Re: Freedesktop.org Transifex org management

[Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>]

On Wed, 2019-02-27 at 20:35 +0100, Claude Paroz wrote:
> Le 26.02.19 à 12:59, Bastien Nocera a écrit :
> > Hey,
> >
> > [I know this isn't directly related to GNOME, but has there is an
> > overlap between the folks involved in GNOME and in Transifex's
> > Freedesktop.org org, and GNOME is a consumer of those translations,
> > here I go]
> >
> > I maintain shared-mime-info on freedesktop.org:
> > https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xdg/shared-mime-info/
> >
> > shared-mime-info uses Transifex as the translation service from
> > back
> > when it was a Fedora hosted/sponsored project.
> (...)
> > The problem is translators have had problems getting accepted into
> > that
> > group, there seems to be no list of people to contact on the above
> > page, and, in the end, translators contact the module maintainers
> > directly, and they (I) know nothing about how transifex works from
> > the
> > translator/group management side.
> (...)
> > I've been told Claude was responsible for the group. Is he still
> > responsible for it?
>
> Yes, and Piotr Drąg has also admin access.

OK.

> > Is there documentation we can point translators to
> > about applying for a position in the group?
>
> I think the main problem is not how to apply, but rather what to do when 
> the coordinator is not reactive. That's an issue for every translation 
> platform I know. Either you allow anyone to join and translate and you 
> end up with mediocre results, or you appoint so-called coordinators, but 
> those regularly disappear and if you don't have some list like 
> gnome-i18n for managing thoses issues, you are stuck.

Right, see below.

> It's also true that Transifex used to overflow with notifications, and 
> many people simply deactivate all of them, so they are not getting join 
> requests.

I never actively disabled notifications on Transifex, I just never
logged in to the website after setting up scripts in shared-mime-info
back in 2011. I receive emails for completed translations, but not for
messages.

> When I'm aware of such blocked situations, I try to contact team 
> coordinators and change the coordinatorship if someone volunteers. But I 
> often don't know about such cases.

I'd be happy pointing people to a particular address, or mailing-list,
but the problem is that I don't know what the workflow looks like for
translators on that platform.

Currently, the HACKING section in shared-mime-info's README says:
"
Translations should go through Transifex.net, and the freedesktop.org
team:
http://www.transifex.net/projects/p/shared-mime-info/
"

Could you explain what the flow should be for potential contributors,
so I can document it in that file?

Something like "Join the freedesktop.org team on Transifex, and email
XXX if you run into problems" ?

> > Or should I start looking
> > at other ways to get shared-mime-info (and other modules I
> > maintain)
> > translated?
>
> You are of course free to choose the better way to get translations for 
> your module. My role is not to defend Transifex or any other translation 
> platform. The only thing is that if each freedesktop module chooses a 
> different platform, it's a heavy burden for translators trying to 
> translate all of those modules.
>
> I guess GNOME would of course be open to setup a connection with 
> freedesktop Gitlab so as translators can commit through our 
> l10n.gnome.org Web interface. But I don't know if this is politically 
> acceptable as a cross-desktop product.

It looks like the problem isn't so much the infrastructure but rather
the admin around it. I'm happy to see Piotr and you are both involved
in the fd.o translations on Transifex :)

Cheers