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Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 2:59 pm
by Bwired
Im thinking about changing the language to Dutch on this forum.
If I look at all the top users on our forum its mainly dutch... so why keep it to English?
should we do this?
Please give me your thoughts on this and fill in the Poll

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 3:43 pm
by mhn
To me this is the European Home Automation forum. In Dutch it will be the Dutch forum.

Regards
Morten (Who don't speak Dutch. :-) )

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 3:47 pm
by marcelr
I don't mind if it's English or Dutch. Most of the stuff I write is some sort of English anyway. From the users with more than 20 posts, a handful is non-Dutch and still active in the community. So, for them, English would be the preferred language, I guess.

EDIT: mhn and jon00 have a strong point when they say the forum should be renamed to Domoticaforum NL, if you change to Dutch.
A very good reason NOT to do it.
And be careful: with a majority of Dutch participants, the poll will be very biased, so it's hard to say what ratio Dutch/English you need for the poll to be conclusive ...
51/ 49 will definitely not be enough for that ;-).

grtz,

marcelr

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 4:17 pm
by Akatar
mhn wrote:To me this is the European Home Automation forum. In Dutch it will be the Dutch forum.

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 4:39 pm
by jon00
Whilst I rarely participate on the forums, I do read it daily and prefer not to use Google Translate :)

If you do change it to Dutch, you will need to rename the forums to Domticaforum NL

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 5:24 pm
by vincenttor
Well, a Dutch forum writes easier then in English for most people.
But then again, most of the home automation software and equipment have a English base and are produced with English manuals.
Most forum's i read are in English as well, and if i do not get it i will send a PM to this person for explanation in Dutch when it becomes to difficult.
Think it's maybe best to keep it in English so its a bit wider available then and like jon00 says , using a translation tool is not fun and easy to read some topics.

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 5:27 pm
by nico_gh2
Lot of things in the Domotica world are in English, eg Homeseer forums. To participate one would need at least a basic understanding of English or use google translate a lot. Most of the times it's easier to refer to English for programming as well as there are hardly any libraries styled in dutch.
Therefore I would suggest to leave it in english, however being dutch I wouldn't mind if it was in dutch as I can easily understand it.
Above dutch choice should really only be chosen by people not able to understand English, all others should IMHO choose English (as I will do).

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 6:31 pm
by stefxx
No preference for me, Dutch or English, both is fine. However, that the domain should change to .NL doesn't make sense. It is not like the EU language is English nor that the majority of the EU inhabitants have English as there native language.

EDIT: I know some people are hesitant to post because of the language. So you might attract new Dutch participants by switching to Dutch...

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 6:36 pm
by marcelr
However, that the domain should change to .NL doesn't make sense.
I think the renaming bit applies to the forum name "Domoticaforum Europe" rather than the top-level domain name ;-).

grtz,

marcelr

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 6:54 pm
by emmeesse68
As a non-Dutch speaking user, of course I'd stick to English. I'm Italian, I live in a country that doesn't give much attention to learning languages, but I had many chances to meet Dutch people and I have always been impressed by the ease they showed speaking other languages, even Italian, just after a few weeks of holidays at the seaside.

I thought this forum being in English was a great sign of how worldwide culture could be spread by open-minded people wanting to share their opinions and ideas. Using English could extend boundaries to much more than Europe. Currently I didn't find much more about OpenTherm elsewhere, just something in England, nothing worth mentioning in Italy... This thread took me by surprise...

I found other Dutch sites and no matter how good Google translate could be, it's not easy to get into details when you have to explain problems or so. I found a Dutch website that sells Honeywell products but refrained buying from it because I still can't understand all the details when payment is involved (and no, Chrome isn't able to translate it right away).

I think I would lose interest pretty quickly and could stop reading these pages if I couldn't easily understand them. Unless someone points me at some good way to learn Dutch... :) I'll be willing to learn _

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 7:40 pm
by Snelvuur
I prefer english, since most forums i visit are english anyways. It is easier for us dutchies to write in "engels" the it is for foreign person to write in dutch. You have a few topics that say "dutch allowed" but if i look at the fibaro forum where a lot of forums posts are in polish?.. i just hate to see it being really active and not knowing what is going on. Some have good examples/howto's/tricks but since its not in english it doesn't have any benefit for other people. Hence why i would only allow 1 language, english. The only part where you could say "dutch allowed" is the sales section, since you don't put tips/tricks/howto's in there anyway.

Same why i would vote against a "HOMESEER FORUM (DUTCH ALLOWED)" section, since people that use homeseer and don't know dutch would miss out stuff. And really, if your into home automation and you can't read/write english, then its a hard start to begin with.

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 10:07 pm
by Rene
Keep it in english!

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 10:08 pm
by Phaeton
Id keep it english.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn XT1562 met Tapatalk

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 10:59 pm
by RoelFloor
Keep it english.

Re: Changing the native language to Dutch on this forum?

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2016 10:51 am
by AshaiRey
Qn English forum will attract more contributions than an all Dutch fourm. This adds to the value of this forum