Re: State of Farsi Gnome translation

[Refdoc <refdoc crosswire org>]

Thanks Roozbeh for responding.

I can see the point about many technical people being busy right now.

The glossary - I have emailed you about this in January. I have been
looking pretty much everywhere to find such, so if I missed something
can you give me a link, please?

Wrt my translations - Xiphos (www.xiphos.org), SwordWeb
(www.crosswire.org/~refdoc/swordweb/webapp, BibleDesktop
(www.crosswire.org/bibledesktop.html)

I will go ahead and identify what exactly I need updated and work on
that first. Do you wish me to file bugs and attach the new po to that or
is the fact that something is x% fuzzy/untranslated good enough and
posting a po on the mailing list will do?

Wrt review - if I find someone who would volunteer as a reviewer, would
this do? I guess this might be the only way this will move forward right
now.

Thanks

Peter

Roozbeh Pournader wrote:
> Peter,
> 
> I don't think the problem is lack of activity from my side. The
> problem is that almost all previous contributors who had experience
> with Persian translaiton of GNOME have stopped contributing, so we
> don't have any reviewers at the moment. Translation updates stay
> there, and I can not convince anybody to review them. (BTW, as far as
> I remember, some of the people contributing did not use the GNOME
> glossary at all, and some of the open bugs does not wait an action
> from a reviewer, but an update from the translator to match existing
> GNOME style. It may only say that on one bug per translator, but
> that's the story.)
> 
> I've never seen your Persian translations, but maybe you can help us
> (and show your skills) by reviewing existing Persian translation bugs
> and see if it's good Persian and if they match the current glossary
> and style used in the existing translations. You know the open bugs. I
> would appreciate that.
> 
> Alternatively, you can translate parts of GNOME that you care for, and
> attach them to bugs, so someone can review them. (Considering the
> present situation in Iran now, that may take a while. Anybody who may
> volunteer his time to translate is doing something related to the
> uprising, from translating news to translating privacy-related
> software.)
> 
> Independently, I would gladly hand over the role of coordinator if
> somebody with the necessary skills and experience agrees to step in. I
> at least know two such people, but they seem to have left the project
> too, like every other experienced translator/editor. Mine is a role I
> accepted out of a necessity years ago, and I believe I have
> overstayed. Just help recreate a community with a couple of active
> reviewers who know techincal Persian well enough, and you've shown you
> can do it.
> 
> Roozbeh
> 
> On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 8:39 AM, Peter von Kaehne<refdoc crosswire org> wrote:
>> Just to be clear, I am not intending to form or represent a different group,
>> nor do I want to remove/act against/fight for coordinatorship. I have read
>> that thread last year and feel appalled by it and the approach taken by the
>> complainant.
>>
>>
>> I am here essentially to resolve our problem at Xiphos (+ help the overall
>> effort along). Roozbeh is a vastly superior translator, software engineer
>> (which I am not) and someone I respect highly from different and unrelated
>> matters. If this thread wakes him up and allows me to address my problems in
>> Xiphos then all is fine.
>>
>>
>> But if he has left/become inactive then I am looking for a resolution of
>> some sort + look to you for guidance in this matter.
>>
>>
>> Peter
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Christian Rose wrote:
>>
>>> 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
>>>
>>