Why not create Language/Country forum categories?

[luccax]

I guess there are many subjects that could be discussed by people from the same country on their own language.

It would improve relationship between members that live close and make it easier to find out valuable information interesting only for people that live on that area (where to buy something, for example)

That's a suggestion, I don't know if it has been discussed yet or if there is some reason for not creating it.

 

[Ears and Eggs]

I've thought of that before. I have seen many other forums that have such a setup. My only question would be how many languages would we have and which languages would have enough speakers to get their own board. I guess we'd have to do a survey of the members. Other than that I don't see why not if it turn out there are enough members to support it.

 

[luccax]

Well, I just realized that just me and reginak are brazilians active on the forum nowadays. A portuguese category would be kind of useless.

But, for example, an EU forum could come very handy for local trading, discussing best places to buy components and even off-topic talk about ... life.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

There aren't nearly enough active members to support most language sections well. Only about 300-400 members are actually active, majority in the US and EU, speaking english.

 

[hakzaw1]

AND if you want... just start a new social group-- There is one for Florida members and I started one for Texas members- these are basically sub-forums and work pretty much the same as any board or section-- if the members of the group click 'tools' they can subscribe to the group and will get an email when anything new happens.
You can have it private (invitation only) or public-- you add the photo of your choice for an avatar and have a place there to add many more pics.

Thus.. if we are organizing a laser meet in Texas all those subscribed 'should' know about if if they are subscribed or if they check in.

if YOU want to meet others from your area I strongly suggest that you finish filing out your personal profile page- How is anyone supposed to know your are in Brazil if its not there--duh?
See my user name on the left-??
See my location?? anyone reading my posts knows where I am located-

I recently got to meet a member from California who happened to be working in Texas temporarily and was only 10 miles away- 'small world- but I wouldn't want to paint it'

Ash & I had a LEM of our own.

I think there are more members than you and Lady Regina on this forum from Brazil..


Hak from LSLF

 

[luccax]

Im not interested in knowing more people from Brazil, we already have a social group and its basically made of two members.

The point is: why not create public location specific content? it could bring more traffic to the site*, all the information you share on your group could be indexed to google; new members would be able to access it; advertising could be directed to that section (an EU components retailer advertises could show up only on that pages)

have you ever participated in an international forum before? All of them have specific language sections and they are there for a reason.

Insumma, specific content accessible to everyone on the forum/web instead of a social group

*The most important thing about having different languages on a forum is that someone from Brazil, for example, will be able to find this forum in a google search on portuguese. That applies to every language, traffic and members number would be very much increased. the forum grows...

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Some of are Korean and Japanese users as well....

Though my native language is English I am fluent in Japanese, able to read French nearly fluently and working on Korean ability.

I think if ones posts in another language other than English, then provide a translation so that others can read along with your posts.
Idea?
I do support multi lingual forums, but I do also understand the need to be able to learn others languages. Currently learning Thai and Arabic....

 

[luccax]

I can speak portuguese, english, spanish, italian, french and i still think languages forums will be a good idea

appendre une langue n'est pas le problem

 

[Bionic-Badger]

English is the lingua franca of the world. On a public forum--for people around the world--using all different languages does not promote more interaction, it hinders it. What are you going to do with, for example, a Portuguese-exclusive sub-forum? Rely on only the Portuguese-speaking experts to respond to replies? Translate the answers from other languages into Portuguese? What you'll end up with is a dead sub-forum. What you are proposing would only serve to fragment the site, if it even attracted native speakers of those specific languages in the first place.

If you want to have a language-specific laser forum, make a separate language-exclusive laser website. Maybe it'll be popular, but I don't it will, because people are less interested in answers in their own language, and more interested in just answers.

 

[Frankk]

You would also need moderators that speak the language as well. For all we know a terrorist organization could be planning an attack with the help of LPF >_> Joking aside, doing this will definitely fragment the community as Bionic-Badger said.