Following sudanglo's suggestion in another thread, a modest proposal to the site administrators*: it should not be against the site rules to post in Esperanto to an English-language thread. Do you agree?

*fine people, all!

Quote for context:

sudanglo:There is a silly rigidity on the part of the admin, which results in a red ink reprimand for any post in Esperanto in the English forum.

It is blindingly obvious that there are many who can read a post in English who may feel themselves to have insufficient active command of English to freely join in the discussion.

In my view all national language forums should permit both Esperanto and the national language in posts, and particularly so for the English forum which is clearly read by many who are not native speakers of English.

The absence of posts in Esperanto in the English forum combined with the presence of many for whom English is not a first language could make it look to an outside observer as though the Esperantists themselves don't believe in Esperanto as an International language.

I would say - It should not be against the rules to post in Esperanto to a language-specific subforum, as long as the posting user is unable to express himself in the other language.

It would be more useful (and polite) if the English-speaking crocodiles would start to use Esperanto in the Esperanto subforums (for discussions).

richardhall:Do you agree?

No, the current arrangement is fine as it is. Opening up the English forum to Esperanto-only posts (or any other forum to a different language than the forum's main language) is a completely against-sense proposal.

If you want to participate in an English forum, use English. If you can't use English then either use a translation tool or go to the forum for the language you can use. It's not rocket science.

Sunjo:It would be more useful (and polite) if the English-speaking crocodiles would start to use Esperanto in the Esperanto subforums (for discussions).

I don't see this happen much. Most of the time this seems to arise from confusion regarding the subforum one is in - happens with other languages also.

Tempodivalse:

Sunjo:It would be more useful (and polite) if the English-speaking crocodiles would start to use Esperanto in the Esperanto subforums (for discussions).

I don't see this happen much. Most of the time this seems to arise from confusion regarding the subforum one is in - happens with other languages also.

This? What do you mean?
I mean English discussions which should better be discussed in Esperanto from the beginning. They are not rare on the English forum and mostly started by people who consider themselves not as komencantoj (beginners) anymore.

Sunjo:I mean English discussions which should better be discussed in Esperanto from the beginning. They are not rare on the English forum and mostly started by people who consider themselves not as komencantoj anymore.

That.

Sunjo:

Tempodivalse:

Sunjo:It would be more useful (and polite) if the English-speaking crocodiles would start to use Esperanto in the Esperanto subforums (for discussions).

I don't see this happen much. Most of the time this seems to arise from confusion regarding the subforum one is in - happens with other languages also.

This? What do you mean?
I mean English discussions which should better be discussed in Esperanto from the beginning. They are not rare on the English forum and mostly started by people who consider themselves not as komencantoj anymore.

Ah. There was a misunderstanding. I thought you were referring to people sending messages in English to the Esperanto-language subforums. That is not something I often see.

Definitely, it would be more ideal if English speakers made more use of the Esperanto forums. Some of the current conversations about the image of Esperanto in popular culture would definitely benefit from a non-Anglophone perspective.

The problem with translation from Google translate etc is that they often given totally false translations. i just googled in "Er war blau gestern" (he was drunk yesterday) - Google translated it: He was blue yesterday - and then "Er hat mich über den Tisch gezogen" (he cheated me) google: He pulled me across the table.
Then in Spanish: Es un arroz con mango (it's a mess). Google: It is a rice with mango
Then: I was feeling blue. Google: Ich fühlte mich blau (I felt drunk).
[I pasted and copied the Google translations so they are "verbatim".]
So as long as you avoid idioms, even very common ones, you end up saying something that you don't mean.
But even an everyday word, not an idiomatic expression, gets a weird translation: German "Bierdeckel" (coaster) comes out as English "beermat".
"Gleich geht's los!" (Helmut Kohl was laughed at when he said "Equal goes it loose!") but Google isn't much better: equal to Get Started

tommjames:If you can't use English then either use a translation tool or go to the forum for the language you can use.

I find use of Google Translate or similar inconsiderate in most forum contexts. It just comes up with vaguely comprehensible words that are usually inadequate to seriously contribute to any given forum discussion.

Broken, human-created English is preferable to what the machine does.