend to move the language selector to a more prominent location.

rmetzler 6y ago
While the language selection on mobile Wikipedia is in a very prominent spot, I often struggle to find it, because it’s just some Asian sign I can’t make sense of. I hope they don’t do this on desktop too.

bakuninsbart 6y ago

I use that quite a lot, because google periodically just refuses to acknowledge that I usually want my links in English despite living in Germany. English quality is often times a bit better, but it is also useful to check in multiple languages, as sometimes you get different information, especially on more controversial topics.

em-bee 6y ago
or regional ones. topics that relate to the german area are usually more detailed in german. same for other areas and languages to the point that it can be worth it to use machine translation to look into a foreign local topic
- bakuninsbart 6y ago
  That's how it should be at least, but not always! - Probably the best department for german literature is in Princeton, and my favorite scholar on german existentialism, Walter Kaufmann, also an American at Princeton.
867-5309 6y ago
try changing your IP address, OS language/region and browser language to English
- DoctorOetker 6y ago
  I'm not aware IP addresses have language settings associated with them? since when is this the case? any links for further information?
  - _jal 6y ago
    For a bunch of different reasons, many sites will try to guess where you are located based on your IP address. One misguided thing some sites do is select language based on that lookup. Although it wouldn't surprise me if some countries try to legislate about that and everyone with an international presence has to do it.
  - 867-5309 6y ago
    the technology is called IP Geolocation. IP addresses are able to be resolved to countries, cities, towns and in some cases more granular than that, depending on the ISP. since around ten years ago but databases have matured since then. what I was trying to get at was masking your actual IP address by way of proxy server or VPN, to make it appear as if you are connecting from another place. it also aids anonymity and bypassing geoblocked content
fireattack 6y ago
I have the same problem, so I just save English UI as bookmark/search engine and start from there. https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en It would prioritize English result. I actually have three languages of Google on my bookmark bar precisely because of this, and they work like a charm.

pwdisswordfish4 6y ago

This. And it’s the one thing that annoys me to no end about the mobile version, that the list of language editions isn’t there at all.

jdlrobson 6y ago
The language button is right at the top of the page. If anything its more accessible on mobile?
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  Well, it's secret on mobile. I had the same problem - I wanted to switch languages on mobile wikipedia, but the page appears to provide no way to do that. Functionality that has been carefully designed so you won't find it isn't really an improvement over functionality that isn't there.
  - tasogare 6y ago
    > Functionality that has been carefully designed so you won't find it The button is labeled 文A, which is quite common for translation service, and is just under an article title so it’s literally the most visible UI element. It’s difficult to make it more accessible than that...
    - kossTKR 6y ago
      Pretty sure 99 out of a 100 don't know what "文A" means. I've had the same complaint, - never once did it occurs to me that "文A" meant translation. This to me is a testament to the fact that most buttons should actually be text unless extremely common like the hamburger menu, but even that's debatable.
      - webmaven 6y ago
        > This to me is a testament to the fact that most buttons should actually be text unless extremely common like the hamburger menu, but even that's debatable. I agree, especially on mobile (even in 2020, many users — who often just got used to the hamburger menu — don't realize that the vertical ellipsis is a symbol for "menu" or "more options", it often just looks like a random decoration to them), although on a desktop website or app you (hopefully) have the option of hovering the mouse pointer (even accidentally) over any unfamiliar bit of UI gubbins to get a clue. I'll note though that the specific example of "文A" is, in fact, a text label. The first Chinese glyph even translates as "text".

rasz 6y ago

There is room for improvement here. Wiki could detect language preferences based on accept-language Header. "en-US,en;q=0.9,pl;q=0.8" is a pretty good indication I want English and Polish translations to be the first one listed. Alternatively/additionally you could let logged in users define sort order/preferences. As is now I have to inject ['.vector-menu-content-list .interlanguage-link.interwiki-en', '.vector-menu-content-list .interlanguage-link.interwiki-pl'].forEach(el =>{ if (document.querySelector(el)) { el.style = '' let lang = document.querySelector(el) lang.parentNode.insertBefore(lang, lang.parentNode.firstChild) } })

fireattack 6y ago
They already adjust the list by the frequency you visit them. They don't by default show all 100+ language links anymore for a while.
- 3131s 6y ago
  Right, I did not like this change at all... I use the langlinks across many languages, way more so than the average user so my use case is different.
  - fireattack 6y ago
    The list is meant to change according to your usage, not the average user. Of course, you have to log in.