FionaJust saw that #Mastodon has an actually working #search for hashtags, that doesn’t filter results based on what languages it thinks you want to have the results in like #twitter does. It’s another one of those Silicon-Valley features resulting from most US-devs speaking only a single language and therefore making life hard for all those with a proper universal education. (Twitter knows btw. that I speak German and English, it censors the results regardless.)
Another example of this was when I was in LA last month: #GoogleMaps decided that because apparently most google-employees only speak English I couldn’t possibly be fluent in it and insisted on translating all reviews into German, because that is the primary language I use in my phone.
As an aside, this also tells you all you need to know about their #hiring-practices as well, given that the Spanish-speaking community at least in LA was large enough to justify most signs to come in both English and Spanish. And I somehow doubt that google employs a lot of devs that don’t speak English (which is frankly fair enough). #MonolingualDevelopers #Google
And just to be clear: I have nothing at all against translation-software or filtering out languages that a user does not understand. But the important part is that this is something the *Users* have to have a choice about, not something that a random undereducated developer (speaking a foreign language, typically English, is a requirement to make it through all forms of high-school in Germany) half a world away should decide for them.
The solution is as obvious as it is simple: Ask the users which languages they can read without help, for which ones they may want an optional translation on a case-by-case bases (show a translate-button) and whether posts in other languages should be hidden or be provided a translation from the start. And then do that.