Have a single multilingual forum, and each topic with an associated language

We now have several forums, one per language (EN/FR/ES/DE), and each topic is published in one of them. For example:

• Numista website EN https://en.numista.com/forum/forum15.html with these topics:
  • https://en.numista.com/forum/topic146624.html
  • https://en.numista.com/forum/topic109082.html
  • …
• Numista website FR https://fr.numista.com/forum/forum5.html with these topics:
  • https://fr.numista.com/forum/topic146619.html
  • https://fr.numista.com/forum/topic146615.html
  • …
• Numista website ES https://es.numista.com/forum/forum47.html with these topics:
  • https://es.numista.com/forum/topic145274.html
  • https://es.numista.com/forum/topic136262.html
  • …
• Numista website DE https://de.numista.com/forum/forum63.html with these topics:
  • https://de.numista.com/forum/topic144454.html
  • https://de.numista.com/forum/topic141564.html
  • …

But IT/NL/PT/RU do not have their own forum, they share the EN forum. https://en.numista.com/forum/topic145390.html

Xavier

[…] we made the choice not to open specific forum sections for the three new languages. They will share the English forum for the moment.

Why not do the same for all languages?

With the button to translate messages  we can translate them into our language (the one of our configuration). It is no longer necessary to have separate forums by language. We would have a single forum with topics in EN, FR, ES, DE, IT, PT... and with this button translate messages.

With the option “Merge forums” on member settings, an user can hide topics written in languages ​​that he does not want to see (with the automatic translator button it would not be necessary to hide topics written in unknown languages, but a user may want to do so).

To do this, it will be necessary to associate a language with each topic. When creating the topic, the user will be able to select the language in which they will write (by default the one in their configuration). Other advantage of this: we will be able to publish new topics in other languages without changing the language of our interface.

Similar to my old suggestion https://en.numista.com/forum/topic141346.html (with topic language instead of target forum).
 

With the example above, the topic structure will be:

• Numista website https://en.numista.com/forum/forum5.html with these topics:
  • https://en.numista.com/forum/topic146624.html (language EN)
  • https://en.numista.com/forum/topic146619.html (language FR)
  • https://en.numista.com/forum/topic146615.html (language FR)
  • https://en.numista.com/forum/topic145274.html (language ES)
  • https://en.numista.com/forum/topic144454.html (language DE)
  • https://en.numista.com/forum/topic141564.html (language DE)
  • https://en.numista.com/forum/topic136262.html (language ES)
  • https://en.numista.com/forum/topic109082.html (language EN)
  • …

Members will see the forum with their language interface and the topics for their selected languages.

I broadly agree with this. One forum for all languages. It would facilitate more of a mixing of ideas and discussions.

Long ago, on a game forum I was involved with, English was the primary language of the forum, with posts in other languages welcome, along with a translation. 

Moddies and admin would add translation where necessary. It worked very well. The translation tools available to us then were far less than those available now.

Hibernia

I broadly agree with this. One forum for all languages. It would facilitate more of a mixing of ideas and discussions.

 

Long ago, on a game forum I was involved with, English was the primary language of the forum, with posts in other languages welcome, along with a translation. 

Moddies and admin would add translation where necessary. It worked very well. The translation tools available to us then were far less than those available now.

Exactly my opinion, but rejected by the powers that be.

Just for clarify… I am not saying that we have a single forum and allow writing in any language.

I say have a single forum, associate each topic with one of the languages supported by Numista (now DE/EN/ES/FR/IT/NL/PT/RU), and use that language in that topic. Do not mix languages ​​in the same topic (as a general rule).

A few years ago this was not possible, but now we have the button to translate messages and the possibility of hiding topics in unwanted languages.

It's an interesting idea.

Why do you say “Do not mix languages ​​in the same topic”? Wouldn't be interesting to have people helping each other even if they can't speak the same language? For example, someone could post a picture of a coin with Arabic or Chinese inscription for identification and someone on the other side of the globe could help in their own language?

Not mixing languages would be a big constraint: if a topic was started in a language I can't write, I could still read it thanks to translation, but I won't be able to reply.

But if I can read the translation of the original post, the original poster can also translate my reply in my own language to his own.

Mixing languages is good imo.

The original language helps out if the translation is not very good - in some cases auto-translators produce poor results. Unless the poster has a knowledge of English, they may not realise that the translation is poor. Moderators could adjust the translation.

From my experience, again with the game forum, it is desirable to include the post in the original language as well as a translation.

The forum language was English, with other languages allowed with a translation. Moderators adjusted the translation if necessary.

It worked well.

Xavier

Why do you say “Do not mix languages ​​in the same topic”? Wouldn't be interesting to have people helping each other even if they can't speak the same language? For example, someone could post a picture of a coin with Arabic or Chinese inscription for identification and someone on the other side of the globe could help in their own language?

I said this thinking about users with little or no knowledge of other languages. If a topic is written in only one language (or the most of its messages) and the topic is associated with that language, these users could hidden it with their settings. Seeing unknown languages  can scare away to these users.

Xavier

Not mixing languages would be a big constraint: if a topic was started in a language I can't write, I could still read it thanks to translation, but I won't be able to reply.

Jarcek

But if I can read the translation of the original post, the original poster can also translate my reply in my own language to his own.

In my case I have not problem in read a topic with a mix of languages (I read ES/EN and use the button to translate the others… and sometimes EN 😅 ). And I answer (unless I forget) in the language of the topic (thanks to translation tools).

I think a single forum would be better, if a french user asks on the french forum, then someone who doesn't speak french but does know the answer to the question cannot help them. 

I've seen replies in different languages, and I simply google translate it, and then reply with my own translated response. One forum is better, and the occassional mixing of languages isn't that big of a deal usually. 

Hm, I must say I am less of a tower of Babel forum fan. Yes Numista has a translation tool but it also can't translate subject lines so filtering out crap like 'How many monies' becomes more tedious as well as having to manually translating many posts. This will also break website wide translation tools like Google translate website etc. that is usually just for a single language and results become mangled when a second or third language pops up.

Moderators could adjust the translation.

Keep on dreaming 😅 I don't think you will find people willing to do that for free for longer then a few days.

No need to read with a click on the speaker

I agree with any option that involves merging everything in one multilingual forum (mixing languages or not in the same topic), because with the current situation I saw problems:

• Several times I published a topic in an incorrect language (I have the interface in Spanish and I want publish in English in the English forum). https://en.numista.com/forum/topic139396.html
• The search in a forum find results only in the language of the interface. https://en.numista.com/forum/topic142553.html

We're coming back to what Numista started out as: 

A unilingual site, created for the French collectors, since Xavier is French, and then opened for the English speaking people some time later. Since I'm OK WITH both French and English languages, the site, which I detected rather late in 2012, was perfect for me. I left my favorite site, which is now most oriented at Eastern coins, which is not really in my interest sphere!

My interest is still to find varieties and document them, although not according to Numista's standards, but something is still better than nothing. 

With time numista might become a leader in numismatic knowledge, but so far it has a data base, which is rich in information, but misses the information, which can be found on our sites. Unfortunately Numista and most other sites are not cooperating!  The problem is about copy rights to images and other information on internet as whole. 

In my small scull, everything “shown” on internet is “common” property, enriching the knowledge of everybody accessing it. That was the beginning of internet for scientists worldwide, to share information and new insights on most sciences.

I'm against all copyrights infringed on internet. Internet is about SHARING KNOWLEDGE!

Let's come back to one common forum and see where that'll lead us.