In order to add my idea on http://drupal-association.ideascale.com/ (http://groups.drupal.org/node/213898), I need to post an issue here too. Here it is:

Make Drupal.org Landing Pages Multilingual / Localized

Drupal is an incredibly multilingual platform but our landing space is not at all. I think we can provide 5-10 pages for each of the major languages.

Reasoning: I work with Drupal in China where English not so common. I think this problem affects other places in the world. Drupal.org needs to present some sort of option when someone from a different country / ip address to view the basic drupal info in their language.

I don't mean to say the entire ecosystem of drupal.org should be changed. I just mean that the initial landing pages, getting setup and downloading core should be streamlined into a localized.

Comments

markwk’s picture

The fact that Drupal.org is only in English is a huge dropping point in Asia where language is a sign of respect.

BTW - if you think this is a great idea or disagree, post here: http://drupal-association.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Make-Drupal.org-Landing-Pa...

I'm wondering about the technical hurtles to this question about making drupal.org more localized:

Obviously you need: Some ip or browser or both check on the homepage to see if someone is not looking for the English site, a small top notice in X Language to "Get to Know Drupal in Your Language"

Beyond that I can see two routes:

1.) localizing Drupal.org itself into multiple languages
2.) localized subsites linked to a certain number of pages on drupal.org

#1: seems like an easy solution on the front of it but presents an added complexity to the d.o. architecture that I doubt anyone would be interested in maintaining, in my opinion. It also adds more code to d.o., which might complicate things. For example, we could use subdomains or language paths like fr or zh-hans but how to limit this to just some pages.

#2: seems like an interesting solution, because we could essentially have a separate site or sites and simply have them linked to their original source. So I can imagine a simple setup of a certain number of pages and menu links all linked back to their original source. The simplest solution would be to setup a tag on certain pages on d.o. for this project as "needing localization." I'd like to see these pages then feed into a new translation project on localize.drupal.org, then each day or whatever these language sites can update to the most recent translation.

Anyways, I know it's a bit of a crazy idea but I think one of the limits to Drupal's expansion in China is that homepage in English. If we can get to tell people "Hey we have info for you in Chinese and you can download a version in Chinese," then it'll be a huge help.

markwk’s picture

Pages to localize:

Beyond that I think we can push people towards: specific language or country groups for discussions and towards Drupal.org for everything else.

One other thing I think we need to provide a localized download of Drupal. This page should be adapted or modified into a page: http://drupal.org/project/drupal. People should download the localized version of Drupal: http://drupal.org/project/l10n_install

mgifford’s picture

Version: 6.x-3.x-dev » 7.x-3.x-dev
Issue summary: View changes

I do think this is a great idea. Something that should be done before a D8 release.

jsobiecki’s picture

My issue here was marked as duplicate, so I'm adding my three eurocents here:

I think that as addition to landing pages, whole documentation should be translatable. You can find links to localized handbooks, but those are external initiatives and it's very often outdated or dead (like Polish link).

I think that having documentation in a single central point (drupal.org) is much better than having multiple sites, that can be "unstable". It will reduce cost of translation and it will be much easier for drupal new-comers. This may involve more people interested in translation of documentation, but not in starting new, independent drupal.[langcode] site. Of course, there will be problems - probably the biggest problem will be volume of data (but I haven't checked that).

mgifford’s picture

Project: Drupal.org customizations » Drupal.org content
Version: 7.x-3.x-dev »
Component: Code » Services listing

This very much relates to Dries Keynote from Amsterdam at DrupalCon.

It would be great if this were done at least for the most popular landing pages.

If we want to think seriously about reaching out to the majority world, we've got to embrace internationalizing at least the welcoming pages.

mgifford’s picture

Component: Services listing » Other
mgifford’s picture

Issue tags: +driesnote

We always do i18n for whole sites. Setting it up for just a few pages isn't a huge deal. There are going to be some performance concerns perhaps, but....