Re: State of Farsi Gnome translation

[Christian Rose <menthos gnome org>]

On 8/10/09, Refdoc <refdoc crosswire org> wrote:
>  Refdoc wrote:
>  > Hi,
>  >
>  > I am Peter von Kaehne, a developer in CrossWire Bible Society (open
>  > source cross platform Bible software project) and Farsi translator of
>  > Xiphos (formerly GnomeSword - a Gnome/GTK based frontend to Crosswire's
>  > offerings).
>  >
>  > Xiphos relies in parts on translations coming from central Gnome related
>  > libraries.
>  >
>  > Over the last year or so I have noticed that these centrally provided
>  > translations suffering quite a bit under bit-rot and this is now
>  > affecting us as a project quite badly as central items like "quit" etc
>  > are not anymore covered.
>  >
>  > Looking at the translation statistics
>  >
>  > http://l10n.gnome.org/languages/fa/gnome-2-28/ui/
>  >
>  > and
>  >
>  > http://l10n.gnome.org/teams/fa
>  >
>  > it is clear that the current state is not good and that there is steady
>  > decline over the last couple of years.
>  >
>  > Looking at the steadiness of the decline, the large number of fuzzy
>  > terms, the list of open bugs, the number of patches submitted (sometimes
>  > complete new po files), the lack of review, the number of pings by Andre
>  > Klapper  and the date of most of these (nearly all in 2008) I am not
>  > sure if there is any action at the moment.
>  >
>  > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?product=l10n&component=Persian%20[fa]&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=REOPENED&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED
>  >
>  > I have tried several times in 2008 and 2009 to contact Roozbeh directly
>  > (never yet on this mailing list) about matters of Farsi translation,
>  > lists of approved words etc but got no response. I am not even anymore
>  > sure that the email addresses publicly listed are those which are
>  > currently still active.
>  >
>  > I most certainly do not want to kickstart a new round of the rather
>  > upsetting thread from last year on this very subject
>  >
>  > http://www.mail-archive.com/gnome-i18n gnome org/msg09525.html
>  >
>  > , but am wondering what I can do about the matter.
>  >
>  > Personally I would like to get the various underlying libraries updated.
>  > I believe that the even going through the "fuzzy" translations and
>  > "unfuzzying" things which are clear cut, would improve the state of
>  > affairs enormously.
>  >
>  > I am not even remotely as accomplished a translator as many contributors
>  > here in the past, but in the light of current and lasting inactivity I
>  > would rather step up to the mark and deliver something potentially
>  > incomplete and buggy, then leaving things as they are right now. My
>  > personal experience with these matters is that producing
>  > something/anything in such sensitive areas as translations is often
>  > enough to get others, better qualified but less motivated into action.
>  > The embarassement of buggy translations is just too big to keep shtum :-)
>  >
>  > So, what is it I am asking for?
>  >
>  > I would like to get direct write access to the translations for the
>  > underlying libraries. I intend to limit myself to the matters most
>  > concerning to my own projects and to refrain from doing anything
>  > controversial. I most certainly would not touch the stuff causing so
>  > much aggro last year. I am willing to work closely under some sort of
>  > guidance/mentoring scheme/coordinator/whatever. I would also relinquish
>  > my write access immediately once it becomes obvious that I can not keep
>  > up with the relevant commitment. As I am an unknown here on Gnome I can
>  > understand if this is asking for too much, but I do ask you to consider
>  > this please anyway, in the light of the obviuous decline of Farsi Gnome.
>  >
>  > If Roozbeh re-emerges and starts doing things (now or later) I would
>  > obviously immediately cease working independently and submit to his
>  > guidance in things (or indeed withdraw completely) as he is a much much
>  > better translator that I can ever hope to be.
>  >
>  > Karl Kleinpaste, the lead developer from Xiphos (karl kleinpaste org)
>  > can provide a reference for me in terms of my working practices,
>  > willingness to work in a team and subject to authority etc. Any passing
>  > Iranian can obviously have a look at xiphos and see if they are deeply
>  > dissatisfied with its translation into Farsi.
>  >
>  > yours
>  >
>  > Peter
>
> Seeing the response on the related subject in the Esperanto thread, I
>  may have been presumptuous to request write access, but I would like to
>  see some way of resolving this deadlock.
>
>  Any suggestions welcome.
>
>  Thanks!
>
>  Peter

The coordinatorship issue must be resolved first. Only then accounts
can be created.

Providing different "groups" with perhaps different policies or
agendas different accounts and having a fight in the VCS is *not* the
way to solve a team problem. That's why we have a strict policy that
the language team coordinator must approve of new accounts. If that
does not work, then we will have to have a discussion about the
coordinatorship of the team and resolve that first.

Roozbeh, comments?


Christian