Yeah that seems to be how Wikipedia does things. It tripped me up earlier today on a different page. Bizarre. Just go left to right, top to bottom. Reading order.
I believe this is because many languages will interpret that differently, and Wikipedia having contributors from around the world writing in different languages, decided that clockwise is a good universal instruction that is more difficult to mistranslate.
If the instructions were “left to right” and then “top to bottom”, a bad translation might end up making it mean the top to bottom first and left go right last.
Reading order
In Arabic (and a few other languages too), things are read RTL, and plenty of Asian languages, at least traditionally, are read top to bottom first.
Doing it clockwise is seen as a more universal instruction I guess? And I don’t think it’s too hard to figure out. I might also be to make the instruction more concise!
. having something consistent can reduce confusion among contributors, particularly for those who are translating pages between languages and 2. there are other reasons too, like making the instruction more concise
Zagorath@quokk.au 4 weeks ago
Yeah that seems to be how Wikipedia does things. It tripped me up earlier today on a different page. Bizarre. Just go left to right, top to bottom. Reading order.
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
I believe this is because many languages will interpret that differently, and Wikipedia having contributors from around the world writing in different languages, decided that clockwise is a good universal instruction that is more difficult to mistranslate.
If the instructions were “left to right” and then “top to bottom”, a bad translation might end up making it mean the top to bottom first and left go right last.
In Arabic (and a few other languages too), things are read RTL, and plenty of Asian languages, at least traditionally, are read top to bottom first.
Doing it clockwise is seen as a more universal instruction I guess? And I don’t think it’s too hard to figure out. I might also be to make the instruction more concise!
Zagorath@quokk.au 4 weeks ago
Wikipedia has entirely different versions in different languages. This page is on the English Wikipedia.
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
. having something consistent can reduce confusion among contributors, particularly for those who are translating pages between languages and 2. there are other reasons too, like making the instruction more concise
yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
Clockwise order isn’t the same as reading order. The correct order is:
It helps if you imagine a circle around the images with arrows pointing in clockwise direction, like this:
Drawing of 4 squares in a 2x2 grid, which represent the pictures. A circle with arrows pointing in a clockwise direction surrounds the squares. The squares are numbered according to the order described above.
They could have just put the images in reading order though, especially when there are only 4 of them. It would be way less confusing :/
Zagorath@quokk.au 4 weeks ago
Yes, I know. That’s what my comment is criticising.
yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Oh, sorry, I thought you were talking about in which order you’re supposed to “read” the pictures. I only understood it now.
cenzorrll@piefed.ca 4 weeks ago
“Clockwise” is universally known by all cultures, reading order varies.
So when translating to a different language, you can’t just say reading order, you have to change the article instead of just translating