Well … this may sound weird, but I think to use the domain “Tipitaka.com” to access SuttaCentral is going to be great. This thought has actually appeared after I googled “Tipitaka” and didn’t even see SuttaCentral on the result! Perhaps because the search result was localized. I also think that using “Tipitaka.com” will definitely improve the search.
For references, quran.com and bible.com are accessible. Why isn’t there any tipitaka.com? I’ve already checked the site (tipitaka.com) and it’s faithfully used to share the Thai Tipitaka files in .htm, .txt, and .zip. SuttaCentral has these all covered! It’s not that impossible to “freely” acquire it anyway.
Great news is that the site also attaches an e-mail that seems to be the site owner’s e-mail on the site’s footer. Are there any possibilities to contact the site owner so that the domain can be beautifully adapted to access SuttaCentral? Thanks!
Well thanks for thinking of us, but we have no wish to acquire domains. That site is a perfectly legitimate one. It may be old and focused only on Thai, but it does exactly what it says and serves the Tipitaka. Good on them, we should support as many different sutta projects as possible, it is healthy for everyone.
Chasing search results is a zero-sum game. Our job is to make a good website, not to worry about what other people, over whom we have no control, will do with it.
It’s just that I concern “search engine” way too much because some Buddhists here (Indonesia) rarely know that a site like SuttaCentral where people can read the suttas exists. The result to both “Tipitaka” and “Tripitaka” shows no any SuttaCentral-ish sites.
And … this one is still related to the “searchability”, is there any way to access SuttaCentral directly in a specific language (by a link or etc.) without the need to manually choose it from the menu, especially for the first-timer site visitor? For example, I want to link SuttaCentral but I want the language is set to “Indonesian” by default. I’ve tried to access the site via suttacentral.net/?lang=id but it doesn’t work this way. This kind of adjustment is sometimes needed because some ‘older’ people aren’t that ‘technologically advanced’ enough to change the language on the setting.
Or … the alternative may be adding a language icon (a kind of globe-icon) next to the search icon so that it’s easier to access without the need to click the three-dots first?
Yes, it’s a bit frustrating TBH. The search engines tell us, “make proper metadata, don’t try to game the system, use the keywords in your major title on the Home page” and we do all that, but still.
It should do, this is a bug. I’ll raise it with Hongda and he’ll fix it.
Our (admittedly slow-moving) plan is to make site language more prominent when we have more languages translated. I’m afraid people will change the language and nothing happens. I’ve been too occupied with other things to make a real push for that so far.
If only the interface language changes, that’s already a lot! You can at least know where you are. But you are right, the interface has been even less translated than at least a few Suttas per language.
There’s perhaps still another bug.
When I on the latest version of SC made some settings like German interface, bilingual view, segment IDs, etc., there was a checkbox “remember settings”. I checked that, and indeed, until today, whenever I open a window with SC in the same browser, my settings are always what I last selected. If I make a change, that change will be there when I next open it.
Unfortunately this doesn’t work for newer users. The members of our discussion group loose their settings each time they close the site. On every meeting I have to go about and make the settings for all of them because they just find it too complicated. And I can’t find that checkbox “remember settings” any more!
I hope this is not too far off topic, but I understand that what @renaldoaluska mainly has in mind is accessibility for users of all languages and internet experience.
Yes, they are sharable. And when you open a link shared in that way it has all the settings. But on people’s devices the settings don’t remain. Actually the device should keep the settings selected by that person, not from a shared link. As soon as they close the website, they are all lost.
Perhaps for me they simply don’t get lost because I never close SuttaCentral entirely? At least one tab stays always open.
Perhaps for me they simply don’t get lost because I never close SuttaCentral entirely? At least one tab stays always open.