Changing language on the Debian site is too cumbersome

["Leo R. Lundgren" <leo@finalresort.org>]

Hi,

When visiting the www.debian.org site, if you want to change the language of the contents, you are currently expected to do so using the web browser's settings. I think this is very cumbersome and bad UX.

When a visitor goes to the site and want to read it in a different language than they get by default, they most likely spot the language links in the lower part of the page. When they click it, the page reloads in the new language. So far, all good.

But then, when they click around to read other pages of the site, the language is reverted back to what they wanted to change from. E.g. if I got turkish, clicked on english, got english, then when I go to a new page on the site I get turkish again. This is unexpected and not good UX - the visitor most likely expects to get english for the rest of the visit.

I realize the site looks at the locale advertised by the browser, and that's fine in general. But it should prioritize the choice the visitor makes using the language links, and keep that language throughout the navigation/session. So in summary, if the user at some point clicks one of the language links, then keep giving them the rest of the site in that language, don't revert back. If the visitor never clicks on a specific language link, then by all means base the language decision on the browser's preferences.

Also noting that changing the language in e.g. Firefox is something you do in general, it's not a setting per site. I presume there is some add-on for changing it per site, but that's AFIAK not part of the default browser features - feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken.

Just to add more background, the use case I have is that while I want most pages in my native language if possible, the Debian site is just messier to read in my native language than it is to read it in English - simply because a lot of technical terms and stuff has been converted to my language, and that just doesn't add value IMO - it's easier to understand and work with in regular english terms. So that's why I keep trying to change the language on this specific site, and don't want to change it in general in my browser.

Thanks!

Regards, Leo