English only rule question.

[Venumize]

Afternoon moderators, I just had a question. Saw someone get muted on a thread for not using English but didn't remember that being in the rules. Went to that page, along with the ToS page and FAQ, and didn't find a single mention on language.

Nothing on how it can only be English or that you are not allowed to use a non-English language. Even went so far as to use the find function on the word English and language to no effect. Where is this rule? Asking because it makes me wonder if I am missing a page or multiple rules.

 

[ThedudeManBro]

I mean, I'm not a mod, but I've been in threads with someone speaking Spanish and nobody batted an eye.

I think it might not be a rule, but more like the muters not wanting to speak with a non-English speaker in that thread in particular.

And... That's kinda dickish, but not rule breaking I think.

 

[MissileTeatime]

I think it might not be a rule, but more like the muters not wanting to speak with a non-English speaker in that thread in particular.

And... That's kinda dickish, but not rule breaking I think.

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Wait, what do we mean by muted in this context? Because this "kinda ticklish, but not rule breaking" description sounds completely accurate for one user putting another user on ignore; but I interpreted "muted" to be a mod action, and I'm not sure how one user (OP in this case) would be aware of who another user has on ignore.

 

[Venumize]

I think it might not be a rule, but more like the muters not wanting to speak with a non-English speaker in that thread in particular.

And... That's kinda dickish, but not rule breaking I think.

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Looking at his posts, ever, it is all Spanish. Think that is the language anyway. Now if this is a sock and or troll that is something else. Not sure why they would be muted instead of outright banned if that was the case.

The user has been here for over a year and only really started posting to talk recently.

Wait, what do we mean by muted in this context? Because this "kinda ticklish, but not rule breaking" description sounds completely accurate for one user putting another user on ignore; but I interpreted "muted" to be a mod action, and I'm not sure how one user (OP in this case) would be aware of who another user has on ignore.

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I mean the guy has under his tag Muted now in that colorful grey banner with blue lettering with the mod outright saying the following.

"I told you to post in English. If you cannot do so, I'm revoking your posting privileges."

You can probably see why this has left me wondering where this rule was since I can't seem to find it and it has me wondering what other rules there are I missed.

 

[ThedudeManBro]

"I told you to post in English. If you cannot do so, I'm revoking your posting privileges."

You can probably see why this has left me wondering where this rule was since I can't seem to find it and it has me wondering what other rules there are I missed

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That... Skirts on abuse of Mod power with the " you didn't do what I said, so shut up" subtext, intentionally or not. You should look into that, see if the Spanish speaker was bothering anyone else.

Still, if the guy can understand English but still refuses to write it in a English-main forum, then he's either a bot or a stubborn ass that needed that soft slap on the bum.

As an side, i've known a guy for months now in fiction.Live that lives in Venezuela, and he's got only the basics of English, but the guy usually just pulls out the translator and if he didn't say it and the specific punctuation in Spanish didn't leak through, he'd just look like an average English reader.

It's a case by case basis in regards to people. Some are guys who are adamant in not changing, and others are capable of adapting. Humans amr?

 

[magic9mushroom]

Saw someone get muted on a thread for not using English but didn't remember that being in the rules.

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Could we have a link for this?

Not sure why they would be muted instead of outright banned if that was the case.

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The only difference between being muted and banned AFAIK is that you can view the forum when muted but not when banned (you might still be able to send PMs, I dunno). AFAIK QQ has a policy of not giving full temporary bans except for technical reasons*; they only use full banning for people they want to permanently remove.

*The big one is if someone overloads the server via e.g. irresponsible crawling. A full ban is, in that case, the only way for QQ staff to stop you from continuing the disruptive behaviour, as it's specifically your ability to request pages that is causing the problem.


One of the big things regarding language (and the reason a lot of boards do have outright English-only rules) is that mods have a much harder time moderating things that are in a language none of the mods speak (though Google has made this more possible than it used to be), and obviously the mods don't like extra work or things they can't inspect (if you don't know what a post says, you don't know that it's not e.g. an ISIL recruitment spiel).

 

[LurkingInTheDeceit]

I mean the guy has under his tag Muted now in that colorful grey banner with blue lettering with the mod outright saying the following.

"I told you to post in English. If you cannot do so, I'm revoking your posting privileges."

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C+P-ing that statement into the search bar only results in this thread; are you sure one of the mods said this? Seconding the request for a link.

 

[MissileTeatime]

I mean the guy has under his tag Muted now in that colorful grey banner with blue lettering with the mod outright saying the following.

"I told you to post in English. If you cannot do so, I'm revoking your posting privileges."

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That's what I thought, thank you for clarifying.

For reference, I'm pretty sure the banner you're referring to is affected by the theme, so it might not be the same color for everyone else. For example, I use Dark Responsive (Green), and I've seen warning labels on other posts with a bright green background that I'm pretty sure are what you're referring to.

That... Skirts on abuse of Mod power with the " you didn't do what I said, so shut up" subtext, intentionally or not. You should look into that, see if the Spanish speaker was bothering anyone else.

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Well, if it's about repeated rule breaking, than that is a perfectly reasonable use of mod power. But on the other hand, if there isn't an applicable rule, then you're entirely correct. But that's sort of what the thread is about, yes?

For example, on a board with a strong English norm but not an English rule, bonking someone who only posts in French could be construed under a "don't make it harder for the mods to do their jobs" rule. But I'd have to double-check if we have such a rule here.

C+P-ing that statement into the search bar only results in this thread; are you sure one of the mods said this? Seconding the request for a link.

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Is that kind of warning something that's searchable, though? I wouldn't have guessed that it would be.

 

[LurkingInTheDeceit]

Is that kind of warning something that's searchable, though? I wouldn't have guessed that it would be.

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True, was thinking of the coloured text mods use (which would be searchable) but they can attach the rule violation notice to the post itself without that (which isn't).

 

[Venumize]

Could we have a link for this?

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Here you go.

The only difference between being muted and banned AFAIK is that you can view the forum when muted but not when banned (you might still be able to send PMs, I dunno).

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Yeah forget QQ tends to do that.

C+P-ing that statement into the search bar only results in this thread; are you sure one of the mods said this? Seconding the request for a link.

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Link to the post above.

Edit: By the way oddly I kind of recall a mod warning the user on the issue earlier in the thread but now I can not find the mod warning in there at all. No clue why that is or if I am simply misremembering or if I keep passing it accidentally.

Oh, and people were translating in the thread along with the author replying to him after I think using Google translate. He didn't have an issue with him using non-English it.

 

[a guy1013]

the person might be necro threads, that is how i got muted, the first time here, since i didnt read the rules when i joined in

 

[Megaolix]

Completely missed this, sorry guys.

The fact of the matter is, we cannot moderate spanish content, because we cannot read it. We have no idea what they are saying. They could be nice or they could be a huge jerk or even spout illegal shit.

It's less a matter of a rule and more of common sense.

 

[Garahs]

Fortunately, there is this thing called google translate, which lets you convert text to a language you're familiar with. And it's free.

 

[TheMidnightRook]

Fortunately, there is this thing called google translate, which lets you convert text to a language you're familiar with. And it's free.

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It's free... but you get what you pay for. Google translate is very literal, which makes it very bad at handling slang, metaphors, etc.

 

[Megaolix]

It's free... but you get what you pay for. Google translate is very literal, which makes it very bad at handling slang, metaphors, etc.

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On the other hand, what are you even doing here if you cannot read English? And if you can read it, I would expect some ability to write it at least, even if badly.

 

[Garahs]

On the other hand, what are you even doing here if you cannot read English? And if you can read it, I would expect some ability to write it at least, even if badly.

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I've visited japanese original fiction sites before because the person providing a translation to english has fallen behind and used chrome's auto-translate function to follow the plot progression. It may not be the highest quality, but it's good enough. Are you suggesting that shouldn't be allowed?

 

[Megaolix]

I've visited japanese original fiction sites before because the person providing a translation to english has fallen behind and used chrome's auto-translate function to follow the plot progression. It may not be the highest quality, but it's good enough. Are you suggesting that shouldn't be allowed?

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Why would it not ve allowed? It's just my expectations being wrong, I suppose.

 

[daniel_gudman]

I feel like "user posts in English, but it was computer-translated from their native language so it's always weird and bad" obeys the spirit of the implicit rule well enough that it's fine. Good enough that the mods can figure out if they're bothering somebody else, and that's all it needs to be really.

 

[Megaolix]

You misunderstand. It's not that I would not allow it. I just felt that if you can read it well, you should be able to write a bit. But I guess some translate to read the stories here, so there go that thinking.

 

[Epitome of Eccentricity]

Using your mod powers to mute someone speaking another language than you is racist, especially since there isn't a rule against speaking another language.

Edit: the user could also have used Google translate to post his own posts, but this is still reddit sketchy

 

[Megaolix]

Using your mod powers to mute someone speaking another language than you is racist, especially since there isn't a rule against speaking another language.

Edit: the user could also have used Google translate to post his own posts, but this is still reddit sketchy

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I already explained a bit above why.

Completely missed this, sorry guys.

The fact of the matter is, we cannot moderate spanish content, because we cannot read it. We have no idea what they are saying. They could be nice or they could be a huge jerk or even spout illegal shit.

It's less a matter of a rule and more of common sense.

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If racism is your take on it, then that's on you.

Edit: And to add to that, that user had been told before to use English before I went ahead with the Mute, just to be clear.

 

[Radiant Knight]

To follow up on this, moderating a website as large and as fast-posting as QQ relies fundamentally on people reporting issues more than it does the mods themselves. While a mod could certainly use google translate, 99% of people here are just going to ignore the spanish/foreign language text and move on with their day, and there's no way for any mod, even a team as dedicated as QQ's, to go through literally every new post to see if it has any foreign language content, then use google translate to translate it and see if it breaks the rules, nor is it their job.

The more reasonable solution is to just bar people from posting in other languages. If someone wants to translate their posts into english, that's a reasonable solution because the mods can understand it- but moroever- if it's rule breaking, other users can report it.