Degree of trust and quality for Ubuntu Localization Teams

[Ricardo Pérez López]

El mié, 08-07-2009 a las 00:24 +0300, Adi Roiban escribió:
> Hi,
> 
> During the last UDS we have talked about various reasons why people
> blame Ubuntu translations.
> 
> This is a long email, but I think that the raised issue is very
> important and it is fundamental for the way in which Ubuntu translations
> are perceived by users, developers and other/upstream translators.
> 
> One of the cause is the due to the fact that for some languages everyone
> (whether he/she knows or not the language) can submit a translation and
> that translation will land directly in Ubuntu. They can also
> delete/modify translations coming from upstream projects.
> 
> This can happen for Ubuntu Localization teams that use an open policy
> for membership, or for teams that does not check whether or not the new
> members are able to assure the translations quality.
> 
> I would like to note that the main goal of Ubuntu Localization Teams is
> to assure that quality of translations. Everyone is free to suggest
> translations and suggesting translations for Ubuntu is not limited to
> member of those teams.
> 
> This email was triggered by an incident occurred in the Ubuntu Slovenian
> Team where one of the team members was submitting approved translations
> for Slovenian but they were in fact Russian translations (using latin
> alphabet).
> 
> >From my point of view membership of Ubuntu localization teams should be
> moderated and before approve a new member, the team coordinators will
> have to take the requires measurement to make sure that person is aware
> of hes/her role in the team and the team's commitment to quality.
> 
> We can also go further and follow the model used for LoCo teams and have
> approved and unapproved localization teams. And approves teams would be
> the one able to assure a minimal degree of quality.
> 
> I know there are pros and cons for opening or moderating a team, but I
> think that all Ubuntu Localization teams should be moderated and have at
> least one active member willing to moderate new members, assure the
> translations quality, and be the spoke person for that language inside
> the Ubuntu community.
> 
> Below is a list of team with open membership policy. 
> I am aware that all translations are base on voluntary work and everyone
> is helping as best as he/she can.
> My intention is not to blame a person or a team, but I think that we
> should try not to ruin the work of other people.
> A bad translation could fail an application from starting, or it can
> confuse the user or lead to erroneous actions. 
> 
> The main questions: 
> 1. What do you think?
> 2. Should we moderate membership for localization teams and implement
> some minimal quality checks or we should have open team without any
> quality assurance measures?

Obviously, we (the Ubuntu Spanish Translators) agree with that, because
our team is already a moderated team. To become a member, you need to:

- Sign the Ubuntu Code of Conduct.
- Do translation suggestions for, at least, one month before apply to
the team.
- Be approved by, at least, two members of team, in order to ensure the
quality of the translation work.
- Use a "neutral" Spanish (not localized in any Spanish-spoken country).
- Subscribe to the team mailing list and request to be a member.

All the above requirements are collected in the wiki:

  https://wiki.ubuntu.com//UbuntuSpanishTranslators

We're working this way since several years ago.

Cheers,

Ricardo.