- Joined
- Jun 20, 2001
- Posts
- 11,043
- Likes
- 6,891
Lately, there have been threads that have shown up almost entirely in Chinese, thereby excluding the vast majority of Head-Fi'ers (though I have a touch of Chinese in my blood doesn't mean I can read it). Our moderators have asked that the people posting in these threads in Chinese post in English from now on, as it is the obvious primary language we use to communicate at Head-Fi. Well, one of our moderators was told he was being "arrogant" about this. I disagree.
So far, we haven't specified in the Rules and Terms of Use any specific language preference -- but we're about to. If you haven't already guessed, we will state in the Rules and Terms of Use that English is the language we use to communicate at Head-Fi.
Let's take a look at this thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...&threadid=7509
I suspect that 95% or more of the users at Head-Fi can't make heads or tails of most of the posts that make up the first page of that thread.
Head-Fi is obviously a community of strangers, acquaintances and friends from all over the world, so I'd like to think we all respect the many cultures and nationalities represented here. But we have to have some common language that the overwhelming majority of us can communicate with, and at Head-Fi that has obviously been (and will continue to be) English.
The argument can be made that this is arrogant, but I'll argue that I don't visit primarily German-language forums, or Spanish-language forums (though my grasp of Spanish is so-so -- okay, maybe not even so-so), Chinese-speaking forums, etc., because I understand the intended primary languages of these non-English forums.
Another example: The web site TNT Audio comes in English and Italian versions -- publishing in these two languages is their choice, and not publishing in Swahili, Hebrew, Aramaic, French, Chinese, or any other languages that aren't English and Italian, doesn't make them arrogant. Some sites are published only in French, only in German, etc. -- a fact that alone doesn't make them arrogant either.
At Head-Fi, it's English.
So far, we haven't specified in the Rules and Terms of Use any specific language preference -- but we're about to. If you haven't already guessed, we will state in the Rules and Terms of Use that English is the language we use to communicate at Head-Fi.
Let's take a look at this thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...&threadid=7509
I suspect that 95% or more of the users at Head-Fi can't make heads or tails of most of the posts that make up the first page of that thread.
Head-Fi is obviously a community of strangers, acquaintances and friends from all over the world, so I'd like to think we all respect the many cultures and nationalities represented here. But we have to have some common language that the overwhelming majority of us can communicate with, and at Head-Fi that has obviously been (and will continue to be) English.
The argument can be made that this is arrogant, but I'll argue that I don't visit primarily German-language forums, or Spanish-language forums (though my grasp of Spanish is so-so -- okay, maybe not even so-so), Chinese-speaking forums, etc., because I understand the intended primary languages of these non-English forums.
Another example: The web site TNT Audio comes in English and Italian versions -- publishing in these two languages is their choice, and not publishing in Swahili, Hebrew, Aramaic, French, Chinese, or any other languages that aren't English and Italian, doesn't make them arrogant. Some sites are published only in French, only in German, etc. -- a fact that alone doesn't make them arrogant either.
At Head-Fi, it's English.