Adding a "Translation contributions" page on the NC website

Hi all, since a few weeks we have been thinking about adding a page to the Nextcloud website which would help new contributors who want to start with contributing translations. This short page would serve as an introduction with some brief guidelines or “best practices” for new translators, and links to helpful resources. This is what we have come up with so far (all credit goes to Jérôme Herbinet :slight_smile: ) I have not done any translation contributions so far, so some feedback from the translation community will be highly appreciated! What do you think? cc @rakekniven @jospoortvliet and anyone else who is interested!


Translate Nextcloud

Nextcloud is an open source project of international scope, translated into many languages. Thousands of community members work together to translate Nextcloud into more than a hundred different languages and dialects, and the quality of the translations impacts the experience of using Nextcloud in that language. You can help bring Nextcloud closer to people all over the world by helping translate Nextcloud to a language you are fluent in.

Using Transifex

You can start off by signing up on Transifex, the translation management platform used by Nextcloud, and joining the teams of the languages that you are fluent in. From there, go through the phrases that need to be translated or reviewed and suggest a correct phrase if needed. Take a look at the priority list for what needs to be translated.

Translation best practices

Understand context

Understand how a particular phrase is being used before you translate it. There may be some phrases which can be translated in different ways to another language, so understand the action associated with the phrase to help you communicate the action effectively in your language.

Proofread and check spelling

Spelling mistakes are more common than you think, so make sure to proofread your work. Take advantage of spellcheck and grammar tools to help you get a perfect translation every time.

Maintain consistency

Well-translated software is consistent its use of wording. Check how a word or phrase is used in other places in Nextcloud with the same context and match that. It is also useful to check the standard translation for the phrase in other products to maintain consistency.

Helpful resources

Hello @nimishavijay and @jherbinet ,

I like the idea of adding such a page.
The draft is easy to read and understand.

My comments:

Before joining teams you have to join the Nextcloud project at TX.

This paragraph does not contain an address. It is not clear to me from this whether I, as a new translator, need to understand the context.

That’s all from my side.

btw. A blog post would be great to address more translators.

Hey Nimisha,

checked company website seconds ago and could not find “Translation contributions”.

Can I help in anyway to get this live?

Cheers,
Mark

Hey @nimishavijay,

any update on this topic?