# Locale-specific defaults for site settings (\`locale\_default\`)

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/locale-specific-defaults-for-site-settings-locale-default/382521
**Category:** Translations
**Tags:** translation
**Created:** [September 13, 2025, 2:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locale-specific-defaults-for-site-settings-locale-default/382521 "2025-09-13T14:29:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Moin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/moin/32/554653_2.png) [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 2:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locale-specific-defaults-for-site-settings-locale-default/382521/1 "2025-09-13T14:29:07Z")

</div>

I thought it would be helpful to create a topic for translators, for anyone managing Discourse in a non-English locale, and for English users too - since special defaults can apply to English as well - to discuss `locale_default` values for site settings.

`locale_default` is a feature that allows site settings to have different default values depending on the site’s default locale. This helps site administrators by providing defaults based on the language, matching the needs of their community.

It can also be useful for admins managing a multilingual forum. When a setting has a suggested value for a particular language, admins can choose to apply it - using a different value than the standard default for the main site language. For example, an admin might allow shorter search terms so that Chinese users can find their topics more easily.

This post provides an overview of settings where the default value has been overridden for certain locales, and aims to raise awareness that this feature exists. I hope it can also spark a discussion about new settings that might benefit from locale-specific defaults, and about settings where more languages would benefit from a different default.

### allowed\_unicode\_username\_characters

**Description** : Regular expression to allow only some Unicode characters within usernames. ASCII letters and numbers will always be allowed and don’t need to be included in the allowlist  
**Default** : ``

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | cs | `[ěščřžýáíéóůúďťňĚŠČŘŽÝÁÍÉÓŮÚĎŤŇ]` |
> | de | `[äöüßÄÖÜẞ]` |
> | fi | `[åäöÅÄÖ]` |
> | ja | `[\p{Han}\p{Katakana}\p{Hiragana}ー]` |
> | ko | `\p{Hangul}` |
> | zh\_CN | `\p{Han}` |
> | zh\_TW | `\p{Han}` |

### min\_post\_length

**Description** : Minimum allowed post length in characters (excluding personal messages)  
**Default** : `20`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `8` |
> | zh\_CN | `8` |
> | zh\_TW | `8` |

### min\_first\_post\_length

**Description** : Minimum allowed first post (topic body) length (excluding personal messages)  
**Default** : `20`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `8` |
> | zh\_CN | `8` |
> | zh\_TW | `8` |

### min\_personal\_message\_post\_length

**Description** : Minimum allowed post length in characters for messages (both first post and replies)  
**Default** : `10`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `3` |
> | zh\_CN | `3` |
> | zh\_TW | `3` |

### body\_min\_entropy

**Description** : The minimum entropy (unique characters, non-english count for more) required for a post body.  
**Default** : `7`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `3` |
> | zh\_CN | `3` |
> | zh\_TW | `3` |

### min\_topic\_title\_length

**Description** : Minimum allowed topic title length in characters  
**Default** : `15`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `6` |
> | zh\_CN | `6` |
> | zh\_TW | `6` |

### title\_min\_entropy

**Description** : The minimum entropy (unique characters, non-english count for more) required for a topic title.  
**Default** : `10`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `3` |
> | zh\_CN | `3` |
> | zh\_TW | `3` |

### allow\_uppercase\_posts

**Description** : Allow all caps in a topic title or a post body.  
**Default** : `False`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `True` |

### title\_prettify

**Description** : Prevent common title typos and errors, including all caps, lowercase first character, multiple ! and ?, extra . at end, etc.  
**Default** : `True`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `False` |
> | zh\_CN | `False` |
> | zh\_TW | `False` |

### title\_remove\_extraneous\_space

**Description** : Remove leading whitespaces in front of the end punctuation.  
**Default** : `False`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | en | `True` |
> | en\_GB | `True` |

### min\_title\_similar\_length

**Description** : The minimum length of a title before it will be checked for similar topics.  
**Default** : `10`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `4` |
> | zh\_CN | `4` |
> | zh\_TW | `4` |

### markdown\_typographer\_quotation\_marks

**Description** : List of double and single quotes replacement pairs  
**Default** : `“\|”\|‘\|’`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | de | `„|“|‚|‘` |
> | cs | `„|“|‚|‘` |
> | fr | `«\xA0|\xA0»|‹\xA0|\xA0›` |

### title\_max\_word\_length

**Description** : The maximum allowed word length, in characters, in a topic title.  
**Default** : `30`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `50` |
> | ko | `50` |
> | zh\_CN | `50` |
> | zh\_TW | `50` |

### post\_excerpt\_maxlength

**Description** : Maximum length of a post excerpt / summary.  
**Default** : `300`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `120` |
> | zh\_CN | `120` |
> | zh\_TW | `120` |

### topic\_excerpt\_maxlength

**Description** : Maximum length of a topic excerpt / summary, generated from the first post in a topic.  
**Default** : `220`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `120` |
> | zh\_CN | `120` |
> | zh\_TW | `120` |

### emoji\_autocomplete\_min\_chars

**Description** : Minimum number of characters required to trigger autocomplete emoji popup  
**Default** : `0`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | fr | `1` |

### enable\_inline\_emoji\_translation

**Description** : Enables translation for inline emojis (without any space or punctuation before)  
**Default** : `False`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | zh\_CN | `True` |
> | zh\_TW | `True` |
> | ja | `True` |
> | ko | `True` |

### digest\_min\_excerpt\_length

**Description** : Minimum post excerpt in the email summary, in characters.  
**Default** : `100`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `50` |
> | zh\_CN | `50` |
> | zh\_TW | `50` |

### post\_onebox\_maxlength

**Description** : Maximum length of a oneboxed Discourse post in characters.  
**Default** : `500`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `200` |
> | zh\_CN | `200` |
> | zh\_TW | `200` |

### min\_search\_term\_length

**Description** : Minimum valid search term length in characters  
**Default** : `3`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | zh\_CN | `1` |
> | zh\_TW | `1` |
> | ko | `1` |
> | ja | `1` |

### search\_ignore\_accents

**Description** : Accent marks in search queries are disregarded if this setting is enabled, allowing users to find results even if they don’t input the correct accents.  
**Default** : `False`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ar | `True` |
> | ca | `True` |
> | cs | `True` |
> | el | `True` |
> | es | `True` |
> | fa\_IR | `True` |
> | fr | `True` |
> | hu | `True` |
> | pt | `True` |
> | pt\_BR | `True` |
> | ro | `True` |
> | sk | `True` |
> | tr\_TR | `True` |

### slug\_generation\_method

**Description** : Choose a slug generation method. ‘encoded’ will generate percent encoding string. ‘none’ will disable slug at all.  
**Default** : `ascii`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `none` |
> | zh\_CN | `none` |
> | zh\_TW | `none` |

### read\_time\_word\_count

**Description** : Word count per minute for calculating estimated reading time.  
**Default** : `500`

> **Locale overrides**
>
> | Locale | Value |
> | --- | --- |
> | ja | `350` |
> | zh\_CN | `350` |
> | zh\_TW | `350` |

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locale-specific-defaults-for-site-settings-locale-default/382521)._