Hello ET Community! We need more articles and writers!! | 141 comments (140 topical, 1 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Hello ET Community! We need more articles and (4.00 / 3)

ET feels very very anglo sometimes.

Did you mean a higher proportion of people from English speaking countries? It's inevitable, given the language...

I'm not sure that English proficiency is restraining contributors from France or Italy (make that the whole continent, save the Nordic and the Dutch).

My own suspicion is that people in France, Italy, Germany, etc... are used to discuss on online forums in their own countries and very few will be looking elsewhere. If anything, you'd ask what's wrong with us spending our time in English speaking blogs? :)

That's why I was thinking of linkups with already established forums: we are not going to re-invent places that already exist...

by Bernard (bernard) on Sun May 24th, 2009 at 05:27:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hello ET Community! We need more articles and (4.00 / 3)

But if a long term objective is to assist in the development of a European Demos, and many people within that demos are not proficient/confident in English, is it not a start to bring such people together into a single forum like ET where some docs may be translated, some conversations take place between people with multi-lingual skills, and where people who re comfortable reading (but not writing) English can congregate and contribute on more equal terms?

I see it as part of a transitionary process. There is no ideal process/platform/site/collection of sites right now. We could start the process and gradually build up better tools to support it. Building a community takes a long time - we have to start from where we are at now rather than waiting for some more ideal future starting point.

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Sun May 24th, 2009 at 05:40:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hello ET Community! We need more articles and (none / 0)

No, I meant a cultural feeling, just a feeling.

How many French or Italian are contributing here, more or less? I've only seen 2 or 3 of each - knowing that I'm not here all the time. How many Greeks ?
English is more difficult for southerners. On the other hand, I kind of suspect that quite a lot of people understand French here :)

You may be right about people being used to join their own local forums, and Europe is such a Babel tower that any kind of federative idea about the EU is probably doomed for a long time to come. Which is why we desperately need stuff like Arte, Euronews and the likes, and their blogging correspondents.

That said, I appreciated to see quotations from foreign papers accompanied by translation. Those are allowed and I believe well valued. Personal prose accompanied by a translation would be too, I think.

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)

by ValentinD (walentijn arobase free spot frança) on Mon May 25th, 2009 at 06:34:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hello ET Community! We need more articles and (none / 1)

hey valentinD, your sig reminds me of a joke i find amusing. perhaps you will too.

'they're all crazy except you and me, and you've been acting a little weird lately!'

cheers

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 01:55:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hello ET Community! We need more articles and (none / 0)

There're plenty of variants of that joke including one ending in "sometimes I have my doubts about you".

Point being? :)

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)

by ValentinD (walentijn arobase free spot frança) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 02:02:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hello ET Community! We need more articles and (4.00 / 2)

"There're plenty of variants of that joke including"

...one more like : "Socrates is dead, Einstein is dead, I'm not feeling that well either lately..." :)

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)

by ValentinD (walentijn arobase free spot frança) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 02:23:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hello ET Community! We need more articles and (none / 1)

hellarious!

both variants are instructive, antidote for solipsism.

your sig sounds like a set up line for another variant.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 05:38:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hello ET Community! We need more articles and (4.00 / 2)

Well yeah, I'd thought a bit of sarcastic cynicism would go down well with the (overwhelmingly) anglo audience here - just trying to bond, see :P

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)

by ValentinD (walentijn arobase free spot frança) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 07:09:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hello ET Community! We need more articles and (none / 1)

Except that I don't think a place like ET exists in Spanish, for instance.

There are clones of Digg or Del.icio.us, and some personal blogs with a large following, forums and comments on news sites. But I find the content terribly provincial, petty and factional - there is no place where Spain's policy issues are debated, it's all about the politicking.

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buitler

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 04:39:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Hello ET Community! We need more articles and writers!! | 141 comments (140 topical, 1 editorial, 0 hidden)

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