[DISCUSS]English-only , with Friendly Guidance for Non-English Contributors

[delei]

Summary

To improve communication efficiency, review quality, and collaboration across our global community, we ask that issues and pull requests be written in English.

Currently, a significant amount of information and content within our community is shared in languages other than English. While we greatly value the diversity this brings, it also poses challenges for maintainers and contributors alike, as non-English content can be difficult to search, reference, and fully understand across the community.

This policy is not intended to discourage contributors from around the world. On the contrary, it helps ensure that discussions are accessible to the widest possible audience and that community members can respond consistently and effectively.

Proposal

• Accept issues and pull requests written in English only.
• Politely ask contributors to translate and resubmit non-English submissions in English.
• Update the issue template, pull request template, and official website to clearly state this policy.

Policy

• All issues must be written in English
• All pull requests must be written in English

Rationale Behind This Policy

English is the most commonly used language in open-source communities and is the most practical choice for:

• keeping discussions understandable for maintainers and contributors
• helping future readers search and learn from past issues and pull requests
• reducing misunderstandings during review and troubleshooting
• supporting collaboration across different time zones and regions

Friendly Guidance for Non-Native English Speakers

We wholeheartedly welcome contributors of every background. If English is not your first language, here are a few ways to make the process easier:

1. Use Translation Tools

Begin by drafting your content in your native language, then translate it into English using any of the following tools:

• AI assistants like GitHub Copilot
• DeepL, Google Translate, or other comparable translation services
• Built-in browser translation features

2. Keep the English Simple and Clear

Perfect grammar is not required. Concise, straightforward sentences are entirely sufficient.

For example, you can:

• Clearly describe the problem you encountered
• Explain what outcome you expected
• Describe what actually occurred
• Include relevant logs, screenshots, or code snippets where applicable

3. Addressing Potential Translation Inaccuracies

If you suspect that machine translation may not be entirely accurate:

• Add a brief note such as, "This content was translated using [tool name]."
• You are also welcome to include the original text in your native language alongside the English version for comparison purposes.

Suggested Response to Non-English Submissions

When an issue or pull request is submitted in another language, the community members may respond courteously, requesting that the content be resubmitted in English. For example:

Thank you for your valuable contribution. To ensure that the entire community can follow and review the discussion, we kindly ask that you resubmit this issue/pull request in English. We truly appreciate your understanding and look forward to assisting you as soon as it has been translated.

Recommended actions include:

1. Reply politely

   • Express gratitude for the contributor's submission.
   • Request that the issue/pull request be revised into English so that the wider community can participate.
   • Encourage contributors to preserve any useful original details, while presenting them in English.

2. Add the waiting for feedback label

   • Attach the waiting for feedback label to indicate that an English update or follow-up is required.
   • Should there be no response, or if no one is willing to translate or revise within a reasonable timeframe, community members may proceed to close the issue or pull request.

3. Translate when appropriate

   • If someone deems an issue or pull request especially useful and worthy of preservation, they may reply directly in the thread and provide an English translation.
   • This approach helps sustain the momentum of the discussion while ensuring no important context is lost.

Example reply

Thanks for your contribution. To help the whole community follow and review this discussion, please update this issue/pull request in English.
We’ve added the waiting for feedback label for now. If there is no further update after a reasonable period, this may be closed.
If this topic is particularly important or has practical value, we welcome volunteers to voluntarily offer the service of directly translating the content into English.

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If you have suggestions to make this policy even more welcoming and easier to follow, please share them here.

[nkuprins]

What is the recommended approach for handling existing stale/old issues in a different language? I recently ran into a case where I almost missed a duplicate issue because the title was in Chinese.

For open issues at least, I'd suggest not leaving them as-is: either ping the original author for an English translation, or create a tracking task for members with translation rights to translate (at minimum) the title.

[delei]

What is the recommended approach for handling existing stale/old issues in a different language? I recently ran into a case where I almost missed a duplicate issue because the title was in Chinese.

For open issues at least, I'd suggest not leaving them as-is: either ping the original author for an English translation, or create a tracking task for members with translation rights to translate (at minimum) the title.

I believe this strategy will also be applicable to existing issues. If the community has no objections, maintainers can handle them according to this strategy.

If maintainer think this existing stale/old issues is valuable, we will first try to contact and remind the original author, and then directly modify the original author's content within a reasonable period of time.

[leehaut]

+1 from a regular contributor.

English as the working language for issues and PRs would make it much
easier for the wider community to search, review, and avoid duplicates.
The friendly guidance in the proposal is also important: simple English
is enough, and keeping the original text under the English version is a
good safety net for those of us who are not native speakers.

Two small suggestions:

• For new non-English submissions, I hope closing stays a last resort.
  A polite reminder plus the waiting for feedback label already feels
  right. If the report has a clear repro or a patch, an English summary
  in a follow-up comment would be more helpful than closing it.

• For existing open issues, I agree with @nkuprins that titles matter
  most. Editing the title into English and adding a short English
  summary as a new comment seems enough. I would prefer not to rewrite
  the original issue body in place, so the author's context is preserved.

Thanks for writing this up so carefully.