[Adam]

Ever since our translation system went away, our site has lost a great deal of appeal for international users. While I don't want to necessarily start an entire new site/domain dedicated to non-English-speaking Pentax users, I think that if we had a few international sub-forums here, it wouldn't hurt (i.e. one for each of the top 5 foreign languages).

If anyone is interested in heading up a forum, feel free to post here!

The top foreign language are, in order: German, French, Russian, Polish, Dutch, and Italian. Unfortunately I only speak one of those, so I'll need your help!

Adam
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[salgueiros]

How did you define the top languages?

[Clavius]

Take it as a compliment: I think this forum already has a very international feel to it. I see people posting here from all over the globe.

I still think this is a good initiative though. My main language is Dutch. But I'm fluent in English and German as well. I think it will only bring more enthusiasts here.

[Bruce]

I could say 'io, fair dinkum mate, what bout Aussie?', but I will refrain!

[altopiet]

The top foreign language

Why not all languages for that matter? If someone feels that there might be enough interest from other people speaking the same language, let him/her start such a group, and if it seems in the end that there is not enough traffic, you can always close the group again. Then you can at least say you gave all languages equal chance. If a group has enough traffic after a period since it started, lets say 6 months or a year, you can let that group vote for a permanent moderator, in the mean time the person starting the group can be acting moderator?

I haven't had a closer look at the new forum, but you could do the same there, as you might have a wider audience?

[newmikey]

The idea is very nice and appealing and I can only answer for Dutch of course but the Netherlands already have 2 very active Pentax forums: www.pentaxforum.nl and Pentaxian.BE/NL, het beste dSLR/MILC Pentaxforum - Forumindex so I'm not quite sure whether Dutch should be a language of choice on here as well. I just doubt a little whether many people would a)join and b)actively post.

[Clavius]

The Dutch forum is VERY slow moving. The few active members there are very welcome over here.

[newmikey]

The Dutch forum is VERY slow moving. The few active members there are very welcome over here.

I've never experienced it as "slow moving" but that of course depends on what you measure it against I suppose. To each his own, I am an active member both here and there already but over here I appreciate the larger audience the English language allows. Opening up a Dutch language board will just be as limiting and would result in the exact same "slow moving" characteristics you observed over at the Dutch forum.

just for measure: pentaxforum.nl has a monthly average of 400 new topics with between 5 and 6000 new posts and half a million pageviews. For such a teeny weeny language population (probably ca. 21 million total inhabitants of which not all shoot Pentax obviously ) I do not consider that slow-moving, quite the contrary.

Quite a number of members are registered both here and there exactly because of the larger coverage English allows, I doubt they would like being crammed into a Dutch-language board but then again, I may be totally, entirely, irreversible wrong. I really have no way of knowing so i just offered my 2 cents, please don't take offense - others may think about this entirely differently.

[Adam]

Also, so right now it looks like we've got interested in a Dutch and a German forum- now how would you write "Dutch Pentax Users" and "German Pentax Users" in either language, so that I can create forums with those titles?

[aheadfordinci]

Well there's an italian Pentax forum already, but I did not want to add yet one more registration to a forum, and as far as I'm concerned this one is more exciting.

However, in italian, you would spell it "Utenti Pentax Italiani" and it sound a bit lame in this language... why not translate only "[Forum in [Language]", for instance "Forum in Italiano" ?

[jaytee]

Getting a new translation system is not a possibility ? that would be best...but perhaps too much money?

[Adam]

Unfortunately all the translation API providers have placed pretty big caps on their services, so no, it's not realistic to use them. They have pricing around $20 per 2 million characters, while our usage was in the billions.

[jaytee]

I admire your efforts to try and include everyone. The international flavor of our forum is very enjoyable.

[PentaxMom Felua]

The loss of the translation system really is a loss.
One of the charms of the forum was/is to communicate with people from all over the world. A forum in your own language means to be confined once again between the borders of your own language/culture. To be able to meet beyond is so important. IMHO it is what our world needs a lot. It might help to create more understanding of eachothers cultures.
But it isn't possible anymore. So sad. And no way around. Too bad.
I am not sure about the importance of a Dutch forum. Most Dutch know some English. More or less. But it could be something like: Nederlands Forum.

[Giklab]

But then we get Why not this one, why not that one etc. Why don't the mod's make a poll, and then decide?

@ aheadfordinci Forum Romanus?