> Only 4.8% of our visits come from China, Japan and Korea combined
> So, if the data tell us that we’re getting roughly 80% less activity from Asia than we should in the absence of language constraints, why does it feel so obvious that all serious programmers speak English?
That data says it's less. It doesn't say the reason why is language constraints.
p.s. With or without this data, sure, it's obviously false that "all serious programmers speak English", and obviously true that some more people will participate using their native language.
When I first started, I used to hang out and ask questions in one of the major Chinese programmer forums.
I knew some English back then, but looking at a wall of English text was daunting in itself, now imagine a wall of English text that is not easy to understand even for native English speakers.
Oh I'm totally sympathetic and think it's great to have it in more languages.
I just didn't understand their logic. They seemed to say, the only thing holding back those 80% is the language barrier, and once we break it, the numbers will shoot up. Well maybe. But it reminds me of circa 1999 market math: "If get just 1% of the Chinese market..." says someone, followed by investors taking a haircut as a result of lame business plan.
> 1.4% of our visits come from China
> Only 4.8% of our visits come from China, Japan and Korea combined
> So, if the data tell us that we’re getting roughly 80% less activity from Asia than we should in the absence of language constraints, why does it feel so obvious that all serious programmers speak English?
That data says it's less. It doesn't say the reason why is language constraints.
p.s. With or without this data, sure, it's obviously false that "all serious programmers speak English", and obviously true that some more people will participate using their native language.