I must disagree with your post : there are many hardware and software related questions in each language forum, I actually asked a few because
I installed Mepis and I got answers in BOTH English And French : in fact a frenchie helped in the translation of a particular setting for a newbie like me
That was useful !
Well, I like languages too much, I confess

A problem with translations is sentance structure. And verb form. It's not a problem in English, but in spanish it is hell. For example, I translated a page from LosTiempos, (a newspaper) and it was a pretty funky translation. Not only do you need to find the appropriate word in the translation, but sentance structure sometimes differs. Brown Cow becomes Vaca Cafe(Cow Brown). Also there are a myriad of verb tenses that are hellish to get a grasp of as a human, I'd imagine that a computer would have a tough time implementing that.
another issue is masculine and feminine terms and their exceptions.

I've heard that french is similar, as are the other "romance" languages.

Sounds like a cool idea, but due to the idiosyncracies in language, would be near impossible to do a worthwhile job.

titanium_geek

I think it is really great to have Japanese version or asian version of this sites. I am really enjoying reading some of topic in this site and It is really helpful to study linux. also for the Exam(LPIC).

I am really happy to help manage the sites if it possible to have the Japanese version of this sites.

I wonder how well mechanical translation has progressed over the years. An early AI attempt in the '60s was an English <-> Russian translation program.

They tested it by translating from English to Russian and back. The phrase "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." translated back as "The vodka a good but the meat is rotten".

Without understanding the context of a post, a program translation may be lacking.

Also, how do you guard against the shell keywords or configuration file samples from being translated along with the rest of the post?

Mechanical translation in English to Japanese is really good at getting some basic idea of what is mentioned about.

but It is really poor performances on Mechanical translation when I translate of the linux FAQ from other sites.

I hope that I have advanced skill of English as native speakers.so that I am able to communicate and talked about more linux subject.

The more I think about the subject and listen to what people are saying in their posts, I'm becoming convinced that a separate area set aside for those who wish to post in a different language would be better than trying to translate someones post.

People who are unfamiliar with that language would just miss out on what is said in those forums, however there would be nothing to stop moderators who feel an issue is important enough, to post briefings in the other language forums.

The issues that really remain are
1. Getting enough moderators
2. Which languages to choose

On the second issue, a solution would be to work through the major languages first eg Chinese, Hindi & Arabic before other languages unless there was a demand.

food for thought
floppy

I hope that this site main site and and to have regional community sites.if the sites is decided to divided by the major languages,Mostly,Japaneses is going to left out.

I do not know that how many Japanese people are registered in this site right now but I feel that If this site is translated in Japaneses,I am sure that quite a lot of peopele will registerd in short periods of time.

To Takayuki and Samuel26

dont panic yet if your language of preference isnt considered yet, this thread is simply to discuss the pros and cons of the idea.

At the moment everybody who doesnt speak english is left out, and the suggestion for foreign language sections is to try and bring them on board somehow.

floppy

Thanx floppywhopper
But as for me it doesn't really matter whether I get answers in French or English, could be Italian or Spanish as well, cause I understand all these
languages. I was just thinking about other (French) users because some may not be very good at foreign languages.. Language structures are sooo different : they just reflect the vision of the people using them.

Anyway it's great to see willing individuals paying attention to other people's needs and shortcomings
This site is awesome for that !!

hmmm... bilinguility is great...
but in my Linux early days I hit a lot of Howtos just to see what the people where like. There was one guy/girl who said (something like) English is the language of technology. Whether that's right or wrong, I don't know, but the fact remains that I followed the trend and wrote my Howto in English. Live with it. That said, please email me if you want to make a translation.
---------------------------------------Annecdotes------------------------------------------------------
The guy who works at my school in the tech department is an awesome hardware dude. He doesn't speak any English, but he knows the english he needs to install drivers etc etc

My other half which thinks of being forced to learn math in spanish (math makes sense to me in English, but in Spanish....) I supose it is daunting for a non English speaker to try and learn about something that makes sense in another language in English and getting confused... yadda yadda yadda.

My other part says live with it.
-----------------------------------End Annecdotes----------------------------------------------------
CONCLUSION:
I supose if LQ was willing to put a 'translate' button (youknow, next to edit quote etc) and put a disclaimer that it may or not help...
you could also get people who speak english and another language pretty much fluently who could edit translated posts (maybe a checkbox at the end of a post that says let this post be edited by the language dudes)

Language dudes wouldn't need to have all the powers of a mod (what if your only whatever/english speaker is just beginning linux?)

Anyway... sorry for the long post, keep the ideas churning...
titanium_geek