I think the concept of category restructuring should be a topic for all languages, rather than just English. To such an end that upon deciding the categories, they can be standard across language sections of the forum.
Simplifying and objectifying the design should allow for easy use of localization files and the creation of a new language section, given enough demand, should only take a few minutes.
This would also sort all stray language topics into their proper places, @gpb01 the Italian low spam bar is one that's still in the English section for some reason. The above-mentioned changes would correct that.
The last part of that would be a filter that detects language and automatically routes users seamlessly to the correct language section. This would be based on the same filter that tries to catch unformatted code and throw up a warning.
In properly structured Android programming, these are integrated concepts. It would be nice to see that level of international standardization set into place here as well.
I'm completely in support of any restructuring the forum community wants in the "International" categories. However, as I mentioned in the other topic, I also understand that those categories operate semi-autonomously so I would leave the final decisions about the category configuration to the forum members who use and maintain the individual "International" categories.
If the community wants it moved, that could be done easily and independently from any category restructuring, so I wouldn't consider the restructuring a blocker for that change.
This is something I've dreamed of for years.
Unfortunately I haven't found that there is an existing setting/component/plugin for this as was the case with the Unformatted Code Detector, so I think someone would have to write a Discourse component or plugin to do it. I'd guess the free open source software technology is already available for accurate detection of the language of the post text.
@dax1 are you aware of anything like this? Do you think it would be technically feasible for someone in the open source community to create such a 3rd party Discourse theme component/plugin?
Not sure that keeping it isolated from the particular language section is particularly beneficial and adds a "clutter" factor of its own if left to float around.
It may get missed by those wanting to use it. if it is not where they would expect it to be.
I think you’ll find diverging opinions from the communities
I’ve read that German are happy with the concept of everything in one place. Makes it easy
Italian seems to love their multiple détaillée sections
Frenchies would are happy with 3 categories but would want the top category (Français) to be blocked from writing into and have the real categories you post into below that (including a general section for all questions, a tutorial section, a showcase section abd a "bar" area.
I suspect other languages have their own wishes too
Or you can set the default language to English, install the plugin (see below) and if someone posts in a different language, you can just have it translated.
For the French part I have asked and we discussed this. For the other it’s from reading their sections - but I can’t say it’s an authoritative answer - say it’s my own feeling based on using these categories
This was to illustrate that there are likely varying opinions out there and one size fits all won’t do. At the end of the day someone will have to make a decision - either the Arduino team or the moderator for that language section.
For the French part it was discussed amongst frequent helpers / long time forum members. So I would say it’s pretty much a shared view from those who care.
(You have 18 hours read time on the forum and seen 2,500 posts - I’ve ~1800 hours and read 153,000 so I’d say this could count for something on my guess work (not saying your view isn’t legit))
The organization of the site should be language independent. Language should be a user profile selection and EVERYTHING should toggle. Put a language flag on the message and auto translate to the viewing users language if different. Code blocks and pull quotes come in verbatim.
The user profile should just influence the UI but should have nothing to do with what categories are exposed. This is to be configured by the user as categories of interest.
For example I read frequently the French, German, Spanish and Italian sections on top of the general English discussions. I would not want my locale to dictate anything with regard to those.
You wouldn't have to select specific language categories. Just topics and everything appears in your favorite language. Who cares the op's language as long as its presented in YOUR language?!
If the users had their preferred lsnhuage flag you should be able to select just "italian" responses, but WHY? Why not just throw everything in the same pool?
Fish out just what you want by topic (say HW/DISPLAYS/LCD's/2004) or language (Italian) or both (Italian language Q's about 2004 LCD's)
Italians have this nice saying Traduttore, traditore
Just like for movies - I do care about seeing things in their original version. I don’t want any poor Electronic translation to come and distort intent. May be you don’t know enough about the cultures around the world to see this?
Also Written asynchronous discussions are already often confusing enough without adding doubts about the traduction.
you can always ask your browser to do that if you want to, it should not be a forum feature. The UI (Last, New, Unread etc) could be localized of course.
[view original] solves that and lets everyone partake no matter WHAT their linga franca is.
Isn't the whole point to maximize eyes on everyone's problem? My romance languages are so-so, and i see tech phrases in different languages that I might be able to help with if I just had a little better understanding. Keeping info in language silos Balkanizes the site. Let it be language agnostic.
If I'm looking at mixed languages, I don't want to keep shifting the browser from language to language. Let the site display everything in my language pref (or not) as per option. Then the internal topic structure become language independent and maximizes the eyeballs on EVERY Q. Why isolate lingual minorities?
If you want to see things in one favored language, let the browser do that.
Minorities could also use a translator to post in English if they feel their language is not well represented
Otherwise it’s a great opportunity to be exposed to a different language and brush up your skills. I feel sorry for my German fellows members I often offer answers that are not so well written - but I try to be helpful and practice my German at the same time.
