Perhaps at this point the rest of the committee could share thoughts and
move towards a decision.

I submit further attempts to point out the problem to Gerard would have
diminishing returns.

   A.

On Mon, 21 Sep 2020, 08:18 Gerard Meijssen <[email protected]>
wrote:

> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/valid#Translations
>
> On Sun, 20 Sep 2020 at 17:39, MF-Warburg <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> How are bad translations a valid resource?
>>
>> Am Sa., 19. Sept. 2020 um 12:01 Uhr schrieb Gerard Meijssen <
>> [email protected]>:
>>
>>> Hoi,
>>> First, a specific spelling stands for an article. It can be in any
>>> language.  Each lemma in Wiktionary has its own translations. So you can do
>>> without descriptions and still have meaningful information. Yes, that only
>>> works when you are at least bilingual.
>>>
>>> When a bot moves data between Wiktionaries, the validity of these
>>> translations exists because of it being moved from one Wiktionary to
>>> another.
>>>
>>> What is sad is that this is not  understood or considered as a valid
>>> resource.
>>> Thanks,
>>>        GerardM
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, 19 Sep 2020 at 11:53, Jan Wohlgemuth <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Gerard and others,
>>>> hello greetings from the new guy.
>>>>
>>>> I have to object an "anything is better than nothing" argument. Let's
>>>> just say the bot accesses an article "fork" and takes the first
>>>> definition. With some luck, something like "a tool for eating" will
>>>> then
>>>> be translated as definition. That leaves out all other meanings of
>>>> "fork", like when a road splits up into two, but ok, that is a
>>>> completely different thread of discussion. But if "a tool for eating"
>>>> becomes the new lemma instead of the translated definition, that's when
>>>> the entries start becoming unusable, especially if translated again and
>>>> again. The bot programmer's fallacy is that there are 1-on-1
>>>> equivalents
>>>> in translation. Sometimes there are, more often there are not.
>>>> Automated
>>>> "translations" liek the ones used in this case can not pick up on
>>>> one-to-many relations and can not adequately post them. Another thing
>>>> is
>>>> register of synonyms. We certainly do not want any curse words to be
>>>> listed as the general term for certain body parts etc. This needs to be
>>>> verified by people who speak both languages or at least can make sure
>>>> the entry makes sense in the metalanguage (here Malagasy).
>>>> The review has shown that the output of these bot "translations" in
>>>> Malagasy Wiktionary are not good. Some of them might be acceptable (by
>>>> chance), but the majority must be considered questionable. The least
>>>> that should be done is mark them as unpatrolled bot translations and
>>>> hope that some speaker can check the accuracy.
>>>>
>>>> Greetings from Depok,
>>>> Jan (Janwo)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Am 18.09.2020 22:12, schrieb Gerard Meijssen:
>>>> > 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
>>>> >
>>>>
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