Default article links should be language neutral
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	Nemo_bis
	Feb 17 2015, 3:23 PM

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There are several messages like [[MediaWiki:Wm-license-cc-wiki-link/en]], "w:en:Creative Commons". They are optional, but they should be more language neutral: I suggest to link Wikidata entries instead.

English speakers may need an additional click compared to the current situation (if they want to reach the full-length article describing those items), but this small disadvantage is overcome by the obvious benefit that for all users the target will be appropriate, thanks to Wikidata multilingualism, automatic language selection and preferences.

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	Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
	Link Wikidata instead of English Wikipedia articles by default	mediawiki/extensions/WikimediaMessages	master	+26 -61

Customize query in gerrit

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Nemo_bis created this task.Feb 17 2015, 3:23 PM

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Nemo_bis renamed this task from Default interwiki links should be language neutral to Default article links should be language neutral.Mar 1 2015, 7:07 PM

Change 193681 had a related patch set uploaded (by Nemo bis):
Link Wikidata instead of English Wikipedia articles by default

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/193681

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 1 2015, 7:33 PM

It looks like someone thinks that Wikidata links are less informative that English Wikipedia links. Can we discuss here why? How is requiring one click more for English users so drastically bad that it overcomes the obvious benefit that for all users the target will be appropriate (thanks to automatic language selection and preferences)?

What is the advantage here, exactly? If you're using a localised interface, wouldn't the links be pointing to non-English articles anyway?

Wikidata is unfamiliar to most people. It's not so much an extra click as pointing people to a site with a UI that's not obvious. If I didn't know about it, I'd be very confused on arriving at https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22169 when I try to find out what GFDL does. (To elaborate: First I get a one-line description, and then translations of the phrase, and finally, after scrolling down, a bunch of Wikipedia links in different languages. Knowing to click on "GNU Free Documentation License" next to [en] is not trivial.)

What is the advantage here, exactly? If you're using a localised interface, wouldn't the links be pointing to non-English articles anyway?

No. https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:Translations/MediaWiki:Wm-license-cc-wiki-link

Defaults should make sense, period.

In T89719#1178941, @Nemo_bis wrote:

No. https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:Translations/MediaWiki:Wm-license-cc-wiki-link

Clarified on IRC: The link is meant to show that only a fraction of supported languages have a translation for this string, i.e. some of them would fall back to pointing to enwiki, and others are translated to explicitly point to enwiki. (I agree that the latter shouldn't happen, and we should simply delete those translations.)

I remain unconvinced. That the link points to enwiki when no translation exists is a result of English being the source language, and shouldn't be viewed as a result of the anglophone/enwiki bias in Wikimedia. It would be nice if we can have more translations, but given the usability issues outlined above, I don't see pointing to Wikidata for the sake of neutrality as beneficial.

In Wikidata there is not one source language. There are as many items where there is no label in English. Yes, we need more labels in many more languages but we do not need to consider Wikidata as being English.
Thanks,