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Traditional localization typically entails offering one site, where the 'chrome' (or user interface elements, help text, prompts, etc) is available in multiple languages. As I looked into how other sites were offering support in multiple languages, this was the predominate way to do it. Many still have the 'countrycode.domain.com' available for search ...
21
It isn't enough to simply fill a room to create a productive Q&A community. We build sites around groups of experts in very specific fields. You can't simply start gathering up smaller groups of people in peripherally-related subjects to beef up the numbers. That might satisfy the mechanics of Area 51, but it doesn't build a successful collaboration.
If ...
20
Folks looking to ask questions don't have to worry: "Is my question too basic for this site?"
I think that's the point; some questions are too basic for EL&U, and people asking questions there should have that concern.
As an example, here's a recent question:
Could anyone explain what does it mean when someone texts "I would talk later". IS this a ...
18
It's a de-facto standard for language sites within Stack Exchange network, that they are bilingual and accept questions in both English and the language of the site (it's at least so with the sites I've visited).
It makes perfectly sense to ask questions in Latin. Of course those would be rather expert than beginner questions. But the advantage is, it ...
18
The thing is that Stack Exchange sites are generally defined by an audience and what they approve of/want to here. A good read would be the blog post on the Ubuntu/Linux ‘schism’ or the many answers Robert wrote addressing this problem.
When it comes to programming, if you know one language you often have an easy entry into another. You can read a question ...
15
I'm an EFL (English as a foreign language) teacher, and I've noticed that there's a huge difference between the language interests and perspectives of native English speakers/highly fluent people and English learners. There are different views of what is "correct," different perspectives on what is most useful, etc.
I haven't seen too much on ELU that's ...
15
The language sites I frequent (Japanese, German & Portuguese) are all tolerant with respect to beginners' questions. A simple question can still be a good question.
The format for good simple questions is often
Here is a sentence/text from [my textbook called X / this website (link) / etc.]. I understand [this part of it], but I'm not sure what [...
15
Possibly… but probably not in way you are implying.
I think calling a conventional programming syntax a "language" in the context of this subject space is playing a bit fast and loose with the metaphor. If you want to include anything that uses a type of syntax to communicate ideas, architectural diagrams would be on topic; so would algebraic systems,...
14
You can read a Spanish-translated version of Stack Overflow right now using Google Translate:
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=es&u=https://stackoverflow.com/&usg=ALkJrhh3Q8mQ4mfVkq1m6cA94GzdNR7h5Q
But we are not going to embrace this as any ...
14
Yes, all types should be allowed.
People may search for any type of name, and it'd be great if those people ended up on SE.
I'd be tempted to upvote an answer (or question) that included the other forms of the name.
13
Esperanto is different from almost all other constructed languages in the one respect that the Esperanto community is mainly interested in using their language.
You may want to talk a lot about other conlangs, but you want to talk in Esperanto.
Communities of other conlangs also often have the strong need to delineate their conlangs from Esperanto (with ...
10
I think it's hard(er) for proposals for sites in other languages to reach enough commitment, because only those people are active on Area51 that already are StackExchange users.
These users are already fine with using the sites in English.
Sure, as you can see, some of them would like to have an additional site in their native language, too. But I guess ...
10
I believe the main purpose isn't the language questions itself, but the language acquisition and learning techniques, tools and methods.
10
This proposal will not work, for several reasons. As mentioned by Ashish and magisch in the comments, it would take a huge amount of money to cover all conceivable languages spoken on Earth (including Klingon). You'd need to find a moderator for each language and pay him/her solely to moderate your chatroom (or full Stack Exchange site).
The original Stack ...
10
Well, since the question was updated (and other issues arose), I updated my answer.
First of all, I am not sure whether using Russian language in questions and answers at all is allowed by higher-level Stack Exchange rules/policies1 (you should understand, that not the whole Stack Exchange is community-driven; hosted sites are, but top-management also ...
10
The problem is that all programming languages are constructed (yes, even Common Lisp), so basically anything about programming would be on-topic in this case, since all have to use a (constructed) language.
More concretely, I think that we should focus on languages intended for communication between humans (or sentients, at any rate), not a language for ...
9
Those are not SO-translations. Those are separate sites.
Restricting national versions of SO to national questions only makes exactly as much sense as restricting SO to England-related questions only.
8
Yo creo que sí es necesario, no todos los hispanos leemos bien el inglés, obviamente habrá algunos que sí, sin embargo, sus inquietudes y apreciaciones han sido descartadas de tajo por no saber el ingles, ahora bien si no entiendes lo que yo digo, entonces estarás en la misma posición de los hispanos que no saben inglés.
8
It would be unfortunate to preclude Dutch speakers in a Dutch Language proposal. On the contrary, studying a language has long been known to be best conducted in a full-immersion environment (i.e. in the target language only).
We've even considered (on the Stack Exchange Team) urging our language sites to become "full immersion." Its long been known that ...
8
Latin’s mixed up with almost everything in Western civilization
Latin is important because it's intertwined with a lot of things historically, and even some things today. Latin was not simply the language of the Roman empire; it was Europe's international language of science, religion, law, administration, and scholarship from about 800 CE to 1800 CE.
Even ...
7
At http://english.stackexchange.com if you try to ask a question that is considered basic, it will be closed or you will get heaps of minuses. I am very careful when asking there.
People who do not know English well yet, need MORE help, not less. So, this site could even become much more popular.
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Yes.
For this example, it isn't so much the content of the example questions that is relevant, but making sure that the community is there.
My making people define, upvote questions, you ensure that you've got an engaged enough community to make a beta successful.
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Most existing language SEs concentrate about the language itself: the grammar and the corpus.
However (at least in my country) the languages are studied on philological faculties, and those include the literature and the cultural studies about the region in which the given language is native.
I see no problem in defining the scope of the proposal such ...
6
I'm a French developer. I think a majority of my colleagues prefer it when they find information in French, and have their browser configured to search for pages in French if possible. Most of them can understand written English, and even write English if pressed, but would prefer a site in French. There is an audience for a Q&A site about programming in ...
answered Apr 22 '12 at 20:03
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
2,1491 gold badge22 silver badges47 bronze badges
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Generally speaking, proposals that tend to move this slow do not end up creating viable sites. It is difficult enough to create a successful site, even in the best of circumstances. Momentum is a big part of the proposal process. Without seeing the enthusiasm and energy needed to build an active site, I'm afraid this proposal is not likely to do well, at ...
6
Here's the most recent thing I can find on Meta.SE on this perennial question. It's specific to books but the same principles apply.
Basically, the rule/practice seems to be, individual sites can choose to allow or forbid recommendation questions, but even if they allow them, each question must have a problem to be solved which provides enough context for ...
6
Since there are only "example questions" in the proposal (no answers), your suggestion doesn't really apply to this site.
But hang on to your question until the Q&A site is actually launched. I can appreciate the enthusiasm for getting started on the broader administrative challenges of running this site, but it is best to save these questions for the ...
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As Robert has already covered, adding more diversity to the site user base is not a workable solution to the problem of having small audiences to start with.
The issue you raise about existing example questions on Area 51 not complying with what SO is seems like a legitimate concern to me. This probably stems from not enough true experts from existing SE ...
4
I agree. It is my opinion that a separate site is needless fragmentation. If the concern is for driving away the "experts", there should also be an equivalent--if not greater--concern for fragmenting the existing user-base which numbers those who are interested both in basic and advanced English usage.
This is essentially something which should be solved ...
4
Stack Exchange sites are defined by communities, not merely by topics. If a group of people are interested in a topic but are unable to communicate with each other then they do not constitute a real community for a Q&A site. Therefore I think the main part of the questions should be written in English.
Other users can help the OP in stating the ...
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