Ssptwriter

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Help me!

Please help me with...

1. URL with Unicode characters not working in <ref...>{{cite web
2. General questions about checking references when translating from de.Wikipedia to en.Wikipedia

thanks!

Ssptwriter (talk) 23:00, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

Um... I'm not sure you can put unicode characters in a URL. Second, references in a foreign language are perfectly acceptable. When using {{cite web}} etc just use a |language= parameter. As for you translating a reference - Chrome can automatically translate pages, though if you are using another service a Google search will offer the option to translate the page. If you want more help, change the {{help me-helped}} back into a {{help me}}, stop by the Teahouse, Wikipedia's live help channel, or the help desk to ask someone for assistance. Primefac (talk) 23:13, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

(edit conflict) It could help if you provide a little more context. The only broken reference URL in your draft was missing a "http://"; the umlauts were not the problem. I fixed that. Regarding general reference checking questions, it would really help if you asked those questions. I'm not sure what you'd like more information about. You can find the English Wikipedia's most commonly used citation templates at Template:Citation, Template:Cite web, Template:Cite book and so on. Particularly helpful for translations are the "lang=" and "trans_title=" parameters that can be used to note that the source is in another language (such as German; "lang=German" works for that) and to add an English translation of a source's German title. In my experience the English Wikipedia tends to put a higher emphasis on inline citations than the German Wikipedia where articles often come with a list of references and then has some "Einzelnachweise" that may or may not be related to the references. Help:Cite explains citations on the English Wikipedia in some greater detail. Wikipedia:Translation gives some general information about translating foreign-language articles into English, including the license requirements. Huon (talk) 23:16, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for the fix, Huon! The encoded non-standard characters in the URL misled me that they were the problem. Regarding the general reference checking questions: I'm pretty new here so I was nervous of posting a too-long-and-detailed request (the replies I've got from you and Primefac show me by example that writing as much as is needed is fine). My questions are:

• For verifiability, do I have to check all the references myself, or can I rely on the good faith of the people who contributed to the original-language page? I got the impression from Wikipedia:Translation that I do have to: on this page, I'm happy to check the online references (and in fact I've found some extra info by doing that), but the offline ones are not available to me. I guess this comes down to the question "how much should a translation be an uncritical translation, and how much a complete re-verification of the article?"
• Should I translate the (visible) titles of the references into English as well, with a language tag that makes the (in German) note appear, or is it fine to leave them in the original language? On Wikipedia:Translation I seem to remember lots of detail about identifying myself as the translator for any translations of references. Maybe that's appropriate for more contentious material. Ssptwriter (talk) 23:43, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the tips, Primefac. It was encoded characters like this: "L%C3%A4ngenprofil.pdf" in the URl that misled me - but it turned out the problem was a missing "http://". Ssptwriter (talk) 23:52, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

For the titles of references, see my comment on the citation templates' "trans_title" parameter. You should not omit the original title of the reference, but also giving a translation may be useful.

Regarding verification of sources, I would generally be reluctant to translate content that I have not personally verified. That amouonts to simply taking the German Wikipedia itself as a reference, and Wikipedia does not consider itself or its foreign-language sister projects reliable. Huon (talk) 00:50, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

Thanks again, Huon! I'll review my draft based on your answers. Ssptwriter (talk) 01:23, 28 September 2016 (UTC)