
Building a better way to write posts in multiple languages - runesoerensen
https://code.facebook.com/posts/597373993776783/building-a-better-way-to-write-posts-in-multiple-languages
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616c
As an on-off Arabic linguist in a former life, and someone with rudimentary
NLP and computational linguistics coursework, good luck with that.

Jokes aside, as people commended the Arab Spring for the Twitter/FB
revolution, I often feel this type of interface presumes people want to
communicate across language boundaries. If anything, and as a computer geek a
quite depressing observation, it has largely allowed Balkanization to improve.
You wanna mobilize x number of activists in your region, specifically, with
your dialect? Copy and paste text into FB. Twitter, or whatever least
resistance platform. You can even ask them to translate the interface
surrounding said text for you, as they did in the Arab world with some tech
savvy people, they called themselves Al-Mugharridoon (Tweeters, like literally
the sound the bird makes), but no one cares. FB and Twitter and amplification
systems now for local media and communication, facing inward not outward.
Translation or localized UI has made little difference, beyond allowing
islands of similar regional groups, even those peering at each other and
hating each other (Egyptian Islamists and liberals) both operating on the same
infrastructure! It's awesome in a truly scary way.

I have made similar comments to experts on the media industry, specifically in
the Arab world. We were all taught in college to speak proper Modern Standard
Arabic as bridge language for Arabs to understand each other despite
significant structural difference in dialect. Living in the region for half a
decade, I see its importance going down. Where I live Arab kids use English
for this function, even with limited education and broken English in most
cases.

With the increasingly cheap tech, just like FB, amplifying your local dialect
and facing inward is now cost-effective. Al Jazeera, yes even those credited
with Modern Standard Arabic on satellite and rejuvenating pan-Arabism, has
Mubashir (Direct) channels with local content, for example Egypt, where you
get Egyptian commentators speaking Egyptian slang directed at Egyptians. There
is value in this, and regional channels do the same, with a far smaller
budget? Why and how? It's cheaper, I do not need education to enage, and I
honestly do not give a crap about those outside my community, unless it
through my local lens looking out within a frame I appreciate.

Of course I see the value for FB engineers and the general crowd here. But
sadly living abroad has taught me the cheapening of communication tools is
increasing insularity except for those who want do, as a joke BGP-style node
work between cultures. Those people have a tough gig, and it blows up in their
face a lot, just like BGP.

(Pardon the networking joke, I am in a rare mood.)

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wodenokoto
So they are getting something like thousands of parallel translated posts a
day. Add in all the stuff you can get from outside source, I'm honestly
surprised they are not better at this or on part with Google.

Maybe some of Google blogging platforms hve multiple language options, that
gives Google an extra edge in the data race.

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dragonbonheur
I wish they had a good way to post formatted source code on Facebook posts...

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sebastianconcpt
+1

Also markdown

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kevinwang
This will be so good for training translation

