# Structuring a multilingual community

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/structuring-a-multilingual-community/73225
**Category:** Site Management
**Tags:** multi-lingual, how-to, localization
**Created:** [March 29, 2017, 8:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/structuring-a-multilingual-community/73225 "2017-03-29T20:35:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 8

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### Author: ![angus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/angus/32/341715_2.png) [@angus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/angus)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2019, 2:17am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/structuring-a-multilingual-community/73225/8 "2019-07-10T02:17:49Z")

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> [@icaria36](#):
>
> The goal is to offer a discussion space that speakers of any language (and language combinations) can feel as theirs, as opposed to an English forum with a multilingual corner or a forum split in many languages becoming effectively many separate forums.

What is it that makes a community feel like a community? In a largely text-based medium, being able to understand the text-based communication of the other members seems key, i.e. I wonder whether it’s possible to completely overcome the two pitfalls you mention (‘siloisation’ or ‘tokenism’) in a largely text-based medium (without perfect auto-translation).

One community that comes to mind here is [https://discourse.mozilla.org](https://discourse.mozilla.org)

> [@icaria36](#):
>
> For this, the main building block would be a tag specific to languages. This tag would be required for all topics, and it would default to English. Topics in non-English languages would be tagged accordingly.

Currently we have the option of requiring a certain number of tags on a post in a category, see [The option to enforce tagging](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-option-to-enforce-tagging/69527) (Category setting “Minimum number of tags required in a topic”).

However, this use case would benefit from a slightly different setting “Require tag from a tag group”. The way you would use this would be to

- Create a tag\_group with a set list of languages
- Require each new topic to have one tag added from this group before it is posted.

@HAWK I’m curious if some of the other use cases for this type of setting you mentioned in the linked topic would benefit from something similar (or if they are entirely covered by the existing “Minimum number of tags required in a topic” setting)?

> [@icaria36](#):
>
> Through a language bar that pulls from the tag titles, users could see the topics available in a specific language.

This could be done in a fashion that could be generally useful: A tag navigation component that displays tags from a specific group.

> [@icaria36](#):
>
> Through browser detection, language chosen by the user during registration, user preferences, and other means to be determined, the system would decide which language(s) are displayed to a user.

Discourse currently allows the user to set their locale (toggled by the `allow user locale` site setting) and does auto-detection of locale, toggled by the site setting `set locale from accept language header`. There are three auto-detection contexts:

- Guests (browser and headers)
- Signups (ibid)
- Invites (ibid) - there is perhaps an issue with this? ([see](https://meta.discourse.org/t/variable-default-interface-language-for-new-users/33741)) (@schungx?)

Perhaps the two improvements that could be made here would be to:

- add a setting to allow a user to manually set their locale in the signup form
- add a ‘locale switcher’ for guests, similar to facebook’s (see bottom bar of signup page). I’ve actually [made this for different project](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-things-ive-built-which-you-can-use/93075), but haven’t yet turned it into a plugin.

> [@icaria36](#):
>
> Tags, categories and their descriptions could be localized.

I find this one really interesting, and think it would definitely be interesting to try. The tags, categories and category descriptions are what a user often reads first before reading an actual topic. These often contribute to the user’s sense of the community. If they see words and descriptions that they relate to, they’re more likely to relate to the community itself. So even if there’s a different language once the user gets into the topic, their interest and sense for the community is already primed.

It is also easier to localize category descriptions and tags than it is to localize entire topics. Technically speaking, this is doable, but hasn’t yet been tried. [See further](https://meta.discourse.org/t/simple-idea-for-translator-assisted-bilingual-forum/39268/2). @erlend_sh Do you know of any further work on / examples of this?

> [@icaria36](#):
>
> Users could search in all languages or filter for their languages defined in their profiles.

If the language tags are all in a single tag\_group, the move here would be to add a tag-group-specific tag filter to the advanced search page.

To summarise the changes I’ve mentioned above:

- A “Require tag from a tag group” site or category setting
- A tag navigation component that displays tags from a specific group
- A setting to allow a user to manually set their locale in the signup form
- A ‘locale switcher’ for guests
- Localisation of tags, category names and category descriptions
- Add a tag-group-specific tag filter to the advanced search page

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/structuring-a-multilingual-community/73225)._