Suggestion for posts made in another language besides English...

ardvark71 · 04-14-2015, 06:57 PM

Hi all...

I noticed here that the thread was locked before the OP possibly had a chance to respond in English. I was going to post a link to Google translate in case he (or she) wasn't aware of the service.

Just as a suggestion for the future, perhaps a full day could be given before locking the thread so OP's have a chance to respond in English. Also, put a notice that is prominent on the home page or somewhere that this is an English only forum and provide links to online translators such as Google Translate. That might be helpful for non-English speakers.

Regards..

metaschima · 04-14-2015, 07:36 PM

What would be even cooler is to integrate a translation service into the forum itself, like you can integrate a search engine search. That way posts are automatically translated to English. Not a huge priority tho, because few posts are not in English, and people can just go to a translation site and copy and paste.

Randicus Draco Albus · 04-18-2015, 06:02 PM

It is much better to wait for someone who knows the language in question to post translations. (If that were allowed. I shall not go there.) Relying on translation software for complex discourse is not the best idea.

dogpatch · 05-02-2015, 12:17 PM

No need to change anything in LQ to make automatic translations happen. It is already quite common for folks in other countries to include a translation option in their browser. Google's Chrome browser, not surprisingly, can offer to translate any web page that it senses is not in the user's native language, be it Spanish or whatnot.

That being said, I am of the opinion that it would be good to allow LQ questions to be posted in other languages, especially Spanish, and to allow those LQ members who can reply to do so, in whatever language seems most helpful. Wouldn't that fit much better with the notion of a free web, not to mention freedom of speech?

Would be interested in the opinions of forum members whose native language is not English.

XavierP · 05-02-2015, 02:21 PM

Although it is now 8 years old, this thread explains the issues we would anticipate and why we are likely to be an English only board.

dogpatch · 05-02-2015, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XavierP

Although it is now 8 years old, this thread explains the issues we would anticipate and why we are likely to be an English only board.

Looked at the thread, which contains this thought:

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.W.

...if LQ were unable to uniformly moderate all forums equally, then LQ would end up with 2 sets of rules -- one for posts for posts in English, and different rules for posts in other languages. Obviously the minute that spammers found out that they might be able to bypass the LQ Rules by posting in something other than English, the LQ forums would likely end up being overrun with ads for prescription drugs, get-rick-quick scams, etc, etc. That obviously would be unacceptable...

Have to admit i was not thinking of these kinds of difficulties. I stand corrected.