Hi.
I am former translator from slovak team. I ceased translating after
considerable translation efforts that just partially landed in the project.
The main reason of my leaving was that I ran out of time that I was able
to devote to translations. After all, I lost the majority of year 2007
waiting for Marcel because he was nowhere to find even for translators
HQ. He was extremely busy that time and I was a novice so without his
help my efforts were ineffective. This might be viewed just as a matter
of past.
The secondary reason, that also blocked part of my translations to hit
the ground, was something that I percieved as moderate inflexibility. I
appreciate Marcel's sense for perfection, however it seems he does not
recognize reasonable limits for it sometimes. And sometimes it may seem
that translation review is more of a school exam than a friendly debate.
But please don't give these words a weight of a stone, I just try to
formulate a fine idea.
The biggest problem however, even then back in 2007-8, was Marcel's
demand on me to take fulltime responsibility for the packages or to deal
with former (long inactive) translators. I was just able to temporarily
devote my time to fully translate the packages, and happily hand them to
"future generations". However, Marcel did not want it this way. Please
note, that majority of core packages needed massive amounts of work in
2007, and I was willing (and barely able) to perform that just once, in
order to bring GNOME closer to my father and wife that don't speak
english. But I was certainly not able to make a long-term commitment and
take full-time responsibility for all of the packages for years to come,
and I knew that for sure. Therefore, some translations that I already
finished simply did not reach the project, and majority of the needed
work I finally decided not to do at all.
As I read Peter's letter, I see that things just worsen after my
departure. Recently I considered returning to the project in order to
help finishing translation of some packages I need, however as I see, I
will not return under today's circumstances, because such a bureaucracy
would waste my precious time, with good chance of no final accomplishments.
From user's point of view, I see the GNOME translation stagnating or
even slowly losing completeness. I was wondering what happens, so now I
know.
Saying all of that, I do think Marcel should be thanked to because of
his commitment to the role and for the great amount of translation work
that he contributed over years. He took the translation project as his
child, and it would be excellent indeed, if he wished to remain in the
team as a translator.
However, as far as I can say, he is probably much better translator than
leader. His approach of managing the team is counter-productive and is
percieved as an obstacle for others to make their contributions with
passion.
I think that since the team is willing to change the leader, it is
necessary to do that. I remember the time when the team was
nonfunctional, and I don't want to see it happen again.
Change of roles should be viewed simply as a healthy democratic process,
not as some kind of tragedy or definite status. Should there be a new
leader, able to motivate translators to fresh performance, it's only
good for the project and the users. Moreover, I think that leadership
change could even be institutionalized somehow for situations like this.
Your sincerely
Peter Tuharsky
Dňa 14.05.2010 01:00, Johannes Schmid wrote / napísal(a):
Hi!
Am Donnerstag, den 13.05.2010, 23:25 +0200 schrieb Peter Mraz:
1. I see little point in arguing with Marcel over various points here,
as we have done this in past without any conclusion. I hope it is
clear from my initial email what are problems in our team.
2. Fact is that we are unhappy with Marcel's approach and his work,
hence why we ask for change of coordinator.
3. One of the most active translators have said, that if things will
not change, he will leave team. I'm affraid that more people might
also leave as activity of the team sharply decreased after team asked
for quicker commiting of reviewed modules before release 2.30, which
did not happened.
Please take into account that we (the GTP Coordination Team) don't know
what happens inside your team. And we won't throw someone out of his
position without clear and good reason. We haven't ever done this in the
past and we only want to get involved when it's really needed.
So, I won't cut this discussion in any way because it might also be the
base for taking actions. I don't see a point at the moment where it
would be crucial to hurry for a decision as there is still plenty of
time for the next GNOME release.
That doesn't mean that we we are taking sides!
Regards,
Johannes
_______________________________________________
gnome-i18n mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-i18n
_______________________________________________
gnome-i18n mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-i18n
