A German RootsChat?

[Rossi14]

There would not be a real problem with selecting the appropriate geographical / regional areas in Germany, or specific countries, even searching for relevant Surnames etc. 

I agree with that. Especially region or country names are quite similar in German as in English. In some cases, one could even set up bilingual forum headlines.

The problem would be in conversing with people, and in trying to understand the correct details.

That's actually the point worrying us most. Especially the people grown up in the former GDR had Russian at school and usually no English. Also, not everybody on our board having had English at school really feels comfortable with the English language. Means, somebody is needed to act as an interpreter. As long as it is not too much, it might be no problem translating some posts. But the more there will be, the more difficult it will be to translate everything needed within a reasonable time frame. Also, not all of our mods do understand English, but everyone has his field of expertise. So I for example won't really be able to help you with any research on people coming from Lower Saxony, but there Nathalie is the person to ask.

Also the main problem would be in knowing what the translations are as to which buttons to (Click on), so as to move around the Forums.

For that, we found a solution. I don't want to say more about it as it still has to be tested, and also depends on a major update of our board software which will be installed shortly. But that's a piece of work what has to be done only once, in contrast to the translations 'on the fly'.

Rossi

[Lambendsor (aka IGS)]

Regarding username changes from site to site:

Bob, you caught me and I'm a bit ashamed about it. I dug a hole for myself when I joined Rootschat and picked the clunky "IGS" on the fly, and which I never really liked, so when I joined B-G Forums I chose the more apt (for my research at the time) "Endsor". But then I realized I would keep stumbling on my username when Googling it, so I made it the unique "Lambendsor" and I've used that on Rootsweb, the two German sites, and DIS-Forum (the Danish site).

I never anticipated these boards being such a regular part my life, so, in retrospect, I should have embraced "IGS" and stuck with it for consistency's sake. But, also, many sites want usernames with at least 5 characters, so I'm in a bind on that score, too, unless I go with "pIGSy" or "IGS7458" - which are even worse.

Would it be possible and/or precedented to change my Rootschat name to reflect the others (even after 350+ posts here), instead of the other way around? I could "press release" it on "The Lighter Side", or something. Or is my Rootschat name like a bad tatoo that I can't alter without creating a bigger mess?

[Jeanette H]

Hello Rossi14,

Thank you for your very detailed explanations you gave in (Reply: 18), in relation to the outline of possible 'PROBLEMS', which I gave in a previous post (Reply: 15).

We will just have to wait and see how things develop.

Thanks again,
Jeanette H.

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi IGS,

Changing your forum name is fairly easy.  Have a look in
Topic: RootsChat Topics: How to use RootsChat / FAQs
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,207046.0.html

and you'll find this:
Topic: Changing your RootsChat name(s)
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,238176.0.html

My suggestion would be to change to Lambendsor (aka IGS) for a while (couple of months ?) and then just quietly drop the (aka IGS).

All your 350+ posts will remain, but all will have the new name.

As I said, it's just a suggestion, but if several RootsChatters join the german forum(s), .... well, you know what it's like, when you go somewhere new - it's always nice to 'see' a familiar face (even if it is just an avatar  ).

Bob

[Berlin-Bob]

Maybe Bob can write an instruction about the meaning of all our cathegorys and buttons in english. We can publish it in our forum and Bob can do the same here.

Will do    ASAP 

Bob

[Nathalie]

On http://forum.genealogy.net/forum/index.php  my name is *silberfischchen*. I`m sure nobody would understand it here in England. So i use my real name here on this board.

But the avatar is the  same now 

[Berlin-Bob]

silberfischen = silver fishes - almost (but not quite) the same

- and it's usually the 'almost' that causes any problems 

Bob

[Nathalie]

Should i use this pic as signature? 

[Berlin-Bob]

Alright, I know it translates as silverfish really, and I do know what what a silverfish is,

.......  but I was trying to be nice,  ... and friendly, .... and welcoming   

Bob