Topic on Talk:Wikimedia Maps/2015-2017/Technical Implementation

There is a problem with localization.

If I go to https://maps.wikimedia.org and look at Syria, I only see the labels written in Arabic.

That sure is fine for Arabs (and would be fine if I could read Arabic scripts), but surely you can understand that not everybody does read&write Arabic.

Besides, the problem is symmetric.

If anybody speaking Arabic (especially children which have never had English in school) visit wikipedia maps and look at Europe, the labels in Latin sure won't be very helpful either. On OSM I see that there are at least English translations of the locations, so this is not (only) a data-problem.

I'm sure everybody on planet Earth is capable of reading/writing in every other language conveivable (e.g. Mandarin, Georgian, Hebrew, Quechua knots, etc.), so this won't at all be a problem *warning-sarcasm* ;)

Yes, localization is something that needs to be addressed. There's a task to track that work, and if Maps work continues it will be an important bit to consider.

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T154526