User talk:Dhum Dhum/ILTests

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Here are the basic ideas we threw:

  • Have a bar with distinction of Translation and Definition dictionaries: you're right, it will make it more clear.
  • Have a broad choice of words and types of words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, idioms, proverbs, ...
  • Link every translation that should be linked, but create only a few new pages from those links.
  • Put a note at the top of every page, explaining that it is a test page and asking people not to change anything on that page.

Questions

  • Do we want to run the wikipedians through a tutorial/scenario, like, tell them: "Click here, and you will see this"? We could divide each screen in two, with the instructions on one part, and actually what they would see on the other part. Here is an example. It is more work.
I think it should be obvious for a user what to do without having to resort to some form of help. If we include an explanation we acknowledge that it is needed and it implies that the page isn't really easy to use. I fear that this will have a negative effect. (And we don't want to scare off newbies, do we?)
Yep, that's what I thought initially, when I created my example of gear. But people like fonzy did not get my point. I left it without explanations or tutorial on purpose to expose people to the example, and, as you say, let them use it themselves, which shows how usable the design is. So, I am still a bit wondering whether a tutorial is needed. But you are right, it might scare people away.
  • When creating my first example, I realized how painful it was to move a few pages with hardcoded links, because you have to have to change all the links within each page: should we move everything to Interlanguages Linking, or leave everything in your User page. Both are fine with me, we just have to decide where the final location is, and stick with it.
I didn't set up my test pages as a final location for the test. They were just an attempt to generalize the idea and for me to have a personal overview. The real test could start at Interlanguage Linking, or even IL, which is much simpler to edit when used in links.
As I think IL would be simpler for us to write, it still would be a bit confusing because it does not convey any meaning. I think we should stick with a full and self-explanatory path.
I have nothing against Interlanguage Linking. Shall we use that?
Sounds good to me. Sorry I have not been very active lately, lots of work. Nicolas 10:00 Mar 24, 2003 (UTC)

Ideas

  • I added this in my first example, not sure if we want to make it complicated or show people how useful it could be: for some words, we can classify, as they do in real dictionaries, in some categories. For example, 'gear', in one meaning, belongs to the 'Automotive' category, and by clicking on it, we can get all the words that belongs to that category. That would require as well an enhancement of the software, and possibly a new design of the database, but it would be surely useful, as people can come up with lots of words more easily when thinking of one category (I would think as well: Technology, Cooking, etc.). What do you think? for reference, user:Nicolas_Delahaye/test/en/fr/(Aut)
Very good idea. Actually I was thinking about something along the same lines. Apart from 'topic categories' we could also include 'slang', 'regional' (compare French quatre-vingt-dix [France] with nonante [Belgium]), 'child language' (in Dutch and French [I think] dodo doesn't only mean 'extinct flightless bird' but for children also 'sleep'), ...
Perhaps we need a new namespace for those pages, e.g. Wiktionary Category:Technology, Wiktionary Category:Child language, ...
yes, and tons more. i really thought about that recently because I think that may a very good value-added to the wiktionary, compared to regular online dictionaries (would work for both translation and definition dictionaries). Later on, 'if' our ideas go through ;-), we could have a more thorough discussion about this topic (as for example, a word/meaning could belong to two categories (or more): British regional/Slang, or French regional/cooking). btw, i like your 'dodo' example ;-). As for the namespaces, I saw some relunctance among wikipedians about creating lots of them, so we may be careful when using this word.
You're right, this is not a question which must be decided immediately. I also found Wiktionary:By topic - maybe we can use that as a start. BTW, feel free to use dodo as an example :-)

List of possible words (to be completed) [let's try to have an expression or proverb with some complex nouns, complex in the sense of "leading to different meanings"]

  • Nouns
    • gear
    • gearbox [close to gear]
    • dodo
    • test
  • Verbs
    • gear
    • test
  • Adjectives
    • nice [lots of meanings]
  • Adverbs
  • Idioms
  • Expressions