Talk:Tech/News/2021/05/en-gb

Feedback request

As the way Tech News is written is the most common feature to be pointed out both in positive and a negative feedback, I have been making an en-gb version of Tech News for some months now. It's not necessarily British, but it merges extremely short sentences together and allows for terms that anyone well-versed in the English language would understand. Well-versed for example is a term you probably wouldn't find in the regular Tech News. Here's the above issue in en-gb. I also occasionally add some additional explanation or the situation for a particular issue on English-language projects. I haven't really advertised it, pageviews are generally disappointing. I'd like to hear some feedback. Do you like it? Do you have suggestions? Alexis Jazz (talk) 06:17, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

(from Wikinews) @Alexis Jazz: I strongly object to using the translation feature for annotations. The goal of translating and the goal of providing further context, explanations, examples, etc. than are in the original text are very different. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 08:42, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

(from English Wikipedia) @Alexis Jazz: my suggestion has nothing to do with content, just execution - we generally discourage anyone to use en-variants as their interface language since there isn't an en-gbwiki (or en-auwiki, etc) - and especially here on enwiki they will miss out on a LOT of localize interface messages since we don't translate them to the variants and variant-fallback support is subpar. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:25, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

(from English Wikisource) @Alexis Jazz: I like information that's not pared down to the smallest common denominator, and I would like my Tech News to be written for a fairly technical audience. I would also like to see more information for the items that are of interest to me, and the way you've expanded the item on the Minerva changes are a good example. However, I don't think you're doing this effort any favours with the br-eng schtick (it took me a while to figure out what you were on about), and I probably won't go looking for an alternate version of the text. I scan Tech News when it lands on my watchlist, so whatever is in that MassMessage is what I'll read. If there's to be any point to your effort it needs to replace Tech News' writing, not supplement it. --Xover (talk) 07:50, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

(from English Wikisource) "Fine print: Tech news in British English (en-gb) does not necessarily use British spelling. It is only British in spirit, unoversimplified when compared to the regular English version, allowing more complex terms (e.g. "issues" instead of "problems") and constructions." is offensive bullshit. Desist. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 09:40, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

(from English Wikisource) Certainly, Henry Watson Fowler would disagree that British English is in opposition to plain English, along with George Orwell! Inductiveload—talk/contribs 13:30, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

@Xaosflux and Koavf: This way I've been able to produce this version without spending a lot of time. Actually forking the newsletter is both much more work and would reduce exposure even further. The en-gb version isn't distributed to any wiki, the only way to read it is by going to meta, so I'm not sure what localized interface messages have to do with this. I admit it isn't ideal, I previously suggested to use "simple English" for the current version and write regular English in the default English version, but this suggestion was ignored. The "simple" source English unfortunately also results in "simple" translations, it's all far from ideal, but it is what it is.

@Xover, Pigsonthewing, and Inductiveload: Clear. Don't expect an alternative Tech News version in the future. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 15:01, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

(from English Wikipedia) @Alexis Jazz: was just noting that we generally discourage the use of /en-xx pages because almost noone has it as their language pref, and we suggest noone does use it as their pref for the reasons above - no concern with this specific example! — xaosflux ^Talk 14:57, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

I don't see how this simplified version of English is more "British" and for that matter, we have a specialized code for en-simple. This is just confusing all around. If the newsletter needs to be written in a less confounding way, then the newsletter should be rewritten rather than have some abuse of the translation tool. I appreciate that you're trying to evidently correct a problem but this is not the way to do it. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 17:34, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

Any native British English speaker has no need of translations from American. We know the difference between "tomato" and "tomato", thank you. In short: don't waste your time. --Redrose64 (talk; at English Wikipedia) 22:53, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for not bothering to read my request. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 23:45, 3 February 2021 (UTC)