On 7/31/06, Djihed Afifi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [...]
Please take this seriously, we took it upon ourselves to be The Ones(tm) when it came to Arabic translation, so we should live up to the responsibility, Arabeyes is always here, and will never go under. The actual task: the translation should be the end goal, not the popularity of a website or the dedication of a handful of team members. The current system is too high for many potential translators, we're not gaining anything from it, we're actually locking people out of the translation effort in the name of "dedication" and "commitment", a goal Arabeyes has not even achieved beyond a couple dozen or so part-time translators. We need to make things *work*, not to over analyse people's behaviour philosophically. May be I'm too much of a pragmatic person, I believe pragmatism is what we need ATM and ASAP.
I agree. We may have been keeping the level of entry a little too high for most translators, but it was not intentional. We still have a lack of enough translation standards, and not having this set of rules to follow makes it harder for any newcomer who has just started translating. Having said that, I think we should note that we get around 1 new translator signing up each week. And the system duly sends a welcome message with an explanation of the first steps that should be made to become a translator. The very first step, the zeroth step if you will, is that a translator should at least make a post on a mailing list with a simple introduction of himself. The vast majority do not make that first step. I am not sure why or if there is some kind of repellent to newcomers that is inherent in the joining process.
May be you're wondering what I'm expecting from this email. I'm expecting a revision of the whole translation process. Currently, new translators have to register to the website, read 99 manuals, subscribe to the mailing lists, get a CVS account (which means they have to be CLI masters). Remember, it's like a filter, every step in the way potentially discourages many people away. You require that level of dedication from may be core developers, or at most all developers, but not of every translator whose only interest is translating strings. After all, getting a CVS account and subs'ing to a mailing list is no guarantee for dedication, how many people have CVS accounts but are not or were never dedicated?
Although I would have disagreed with in the past maybe it is time for a change. So, if no one has any objections, lets go about seeing HOW we can review the translation process.
I can hear you saying "but.... if we don't request them to do that they will not be dedicated", They don't even know how to do that, mate. Another would say: "... if we won't request that they read those 99 manuals they will bombard us with questions", to that I say, so what, let them ask, please drop the arrogant RTFM[1] attidude whenever someone asks a seemingly (to you) simple question, nobody was born a master. If somebody asks "How do you enable Arabic in windows", a bad answer would be to just give him a link to a 12 page manual, a good answer might be "You go to control panel, you do this ..etc, this is also explained here: link". We should win hearts first, if you win a heart, you win the mind.
I agree, and as far as I know, RTFM was never the attitude of anyone here on Arabeyes, at least not intentionally. We always welcomed any questions and we always will, ISA. [...]
Finally, after we fix our wrecked (in my opinion) translation and recruitment process, we should then think of real concrete steps to recruit more translators, I'll leave that after this discussion.
No worries. We do _not_ have a lack of new people signing up. We have maybe a lack of people signing up and then following through. We could try a bit of hand-holding at first to make the most of every new sign-up. Thanks a lot for the "rant". Its good to see someone with such genuine inerest in the well-being of the translation process. Lets hope we can make some good progress. Abdulaziz,
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