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Making a bilangual board.

Started by DenDen60, December 30, 2012, 10:53:12 PM

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DenDen60

I want my board to be bilingual. When user select English language, they have English categories  and discussions. When they select French, they have French categories and discussions. Is this possible? If so, how to do it.

Arantor

What about people who are bilingual who might want to post in both? They'll have a lot more effort...

DenDen60

Quote from: Arantor on December 30, 2012, 10:59:07 PM
What about people who are bilingual who might want to post in both? They'll have a lot more effort...

Shouldn't they be able to just select one language and they will see the discussions in the other language?

Arantor

Sure, under normal circumstances - but you're asking to change that so that the others are hidden.

DenDen60

Quote from: Arantor on December 31, 2012, 10:37:30 AM
Sure, under normal circumstances - but you're asking to change that so that the others are hidden.

So what you are telling me is that it is not possible.

Arantor

No, I'm pointing out the problem with what you're asking for. Sure it's possible, but I'm explaining why it's probably a bad idea.

DenDen60

Quote from: Arantor on December 31, 2012, 10:39:10 AM
No, I'm pointing out the problem with what you're asking for. Sure it's possible, but I'm explaining why it's probably a bad idea.

The project that I am developing requires it. It is a necessity.

IS there a mod available that can do this? I have not found any in the mod section.

Arantor

No, there is not a mod for it.

And if you implement this, you will not be able to suit bilingual users properly, because they'll have to switch languages to see other boards.

The way SMF is designed is that language support is for all the user interface for all the different languages but the boards themselves are just entered by the admin. Would it *really* be so bad to have both sets of boards listed? Users can collapse the categories they are not interested in, so users who only want one language can see one language, and users who want both can have both.

DenDen60

Quote from: Arantor on December 31, 2012, 11:44:20 AM
No, there is not a mod for it.

And if you implement this, you will not be able to suit bilingual users properly, because they'll have to switch languages to see other boards.

"How different is this with ordinary web site? Users are used to this.

Quote from: ArantorWould it *really* be so bad to have both sets of boards listed? Users can collapse the categories they are not interested in, so users who only want one language can see one language, and users who want both can have both.
I will be using SMF as a knowledge management tool and usability wise, yes it would.

Arantor

Ah, finally we get to the point where it actually makes a difference.

You didn't say you were going to use it as a knowledge management tool, so I assumed you were going to use a forum software as, well, a forum, In a conventional forum it would suck to have it set up like that.

Now you've explained what you're trying to do, instead of fixating on what you think you have to do, we can look at what would be best.

Sounds to me as though what you're building doesn't actually fit a forum structure as such, so that using a different package might actually be better for you - but since I still don't understand what you're trying to do, I can't help.

Or more accurately, I won't help without more information. The reason is, I'm not going to explain how to make the various nasty modifications to SMF without being sure that it's actually in your best interests.

DenDen60

I am open to suggestion but since knowledge will come from discussions between the members, I do need a good forum tool.

Arantor

I already gave you my suggestion then - don't *force* it to be either language. Offer both languages and let *users* decide what they want to see.

DenDen60

There will be too much stuff. Especially when it becomes  multilingual.  I start with two languages, but I will be adding up to 6 languages in all.

Arantor

How many boards are we talking about per category exactly?

DenDen60

This is the main board

http://forums.citizensandsocieties.ca/Global_Practices/index.php

I will add one or tow more categories and a few boards.

Are you on linked in? The community is already there, but I need to move it.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=3924474

Arantor

43 boards per language... aside from the performance issues that are going to result out of having 200-odd boards in the end, it looks absolutely empty and will put people off - even when you only have one language that's going to be a problem.

I'd perhaps consider cutting down on the number of boards, simply because it will look less intimidating.

I'm not on LinkedIn, mostly because there's no-one on there I actually want to talk to.

DenDen60

Never mind the emptyness of the board, If I have my own server, do you think there will be a performance issue?

Arantor

There is a performance issue inherent to the number of boards you have. Having a bigger server doesn't solve it, it just hides the fact.

The more boards you have the worse the problem gets.

DenDen60

This forum seems to work very well and you have a lot of boards and a lot of members. Why would it be different with mine?

Arantor

This forum is also running on multiple physical servers costing hundreds of dollars per month.

It's also been specifically modified by people who know SMF extremely well to counter a fraction of the performance hit.

There's also not as many boards as you might think.

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