Aesthetics is an overlooked issue for posting in foreign languages (at least in Chinese)
It is really enjoyable to read so many quality posts on Steemit everyday. It is neat, clean and stylish.
Even a simplest post with a nice picture may look very comfortable. Like this one, borrowing from @ned 's 2 months ago (link):
However, it not so when we encounter posts in Chinese (simplified or traditional). See the following example (select one with only words as pic doesn't matter): Top: my hello post to the #cn community in Chinese; Down: I use Word to re-edit the left one.
What do you think?
Personally I think the original one is really reader-unfriendly. And the second one is, after my not-at-all-professional 5-min editing, obviously better. I think my fellow Chinese friends here would agree with me (the case with simplified Chinese might be a little bit worse, but I am not 100% sure).
Maybe English readers can't really tell, but I assure you that there is definitely room for improvement. I have also checked posts in Japanese and Korean, but I think they are alright aesthetically.
So far, I think the only obvious problem right now is in Chinese posts. Users in any other languages are welcome to comment as well.
Why is this important?
With good graphical design, good posts become great posts. I have read so many English posts that are on par with many quality online articles, in terms of content as well as art design.
If we are to embrace users from all over the planet. Except for translation (see my post here: Translation and how we tackle it affects the future scenario of steemit.), we have to consider the aesthetic factor - the design of post editor, so that online personal publishing will become possible for EVERYONE in every languages. After all, human beings are visual creatures, even more so for potential Steemians.
There are some good CSS to dispaly Chinese aesthetically. Maybe I will improve this on steemit.cn. This is a site that runs steemit.com clone but mainly for Chinese.
look forward to the almighty steemit.cn!
Author's Correction (as I cannot edit it now)
hmm, it does look a bit ugly, i agree. Its great that steemit is not blocked in China.
at least not yet. but the main problem now is the registration as facebook is blocked.
Would be fun to have an auto-translation button on Steemit to read other languages :)
This is a really good idea, which shouldn't be overlooked. Are you on Github? It would be good to file this as an Enhancement issue on the bug tracker if you are.
hey man, thanks! I heard about Github all the time but I know barely anything about it. Welcome if anyone would do it.
Nice @deanliu
Shot you an Upvote :)
Hi! This post has a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 8.2 and reading ease of 66%. This puts the writing level on par with Leo Tolstoy and David Foster Wallace.
Keep up the great work @deanliu
Upvoted