The problem of changing messages given by software, and making it easier
to translate the software into other languages, has been around for a
while. I wrote some code to allow wfMsg() to access the database, and on
September 1, Brion wrote:
Another possibility is to make [[Special:xxx]] just
appear a little
more like a normal page; that is, there would be an "edit this page"
link by which you can edit the header text.
So instead of a separate [[Wikipedia:Recentchanges]] to find and
maintain, you'd just go to [[Special:Recentchanges]] and hit edit in
the usual fashion. A [[Special talk:xxx]] namespace to go with it
would be useful too.
Now this is a nice idea, but IMHO main problem with it is that some
special pages have many different text messages, and some text messages
which we want to customise are not on special pages (e.g. deletion).
I propose creating a new namespace "MediaWiki:" as namespace 8, with a
"MediaWiki talk:" namespace as #9. This namespace would contain a page
for each message in Language.php, plus categorisation and miscellaneous
related pages. Clicking on "edit this page" in a special page (or
deletion, etc.) would take you to a page in the MediaWiki namespace
determined by the local language. In most cases, I imagine that page
would be a list of links to customisable messages, with edit links for
convenience. For the benefit of special pages where there is only one
customisable message, some "edit this page" links could go straight to
an edit page.
All the help pages should stay in the Wikipedia: namespace. The
MediaWiki: namespace should be reserved for pages which directly affect
the functioning of the software, and closely related information.
[[Wikipedia:Recentchanges]] and [[Wikipedia:Book sources]] should be
moved to MediaWiki:.
Using the name "MediaWiki" avoids the technical difficulties associated
with using "Special" for two different purposes. It also brings more
prominence to the new name of our software. At the moment, most editors
still just call it "the software" or "the PHP script". Using the
existing "Wikipedia" namespace would clutter it up with hundreds of
small articles, most of which are of no interest to editors or readers.
Some messages may need to be protected. Many messages currently require
raw HTML. There's no need to change that in a hurry, as long as the user
is informed of the issues. Unfiltered HTML messages should certainly be
protected, to avoid security problems.
-- Tim Starling <t(starling_physics*unimelb^edu!au>