why is it that unless they can easily translate it people seem to downvote comments that are in other languages?

It's not bothering me at all at least I get to learn a new language.

分かんない。

crocogator said:
分かんない。

crocogator said:
分かんない。

I know you speak english.

jan_ka said:
why is it that unless they can easily translate it people seem to downvote comments that are in other languages?

Because this is an English-language-based site, most people here only speak English, and most people don't like when they can't understand what others are saying (particularly when it's known those people can write English, but choose not to). There's also the issue that people will write in a different language to try to hide rude comments and/or propaganda (since fewer people can understand it or will bother trying to translate it, there's less of a chance of them getting reported too).

moonbase-boi said:
I know you speak english.

Et vous ne parlez pas une autre langue?

watsit said:
and most people don't like when they can't understand what others are saying

biting statement of humanity

On topic, comments in a foreign language are still subject to the same rules as English comments, but otherwise there's strictly no rule against them. Just some people are jerks, and I suspect that's unfortunately magnified with a niche conlang like toki pona.

strikerman said:
On topic, comments in a foreign language are still subject to the same rules as English comments, but otherwise there's strictly no rule against them. Just some people are jerks, and I suspect that's unfortunately magnified with a niche conlang like toki pona.

toki pona?

post #3407486
post #3407497

Some languages can't be translated to another without creating weird sentence structures. And translators are just not able to do it well enough. Russian to English with Google translator, for instance. Every time I try to translate it, it puts out something, I am 90% sure, it's not what the author intended to say. DeepL works a little better, but it does some weird stuff too.

I think it is ok, if one really can't speak English. But if they can, they should say it in English. Otherwise, it gives me the feeling, they are trying to hide something.

dubsthefox said:
I think it is ok, if one really can't speak English. But if they can, they should say it in English.

My personal opinion (and this is far from an official statement for the site or anything) is that people should post in whatever language they're comfortable with. This is a global site, people from all walks of life are gonna show up here.

Because this is an English site, isn't it, anyway.　The voter would think "What the heck are you saying?".

You'll find things from the comments of guys who Don't/Can't speak English.　Yeah, I Don't can't, as you know.
Apparently, Some fool Trolls are there thinking they'll be overlooked by writing in a non-English language (so that it is harder to translate) ... to leave a rude comment or to become a troll.
Not knowing the e621 comments are being watched by me (a Japanese person) and worldwide audiences.　[Precedent 1] [Precedent 2]

EDIT：In my opinion, Users always should provide an English "translation" even if using their native language, at the very least.
It is pointless to ask readers to make an effort to understand a different language other than English, even on a global site.

i forgot to say this at the beginning, but
i had a theory at one point that maybe people are just following what everyone else is doing. like if some sees a comment in a language that they don't know that has a negative score, they'll assume it must be bad and downvote it too.

kurogi_foxsiv said:
Because this is an English site, isn't it, anyway.　The voter would think "What the heck are you saying?".

You'll find things from the comments of guys who Don't/Can't speak English.　Yeah, I Don't can't, as you know.
Apparently, Some fool Trolls are there thinking they'll be overlooked by writing in a non-English language (so that it is harder to translate) ... to leave a rude comment or to become a troll.
Not knowing the e621 comments are being watched by me (a real Japanese person) and worldwide audiences.　[Precedent 1] [Precedent 2]

EDIT：In my opinion, Users always should provide an English "translation" even if using their native language, at the very least.
It is pointless to ask readers to make an effort to understand a different language other than English, even on a global site.

i just don't get why people would rather downvote instead of just ignoring it, if they don't feel like putting the effort in

jan_ka said:
like if some sees a comment in a language that they don't know that has a negative score, they'll assume it must be bad and downvote it too.

Es ist halt einfach nervig, wenn man nicht weiß, was der andere einem sagen möchte. Und der dislike button ist ein einfacher weg, um seinen Unmut darüber auszudrücken. Dazu kommt dann noch, das menschliche Gruppenverhalten.
-----------------
Head translation:
It's just annoying, if one doesn't know what the other one is saying. And the dislike button is an easy way to show displeasure about it. On top of that, there is the human group behavior.

DeepL translation:
It's just annoying when you don't know what the other person is trying to tell you. And the dislike button is an easy way to express your displeasure. Then there's the human group behavior.

^{Edit: (Actually, it would be interesting to know, from native English speakers, what sounds better)}

kurogi_foxsiv said:
Apparently, Some fool Trolls are there thinking they'll be overlooked by writing in a non-English language (so that it is harder to translate) ... to leave a rude comment or to become a troll.
Not knowing the e621 comments are being watched by me (a Japanese person) and worldwide audiences.　[Precedent 1] [Precedent 2]

Yeah, something like this is the reason that places such as Discord servers with a rule against speaking other languages usually give: English is the only language guaranteed to be readable by all of the moderators and admins.

dubsthefox said:
Es ist halt einfach nervig, wenn man nicht weiß, was der andere einem sagen möchte. Und der dislike button ist ein einfacher weg, um seinen Unmut darüber auszudrücken. Dazu kommt dann noch, das menschliche Gruppenverhalten.
-----------------
Head translation:
It's just annoying, if one doesn't know what the other one is saying. And the dislike button is an easy way to show displeasure about it. On top of that, there is the human group behavior.

DeepL translation:
It's just annoying when you don't know what the other person is trying to tell you. And the dislike button is an easy way to express your displeasure. Then there's the human group behavior.

^{Edit: (Actually, it would be interesting to know, from native English speakers, what sounds better)}

The first two sentences of DeepL are excellent, and I would consider them better than the head translation. The last one would be good except it's missing the fact that you meant to say 'on top of that', which is a sort of compounded addition to the previous sentence. DeepL missed that part entirely which subtly changes what the sentence means.

The second sentence is honestly better than what I would come up myself with normally as a native english speaker, which is surprising.

dubsthefox said:
^{Edit: (Actually, it would be interesting to know, from native English speakers, what sounds better)}

Not knowing much German:

Sentence 1: DeepL uses more idiomatic aka 'natural' English than you. I appreciate either phrasing but consider DeepL's sentence to be accessible to more people than yours.

Sentence 2: Same.

Sentence 3: I prefer your translation because it is more explicit. However, idiomatically '. Then there's the X' can mean '. And then there's the X' (more or less implying the same thing that your translation made explicit). DeepL's translation would be appropriate if your intended tone was slightly flippant, and your translation if your intended tone was more matter-of-fact.

There's nothing to choose between for 'menschliche Gruppenverhalten' translations, but I do suspect that this phrase has some implications that the English translation is not capturing.

I'm Brazilian, and I wonder if it's difficult for gringos (not native Portuguese speakers) to translate the Portuguese language. I know it is difficult for some to understand my language. But there is some curiosity to translate just to understand. Like, I do that too, to translate and understand English.

And by the way, I used the translator to write this, maybe there's something off about the words.

Amo vocês ❤️

moonbase-boi said:
I know you speak english.

Oh, I meant "wakannai" as in "I dunno", not "I don't understand", but I guess there was some ambiguity there, lol. Might've been bad phrasing on my part.

crocogator said:
Oh, I meant "wakannai" as in "I dunno", not "I don't understand", but I guess there was some ambiguity there, lol. Might've been bad phrasing on my part.

Missing a ら between that か and ん

benjiboyo said:
Missing a ら between that か and ん

It's　分かんない/wakan'nai　used instead of　分からない/wakaranai.　(( They both mean the same thing -- "I have no idea" or "I don't know". ))
ら is Not missing, just Replaced because of more casual language.

jan_ka said:
why is it that unless they can easily translate it people seem to downvote comments that are in other languages?

This is an English based site, so I guess it makes sense to communicate in English so most people could understand what you write. More so in this Forum.

I personaly like to find eventually comments of a post in Spanish, German, Russian and Japanese, that I could understand to at least some degree. If I find a comment in for example Portoguese or Chinese, languages that I do not understand at all, I feel myself frustrated, if an image (post) interest me and I wish to understand readily what is being said. There may be an element of initial frustration, even when tools to translate (say, if you use a browser like Edge) is only a click away. And to answer requires more effort, and the possibility to convey something not intended.

Sometimes posts (images) are made depicting events deeply significant for a particular nationality or cuture, that users want to comment in their own language. Actually I celebrate that here. That cultural diversity. Although I understand that sometimes it may appear excessive to users of another nationality. In those cases, if the users that comment are bi-lingual, polite and readily include English speaking persons in the conversation, I have seen that most of the time it end up well.

I have never downvoted a comment just because it is in a language I cannot understand.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_Pona Small Talk^H^H^H^HSpeak
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalltalk

I wonder if it's just xenophobia or just annoyance at effort, sometimes. Given how many images on here have English, Japanese, Spanish, and other languages featured on them, it's worth it to at least be able to pick apart sentence structure. Also, translation software works poorly with large structures. Sometimes I try to reword it in way that makes Spanish I can actually guess if it's close to my meaning. XD

I imagine because some see it as people talking behind their back, except it's to their face. You feel like you're deliberately being left out and maybe even deliberately insulted and mocked with no way to defend yourself properly.

jan_ka said:
i just don't get why people would rather downvote instead of just ignoring it, if they don't feel like putting the effort in

Because simply, they can.

If you're leaving non-English comments at a public site that is primarily English, it's most likely you're either (1) intentionally doing so for at least non-contributing factors, or (2) only intending for certain people to get it and not everyone else. It may not be your intention, but doing so will just subject you to the ire of people who will.

Don't like the "random" downvotes? Recognize why they aren't as random as you think.

I'd guess the same reason why people don't like it in irl public. As some stated above, some people frown at public use of uncommon languages because it feels secretive.

The same happens on other sites as well. I tend to hit the Spanish and Kemono sites sometimes because I have friends who post in those places and the few times I've left comments as simple as, "Lovely work you posted this week!" it'll get the heck downvoted out of it sometimes. Likely for the same, "I can't read this, Must be a troll!" reaction.

Just pointing out that it's not just English sites like E621 that this sort of thing happens on.

gbrl_v said:
I'm Brazilian, and I wonder if it's difficult for gringos (not native Portuguese speakers) to translate the Portuguese language. I know it is difficult for some to understand my language. But there is some curiosity to translate just to understand. Like, I do that too, to translate and understand English.

And by the way, I used the translator to write this, maybe there's something off about the words.

Amo vocês ❤️

Espero que a tradução seja precisa. Eu não falo português brasileiro, mas pensei em escrever isso no seu idioma para facilitar a leitura para você. Às vezes, ter amigos que conhecem outros idiomas é benéfico. Para mim, tenho um amigo brasileiro e um amigo canadense para que eu possa ter o português brasileiro e o francês traduzidos para mim. Eu tenho ajudado meus amigos com espanhol desde que sei um pouco de espanhol. Espanhol e português são um pouco parecidos, então posso adivinhar um pouco.

Kung minsan, tinatanong ko rin kung bakit. Baka nakakahiya na kahit ang sariling wika mo ay hinahaluan ng Ingles sa ordinaryong conversations.

.... I just right click and get it translated to English, not sure why some have the need to downvote as if trying to keep the website purely English

dump20234 said:
.... I just right click and get it translated to English, not sure why some have the need to downvote as if trying to keep the website purely English

Koska osa meistä ei puhu englantia, jolloin oikealla klikkauksella selain kääntää kaiken suomeksi ja tunnistaa suurimman osan sivusta olevan englantia, jolloin se teksti joka ei ole englantia, ei käänny minnekään ja se pitää manuaalisesti copy-pastettaa kääntäjään...
post #2749723
Vähän sama kun ostin LED nimikyltin MFF:ltä, se sovellus meni kiinaksi, koska se on ensijaisesti kiinan kielellä ja valinnaisesti englanniksi, mutta koska puhelimen käyttöjärjestelmä oli asetettu suomeksi, käytti se oletuskieltä eli kiinaa. Kojumyyjäkään ei ollut nähnyt kenellekään tapahtuneen tuota aiemmin, mutta sai korjattua asettamalla käyttöjärjestelmä hetkellisesti englanniksi jolloin latasi kielipaketin google playsta.