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Translations > Knowledge Base > Launchpad Team

Team's subscription policy

While Launchpad Translations provides a tool to enable collaborative online translation of Ubuntu with a very low entry barrier, we want to make sure that contributions are up to the quality which Ubuntu sets. We also want to ensure that translations being imported from other upstream projects are only changed when necessary (e.g. bug fixes, spelling mistakes) and that translators are conscious of the implications of the change and of the necessity to forward them upstream.

A too open model does not allow for this, and puts the balance on quantity over quality.

• For this reason, we ask all Ubuntu translation teams in Launchpad to use a Moderated or Restricted subscription policy.

Team page

The translation team's page in Launchpad should be the entry point to translating Ubuntu in your language, and as such it should contain some basic information directing new contributors to all important resources and information on how to start contributing and how to get in touch with the team.

• As such, the team's main page should at least contain:
  • A welcome note with the purpose of the team
  • A note on how to join the team or a link to further resources if they exist and this info is there (e.g. a wiki)
  • Links to the team's existing communication channels (e.g. mailing list, forums, IRC channel, wiki, etc)

Team name

The team itself should be named according to the following rule:

• ubuntu-l10n-<ISO 639 language code> - Where <ISO 639 language code> is a two-letter or a three-letter (if the two-letter one is not available) ISO 639 code. You can search for the code for your language here. If you don't find your code there, you may want to look at the more comprehensive ISO 639-3 list

This is to ensure the standardization on names and helps with the global coordination tasks of teams. The team's description, which is the most visible part, can be whichever you like.

Team communication

For the sake of translation quality and a good working team, it is required that the Ubuntu translations team has at least one communication channel to discuss and coordinate the translations process in their language.

This can be any of the following, but at least one is a requirement:

• A mailing list

• An IRC channel

• A forum

• etc.

If you wish to do so, you can request the creation of an official Ubuntu mailing list for your translation team by sending an e-mail to rt(at)ubuntu(dot)com. The name of the list should match the name of the team in Launchpad (ubuntu-l10n-<language code>).

The reason we do not recommend the creation of Launchpad mailing lists for translation teams is because we encourage a model in which only a few translators (the team members in Launchpad) can act as reviewers, while everyone with a Launchpad account can submit suggestions. Using a Launchpad mailing list does not allow communication between all contributors, since only members of the team can subscribe to them.

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