Back in 2008 I have launched this poems website:
We actually had quite fun back then with it, and there are about 5k poems published.
Now it is quite abandoned and I want to try to relaunch it.
The main audience language for the site was Romanian and I think all the users are Romanian too.
But since I was living in Spain at one point I've also translated the site to Spanish and my mother (romanian) started to post a lot of poems in Spanish.
And some users (romanians) on the site also posted in French and English.
So I guess my struggle is to try to understand how and if I should deal with multiple languages and internationalization of the project.
And I say it regarding all aspects of the project, the current audience, the authenticity, sending newsletters, social media, community management, etc. and also tech related, maybe I build a website, or a PWA, or an app.
Because from what I can think of... I could choose one of these options:
Maybe the Stackoverflow - way could be the most optimal, and try to build all the tech in a way that can be easily duplicated and create a new website based on it, but the projects would be quite independent but at the same time part of a same network.
What do you think? Do you "understand my pain"?
Do you know of any similar "content" oriented projects that exist for multiple and different cultures?
Thanks!
Internationalization is surprisingly hard. If you told me it's a working site with some demand on more languages and you are looking to expand, then, it would be a tempting expansion.
Right now, because you are relaunching it, it's not clear to me the amount of work and benefit that you expect. It might be that just relaunching it in one language is enough work for the potential value you may get, and only after it works, you might want to go into an expansion face.
Thanks for the feedback! Indeed, I will try to design the tech the best way possible to be able to replicate it internationally, but focus for now just on one main region and language.
Hi Alexandru,
Nice project!
Is it built with a specific web framework? Most modern web frameworks have some sort of support for internalization out of the box.
The app itself would be translated with
keysand the specific text would be served depending on URLI actually prefer the language code after the domain vs a subdomain.
As far as the poems themselves:
The poem database table would have a language code. So a poem could have multiple translations, and the language the visitor is viewing would be the first one queried. Possibly with the ability to view others.
It would look like 2 ways translations are stored possibly:
I am actually working on a translation management app also in case it would be useful for you: https://tranzlate.io
Hope this helps! Let me know if you need any help!
Hey Pseudo, thanks for the feedback.
Actually it is not such a technical issue, as I have experience building multi-language projects.
The website is PHP + Smarty but I do work a lot with some PHP frameworks such as Yii, and the new one will be built on a framework.
My issue was more regarding mixing content and users from multiple cultures in a single project, or just focusing on a single culture for now and duplicate the project for new ones in the future.
Ty for the feedback and good luck with your translation management app!