Scratch
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#1 2010-04-06 21:58:12
Automatic Language Galleries
I often go to the Active Member's page. There are always a large number of projects there that are not in English. Sometimes, I can understand them enough to use a translator to give feedback, but often, I cannot. Sometimes users make galleries for specific languages, but many people do not know about them, so not all projects get added. Wouldn't it be great if projects could be automatically grouped into language pages, similar to galleries? All of the project written in Thai, for example, would be grouped together. So would all of the projects in German, Spanish, Greek, Japanese, Vietnamese, Italian...
The Advantages
The majority of Scratchers speak English. The users who do not speak English do not get nearly as many views and comments on their projects and it is probably hard for them to find other projects in their language. If the projects of each language were grouped together, they would be easier to find and would get more view. New non-English-speaking Scratchers could easily find examples of projects. Teachers of different languages could easily find projects to show to their students. The list goes on and on...
How it would work
The language(s) of a project would be selected upon upload. Multilingual projects are ones whose Project Notes and the project itself are in 2+ languages. For example, ffred's projects are all in English and Portuguese, so the languages would be set to English and Portuguese. A project that teaches a foreign language would not be considered multilingual. Here is what the options might look like:
After it is uploaded, the project would automatically be placed in the language page(s) it belongs. If a language does not yet have a page, one would be formed. If a project has been set to the the wrong language, it can be flagged and resorted.
There would be an option for the creators to change the language(s) after the project is shared. That way, if they made a mistake, or edited their project to include another language, they could change the languages. Projects that have already been shared could be sorted this way.
So, what do you think?
Last edited by scmb1 (2010-04-07 09:48:03)
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#2 2010-04-06 22:05:30
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#3 2010-04-06 22:21:06
- Lucario621
- Community Moderator
- Registered: 2007-10-03
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Automatic Language Galleries
I like the idea! Support 
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#5 2010-04-06 22:34:37
Re: Automatic Language Galleries
This is a very good idea! Nice mockup!
I have tags on the brain. So I see languages as tags that can be added to projects.
When uploading a project, It automatically adds a tag for the language Scratch is set to, then more can be added later. (If multi-language projects are common enough, it would be good to have an option like you drew.)
Also, the language tag(s) on the project also becomes a link to more projects in that language.
Last edited by AddZero (2010-04-06 22:36:10)
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#6 2010-04-06 22:37:14
Re: Automatic Language Galleries
AddZero wrote:
This is a very good idea! Nice mockup!
I have tags on the brain. So I see languages as tags that can be added to projects.
When uploading a project, It automatically adds a tag for the language Scratch is set to, then more can be added later. (If multi-language projects are common enough, it would be good to have an option like you drew.)
Also, the language tag(s) on the project also becomes a link to more projects in that language.
Great idea! That solves the "where to find these language pages" problem- they are simply the pages of tags!
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#7 2010-04-06 22:42:36
Re: Automatic Language Galleries
scmb1 wrote:
ThePCKid wrote:
Epic!!!
I am glad you think so. Gosh, you sure like that word, don't you? :)
I like the word epic :D
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#8 2010-04-06 22:43:29
Re: Automatic Language Galleries
Wait, AddZero, there's one problem- there are plenty of projects out there already tagged with languages because they teach them or give a quiz about them. How could we distinguish between projects in a language and projects about a language using tags?
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#9 2010-04-06 22:59:21
Re: Automatic Language Galleries
scmb1 wrote:
Wait, AddZero, there's one problem- there are plenty of projects out there already tagged with languages because they teach them or give a quiz about them. How could we distinguish between projects in a language and projects about a language using tags?
Good point. Hmmmm..
The tags for being in a language would start with "in": "in english" "en español" "在中国"
These tags would be added to the project on upload depending on the language Scratch is set at. Perhaps also give the tags a special designation: position, color, or icon.
That way adding "spanish" or "español" by default means it's about that language.
It would also be wise to look at internationalization (i18n) standards and systems already made.
Last edited by AddZero (2010-04-06 23:06:52)
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#10 2010-04-06 23:40:26
Re: Automatic Language Galleries
AddZero wrote:
Perhaps also give the tags a special designation: position, color, or icon.
I like that! That way, it would be obvious that those tags are different than the others.
AddZero wrote:
It would also be wise to look at internationalization (i18n) standards and systems already made.
Do you know where to get that information?
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#11 2010-04-07 00:50:41
Re: Automatic Language Galleries
scmb1 wrote:
Do you know where to get that information?
The scratch website was built with CakePHP,
so here's CakePHP's documentation on i18n:
http://book.cakephp.org/view/161/Internationalization-Localization
http://book.cakephp.org/view/162/Internationalizing-Your-Application
http://book.cakephp.org/view/163/Localization-in-CakePHP
But I think they're already doing that part of the problem. You can pick languages on the top right of the front page of scratch. I don't see them yet tagging or categorizing projects by language.
Other than that, this is probably a good place to start:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Internationalization
Last edited by AddZero (2010-04-07 01:09:58)
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