OrthodoxWiki:Localization

This page is an official policy on OrthodoxWiki. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. If you are part of the administration, please feel free to update this page as needed, but make sure that changes you make to this policy really do reflect OrthodoxWiki's perspective before you make them.

Basic Principles

Localization refers to the process of porting the OrthodoxWiki project into languages other than English (its original tongue).

Administration

A new localization begins when one or more people share OrthodoxWiki's vision and desire to expand the project into another language. Volunteers should expect to devote significant effort to creating and maintaining a localized OrthodoxWiki. All contacts should go through Fr. John. If approved, one or more people in the group will be given sysop status and added to the OrthodoxWiki sysop mailing list.

Affiliate Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the affiliate(s) to actively maintain and manage the localized OrthodoxWiki in conformity with OrthodoxWiki's major guidelines, especially its copyright policy (for legal reasons) and OrthodoxWiki's principle of neutrality. They will also be responsible for translating core OrthodoxWiki texts from English into the other language.

Within these parameters, local operators are given a great deal of leeway regarding how their wiki is structured, setting priorities for what kind of material to import and export from the English language OrthodoxWiki, and so on.

Inactive or unmaintained localizations may be cancelled. In this case, content will be archived.

Logos and Identity

OrthodoxWiki affiliates are permitted and required to adopt the official OrthodoxWiki logo, although they may translate it into the other language if they like. Links to all the localized OrthodoxWikis should be prominently featured on the homepage.

Hosting and Domains

We will provide a localized subdomain (such as ru.orthodoxwiki.org, gr.orthodoxwiki.org, bu.orthodoxwiki.org, etc.). Hosting and technical management of the MediaWiki software is provided free of charge by OrthodoxWiki, in association with Orthodox Internet Services.

Copyright Licensing

For practical reasons, it is important that localized OrthodoxWikis maintain the same copyright/licensing arrangement as the English-language OrthodoxWiki.

Because every localized wiki is part of the OrthodoxWiki project, we consider that all images and articles for which OrthodoxWiki has obtained special permission to use may also be used on localized OrthodoxWikis using the same domain name.

OrthodoxWiki Core Documents

This is a list of OrthodoxWiki core Documents which must be translated (in abbreviated form, if necessary) and maintained consistently across localizations. The English-language text will remain the "canonical" text.

Core pages include:

• OrthodoxWiki:About - we need to work on a revision of this in English too!

• At least these OrthodoxWiki policy pages:
  • OrthodoxWiki:Copyrights
  • OrthodoxWiki:General disclaimer
  • OrthodoxWiki:Privacy policy
  • OrthodoxWiki:Style Manual
  • Help:Image licenses

Core templates include:

• The more generic General Templates, especially:
  • Template:Welcome
  • Template:Stub
  • Template:Cleanup
  • Template:Disambig

• All of the Copyright Templates required for the material used on the affiliate site, especially:
  • Template:Copyright
  • Template:Unverified
  • Template:Fairuse
  • Template:OWiki
  • Template:Skete.com
  • Template:Oca
  • Template:Htm
  • Template:Pd

Other pages which enrich the functioning of the wiki but aren't strictly required, or can more freely be adapted for local use, include:

• OrthodoxWiki:News
• The help pages and the pages in the OrthodoxWiki namespace.
• Other template pages - see OrthodoxWiki:Templates for a full list.

Active Localizations

• Bulgarian OrthodoxWiki (http://bg.orthodoxwiki.org) - Contact User:Constantine to help or for more information. (This is considered fully launched and mature.)
• Romanian-language OrthodoxWiki (http://ro.orthodoxwiki.org) - Contact User:Inistea to help or for more information. (This is considered fully launched and mature.)
• For discussion about an Arabic-language OrthodoxWiki (Alpha stage: http://ar.orthodoxwiki.org), go to OrthodoxWiki:Localization/Arabic. Also see here.
• Russian-language OrthodoxWiki (Alpha stage: http://ru.orthodoxwiki.org) - go to OrthodoxWiki:Localization/Russian.
• Greek-language OrthodoxWiki - el:Αρχική_σελίδα

Localizations in Planning Stage

• Dutch-language OrthodoxWiki (nl.orthodoxwiki.org) - Contact User_talk:Stephan to help or for more information.
• Castilian and Portugese - Contact User:Theofilactos (also see here). Spanish: User:Alstradiaan.

Archived Localizations

• Italiano (Italian)
• Tagalog (Filipino)
• OrthodoxWiki:Српски (srpski/Serbian)

Resources

• mw:Localisation
• meta:User_language - showing user's language skills