[Foundation-l] multilingual mailing list

Thu Mar 10 01:47:08 UTC 2011

2011/3/9 phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki at gmail.com>:
> I know not everyone uses Gmail, but for those that do: the labs
> "message translation" extension rocks my world.

Thanks for the recommendation. I've just turned it on and this thread
now makes far more sense!

That said, it still doesn't make much sense. Automatic translators are
getting quite good, but they still aren't really ready for this kind
of use. The chance of misunderstanding someone is very high and,
especially on a list like this one where emotions tend to run high,
that can be very bad. Even those of us that speak fluent English have
difficulty understanding each other quite often on this list!

If you want an annoucement list or a simple Q&A list, then everyone
posting in their own language works reasonably well. If you want a
genuine *discussion* list, then I think you do need to use a language
that everyone speaks. Unfortunately, that isn't possible, so we have
to do the next best thing and use the language which the most people
speak, which is English.

I have no objection to people using this list for announcements and
Q&As, but if people are wanting proper discussion then I strongly
recommend sticking to English.