Should I create language-specific forums?

[eXhale]

OK so there has been some discussions about language-specific forums and personnaly my opinions are mixed (can't be americanism though, since I speak french :p) but I thought I'd let forum members decide.

Ideally, language-specific forums give those who don't speak english well enough a space to communicate with other people, to create a local community, etc. In reality, most of the time people just stop going to english forums, even those who speak well enough, and so the english forums lose their international nature.

Also what languages would be supported? Looking at the member list I'd say Spanish, German, French, Russian (?), maybe Dutch (but everyone there speaks english, don't they?) ... There isn't thousands of members so we can't add every language.

[eXhale]

If you have language specific forums then that input would still be lost to many of us
That's right, but people would still be able to communicate between each other. :)

But perhaps a single forum for non anglo languages, with a view to the translation of important threads into the main body would bring input from those who currently can't read the topics to post .
its also probable that their be a bi lingual member for most languages based on the number of members, perhaps they could bring translations to / from significant threads when needed and make site internationally accessable in that way.
That was basically the idea behind the translation services for VJC publishing but I don't know if any thread is important enough to be translated. Also not sure if a single "international" forum is a good idea, I don't think any kind of "local community" would develop in such a forum.

Anyway for now most people seems to be against the creation of these forums :rolleyes:

[Anyone]

there are not that many good points about
language-specific forums:

of course it'll re-orientate networks of relationships
towards same language people, and perhaps
creating stronger bonds, and avoid misinterpretating
as this happens sometimes when speaking with
someone who doesnt share the same culture as yourself.

but as other people have mentioned,
this will also create many divides,
and not do much to stimulate new bonds
for example with the already
super-cool-hard-to-initiate-exchange japanese VJs.

also,
language relationships also create language hierarchies,
and may bring some of us back to colonization tensions,
which we are sure to get between the french and other francophones,
the spanish and other latin countries, etc.
and even the russian and post USSR countries...

me thinks...

one positive thing might be to make it possible for members to put a little icon or flag below their ID tag, like ***** is suggesting about our VJing abilities ?

[elbows]

If it were me Id start off with one forum for non-English posts and see if its actually used enough to be worthwhile.

[isobrown]

En tant que francais, je trouve que c'est une bonne id?e.

As I speak french, I think It's a good idea !

[hamageddon]

still don't think that's our job here.
there are surely enough ppl out there
capable of setting up a php-board in
their own language on their own server.

don't need no country flags either
the member list can be already vju:ed
countrywise.

[Denimage]

I'm French, i agree with you hamageddon, no flags, no thanks no.
J'ai aussi peur des "Ghetos", the french one, the english one...
But sometimes it's dificult to understand you guys.
Mix our lenguages, as far as we can, but please no "Ethnic section".

[wellREDman]

the point of the flags is like that of the icons, to give an at a glance precis of the contents of the profile.

[eXhale]

Flags will not be necessary, I'll soon add back the "Location" field on the left bar as requested by Rovastar and the country name is much more clear than a flag (I mean, do you know what's the flag of Venezuela? :p)

[eXhale]

Here it is :)

[hamageddon]

that's cool, ex.

or as my ppl around here like to say:
dankesch?n :)