Multilingual Publishing on Medium…

Summary

The website content is a call to action for Medium to implement multilingual story publishing to cater to a diverse global audience and enhance the platform's inclusivity and reach.

Abstract

The author of the article, Léonie Salawa, addresses Medium with a proposal to introduce multilingual publishing capabilities. She emphasizes the importance of reaching a broader audience by allowing writers to offer their content in multiple languages. Salawa points out the inefficiency of current workarounds, such as posting the same story in multiple languages or creating separate accounts. She suggests that a simple toggle feature for language selection would greatly benefit both writers and readers, especially bilinguals and polyglots. The article also touches on the potential for multilingual tags and profiles to further enhance user experience. Salawa invites fellow writers to support her proposal and references previous discussions on the topic by other Medium users. The piece concludes with a call to action to disrupt language barriers on the platform.

Opinions

The author believes that the ability to publish in multiple languages would be a "game changer" for Medium users.
Salawa argues that multilingual content would not only extend the reach of the platform but also improve access to information for non-English speakers.
She expresses dissatisfaction with the current methods of multilingual publishing on Medium, calling them inefficient and dilutive to the writer's and reader's efforts.
The author suggests that the implementation of a language toggle feature is the most important and urgent need for the platform.
She also proposes the future implementation of multilingual tags to make content more discoverable across different languages.
Salawa envisions a Medium where readers can access profiles in their preferred language, further personalizing the experience.
The article is written as a persuasive appeal to both Medium and its community of writers, urging them to support the initiative for a more inclusive and multilingual platform.

a Must!

Dear Medium,

Could you implement the option to offer multilingual stories and series to our readers? I am using it on other platforms and it is amazing. The ability to address potentially anyone and everyone if one can manage to write in multiple languages would be a game changer.

There are more and more bilinguals or polyglots over the World but we also need to think about those who speak one language that is not the English one.

I write in English as well as French and am now working on my Spanish.

All we need is an option, a toggle, something to allow the reader to switch the language of the story or series when writers offer multiple versions. I have indeed seen some writers posting the same story in multiple languages or having to create multiple accounts to not pollute their feed with duplicates. This is inefficient. It dilutes the writer’s effort and the reader’s.

I am already amazed at Medium’s features and I couldn’t go back to a life without the platform. But we NEED the following too:

The ability to write multiple versions of the same story or series that the reader can chose from (either directly on the story/series as a toggle or in the settings so that articles appear to them in their preferred languages from the get go, still with the toggle option to revert back to any other offered language)

The ability to use multilingual tags (this can be implemented later, multilingual content is the priority). For example, if I use the tag “happiness” my story should also appear to someone looking for “Bonheur” or “Feliz”.

Eventually, the ability for the reader to access a profile in the desired language too?

I would settle for the first feature only because it is the most important one. The only one that matters right now to extend our reach but not only. Also to extend access. The information is there, the content is available. It only needs the right medium.

Medium, will you evolve with us? Please.

I also ask my beloved fellow writers to support me on this. You have been a source of inspiration for me since I started my writing journey. I was able to access your amazing content because I speak English as well. Let us inspire others, whatever their main language. Let us give them access to discover, thrive and inspire us in return.

In the fashion of a petition, please feel free to add your claim to mine in the comments. Oleksiy Kuryliak and Vico Biscotti have already spoken up on the matter. Please join us and let’s change this piece of our digital world for the better, disrupting the language barrier, one multilingual story at a time.

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely yours,

Léonie Salawa A writer, poet and lover of words

Thank you for your time and consideration. Feel free to follow my publication “The Pursuit of Happiness”.

Multilingual Publishing on Medium…

a Must!

This story is published in a Few Words, Medium’s publication that only accepts stories under 500 words.

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