Interwiki Transclusion of content

[tacopill]

Talking on skype with dkpat and he expressed an idea of having one wiki show the contents of a page from another wiki. And he was wondering If we would like to do this NIWA-wide. (The choice to participate is still up to the wikis).

After looking around MediaWiki.org, for while, i came up with these three steps that i think would make such an idea possible.

#1) the destination wiki needs to enable "ScaryTanscluding", which allows templates to be transcluded from one wiki to another.
#2) the destination wiki needs to add the source wiki to its interwiki table, with "interwiki transcluded" enabled for that wiki.
#3) the contents of the page you wish to copy over needs specifically to be stored on a "template:" page on the source wiki.

feel free to ask questions on any of that.
So, what do people think about the idea?

[Axiomist]

Wouldn't this eat bandwidth from the transcluded wiki?

[Jake]

I thought of this a while ago, and probably mentioned it somewhere within a topic. I'm just not sure what we'd want to translude, other than maybe a few templates from NWiki. On the other hand, we could always start the practice of building helpful templates for other wikis to use.

Wouldn't this eat bandwidth from the transcluded wiki?

A small amount, yes. I believe it only sends an API request, so it doesn't need to load the entire page with all its graphics. But it's still something.

[Toomai]

I dislike this idea mostly because it causes confusion for the reader/new editor. You've just started to get used to editing pages and then you come across one that has nothing but "take page from this wiki", so to edit the page you have to go to that wiki, make an account, and edit it there. And the change only shows up in the history of the second wiki, not the first, so it'd be invisible in RecentChanges on the first wiki and therefore place more strain on the second wiki to contain vandalism (though presumably only protected pages would have this done to them). Not very user-friendly.

It can also confuse readers if they see the same page on two different wikis and try to raise the plagarism alarm, or they suggest a change and are responded with "we can't do that, ask over here".

[Miles of SmashWiki]

What content would be better to transclude from another wiki as opposed to copy with attribution to the first wiki and then use locally?

[dkpat]

When I was first thinking, I was looking for a way to keep my user page the same on all wikis, Sure not much of a real reason I suppose, But that is what I was originally trying to do.

[Maxite]

I just copy and paste my user page from one wiki to the next, and make whatever corrections are necessary at that point.

[dkpat]

I just copy and paste my user page from one wiki to the next, and make whatever corrections are necessary at that point.

But that is a bit of a hassle. I just wanted 1 central place to edit so that It would be the same on all wikis. (I had actually given up on the idea when taco did some research.)

[Maxite]

Transcluding pages might useful to do for the various pages on the NIWA Members. Have N Wiki write detailed (and I mean detailed!) articles on the various member wikis, and if the member wikis want those, they can transclude them on their wikis.

[Archaic]

Transcluding probably won't happen across all wikis in NIWA. In some cases it would actually be a license violation. In others, there's concernes about use of bandwidth and loss of ad traffic (which is needed to pay for that bandwidth).

[SnorlaxMonster]

When I was first thinking, I was looking for a way to keep my user page the same on all wikis, Sure not much of a real reason I suppose, But that is what I was originally trying to do.

I just leave my userpage on Bulbapedia, and redirect the rest of them. Well, all except Metroid Wiki, Wars Wiki and WiKirby, which just link, but that is because I'm not allowed to/there aren't interwiki prefixes for Bulbapedia.

[Koroku]

Or get the NIWA template so that each Wiki actually has all the others listed.....

[dkpat]

When I was first thinking, I was looking for a way to keep my user page the same on all wikis, Sure not much of a real reason I suppose, But that is what I was originally trying to do.

I just leave my userpage on Bulbapedia, and redirect the rest of them. Well, all except Metroid Wiki, Wars Wiki and WiKirby, which just link, but that is because I'm not allowed to/there aren't interwiki prefixes for Bulbapedia.

But I didn't want to make the user leave the wiki they were viewing. They were viewing that wiki for a reason, and surely it wasn't just to see me. Plus, On those wikis I've designed a skin for when I say it in my user page I want the reader to be able to see it. (sure maybe a little self centered with that last point. lol)

Or get the NIWA template so that each Wiki actually has all the others listed.....

That is a pretty good reason there. Some wikis fall behind on that at times (not pointing fingers or accusing, It just happens and I understand)

[tacopill]

Or get the NIWA template so that each Wiki actually has all the others listed.....

That is a pretty good reason there. Some wikis fall behind on that at times (not pointing fingers or accusing, It just happens and I understand)

Actually, i like the idea, except, then it becomes difficult to adapt the template to the style of that wiki's main page.

Unless just the list is centralized, and the style is wiki-dependent.

[dkpat]

You could easily do that template with a bunch of options like.. wikicons beside link, external link icon.. etc? right..? (again semi new to wikis)

[tacopill]

You could easily do that template with a bunch of options like.. wikicons beside link, external link icon.. etc? right..? (again semi new to wikis)

hm....

goes off to try and think of a way this could work.