PoliciesBrainstorming

Introduction

This document intends to summarise and follow up the discussion started in this thread in the ubuntu-translators mailing list. The aim is to provide a set of guidelines or policies to ensure the quality of Ubuntu translations, although we can also use it as a central place for discussion on more general translation policies.

Once established, these guidelines should be linked in the ubuntu-translators group in Launchpad and will appear as links along each per-team guidelines on every translations page in Launchpad.

Translation quality

General practices

The quality assurance page presents the quality assurance practices for each particular team, with the purpose of sharing them with all members of the Ubuntu translation community. Translation team members coordinators are encouraged to expand that page with their own practices.

Migration from Open to Moderated teams

We have so far agreed that moderated teams and an established review workflow are the most effective methods to ensure translation quality.

There are a few Ubuntu translation teams with open policy:

Policy on starting a new team

We'd like to define a policy for prospective new teams who want to start translating Ubuntu. The aim is to have a set of rules to ensure that new teams provide the quality of translations associated with Ubuntu, but without forgetting that Ubuntu and Launchpad still provide the best platform for kick-starting your own language translation, and we should not lose that in the process.

The suggestions so far are:

  • The prospective translation team coordinator must be subscribed to the ubuntu-translators mailing list

    • Should it be made a requirement that he/she announces the new team on the mailing list? (I believe yes) -- dpm 2009-07-14 09:25:56

      • Or we can have the Ubuntu Translations Coordinator that appoint the new team make that announcement -- AdiRoiban.

    • I think this should be made a requirement, translation team coordinator is basic contact people may find when they need hands from the respective language, if they aren't subscribe to the ubuntu-translators mailing list that would be a horrible thing for a team's contact don't know about latest news. - happyaron

  • The team membership should be moderated

    • Yes, team should be moderated. Membership of an Ubuntu Localization team should certify you are a knowledgable translator into that language -- AdiRoiban

    • Shall we put a requirement on the minimum number of people to start a team? -- dpm 2009-07-14 09:25:56

      • I strongly disagree with the requirement of a minimum number of people:) - AdiRoiban

      • I disagree either, in case some team are reducing members for better quality. - happyaron

  • The team should have a communication channel
    • Shall we make it a requirement to be a mailing list on lists.ubuntu.com, or an external one?

    • Just recommend a communication channel. Some like mailing lists, other forums or wikipages. -- AdiRoiban

    • I prefer no, because teams from different languages may have different preference on way of communication. But ensure the team have a way of communication is important, at least U-T-C and other users/developers can contact them quickly and effectively. -- happyaron

  • The translation team should use formal language sanctioned by their linguistic authorities

    • Although I agree, I'm not sure this can be made a requirement, since for those approving the language team it is very difficult to verify this -- dpm 2009-07-14 09:25:56

    • Even without this requirement, it is hard for UTCs to check the quality. This should not stop us to make it a requirement.

    • I think we can encourage teams to do so, but impossible for us to achieve it as a requirement at current stage due to we don't have the way to verify. - happyaron

  • Explain the prospective teams the relationship between Ubuntu and upstream translations
  • An important point for a translation team coordinator is to be responsive, and to make sure unreviewed suggestions are kept at a minimum.

    • Due to some known bugs and situations of launchpad, this cannot cover all suggestions to review in my experience, especially when there is a big volume of strings to deal with. - happyaron

The GNOME policy on starting a new team at http://live.gnome.org/TranslationProject/StartingATeam could be used as a basis. Also tut the result as a FAQ here: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-translations/+faq/611

CategoryTranslations

Translations/KnowledgeBase/PoliciesBrainstorming (last edited 2009-12-23 14:16:00 by p54A6451E)