On Tuesday, August 25, 2015 at 12:43:40 PM UTC-7, Francesco Lodolo [:flod] 
wrote:
> Typos, internal consistency matters like punctuation or case, minor changes
> are explicitly called out as exceptions to that rule.
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Localization/Localization_content_best_practices#Changing_existing_strings
> 
> I won't bug developers who do change the ID in these cases (eventually
> point out that it wasn't needed), while I'll do it if the string changes
> without a new ID and the kind of change is not trivial.

I remember multiple cases where we asked developers to change the ID despite 
the fact that the change was trivial.

The rationale then was that "since the en-US localization was buggy, maybe some 
locales followed so it's better to upgrade ID so that localizers can update 
their translations".

Imho that's the trap we're falling into.

> But we're not there yet.

We're actively moving toward that with every aspect of the ecosystem. I started 
this thread to catch up in this regard.

> In a L20n scenario, the only change that would require a new ID would be
> the removal of support for $number.

Agree.

> We need to agree on "semantic meaning". Sometimes English strings,
> especially in Gaia, are so poorly worded that we ask to have a new ID to
> make sure localizers are aware of the change (the meaning was there, just
> explained terribly), and they can decide if they want to apply similar
> changes. I think that's still a valid reason to change the ID.

I remember there was a time when we considered asking developers to provide the 
original translation in what is called Basic English[1].

Then, we would create a proper en-US based on this and all localizations would 
base their translations on the Basic English, not en-US.

Maybe it's time to revisit that and bind the social contract to the Basic 
English?

zb.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_English
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