non-English posts get moved out of LabVIEW board? We need to reconsider this policy

[zou]

Recently I saw a few non-English posts get moved out of LabVIEW board.  People post in that board because there are more experts around.  Non-English posts can easily translated into English with Google.  Besides, when we see the VI, we can figure out the problem even without translation, most of time.  

Moving those posts out is not doing a favor.  Not to mention some of the posts get moved to a WRONG board.

[Hooovahh]

I'm not sure how I feel about this.  Yes I agree that there are more LabVIEW experts in the English based subforum, and posting there will probably get your answer quickest, but it does clutter up a subforum already getting piled on, when specific subforums exist for other languages.  Why even have the other subforums if they aren't going to be used?  Certainly moving them to the wrong subforum is an issue.

[zou]

You miss the point.

it's NOT getting answer quick or slow, but getting answered or NOT.

There are many unanswered posts in other boards.

We still need other language boards for users who don't know English at all.

I can't even navigate on a German or a Japanese board, not to mention make a post.

[altenbach]

Google translate is pretty good for understanding these questions, no matter where they are posted. Of course I will answer in english, assuming that the OP can translate too. 😄

Once LabVIEW code is attached, it is often "language independent" and we can help. I tend not to move threads based on language.

[Hooovahh]

I didn't miss the point, there is better support in the English sub-forum.  And if there is always better support from the English sub-forums, then do we need the non-English ones?  Would it just be better to have a single post in that native language telling you how to post in the English one and translate it?  I think my point still stands that this would add even more clutter to the LabVIEW subforum.

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@zou wrote:

I can't even navigate on a German or a Japanese board, not to mention make a post. 

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Why not?  The layout is the same and there is a single button at the top.  Just pick the subforum with the most posts.  Using a website proxy I see the button text changes based on the region but there is still only one button to post.

[RavensFan]

Putting non-English posts in the English forum helps no one.  It clutters the English forum which is already the busiest.

Yes, because it is the busiest, more people will see it, but how does that help when the vast majority of the people who see it can't read it and won't response.  And with the English forum, the unread and unreplied to post will quickly drop off the first page anyway and will get lost.  Many people won't bother going past the first page to read a message.  The heavy hitters may go back 3 or 4 pages.  But I know I wouldn't go back any further than that.

It belongs in a forum where people who can speak and read that language will visit and can help.

Why not have one larger forum where every message is directed to, whether it is English, Spanish, or Chinese, or LabVIEW, Vision, Instrument Control or whatever?  There are separate boards for other product groups for the same reason.  It keeps like messages together so people who don't care about Vision or Chinese don't get those messages cluttering the LabVIEW forum.  And people who do care about USRP radio or Spanish can go and find those messages in one place and can read them and answer them.

There is a reason the forums organized into different categories, and if people post in the wrong place, then they should be moved to keep the organization in place.

One problem I do see that has occurred since the forum upgrade is that the foreign language boards are now buried under regional communities.  Many of the wrong forum messages are from first-time posters.  I believe that the new location is so far down and buried that no one can find the foreign boards.  I know I had to ask what happened to them when the forum change occurred.

[Mathan]

How about the forum website itself will translate it automatically to English after clicking on "POST" button, so that each and every post will get better opportunity to look into? Maybe it should just give a small popup to the poster saying these message will be translated automatically so that he will understand this point.

Mathan

[karina.barles]

Hello guys,

We appreciate your feedback and bringing this up to us.

We consider there is always ways to improve, we have reviewed your suggestion and we believe the best is that we will keep on moderating and ensuring that non-English posts are moved to their respective boards. As you saw from other users, the posts that remain in the incorrect language board may actually stay unresponded since if it might become hard for people to understand translations.

In regards to the translation tool, we will review the impacts and possibility for making this change and may pursue developing this.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thanks,

Karina Barles
NI Community Support

[RobertoBozzolo]

While I don't know how much of those posts appear in the LV board, I do see several of them in the CVI forum. My general attitude in these cases is to answer in English to the technical part of the question (if I actually know the idiom or Google helps me understanding the question) and informing the posters that it would be better to write in English or that a specific board exists for their language, but several times they simply answer "I didn't know!" and keep on posting in English.

I don't know how I would feel with an automatic tool moving posts to regional boards, but I think a kind attitude can help keeping the forum in a good order and is more helpful to new users.

[altenbach]

I still don't think it is a big problem. There are also many languages that don't have their own board, so these posts still need to go somewhere. Sometimes the post is in English, but the attached VI has all labels and comments in Japanese, making it hard to understand.

Trying to micromanage each post based on language is a lot of work and not always completely unambiguous.

Yes, users should make an effort to post in English in the main forum, but that also caused problems in the past. We had posts in "English" that were complete gibberish and we only started to understand the question once the user was encouraged to post in his native language. 😄

I probably will not move any threads based on language alone and without the consent of the OP. I just use google translate to understand the question and the reply in English if I know the answer. 😄

Note that the LabVIEW forum is just called "LabVIEW", and not "LabVIEW English" or similar. Many more specialized technical sub-forums also don't exist in other languages, so if that Italian post in the LabVIEW forum is actually about "Mathscript RT", where should it go? 😮