I've noticed the rather heated debate on proofreading, and I have a suggestion...
Professional writers do not proofread their own work - they understand that it is too easy to make the same mistake in proofreading that was made in the original work, so they get someone else to proofread. Ideally, in Mageia, each translation should be proofread by someone else after translation so that errors can be corrected before publication (on website, SVN etc.). This would mean that each language team would need at least four people so that all the work could be covered even if someone was ill, on holiday or too busy. In larger teams for more popular languages there shouldn't be any problem finding someone to proofread, but some of the less popular languages don't even have four people in the team. Those in small teams will be under more pressure to cope with the workload, and people under pressure tend to make more errors! Obviously we should try to recruit more people for the minority languages, but until Mageia has a wider user base it might be difficult to find people who would be confident enough in English to join a translation team. However, I thought that if we had problems recruiting translators, we could also advertise for proofreaders to join the translation teams - people who are not confident enough in English to take part in the actual translation, but who could proofread translated files in their own language. As well as taking some of the pressure off the translators - and reducing Oliver's workload in having to repeat the submitting of corrected files - it would be a nice way for more people to be able to take part in the production of Mageia. What do you think? -- Margot ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **Otford Ducks Computers** We teach, you learn... ...and, if you don't do your homework, we set the cat on you! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
