WordPress Plugin Releases for 3/20

Comments

1. ttancm (34 comments.) says:

   3/20/2007 at 3:02 am

   Hello Ajay,

   As always thank you for the useful links on plugins and themes but I have a minor suggestion/request.

   For pages which are written in English and another language could you also provide the link to the English page? I don’t want to start the whole “the internet isn’t America” argument here or anything, but since this site (the one I am linking from) is written in English, it’s a bit of a nuisance when I open up several (often times all) of the links on a page, close the tab this page is on and then find myself looking at something in a language I don’t read and not 100% sure what it was I came there looking for since that page was only one of several links I had opened in the background.

   A note mentioning that a page is only available in a language other than English would also be nice (the dropdown categories link above for example, is only available in what I am guessing is Spanish).

   Not too ethnocentric a request for a site that is originally written in English I think?

   Before I get bombarded with comments about babelfish and google trans etc. yes I know about them, but they are hardly reliable and oftentimes mangle things beyond recognition when talking about code, and they are outside the point of my request, which is to let me know what it is I am clicking on before I click on the link.
2. Ajay (209 comments.) says:

   3/20/2007 at 3:33 am

   Good point ttancm. I usually try to search for the English page. I’ll make it a point to note when a page is not available in English.
3. ttancm (34 comments.) says:

   3/20/2007 at 3:57 am

   Thanks as always =)
4. Jordan (7 comments.) says:

   3/20/2007 at 1:15 pm

   You can always use google’s translation of a url feature. I do this when all the time, instead of complaining about their not being a converted area with English. I realize you already have this as an option, but not all authors are going to be bilingual (or know English.)

   If anything, the same could be said about those in English.. Kind of a double standard.

   Plugins aren’t that hard to understand, especially if it doesn’t involve anything more than downloading, uploading, and activating. Otherwise if some require a function to call up the plugin, it’s usually more than obviously when you see something like get_plugin(showfive); (or something in that format) somewhere on a page.

   However, I do agree with having a notation that the site is in a language other than English.
5. Monika (1 comments.) says:

   3/20/2007 at 5:25 pm

   ttancm,

   I have to learn your language und I hate it, if people would like to have the whole wide world in english.

   One click for nothing – so what…

   But one click for thousands of reader they understand because they know that their motherspeech is not the whole wide world

   Have fun with all the fantastic wp plugins ( in english),
   I have fun with all wp plugins,

   regards
6. ttancm (34 comments.) says:

   3/21/2007 at 4:05 am

   To both Monika and Jordan,

   Both exactly the types of responses I was trying to avoid, but as has been proven time and time again on the internet one can’t seem to mention the English language without someone else making accusations.

   First let me state, I speak SEVERAL languages besides English. I am fluent in Japanese and have lived in Japan for 8 years and I make my living as a translator. I maintain several websites that I write IN Japanese in addition to the websites I write in English, and most websites I run have some sort of automated translation plugin installed, so I am by no means against languages other than English or pushing for the superiority or the English language.

   Now let me clarify, I am NOT demanding, requesting or even suggesting that plugin authors make their plugins and documentation available English. That is up to the plugin authors.

   Nor am I suggesting that English be adopted as the world wide language, forcing my language on you or trying to impose any imperialistic ideals upon you.

   What I was requesting, and what Ajay has already replied to, was that since THIS SITE is written in English, and it is therefor safe to assume that the majority of the readers of THIS SITE read English, it would be nice to have a note when something that is linked from THIS ENGLISH SITE is not in English so that we know before clicking that link.

   And also that if something linked from this site has an English and non-English version available that the English version be linked to. That can be in addition to links to the other language versions, not to the exclusion of them, mind you, and I don’t think I implied anything else.

   @Monika specifically: Thank you for bequeathing the entire English language to me and pointing out your hatred for my mother tongue. If it makes you feel any better I thought I would go mad for the half year I spent in Berlin trying to learn YOUR language =P

   Also please note that I enjoy a number of plugins, websites, novels, movies, music etc. in a variety of languages, however this website is written in English and I would appreciate knowing when something it is linking to is in a different language.

   @Jordan specifically: I stated in my original comment I am aware of Google translate etc. so I’m not sure what the reason is for pointing out something I explicity stated would be of no help.

   Also, some plugins are very simple, some are not, also stated in my original comment that there are situations where google translate et. al. are more trouble than they are worth.

   Also I imply no double standard, and no where in my post to I make any demands or requests for plugin authors to provide English versions, please read things more carefully before getting on the soapbox.

   @both again
   The only double standard I see is that you are both reading a website written in English and jump to attack someone for simply requesting links to other content in the same language. Perhaps you should both reevaluate your own comments and think about how appropriate it is to complain about English usage on a website written in English? =P
7. ttancm (34 comments.) says:

   3/21/2007 at 4:15 am

   @Ajay,

   Was just thinking, but a really simple way to approach this would be to create a custom css class for links in other languages, perhaps with a small background image floated to the right to denote that the links is in a different language, or even something as simple as a different link color.

   I use something similar on most of my sites to denote external links (links that lead to a website outside of my domain) almost identical to what Wikipedia uses.

   The css is:

   .a external {
   background:url(images/external.png) no-repeat;
   background-position: center right;
   padding-right: 12px;
   margin-right: 2px;
   }

   and you can see an example in the link in this post:
   http://www.ttancm.com/2007/02/.....animation/

   Then you could just append the class to any links in a language other than the one your post is written in whenever you write up a post. I may actually add this my sites too come to think of it.
8. Ajay (209 comments.) says:

   3/21/2007 at 4:20 am

   I think it is much easier to just mention the language is not in English. New visitors may not understand the significance of the icon.

   Additionally it won’t be a good idea to add markup as it gets applied sitewide and increases the download size.
9. ttancm (34 comments.) says:

   3/21/2007 at 4:37 am

   Understood. It’s a solution suited to my personality as I can’t stand repetitive tasks. Even if I was just inserting a text comment for each link I would more than likely end up using the quicktags.js to make a macro =)
10. Jordan (7 comments.) says:

    3/21/2007 at 10:21 am

    You know what ttancm, I had an annoyingly long diatribe written for your pompous ass reply, but whatever, I’m sure no matter what I said would be critiqued and taken apart. But I have one question: How do you say “Shut up,” in Japanese?
11. ttancm (34 comments.) says:

    3/21/2007 at 3:50 pm

    Feel free to try and use google translate to find out =P