Languages

[JustADummy]

Hey, I have a suggestion.

Why this forum doesn't have more languages than English? Some foreign people can register here and they can not understand hell of English, only anoither languages.

What you guys think of this idea?

[Gerard]

If there was going to be a (for example) French version of The GTA Place, it would have to be a completely separate site. Its own domain, its own news pages, its own information pages, its own downloads system, its own forums, its own members, its own staff. It simply wouldn't be TGTAP at all.

What might be possible is to have an International subforum, where people can chat to each other in any language they like. If enough people speak other languages better than English, then it might be an option. I can appreciate that whilst many people can speak English, they would be more able to express their thoughts in their first language. There's no point having one subforum per language, as there aren't enough members for that, and most manage discussion in English, or use translators if they're really stuck.

There isn't really much opportunity to have a separate language version, but I suppose we're open to proposals for experienced foreigners to allow them to set up their own site, which we might link ourselves with if it is good and well-used, possible even as a branch of The GTA Place. It would obviously have to be a language that a lot of members speak for it to be worth it.

[Damjan]

Or You can Make a section like this one:

[EvoLuTioN]

XLBR thats basically what Gerard meant by sub-forums.Having a separate forum would be a waste of resources, a new staff having knowledge of foreign languages would have to be formed. Also the sie would be probably dead as very few of the users would contribute to it. TGTAP has more than 13000 users but only 50-75 users contribute regularly. I would write more but have to shut down my comp for the night.

[Thomas.]

If there was to be an International forum, i'm pretty sure many of the members who can speak another language quite well such as I speak French quite well, it is a good way to communicate and make friends with other members, I quite like that idea. Maybe a "Francais Parlez" or "Parlez vous francais" topic (meaning French Speaking or French Chat), excellent idea Gerard.

However, it may be difficult for members on the forums who do not have other languages symbols such as Chinese, Japanese, Russian etc symbols on their computer but I guess that won't matter as many members on here do not speak Chinese nor Japanese.

If we were to have an International forum then what would the topic titles be?

An example of what we could do the topic titles.

Francais Parlez (Or whatever, I don't translate much French at 11 PM) (The Topic title will be the language in which the topic is aimed at)

French Chat (This would be a French to English translation and if we wanted to we could put next to it (In brackets) Francais ~ Anglais)

What do you think?

[Gerard]

Well if we were to do this, there would be (at first) one International / multilingual subforum for all non-English discussion. In here, people could make topics about whatever they want, in whatever language they want.

For example, there could be a French topic about whats your favourite GTA. Everyone who speaks french could participate in this topic. It would be called something like :

[Français] Quel est votre jeu de GTA de favori?

Imagine not many people on the forum speak German. If there are only 1 or 2 German topics (eg GTA topic and a general chat topic), that will be enough for the small number of German-speaking members:

Deutsche Diskussion

[Deutsche] Schwätzchen über GTA

But if we had 100 German topics, they would all be empty:

[Deutsche] Bevorzugen Sie Tommy Vercetti oder Carl Johnson?

[Deutsche] Was ist innerhalb Ihres Computers?

[Deutsche] Drei-Wort Geschichte

(sorry for picking on those two languages, they're just ones I can translate)

[LDoubleU]

yeah and it allows people whose first language is english to communicate with other members in their native language and learn something...

[Gycu]

Don't know what to say about this, but forum members help each-other better if they speak the same language ...

Let's say you find a Deutsch/Spanish'French w/e topic about someone having a problem with GTA, you might know the answer to his problem but you don't speak that language, how can you help him/her ? ... Hope I made my point.

[Gerard]

Thats entirely true, if you make a topic in German (for example), then only the people who speak German will be able to answer. But at the moment, only the people who speak English can ask or answer questions. So we're adding the choice of using any other language, in the hope that someone will be able to help the people who currently cannot be helped.

[Chris]

Most of the English speaking GTA sites' international members are from countries where the language isn't spoken by many people.

There are shitloads of: French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, Czech, Romanian, Portuguese fansites that most people who speak that language will go to a GTA site written in that language.

The point I'm making is that I think it would be a lot of hassle to get moderators and everything for these sub forums (to make sure you're not posting illegal stuff we can't understand) which I think would be quite infrequently used given our small size.

Can I ask any of you foreigners actually for this idea, what makes you come here (or other English sites) rather than GTA sites written in your native tongue? I mean the only advantage I can think of is that we usually break news quicker... anything else? Downloads perhaps?

For the record, I'm happy for a topic dedicated to general/GTA discussion in a particular language, but I honestly can't see the benefit of forums right now.

[Gerard]

Well we were suggesting 1 subforum for all non-English discussion, as a trial. A lot of members will prefer to discuss in their own language, as well as participating in the rest of the forum in English. Also, I think we would largely rely on other members for actively reporting inappropriate content, as a new initiative.

I think it's worth a try, but only if we get enough support from existing International members.

[Thomas.]

If we can't understand what that member was saying in a different language we could always find a dictionary or a handy internet translator such as babelfish or any more we can think of using. It would be an interesting experience for this idea as many people I believe would use the international sub-forum and I hope they would use it wisely. If they break rules in another language then the normal forum rules apply. Yeah, this idea is full of holes like Microsoft Windows at the moment, we probably need more ideas before we are able to try this out.

To me it is a good idea.