A welcome to a newcomer that didn't post in English

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Today a newcomer, @Varmon40 , had a problem with installation. This person posted in French. Perhaps the moderator, @petro , didn’t notice the banner This is the first time Varmon40 has posted — let’s welcome them to our community! The welcome that newcomer received was to have his post removed. Further, the newcomer and I were politely admonished by @vreihen , for not reading the FAQ (which I had not). It would have been nice if there had been a link to the FAQ , as it was difficult to find (which is found on the left column of the forum home page after clicking More). Perhaps the newcomer couldn’t find it at all, though there was a link to other language forums.

Because English seems to be a dominate language, there are more solutions found here. Yes, I get it, post in the language of the forum. But! I found a solution for me on another language forum that wasn’t on the English language forum. After being admonished there for posting in English, I translated to the language, only to be told, again, that I should not be posting there because I was an English language person.

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Yeah, just follow the rules, not a hard concept.

:man_shrugging:

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Newcomers tend to Not read at all, Not even the First “welcomePage” Which You found and linked to.
Somehow they do find “a way” to sign up, and also figure out how to post and create Topics
Do you really believe that is because they Don’t see the Top first Post ?
How to help us help you - or How to ask a good question .
I can agree that the next Welcome Post, not is of any use( And should be removed ), Welcome should actually be The header of first post

And their First Post, should trigger a link to that post

Do you think this would “help” newcomers to read it ? …And Post cording to “Common sense” and Forum Rules" ? … maybe a few, most just post lame requests for help with little or no facts.
They would actually be helping them self, if they posted/searched in Google, then they would get hits in here, some do, before they sign up, but they definitely skip reading First Post, before the open a Topic them self

Result:
This forum is drowning in Topics, some useless and ALOT similar or straight out Same Issues, because newcomers(and some more) can/will not learn to use the search function in here.
Which one actually can compare to a Specialized-Google-Search

Don’t tell me People don’t know how to search, or never have Search, on ie Google Youtube etc etc
it’s plain and simple a rude, selfish and lazy behavior

i don’t know, what’s your experience ?

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In the book, Venus on the Half Shell by Kilgore Trout (aka Farmer) , the Space Wanderer lands on a planet where any infraction of the law is punishable by a life in prison sentence. He did not know this and was put in prison for life because it was a misdemeanor to land on the planet without permission.

I have some suggestions.

In the title bar of the forum would be “Home Assistant (English)” or the little British Flag. Clicking on that will bring up a page with the other languages, which will have their own language name or flag. Yes, there are thousands of pages on which this would need to be changed but at least on the home page.

In the left column, at the top, above Topics, “FAQs: A Must Read”. How to ask a good question would also be in the FAQs.

I have gone the route of trying to submit changes to pages, some as simple as correcting some indentation (which led to bad results) and every request was ignored. Yes, there are more important things to do, I get that, but if HA is going to be a player in home automation, these things have to be done.

Yeah, I see a lot of first timers with great expectations and little effort, Varmon40 is one of them. I try to help them (to help themselves), to get them on the right track, to make them feel welcomed.

Personally, I am not well versed in HA’ese, far from it. But I do have some knowledge and I try to share it. I think there is a lot to be said for “Lead by example.”

On the flip side, to be quit frank, I see a lot of not-very-helpful comments, too. Brief answers that show no research. For (not a great) example:

Could have had a link, eg. see Installation, Currently a google search AI reports 1GB RAM 16GB storage.

Or vreihen’s comment could have been, "We have found that multiple languages in a thread tend to lead to more confusion than help. See this link for other languages.

I try. We all have try just a little bit harder.

-OSD

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Or As you use optional translater before they post , They do see from the very beginning that it is on English, unless they have set their browser to translate into their own language( Lazy to learn english )

They intuitive look at the RIGHT pane, because this is where the POSTS are

True, i can be very short and sometimes harshly frank , it is mainly do the endless repeated questions in here, which have been answered 100( edit: 1000) times, so they would most likely have found the answer if they search this forum, or read the Official installation/prerequisite minimum, etc … it’s even such info a simple Google search would help them with

Yes we ( or i) sometimes should just “drop out”, because “patience is Not enough” when some people clearly shows they Just Want It Served, Or don’t read the f… Manual, there are lots of DOCS … Shortcut, Open a Topic …

EDIT What i Do miss in here, is url’s in top to the Official Docs /Getting started / documentation/Integrations (Hint)
Maybe many Newcomers also don’t know there is an Official-Site, with lots of info, in regards to cards, template etc. etc., and most “Hits” in i.e Google goes to the Forum

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Even politely “admonished” has negative connotations. After reading the topic I would say they were “politely advised”.

Yes the FAQ is difficult to find and is outdated in parts. It is on the community manager’s to-do list.

Additionally the post was not removed. Only hidden. It is still viewable to the poster and if they edit it (to translate it) then it will automatically be unhidden.

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I have one: “Read the room.”

99.9999% of all forum posts are in English. That ought to be a clue.

The vast majority of newcomers understand it intuitively. Those that don’t, simply need to reminded.

It then becomes their decision if they wish to continue here, in English, or elsewhere in their preferred language.

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Not even a comparison as the first pinned post (that you linked) IS the sign telling the rules.

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What i will never understand is how come that certain people (generally) say come to a certain page, which is TOTALLY in english, then decide to register (also in english), they are welcomed (also in english), but then simply write a topic in their own language… ??? :roll_eyes:
I hit on such occasions every now and then on other forums, too.

And, of course, who reads guidelines? No-one, as also no-one reads instruction manual for new-bought item… (beside me and some individuals). Just enter name, pass, then next, next, next, …

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Except they weren’t banned or jailed. They were simply told to post in Engish. The only unreasonable reaction here is yours, you were told to post in English and now you’re trying to garner pitchforks against the moderators for a rule they did not create.

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You just need to enable translate and everyone seems to speak your own language.
I would never do it but I believe some do

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Thats a reasonable rapprochement.

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Yeah well… translations into Slovenian language usually turns out … let’s just say translations are many times main subject of laughing at work next day… :rofl:

Perhaps i’ll try once - just for fun. I must find where to do that first, though…

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:rofl:

Did You Tamper with the Topic Translation on purpose ?

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Nope, just activated translation

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Weird, which browser are you using ? , it seems to Translate a Name for a very known platform to a “Substantive” With a very “funny” descriptive meaning :slight_smile:

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I used Google chrome for that image

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In the airline industry, English is the norm.
Try speaking in another language and air traffic control will soon respond. You will speak English before you land.

It’s in the regulations.

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That is not true.
In the rest of the world people speak their own language with air traffic control.
But if you fly internationally then you speak English