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Back when this site started, the official status of localization on Stack Exchange was

localization is slowly creeping up in priority. But there are no dates to report or even an estimate. There are proposals targeted for other languages, but they are created with the understanding that the menus and prompts will all be in English… for the time being.

Well, it's been a long time — almost a kiloday. After almost three years since we concluded that the site should be French-centric, it's starting to feel like we've been led on. Since then, Stack Overflow in Portuguese has been launched, and it's working. The engine now supports localization!

Great, so can we have a French user interface for French Language?

At the moment, activity on this site is mostly sustained by non-native askers who come and go, and a core of regular answerers who are for the most part natives but not professionals. Starting a Stack Exchange site on such a population is viable. But to grow, we need experts. Unfortunately, the experts in our field are, by definition, fluent in French, but are usually not fluent in English. The lack of a usable interface to experts prevents this site from growing, especially towards experts such as teachers of French, academics, writers, etc.

It's ok if the French interface starts out slightly incomplete: we have a core of bilingual regulars who'll be delighted to help. We can be beta-testers. Paris doesn't need to be built in a day. But we need a fondation to build on.

Please provide a French user interface for French Language Stack Exchange.


Lorsque ce site a démarré, le statut officiel de la localisation sur Stack Exchange était :

la localisation grimpe lentement en priorité. Mais aucune date n'est fixée, ni même une estimation. Certaines propositions de sites dans d'autres langues existent, mais elles ont été créées sachant que les menus et le reste de l'interface seront en anglais… pour le moment.

Bon bon, voilà que ça fait longtemps — presque un kilojour. Presque trois ans après que nous avons conclu que le site serait centré sur le français, on commencerait à croire qu'on a été menés en bateau. Depuis, Stack Overflow en portugais a été lancé, et ça fonctionne. Le moteur permet à présent la localisation !

Super, donc peut-on avoir une interface en français sur French language ?

En ce moment, l'activité sur ce site provient principalement de personnes dont le français n'est pas la langue maternelle, qui viennent et repartent, plus un noyau d'utilisateurs réguliers qui répondent, pour la plupart des francophones natifs mais pas des professionnels. Démarrer un Stack avec ce genre de population est viable, mais pour grossir, ce site a besoin d'experts. Malheureusement les experts en la matière maîtrisent, par définition, le français, et en général moins l'anglais. L'absence d'une interface qui leur soit accessible empêche la croissance de ce site, car nous aurions besoin d'experts tels que des professeurs de français, des universitaires, des écrivains, etc.

Ce n'est pas un problème si l'interface est un peu incomplète au début : notre noyau d'utilisateurs réguliers bilingues seront enchantés d'apporter leur aide, nous pouvons être béta-testeurs. Paris n'a pas besoin d'être construit en un jour. Nous avons quand même besoin d'une fondation sur laquelle construire.

Fournissez s'il-vous-plaît une interface en français à Langue française.

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  • 8
    I entirely support Gilles's request. With a French user interface we could attract academics and professionals of the French language and who would not otherwise join our community, not necessarily because they can't speak English but because the most ardent defenders of the French language are to be found among those and using English to discourse on the French language represents an heresy to them.
    – None
    Commented Apr 23, 2014 at 17:45
  • 2
    Not having a French interface for meta.french.stackexchange is an aberration. And the site's URL should be meta.francais.stackexchange (or, using IPv6, meta.français.stackexchange).
    – Urhixidur
    Commented Apr 24, 2014 at 14:03
  • 5
    @Urhixidur You're confusing IPv6 with IDN. We could ask for francais.stackexchange.com and français.stackexchange.com to redirect to french.stackexchange.com — but the UI language is a user preference, so I don't think it should depend on the URL. Commented Apr 24, 2014 at 14:11
  • I stand corrected. My point wasn't about the UI's language (which is user-chosen, of course). My point was about how each language's URL was named. Using English for every single language is imperialistic. french.stackexchange.com should redirect to francais.stackexchange.com, not the other way around. Look at any Wikipedia page: the link to each other language uses the name of that language in that language (français for French, Deutsch for German, etc.). That is the only fair naming method.
    – Urhixidur
    Commented Apr 26, 2014 at 13:27
  • If I remember correctly, it's Rome that wasn't build in a day, and Paris gets into a bottle with enough if's ;) ...Bonjour! Première visite sur ce site, ça fait tout drôle de pouvoir commenter en français.. j'adore! Commented Apr 29, 2014 at 0:32
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    I’d add “Can we help providing a French UI?” because, well, even with technical means, it’s not an easy task (“How to translated Unanswered?” comes to mind).
    – Édouard
    Commented Apr 29, 2014 at 1:17
  • @Édouard ben en plusieurs mots, questions sans réponse.
    – None
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 16:24
  • @Édouard "not easy" does not mean it's not possible to do it. When a po file is published, we can try to translate it!
    – mansuetus
    Commented May 2, 2014 at 22:30
  • 1
    @mansuetus My point was that even though the technical means exists, asking for being given a translation is quite a demand. We should make sure they know we can help if needed.
    – Édouard
    Commented May 2, 2014 at 22:34
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    @Édouard now they know : we can help you translate things :-)
    – mansuetus
    Commented May 2, 2014 at 22:36
  • @mansuetus. Not only can we "help" translating - but there are enough of us entirely fluent and competent in both French and English to "do" it.
    – None
    Commented May 3, 2014 at 6:58
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    I think the UI should then at least be available in both EN and FR at the user's discretion.
    – VH-NZZ
    Commented May 3, 2014 at 10:31
  • I am using this site as an Anglophone learning French, and benefiting a lot from it. I would find it stressful if the UI was changed to French without an option to switch it to English. It does make me think again of that question that has been brought up before: can this site be BOTH for people like me (Anglophones learning French, who learn best by communicating questions and answers in English) AND for Francophones (some of whom might not be comfortable with English) ? Also: is it rude to the latter group that these comments here are not bilingual?
    – silph
    Commented Oct 11, 2015 at 9:37
  • I should add something to prevent misinterpretation to my above comment. I am very grateful for the Francophone here who answer my questions; that is, I do not mean to imply that I would like to split from them! I am only wondering if there's a way to accommodate both groups of people; a switchable French/English interface could be one part of this.
    – silph
    Commented Oct 11, 2015 at 9:49
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    @silph Of course! I don't see why the interface should have to be monolingual. What I want is to have an interface in French, because the lack of a French interface prevents many experts in the French language from participating, as well as many students of French. Commented Oct 11, 2015 at 17:50

1 Answer 1

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Apparemment, non, ou en tous cas pas pendant encore plusieurs années.

Contrairement à ce qui avait été annoncé, Stack Exchange ne soutient plus la création de sites dans des langues autres que l'anglais, à l'exception de sites de programmation.

Pour plus d'informations, voir l'annonce (en anglais seulement) de refus de la proposition d'un site d'utilisation des ordinateurs en portugais alors même que l'infrastructure existe (le site de programmation en portugais se porte bien et que la proposition était sur le point d'atteindre le quota d'utilisateurs habituel de lancement en un temps extrêmement court.

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  • @TimPost, in the linked discussion, you promised an update on the status for french.se. Could we have it? Commented Apr 7, 2015 at 8:08
  • Way back when.
    – user3177
    Commented Nov 7, 2016 at 4:26

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