Template:Disabled language
Wondering whether I could get a second opinion at Template talk:Disabled language. I feel like the warning given by that template is unnecessarily vague and could be improved with a little more information (additional text) and/or a few choice links (or maybe just a retargeting of the existing link??). Alternatively, the template could be split into different ones based on the underlying reasons for tagging. Note that I am not a translator here for any language, so perhaps those who are (or who are in the process of becoming one) would have a different experience. I just feel like the catch-all nature of the warning given by that template leaves readers with no useful clues as to why the page has been so tagged. (For example, Portal:tlh, Portal:chb and Portal:szy have all been tagged, but presumably for very different reasons. [I assume Klingon will never be enabled here, but surely that cannot be true of the other two.]) Note, BTW, that the template is used on both portal and category pages. Not surprisingly, the creator and sole editor of the template sees nothing wrong with it. Perhaps others will disagree.
I just took existing sentences I found on some pages. But the only link found was to the page currently indicated. If you want to suggest other links, please do so.
I can only suggest for now adding a "reason=*" to the template for a freeform text (that will not be translated by the template), including the possibility to integrate a wikilink to some decision page describing the issues.
Also you affirmed (in a prior talk) that the message was only in English, and this is wrong: it's shown in over 60 languages, plus some known fallbacks from other regional languages or from variants that are user selectable in the Universal Language Selector. The text in all of them is the same, based on the same English source.
Also I suggested you to fix possible typos or imprecision that may exist in some translations. But before adding things in a specific language, make sure that the English base is in sync wit the proposed additions.
All I did was to mark explicitly the languages that are NOT selectable in the Translation tool (following any link using these language codes will not work, because the translation tool will immediatzly switch to another unrelated language (based on the current user's UI language and not at all on the indicated target language), and new translators may not notice it (there's no notification on the screen, the only thing being indicated is the name of the effectively selected language in the top-right corner) and they could start overwriting valid translations for that unrelated language by translations in a disabled language. This was the main reason for which I made these indications explicit.
Klingon probably won't be enabled, and this was discussed many times.
Sakizaya will probably be enabled. It's a technical matter now. The best place for discussing it is https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T174601
As for Chibcha, it's the first time I'm hearing about it, but it is unlikely to be enabled given what the Wikipedia article about it says (extinct circa 1800). I'm flexible about sincere and serious language revitalization projects. I'm not quite sure why was it ever added to translatewiki.
The Sakizaya case is the most confusing here, of course. The template on the portal looks very fatal, and it's not quite the case. It should be rephrased for clarity, probably with something like a "status" or "reason" parameter.
Also, its translations should really be moved to a proper localization system, like translatewiki.net or something ;)
"Its translation should be moved to ... translatewiki.net".... We are on translatewiki.net !
Translatewiki.net is not required to support only Wikimedia projects, it can support Wikia, where Klingon is accepted (but it uses a script that is not encoded in Unicode, only encoded in ISO 15924. The proposal to encode the Klingon script was made by Michael Everson at Unicode, and as it was rejected, Klingon is for now encoded in PUA space using the "ConScript PUA registry"... managed by Michael Everson which supports more languages than what ISO/IEC WG2 or the UTC want to support.
It was rejected simply on the fact that most Klingon users wrote it in the Latin script (but with several variants or transliterations, not always the one promoted by KLI, notably some users prefer using extended latin which more accurately represent the sounds, like c with hacek, small capital i, or l barred with curl, and then allow the script to be romanized with common dual casing, which makes it more readable).
There's nothing wrong in translating MediaWiki in Klingon even if there's no Wikimedia project for it. But Wikimedia wiki do not want to support languages written in scripts requiring the use of PUAs (nomally intended to be for private use, and then limited in scope to specific projects using it in their own community).
Also I'm not adding any new language, I'm just sorting what is existing on this wiki, and then display a correct status.