Hi, During the last UDS we have talked about various reasons why people blame Ubuntu translations.
This is a long email, but I think that the raised issue is very important and it is fundamental for the way in which Ubuntu translations are perceived by users, developers and other/upstream translators. One of the cause is the due to the fact that for some languages everyone (whether he/she knows or not the language) can submit a translation and that translation will land directly in Ubuntu. They can also delete/modify translations coming from upstream projects. This can happen for Ubuntu Localization teams that use an open policy for membership, or for teams that does not check whether or not the new members are able to assure the translations quality. I would like to note that the main goal of Ubuntu Localization Teams is to assure that quality of translations. Everyone is free to suggest translations and suggesting translations for Ubuntu is not limited to member of those teams. This email was triggered by an incident occurred in the Ubuntu Slovenian Team where one of the team members was submitting approved translations for Slovenian but they were in fact Russian translations (using latin alphabet). >From my point of view membership of Ubuntu localization teams should be moderated and before approve a new member, the team coordinators will have to take the requires measurement to make sure that person is aware of hes/her role in the team and the team's commitment to quality. We can also go further and follow the model used for LoCo teams and have approved and unapproved localization teams. And approves teams would be the one able to assure a minimal degree of quality. I know there are pros and cons for opening or moderating a team, but I think that all Ubuntu Localization teams should be moderated and have at least one active member willing to moderate new members, assure the translations quality, and be the spoke person for that language inside the Ubuntu community. Below is a list of team with open membership policy. I am aware that all translations are base on voluntary work and everyone is helping as best as he/she can. My intention is not to blame a person or a team, but I think that we should try not to ruin the work of other people. A bad translation could fail an application from starting, or it can confuse the user or lead to erroneous actions. The main questions: 1. What do you think? 2. Should we moderate membership for localization teams and implement some minimal quality checks or we should have open team without any quality assurance measures? Basically for the following teams it is hard to assure the quality. If you are member of one of those teams feel free to initiate an discussion inside the team and find a way in which you could improve the translations quality assurance process. ubuntu-l10n-bn - Ubuntu Bengali Translators loco-philippine-team - Ubuntu Team Philippines ubuntu-l10n-br - Ubuntu Breton Translators ubuntu-l10n-cv - Ubuntu Chuvash Translators ubuntu-l10n-dv - Ubuntu Dhivehi Translators ubuntu-l10n-en-au - Ubuntu English (Australia) Translators ubuntu-l10n-en-ca - Ubuntu English (Canada) Translation Team ubuntu-l10n-ht - Haitian Creole (kreyòl Ayisyen) ubuntu-l10n-ja - Ubuntu Japanese Translators ubuntu-l10n-kn - Ubuntu Kannada Translators ubuntu-l10n-jbo - Ubuntu Lojban Translators ubuntu-l10n-pms - Piemontèis ubuntu-l10n-sco - Ubuntu Scots Translators ubuntu-l10n-sl - Ubuntu Slovenian Translators ubuntu-l10n-st - Southern Sotho Translators ubuntu-l10n-th - Ubuntu Thai Translators ubuntu-l10n-zh-tw - Ubuntu Traditional Chinese Translators ubuntu-l10n-tr - Ubuntu'yu Türkçe'ye Çevirenler Takımı ubuntu-l10n-ur - Ubuntu Urdu Translators ubuntu-l10n-zza - Koma Ubuntu ya Kirmancî/Dimilî Cheers, -- Adi Roiban -- ubuntu-translators mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-translators
