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Log inWiki based content creation is akin to "too many cooks spoil the broth": The Diderot Example
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Wiki based content creation is akin to "too many cooks spoil the broth": The Diderot Example
by Soham321 Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:19 am
1. Wiki based content creation is akin to "too many cooks spoil the broth". To see the veracity of this claim, consider the 'Works of Denis Diderot' template below any randomly selected work of Diderot which has its own WP article. Randomly, i selected https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_on_the_Deaf_and_Dumb
2. Now notice that the original works of Diderot were all in French. So the original titles of these books all have french titles. But what do we see in the template? Some of Diderot's works are listed with their original french title, and some with their english title. Note one other problem with the english titles: different translations of the same work may have different titles.
3. In my foolish bid to ensure consistency and uniformity, i tried converting all titles into english. My rationale was that more people would be able to understand what the book is about if the english book title is used. For instance, look at the english and french titles of this Diderot book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_on_the_Deaf_and_Dumb
4. My effort at attempting uniformity and consistency met with immediate opposition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:La_Religieuse_(novel)
My query to Ritchie333 on his talk page on this issue met with a healthy discussion on his talk page, however:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Ritchie333/Archive_30#Help_Needed
[extract: "what about a work on which the translators/scholars have not agreed on a common english title?" Well, then it gets a bit trickier, and if there really is no obvious common agreement, past precedent is to simply pick which name came first and stick with it (this is what happened with Gasoline and Sega Genesis where there was a straight split of opinion with no overall consensus). "Water Margin" is a popular name for a Chinese restaurant in the UK, so that's probably why the book has ended up with that article title. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 15:03, 11 September 2015 (UTC)]
5. Another 'Works of Denis Diderot' related page in which I failed to convert WP's title of the work from french to english: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Supplément_au_voyage_de_Bougainville
French title: Supplément au voyage de Bougainville
English title: Addendum to the Journey of Bougainville
2. Now notice that the original works of Diderot were all in French. So the original titles of these books all have french titles. But what do we see in the template? Some of Diderot's works are listed with their original french title, and some with their english title. Note one other problem with the english titles: different translations of the same work may have different titles.
3. In my foolish bid to ensure consistency and uniformity, i tried converting all titles into english. My rationale was that more people would be able to understand what the book is about if the english book title is used. For instance, look at the english and french titles of this Diderot book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_on_the_Deaf_and_Dumb
4. My effort at attempting uniformity and consistency met with immediate opposition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:La_Religieuse_(novel)
My query to Ritchie333 on his talk page on this issue met with a healthy discussion on his talk page, however:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Ritchie333/Archive_30#Help_Needed
[extract: "what about a work on which the translators/scholars have not agreed on a common english title?" Well, then it gets a bit trickier, and if there really is no obvious common agreement, past precedent is to simply pick which name came first and stick with it (this is what happened with Gasoline and Sega Genesis where there was a straight split of opinion with no overall consensus). "Water Margin" is a popular name for a Chinese restaurant in the UK, so that's probably why the book has ended up with that article title. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 15:03, 11 September 2015 (UTC)]
5. Another 'Works of Denis Diderot' related page in which I failed to convert WP's title of the work from french to english: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Supplément_au_voyage_de_Bougainville
French title: Supplément au voyage de Bougainville
English title: Addendum to the Journey of Bougainville
Soham321- Posts : 42
Join date : 2017-02-14
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