[Foundation-l] elections

[Guillaume Paumier]

Hello,

On 4/6/07, Brion Vibber <brion at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
>
> The voting period was long, but there was very little time between the
> finalization of candidates and the beginning of voting. One consequence
> of this was that translators had not completed translation of candidate
> statements at the time the voting began.
>
> There should be more time ahead to prepare.


Indeed. Though translators really do their best, it is very difficult to
achieve translation of all candidate's statements. Last time the statements
were *suggested* not to exceed 1,000 characters [1]. Some rules must be
changed.

I suggest the following extra rules :
* For the pre-(s)election candidates, only a *short presentation* (~50
words) ; easy and fast to translate, even for many candidates. These
statements may be translated only in « big » languages, i.e. those of the
most developed projects.
* For the final candidates, *no more than 150 words*. These statements
should be translated in as many languages as possible.
* All statements *must* be written in simple words, simple sentences without
any idioms.
* All candidates *must* write their statement in all languages they speak.
They know what they want to say better than anyone, so it's better to have a
rough translation by themselves that will be refined later than a
well-written serious mistranslation.

To the future candidates: respect the work of translators. Last time, some
candidates largely exceeded the characters limit. Their statements were
however translated because the translators felt a moral obligation to
translate them. Though, such an attitude from candidates shows a disrespect
to our volunteer translators. So, if you long to be a community
representative, first respect the community by following these simple rules.
Thanks.

[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Election_candidates_2006/En

-- 
Guillaume Paumier
[[m:User:guillom]]
http://www.wikimedia.org