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:
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/9690
(I thought this was already being worked on, but I cannot find any official announcements saying this.)
@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.
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.)
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:
It works in the Fedilab app too.
@feditips@mstdn.social @IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app oh and FYI, all Misskey instances use DeepL
@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps That's not cool either! Misskey should /stop/.
@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 Doesn't it like, send over the post text? It kinda has to.
@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app Yea, but it's not like your IP is being sent. And DeepL is more privacy - friendly than Google.
@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.
@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app If you put something on the public internet, expect for it to be scraped.
@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps /Fedi isn't public./
Followers-only exists.
@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".
@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".
@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app But there's no violation of privacy realistically.
@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 I should probably just leave. This is like talking to a brick wall.
@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?
@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app you just did the twitter thing
@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps the. twitter thing?
That image won't load.
@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app image description: "Twitter the only place where well articulated sentences still get misinterpreted. You can say "I like pancakes" and somebody will say "So you hate waffles?" No bitch. Dats a whole new sentence. Wtf is you talkin about. 1:34 23 Oct'l7 61.4K Retweets 146K Likes"
@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps oh! False dichotomies and crap.
@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps And, I'm extrapolating from "making it easy and recommended for other people to ship everything you say to a third party you may not be able to trust", which is what you /seem/ to be advocating for, it sounds like. (Are you not? Actual question. If not, then what?)
@thatonecalculator @feditips @matt @apps (because like, you're going "have a button for people to ship off your posts to DeepL or whoever".)
@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net @feditips@mstdn.social @matt@oslo.town @apps@toot.fedilab.app Nobody at DeepL is going to be like "oh wow someone translated 'I like kissing men', lemme reverse search that exact string, use the power of magic to trace it back to one fedi post, use my secret hacker skills to fully dox that person and send it to their government".
@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.