Language support

AskFedora is set up to support languages that community members are able to look after. Categories are translated to the different supported languages.

Supporting a new language

A new language can be supported on the request of the community. It is imperative that the community members that request the language commit to spending the required time to watch over the language categories. The new language will be moderated by these community members. In general, it is good to set up 2 moderators to start with. Trust levels need not be changed. As the language community develops, the gamification features of Discourse will promote other users to levels of trust to make it self-sustaining.

  • Ensure community members supporting the language have accounts on AskFedora.

  • Promote community members to moderators.

  • Set up translated categories for this new language. Please use a unique colour for the top level categories for the new language, and the same sets of colours for the level two categories.

  • Ensure that each category has translated descriptions.

  • Ensure that each category has topic templates.

  • Ensure that each languages are updated in AskFedora Guidelines wiki.

  • Ensure that each languages are in "Start here!" TOPIC on Discourse

  • Ensure that all New User’s Muted/Silence all categories and sub-categories that don’t want to track.

The progress for new languages can be tracked in the "Staff" category on AskFedora itself. Here is a topic template for setting up a new language:

## Community members in-charge

At least two community members are required for the initial setup and moderation/management in the long term.

- FAS1
- FAS2

All staff members should have up to date profile pages on the wiki.

Please try to do these steps in order. They depend on each other. For example, a start here post without a new category doesn't do much.

## Initial reading for new staff

Staff need to be well versed with how Discourse works to be able to help users. So, all staff members should read these guides and familiarise themselves with Discourse:

Staff member 1:
[ ] [Discourse user guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-new-user-guide/96331)
[ ] [Discourse moderation guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-moderation-guide/63116)

Staff member 2:
[ ] [Discourse user guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-new-user-guide/96331)
[ ] [Discourse moderation guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-moderation-guide/63116)
## Initial setup tasks

Until everything is setup, we'll limit the categories and posts to only be visible to staff members.

[ ] Create top level LANGUAGE category (for announcements only---moderated).
[ ] Set its security settings so that only staff can can read/write/see.
[ ] Set its settings to: moderator approval is needed for all new topics.
[ ] Pick a colour that is not in use by any other top-level category.
[ ] Set "About ... category" text by translating the text for the English category, close post to prevent replies.

[ ] Create "on using Fedora" sub category.
[ ] Set "About ... " post by translating the post for the English sub-category, close post to prevent replies.
[ ] Use same color use by this sub-category for other languages

[ ] Create "on installing or upgrading Fedora" sub-category
[ ] Set "About ... " post by translating the post for the English sub-category, close post to prevent replies.
[ ] Use same color use by this sub-category for other languages

## Documentation set up

[ ] In the "staff", create new post with translation of English "start here" post, close post to prevent replies. We set this up in the "staff" category initially, and then move it to "start here" when everything is ready (next section).
[ ] Add "Start here" in LANGUAGE to top website banner.
[ ] Add "Welcome to ask fedora ..." sentence in LANGUAGE to end of website banner.

## Review

Another staff member should go over things just to have a fresh pair of eyes take a look.

[ ] Reviewed (staff member who reviewed can reply to this post saying they've done so)

## Final set ups: make language setup public

[ ] Change permissions of all categories to "Everyone can see/reply/post"
[ ] Change settings of top level category to "New posts are moderated".
[ ] Move "start here" post to "start here category".

## Staff permission updates

Since Discourse only allows 15 staff members (admin+moderators), and because we want to have the smallest necessary set of admins, after the language is ready, we:

[ ] Convert a staff member to moderator from admin.
[ ] Convert second staff member to trust level 4 leader.