Just joined Lemmy...not a fan of the language settings.

vengefulgrapes@lemmy.today to Lemmy@lemmy.ml – 87 points –

In my profile settings, I can choose my languages. A couple gripes with the web interface of this setting:

  • I have to hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple languages. While this was clear to me since I use this keyboard shortcut a lot in other contexts, this would definitely be confusing or unclear for most users.
  • This setting should be split into two. As of now, it determines what content you see, with all other content completely hidden...AND it determines what languages will appear in the language selector when making a post or comment. There should be separate settings for which languages are displayed and which appear in the language selector for a new post (because I don't want any content to be hidden, but I want to be able to easily select English for any new comment). Or at least a setting for a default language for new comments.
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also it would be nice if people would respect those settings while commenting and posting, not once I've seen English comment without language set and non English comments tagged as English

If I have to choose which language I am speaking for every single post, it becomes a bit ridiculous. It makes more sense to just have users set a language once and only change it when they wish to post in a different language than they normally do.

It can be kinda annoying but it's not that cumbersome, imagine writing an alternative text for each image you post, now imagine it's considered a good practice in the professional internet and near requirement when posting on mastodon, but yeah, being able to set a default language for posts and comments would be nice

From mobile it's an incredible hassle to choose "English" hidden in a list with 5000 obscure languages. There should be an option to reduce the list to the 2-3 languages I can speak

That's what the language selector in Setting does. The problem is that it also limits the content you can view to only posts set as being in those languages.

Honest question but do you really want to see content that is in languages that you don't understand ?

I still agree that the UI needs to be clearer though.

I would like to at least be able to. I could always translate it if I wanted to know what it said. And if I saw that there were comments I couldn't see, I know the curiosity would kill me. I just don't like blocking myself off from seeing content that I know is there.

You can. I've reduced my language list down from the default of "every single one". You should probably still keep "undetermined" selected as a "language", otherwise a lot of stuff people haven't actually tagged with a language won't show up.

The easiest way I've seen it is to enforce it at the community level.

Actually that makes me think I should probably do that in the communities I mod ha ha