The problem is not about sites being good or bad, it is about sites being in English or not. This is an English language social linking site, just like Digg.com, and both sites require submissions to be in English. This is not arrogance or thinking lowly of the French language, it's keeping the site on focus for its target audience. The admin has decided that non-translated links will not be allowed in the future. Next time you submit, translate it.

I don't see where the problem. If my site are bad, the admin didn't accept it, no?

I totally submitted this hack earlier today. Yay teamwork!

If you haven't read Lafcadio Hearn's ghost stories before, check some out here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1210

I give a lot of peoples stories Socs so they can be 'rewarded' for submission of the story (the person submitting or the site or the site owner if different) and get on the front page and maybe get a few more clicks. The pithy line of text written about the story, when an article is submitted (this includes my descriptions), isn't worthy of giving the article a Soc ... i mean, do people really head off to the site, read the article then come back and say 'hmmmm, yes ... worthy of me clicking that button now'?? ... personally i check the upcoming or the popular depending on how long it's been since visiting, and open a heap of articles with 'open in new tab' while i go down a soc a few too. Maybe i'm not treating the soc'ing process serious enough.

"Thanks, Mom. I'll remember this when choosing your nursing home."

English translation of a story is a wonderful copromise - it means that those of us who can read other languages will still have our eyes opened to the links but everyone will be able to enjoy - nice one! And, of course, when it comes down to it, it is your site so ... hehe

I found one: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080821/tod-japan-crime-offbeat-c359f57.html

That poor kid, I hope he has a stock of paper bags! "My son loves trains and he gets sick on buses," she adds. "But the bus is a lot cheaper, so we just make him put up with it."

What a great idea! A bit too spooky for me, but I'd go along if invited.

@Nick - that is a pretty lame situation, indeed. The soc'ing everything just to get points, I mean.

The admin has spoken. No non-English stories.

Unless it gets buried into deletion by other users, it will stay.

Fair enough! Ha ha. Does this mean this article will now get spiked, or will it naturally run off the bottom as the only non-English promoted story?

@dasian - "If LongCountDown allowed submissions in any language, the site would be a confusing mess and the primary audience - English speakers- would be driven away. It would also be impossible for the admin to judge if stories were appropriate or inappropriate." Exactly. Non-English content is not even allowed on Digg.com: "6. Can I submit non-English content? Digg is currently only an English-language content site. Please do not submit non-English content. We have plans to expand into other languages so if you would like to see Digg in your language, please email those requests to support@digg.com." @awh - "don't equate somebody's French blog with the hate speech and spam... I never expected you to be as exclusionary as you are" Give me a break. I quoted the part of the ToS that was applicable to this situation, but since you want more precise wording, I've added the following to section 3 of the Terms of Service: "you agree that you will not: ... (f.) submit non-English content." As of now, no more French, Arabic, Russian, Chinese or any other non-English language submissions will be allowed. However, you are welcome to submit English translations of those sites. Go to Google Translate, convert your page to English and submit the url of the translation.

I just had my first experience with a highway bus last Friday night - Tokyo to Imabari. And I gotta say...not impressed. I will continue to shell out for the trains as long as I can afford to do so. (And since I don't have to orchestrate the migration plan for a family of 8, it's within my means.) I got almost zero sleep and got off the bus with a tweaked neck and some lower back pain.

No soc from me on this one. Weird. Where are the news stories about the ashes bandit? No sources?

I totally missed this flare-up. Interesting post.

I agree with Deas - it will naturally sort itself out, if enough people don't speak enough of the language to enjoy it enough to Soc it then it will naturally bury itself. Of course if the admin's can't tell whether the site is inappropriate in other more serious ways (offensive or racist etc...) that is a viable issue but this site seems pretty clearly about Japanese music. If the "is this photo doctored" excuse for looking at high school girls' bums was both appropriate and relevant then this one is lol! The bum being Japanese does not make it about Japan imo.

I dunno if it's necessary to bury this guys. It is on topic, it's just not in English. I gotta say, if the point is to garner some traffic from readers of the site, then those who are inclined to hit a French site should feel free to do so. But I imagine there aren't too many. My high school French is too weak to get much from it. I think it'll naturally sort itself out. But there's no need for vitriol, guys. Let's be friendly! By the way - I think the first article I ever submitted was in Japanese, and that got knocked down too. If Japanese language content isn't popular on a site related to Japan, I think you could make the same claim - it's just that some users can't read / enjoy it. You know? In short: you can simply not soc something instead of burying it.

It looks like it would be fun to take a week off and go for a motorcycle tour down to there.. Shame that it's probably too late for this summer.

Well, whatever... *I* liked your blog, anyway, makki, and have added it to my RSS reader. Glad it was posted, even if it got buried.

By the way, thanks to whoever added this to JapanSoc... To be honest, I wasn't planning to add it myself, but it did give me quite an ego boost to see someone add it within a half hour of my writing it, even with my blog's tiny readership... :-)

Fans of Japan don't have to speak English, but when they submit links to English language websites, those links should be in English. This is common sense.

"God, I am so sick of English speakers who think that they are representative of (or even the majority of) foreigners in Japan." That has nothing to do with this. JapanSoc is an English language website, and its admins are English language speakers. If LongCountDown allowed submissions in any language, the site would be a confusing mess and the primary audience - English speakers- would be driven away. It would also be impossible for the admin to judge if stories were appropriate or inappropriate.