Loomio
Tue 9 Sep 2014 10:44AM

Building a stronger community (Deutsch)

MI mix irving Public Seen by 64

There was feedback from translators in a recent discussion that it would be great to be able to coordinate translation within languages as more of a team.

We decided to start by running a trial with the Deutsch/German team, to see what we can learn and improve.

What are the challenges and problems faced by translators, in particular the ones where communicating with other translators could really help?

MI

mix irving Tue 9 Sep 2014 10:47AM

Once we have a sense of the challenges, then perhaps we can move on to talking about solutions

I've contacted all the translators through Transifex.
@jochenwalter @christianmairoll

CM

Christian Mairoll Thu 11 Sep 2014 11:36AM

My main startup hurdle was that I didn't know whether it was preferred to use the informal "Du" or formal "Sie". At start it was logical for me to use the formal style, but later after some discussion it turned out that it clashed with previous translations, so I changed everything back to informal.

However, I prefer to write as neutral as possible in general and don't get too much kids-talk-style. :)

Regarding my work here: I'm not regularely checking for newly added texts, but once I see something missing I'm contributing as much as my spare time allows.

JW

Jochen Walter Thu 11 Sep 2014 12:55PM

As I started some weeks ago with Loomio it was just a couple of hours after that when I started to join Transifex. I watched out how some other strings were translated and tried do also. Some translated strings later I stuck to a problem where I wanted some help from other german translators and so I used the communication possibility of Transifex. But till now nobody replied - so this is not working.
I think that the commentary funtion of Transifex would often do - if it were used.
I must admit that I haven't read the https://github.com/loomio/loomio/wiki/Translation. I will do in the next days.

CM

Christian Mairoll Thu 11 Sep 2014 1:00PM

Jochen, I have to admit I've received your email, but lost it in my todo folder. Sorry about that!

JW

Jochen Walter Sat 13 Sep 2014 8:07AM

Question to @christianmairoll and @mixirving: I read that "Overall, we aim for an informal, conversational tone throughout the app. Think about how people talk when they meet as equals in a friendly collaborative meeting. Clarity is the highest priority."
Now, in German there is a very big difference between the informal tone (Du) and the formal tone (Sie) - the same in French. What if we start another translation for formal German, so that members can choose whether they want a platform in formal (Deutsch (Du)) or informal German (Deutsch (Sie))?

If we want this, then we need to start another translation process. I would join it.

CM

Christian Mairoll Sat 13 Sep 2014 8:12AM

I wouldn't split it. In the end there is only one German language and it must work for the users. Nobody will avoid Loomio just because of the wrong tone.

I think not everything that can be done shall be done, just because it's technically possible. ;)

MI

mix irving Thu 18 Sep 2014 12:43AM

But the question of this thread is really : how to optimise translation, how do you best want to communicate with other translators.

I've invited people from german Transifex group, but seems like you two are the only ones who've contributed to this conversation.
Perhaps the easiest thing is for you to find a way to communicate directly for the moment.
Or you could host very specific
Does that sound like a good solution ?

If this is cumbersome perhaps we could start a translation super-group so we can have subgroups for each language.
It seems like that is a bit of a shift, but is an important step

CM

Christian Mairoll Thu 18 Sep 2014 4:20AM

If a personal message feature is not in queue at the moment, would it be possible to just extend the user profile with a few more (optional!) fields like Skype name, Facebook profile URL, website or even email if someone wants to share it - inside Loomio community only?

MI

mix irving Fri 26 Sep 2014 12:00AM

That's a fantastic suggestion @christianmairoll !! I am confident I can build something like that quite quickly. Let me see what I can do today :)

MI

mix irving Fri 26 Sep 2014 3:47AM

@christianmairoll I've added this to the ideas backlog - I think it's a really great idea, and it will also need a little design preparation to make sure it's really clear and for users.

please feel free to follow that link and to up-vote the idea and to add your thoughts

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