User:Marc Mongenet/Interlanguage links untangling

Common problems with Interlanguage links.

Many interwiki links in disambiguation pages are bogus. Here is the problem: Clearly, L2:W2 has nothing in common with L3:W3 (not the same word, not the same meanings). So, there should be no interwiki links between L2:W2 and L3:W3. The problem is that it happens. Why? It happens because somebody linked L1:W1 to L2:W2 because of the shared m1 meaning, then somebody else linked L3:W3 to L1:W1 because of the shared m2 meaning. Then robots linked everything together.
 * Let's say that word W1 has meanings m1, m2 and m3 in language L1.
 * Then we create a disambiguation page L1:W1, with links to articles L1:W1 (m1), L1:W1 (m2), and L1:W1 (m3).
 * Let's say that word W2 has meanings m1, m4 and m5 in language L2.
 * Then we create a disambiguation page L2:W2, with links to articles L2:W2 (m1), L2:W2 (m4), and L2:W2 (m5)..
 * Let's say that word W3 has meanings m2 and m6 in language L3.
 * Then we create a disambiguation page L3:W3, with links to articles L3:W3 (m2), and L3:W3 (m6).

The root of the problem is that interwiki between disambiguation pages should not be based on meanings (actually one meaning among several in one language), but on the word itself. A disambiguation page is about a word.

The disambiguation page L1:W1 should only have interwiki links to W1 disambiguation pages in other languages (they are disambiguation pages for the W1 word). The disambiguation page L2:W2 should only have interwiki links to W2 disambiguation pages in other languages (they are disambiguation pages for the W2 word)... Marc Mongenet (talk) 17:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)