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I realize that this is only a beta version of the website, but if it gets finished, will they publish a French interface of this Stackexchange website as well? It only makes sense, as maybe native French speakers would like to help and answer questions, but can't because they aren't fluent enough in English yet.

This brings me onto my new site request question: Would it be reasonable to start of a side for the English language for French speakers, or is Stackexchange too English-based to do something like that? I'm not asking for myself, as I'm learning French and not English, but I know many people who have the problem the other way around (who need to improve their English and are native French speakers).

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    Supporters of a French interface for this site, please consider voting on this request from @Gilles on meta.stackexchange. Thank you.
    – Evpok
    Nov 4, 2016 at 7:50

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Six years ago, Stack Exchange founder Joel Spolsky wrote

Our mission is to make the Internet a better place to get expert answers to your questions. Nothing about that mission says the questions have to be in English. It is our long term goal to make the Stack Exchange Network a great, planetary resource for all the world's citizens no matter what language they speak.

Unfortunately, this vision is taking an extremely long time in coming. Although Stack Exchange has opened a few sites in languages other than English (with both questions and an interface in that other language), this is reserved to sites about programming. When Stack Exchange designed a localization framework, we put in a request for a user interface in French on this site but we have not had any answer from Stack Exchange.

In the meantime, you can certainly ask questions in French on French Language, and you can get community support about the site itself in French here on meta. However, this does not solve the issue of making the site attractive to native speakers.

For learners of English, there is a site English Language and Learners. You need to ask in English, and answers will be in English, but answerers do make an effort to adjust to the level of English that the asker should be able to understand.


Il y a six ans, le cofondateur de Stack Exchange Joel Spolsky écrivait (traduction personnelle) :

Notre mission est de contribuer à un meilleur Internet en offrant un lieu où des experts répondent à vos questions. Il n'y a rien dans notre mission qui la limite à la langue anglaise. Notre but à long terme est de faire du réseau Stack Exchange une ressource d'intérêt planétaire pour tous les citoyens du monde quelle que soit leur langue.

Malheureusement cette vision tarde beaucoup à être réalisée. Stack Exchange a bien ouvert quelques sites dans d'autres langues que l'anglais (pour ce qui est des questions comme de l'interface utilisateur), mais c'est réservé aux sites sur la programmation. Quand Stack Exchange a mis en place une infrastructure de localisation, nous avons émis la demande d'une interface en français sur ce site, mais Stack Exchange n'a toujours pas répondu à notre demande.

En attendant, vous pouvez poser des questions en français sur French Language, et vous pouvez demander de l'aide en français sur le fonctionnement du site ici-même sur meta. Mais cela ne résout pas le problème de l'attractivité du site pour les locuteurs natifs.

Pour ceux qui apprennent l'anglais, il existe un site English Language and Learners. Les questions et les réponses y sont en anglais, mais les gens qui répondent font en général attention à ajuster leur anglais en fonction de ce que le demandeur est susceptible de comprendre.

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