Since there's a burst of translation activity on foreign SCP wikis, I'd like to bring this issue up once more. Currently there are drafts on the French and Russian wikis waiting to be published, so I believe we need to reach a decision soon.
Well, we already have some experience of translating articles into English. SCP-206, SCP-1138, SCP-2195, SCP-1150-J, and several tales. These articles were first posted on the Russian wiki and were later translated into English and posted on the SCP Wiki main list with their author's permissions. I totally disagree with the policy of changing the article number and removing the national suffix in every SCP article translated. I'm in favor of the SCP-XXXX-YY system and here are my arguments.
1. There is a big difference between original posted articles and translations. A user from another (non-English) branch can post their article on the English wiki as an original entry. My own SCP-2154 can be an example here. This is an article posted on the English wiki mainlist and it is thus listed as a translated article on the Russian wiki. According to the rules, I can't even include it in my personal file, because it's not a Russian branch article.
We also have tales posted on the Russian wiki and translated to the English wiki (for example, Unusual). At the Russian wiki they are original, at the English wiki they are translations. We even have a special tag for such articles.
According to my opinion, translated articles are meant to inform the community about what is written in the other sites. There is no reason to transfer all these articles to the English wiki.
2. We are currently translating two Russian articles: SCP-1001-RU, "The Void Singularity" and SCP-1016-RU, "“The Blinker” and “The Blasphemous Bulk”" (the latter is already posted on the Forum).
Well. The Void Singularity is the pride of our branch. We've even given it the first number in our list, cause it's so awesome. We love this object. It wouldn't be appropriate to expel this SCP from our branch.
The Void Singularity is the central element of some Russian wiki tales (which are going to be united in the "Site 7 Hub", the first hub of our branch). These tales are set in Russia. Thus, the Void Singularity is also being contained in Russia. Why would the English branch contain it? I'm talking about the territorial belonging of this object in the Foundation Universe, and I'm also talking about the canonical affiliation to the Russian community.
"“The Blinker” and “The Blasphemous Bulk”" is related to the Meat Circus GOI. Let's imagine that we have translated all the SCPs related to this GOI (sweet dreams). That would make all the Meat Circus SCPs English articles, but the GOI would remain Russian. Wouldn't that be strange?
3. Gene R, you've said that you would like to see translated articles to be perceived and criticized like any other mainlist SCP. I understand your wish. On the other hand, I consider the -RU (or -FR, or -KO, …) suffixes as a reference that the article belongs to another site. Separate list won't be some kind of "ghetto", they will just state that these articles are translated from another site. We are not trying to hide it anyway, aren't we?
By the way, we do have such lists for transtated articles on our site. Isn't it OK?
You said the following:
Consider the following situations: "My article has been translated into English, posted on the SCP wiki, and has since then gathered enough votes to be considered in good standing" vs "My article has been translated into English and posted in a reservation".
I consider it like:
"My article has been translated into English and has since then gathered enough votes to be considered in good standing."
4. Let's imagine the situation that many Russian/French/Korean/… articles were translated into English and posted on the English wiki as originals. According to this logic, we need to expel them from the initial sites' lists. Will these lists become empty? What will happen to the branches?
Summary: I believe that foreign articles must stay foreign. They need to be posted under their initial numbers with suffixes and included in separate lists.
Decibelles, 23 May 2015 06:59
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