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How should we approach non-English content?
It seems almost taken for granted on every Codidact site - even Languages & Linguistics - that questions and answers are supposed to be written in English, although I can't find any official policy actually requiring this. I've noticed that a fair amount of friction has already occurred - especially in per-site Meta - related to specific users having (or at least demonstrating) poor English communication skills.
On the one hand, clearly every Codidact community is still quite small - it's hard enough to find enough users to answer good questions in English without splitting things up into more languages. To say nothing of increased demands on moderation - both from the need to be able to detect rude or abusive language in other languages (I assume that the "language of spam" is universal) and deal with users who, shall we say, dislike foreign-language content.
On the other hand, having the ability to support Q&A in other languages simultaneously sounds like a killer feature that isn't available in other places. Better yet, a motivated community could potentially find people willing to translate their best content - idiomatically, and without relying on AI or traditional algorithms.
How do others here feel about accommodating questions and answers in other languages? What strategies exist for doing so, and what considerations need to be made? If we decide that each community should be English-only (or at least single-language) to avoid these problems (or even that this is just the default stance for communities), shouldn't the Help Center at least be explicit about that?
1 answer
I think there's nothing wrong with a community deciding to be multilingual or non-English monolingual, but given the impacts on moderation requirements, site technology, usage patterns, etc., I think an initial choice should ideally be established at the formation stage.
Community Proposals should mention this as something to consider, perhaps adding that proposed communities are English-only if not otherwise indicated.
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