I think we should encourage other language use because that will encourage expansion of the network and bring in additional devs from other regions. That being said it does need to be done sensibly. Perhaps adding an “Other Languages” section of the forum or something similar would help. For instance if a topic is going to be carried out primarily in Chinese it could be moved to the “Other Languages”, or if we get a lot of Chinese folks in the community then the Chinese Language section. If posted in any other section then it would be required they use English or provide an adaquate translation.
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We are, of course, all interested in being as inclusive as possible. But if we just throw it open to whatever, we invoke “babble-archy”–the tyranny of incomprehensibility.
For the moment, especially till we have something functional as an open network, restricting THIS forum to English is the right thing. We are here to communicate with mutual understanding.
That said, if anyone wanted to open up a forum in a specific language, moderated or not, and tend it somewhat, I’m sure we could prevail upon the domain to add a subdomain like "forum.(language of choice).safenework.io and have it forward to whoever cares to host it. That could be replicated for any number of languages, and allow more connections without losing high through-put of understanding here.
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It makes a lot more sense to create separate forums for each language.
- Focussing on one language makes it easier for people who read the forum.
- Supporting multiple languages in the same forum is not a core feature of Discourse.
If a group of people want to discuss SAFE Network in another language, I would them recommend to setup their own instance of Discourse. With DigitalOcean for instance, you can install Discourse in one-click.
The downside to Discourse though is that it takes at least 1GB of RAM to host (and ideally 2 GB). So it can be a bit expensive to get started if you are only willing to pay for a small server (e.g. 512 MB). In this case I would recommend something more lightweight such as Flarum.
Another option is to ask an existing forum that gathers people from a specific language to add a SAFE Network category. For example, Forobits has a category called “Maidsafe”.
In terms of the System Docs, they have been migrated to the SAFE Network Wiki. It uses the MediaWiki software, which has multi-language support as a core feature. Please contact me if you want to translate the wiki and you need help 
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I translated many pages, but I paused due to this reason:
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I’m inclined to agree with @riddim that there is no point investing a lot of time translating the documentation until the implementation has settled down and there are less changes. We will see this as we approach release. I think a lot of the work already completed will still be used in the revised docs/wiki.
In the interim, @dirvine came up with the idea of offering bounties for accepted RFC translations as these would be integrated into the system and documentation anyway. Not only is this a nice idea from a documentation perspective, but is also a nice way for less technical people to get involved. We probably need to give this some more thought, but would be interesting to see what you guys think?
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I am in (once again) for french in this case. I would have prefered to contribute with code, but the time and maybe skills is what kept me away from it. With translations I can work on the move, in short sessions so that fits better with my schedule. Btw, will you also be needing translations for the websites and Launcher UI?
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We will, but these are under development at the moment. Good to know you are able to help 
I think bounties for accepted RFCs are a good idea =)
…first I had my doubts because it is a little bit unfair when you think about all the time and work some people do invest in this forum, the wiki, podcasts and so on … on the other hand RFCs are necessary ‘official’ publications of maidsafe … and if there was no community member willing to translate it a professional translator probably would be hired … and these highly committed people probably can do translation too 
sooooo what languages are needed? A friend of mine could translate to Luxembourgish and i know one of the 31,000 native Ladin speakers - what do you say …? xD
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Like I say, we need to give this some thought and I think you are right that we need to make this fair across the board for all members of the community for the podcasts, blog articles…etc… I would say no to Luxembourgish, but if you know anyone proficient in a click language that would be appreciated
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haha sorry … only afrikaans and swahili to offer when it comes to africa … no click … :-\
maybe @whiteoutmashups could help here xD
ps: yes yes - pretty international here xD you have to be careful what you say @nicklambert there really could be someone who would be able to do that kind of stuff
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my xhosa is pretty rusty tbh lol… jk they don’t even speak that in Kenya
Maybe @mwaa ?
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i will help to translate into Chinese when all things will be done and released
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