Asaf,
That is not how I understand it. First, I do not mind bots. When
Wiktionaries have information on words in Malagasy, I am perfectly happy
for the translations to be copied from one Wiktionary to another. When the
descriptions are translated using machine translation, the question becomes
only slightly different.
The question becomes about the quality of the machine translation. Now I do
not mind key words in Malagasy without definitions. With dodgy translations
it is ok because it is still better than providing nothing. When the
quality of the machine translation is such that it is understandable but
not quite there, I am of the opinion that it is much better than providing
nothing.
The biggest problem I have with the notion of perfection is that it is the
enemy of the good. The good is to provide the best we can offer. When it
needs work, it is acceptable because it is a wiki.
The biggest problem with language support is that products that are
perfectly functional like Special:MediaSearch are not promoted because "the
next iteration will be even better". It also shows the extend we have
moved away from our Wiki roots.
The notion that a bot operator is not people... really...
Thanks,
GerardM
On Fri, 18 Sep 2020 at 16:33, Asaf Bartov <[email protected]> wrote:
> I am surprised you consider it "people add content", Gerard. It is
> explicitly *not* people adding content, but a bot using machine
> translation. Machine translation is problematic enough for just reading
> some text, but a machine-translated *dictionary* is literally worse than
> nothing. It is a travesty, and it is better to *not* offer dictionary
> entries in Malagasy than to offer machine-translated ones with zero human
> supervision.
>
> I encourage this committee to consider whether it is beneficial to the
> mission to allow this to continue.
>
> A.
>
> Asaf Bartov (he/him/his)
>
> Senior Program Officer, Emerging Wikimedia Communities
>
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
>
> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
> sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
> https://donate.wikimedia.org
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 12:18 PM Gerard Meijssen <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hoi,
>> An error rate is expected when people add content, this is true for any
>> project. Given that the information is based on what other
>> Wiktionaries offer, from a Wikimedia point of view, no new errors are
>> introduced. What we do not have atm is a process where translations are
>> shared in one database. This is possible at OmegaWiki but that is outside
>> of WMF.
>>
>> From my perspective, a good effort as with any project it has its flaws.
>> Thanks,
>> GerardM
>>
>> On Thu, 17 Sep 2020 at 20:54, MF-Warburg <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> FYI:
>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_wiki_audit/Malagasy_Wiktionary
>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Small_wiki_audit/Malagasy_Wiktionary
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Langcom mailing list
>>> [email protected]
>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/langcom
>>>
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