Translating the IRC guidelines is complicated.

[Terence Simpson]

On 26 May 2011 03:09, Elián Hanisch <lambdae2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> When somebody translates the IRC Guidelines [1], because it's too specific
> around #ubuntu, it ends in something that might or might not be appropriate
> for the channel that needs the guidelines in its local language.
>
> One has to either use a literal translation with the confusion it might
> cause, or invest extra effort in either rewrite the guidelines or adapt the
> English version.
>
> In #ubuntu-es, for years we have been using a literal translation where the
> translator replaced all the "#ubuntu" by "#ubuntu-es" and some other bits so
> at least it would mention the right channels, but this is not satisfactory.
>
> We should try to agree in IRC guidelines where the wording isn't too
> specific to a particular channel and that can be safely used across all
> Ubuntu channels without modification.
>
> I think this is important for the TOS page [2] because in a practical sense
> it isn't translated at all, the page itself *is* translated but important
> documents like CoC and the IRC Guidelines still point to their English
> versions in some translations. Translating the CoC is simple (is the same
> for every channel) but the IRC Guidelines as I said it isn't.
>
> Thoughts? I ended up writing this mail after I tried investing that extra
> effort in getting #ubuntu-es guidelines right. But after thinking it for a
> bit I realized that it would be more beneficial for everyone if we all had
> the same guidelines.
>
> [1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/Guidelines
>
> [2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/TermsOfService
>

I think this is a valid issue, just reading over the guidelines page
on the wiki, it is far too #ubuntu specific considering that we apply
those rules to all core channels. The issue for those other (non-core)
channels, that wish to apply the same set of rules, is even more acute
and especially so for non-English language channels.
So I've reported a public bug[1] on launchpad about rewriting the
guidelines page to be less specific to #ubuntu. What I am aiming to
achieve is a more channel-generic content, but retaining all the rules
that are already listed. So not a policy change, but a stylistic
change.

I'd like to invite all interested to start a discussion about how the
guidelines page should be rewritten and to start drafting the rewrite.

[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-community/+bug/788503

--
Terence Simpson