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

i think youl find the topic had drifted to lagalities and all i assked was where hootoo would be hosted as that wwould have a slant on wwhat legalities might apply, in and around wwhat languagess wwere or could be used

thatss wwhy i put the quote from the previous post in## ##

>>> as that wwould have a slant on wwhat legalities might apply, in and around wwhat languagess wwere or could be used

Do you know of any law anywhere in GB that would restrict a non-governmental website to a particular language, Taff?

Especially in light of the fact that h2g2 researchers used to use a variety of languages in the pre-BBC days?

Thought not.

"Remember the Giggs story was published in a Scottish newspaper, when it was clear English Law couldn't touch them.

It might be good to go with Scotland. You and Ben live there don't you?"

I'd recommend not. The thing about Scottish Law, is that while it is regarded as a better, fairer system, it's also a good deal more expensive.

Re the various legal systems, England and Wales run to pretty much the identical system, with minor changes. NI is largely the same, with a few more minor variations. Scotland has an almost completely seperate way of dealing with the law, due to the compromise in the Act of Union.

Re the point about publication, I believe that the case is that the site acts as a conduit, not as the publisher. There isn't a case to take the siteto court. However, there is a strong case for removing / heavily editing any defamatory / illegal postings once they are pointed out. Several cases along those lines have been made about various much more famous sites than Hootoo. I'll have a peek on BAILII and see if I can get examples.

replying to your post......i just asked a question, you are the ones who wont drop it

##Do you know of any law anywhere in GB that would restrict a non-governmental website to a particular language, Taff?##

i believe in wales things have to be offered bi-lingully!!!!!

Here's one that may be of interest to the team.

http://www.bailii.org/uk/other/journals/JILT/2001/cailloux_2.html

Here's a case...

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2006/407.html

And here's a link to S1(1) of the Defamation Act referred to in point 11...

http://www.website-law.co.uk/blog/defamation/section-1-of-the-defamation-act-1996/

Is there any reason *other* than possible legal issues not to have a multilingual hootoo?

"I believe in wales things have to be offered bi-lingully!!!!!"

According to the Welsh Language Act 1993, that only applies to public bodies. They appear to be defined in Section 6.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1993/38/contents

"Is there any reason *other* than possible legal issues not to have a multilingual hootoo?"

Ease of communication? That could be worked around by publication in the origin language and an approved translation language, or one of a number of approved languages.

thank you dead

##Do you know of any law anywhere in GB that would restrict a non-governmental website to a particular language, Taff?##

then no i don't know of any law!!

this would have been a lot shorter if someone had just given a straight answer as to where the noohootoo was to be hosted instead of tring to be an arse and make me ask in 5 different languages, and then have to defend myself

Now, I'm terrible at French and can't do Russian at all. But if someone wanted to hold a conversation in other languages that I couldn't participate in, I'd have to either go talk to someone else or make an effort to learn the language, and that wouldn't bother me.

I'm fairly sure English would remain the lingua franca anyway, just by default - it's the most common language on the internet, followed by German.

How will it work in PR with someone submitting something in eg Serbo Croat?

I suppose for PR, we would have to restrict it to those languages that at least two sub-editors/scouts speak, to ensure a certain standard. Which ones those are would depend on our volunteers.

But the vast majority of conversations (and entries) are not in PR.

And what about some people having a nasty gossip about someone else in their language that no-one else speaks?

So long as it is a rule for everyone that you can get together and have a nasty gossip and not be criticised by others in the community.

I'm all for sticking to the English Rule...aside from obvious circumstances where someone is eg looking at language and literature, such as anhaga who is expert in Anglo saxon poetry..ie we use a bit of common sense.

Why are people so obsessed with the idea of other people talking about them behind their backs? Honestly, we dangerous speakers of Forn don't spend our time doing that. And yet, it's the most common argument against allowing a different language, say, in the workplace.

If they're having a "nasty gossip" and nobody else can read it, does it matter? Many of us have hootoo e-mail addresses for talking offsite, would you try to forbid that, too?

As several people have pointed out, you can always use an automated translator if you're really nosy - er, worried - but whatever they spit out must be taken with a grain of salt. They're usually very bad, so I certainly wouldn't have one built into the site.

>Why are people so obsessed with the idea of other people talking about them behind their backs?<

who is obsessed with that? That's the first time I've ever said that before and I thought this was meant to be all out in the open look at the implications and possibilities.

But yeah who are these people who are so obsessed?

Do we want to aim at a truly all-inclusive, international entity, or
To dig ourselves a well of babel?

I said 'aim at' - we all know that it's an impossible dream but surely to high heaven, a multiplicity of forums in different languages would work against that?

Mala points to English and German. One of those - and virtually all others - would exclude this researcher for starters (I can guess at some short phrases, sometimes with success, but a conversation?).

We have enough problems already. Let's get it working as close to what it is now as we reasonably can - and then build on it.

Of the approximately 200 active researchers, almost all of them speak and write English, most as a first language. It seems likely that the site will remain strongly English for quite some time.

The question is do we automatically have to yikes my post if I say good evening in Russian or Spanish?

I say no. It doesn't hurt English speaking people to see a little French or German once in a while. If it interrupts the flow of the conversation, just say something like,

Excuse me, could you please translate that last into English?

Exactly as I said..use a bit of common sense. But if it starts getting silly and excluding people from conversations I say that's not on.

And Mal talked about email. Yes of course that's off site and absolutely nothing to do with h2g2. It's a public site. I really like that we don't have pm here. It forces all of us to think what we say and know we might get called on stuff. I think that's really healthy.

Maybe we could really open the Language Thing again for conversations (not talking about the odd word or quote) in other languages than English? I mean, that would be a clearly marked area where everyone who goes there knows what to expect.