Greetings fellow wikiHowians, Yes, you heard it right: wikiHow might soon be launched in Hindi too! I talked to @JackHerrick
and Chris Hadley and we discussed it for a few days via e-mails. They have agreed to initiate the process. The wikihow staff will build a partially-developed Hindi wikihow and then get it up and running with the help of volunteers. I have already started translating the important pages into Hindi and have been placing the [[Category:Hindi wikiHow]] tag in the article (as instructed by Jack) so that the wikiHow staff can easily find the articles they have to move to the Hindi wikiHow. So, why do I make this post? - Because, we need more volunteers! Yes, we are in desperate need of volunteers. Translation is not an easy job, but if we all work together, it is possible. How can you help? - Translate articles (make sure you add the [[Category:Hindi wikiHow]] tag in bootom of each article you translate). - Review and improve articles. - Add pictures, videos. - Help new users. - Communicate with other Hindi speakers or experienced wikiHow users who could improve the Hindi wikiHow. - Give suggestions. - And many, many ways more! Don’t know Hindi? You could still help: - You can ask me or any other volunteer to translate specific pages for you, so you could possibly help in adding photos and videos. - You can create an English HowTo article, and our volunteers would translate it in Hindi and publish it. - And much more! How do I sign-up for this? -Well, you don’t have to! You can start translating right away. But in case you want to formally sign up for this project, you could just go to http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Hindi-wikiHow-Project
and add your name under the volunteers section. So, how do I actually translate the article(s)? - There is this page on English wikihow called About WikiHow ( http://www.wikihow.com/About-wikiHow
). Now, if you want to translate that into Hindi, all you do is, create the following page: http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Hindi-wikiHow-Project/About-wikiHow
and start translating. Yes you have to add this, http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Hindi-wikiHow-Project/
, before the title of every page you’re translating. I don’t have a Hindi keyboard, how do I type, edit? - You can use various transliteration services. That is, you can type in english and the result is in Hindi. For example, if I type “Namaste”, I should get “नमस्ते” (which means the same). Transliteration is completely different from translation. The transliteration service I prefer is Google transliterate ( http://www.google.com/transliterate
). - You can also use translation services. These would help you write precise articles. My favorite: Google Translate ( http://translate.google.com/
)] The partially-developed version of wikiHow could take months to be developed by the wikiHow staff, so it’s imperative that we should be patient. Should you need to contact me, leave a message on my talk page, or email me at gaurang.prasad@gmail.com
Thank you, Gaurang Prasad
We even have a Hindi Wikihow group on Google Groups. Join in! https://groups.google.com/group/hindiwikihow/
I don’t know that language. :’( I’m still working on Spanish. ?? June Days P.S. Google Translate isn’t always accurate…
Kudos on taking the initiative here! I am not able to help but amazing work!
June Days, Hindi is a difficult language to learn. You can help us in many different ways too! Google Translate is not accurate. To be honest, no translation software can ever be perfect as the meaning of words change. The meaning of the words actually depend on the way they are used in a sentence. But it is still pretty good.
Gaurang, I think the best way to promote Hindi wikiHow and gain contributors may be through the wikiHow Facebook feed. At one point, the top cities with wikiHow Facebook followers were in Asia, more so than some major US cities – don’t know if this is still true or how many wikiHow Facebook fans speak Hindi (maybe there’s a Facebook analytics tool that can provide this info), but I think it may be a great way to get people involved. Another way would be to reach out to the Wikimedia community and see not only if people want to contribute, but if there are any best practices you can apply to building Hindi wikiHow. It looks like there is an active Wikimedia community in Mumbai, and if you can’t meet people in person maybe it would be worth sending an email. I know with Spanish wikiHow, one of the first big supporters was not a translator, but someone who wrote original articles in Spanish. Several of them were later translated into English, and some of them became featured here on English wikiHow. I actually learned a lot from those articles, and it would be awesome if a similar thing happened with Hindi wikiHow. I wish you the best of luck with Hindi wikiHow and I hope it takes off.
In Gaurang’s original post he was talking about Google Transliterate, not Google translate. He explained that transliteration and translation are two different things (see the Namaste example in his first post).
^ Oh sorry, I misunderstood… Well, Gaurang.Prasad, I wish you the best of luck, and I’ll do anything I can to help! Just tell me what you need, as far as editing!
June Days
@Elocina
- Thanks for confirming. June Days - It’s fine. And I will contact you should I need any help
Maniac
11
Gaurang, I commend you for taking the initiative to launch a new language version of wikiHow! It sounds like you are very dedicated to this project and that’s awesome - so many of our users speak English as their primary language, so often times the hundreds of other foreign languages are overlooked. I honestly feel that there is a huge void on wikiHow in terms of foreign languages. We have so much room for expansion - just look at how many different languages Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia Foundation projects have worked their way into! I would definitely use some of @Elocina
's advice in trying to gain additional help on your project. Nicole has a ton of experience with wikis, not only on wikiHow but on other wiki websites as well. I’m sure that the information she provided will lead you on the right track to get some assistance on this major project. I’m not sure how things work in India but you could also explore attaining help from your real world community. As long as you are permitted, places like schools and libraries are great locations to find people who may be interested in learning more about the wiki way and I’m sure starting in a project that is native to your own language is easier than working with English at first. I wish you the best of luck with this project. As time goes on and you are looking for how-to articles to translate, the most popular pages on wikiHow would probably be a great start - http://www.wikihow.com/Special:Popularpages
Of course, not all topics that are popular for the rest of the world may be popular in your area, but I’m sure if you look around on that page you may find a few topics that you think would interest your community. Another great category to work with would be the Food/Recipe category, in my opinion. Everyone seems to look online for recipes, and I’m not sure if there are any “famous” Hindi recipe websites, but if not you might be able to make wikiHow the first!
Thank you for your replies: @Elocina
, June Days, @Maniac
Yes, I’ve talked to a few of my friends here in Mumbai who are also interested in helping with the project. I will surely try to gain contributors from Facebook. And thank you @Maniac
for the link to the popular pages. It is a huge list there, buy slowly and steadily we can achieve it. Regarding the food/recipe category, there are hundreds of Indian recipes which are globally famous. I’m not sure if there is a recipe website, but having them on wikihow is always a plus point. I’m not quite good at cooking, but I can surely use the help of some of my female friends. Regards, Gaurang Prasad
I am in. I had once taken up the this thing. BUt couldn’t take it further due to other priorities. I am so Happy. I can help out. I know the language to the core.(almost).
@ShrUtiable
: Thank you so much for your support!
This is loads of info! Although i don’t to know hindi like an expert, I know it to a meium level. I’m going to try out Transileration services, so I’ll come here later, Thank you
Sorry for the spelling errors.
@Mom
’s_Gal Thanks for your support in this project. We appreciate any and every help! Feel free to reply here or send me a talk page message in case you have any questions. Gaurang
I think you shouldn’t just ask your female friends for recipes. If they don’t cook or feel more comfortable contributing something else, it limits you because they may think that you only want recipes from them. I have had this issue with Recipes Wiki, where people would assume I only wanted certain types of recipes and I had to explain that other content was okay as well. I don’t know about India, but more and more men are cooking here in the U.S. I should also say that getting friends and family to contribute content is hard. Wikis are not for everyone, and they may read your content and support you in other ways, but I don’t know many people who have had lots of success turning friends and family into active editors (unless those people already had a wiki, IT, or online community background). One good approach for recipes is to ask family members for recipes for favorite family dishes, and once you have permission add the recipes to wikiHow yourself. Another approach is exploring what freely licensed content is available.
@Elocina
Yes, you’re right. But I have been asking a few of my friends on Facebook and also I have been inviting many people into this project on wikiHow and a few have agreed to help! Just like in US, more and more Indian men are also cooking nowadays and they could help too! I first plan to translate the important/ basic articles like ‘How to create your wikiHow account?’, ‘How to contribute on wikiHow?’, etc and then move on the Food/ Recipe category. Thanks for your suggestion, though!
Hello wikiHowians, It has been a while since I’ve informed the community regarding what is actually happening with the project; and so I decided to make a post saying “the work on this project is going on at full speed and thus the project is not dead”! Hindi wikiHow is currently in its development/ testing stages. I and Kanhu have managed to translate most of the MediaWiki files into Hindi and the Hindi wikiHow looks much better and realistic now. We are currently hunting for bugs, trying to fix a few bugs, reviewing the MediaWiki translations for any grammer or typing mistakes and testing various functions of the website. At the same time, we have also started moving the important articles (which have already been translated into Hindi) from English wikiHow to the Hindi version. This goes without saying, that this would not have been possible without the hard work by @ChrisH
, @JackHerrick
, and each and everyone working behind the scenes. Feel free to post any questions. Thank you, Gaurang
