Language Subtag Registration -- "wpsimple"

[Peter Constable]

From: Ietf-languages [mailto:ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no] On Behalf Of Michael Everson

> 6. Any other relevant information:
>
> Problem: The Simple English Wikipedia uses "simple" for the domain 
> (simple.wikipedia.org) and "en" for its language. This is a problem because:
> * The domain is different from the language code.
> * The language code is the same as in the English Wikipedia.
>
> These two problems definitely create several issues for the ContentTranslation 
> extension and possibly other components. It's possible to work around them, 
> but it's better to straighten things out by changing the language code.
>
> This will lead to en-wpsimple.wikipedia.org 

For purposes of a language subtag, this is not helpful or appropriate. For instance, it's not clear what "the ContentTranslation extension" refers to and what bearing it has on identifying a particular language variant.

Also, this all sounds like it's tied to a particular implementation problem for one specific application, Wikipedia, rather than something of general utility to a variety of applications. It may be that there is a language variety here that is useful to distinguish and the registration is unnecessarily tied to Wikipedia, or it may be that this is really all about a Wikipedia-specific problem. I can't really tell.

If the latter, then a private-use (sub)-tag may be more appropriate. If the former, then the details of the registration should be revised. But in its current form, I don't think this passes muster.



Peter