I have been speaking with Aran recently regarding a new group created on Telegram Messenger called ‘Dysgu a siarad Cymraeg (learning and speaking Welsh).
The idea behind it is it’s like learning via text message. If you’re stuck ask a question and get a near instant response! You can help others also.
There are currently 10 members all bar one SSIW learners (I’m the only one on the south course flying the flag) all of differing levels, having fun and learning.
Uhm, maybe i’m just a bit sensitive,(i’ve just read the conversation about nationalism that spawned of off the ‘i want to be a Welsh-speaker’ thread) but is there a particular reason for using telegram?
People say discours on twitter is less than polite, but twitter at least tries to take action against IS, racism, sexism etc. Other media are a bit more lax about those things or even encourage it under the banner of free speech.
Example: Stephen Yaxley-Lennon(tommy robinson) is suspended from twitter for posting racist stuff, but welcomed on telegram, from where he instructs his followers how to posts about certain things on twitter.
Twitter and Telegram are quite different so I’m not sure a comparison makes sense, more in general.
However, strictly for the aspects you mention, unfortunately I have to tell you that Twitter in Italian is full of racist, xenofobic, discriminatory comments of all sorts, every day.
(I rarely use it, but I often hear tweets quoted and even just from a quick search right now I can tell nothing has changed)
Twitter might not be perfect(understatement!) but they do respond to things. I positively relish it when obnoxious content and/or people get removed after i reported them. This is mostly in the “cute photo of adolf next to a big oven” category.
On tumblr you can’t even flag those sort of pics.
Facebook/instagram’s inability to deal with this makes the newspapers.
I do get that different language twitters might be different. Dutch has more right-wing bigots than i’d like, but most of them adhere to the ToS.(difference of opinion is no reason to report) The ones that don’t might think they can coast by through posting that kind of stuff in a small language, i think it’s partially on me to see to it that they don’t. I even managed to get a Welsh troll!
To make it clear, i already use twitter, i’d want to know why to go to again another company, one that is apparently less active in getting rid of trolls.
Because it is a completely different form of communication. A more fitting comparison would have been why Telegram instead of WhatsApp. And the Welsh speaking chat group has active Moderators, so whether Telegram’s administration takes action or not is a moot point, the mods will.
(But so far all the conversations that I have seen on there were nothing but completely civilised.)
Well if you meant technically, @Hendrik answered you (there’s no way you can use Twitter the way you can use telegram, that’s a different category of apps).
As for an ethical (or something like that?) point of view I can’t really see a difference between apps from what I read on Facebook or Twitter or whatever…Telegram I use it only as a messenger with friends so I’ll never meet guys like Tommy Robinson and I’m sure this specific group would be moderated like the Forum and would never have this kind of trouble!
Hello. @gisella-albertini@Hendrik@Deborah-SSi etc have given a good summary of the benefits. There is no need at all to adopt another platform at all if you don’t wish to or see the need.
It is neither part of the SSi supported learning media, nor is it associated in any manner differently to the various Pub and Cafe settings where you are always open to the possibility of hearing/seeing something that you may rather not.
As long as everyone does their best to remain civil and to be aware of the open forum nature of that media-what more need be asked of Welsh-language enthusiasts? Be kind and as courteous as possible
Just a reminder to everyone - we try very hard to keep discussion on here to the details/ideas/contents, not to comments about other users - that sort of stuff, even from perfectly friendly, reasonable posters, can go downhill very quickly, and damage the warm, friendly, welcoming and supportive atmosphere we value to much…
This is a good example - Neil is a friendly, enthusiastic, passionate and energetic learner and inspirer of other learners - and I know that he doesn’t mean this in an unfriendly way…
But in an environment where it’s impossible for any of us to know everyone else, even if the person the comment is made to can see that it’s not unkindly meant, there will be people lurking who decide not to post because they don’t want to face personal comments.
Just for absolute clarity - this is NOT me telling Neil that he’s gone over a line - this is me using his comment (which I know was not meant unkindly) as a perfect example for ALL of us of the lengths we go to in order to avoid the kind of bad-tempered discussion it’s so easy to find on the rest of the internet…
