Help talk:Translation switching

Policy on new content wrt {{lang}} ?

I am intending to add English text to an existing table. That table contains a mix of {{lang}} and {{common string}}. Is there a policy or convention on this? When I replace the {{common string}}, should I

1) just type in my text

or

2) do this:

{{lang

| en = my text

}}

The table has a lot of "unknown", but wherever {{lang}} is used, that template is well populated. Which way is best? Which will best prompt translators to do their translating? (I have some experience with wikipedia, but new to TF2 wiki, and can only make guesses at reading German or Spanish ) Mikado282 (talk) 09:19, 18 January 2014 (PST)

We use the common string template to localize strings that are used by many templates or in several different places in the wiki. These strings are pulled from the dictionary, so that it is easy to update all instances of the string across the wiki. Otherwise, if it's just a one off localized string you use the lang template. Hope that helps. —Moussekateer·talk 09:34, 18 January 2014 (PST)

Well, that much was easy to guess about the {{common string}}. I'm thinking if everywhere else on the table there is {{lang}} then maybe I should use {{lang}} even if I set in only one language and leave for others to translate what I'm adding? Mikado282 (talk) 20:58, 18 January 2014 (PST)

Yeah, if you don't have any translations just use {{lang}} and leave the en string in there. If the template's used enough, the translators will get the job done in time. » Cooper Kid (blether) • (contreebs) 03:52, 23 January 2014 (PST)