Thread:Support/Languages with variant scripts/reply (2)

When you say linked above, do you mean linked from other pages, such as the list of maintained languages - so that the translation tool link from that list would lead to a variant instead of the root language statistics, which is usually a blank page?

On the portal itself, couldn't we use a different version of template:Portal, which wouldn't have the link to translation tool and recent changes at the top of the portal, and which wouldn't have the link to translation statistics for the root language code in the section on statistics. In addition I think it would be useful for new translators in particular if we had a note to them on the portal which said something like:

"Please do not try to contribute translations to the basic language code [wikitext producing the language code of the portal]. Contributions should be made to any of the script variants below which have been enabled, through the link to the translation tool next to the variant name. It is recommended that you set the language in My Preferences to one of the variants."

alternative wording:

"Contributions should be made to any of the script variants listed in the statistics section. Please do not try to contribute translations to the basic language code [wikitext producing the language code of the portal], which should be disabled. It is recommended that you set the language in My Preferences to one of the variants."

I note that what prompted me to raise this issue is that the contributor to ks managed to make contributions to the root ks last October. These were later moved by SPQRobin, but I don't know how the contributor managed to make the translations in the first place, since the translation tool is supposed to be disabled. I also don't see any messages to the contributor on his talk page to advise him how to proceed - potentially discouraging to a new translator.