Speaking as a small team coordinator struggling to recruit people and get them active, I have to agree this is a big issue - I don't know how we'll ever make it to 20%, much less 80%. The problem is that most people take one look at a file filled with error messages and schema strings and I never hear from them again. I *only* get contributions when I can tell them *exactly* which strings in the file correspond to buttons/menus/labels. Guess what? I can't do that on my own for most modules, which is why over the last few years our stats have actually dropped from nearly 5% to <1%. In fact, I don't think I've landed a single contribution since the switch to Git (though there have a been a few drive-by translations via Ubuntu).
I don't know how many of the other languages languishing at the bottom of the list are facing the same issue, but I'll bet it's a fair number. I can swear to you that if I could get a fair number of the UI elements translated (say, 20% by D-L stats), we would see a big surge in contributions and maybe even sponsorship from the Language Commission. I mean, gtk+ is my favorite example here; the first string is "Error parsing option --gdk-debug", while the stock labels (which is frankly all I care about given our general lack of coverage) are down somewhere around 450 strings in. 99% of my users are never going to see any of the command-line stuff in the gtk+ module, but 100% of them are going to encounter the stock labels. Why should I *have* to explain all this stuff to every potential recruit? It's hard enough just finding people who are willing to contribute in the first place; then the first thing they see is the sea of technical messages and their motivation just evaporates. _______________________________________________ gnome-i18n mailing list gnome-i18n@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-i18n