Project:Language policy

This page describes the current multi-lingual policy on MediaWiki.org.

Help: namespace
Within the  namespace we are building a set of public domain help pages. The aim is to provide a basic set of help pages that may be imported into new wikis covering the basic editing and usage instructions. These should be translated into as many languages as possible.


 * English is the main reference language, and all root pages should be named and written in English.
 * Other languages should be placed in an appropriately named sub-page of the English version. E.g. the French version of Help:Contents should be at Help:Contents/fr (not Help:Sommaire, Aide:Sommaire or Help:Sommaire/fr).
 * Language sub-pages should be named using the Wikipedia prefix for that language.
 * If a Wikipedia has not been started in a language then we should not host help pages in that language.
 * Sub-pages should only be used for translations into other languages, not for English content.
 * If an international version of a page exists but an English version does not, then please create a stub article for the English version as this aids navigation.
 * All pages in the help namespace should be tagged with the  template, which automatically creates links to all available translations.

This system will be compatible with the automated import/export of Help pages, but may need a bit of working around to export/import non-English pages in the interim.

The main page
The English version of our front page is located at MediaWiki. Translated versions are located at MediaWiki/code, where code is the language code (e.g. MediaWiki/fr. Please see Project:Main page templates for more details about creating or editing this content.

Importantly, the rule about language codes should be followed here as well:
 * Language sub-pages should be named using the Wikipedia prefix for that language.
 * If a Wikipedia has not been started in a language then we should not have a main page in that language.

Other namespaces
Apart from the Main Page, no policy has yet been decided about other namespaces. For the time being, if you would like to create translations for pages in other namespaces then please do so as described for the Help: namespace, however content may be moved or deleted depending on the policy that is eventually adopted.

Discussion is ongoing at Project:Current issues.

''Note that the rule that English content should not be placed in sub-pages does not apply to other namespaces. This is one of the issues that needs resolving.''