One of the most requested features on Mastodon is a built-in language translation system, where you can click on a post and it automatically translates it into your language.

If this is important to you, and if you are comfortable using Github, please give this issue a thumbs up to let the developers know that this feature is wanted:

github.com/mastodon/mastodon/i

(I thought this was already being worked on, but I cannot find any official announcements saying this.)

#Mastodon #Translation #Translations #Translate #Languages

@feditips Only if it doesn't use e.g. Google. I'm extremely skeeved out by the thought of people having a built-in button to violate our privacy.

@IceWolf @feditips I agree. The feature would be nice, but pretty sure it's way more useful at the ✨browser✨ level.

Like, Vivaldi has it built in, and I think Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge do too... so... Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari are lagging behind (again).

vivaldi.com/features/translate

@matt @IceWolf

To give some context, it must be the most common question I got asked when the big new wave of members joined: where's the translate button? It's like people just expect it to be there.

Whether or not it is more useful through a browser, people are looking for it in Mastodon itself (shrug)

@feditips @matt I'm probably gonna go thumbs-/down/ it (assuming it uses some cloud service) 'cause, yeah, not cool.

Better to explain to people that it's not really a good thing to ship people's private discussions to Google. (And yeah private discussions do happen on here, followers-only scope is great.)

@IceWolf @matt

It's not using a cloud service, it would be using an independent instance of a free open source service.

It wouldn't be going to Google.

@feditips @matt Yeah, but is that instance /run by the same people as the Masto instance/? Even if it's open source, if it's some other service run by other people we don't know, it's still not okay. It's not /as horrifyingly bad/, but that doesn't make it good.

@IceWolf @matt

I am assuming it would be run by someone connected to Mastodon.

The third party Mastodon app Fedilab (@apps)has actually gone ahead and set up its own instance, you can try it here:

translate.fedilab.app

It works in the Fedilab app too.

@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app Wait, why? DeepL is pretty great and the way Misskey does it, you're not sending over any personal data.

@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps It's still a random third-party we don't know or trust.

There shouldn't be a button built in to send our posts there.

@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps Also, have you seen all the uproar whenever a fedi scraping instance comes along? Those get blocked quick.

So yeah, no, I won't just "expect it to be scraped".

@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app the thing is, it's just post text. Not usernames or IDs, not metadata, not IPs. It provides more upsides than downsides.

@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps Nobody cares about shipping off our post text to a company without consent?

That's a huge downside right there.

If we'd checked a box saying "let people submit my posts to third-party translation services through the UI", that'd be one thing.

But that's not the case, it's just A Thing with no way to say "hey, no, stop that".

@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app its basically the same as copy - pasting the content into DeepL yourself. It's just handier for ppl like me who follow a lot of Japanese and German people as someone who only reads English.

@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps I see quite a few German posts on here and I just let it baffle me.

If you copy-paste it into DeepL yourself, then it's /your/ fault. If it's built into the server? Then the server is pushing it, recommending it, going "here have this handy button to violate people's privacy".

@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps /Yes there fucking is./

You're shipping off our post text.

That's still violating our privacy.

(before you go "well there's no identifying information!", /what about people's names in the posts./ That gets sent off.)

@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps The posts /themselves/ are private information, which... should be obvious.

@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app Your text post is going to be shipped off whether I click the three dots -> translate or whether I select it and right click -> translate with DeepL. Why limit accessibility options?

@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps Because, like I said like three or four times already, there is a MASSIVE difference between doing it on your own initiative and having the server recommend it to you.

@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app IMO a server recommending it is just more accessibility options and removing language barriers. You have to go into a submenu anyway so it's not pushing it in your face.

@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps Sure, it's removing language barriers.

It's also /shipping our posts off to strangers without our consent./

Just because you CAN do something and that something might be helpful does not mean that something is a good thing. There are consequences too.

@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps What about people talking about perfectly-fine-but-illegal things like, say, being gay in a homophobic country?

Shouldn't fedi be safe for them too?

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@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps Yes, and those visibility schemas are /important./

Privacy matters! Not everything is public!

(Also, followers-only actually does control where your post gets sent. It only gets sent to instances that have critters following you.)

@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app on an instance that doesn't respect followers only, all users of that instance will be able to see the post.

@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps Consent from the person reading our posts is not consent from us, /making/ our posts.

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