Friday, September 30, 2011

Cross-Language Community(?)

Posted on 5:20 AM by Lycanbd Admin

It recently came to my attention that over 24% of Simutrans forum posts are in languages other than English. Some posts (including a few jokes) later FreeGameDev had its first non-English board.


Simutrans Forum Post Languages

Should we really have a section on our board for non-English languages?


Pro:
  • Lurkers who would not post in English would have the chance to contribute in the international forum
  • Engaged non-English-speakers are likely to improve English skills over time, attracted by the larger community

Con:
  • People who might give English a try to contribute will use the international forum out of comfort instead, decreasaing growth of the English-speaking community
  • People who use English now, will use the international forum and contribute less to the English-speaking community
  • Moderators need to be found
It could also be that there will be no effect at all. We will add non-English forums if we find volunteer moderators as an experiment for a while and see where this leads us (few more details here).

If you would like to help moderate a language forum, please let us know in this thread.


English language map of the non-primarily English-speaking world [source by-nc-nd]

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