Translation

A place to discuss the architecture of a multilingual wiki

• sisterwiki structure:
  • en.host.com/wiki/page <-> pt.wiki.host.com/wiki/page
  • one-to-one correspondence among languages via subdomains

- requires administrator to create subdomain

+ symmetric and non-biased

+ subpage organization permitted

+ categories, templates, properties can be differentiated and translated

- categories, templates, properties must be duplicated, making administration potentially chaotic

vs.

• subpage structure:
  • single domain using subpages: host.com/wiki/page <-> host.com/wiki/page/pt
  • dominated by English hub as default

+ does not require administrator to create language subdomains

- ugly structure with one language at top of hierarchy

- subpage organization not permitted

+ categories, templates, properties are unified into a single hierarchy

- categories, templates, properties become complicated to render in multiple languages, require alternate renderings and additional complexity, possibly many redirects that could introduce chaos into the wiki

vs.

• middle path
  • single domain using language parent directory: host.com/wiki/en/page <-> host.com/wiki/pt/pagina

could this be the best of both 1 and 2 above without their drawbacks?

- requires restructuring of existing English-only site to make structure completely congruent with other languages, otherwise, could be host.com/wiki/page <-> host.com/wiki/pt/pagina