Community Proposal
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निरंजन
Hello all,

I want to propose a TA community for LaTeX related question answers in Marathi. Some active LaTeX users are constantly in touch with each other and there are lots of issues to be discussed and worked upon together as a community. Now some technical questions are as follows.

1. Have we thought about a minimum number of initial members needed to form a TA community? If not yet, how many of them do we require to form a community?
1. As we already have a TeX community, shall we form a new community or a sub-community (not sure if it exists on this forum) which will discuss TeX issues specific to Marathi where we can translate and some questions which are useful for Marathi users?
1. Marathi language uses [Devanagari](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devanagari) script. Is it possible to accommodate [Devanagari Unicode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devanagari_(Unicode_block)) with our current design?
1. Are there any other requirements which I am unaware of? Please mention them if there are any.

Please add your thoughts, comments, suggestions regarding this initiative.
Top Answer
निरंजन
These are some translations which need to be updated.

* Show X more lines = आणखी X ओळी दाखवा :white_check_mark:
* edit = संपादन :white_check_mark:
* history = इतिहास :white_check_mark:
* license = परवाना :white_check_mark:
* provide an answer = उत्तर द्या :white_check_mark:
* 0 answers = एकही उत्तर नाही
* 1 answer = एक उत्तर
* 2+ answers = २ (३, ४, ...) उत्तरे
* 1 second / minute / day / month / year ago = १ सेकंदापूर्वी / मिनिटापूर्वी / दिवसापूर्वी / महिन्यापूर्वी / वर्षापूर्वी
* 2+ seconds / minutes / days / months / years ago = २ (३, ४, ...) सेकंदांपूर्वी / मिनिटांपूर्वी / दिवसांपूर्वी / महिन्यांपूर्वी / वर्षांपूर्वी
* 1 second / minute / day / month / year later = १ सेकंदानंतर / मिनिटानंतर / दिवसानंतर / महिन्यानंतर / वर्षानंतर
* 2+ seconds / minutes / days / months / years later = २ (३, ४, ...) सेकंदांनंतर / मिनिटांनंतर / दिवसांनंतर / महिन्यांनंतर / वर्षांनंतर
* Few seconds / minutes / days / months / years later = काही सेकंदांनंतर / मिनिटांनंतर / दिवसांनंतर / महिन्यांनंतर / वर्षांनंतर
------
Your question - तुमचा प्रश्न :white_check_mark:
* Choose post type - प्रकार निवडा :white_check_mark:
* Question - प्रश्न :white_check_mark:
* Contest - स्पर्धा :white_check_mark:
* Meta question - मेटावरील प्रश्न :white_check_mark:
* Blog post - लेख :white_check_mark:
* Wiki post - विकीलेख :white_check_mark:
* Your question title - शीर्षक :white_check_mark:
* Submit - सादर करा :white_check_mark:
------
* Bold - ठळक
* Italic - इटालीय
* Hyperlink - दुवा
* Blockquote - संदर्भ
* Code - कोड
* Ordered list - अनुक्रमित यादी
* Unordered list - बिंदुक्रमित यादी
* Undo - पूर्ववत करा
* Redo - पुन्हा करा
Answer #2
निरंजन
I've invited my friends to collaborate in this discussion. As they are going to express their views too, from now onwards I'll post my personal opinion(s) here and not as a representative of our circle.

Correct me if I am wrong with these interpretations -

* `topanswers.xyz/tex-maranthi` will mean a completely new site, with a new URL.
* `topanswers.xyz/tex/maranthi` will mean a sub-site of TeX.TA
* `topanswers.xyz/tex?lang=maranthi` will mean TeX.TA ran in Marathi.

I would prefer the third version where the site is not different, but the medium of questions is different. Pragmatically it would still be the main TeX community, providing a platform where you can ask doubts in Marathi too.

> We don't want to go public with a Marathi language site if the Devanagari script is fundamentally broken here.

We can first test if it shows up correctly on the forum and then proceed.

> Some posts will be totally independent, but some will be marked as a translation of a particular question.

I agree, can we achieve this with option no. 3 of our list?

>Have you a particular font (with a suitable license) in mind?

[Shobhika](https://ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/shobhika?lang=en) is a well known font for Devanagari, it's also a part of TeX distributions. We can try it.

>whether you want specialist markdown plugins like MathML or MathJax

I don't think so, but let's hear it from others. I am not a mathematician, so I am not the appropriate person to answer this question.

Apart from all of this -
>"(La)TeX community in Marathi language." might fall into the second category so we are happy to give it a try if you are.

Thank you so much for such a positive approach towards a not-so recognized community building. We are happy to hear this from you :)
Answer #3
सुशान्त
Thanks @निरंजन for initiating this discussion and the proposal of new TA community for discussing LaTeX related issues in Marathi.

And also thanks a lot for all the people of TA for positively considering the proposal.

Regarding the url I second निरंजन and I also

> prefer the third version where the site is not different, but the medium of questions is different.

I liked 2 points suggested by Jack

   
> ...some posts will be totally independent, but some will be marked as a translation of a particular question or answer from the English site (and they will have a link back in the same way we link to SE content that is imported under CC BY-SA).

and


> We'd also like to have a feature that allows opt-in cross-community feeds. This would allow the Maranthi TeX home page to show activity from the English site for users who want that. Alternatively we may come up with another way of notifying users when there is activity in certain other communities like we do currently with the chat rooms. 

I am giving my best regards and waiting to see what others suggest and hope that this experiment will take place and will successfully lead us to a multilingual community. 



Answer #4
Jack Douglas
Thank you, I'd like to try this out, not least because it will be a good test of how TA handles a very different script.

We are leaning towards having public rather than private betas (hence the quiet promotion of \*nix yesterday). However there are two things that may need to be worked out first (and we will add a private beta if that is helpful for working them out):

1. The url — it would be disruptive to change this after a community is public. The big question here is will the url be something like `topanswers.xyz/tex-maranthi`, `topanswers.xyz/tex/maranthi` or `topanswers.xyz/tex?lang=maranthi`

2. Technical issues like script support — we don't want to go public with a Marathi language site if the Devanagari script is fundamentally broken here.

Regarding your specific questions:

> 1. Have we thought about a minimum number of initial members needed to form a TA community? If not yet, how many of them do we require to form a community?

Most communities are likely to need at least a handful of people passionate about the topic and the community do become self-sustaining. There are a couple of cases where it may be possible to grow from an even smaller base though:

1. If the topic is so vast that it may be able to eventually build up steam of it's own accord by random accretion (like C++/\*nix/PHP/.net perhaps)

2. If the community caters to a niche not well served by any other platform

"(La)TeX community in Marathi language." might fall into the second category so we are happy to give it a try if you are.

> 2. As we already have a TeX community, shall we form a new community or a sub-community (not sure if it exists on this forum) which will discuss TeX issues specific to Marathi where we can translate and some questions which are useful for Marathi users?

I'd suggest a separate community, along with the TopAnswers devs developing a new feature for linking translations. So some posts will be totally independent, but some will be marked as a translation of a particular question or answer from the English site (and they will have a link back in the same way we link to SE content that is imported under CC BY-SA). Does that sound good to you?

We'd also like to have a feature that allows opt-in cross-community feeds. This would allow the Maranthi TeX home page to show activity from the English site for users who want that. Alternatively we may come up with another way of notifying users when there is activity in certain other communities like we do currently with the chat rooms.

> 3. Marathi language uses Devanagari script. Is it possible to accommodate Devanagari Unicode with our current design?

We'll have to test to be sure, but I think it will be OK with the correct font choice — and you may want to consider locking the choice of font in rather than letting community members choose their own. Have you a particular font (with a suitable license) in mind?

> 4. Are there any other requirements which I am unaware of? Please mention them if there are any.

Only whether you want specialist markdown plugins like MathML or MathJax — but I guess that is unlikely as they weren't wanted on TeX!
Answer #5
निरंजन
This is the code for the favicon of टेक्-मराठी. We have decided to keep the same favicon but TeX written in a Devanagari script. Can you update it please Jack?

```
\documentclass[margin=0.3mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\definecolor{dred}{RGB}{159,57,61}
\pagecolor{white}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Script=Devanagari]{Shobhika}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{scope}[transform shape,rotate=-17.5]

% brim
\fill[black] (0.62, 0.66) .. controls (0.62, 0.52) and (0.34, 0.37) .. (0, 0.37) .. controls (-0.34, 0.37) and (-0.62, 0.52) .. (-0.62, 0.66) .. controls (-0.62, 0.8) and (-0.34, 0.7) .. (0, 0.7) .. controls (0.34, 0.7) and (0.62, 0.8) .. (0.62, 0.66) -- cycle;

% top ellipse
\fill[black] (0,1.13) ellipse (0.42 and 0.1);
\fill[black] (-0.37,0.61) -- (0.37,0.61) -- (0.42,1.13) -- (-0.42,1.13) -- cycle;

% bottom ellipse
\fill[dred] (0,0.61) ellipse (0.37 and 0.1);
\fill[dred] (-0.37,0.61) -- (0.37,0.61) -- (0.38,0.73) -- (-0.38,0.73) -- cycle;

% cutout
\fill[black] (0,0.73) ellipse (0.38 and 0.1);

% text
\node[white] at (-0,0.92) {\tiny लाटेक्};

\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
```

![TopTeX.png](/image?hash=ba2cfd34fa6d622a7ce5c60cc6c8e4eef70d6e485edcdbe9406d25bcd4ad1cac)

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