Re: Is the Korean team dead?

[Christian Rose <menthos gnome org>]

sÃn 2005-04-10 klockan 07:52 +0900 skrev Changwoo Ryu:
> 2005-04-09 (í), 17:36 +0200, Christian Rose ììê:
> > mÃn 2003-05-05 klockan 01:31 +0900 skrev Changwoo Ryu:
> > > 2003-05-02 ê 06:54, Christian Roseì(ê) ì:
> > > > Hi!
> > > > Do you know if the Korean GNOME translation team is dead? I've tried
> > > > several times to contact the current Korean coordinator, Noh Woo Kyong
> > > > <rainlood kldp org>, but so far without success.
> > > > I also sent the attached mail to the gnome-i18n gnome org mailing list
> > > > with request for a new Korean coordinator almost a month ago but so far
> > > > without a single response regarding anything Korean.
> > > > Do you know anything about the Korean team situation? In that case,
> > > > please clarify it on the gnome-i18n gnome org list.
> > > > Otherwise I'll delete the Korean translation team listing soon.
> > > 
> > > I have not seen him for a while.
> > > 
> > > AFAIK Korean translators have never worked as a 'team'.  He volunteered
> > > the coordinator, but did nothing.  Though the Korean translators did
> > > their jobs without any team effort.
> > > 
> > > anyway I'll try to contact Woo Kyong anyway and to find a new
> > > coordinator if possible.
> > 
> > It seems I never got a reply on this, and this was left unresolved. So
> > the Korean team has lacked a functional coordinator for almost two years
> > now!
> 
> Well, since I'm probably only one commiting ko.po files, I hereby
> volunteer as the Korean coordinator.

Excellent! As the previous Korean coordinator is unreachable (bouncing
mail address) and hasn't been heard from for years, you're the new
Korean coordinator as of now.
I've added your name to the
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/teams.html teams page. Please
make sure the listing is correct.

> Please use
> gnome-kr-hackers lists kldp net if any team mail address is required.

We unfortunately don't have a field for translation mailing list, but we
do on the other hand have a field for a team web page. Perhaps you can
add a simple team web page? Such a team web page is not mandatory
however, but it might be a help for new translation volunteers. A team
web page can then link to the actual mailing list.


> > If the Korean coordinatorship issue cannot be resolved because of lack
> > of coordinator volunteers, then I will simply demand that no Korean
> > translations are committed to CVS any longer, since we in the GTP cannot
> > have people committing ko.po files at random without knowing who is the
> > Korean coordinator who can authorize those things.
> > 
> > So I hope that any Korean translators reading this will consider if they
> > want to step up as Korean coordinators. If noone wants to be the Korean
> > coordinator, then we simply shouldn't allow ko.po files to be committed
> > to CVS any longer.
> 
> I think we should not reject contributions by such a reason. People
> often disappear, some lost their interests and some people don't follow
> our way. But it does not make the contributions useless.

Of course, rejecting contributions would only be the very last measure,
unless we had not been able to resolve the Korean coordinator issue any
other way.

I agree that it all comes down to a thing: the actual contributions. The
surrounding administrativia, where it exists, should be and only be an
aid to achieve that goal. So it would seem stupid to reject
contributions based on an administrative "formality".

However, on the other hand, translator volunteers who have been
interested in translating GNOME into Korean have, for the past years,
been directed to a long missing Korean coordinator and a bouncing mail
address. So, in practice, translation volunteers have been directed
to /dev/null.

I don't think that's healthy for a project to do such a thing with
volunteers, at least not in the long run. So, seen from that point of
view, I think it's fairly reasonable to temporarily block Korean
translation contributions should there be *no* other way to get pressure
to resolve a status quo situation with a team where any new volunteers
are directed to /dev/null and noone knows whom to contact. I think that
long-term, the benefits of resolving such a situation would clearly
outweigh any drawbacks of temporarily blocking some contributions.


> > So what does it take to be the Korean coordinator? Basically, a
> > coordinator acts as a contact person to both the GTP and any new Korean
> > translator volunteers, and hopefully also does some coordination so that
> > duplicate efforts are avoided. That's basically all there is to it.
> > 
> > Because of the lack of a Korean coordinator, we haven't got a Korean
> > component in Bugzilla, so the recent bug report about Korean
> > translations is basically orphaned and was sent here.
> 
> I think most Korean users won't file  translation bugs to the bugzilla
> (the bugzilla is another language barrier).  Has there really been any
> Korean translation related bugs in the bugzilla?

Yes, very recently, and that bug report notice was copied to this list
as well:
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-i18n/2005-April/msg00046.html

It is important to remember that Bugzilla isn't just a place for users
to report bugs. It's also a place where other contributors can (and do)
report bugs they encounter. The l10n product is frequently used by
maintainers, other developers, and testers who encounter problematic
translations in modules, since the bugs are then automatically assigned
to the people who can resolve them (i.e. the translation teams). Of
course, this only works if all teams have components in the Bugzilla
l10n product, so that's why we require that. Otherwise, the Bugzilla bug
reports for some languages would still end up being orphaned and never
ever get attention or be resolved.

Speaking of that, I've sent you a request for more information in
private mail, so that I can set up a Bugzilla component for Korean, so
that future Korean bug reports can be properly assigned.


Thanks,

Christian