ATS Expansion

Hi people from ATS, I have been a long time lurker, just recently decided to join in, I consider this website the best on the net. I have a question regarding this website and please anybody that can respond or comment would be appreciated, is there any plans for this website to be launch in other languages, should there be any plans to do so?

I think there SHOULD be a language expansion, with the first language being Mandarin, and absolutely no kowtowing to the Chinese government in re censorship issues. Spanish, German, Japanese, Dutch, etc. etc. ad nauseum should follow.

While it might seem a good idea from the onset, I can see that this would be an overwelming endeavour. Who exactly would translate the over 3 million posts?

And the more languages you add to the mix, the worse it gets.

Not to mention the staff requirements that would have to increase, to monitor and maintain the non-English versions of the website.

Yes, ATS is expanding, but not quite in that way, imo.

my 2 cents...

[edit on 6/20/2007 by Mechanic 32]

My thinking was more along the lines of what other big website have, like by region, country, no need to translate. My point is a that this website has a lot to offer to many, many people of many countries which that dont happen to speak english.

It's not so hard to start your own if you wished. It might even be lucrative if you could find a way to support it with advertising.

Like a field of dreams... build it and they will come.

The original English language one is as big as it is because it is in English.

Somehow I don't think one in mandarin would achieve much for obvious reasons

English is the language of the internet.
And it won't be long before the entire planet has a basic grasp of the language.

I say you don't translate anything, and just let people that speak other languages catch up with the rest of the world.

If you think about it, one language will need to dominate in the future, and I don't think the rest of us will be learning Mandarin or Cantonese any time soon. :shk:

Sounds like a NWO plot to me!! Just one language? whats next? one currency! and next? well you figure it out!

If you look at the percentage of users on ATS you would see there is no point to run in other countries.Americans being obsesed about most of the subjects on here are the biggest by far users.

i was thinking of starting a thread entitled did Simon and ATS mods plan 9/11 cos since then this site has just rocketed.

Think about

Originally posted by Bunch
Sounds like a NWO plot to me!! Just one language? whats next? one currency! and next? well you figure it out!

A single language and a single monetary unit (well how about we just get rid of the concept
of money) are not bad things, and are the future.



Anyways though, as has been said, there's really no use for ATS to be produced in other
languages, since the majority of users are either native English speakers or speak it as a second language.

Originally posted by iori_komei
A single language and a single monetary unit (well how about we just get rid of the concept
of money) are not bad things, and are the future.

Yeah, but it would be nice if they filled the general public in on this plan!

Maybe in the future there could be sister sites to this one based in other countries. You would have to find some good mods tho.

Originally posted by AcesInTheHole
Maybe in the future there could be sister sites to this one based in other countries. You would have to find some good mods tho.

See, that's the thing, I actually thought this was a moderately good idea when I first read it,
but after thinking about it, what countries would we really have dedicated versions for?

Most Europeans speak English, so we don't have to worry about them.

PRChina will probably completely block ATS, assuming they don't drop there nefarious censorship.

Africa, well most African nations they can barely keep there people from starving,
so I doubt many Africans are gonna be signing onto ATS, that live there at least.

South America, well they'd actually be the only real area I could think of having a dedicated
separate language version for, but even than more than a few South Americans know
enough English to get around the English ATS.

And than you have the rest of the world, which speaks English primarily, so we're all good on it.

ATS IS expanding. Quite rapidly I might add. Two years ago when I got here there were no podcasts or ATSMIX or things along those lines. I've seen many forums added that didn't exist back then and for awhile I couldn't even keep up. (Hate to say it but there are still forums here I haven't been too)

If you're looking for ATS to rush out and conquer the world, well, that takes a bit of planning and time. We're on the right track, and I'd rather see it go smoothly than see us crash and burn cause we got too ambitious.

Just give it a bit, I can assure you, you haven't seen anything yet.

I like the idea of creating separate language ATS sites, but then it just creates a rift between members.

Having one coherent base language allows members to easily communicate.

I think adding languages regardless if they were separate websites would create confusion.

One large site (to me anyway) makes the most sense.

It may be a possibility in the future and I'm sure the 3 amigos have discussed expanding into different languages. I just don't see it as an option now.

Spanish would probably be the first added. French too?

The thing about those languages is that they're so similar (Italian included) that people can understand you even if you speak a completely different language.

It might be a good idea to add a preliminary foreign language section to see how it goes, but if not many people post there would be no reason to keep it running.

Good idea, but who knows how it would work...

ATS is always expanding, but the 3 amigos have a lot on their plate right now with the MIX.