Wikipedia talk:Featured articles in other languages/archive 1

Project idea
Inspired by some dicussions at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Echo, I've come up with this page as an example of what we could do. What do people think of the suggestion? violet/riga (t) 17:26, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

Listing order
There are three main ways we could categorise this list:
 * 1) By language
 * 2) Alphabetically
 * 3) By category (as with WP:FA)

Which would be the best option? violet/riga (t) 17:26, 23 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Language is the best option, because we require translators able to work from that specific language. Within language, categorizing would be preferable over alphabetizing, for the same reason (easier to translate within your area of expertise). Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 19:18, July 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * I agree, language would be the easiest. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:18, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

Template
Should we have a template to add to the articles to show that there is an interwiki'd article of a high quality? This might help to stop people from reinventing the wheel and actually look at the article in other languages. violet/riga (t) 17:29, 23 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Excellent idea... proposing otherlang (best name I could think of; syntax is

A featured article about this topic exists on an other language Wikipedia. You can improve this article by taking information from there. See also WikiProject Echo.

(however it may be easiest if we merged this FAOL page back into WP:ECHO, both are rather short and rather interrelated). Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 17:42, July 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * I'd accept that, as long as the template only appeared on talk pages. We have too many article templates, as a general rule. Superm401 | Talk 18:32, July 23, 2005 (UTC)


 * I disagree... this is similar to 'cleanup' and 'expand' and such - it specifically asks the reader to edit the article (as opposed to such templates as FAC, which are about the classification of the article). I do suppose that some of our article templates are redundant. There was a recent effort by Netoholic to nominate a bunch of them for deletion. Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 18:48, July 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * I've got mixed feelings about this and can see both arguments. I first thought of it as a talk page template, but can see why it could be classed as a cleanup (article) template.  violet/riga (t) 19:09, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

My suggestion for a talk page template is as follows:

Since these templates will be added by people participating in WP:ECHO I think it's reasonable to assume that they will be able to include the parameters, which I think are quite important. violet/riga (t) 22:13, 23 July 2005 (UTC)
 * One minor quibble, "featured articles in other languages" implies that the articles are on the English Wiki already but have the wrong language, and thus should go to WP:TIE. Also, I'm not sure why you want two parameters, but if you do then it's probably easiest to make the second link : . Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 23:26, July 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * By the way I don't really mind either way, but Template messages/Talk namespace lists all talkpage templates afaik and has none of them ask for the reader to 'improve this article in such-and-such way'. Since this template does, I do believe it's an article template. Templates related to maintenance, cleanup, sister projects and disputes all go on the article page. I do not necessarily agree with the sheer amount of such templates, but that issue should be decided some place else (e.g. WP:TFD or WP:RFC) and has nothing to do with this particular template. Imho. Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 23:26, July 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * I managed to get the template to work. You have to type in, for example. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:10, 24 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Do we use the Template:FAOL or Template:FOAL? CG 08:51, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Since the Template:FAOL is now used, I'll put Template:Otherlang for deletion. CG 08:13, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

English articles
Could we have a separate list for articles that are Featured in English, but exist nowhere else? Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:09, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Yeah, we could list all the featured articles that are missing from the Wikipedia languages with over 50,000 articles. That might also encourage the others to do something similar to this.  violet/riga (t) 09:02, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:44, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
 * A maintained list of English-language featured articles by Category would undoubtedly be useful, no need to restrict it to those articles missing in a wiki of more than 50000 articles. Physchim62 10:27, 27 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I suggested to limit it to those ones because it might become unwieldy if it's too large. violet/riga (t) 10:57, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

I've made a start on this, but with 600+ articles and with continuing updates I'm not sure how viable it is to do it. I think it'd probably be better to encourage the other language Wikipedia to make their own version of WP:FAOL. violet/riga (t) 15:38, 27 July 2005 (UTC)
 * It's more work to keep track of which articles have been translated than to do a simple categorized list: if you can put up a list of English featured articles (maybe as a subpage), I'll see what I can do with it (but probably not before next week, see User:Physchim62). Physchim62 18:08, 27 July 2005 (UTC)
 * You can find such a list at either Featured articles or Category:Wikipedia featured articles. violet/riga (t) 18:35, 27 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I'll see what I can do then :) Physchim62 11:11, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

Another Organization of the page
I think that putting all "Articles featured in other language Wikipedia/English version is not featured" in the same page could turn the page's size to be very large: there's 223 French featured articles, 474 Dutch articles... I suggest the following: Changing the Template:FAOL so it splits the "Wikipedia featured articles in other languages" into different categories by language (eg: Wikipedia featured articles the French Wikipedia). The project page only includes links to these categories, leaving space for "Articles featured in other language Wikipedia/English version does not exist", "/Both languages are featured"...

Open for suggestions. CG 07:52, July 28, 2005 (UTC)


 * There's some good ideas there. Sub-categories are probably the way forward, and I'm going to implement that now.  I've also just created FAOLdone to better show those articles that have already been translated across.  violet/riga (t) 08:51, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Thank you for that change, but it doesn't seem to be working. Is it some kind of a bug? CG 09:07, July 28, 2005 (UTC)
 * I fixed it. CG 14:47, July 28, 2005 (UTC)

Change
As I said in my previous suggestion, We can't fit all the 200 featured french articles and the 400 featured dutch article... So I suggest this structure:

Language language:Wikipedia:featured articles.
 * Language


 * English version does not exist
 * article
 * article


 * English version is not featured
 * See Category:Wikipedia featured articles in other languages (Language).


 * Both languages are featured
 * article
 * article

If we use this structure, we might create a new template for articles in the "/Both languages are featured"

About the "English featured articles in other language Wikipedia" I have no suggestions but I wonder how u will fit the 680 featured articles? CG 14:22, July 28, 2005 (UTC)

Focus on en: FA status
I am more than a little wary of the importance given to the featured article status of the English equivalents. Surely what is important is that the information is translated. There are many reasons why an article may or may not be featured in a given Wikipedia, and rightly so: featured articles are meant to be the best of the best, as defined by a given WikiCommunity. Why not start by identifying the gaps in English Wikipedia's coverage and work up from there? Physchim62 16:34, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
 * WP:TIE and WP:ECHO are the main things that help with that. I see the main reason behind this page being to highlight the areas where one language Wikipedia thinks they have covered the subject in full (or to a high degree) where we haven't.  violet/riga (t) 12:04, 29 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I agree entirely, which is why I think this page is a useful addition to English Wikipedia. However a page could be featured in English and still not contain some infomation from an article on a foreign language Wiki: after all, do we really expect the Tony Blair article to remain unedited now that it has been featured?! Physchim62 17:47, 29 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Certainly not. The problem there is that we need to identify those gaps, and I, personally, could not do that (not being bilingual in any way).  As one of the sections mentions, people can help by adding to the "to do" on the talk page.  My contributions are merely going to be to highlight ones where there is an obvious gap.  And that only really relates to the foreign language features, not those featured here and not on another wikipedia.  violet/riga (t) 18:29, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Delete
I deleted the "English featured articles in otherlanguage Wikipedia" section. The goal of this page is to show the gaps of the english wikipedia and guide the user to sources of informations in other language wikis. So what is the aim of this section? CG 08:51, July 30, 2005 (UTC)
 * List articles that are Featured here but not elsewhere. I suggest a page fork as a solution. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 08:52, 30 July 2005 (UTC)


 * Efforts towards improving other-language Wikipedias should be made on those Wikipedias (or possibly on Meta) but not here. Come to think of it, Meta could do with a page of 'featured articles by language'. Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 08:58, July 30, 2005 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 08:59, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

Lower standards for featured articles
I think this project is a great idea, but I'd just like to point out that there are some wikipedias that have significantly lower standards for featured articles than do others. For instance, a wiki like the Latin version which is much smaller, naturally is a bit less strict when it comes to featuring articles. But on a more serious level, the French wikipedia's standards for featured articles aren't even close to those of the English wikipedia. I'm somewhat active there, and I've raised this issue, and no one has disputed that this is a problem for the French wiki. Of course, it's smaller than this one, and the English wiki's standards used to be a great deal lower too. From what I can tell, the German wikipedia's standards are more similar to our own, but someone with better German needs to verify this.

Well, this project is a great idea, as is anything that leads to higher standards for featured articles, both on en and elsewhere. --Zantastik talk  22:14, 31 July 2005 (UTC)


 * I don't think it's a real problem. This page suggests for an editer a source for more informations about an article in other language wikipedias, are they useful or not. CG 08:17, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

I don't get it
I'm not sure what the point is of the FAOL page. Why would you want a list of articles that are featured in both languages (as it means neither will have to be improved much at the moment)? I understand the point of the categories, but rather than noting "this article doesn't exist in English" it would be easier to create it as a stub, add an interwiki link, and put it in the cat. Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 16:50, August 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * Well, I am just thinking we are just listing articles now and we can probably see what happens next. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:52, 6 August 2005 (UTC)
 * If you're just asking about the "Both featured" section, It's useless, but it could be for comparision, and it doesn't need a lot of maintenance.CG 17:24, August 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes I literally just wanted to do some comparing of FAOLs and came across this, so that was nicccccce =) --HeyImDan (Talk) 03:29, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Deleting Template:FAOL
Using Template:FAOL, I realised that it is being deleted by a users from talk pages saying that this template disarranges the talk page, or the target link doesn't contain enough informations, or all the information is translated. So, I suggest replacing it with Template:Link FA that puts a star next to the interlanguage link at the left of the article (see Boeing 747 for an example). In addition, I think that Template:FAOL and Template:FAOLdone be deleted, and the Category:Wikipedia featured articles in other languages and all its subcategories (languages) also. We use alternatively Template:FA link. We don't need to put the articles that have a featured equivalent in another language in categories, since a link to the featured article in other language page gives a list of all these articles, that most of the time have a interlanguage link to the english article. This page will only be used to highlight missing pages and "both featured" articles. Open for comments. CG 13:10, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Third type of articles
What about a section for articles that are FA on other wiki, but exist as non-FA here? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 14:07, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

Bot request
Could a bot help this project out?

German FAs

There's gotta be a bot that can do this. I can collect a list of links the the alphabetical list of featured articles in other wikis. The bot can crawl the list, clicking on all the links to the En wiki and adding the FAOL tag to the talk page. If there is no link to our wiki, then the bot can generate a report of such articles and make a request for native speakers to link us up. How do I contact the bot writers? Xaxafrad 00:51, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
 * That's a great idea that could be extended to all of the foreign language Wikipedias. However, this brings to fore the problem previously discussed (in brief) on this page that other language Wikis have . If you make it automated, it's far more likely that most of the things listed will be utterly useless and make it far more difficult to find articles that actually would be beneficial to the English Wikipedia if they were translated. 24.126.199.129 16:44, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Norway
Since I don't know if there is any bots searching after articles I rather post it here than changing the page.

The featured articles are located on no:Wikipedia:Utmerkede artikler, not on no:Wikipedia:Anbefalte artikler (witch are "good articles" ) Røed 22:37, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Add an article
I know Arabic. If I found a featured article on Arabic Wikipedia, how can I add it? --Meno25 02:16, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

It's been said before, but it's clear that the English language Wikipedia has the highest standard for featured articles of any language Wikipedia
The German Wikipedia seems to come close, but still this is a very valid point as if it is said that you can improve English language articles with information from other language FAs, it's of dubious value as many of these are unreferenced. Still, they might contain the basic facts which could be independently verified. --h i s  s p a c e   r e s e a r c h 16:52, 2 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Have you checked the Featured articles on Spanish Wikipedia? They have excellent quality. --Alpertron 17:19, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Banner templates
I've designed replacements for FAOL and FAOLdone, currently at and. Both should be 100% backwards compatible with the old versions. Changes include: Examples are at User talk:Anomie/FAOL. Any comments? Anomie 03:07, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Fixed the FAOL missing "or" bug when all 15 languages are used.
 * No more unnecessary non-breaking spaces in FAOL.
 * FAOL will no longer break WikiProjectBannerShell.
 * The image has been modified so it isn't incredibly tiny.
 * check talk won't completely break the formatting if it is triggered.
 * FAOLdone now more closely resembles FAOL.
 * FAOLdone can take up to 15 languages, just like FAOL.
 * FAOLdone now supports WikiProjectBannerShell.
 * FAOLdone now has instructions.
 * FAOLdone can now be used on FAs without claiming they haven't passed FAC.
 * I don't think FAOL should be used in a WikiProjectBannerShell. It's used as part of a service of WikiProject Echo, but WikiProject Echo is not tagging those pages; that is, the articles are not within the scope of WikiProject Echo.  It's not a WikiProject banner; let's not nest it.  &mdash; Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 19:07, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I wonder how many pages have it in a WikiProjectBanners. You're free to nest or not nest; the current version has the 'nested' option (even though it's broken), I just fixed it. As for the "scope" of WikiProject Echo, they claim their scope is "to find information present in some other Wikipedia but not here, and repeat ('echo') it here", which potentially includes all articles.


 * Any comments on the rest of the design? Anomie 21:02, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

New image
I have created an SVG replacement for the current image; it is shown at right. Any thoughts? I tried to replace the image in FAOL, but that image is so tiny that mine was just too indistinct. Perhaps if/when we start to use the new template (as noted above) we can make the image size larger. --bdesham ★  18:14, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Translated and updated Version of BDSM online
The latest Version includes the featured German article and the missing information from the former :en article. --Nemissimo (talk) 08:53, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

So Far
I've begun working through Featured articles in other languages, and have completed listings and added FAOL tags to all FAs in Featured articles in other languages/Albanian, Featured articles in other languages/Telugu, and have gone halfway through Featured articles in other languages/Greek.  Spencer T♦C 15:05, 26 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I am keeping an eye on FAs in Koreans.StormDaebak (talk) 04:30, 28 March 2009 (UTC)