suggestion: non-English help forum

Post by **Leonard Vertighel** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 6:34 pm

While most IMSLP users speak at least basic English, some do not. To open up IMSLP and its forums to an as wide audience as possible, I suggest opening a non-English help sub-forum. All other sub-forums would then be English-only. We can discuss this idea at leisure, since it probably makes no sense to realize it before IMSLP reopens.

Since we need to check if the posts are appropriate, we probably can't just allow all languages. My idea would be to define a set of "allowed" languages, which we can expand over time. The condition for a language to be allowed could be e.g. that at least one moderator (or maybe better two, since one may not be available 365 days p.a.) of the sub-forum understands it.

If things get chaotic, we can just split off the most frequent languages into their own sub-forums.

Simple requests for help like "how do I upload/edit/etc..." would not be translated to English, as this would mostly be a waste of time. More difficult questions, e.g. non-trivial copyright issues, should probably be translated to English and posted in the English-language forums as well. Likewise, interesting/useful informations, ideas and suggestions should be translated and posted in the English-language forums.

If we decide to go ahead with this idea, I'd be available as a moderator for German, Italian, French, and if needed also Spanish (which I don't speak, but understand reasonably well).

emeraldimp · Post by **emeraldimp** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:41 pm

Given the recent activity, I'd support this, and offer French as well.

Vivaldi · Post by **Vivaldi** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 1:44 am

Although my Chinese is not perfect, I can help with some Chinese translation of posts should they appear.

Post by **Yagan Kiely** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:35 am

But I'm all for the edia as a whole. - I think each thread should start with the name of that language just for ease.

Vivaldi · Post by **Vivaldi** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 3:25 am

Yagan Kiely wrote: I think each thread should start with the name of that language just for ease.

Would that be necessary? As Leonard has mentioned, posts that are in a foreign language would go to the non-English help sub-forum. For example, if a thread in Italian goes to the Italian language help sub-forum, wouldn't it be obvious that the thread is in Italian? And subsequently, any threads following that would be in that sub-forum provided it is in the same language.

Post by **Yagan Kiely** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:21 am

Yes, but until there is a rise in other-than-English languages, there should only be one forum. The worst ting about some forums is that there are too many forums, you get lost. One forum, until there are more people would suffice.