Last modified: 2010-05-15 16:03:49 UTC
The newly added line in Special:Preferences: "Member of {{PLURAL:$1|group|groups}}: " list of names of groups is somewhat problematic languagewise in some languages. In the Ripuarian langages e.g. that is because groups are plural nouns. That reads as "menber of groups: normal users, confirmed users, users that can import, ..." which is giving a somewhat ridiculous, complicated construction. Much better was to put it with singulars: "You are a user, confirmed user, allowed to import, etc." - still a bit strange because of the duplication of the word "user" but much more like people really speak. I believe that likely for other languages, the contrary might be true, and I urge other non-english speakers to add their best, or typical, language constructs. Maybe, we can find something workable for all, which is better than what we currently have.
Would it help if the list with member groups is a parameter for the message? So: "Member of {{PLURAL:$1|group|groups}}: $2".
Only solution I can imagine is adding some magic message, which can change which type we show in the list. Example MediaWiki:preferences-memberof-type: name: User::getGroupName() aka Administrators, Users... member: User::getGroupMember() aka Adminstrator, User...
With no comments, I implemented variable switch in r53873.