Page MenuHomePhabricator

Common Protection/Block messages should change based on the language of the user/site they are access from
Open, MediumPublic

Description

The global blocking tool has severe accessibility limitations by having block messages only in one language. We need a solution to be able to provide useful information to all users regardless of their ability to speak English or not - which is the language exclusively used in global blocking messages.

A potential solution would be to address T243863, allowing us to create multilingual templates with information on the nature of the block and how to proceed with an unblock request.

Sites like Meta and Wikidata would also benefit by allowing translation of common messages used for blocking and protection etc.

Event Timeline

Do you have a specific request for the Language team?

kolbert renamed this task from Global block messages should change based on the language of the site they are accessed from to Common Protection/Block messages should change based on the language of the user/site they are access from.Oct 19 2020, 6:54 PM
kolbert updated the task description. (Show Details)

I would like to implore the Language Team to see if they have any suggestions on a good implementation of this. T243863 hasn't had any real progress on it, and there are two issues that could potentially be addressed simultaneously.

  1. Improving accessibility by being able to have block messages appear in the appropriate based on the user's profile
  1. Expanding block messages to templates with more information as to how to appeal the block.

Countries with heavy state-censorship such as Iran and China are disproportionately affected by open proxy/VPN blocks, and the inability to provide either detailed instructions on how get an exemption or information in their own language is utterly lamentable. This is the pressing usage case, but this should be done regardless to improve the multilingual nature of projects such as Meta and Wikidata.

T243863 seems like the most practical implementation of this, but I am not a developer.

Addressing these issues is core to the project's values, as right now the "encyclopedia that everyone can edit* " has a large asterisk next to it.

" *so long as you don't live in a repressive regime and have a basic understanding of English."

We ought to do our best to remove these barriers and improve accessibility, whilst simultaneously protecting the integrity of the project from abuse. This would be a big step towards achieving that balance and removing those limiting conditions for participation.

Pginer-WMF moved this task from Backlog to Other teams/Watching on the Language-Team board.

The only way I can think of to address this comprehensively is to implement the Global templates initiative, which I have proposed on mediawiki.org. It's big, but if done as I am proposing it, it will empower the editors community on every wiki and across wikis to develop such templates in a way that works well across languages and projects.

As of now, writing and promoting that proposal has just been my side pet project, and it hasn't yet become an official development project. I hope it will become one some time soon. For example, there are now some discussions on local wikis on whether this should be done; see https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gathering_support_from_local_projects_for_global_templates . I cannot add anything more.