The Keep talk:The Embassy

Discussion of Wiki Translations and Tiers for Wiki and Game Translations
Related: - "Inactive translators on Transifex"

Wizards of the Wiki Discussion
''Below is some material I have copied from the Wizards of the Wiki guild to make it easier for us to review it all and continue the conversation here. LadyAlys (talk) 03:51, March 13, 2016 (UTC)''


 * Sphinx
 * @Alys thank you very much for your comment on GitHub. The problems with reviewing applications of linguistic scribes are actually the reason I've suggested this example... the only difference being that the situation on Transifex may be a bit more confusing from the organizational point of view ;-)


 * Alys
 * @Sphinx : Linguistic Scribe tiers are really hard to judge. I pretty much just have to look for large volumes of work with no obvious re-edits, and no undos, and it takes a while to look through page histories to get that information. There's only ever been a few tiers awarded. One thing I'd like to see is the Transifex work become organised enough that we have a body of reviewers we can trust and then they could perhaps be persuaded to review wiki contributions as well. But if you have other ideas, I'm certainly listening! :)


 * Sphinx
 * @Alys I see your point and we surely should have that in mind. Please excuse me for seeming light-minded about that.
 * Regarding reviewing of the scribes' effort, I know it's not easy even for the language you speak. And I admire the work you do (should I better say "admire you" smiley) I've made this example only to highlight that even with all the difficulties of reviewing the work of linguistic scribes, you manage to maintain a certain required level of work for the first tier, not just "sign up and make at least some public actions" (that being said, I know that's been done for good and deserving purposes and it's been working - so we got 1719 translators working on 133 languages).
 * We could think of including a requirement for Transifex reviewers to at least look through the articles edited by linguistic scribes - when they submit applications, and e.g. put a stamp in discussion "reviewed by Reviewer today, no errors, style is OK" or not OK...
 * At the same time unfortunately most Transifex reviewers are not motivated to that extent currently. In fact there's plenty of work for the reviewers on Transifex. As I've suggested on GitHub they are just trusted translators who combine efforts of translating, improving previously translated strings and monitoring new lines being translated by newbies. Notifications and other Transifex tools prove to be not very helpful. Moreover, as we have a special badge for just being appointed a reviewer, many reviewers are not very active.
 * As I believe we need gradual step-by-step testing for changes on Transifex, I do think we could try at least "asking" language teams and reviewers to help you reviewing those applications of linguistic scribes. But they will need detailed guidelines of what to do - and I'm not sure what motivation will work for them...


 * Sphinx
 * revisiting the question of accessing translated wikis
 * Actually we do have an opportunity to make translated wikis accessible from the web UI with HabiticaWikiFrontPage string which has the link to wiki. As of now, it seems only the French team has utilised this option. On the other hand I believe users should be warned the translated text can be less accurate and up-to-date (in comparison to the English wiki) when they visit the page guided by the link from UI.
 * I like the idea of the German wiki: they have the following template explaining the aspect.
 * Please note that this article is a part of the translation of Habitica Wiki.
 * There is no guarantee that it contains the same information as the original. The information may be outdated due to delays in the translation. This page links maybe on pages that there is not yet or no longer or mentions things that no longer exist in the game. If you want to participate in the translation, you can find additional information here.
 * But I'd make the text a bit more friendly. I'd suggest having a nice-looking unified template - which can be inserted not only into the front page of the translated wikis, but also into the pages linked with "translated" links (currently about 37 links to the wiki are translatable). What do you think?


 * cTheDragons
 * @Sphinx For all intensive purposes I am English speaker (I speak another language but it so poor I be reluctant to read Habitica wiki pages in it). However I do like the idea of the "badge with a link to the original" at the top of translated pages so the user is aware. If I was reading a translated page I would like this myself so I have the option doing some further investigation.


 * Sphinx
 * Regarding linguistic wikis, I'd like to revisit my suggestion to have translated wikis mention possible inaccuracy and time lag in translations.
 * After comparing the translated wikis I must admit, that while the message-in-the-box template may look OK on ordinary pages, IMHO it spoils the look and feel of the frontpage. Just compare the French and German wikis...
 * So, the question is if we might use the Welcome section of the front page (that has links to other wikis including the English ones) for this purpose. May we test something like this:
 * Welcome!
 * Learn how to play Habitica, an open-source habit building program that treats your life like a Role Playing Game.
 * This wiki is written and maintained by the players of Habitica. It is also available in English, Français, and Deutsch. The English Wiki may have more information on certain subjects. Please join us to keep the (language) wiki up-to-date too!


 * Alys
 * @Sphinx : Sorry! I am definitely interested in your wiki warning idea. I still have your previous comment marked for me to respond to it. :( Tomorrow I'll get through my backlog! I like your suggested text and will add it tomorrow if none of the other admins do.
 * EDIT: Alys can't modify the front pages of the translated wikis and so didn't do that.


 * Sphinx
 * @Alys regarding welcoming warnings on the frontpages of the translated wikis:
 * It's not urgent. On the contrary, that's just some thoughts aloud in case someone else is thinking on this. Do maintainers of the translated wikis have enough rights to modify the translated frontpages?


 * Alys
 * @Sphinx : It's a good idea though - I definitely want to do it.
 * The person who creates a translated wiki is the primary admin for that wiki and should have rights to do everything on it. They can also make other users admins if they wish to. So yes, the maintainers of the translated wikis can modify their own frontpages, and in fact they have to do it themselves. The admins of the English wiki don't have admin rights on any other wiki (unless they are given them by the other wiki's admins).


 * Sphinx
 * [edited to remove things not directly related to this page]
 * Translated wikis use shared repository of images. Some background info can be found here. @hairlessbear has formulated some practical guidelines, but I can't find them now. As far as I remember, when you create a language wiki, you ask admins of the English wiki to link it to the shared repository of images. After that's done, you'll be able to insert images from the English wiki into translated articles with just the same code as on the English wiki. Those images will be unavailable from insert-image menu, so you'll need just to copy the part of the source code like Health.JPG


 * Sphinx
 * @Alys can the wikia show us the list of language-wikis already added to the shared image repository of Habitica.wikia.com?


 * Sphinx
 * Answering the questions received from @warownia1 in case someone else has additional suggestions.
 * 1. The Guidance for Linguists does ask new translators to announce their willingness to contribute on Trello. I believe it may be done just to introduce yourself so that you can be addressed later should the staff/mods have any suggestions regarding your language. I believe Wiki translators may introduce themselves on Trello too - letting the subscribers of the translation card know that Habitica gets a new contributor working on the wiki translation. Then you may find useful joining the guilds: Wizards of the Wiki - discussing questions regarding wiki editing, Commonwealth of i18n - discussing questions regarding Habitica's translations and other Aspiring guilds. That's only the way we like to communicate here, and not requirements =)
 * 2. Habitica appreciates the effort of all contributors! I don't think the staff expects any obligations from contributors so you are definitely not supposed to finish the work on your own. Once the language wiki is created everyone using Habitica and speaking the language will be able to edit it. If you are the one to create the wiki you'll be the first admin of it, as stated somewhere below in the chat =) Later on new admins can be added.
 * Dear wizards, please correct me if I'm inaccurate in details :)