Re: Language Templates revised

David R. Morrison wrote:

> 
> On Sep 3, 2004, at 11:56 AM, David H. wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>  in fact I am personally annoyed
>> that such a decision is put in question DAYS after the idea has been
>> brought up.
> 
> 
> Many of us do not follow the fink-i18n list in detail.  In my case, I 
> was somewhat aware that this discussion was going on, but I did not 
> appreciate what the impact on users would be until I saw all the new 
> flags on the webpage.
> 
> Naturally, our users will be curious at all those flags, and naturally, 
> they will try clicking on some -- maybe because they know that language 
> a little bit, or maybe just out of pure curiosity. I do not think they 
> will get a positive impression of Fink from the experience.

I do not follow that argument at all. If you click on a flag because you 
are curious and you are then told that this language is not present yet 
and needs talented helpers one of two things can happen

a) you are well versed enough in that language to help
b) you see we are trying to make and effort and then you continue to 
read the web-site in your language or in English.

Yet, and this is the more likely thing to happen, you end up on an empty 
language page because your browsers accept values are set to that 
language or because you clicked on the flag since that is your native 
tongue and then the following will happen

a) They recognize their help is valuable to us and they will join the 
translation effort
b) They shrug, are mildly annoyed (if at all) and click to continue 
reading in English.


When I go to a web-site and I notice there is an Arabic translation I do 
not click on it, just to watch funny signs on the screen I cannot 
possibly interpret, just because I am curious whether they are really 
there or not. Please excuse me if I sound a bit sarcastic here, but the 
likelihood of the situation you are describing is, in my eyes, pretty 
much tending toward zero.

In my eyes the contrary is the case. This effort shows _clearly_ that we 
are trying everything in our power to
a) recruit capable translators
b) respect foreign tongues
c) use every possible platform and technique at our disposal to get this 
all done and translated for their communities.

And just as a final note. While I understand that the Project Admins are 
busy, I just expect them to monitor _every_ list if they want to 
participate in discussion. If they cannot they need to leave the 
decisions to those who are actively working on that part of Fink. But 
then again, that is a very personal opinion and I do apologise if that 
offends anyone. That is not my intention.

-d

> 
>   -- Dave
> 
> 
> 
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