[mpessas]

> The format does have some pretty major drawbacks too, like the msgid can become "fuzzy" which leads to a differing set of issues related to the unique keying between translations.

I am not sure how much of an issue this is in practice. The main problem of the PO format AFAICT is that it is quite outdated. For instance, it has no support for genders and you cannot "mix" plural rules within a phrase.

> It is interesting you call out cultural issues, did you have any specific examples?

The wikipedia entry on l10n[1] has some examples.

The process of localization is not merely about translating some strings, but adapting them to a specific language and culture, which is the hardest part. For instance, your home page is one of the most important pages in your app and is geared to make as many people as possible sign up. Do you think a simple translation would have the same effect on British, French, Arabs, Japanese etc people?

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_local...