[haiku-doc] Re: User Guide translations requiring teams
- From: "Humdinger" <humdingerb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku-doc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 05 May 2010 15:40:38 +0200
-- Jorge G. Mare, on Sun, 02 May 2010 10:07:40 -0700:
> This is already the "de facto status quo" for the localization of
> applications, enabled via HTA, and so was it for the writing of the
> Haiku User Guide, and to the best of my knowledge, it has worked
> reasonably well.
I'd like to point out that writing the English Haiku User Guide isn't
in the same boat as translations that only one active member in the
project can read, the translator herself. The English version is
actively read by many people, including all translators.
The HTA localizations may have the same issues as a HUG translation
with just one translator: "the best of your knowledge" is then
practically no knowledge, because neither you nor anybody else actively
involved in the project can actually read it.
But let's not lose focus by discussing HTA, as they didn't bog down
their progress by any sort of control, besides peer review if they work
as a team.
> If the extremely unlikely worst case scenario were to occur
> where a translation included in a development milestone turned out to
> be of very bad quality, then there is always the recourse of removing
> it
> before the final release image.
Only that we'd never know, because nobody speaks the language and
feedback from the casual readers is traditionally very low. From the
tiny user base of that language it'll be even lower.
> More importantly perhaps, we have to recognize that Haiku has a very
> small community and act accordingly. I am pretty sure we all agree
> that
> we want people to feel welcome as a means to grow our pool of
> contributors. Then we should put our money where our mouth is, and
> make
> it easier and not harder for new people to become productive without
> much bureaucratic hassle.
I agree. This doesn't just apply to new arrivals, however, but for us
long timers as well. Adding a new translation imposes overhead in
creating the user accounts, adding the language, creating the wiki
pages and mailing list etc. If there isn't an existing team to join,
someone taking over the abandoned work of an individual is bound to
have more questions that have to be answered as well. If that has to be
done for ever more translations with their individuals coming and going
and translations never finished or falling out of date, the ones doing
the administrative work will tire of it. Add to that being the
occasional focus of some people's frustrations and they simply stop
caring.
Regards,
Humdinger
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