Is the language selection for Lemmy never used / pointless?

Matte, 10 months ago

the only thing really necessary would be setting the language to the entire… sublemmy (??) so all the posts there would default to the sub language. I think it’s pretty unusual for a sub to have posts in multiple languages, but at that point the big majority of it would be set.

kresten, 10 months ago

That would be a good solution, not sure if it's a feature yet though. You're just called communities on here :)

insomniac_lemon, 10 months ago

I'm doing the same on Kbin (also with sports communities) and I don't see a language preference anywhere.

Perhaps it's a future thing for auto-translation? (not likely to be helpful with images/video, though)

YMS, 10 months ago

kbin doesn't have the language filter Lemmy has, but it has the same language selector when posting, so on both systems, many posts should be tagged with the correct language, but on kbin you cannot yet do much with it.

re, 10 months ago

There's a language selector at the bottom of the page, is that just for UI?

YMS, 10 months ago

I was not aware of that, but apparently yes, because a) It does change the UI language. b) It does not filter posts or comments in other languages. c) It only allows ou to select a single language. For the Lemmy filter, you are able to select multiple languages, plus there is an option for "undetermined" that allows you to still see those posts where the language is not known.

HumbertTetere, 10 months ago

It would help if Instances/Communities would set the expected language and you could change it so the default isn't Undetermined.

I don't know if that's possible, I manage neither.

Kwaker76, 10 months ago

I'm new to Lemmy and on my first day trying to get to grips with it, I couldn't post a comment because the Community wouldn't allow the language (I was posting in English and all the other comments on the post were in English, and my language settings are set to Undefined and English). The whole language selection is actually a blocker to engagement at times.

coldhotman, 10 months ago (edited 9 months ago)

aa

Chainweasel, 10 months ago

Ctrl+Click to select more than one language at a time

git, 10 months ago

I don't even have the language selection while posting from Jerboa. But like the others said most people probably won't use it becuase it is annoying to find the language on the slider menu without a search functionality each time. It would be used more if instances and users could select a default language for themselves

coldhotman, 10 months ago (edited 9 months ago)

aa

sj_zero, 10 months ago

I know at least when I'm posting on kbin instances, undefined isn't really an option -- if you don't set the language, the post won't go through.

On other fediverse instances, there's actually auto-detection of language as an option, followed by auto-translation. I think the lemmy devs are up to their armpits in alligators at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if eventually both features come to lemmy once things calm down.

sp6, 10 months ago

I found that the "language selection" box was bugged on desktop and wouldn't actually apply my settings, but when I tried it on a mobile browser, it worked and I no longer see really any foreign language posts.

You can double check if it worked by trying to type a post/comment and then hitting the "select language" box. If only your selected languages appear, it worked.

coldhotman, 10 months ago (edited 9 months ago)

aa

Knoll0114, 10 months ago

I personally would like to see posts in 4 languages and as far as I can tell it won't let me specify more than one in my profile so I just leave it on undefined. I'm having I guess the opposite issue to you in that I'm only seeing English content when I would like to see some in my other (non-native) languages for better immersion.

godless, 10 months ago

You need to hold Ctrl + click on the languages you want.

However new posts are set to "undefined" by default and most peoplenever change it, so the whole feature seems a bit useless for now.

I guess once we have significantly large and diversified communities, it will make more sense.

R05, 10 months ago

try ctrl+click

kozel, 10 months ago

Problem is that finding the language from the rolling menu is quite annoying, and as you usually write in language you axpect members of the community would understand, it's easier to left it 'undefined'.