WikiIslam:Translations

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WikiIslam is an international website with editors, contributors and visitors from all over the world. Its policies and guidelines reflect this by requiring material to be tailored to accommodate, as best as possible, a universal audience. One of the major issues faced by sites that appeal to a universal audience is the language barrier. The WikiIslam Translation Project aims to rectify this by providing translations of its content in all languages.

Shortcut:
WITR

Sub-Domains

A main page's worth of translations (about 25-35 articles) is the amount of material required before considering to launch a new sub-domain in any language. Although WikiIslam's Core Principles will remain, once these initial translations are completed, the new sub-domains are free to evolve separately to the English site.

One of the key rules to follow when translating these pre-sub-domain articles is that they should always remain absolutely faithful to the original English work, retaining their scholarly tone and information. The reason for accurate translations to begin with is that it allows new editors in that particular language to understand the style, tone, and quality that is expected in all languages.

It also allows existing administrators to see if there are any users (at least one regular and reliable editor) who would be suitable and willing to take on the responsibility of guiding the future direction of that sub-domain. To be an administrator at this site or one of its sub-domains, an editor must demonstrate that they fully understand and are willing to uphold the policies and guidelines concerning style, tone, and quality.

Editors are expected to take a scholarly and rational approach in their conduct and criticisms, adhering to stringent rules concerning the content of articles. Material should always be tailored to accommodate, as best as possible, a universal audience, and they should contain no politics, no promotion or criticism of other religions/worldviews and no opinions, only referenced facts.

Those who would like to see a WikiIslam sub-domain in their language are advised to join the WikiIslam Translation Project and start translating articles.

Articles to Translate

Here is an initial list of articles that can be translated. These are popular pages or otherwise good candidates for translation:

About
Women
Muhammad
Violence
Science
Others
Short articles

Alternatively, an article from the topics listed on the site map can be chosen. However, before beginning translation work on an article not listed here, editors are advised to leave a message on the forum page or their own talk page mentioning what they would like to translate. This allows administrators to make sure a project that is difficult to complete or is not optimal in some way is not started.

Articles to Avoid

Translations of most articles are welcome, but there are a few that should be avoided:

  • Core articles that contain quick summaries of issues with links to complete articles. These should only be translated if the linked articles have also been translated (without the linked articles, a Core article is redundant).

Help and Guidelines

The "Instructions for Translators" page provides an in-depth, step-by-step guide for new translators to follow at WikiIslam. it covers everything from creating an account to announcing a completed translation on the main page. If translators find any of the steps difficult to follow, they can leave a message on the Translation Project's forum page.

Updates

July 14, 2013:

Preliminary work on a Russian sub-domain (http://ru.wikiislam.net/) has been completed and the site is now officially open to the public. Russian speakers who are interested in helping the Russian WikiIslam's continued growth can contact the Russian site administrator on their talk page.

See Also