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Hehe, classic mistake of English speaking people. Try searching for 'joomla' on google.fr, google.de, google.it etc.
However the point is still the same, as the majority of reviewers links, books etc all point to .org Shouldn't www.joomla.org have links to those language and regional web sites
In one point you might be right, that joomla.org site is english only could have been dealth with by starting the re-design and resturcturing in past. That could have been a good start to even come alonge with translations of at least the Official announcements...
Maybe it's an good idea to make an other headline on this page: http://www.joomla.org/about-joomla.html where you can read about all languages, linking to the overview page. Currently you won't find any word about it on the "What is Joomla?" page, the first time you will see a mention about it is on the "Core features" page.
It think it would be great to have bigger exposure of the multi-lingual capabilities of Joomla, and directly on the homepage itself.
Tim
k, seriously.
Its valid and good questions to ask. You know the answers and so do we. It IS time.
There are some practical problems related to making it actually happen though.
Lets look at the questions you line up.
1. >> Joomla is Multi-lingual but is it International?
As much as I would like it to be true, I just have to accept the fact: Joomla core distribution is currently not multi-lingual in the sence of having built-in ability to provide your content in several languages.
Joomla, as in the software, is highly international, but as in the official homepage(s) its obviously not. But I do follow your lead on this question.
Obviously you target the issue that official site joomla.org may not reach its international audience/visitors. True.
Even though there are fine 3rd party solutions for handling multilingual content, then the administrative part of providing better international aware official sites just will be much easier when the core software is ready for it. But we know that until then other solution needs to be found. We can improve, and we will.
2. >>does the first time user know the correct web site to visit to find the most relevant information and support on joomla? Will they be able to easily find information about joomla in their native language.?
No, not all. Again, its valid and just needs to improve. I accept that fact.
3. >> Alternatives and Best Practice
Having the main site and family of sub sites all becoming available in the many languages that support joomla cms probably, most likely, would become an administrative nightmare.
I do like the ideas brought up here, of having a basic 'What is joomla!?" presented in multiple languages, each with their ressources listed. Would be an improvement.
Furthermore we have some ideas of Download becoming available in your preferred language, and docs wiki we would really like to see having language subs.
We do spend quite some time figuring how can we provide better international official sites support, where will it be of use, and where will english only still be the better choise.
Recently I tried out a test for JED to see how a partly translated interface would help non-english speakers. For practical reasons JED has to keep listings and review in english, but the minor improvements of having menus and navigation in your native language was reported to be of great help to the users testing.
We also have ongoing plans to have a more visual language related entrance at the official sites...and this will have multi-lingual support for a start.
So to answer all your questions in short: Yes, its about time.
Ole Ottosen - Joomla! Production Leadership i18n/l10n/translation
http://www.joomla.org
Well anyway, thanks for letting us know once again that it matters.
We do agree, and its fine to have a reminder when things get slow.
Appreciated.
There were a lot of talks in the past about it. And that was the wish of the international community, I still remember the project http://international.joomla.org that never went into anything.
The problem Brian is to tell it with simple words - in the past, the core simply didn't want to grant the freedom of the local people to work on it. That's the facts. The core was unsure if they can trust the community, as they can not CONTROL it (obviously they don't speak all the languages).
And there come the controversy. From one side was Ole and some other people, including the core, who wanted to have internationalism on joomla.org, but were too scared of not being able to control everything, from the other side were people like me, who wanted the things to be based on a volunteer work, trust and community based approach. However Joomla! never had a true community and therefore that way was impossible.
Now months and years later, nothing has been done yet in that direction.
At least, it is how I see and believe the things happened over the time.
And joomla.org will never be international, neither Joomla! itself will be international till this mania on controlling everything is left in the past...