# Non-English forums **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 25, 2013, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525 "2013-07-25T21:29:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/21 "2013-09-24T15:57:20Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > That’s a highly provincial attitude. A non English section could seriously make this board a better place. And I have seen it at other places, which are otherwise less than SDMB. 1. See posts #4, 10 and 11 for details as to why it probably wouldn’t work. 2. In what way would it make this board a better place? 3. How many different languages would you want to have? 4. How would you coordinate conferences between the moderators? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/22 "2013-09-24T16:03:49Z")
Posts 4, 10, and 11 are excuses, not reasons. Expansion of cultural horizons. As many as the board population found worthwhile. English. ---
**Author:** ![want2befree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3e96dc/32.png) [@want2befree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2befree)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/23 "2013-09-24T16:19:04Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > See, then we’d just have to correct you. “Iay” is poor Pig Latin. It’s “Iday” in my dialect, though I believe “Iway” is standard. Now that I check Wikipedia, it grudgingly acknowledges “Iay” as a possibility. Humph. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/24 "2013-09-24T16:20:29Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Posts 4, 10, and 11 are excuses, not reasons. Curt dismissal without response. > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Expansion of cultural horizons. In what way would a forum of people speaking a language I do not understate expand my cultural horizon, and in what way does saying the same thing in another language other than English expand the cultural horizon of the other person? > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > As many as the board population found worthwhile. I think that’s a very weak threshold for creating a brand new forum in another language. I know the board has enough trouble finding _English_ speaking moderators that both can do the job and actually _want_ to do the job. A smaller pool of people speaking then same non-English language would be an even harder job…unless you are proposing that the moderators for non-English forums be held to lower standards so that the positions be filled faster. > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > English. Cute. How do you propose the other moderators be kept in the loop if they cannot read either the threads or the complaints themselves-rely on the moderator of the foreign language forum for accurate translations? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/25 "2013-09-24T16:34:53Z")
I agree with AK84 (not surprising as I’m the OP) - I don’t feel the reasons that were offered are all that good. I think if the board expanded to people who speak other languages, the moderator issue would solve itself - new moderators would be found among these new posters just as English-speaking moderators have been found among the English-speaking posters. And I would assume that most of them, for the foreseeable future, would also speak English which would make it possible for moderators to discuss issues among themselves. I feel that the value of this should be self-evident. More people active on the board makes for a better board. And I’m sure it would help the bottom line as well. To make an analogy within the English language, which is better - a board of Americans only or a board of Americans, Britons, Canadians, Australians, and other nationalities? I feel that non-English speakers would bring new views to this board just as non-Americans do. And I think there would be a lot of crossover between the forums with people posting in both English and another language. But it’s not my board so it’s not my decision to make. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/26 "2013-09-24T16:57:35Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > In what way would a forum of people speaking a language I do not understate expand my cultural horizon, and in what way does saying the same thing in another language other than English expand the cultural horizon of the other person? You, specifically, wouldn’t have to do anything. I’m not interested in Breaking Bad and threads on it in Cafe Society have no relevance for me. That doesn’t mean I think people shouldn’t be allowed to create them. > [@](#): > > I think that’s a very weak threshold for creating a brand new forum in another language. Yeah, it’s a stupid idea to let your membership help drive the areas you develop. > [@](#): > > I know the board has enough trouble finding _English_ speaking moderators that both can do the job and actually _want_ to do the job. A smaller pool of people speaking then same non-English language would be an even harder job…unless you are proposing that the moderators for non-English forums be held to lower standards so that the positions be filled faster. I think the admin is overly concerned about the issue of moderating and I have my own opinion about the capability of the admin when it comes to judging moderation, anyway. > [@](#): > > Cute. How do you propose the other moderators be kept in the loop if they cannot read either the threads or the complaints themselves-rely on the moderator of the foreign language forum for accurate translations? Sure. I am quite sure that if someone is being disruptive, at least one or two people with capabilities in both languages will be able to clarify for the benefit of the mods. Unless you think there are some, I don’t know, latvian speakers just itching for the chance to rain abuse on some poor member’s head without being found out. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/27 "2013-09-24T17:04:35Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Unless you think there are some, I don’t know, latvian speakers just itching for the chance to rain abuse on some poor member’s head without being found out. I see you know my landlord. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/28 "2013-09-24T17:41:48Z")
Suppose, instead of creating a new forum here, the moderators searched out an existing Spanish-language forum, and declared “That’s the Spanish-language version of the SDMB”. Would that change anything at all here? Would doing that be in any way different from creating such a forum here? I would maintain that the answer to both questions is “no”. The advantage of having all of our forums on the same board is that you can interact with the same people in different contexts: You can have **Der Trihs** and **Clothahump** going at it hammer and tongs in a political debate, but then taking the same side in a discussion of a science fiction story. But if we had a foreign-language forum, there wouldn’t be any of that interaction: Those who can comfortably speak English are already here in the English forums, and those who can’t wouldn’t be. It’d be just like if they were on a completely unrelated message board. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/29 "2013-09-24T18:59:08Z")
> [@Mathematics](#): > > Overall, I don’t really see the point. It seems like it’d just lead to multiple different communities on the same board with little overlap. This. I can see essentially two plausible scenarios for how this might play out: (1) The new, non-English forums take off. They attract a significant number of non-English-speakers, posting in their own language. Although a handful of bilingual Dopers from the English-speaking forums may continue to post in the new forums, the new forums will almost inevitably develop their own culture, which may be very different from that of the English-speaking SDMB. In effect, you wind up with a bunch of quite different boards in different languages hosted in the same place. (2) (More likely.) Few new, monoglot non-English speakers join or actively post in the new fora. They become, for the most part, places where a handful of bilingual Dopers gather to snark about what is happening in the main, English-speaking, board, safe in teh knowledge that they are unlikely to be overheard. I can’t see much that is desirable, for the SDMB as it is, about either of those outcomes. Both, though especially the second, seem more likely to have deleterious rather than positive effects on the established board culture. If speakers of other languages want their own discussion boards (and if they do not exist already), let them start them. If they want a board something like the SDMB in their own language, well, good luck. It should be possible in principle, but evolving the board culture you want, in practice, is likely to be difficult, because no-one really knows how to control these things. Certainly, simply having your new board co-hosted with an (English) board you already like is not going to help much. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/30 "2013-09-24T19:03:55Z")
This thread is a rather revealing insight into some people’s assessment of the inherent character of the average doper. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/31 "2013-09-24T19:05:16Z")
Then, of course, there is the advertising situation. The company that owns the board won’t be able to charge as much for advertising unless they can show that the _whole_ board can understand the advertisements. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/32 "2013-09-24T19:20:54Z")
It could be done, if the Straight Dope owners (esp Ed Zotti) were interested in having a Spanish version. If there were a Spanish language translation of the columns in particular. Sure, there could be a related parallel board either limited to one forum, or as membership and interest grew, new forums. And it could have a similar theme of fighting ignorance. The moderator challenge could be overcome by starting with some bilingual members of this board who volunteered for the efforts. The moderating would likely have to be a largely separate team. As understand the current moderation process, judgement calls are made, and interally reviewed by the whole moderating team. That is going to be less effective if many participants have to rely on their colleague’s interpretation to make that judgement. That’s effectively taking the Spanish speaker’s word on the exchange, so really there isn’t much point in involving the English-only speaking moderators. The practical reality is that there would be little cross connections (see below). You would also have to deal with posts in the wrong language in the wrong forum. Would it be acceptable to have Spanish language posts in the existing forums? Or would it be a separate forum and only Spanish there, only English here? That would be much less disruptive that way. Still, there will be the inevitable moderating of misplaced posts. So how much headache are you getting and how much benefit to the Straight Dope is it? There might be some bilingual Spanish speakers who find the Spanish board, then wander over to the English side out of curiousity or desire to enhance their English skills or any number of reasons. How many would that be? You might get a few people who try to hone their Spanish skills the other direction, but again, how many would that be? And I think the ultimate crux is that the primary site owner is Ed. If Ed isn’t bilingual, how is he going to reign supreme on the Spanish side? In answer to **Chronos** , I don’t think there would be a significant positive change to this site, some increased moderating to deal with misposts, and a new moderating team to work independently on an otherwise essentially independent Spanish language site dedicated to the same themes. While the net change to the world might be positive (more people dedicated to fighting ignorance? more people snarking and having political grudge matches? more BBQ posts, this time in Spanish?), the net change to _this_ board would be a few more headaches. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/33 "2013-09-24T19:30:58Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > See, then we’d just have to correct you. “Iay” is poor Pig Latin. It’s “Iday” in my dialect, though I believe “Iway” is standard. Now that I check Wikipedia, it grudgingly acknowledges “Iay” as a possibility. Humph. There’s also the fact that “Pig Latin” is two words. So it would be the _igpay atinlay oderatormay ositionpay_ he’d be going for. ---
**Author:** ![want2befree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3e96dc/32.png) [@want2befree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2befree)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/34 "2013-09-24T21:03:17Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > There’s also the fact that “Pig Latin” is two words. So it would be the _igpay atinlay oderatormay ositionpay_ he’d be going for. I thought about that and didn’t bother to research. My bad. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/35 "2013-09-24T21:13:31Z")
In the interest of maybe saving people a little time: **TubaDiva** explained why this isn’t practical two months ago, and nothing has changed since then other than the thread getting bumped. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/36 "2013-09-24T21:20:21Z")
I appreciate the update but if I were concerned about wasting my time, I certainly wouldn’t be posting in ATMB. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/37 "2013-09-25T13:30:35Z")
> [@JBDivmstr](#): > > Yeah! And don’t forget about them dang New Zealanders, either! 😛 No reason to muddy up the discussion with fanciful talk of mythical places. Lets keep this in the real world. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/38 "2013-09-25T16:11:50Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > In the interest of maybe saving people a little time: **TubaDiva** explained why this isn’t practical two months ago, and nothing has changed since then other than the thread getting bumped. No, if TubaDiva had posted something like “Our contract with our host site prohibits posts in any language other than English” then that would be an explanation and the topic would have been dropped. But what we had was TubaDiva posting her opinions on why this would be a bad idea. And obviously, some of us have differing opinions. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/39 "2013-09-25T16:15:19Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > No reason to muddy up the discussion with fanciful talk of mythical places. Lets keep this in the real world. Hey, I saw Lord of the Rings and New Zealand is a real place, full of hobbits and elves and wizards. It’s just like Oz, which I also saw a movie about and which, to my understanding, is a large island somewhat west of New Zealand. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525/40 "2013-09-25T16:28:07Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But what we had was TubaDiva posting her opinions on why this would be a bad idea. No, she did not just post her opinion. She explained that this has been discussed on the board and off (by the mods) multiple times in the past, and that it’s never happened because it’s not practical. She was correct, and that hasn’t changed in the last two months. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-english-forums/664525.md?page=3)