Many instances say to keep language settings as “undetermined” otherwise you won’t see most posts Example: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/59161 Example: https://reddthat.com/settings

Yet when I try to post a comment it will fail with language_not_allowed because initially there is no language selected. So I need to click on the “Select language” drop-down and choose English (the only option)

Actually in the Lemmy web interface (at least on my instance reddthat.com) the Post button will spin endlessly with no indication of what’s wrong. Using the Jerboa Android app there’s is the very brief error message language_not_allowed, and the comment disappears so I have to type it out again! On the Jerboa app there’s also no option to select the language for the comment, so I can’t use it to comment at all.

I experienced this language_not_allowed error while commentating on gaming@beehaw.org and lemmy_support@lemmy.ml , both English language communities

So how is this language setting supposed to work?

Is the language selected for posting comments the same setting as the profile setting, which the links recommend to keep as “undetermined” to be able to see (English language) posts?

Have i encountered a bug? Specific to my instance or Lemmy in general?

  • drk@slrpnk.netEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Regarding the language_not_allowed and losing your comment in Jerboa, I had the very same thing happening to me today. (Jerboa v0.0.31 I think, I updated it somewhere today to v.0.0.32 but that was after losing that comment). As I’m on a different instance, it does not seem to be something specific to your instance. Besides that, I’m puzzled about how we should approach these language settings too.

  • guildz@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    On the web interface, go to your account settings and out of all the languages selected; ensure that “undefined” is one of them. You can select multiple languages by holding down the “control” key and clicking. For example, right now I have both “english” and “undefined” as the languages I use.

    • klangcola@reddthat.comOPEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      My settings page looks like this. So are you saying that this Languages box should have a list of many languages, including “Undetermined”? Right now there is only English and nothing else.

      Can I add more languages or is that instance admin level?

      • guildz@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Oh, yeah I guess that would be an instance admin thing cause mine has a whole bunch in that settings box. Let them know that “undetermined” needs to be included as an selectable language.

          • Tiff@reddthat.comEnglish
            6·
            1 year ago

            Fixed!

            And here I thought that I was making it easier for people to have a default selection, rather than actively filtering content. That was not my intention! So sorry, and thankyou @guildz@lemmy.blahaj.zone for helping out.

            • klangcola@reddthat.comOPEnglish
              2·
              1 year ago

              Awesome! I can now choose “undetermined” and other languages like Danish too now.

              Thanks for the quick response @Tiff !

              I wonder in general, can an instance limit their communities to certain languages (like maybe only german on feddit.de) without limiting their users, so they can still interact with Italian communities on Reddit.it