User talk:Trijnstel/Archive/2016

linking to other languages
Hallo Trijnstel. Since you are a long term user you can probably tell me about red links (non-existing English articles) linking to existing articles in other languages. Example: the painters Beest and Bommel (and more) in this List_of_Dutch_painters have a link added to the Dutch article. I already changed it here:. Is, in these two cases, that kind of linking acceptable here? --VanBuren (talk) 14:13, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Hi VanBuren. Hmm, not sure, but I don't think so. Could any of you give some advice here?  Trijnstel talk 15:22, 21 February 2016 (UTC)


 * I used to use this format, Willem Boot, with the piping in there to get rid of the "nl:"part. The disadvantage is that it suggests that the article is on this wiki. There's a template, in which you place a redlink to this wiki and in small font a bluelink to that wiki; it looks pretty neat. I think knows exactly which template I'm talking about. Drmies (talk) 16:43, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
 * OK, so what VanBuren changed was that simple way of doing it. I think it is a grey area; I'm personally OK with it, but I think the fancy way is preferable, as an invitation to write the article. Whether in lists we should have redlinks in the first place is up for debate; I think general consensus would be that it is OK if they've proven to be notable in another wiki. I'm sure Gerda will weigh in and show us the fancy template which does two in one: give a redlink and provide a bluelink to another wiki. Van der Pol...interesting...wonder if my old friend Gerd-Jan van der Pol will ever be notable...he was a great bum to hang out with, thirty years ago.... Drmies (talk) 16:47, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
 * So if I read this correctly, when there is an article on another wiki (when it is there it is always notable, otherwise it would not be there) I can make a red link on the English wiki and link to the other wiki. Considering that there are very many articles in very many languages there is lots of linking to do... --VanBuren (talk) 17:43, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Gerda is usually busy on Sundays, so maybe I can help ... It is much better not to direct link to the foreign-language article, for two reasons: readers who click on it will be disappointed, because they probably will not be able to read the article; and en.wikipedia editors will not see that an article needs to be written, so the chance that someone will write it is reduced. So it is better to use either a simple red link after verifying that the topic is notable (other Wikipedias have different rules for notability, or sometimes something not very notable just gets written up; for example when I was writing about a Swedish fjord I found there was an article on the ferry that serves it), or the fancy template that creates a red link with a link to the foreign-language article after it. That lives here: Template:Interlanguage link. If the title will be the same in the English and the foreign-language article, the code is (for example) (linking to an article on the Norwegian Wikipedia); where the English article will have a different title,  (linking to an article on Dutch Wikipedia). Until the English article is created, the reader will see a red link followed by a 2-letter abbreviation for the foreign-language Wikipedia that is a link to their article. Yngvadottir (talk) 22:13, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you, I understand now. --VanBuren (talk) 07:03, 22 February 2016 (UTC)