"On wikis with Translate extension installed, a "best practice" of adding /Translations category" is not true. Only Meta AFAIK does this. MediaWiki.org doesn't use a /Translations category at all, and I don't think one is needed.

In T361632#9682124, @Pppery wrote:

"On wikis with Translate extension installed, a "best practice" of adding /Translations category" is not true. Only Meta AFAIK does this. MediaWiki.org doesn't use a /Translations category at all, and I don't think one is needed.

I have updated the ticket to note it is used on multiple (not just Meta-Wiki, Governance Wiki uses them as well, and I have not checked all other uses of the extension) but not all wikis. Also note it was requested that this be set per-wiki - so should not impact MediaWiki.org or Commons best practices.

Unless there is community consensus to stop this practice on Meta-Wiki, that leaves approximately 900 instances on just that wiki where this feature would be helpful. I do not feel strongly either way, and willing to update Governance Wiki's practices to match and close this request. However, I am not sure this ticket is a place where we can definitely end the practice without at least consulting Meta-Wiki community first, and absent that discussion, would seem odd to assume the practice is going to end and negate advantage of this feature request.

In T361632#9682154, @Varnent wrote:

I have not checked all other uses of the extension

I’ve checked them:

(all other wikis have zero /Translations categories)

So while it’s almost omnipresent on Meta and used a lot on Governance Wiki, other wikis that have such categories have too few translatable categories to really have established practices (including Commons: over 2000 translatable pages, but only 9 of them are categories!). MediaWiki.org, another wiki with many (almost 1500) translatable categories, has zero /Translations ones.

tldr: Public wikis that use this setup: Foundation GovWiki, Meta-Wiki, Incubator Wiki, Outreach Wiki

Here is list of the 46 wikis with Translate extension enabled - doing a quick spot check on usage (as best I can tell given languages and inconsistent usage of extension and/or categories on some wikis) and marking true/false to get a sense of how common (if at all) this practice is:

'advisorswiki' => Private
'amwikimedia' => false
'azwikimedia' => false
'bewikimedia' => false
'betawikiversity' => false
'brwikimedia' => false
'bdwikimedia' => false
'cawikimedia' => false
'collabwiki' => false
'commonswiki' => false
'testcommonswiki' => false
'foundationwiki' => true
'frwiktionary' => false
'gewikimedia' => false
'grwikimedia' => false
'hiwikimedia' => false
'idwikimedia' => false
'incubatorwiki' => true
'legalteamwiki' => Private
'maiwikimedia' => false
'mediawikiwiki' => false
'metawiki' => true
'nowikimedia' => false
'otrs_wikiwiki' => Private
'outreachwiki' => true
'plwikimedia' => false
'ptwikisource' => false
'punjabiwikimedia' => false
'ruwikimedia' => false
'sourceswiki' => false
'specieswiki' => false
'sewikimedia' => false
'testwiki' => false
'uawikimedia' => false
'vewikimedia' => false
'wbwikimedia' => false
'wikidata' => false
'wikifunctionswiki' => false
'wikimania2012wiki' => inactive
'wikimania2013wiki' => inactive
'wikimania2014wiki' => inactive
'wikimania2015wiki' => inactive
'wikimania2016wiki' => inactive
'wikimania2017wiki' => inactive
'wikimania2018wiki' => inactive
'wikimaniawiki' => false

In T361632#9682219, @Tacsipacsi wrote:

In T361632#9682154, @Varnent wrote:

I have not checked all other uses of the extension

I’ve checked them:

Wiki	Translatable categories	/Translations categories
meta.wikimedia.org	1113	1007
foundation.wikimedia.org	204	126
outreach.wikimedia.org	15	13
wikimania.wikimedia.org	10	2
incubator.wikimedia.org	4	2
commons.wikimedia.org	9	2

(all other wikis have zero /Translations categories)

So while it’s almost omnipresent on Meta and used a lot on Governance Wiki, other wikis that have such categories have too few translatable categories to really have established practices (including Commons: over 2000 translatable pages, but only 9 of them are categories!). MediaWiki.org, another wiki with many (almost 1500) translatable categories, has zero /Translations ones.

Well that was FAR more effective than my check - lol. Thank you!

So a couple of lingering questions:

1. Is there an advantage to this setup such that it is worth supporting code-wise?
2. If not, should we go to Meta-Wiki to prompt a discussion on ending this practice? (@Pppery: I am willing to do so or work with you on doing so if you would like)

I don't particularly care whether Meta does it. Just wanted to point out that it wasn't a universal trend.

In T361632#9682431, @Pppery wrote:

I don't particularly care whether Meta does it. Just wanted to point out that it wasn't a universal trend.

Fair enough - yeah I took that into consideration with requesting that it be wiki-specific - so should not be an issue for MediaWiki.org.