Language used in reviews?

I know Jamendo started as an French-speaking site, BUT it now is more spread in language. Me, for instance, am a Norwegian. And since most of us from other countries where we don't speak French as a 1st or 2nd language, we find it therefor very difficult to understand mainly what the reviews since most are in French. But most of us do speak English as a 1st or 2nd language (I speak it as a 2nd language). So I therefor propose that all reviews are written in English. By doing this jamendo can attract more people to use jamendo, because people might be "frightened" away from using jamendo at first if they see someting as important as reviews written in French.
What do you folks think?

[ Actually, I've been learning French since I came here, and have grown to like it immensely. ]

I think a more useful feature is what Jamendo DOES have -- different "home" versions of the site for each language. Notice how people are encouraged to write reviews in their own language? This is the only way we can grow.

Further, the art of discussing music involves many fine points of distinction. I do not think that forcing this into a second language would be better for the quality of the reviews -- it seems the best review would be one written in the language of greatest fluency. The reviews should be beautiful in themselves (that's the standard we can strive for, anyway).

In short, the site is about music. Would we really be making people feel at home by demanding some sort of linguistic conformity? Would art and music be served?

I agree that keeping reviews written in the native language of the reviewer is the best approach. True, it demands some extra leg-work when it's written in a language not your own, but it actually makes it fun. I found a review of my music on a Russian blog, and the online translators made an hysterical hash of it! Fortunately, I have a friend who was able to translate it for me. But a new review was written about me in French, and I have yet to iron out all the details of exactly what the reviewer is saying! It can be very frustrating at time, but I think it's well worth it, because it maintains an equal playing field for all, instead of constructing another set of gates through which everyone has to pass.

Perhaps a better solution would be a refinement of the "See reviews in your language/other languages" system. I really dislike the idea of using only one language for reviews, no matter what language is chosen.

I would like to be able to specify which languages I understand and have reviews in those languages showed before those I don't understand on an album
I'm a sweden - I understand swedish very good, english almost as well and german a little bit. I do not understand a word of french, I do however understand a bit of the language that the countries around me speaks - like norweigan and danish.
It would be fun if Jamendo cotinued to be a multi-lingual site, but to deliver the best content to each user according to his/her languages.

jamendo used to have such a feature (selecting what language for reviews), but i have no idea where it went.

Isn't the idea of Jamendo to get the largest number of people interested? People, me included, are a bit turned off by the whole Jamendo-idea when we for the first time enter the site and notices that almost all the reviews are in French. I think that since English has become a lingua franca it should be this language that is the preferred for reviews. However, the feature mentioned here about selecting language for the reviews by for instance using a drop-down box is interesting, but I think this will not solve this "problem". People would still be writing in their own language and as a result of this the reviews that are the most agreed upon are not necessarily on top.

In response to bmccosar: If everyone was to take what you are proposing as a fact, Jamendo would be a very confusing site. That's because if everyone was to write in their one native language the site would end up as a frustrating mix of everything. I'm Norwegian, so if I where to write reviews all in Norwegian, how would people understand at all what I'm writing? Reviews are ment as texts that other people read the get an idea of what the reviewer thinks about an album, so the people can make up an opinion of their one easier.
I do agree that in our native language it is easier to draw the fine lines of distinction, but I would rather that as much people as possible are using AND understanding Jamendo, than to get the reviews most artistical and distincive correct. As more people use it, the reivews that are the most "correct" and agreed upon will be on top, and as result these will most probably be the reviews where the fine lines of distinction really are present.

This site IS all about the music, but reviews are about music as well.

Granted, having many languages, there may be some confusion.

However, I feel forcing everyone to use the same language would only cause resentment. If you think it's frustrating to see the majority reviews in French, imagine you had entered this site and they had chosen a neutral common language, such as Esperanto or Latin. Probably we'd have all of 3 members here and 1 album.

Is it in line with the philosophy of a site about freedom of expression to have a required language for reviews?

Also, don't think the present Jamendo is the one which will be here in a year. The site has been expanding; we have more and more members, and more and more albums. If you want to see more reviews in Norwegian, and have people to read your reviews in Norwegian -- try getting more Norwegians on Jamendo. I for one like hearing music from all over the world. If you spread the word in your local music scene, or on music sites in Norway, you'll be helping this site and keeping the idea of music freedom going.

Then again, I'm not typical. I've studied French, German, Spanish, Mvskoke (my tribal language), Japanese, Chinese, and Latin, so where some see "a frustrating mix of everything" I see a place I more or less fit right in. Recognizing that, I'm glad you started this thread, because it's interesting to see how others think on this question.

You write a review in whatever language you thinks is appropriate. A non-english comment is far better than no comment and for a norwegian artist maybe a comment in norweigan would be more worth than an english one?

Today you are confronted with many french comments because there are many french people on this site. If the languages was sorted in an order you specified you would see understandable comments first and perhaps you could even get norweigan comments . The comments maybe would be needed to be weight according to age also so that you won't see only the same few old norweigan comments which you perhaps even has written yourself ;) For the people who haven't registered the comments that should be showed before the others would be the ones of the translation of the site - like swedish for me (when the translation is finally finished - one little thing left :/)

I agree that it Jamendo were to introduce guidelines that said that you only can write reviews in English, at first people would be angry. But that should not be an obstacle big enough for the things Jamendo would gain by transitioning to English reviews. I think jamendo would get more members eventually since non-french people would understand the site better. Whether we like it or not, English is the lingua franca of most of the world. Or we could make jamendo only in Norwegian, if that is a better idea? Maybe in the future everyone in the world speaks Norwegian
but seriously; on bmccosar question about freedom of expression: I do honestly think that guidelines will not threaten freedom of expression!

GoblinKiller: I thought the idea of social networking was to get as many as possible to understand what you write. Or?

and bmccosar: I'm simply amazed by the number of languages you understand. Amazing!

Perhaps people could be encouraged to write their review in multiple languages? Someone who is fluent in both English and French could write two reviews, one a translation of the other.

My concern is that too many guidelines will raise the threshold for reviewing, which will decrease the total number of reviews. Participation should be as easy as possible!

Um. Seriously, we need to have a babelfish button option in your personal settings which will convert a review to your favoured language. Sure, machine translation is horrible, but it's better than nothing.

It's a feature that this site reallllllly needs.

pajandrum: I totally agree with you. If jamendo ain't going to be more international then French, this option should be on the site.

Thanks everybody for dropping your opinion on the subject.

We'll filter the review languages (again) soon, maybe add a member customization setting to set which languages you want to include?