h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Forgive me if this has been brought up before, but I was wondering if the existence on-line language translators might help the beeb in accepting other languages. I accept the rule isn't likely to be revoked, but maybe if you could find some reasonable translation for a certain set of languages (maybe even just two or three European ones), you could relax the rules a little bit.
There's some helpful sites listed at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A572249/

Which is a BBC.co.uk link and therefore friendly to this conversation forum

I know it would probably mean more work for your already very busy team, but it's just a thought.

Fred../

Yup, has already been brought up. I remember hearing that it would be unpractical, although I'm not entirely sure I remember why. 2 possible reasons are:

1) Resources. Staffing is stretched this as it is, and this would increase the workload of the moderators.

2) The capabilities of the software. Translation software is great for getting the general gist of a paragraph. It is less great for getting the meaning of a single sentence (which many posts are). It is even less great for trying to determine if words or phrases are offensive/objectionable or not -- a supremely profane insult in one language might translate into "child of a sheep and a goat". (I've actually seen this happen.....).


Mikey

Know what you mean - there are some rather peculiar foreign insults.

Like I say - just a thought. I don't have them very often (they tend to hurt) so I thought I'd post it seeing as I'd already been through the mind-ache

Hi Freddy This has been discussed at length here http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F63567?thread=109316&post=937419#p93741 The possibility of Researchers translating postings or offering their own translations has also been discussed - this was my response: Translations cannot 'officially' be posted by Researchers or confirmed by on site friends, I'm sorry. I'm sure that you wouldn't post obscene material or links onto h2g2, but there's no way that a a moderator can be sure that the translation offered, is, in fact, the correct translation. I know that the vast majority of current Researchers would never post anything obscene in a foreign language and put a 'incorrect' translation up, but it *is* an incredibly easy loophole. It would be very, very easy for someone to do this, if we allowed English/other language postings up without checking, someone *would* take advantage of this. The moderation Guidelines page does talk about postings and entries in foreign languages, but I do understand that you might not have read this page. Hope this helps

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