Topic: Is it allowed to post in English in a Local Section (Read 931 times)

I have already said that local board members should post in local language, so that everyone can understand their posts. But for those members who feel comfortable posting in English, I have written that they can also post on their local boards. I am in favor of this not preventing the member from expressing his views, even if he wants to post in English.

But yes this is true even in local boards if members keep posting in English then the importance of those posts will decrease for those members who face a lot of problem in English. Therefore local language should be given more importance in local board.

Just explain to me something that I didn't understand: what was the purpose of a French user, writing in English on the French board?
If the language of the board is french, and your mother tongue too, why not write french?

Of course this can happen, in specific situations. I myself already wrote in English on the Portuguese board - I was replying to a user who asked something in English. I did it with pleasure and without any problems.

I just don't think it makes sense for a native speaker to speak another language on that language's board, without any relevant reason.

No problem with that, I just think that I'm right because I have travelled in many countries and from my experience, I can say that people don't like it when I start speak in English language, they often ignore and say that they don't speak English but when I try to say some words and form a sentence in their local language, then they open up more ,out of nowhere they can speak English too . Oh, I have never had such a problem in capitals and cities like Paris, Rome, Oslo, etc.
That's just my personal experience and prediction, you can consider it or ignore it, no problem, I appreciate what you say too, didn't want to make anyone upset.

I said what seemed right from my point of view. Now I never thought that local members might be disrespected for posting in English. I agree that local board members should post in local language, because it will be easier for all members to understand the post there.

Now even if someone feels comfortable posting in English on a local board, your statement implies that he should be forced to post in the local language in the local language! However, since I don't post on my local boards, so don't worry too much about this. But still just giving my opinion.

There is no way one can speak and write English (as a second language) better than the native language.
It will definitely upset local people. Imagine you are a French and write in English in Français board. That's the disrespect of your own language. Imagine, you are a German and post in English in German board, isn't it disrespect of your own language when you live in a country where official language is German and everyone speaks it in that country?
The situation is different if we talk about Swiss board. In Switzerland, there are four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. If you are from the western part of Switzerland and speak French and post in French language, then that can't be considered as disrespect and will be tolerated by everyone, I guess.

That's definitely a different case and I already said that in local board of countries like India and Ireland, it's definitely no problem to post in English language. The situation is similar in case of Nigeria.
It's definitely intolerable to go and post English posts on French, German, Spanish and on similar local boards when you speak your native (French, German or Spanish) language.

1st line - both of them are good
2nd line - probably Google wins.
3rd line - both of them are okay.

DeepL also offers you alternative versions of translations, I mean, it offers two or three version of translated sentence and gives you possibility to choose which one is the best at the moment, in this case you should know language a little better.
To really compare them, try to translate  more complex and difficult sentences.

I was unaware of DeepL. I will review this tool and check its performance.
They at least advertise being better than Google Translate.
For me it ends up being a bit indifferent, but for the readers of my posts it can be much better.
^{use DeepL}

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I was unaware of DeepL. I will analyze this tool and check its performance.
They at least claim to be better than Google Translate.
For me it turns out to be a little indifferent, but for the readers of my posts it can be much better.
^{use Google Translate}

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Which is best for the reader?

Just take for instance of our LB since we doesn't have any particular language to speak we prefer pidgin why because we have about 3 ethnic groups with over 300 languages. Now come to think of where everyone write a post with their language how do we understand others, the official language is pidgin in english were we understand each others. But I know this may not be applicable to others that only speaks one general language, in some cases if it's a must do rules then speaking english is not allowed and they should only focused on the acceptable language than english.

Thanks, I am an old person and I am used to do the same thing again and again, but for sure I will give DeepL a chance.
I reckon GT has limits on “tier2” languages. While I think it is pretty good on the most common ones.

But of course, here I was referring to GT not as a specific service, but generally as “automated translation service”.

Sometimes while posting in international boards, many members get into the habit of posting in English, as a result of which they cannot write good posts in the local language even if they want to. So they also want to post in English on local boards, which many local members find difficult to understand because English is not their main language. But I do not agree with the statement that posting in English on the local board will upset the local members and disrespect the local board.

Personally, I think that it's disrespect to post in English language in your own local board unless posts are intended for international users. That's definitely okay if your country has two or more official languages and one of them in English, like in India and Ireland.
Btw no one can prohibit you from posting in English in local board, it's just disrespect that will probably upset a lot of local board members if you intentionally don't post in your own language and post in English.

Why should one be uncomfortable to post in their own language in local board? This just seems illogical.

It's waay better to use DeepL than Google Translate if it supports your language and the language you want to translate in.

Yeah... that's what I think.
One thing is the copy-paste process of translating existing content using translation tools. Another thing is that I write directly in the translation tool, something completely new. This is something original and not existing content.

Of course I'm not saying with this, that being Portuguese, I would spend my time speaking on the board in Italian or Spanish. But, also if I think I can give an opinion on a subject that is being debated there, or answer someone who talks about me, I don't see any harm in that.

I think that deep down, there must be a balance, in order to avoid abuse. Where it depends on each one, find that balance.

I think we should make this a norm, people that don't speak the language try to engage in that said language by giving their opinion with the help of translation tools. I don't get the abuse part though? Is it the possibility to abuse local boards in the case that you've run out of boards to post in to try and meet the quota of your campaign? If it's the case then the campaign manager can just not count the posts in the local boards, a lot of campaigns already do that right? Another thing that irks me is the demonizing of machine assist, that's stupid in my opinion especially in this case, you want to talk to someone, what better way to do that than speaking their language but oh no, because you are using a translation tool, you can't which is sad because imagine all of the missed opportunity to interact with more people. This forum always talks about community, but this kind of interaction with the help of a machine to create a bridge against language barrier is frowned upon.

Anything that was originally written in Language #1 (for example English) that you copy/pasted into google translate, translated into Language #2 (Portuguese), and posted that automated translation into the Portuguese local board. I am using Portuguese as an example since you brought it up.

So, automated translation content isn't allowed.
Taking a post and translating it manually using your own words is ok.

As for the specific Italian board, of course, I am not the moderator here, but I guess it is ok, provided that the translation is intelligible (but this is usually the case if translating from English) and, as you said, you are posting original content and not spamming ANN threads or so.

But again, it is really dependent on the relevant mod for other boards, and in my honest opinion, it is not a hill to die for. I think I found a decent compromise.

Exactly!

By the way, now I was rereading the rule:

What does "translated content in Local boards" mean?
I understand that it is taking something that exists (content) in a language and bringing it to another. That is, I cannot take a topic in English, put it on Google Translate, and translate everything into Portuguese and put it on my local board. That is, this rule would even be validated for me, being Portuguese. If I want to translate a topic, I have to do this translation manually.

Therefore, if I go to the Italian board, and write new information, reply to a topic, or share something relevant, I am not translating content but creating content.

Am I really wrong with this reasoning? 
It is true that afterwards everything needs to be interpreted by each one. But, I think I'm not very wrong in this line of reasoning.

I have posted in many local boards, and apart from a few language I speak, I used GT to post in the local language.
Of course the content I was posting was original and answers to maybe my translated posts or something I wanted to address to that specific board. Of course we are not speaking about paid content or advertising of any kind.

I used GT because I started from the hypothesis that who was posting on those board wasn’t familiar with the English language and I know from experience how much a post in a different language can interrupt the good flow of the conversation.

All was good on many occasions until a moderator told me it is not acceptable to post automated translation on his board (sorry I cannot recall which board it was, maybe German?) and referred to a different rule (the one prohibition to post AT content for paid service, which he wanted to apply for similarity).

Even if I wasn’t sure about his interpretation, I decided to post in English and then provide a courtesy translation via Google Translate.
I think this is an acceptable compromise as I saw users quoting and replying both to the English or the translated part.

Regarding the above quoted rule, I never saw that one, but again, it’s an unofficial set of rules. Not that we need a jury to apply those…

Personally, I highly value any user who takes the time to visit the Portuguese tab, read an entire topic on the subject (using a translation tool), and then takes the time to, in a very respectful and humble way, leave their opinion. in Portuguese. I think this gives value to the content that is generated in my language.

It is true that there is this rule ("unofficial"), to avoid abuse and translations of entire topics made by machines. But for everyday situations, I don't see any harm.

It's possible, but from the way the rule was written, it doesn't specify to what exactly it applies. Google-translated threads like the ANNs you mentioned get deleted if reported. It also depends on the staff member checking the reports and their interpretation of the rule. One person might have the same opinion as you, another doesn't like to see any automated-translation posts regardless of type or length.

Yep, that sums it up nicely.



Yeah I know about that rule, but I always thought that rule was mainly enforced when it comes to translated topics. e.g when spammers decide to share their ann on bunch of local boards.

If no one reports it and there is no local moderator to notice it, nothing is going to happen and the post will stay. I just took a look at the rules of Bitcointalk and I was right. It's not allowed according to Rule #27. It's not a big deal, though.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/unofficial-list-of-official-bitcointalkorg-rules-guidelines-faq-703657