Yes! Good idea imo!

 

Both so those plugins are not updated

 

I am not convinced sorry. Those plugins haven't been updated since January/June 2013, so are quite out of date. Similarly, I am very sceptical about their accuracy. Google translate, arguably the most well known/developed translator, is infamous for its inaccuracies. I appreciate that language doesn't need to be perfect to get an understanding, however the inaccuracies/errors are only going to be increased when you consider the fact that people don't use 'perfect' english in game. The first link for example uses Microsoft Bing Translator, go to that website and type a few comments how people talk online (you = u etc) and I imagine you'd find quite a lot of sentences making no sense whatsoever.

 

Well, let's first get the technical issues out there.
The first translation uses microsoft's bing translation services, meaning it sends a request every time someone chats. (trust me, that's A LOT of requests). So that one can't be used just because of the sheer amount of lag it would cause. (chatlag, mostly)
And the second one uses google's translation services, so you get the same lag problems.

Now for the actual problems with automatic translations. What if people want to chat in a different language together? What if they say something and it gets translated to English. Now they suddenly can't read it any more. This won't fix anything, in fact it will simply make things messy.

 

is there a mod for this?

 

Its not like we don't have staff members who speak other languages aside from english. For example, I speak Russian, Spanish and French, and I know people like juke who speak Dutch. Even if we don't know the certain language, there are lots of users who speak another language that we can ask for help if we don't know what language it is.

 

Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean that it hasn't happened.

 

It happens very often that they simply ignore you, I've had Dutch people whom I had to talk to in Dutch. They simply ignored it. So I was forced to ban them.

The problem doesn't lie with the staff or the plugins. The problem lies in the fact that users don't listen and/or understand.

 

I agree, if possible, something should be done to help users who don't speak English. Maybe a specific chat channel where they can be directed to people who can generally speak and understand the basics of each language. In this channel we could explain to them that this is a English speaking server, and proceed to explain that it may be difficult for them to understand the rules, forums and chat in general. From here, I am not to sure which direction to head in. We could suggest for them to find a server where their language is the main one. The problem with this is we never want to drive people away from the server.

Let me know what you think :)

 

I feel the intense need to point out that no one has ever just gotten straight up banned just for speaking another language. In every case that I have dealt with, the staff makes every attempt possible to communicate with the person that they cannot speak the language in global channels and attempts to help them before any action is taken. I'm pretty sure that in the dozens of times I've had to deal with this type of situation, I have never laid a ban for it, and I've spent as much as 2 hours trying to help someone who I believe spoke Swedish get adjusted to the server and rules. As Kuke said, sometimes people just want to ignore you, even if you are speaking a language they can understand, and in that case the staff have no choice but to take action.

As for a solution, I don't think a translation plugin is the correct one. Again as Kuke said, it would cause a lot of chatlag, and it would basically make it so that the person could not understand their own language. I also don't think the solution is to have a mod who speaks a lot of languages because a. they have to sleep and b. they won't know every language anyway. The staff team do the best they can in helping people who are not natively English get started, while still upholding the rule, and I think that's all that can be expected in this case.

 

People who cannot speak English well can use a translator themselves when they need it. Anyone who joins an English server should see clearly, before joining, what they are walking into. There are plenty of decent servers that are in other languages too, if they so desire to speak only a language other than English. There are absolutely no rules stating you are required to socialize, keep a certain amount of chat lines every day, etc. Socializing should not be discouraged, of course, but it is up to the person to realize what they walked in to and use resources that are already available.

As well, most countries also have mandatory English courses/classes throughout middle school and high school. So even if someone does not have the best grasp on English, they can use a translator or spend a couple extra minutes communicating with someone. People can still socialize, make trade deals, and use party, town and non-spawn local chat in other languages. Foreign speakers are by no means gagged, muzzled, muted, etc.

Lastly, as others have said... We cannot rely on Staff to know enough languages or be on 24/7.

The only time I have seen foreign language allowed on English-majority servers, forums, and games, is via a forum section. Even then, only certain languages are allowed. Regular Staff members who speak those languages (which is why they are allowed) also have to spend extra time moderating, which may not be ideal for many of them. Or, the topics could be something that the Staff member highly dislikes... They shouldn't be forced to read something that causes them emotional distress.

tl;dr, -1

 

How would it work the other way around?
i.e.
[G] [Builder] knears2000: Hola! Que te pasa? = Hello! How are you!
But, how would this work to translate. From what I can tell, it would be like so:
[G] [Mayor] [$$$] knears2000: Hello! How are you!
Would the user have it translated back in that event, or no? If so, it would be extremely illogical.

 

I didn't read any replies to this so I'm not sure if anyone brought this up already.

If ECC had this plugin, and someone who only speaks spanish asks a question in global chat, it would be translated to english. However, everyone would answer in english as well. This wouldnt benefit the person who got themselves translated because they do not know english in the first place.

 

I attempted to explain it that way, but I don't think I said it correctly :p.