Introduction

The Ubuntu Translations community would like to change the permissions policy of the Ubuntu Translators group from 'Structured' to 'Restricted', as per the UDS discussion in Barcelona.

Rationale

At the moment, Ubuntu translation is done with a relatively open permission system, what we call 'Structured' in Launchpad. This means that when there is no team registered for a language in Ubuntu Translators group, anyone is able to directly provide and modify translations.

While this has positive effect on minor languages which are just starting their translation efforts, it leads to no clear point of contact in case of any problems for a certain language. And what's else, it also means that when there is no Ubuntu translation team where there are hard working upstream teams, people can freely modify translations that are coming from upstream and there's nobody who would take the responsibility of ensuring such translations are of matching quality.

That's why it was proposed in a Ubuntu translations meeting during UDS that Ubuntu changes it's translation policy to 'Restricted', where registering a team would be a prerequisite for doing any translations (other than suggesting new translations for team members to review).

This would provide the newly founded UbuntuTranslationsCoordinators team with a point of contact for any disputes, and it would promote responsibility in translation work. It would mean a more rigid translations team structure in Ubuntu, resembling most of the other free software translation projects. Lot of effort will be put into not driving opportunistic translators away, mostly by trying to better document the process, and integrating that documentation with Launchpad.

Everyone from the meeting believed this will greatly improve quality of Ubuntu translations, and collaboration with upstream teams.

Summary:

• Request to change the ubuntu-translators translation group permission policy from Structured to Restricted

• Discussed and agreed with the Ubuntu Translations community at the UDS in Barcelona
• Will only affect languages for which there is no registered Ubuntu translations team
• Will only slightly raise the initial entry barrier for new teams (a one-off process), but in the opinion of the Launchpad and Ubuntu Translations teams will greatly benefit Ubuntu in terms of translations quality

Actions

• Contact the Technical Board with the proposal - DONE (DavidPlanella)

• Wait for the change to be approved by the Technical Board

• Make the change effective - DONE (pitti)

• Announce the change to ubuntu-translators@ (dpm)
• Discuss what to do with existing translations of languages without a team.
  • Community members suggested to demote them to suggestions and use the upstream translations where Launchpad translations had overriden them.
• Let the Launchpad Translations team know about the decision and work with them to put it in place.

• Draft a policy on how teams can be added to the ubuntu-translators group. Provide relevant links in Launchpad to this document.

CategoryTranslations