this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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Just joined Lemmy...not a fan of the language settings. (lemmy.today)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by vengefulgrapes@lemmy.today to c/lemmy@lemmy.ml
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In my profile settings, I can choose my languages. A couple gripes with the web interface of this setting:

  • I have to hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple languages. While this was clear to me since I use this keyboard shortcut a lot in other contexts, this would definitely be confusing or unclear for most users.
  • This setting should be split into two. As of now, it determines what content you see, with all other content completely hidden...AND it determines what languages will appear in the language selector when making a post or comment. There should be separate settings for which languages are displayed and which appear in the language selector for a new post (because I don't want any content to be hidden, but I want to be able to easily select English for any new comment). Or at least a setting for a default language for new comments.
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[–] imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 30 points 10 months ago

Agreed, this is definitely an area that can be significantly improved. I like your suggestions

[–] Mr_Mofu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Honestly the language selection in general is just a bad idea/baddly executed. Until people told me that those where the reason 4/5s of posts and comments never showed up, I didnt know that these settings existed

I then just marked all of them which took ages and ever since my experience has been so much better. If they really wanna have this feature, then all languages should be selected from the getgo. If someone wants a language gone they should opt out istead of opting into everything else first.

If lemmy hides most of its content for someone new who doesn't know about those settings, then people are less incline to stay on lemmy. So overall it seems badly executed. I hope its something they improve especially for new users going forward

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Honestly the language selection in general is just a bad idea/baddly executed. Until people told me that those where the reason 4/5s of posts and comments never showed up, I didnt know that these settings existed

That was a bug, nowadays the default behaviour is to have all languages displayed at account setup, the user can then change it afterwards it they want.

[–] Mr_Mofu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 10 months ago

Oh I see, thats great to hear!

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 17 points 10 months ago

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the devs acknowledge that it needs to be cleaned up.

If you’re up for it, they’d probably appreciate helpful suggestions in the relevant issue or ticket on GitHub.

[–] maniel@lemmy.ml 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

also it would be nice if people would respect those settings while commenting and posting, not once I've seen English comment without language set and non English comments tagged as English

[–] dingus@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If I have to choose which language I am speaking for every single post, it becomes a bit ridiculous. It makes more sense to just have users set a language once and only change it when they wish to post in a different language than they normally do.

[–] maniel@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago

It can be kinda annoying but it's not that cumbersome, imagine writing an alternative text for each image you post, now imagine it's considered a good practice in the professional internet and near requirement when posting on mastodon, but yeah, being able to set a default language for posts and comments would be nice

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 10 months ago

You can comment on the GitHub issue: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3513

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 10 months ago

The easiest way I've seen it is to enforce it at the community level.

Actually that makes me think I should probably do that in the communities I mod ha ha

[–] Moonrise2473@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

From mobile it's an incredible hassle to choose "English" hidden in a list with 5000 obscure languages. There should be an option to reduce the list to the 2-3 languages I can speak

[–] vengefulgrapes@lemmy.today 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's what the language selector in Setting does. The problem is that it also limits the content you can view to only posts set as being in those languages.

[–] Jomn@jlai.lu 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Honest question but do you really want to see content that is in languages that you don't understand ?

I still agree that the UI needs to be clearer though.

[–] vengefulgrapes@lemmy.today 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I would like to at least be able to. I could always translate it if I wanted to know what it said. And if I saw that there were comments I couldn't see, I know the curiosity would kill me. I just don't like blocking myself off from seeing content that I know is there.

[–] Jomn@jlai.lu 1 points 10 months ago

Ok that's fair.

[–] CallumWells@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

You can. I've reduced my language list down from the default of "every single one". You should probably still keep "undetermined" selected as a "language", otherwise a lot of stuff people haven't actually tagged with a language won't show up.

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago

Huh, you can select multiple languages. That's really convenient.

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Welcome!

Feel free to comment on the relevant issues, at first glance most of your concerns are already part of one or another: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/labels/area%3A%20language-handling

[–] vengefulgrapes@lemmy.today 1 points 10 months ago

I'm a computer science student, and I guess I forgot that I can just kinda...fix the problem, when it comes to open source software.

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Lack of a default comment language is a big miss imo. I don't want to have to select the same language I use for every comment every time I post one. Even if you did use multiple languages it would still be useful.

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Have you added a thumbs up to that GitHub issue? https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3513

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

I hadn't, thank you

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I never see this, maybe because I'm using the Alexandrite UI?

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I'm using the default lemmy.world web ui if that helps