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IIUC, accept-language is mostly ignored because the tooling to configure it on the user agent is really poor for most user agents. So users log into a site, the

IIUC, accept-language is mostly ignored because the tooling to configure it on the user agent is really poor for most user agents. So users log into a site, they get the site in the wrong language, and because only the site is visible they blame the site, not their UA. It's the "Your site's broken if IE won't load it" problem.

dijit 2y ago
Can someone attest that this is actually the issue? FWIW Outlook does accept the "Accept-Language" header and I don't think anyone is saying that outlook is wrong for doing that or claiming it to be broken? Are you totally sure that this isn't a backwards myth? I think the most likely situation is that locale information for English speaking countries would be incorrect if the default (en_US) was used to install the operating system, which happens on occasion.
- shadowgovt 2y ago
  I couldn't speak to Outlook, but Outlook is both popular enough and has enough people locked-in to its ecosystem (as business users) that it doesn't have to worry about losing users if Accept-Language doesn't do the right thing. Companies have IT departments to fix that stuff. I'm talking more like https://www.buerklin.com/ https://www.buerklin.com/. If that site comes up in the wrong language and the only way to fix it is to change the user agent's Accept-Language header, the user isn't going to just figure it out; they're going to navigate elsewhere. So the site has a bug in the top-left to toggle English or German. Something you mentioned up-thread that I should have commented on but overlooked: > which I find super odd; as if people are walking around using a browser in a language they don't speak ... yes, all the time. In libraries and Internet cafes, schools, and other shared spaces.
  - dijit 2y ago
    But then, that's not worse, because geoip would already be forcing those users into a language they potentially don't speak by not listening to their device. Or your library has somehow misconfigured their PCs when setting them up? A cookie based override already exists, forcing geoip is strictly worse as a default, except for localising currency? I guess.
    - shadowgovt 2y ago
      As a default, geoip is remarkably effective. When you didn't know anything about the user, geography is a pretty decent predictor of language.
      - dijit 2y ago
        But, the users browser is telling you the language they speak!!!
        shadowgovt 2y ago
        That's the problem: too often, it is not. https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/7a2cfe/comment/dp772us/ https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/7a2cfe/comment/dp77... for details: there are a lot of reasons speakers more comfortable with another language will have their OS locale (and therefore the accept-language header) set to English.

dijit 2y ago

Can someone attest that this is actually the issue? FWIW Outlook does accept the "Accept-Language" header and I don't think anyone is saying that outlook is wrong for doing that or claiming it to be broken? Are you totally sure that this isn't a backwards myth? I think the most likely situation is that locale information for English speaking countries would be incorrect if the default (en_US) was used to install the operating system, which happens on occasion.

shadowgovt 2y ago
I couldn't speak to Outlook, but Outlook is both popular enough and has enough people locked-in to its ecosystem (as business users) that it doesn't have to worry about losing users if Accept-Language doesn't do the right thing. Companies have IT departments to fix that stuff. I'm talking more like https://www.buerklin.com/ https://www.buerklin.com/. If that site comes up in the wrong language and the only way to fix it is to change the user agent's Accept-Language header, the user isn't going to just figure it out; they're going to navigate elsewhere. So the site has a bug in the top-left to toggle English or German. Something you mentioned up-thread that I should have commented on but overlooked: > which I find super odd; as if people are walking around using a browser in a language they don't speak ... yes, all the time. In libraries and Internet cafes, schools, and other shared spaces.
- dijit 2y ago
  But then, that's not worse, because geoip would already be forcing those users into a language they potentially don't speak by not listening to their device. Or your library has somehow misconfigured their PCs when setting them up? A cookie based override already exists, forcing geoip is strictly worse as a default, except for localising currency? I guess.
  - shadowgovt 2y ago
    As a default, geoip is remarkably effective. When you didn't know anything about the user, geography is a pretty decent predictor of language.
    - dijit 2y ago
      But, the users browser is telling you the language they speak!!!
      - shadowgovt 2y ago
        That's the problem: too often, it is not. https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/7a2cfe/comment/dp772us/ https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/7a2cfe/comment/dp77... for details: there are a lot of reasons speakers more comfortable with another language will have their OS locale (and therefore the accept-language header) set to English.