yes, the België - Belgium discussion (well it actually wasn't even a discussion after all) has been a while ago now. Charles says a year, but it has been longer. The actual change from België to Belgium for the country-name, might have been around the time Charles remembers, but the discussion and agreed result had taken place long before that.
some history
At a certain time someone brought up the issue, and I admit I didn't even had noticed it until that time, possibly because I am Flemish and België didn't look odd to me. Once this issue was brought up, and realisation came to me, the discussion ended even before it began. A vast majority agreed to opt for Belgian's English name Belgium, as there are indeed 3 National languages, and it was imposiible to choose one of them, whitout kicking someone's legs. The few that brought up the fact there where more Flemish speaking users, and so it should stay belgië where quickly called to stop those arguments.
I also recall some Frenchman trying to join in and trow some oil in the fire by making some very false accusations in the other direction, but by giving facts that attempt to create mayhem was also very short lived.
I am glad to feel that the majority of BB users, both Flemish and French alike are very cooperative to enjoy the game together. (sorry if there are German speaking as well, but I have not seen them in the forums so far, so please speak up if you are around, we would like to get to know you guys).
In my history, I only came acros 2 people who would like to pull BB to the Flemish side, and 1 the other way, and that 1 was even a Frenchman who had no business with it at all.
I also understand it's frustrating to get "the other language" when you open a site. When I open facebook for example, it's all in French, I have no idea how they choose it that way, it's the only site that does it here. And it's realy anoying. So making a remark about it doesn't even mean you don't like the other side of Belgium (if I can put it this way), it's just a normal remark.
So the België - Belgium issue was finally resolved, after the expected and rightfull nagging every so often after we all agreed it should be Belgium, and it still wasn't changed.
But it seems there is an other bothersome fact.
I can follow Charles' reasoning. Just take the biggest number, so it works best for the majority. However, I think it just doesn't work that way. I'm not sure for other countries that have more then 1 official language, but for Belgium I can say that the choice made, even though it is theorethically correct, in reality doesn't work to well.
60% just is not enough to justify a choice, but to know this, one need to know the feel of the locals. Instead of explaining why, I'm just going to cut it short, and give the solution which I think works best:
if possible, go by area, and only use French, or Flemish for those areas that are located totally in the right language. For area's that have both French and Flemish speaking people, choose English.
If not possible, opt for English for the entire area of Belgium. 59% is just 1 % less then 60%, but for other reasons, this works best. BB originally is in English, and it will be acceptable for way over 60% to get the page in English (especially when they can click a laguage right away on that page), while opening a page that has "the other = wrong" language, will not be acceptable for many people.
An other option would be to work with an extra page for the Belgian region. If someone in Belgium opens www.buzzerbeater.com, they first get a page in which they choose their language English, Flemish, French or German (alphabetically ordered), and a cookie remembers it after they have visited it for the first time, just like it doesn now when a language is set in BB.
Hope this helps.
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