Plan B

General => Suggestions => Closed => Topic started by: Spectre on November 17, 2017, 01:30:04 pm

Title: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Spectre on November 17, 2017, 01:30:04 pm
Alright, just for the lulz I'd like to see what this community thinks about this :D Basically, we have a number of Latinos who refuse to speak/write in English here on forum for some reason. Now in-game it doesn't really matter, most of us write in whatever language we want there. But the forum has always been following that unwritten rule "post your comments in English so that 99% of people will understand you". It's been like that since I started playing here all those years ago, but now it seems it's changing for the worse.
And yeah, some of you will protest this, saying "oh we should just let them speak Spanish, you might as well learn it or translate it if you want to understand them". But that's not really a solution, is it? Like I said, 95% of this community has no problem writing in English, even if they don't really speak it correctly.
The fact is, if we start following that example, everyone will soon start posting in their native languages only and imagine what the forum will then look like.
Anyway, while it might not seem like a big deal, take a few moments to vote and if you want explain your thoughts in the comments :P
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: LPCOLTER on November 17, 2017, 03:05:14 pm
There needs to be a base language or a couple of base languages which needs to be followed by everyone
So yeah
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Ege on November 17, 2017, 03:21:33 pm
I don't really care about it at all but we could bring back the language section which we had in old forums so everyone can keep bullshitting in those topics. :3
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Maddy on November 17, 2017, 03:29:35 pm
I don't really care about it at all but we could bring back the language section which we had in old forums so everyone can keep bullshitting in those topics. :3
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Sebastian on November 17, 2017, 03:33:32 pm
they can use this (https://translate.google.com/?hl=fr#es/en/donde)
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Yash on November 17, 2017, 03:54:20 pm
I don’t think there should be any rule forcing people to write in only a couple of languages like English, etc as it will be unfair to the people who doesn’t know it. We all have a right to share whatever we want and in any language that we want. If you really care about someone’s idea then take sometime and open Google translate and translate it and if you don’t care then just ignore the comment and move on. Making a rule about talking in a particular language is not fair.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Spectre on November 17, 2017, 04:04:21 pm
I don’t think there should be any rule forcing people to write in only a couple of languages like English, etc as it will be unfair to the people who doesn’t know it. We all have a right to share whatever we want and in any language that we want. If you really care about someone’s idea then take sometime and open Google translate and translate it and if you don’t care then just ignore the comment and move on. Making a rule about talking in a particular language is not fair.

Ah, but see, why should the majority, who speak English, use Google Translate just to comprehend what a couple of guys, who refuse to speak English, wrote? Like I said, it wasn't like that in the past and it shouldn't be like that now. How long before our large Indian part of the community starts writing only in Indian? It would be a mess, wouldn't it?
I agree with what Ege said, we could at least create several new boards/topics where people can speak to each other in their native languages, but for everything else it should be in English.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Crash on November 17, 2017, 05:18:40 pm
I don’t think there should be any rule forcing people to write in only a couple of languages like English, etc as it will be unfair to the people who doesn’t know it. We all have a right to share whatever we want and in any language that we want. If you really care about someone’s idea then take sometime and open Google translate and translate it and if you don’t care then just ignore the comment and move on. Making a rule about talking in a particular language is not fair.

(y)
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Shark_The_Helicopter on November 17, 2017, 06:23:34 pm
Quote
Use Google Translate


Google Translate isn't 100% accurate.

Example

Quote
are dashed by the
"bhai bhahai bhai" movie
have fun stories

Sounds offensive? Nope.

Now the raw and non google translated version.

Quote
are teri maa ka bhosda madafaka
"are bhai bhaibhai bhai"
have fun mada

Zero idea to the Non Hindi/Urdu peeps.

The first line means: (exclamation word),Your mother's cunt Madafaka.

Combined with the Bhai Bhai Meme. Dat Meme'ing tho
Obviously when this was translated the next two lines combined makes it sound something retarded but non offensive.

Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: LPCOLTER on November 17, 2017, 06:27:14 pm
It's a meme, don't stereotype me
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Shark_The_Helicopter on November 17, 2017, 06:58:07 pm
It's a meme, don't stereotype me


There's a reason why I didn't show your name and just cited it as a example for bad google translation which cover offensive words accidentally.

In no way I meant to offend you by singling you out.

I even complimented the meme'ing lol.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: LPCOLTER on November 17, 2017, 08:10:41 pm
That was sarcasm what i meant for mada
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: GlennN on November 17, 2017, 08:25:10 pm
Since these Spanish guys only post on off-topic section, I don't really mind.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Miau on November 17, 2017, 08:32:47 pm
I don’t think there should be any rule forcing people to write in only a couple of languages like English, etc as it will be unfair to the people who doesn’t know it. We all have a right to share whatever we want and in any language that we want. If you really care about someone’s idea then take sometime and open Google translate and translate it and if you don’t care then just ignore the comment and move on. Making a rule about talking in a particular language is not fair.

Ah, but see, why should the majority, who speak English, use Google Translate just to comprehend what a couple of guys, who refuse to speak English, wrote? Like I said, it wasn't like that in the past and it shouldn't be like that now. How long before our large Indian part of the community starts writing only in Indian? It would be a mess, wouldn't it?
I agree with what Ege said, we could at least create several new boards/topics where people can speak to each other in their native languages, but for everything else it should be in English.

If this was a Spanish server you wouldn't like us to make you speak in Spanish under the threat of a punishment, would you? Of course, most of us wouldn't understand you, so it would be a problem for your communication. Not really a problem for us, but for you. The same applies here.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Spectre on November 17, 2017, 08:36:35 pm
If this was a Spanish server you wouldn't like us to make you speak in Spanish under the threat of a punishment, would you? Of course, most of us wouldn't understand you, so it would be a problem for your communication. Not really a problem for us, but for you. The same applies here.

Who said anything about punishment though? This is only a poll to see what people think about this. If this was a Spanish forum, then I'd try to communicate in Spanish either by Google Translate or some other method. All I'm suggesting is make language boards, but general communication should be English only. That's how it's always been here :)
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Miau on November 17, 2017, 08:57:43 pm
Who said anything about punishment though?

You want a group of people to stop doing something. You can beg them to stop doing it or you can threat them not to do it. I don't know why, but I feel the first one wouldn't work.

If this was a Spanish forum, then I'd try to communicate in Spanish either by Google Translate or some other method.

That's exactly what they do when they need to make themselves understood. If they don't bother doing it in other posts, why should you bother trying to understand them?

I don't know where that urge to understand what they are saying comes from. I promise, they words aren't exactly worth neither a Pulitzer nor a Nobel. Is your inferiority complex so out of control you need to continuously make sure you aren't being insulted?
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Spectre on November 17, 2017, 09:47:46 pm
You want a group of people to stop doing something. You can beg them to stop doing it or you can threat them not to do it. I don't know why, but I feel the first one wouldn't work.

Their posts could be moderated/removed, if you count that as a punishment. No permanent damage done, yet it will maybe drive them toward starting to write in English.

... why should you bother trying to understand them?

I don't really feel like I should explain this, but I actually do like reading most of the topics here without having to have a tab of Google Translate just in case.

I don't know where that urge to understand what they are saying comes from. I promise, they words aren't exactly worth neither a Pulitzer nor a Nobel. Is your inferiority complex so out of control you need to continuously make sure you aren't being insulted?

Seriously haha, come off it... No, dear, I don't have inferiority complex, and they've certainly insulted me enough so far so I couldn't care less what they write/speak about me :D And since I'm not really active, I think they even forgot about me, so no problems there.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Miau on November 17, 2017, 11:57:33 pm
People who have an inferiority complex are rarely aware of it... But I wish that you're saying is the truth, for your own health.
And if you couldn't care less about what they say, why do you want them to talk in English? Is it so you can understand them? Maybe you care more than what you think.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: YoMama on November 18, 2017, 12:55:27 am
I don't think there should be any rule, but I do think that is should be recommended that people who can write English well enough should, but if they feel that they can't get their point across in English, they should be able to use whatever they feel most comfortable with that other people will understand. Obviously, if someone comes in speaking Māori or something, it could be a problem because few people could translate, but in the Spanish example, it seems like people who don't speak any Spanish are in the minority here. In many cases, I'm sure we've all seen other people with better English happily translate for the people who don't understand Spanish. Also, translation applications seem to work better when they are translating well-written prose from a language than they do when translating to a language. Someone writing unintelligible English because they were forced to use google translate is far worse than being able to understand most if not all of what they're writing through applications and other players' translations.

Their posts could be moderated/removed, if you count that as a punishment. No permanent damage done, yet it will maybe drive them toward starting to write in English.
No, it will more likely drive them off the forums or drive them to write things that no one can understand. It doesn't take long to find a post in English that makes no sense on the forum. If they can write in a better language for them, then the magic of translation will mean that we can actually get the gist of what they're saying instead of garbled words that don't make sense. Not everyone has the time and money to learn multiple languages. It's both unfair and counterproductive to force people to try to write comprehensibly in a language that they don't know well enough to express their thoughts with.


On another note, it would be nice if the languages section came back- I almost forgot we had it.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Spectre on November 18, 2017, 01:10:04 am
People who have an inferiority complex are rarely aware of it... But I wish that you're saying is the truth, for your own health.
And if you couldn't care less about what they say, why do you want them to talk in English? Is it so you can understand them? Maybe you care more than what you think.

As much as I am touched by your concern for my health, I really can't help it if you feel I have an "inferiority complex". Your diagnosis is neither true nor welcome, mind your own state of the mind :)
Oh btw, it seems you're starting to take this personally since you are a native Spanish speaker yourself. I do not have anything against you guys, even if you think otherwise.


@YoMama: My point seems not to be making results that I was expecting, so I guess I'll drop it before this turns into much bigger thing (as Mia's comments are pointing out).
My concern is that this thing can get out of control, but perhaps I'm just overthinking things. It is true that the guys in question speak even broken Spanish at times lol, as many of their compatriots pointed out so many times before. It's just that their attitude "why should we learn English, you learn some Spanish instead" really contradicts how things always were on this forum.
Lastly, in my opinion players like AleXander use Google Translate and make effort to communicate in English, even if their point can be lost in the translation process. I appreciate his efforts far more because of that.

TL;DR: this topic is actually a poll to see if anyone else feels like I do, so you don't necessarily need to agree with me. And as I have said in one of my previous comments, I want Ege's suggestion to come true and that we see the return of language boards.
Waiting on Jonne's input to see what he thinks about this, hopefully I'll avoid getting diagnosed with something else :D
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: YoMama on November 18, 2017, 01:18:37 am
Lastly, in my opinion players like AleXander use Google Translate and make effort to communicate in English, even if their point can be lost in the translation process. I appreciate his efforts far more because of that.
Maybe, but I value the point over having it in a nice, cozy English format. I think Panal's dual Spanish/English posts are a nice compromise if someone can do a reasonable job with English but a much better job with their native tongue.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Miau on November 18, 2017, 02:52:45 am
People who have an inferiority complex are rarely aware of it... But I wish that you're saying is the truth, for your own health.
And if you couldn't care less about what they say, why do you want them to talk in English? Is it so you can understand them? Maybe you care more than what you think.

As much as I am touched by your concern for my health, I really can't help it if you feel I have an "inferiority complex". Your diagnosis is neither true nor welcome, mind your own state of the mind :)
Oh btw, it seems you're starting to take this personally since you are a native Spanish speaker yourself. I do not have anything against you guys, even if you think otherwise.

I made no diagnosis. It's the only explanation I found for your attitude. But since you assure me you're pretty confident and the possibility of being mocked in Spanish doesn't worry you at all, I guess I was wrong. But I still fail to get why you got to make a topic, argued in it and opened a poll just to make it easier to understand some guys you don't care about.

I don't mind if it's my language, Hindi, Swahili or any other. The idea of asking the majority to decide how others can and cannot express themselves is just disgusting.

Well :) actually I mind if it's Spanish. None of us has statistics, but just having a glance at the server, especially during European night, would you dare to assure there are more English speaking users than Spanish speaking, or vice-versa? I wouldn't. The numbers must be pretty similar. But it's really hard to question there are more native Spanish speakers than English native speakers... the difference must be overwhelming there. Do you still think a language with such a big importance for a large part of the player base is something to hide or get rid of? Well...

Edit: I'm reading the poll now... what were you thinking about when you wrote the second option? Trying to figure out something ridiculous enough that nobody would pick? I don't think anyone defends, not even me, that everyone should use their native language. For faster and easier communication, everyone who wants and is able should use English. What I'm against and I've been arguing all the time is to force people that don't want or aren't capable to use a specific language, no matter if it's English or something else.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Alcor on November 18, 2017, 06:50:04 am
I don't actually mind, but eventually we'll have to pick a specific language which we can use to understand each other no matter what native language we speak.

It's like if someone created a suggestion thread in english and everyone commented with their own language below then people would just ignore the whole topic because trust me they won't go through google translate for each comment and repeat the process every time.

Main point is, we have to have a common language so we can communicate with each other, it's important. Just like when you travel, same applies here since you're technically not at a local forum.

Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: COBRA on November 18, 2017, 09:52:47 am
I dont mind if those latinos posting with their lenguages only on offtopic but nowadays they started to post only on spanish lenguage all around forum. I have no clue about what they say,what they talking about. Yet they keep blaming me for not talking spanish (like wtf)..

I strongly feel that of they are that free to post in their own lenguage comments all around forum, then I can write my own lenguage (turkish) to reply such as screenshots/funny quotes/suggestions topics.

The point is this forum is not based on a few countries and its global. We have global lenguage talking around forum. I think members need to follow it. Atleast they have to try using translate post in english instead of bothering us to use translate eachtime (what a selfish idea to force use translate on each spanish comment?).. you can't force whole forum to use spanish translate to understand a single guy's comment. Just let that guy use english translate for to make understand whole forum.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Finisher on November 18, 2017, 09:54:35 am
Non English replies or topics get zero attention and usually made by trolls which nobody gives a shit about so problem solved, but if you do give a shit then have fun, it’s all yours man
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Altus_Demens on November 18, 2017, 01:40:19 pm
The Off-Topic section is as liberal as possible I think, and it should remain this way. No Rules or recommendations should be added to regulate talking there. As you could notice, only the excessively spammy and useless topics are removed or locked. Consider it as a sandbox, almost free of rules.

Pretty much the same goes for the Bans section. If the banned player and the staff member find it easier to communicate in another language but English, it is fine - the goal there is to find mutual understanding and solve the problem.

As for other sections, they should remain English-only - our server is, of course, a multilingual Babylon, and we have to find a way to understand each other when it comes to 'serious' things directly related to our gaming experience. Again, there shouldn't be any Rules, it is a matter of culture; if you post there in another language, be ready that your post will be ignored by the majority who doesn't speak this language. I like the way Panal_Abeja posts sometimes: he writes both in English and Spanish so most of the players could understand him without problems. If I could speak Spanish, I would do the same.

Summarising: nobody should be discriminated for the language they are using. Whilst it's totally fine to speak any language you want in the Off-Topic and Bans sections, you should consider expressing yourself in English in other sections if you want others to understand you and take your posts into account.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Spectre on November 18, 2017, 01:57:47 pm
Summarising: nobody should be discriminated for the language they are using. Whilst it's totally fine to speak any language you want in the Off-Topic and Bans sections, you should consider expressing yourself in English in other sections if you want others to understand you and take your posts into account.

Finally someone fully understood what I meant :) If Panal, for example, can post his comments in Spanish and then go through the trouble of translating that into English, I don't see why others cannot.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Shark_The_Helicopter on November 18, 2017, 02:10:23 pm
We can use some trusted members who can translate a certain language to english.

Will help when a certain member can't express well in English but can talk fluently in his preferred language.

I for example can help (somewhat) in translating stuff from Hindi to English.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Altus_Demens on November 18, 2017, 02:32:13 pm
In the general case there is no need to translate anything to anyone. Modern translating engines are capable of doing it for you.

My point is simple: if you post something funny or unserious in the Off Topic section without caring much, use any language you wish. If you want others to understand you and listen to you in English-speaking community, better use Google Translate once to translate your thoughts and post instead of forcing the English-speaking majority to do the same numerous times. No enforcing, no discrimination, just some common sense, respecting others and pure maths.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Magic on November 18, 2017, 02:43:54 pm
-1
Why Can't you use Google Translate lol
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Shawkhawk did nothing wrong! on November 18, 2017, 11:07:53 pm

We are a good community because we can understand what others say, and we understand what others say only because we use a common language.
If we use different languages, we'll have some serious problems, for example, we'll have guys from Indian subcontinent speaking their own languages(you don't want to get messed up in Indian languages, trust me),  we'll have a group of Latin players, a group of Arabic speakers, Turks, Philippinos! all will make their own small community in this forum.
Nobody cares if your English is not that good, it's not your mother tongue anyways (probably)! (Lol I learned my bad englas by watching subtitled Hollywood movies XD...ps. phack english class in school)
Use your native language if you are really bad, but try speaking a common language.
Title: Re: Question about posts/comments/topics in English
Post by: Jonne on December 20, 2017, 03:53:56 pm
I think this depends mostly on the situation. It's pretty obvious they shouldn't write suggestions in another language, as that requires a lot of input from the other forum members as well. In the off topic section, I don't think it's a problem. If they have questions or a problem, or for a ban appeal/report, we'll do our best to accommodate them in their own language.