[Foundation-l] New projects opened

[Kaare Olsen]

On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:08:08 +0200
Svip <svippy at gmail.com> wrote:

> > So I do think Kaare is spot on to suggest it is an extraordinary
> > claim that lack of localizations is driving away Danish editors,
> > and as such requires extraordinary proof! Have there been
> > beginning Danish wiki-editors complaining about the poor
> > localization level?
> 
> I am would not claim myself to be a "beginning Danish wiki-editor",
> but I am certainly complaining about the localisation of the Danish
> MediaWiki.  If it wasn't obvious spelling mistakes, it was often odd
> direct translations from English, without much consideration of
> context.

Have these been fixed?  Could you give examples?  A year or two ago it 
turned out that someone had contributed interface translations using 
Google Translate (or similar).  I hope those were fixed, but you may 
have run into them when they first appeared, or into messages not yet 
fixed.

Besides, interface translations are only as good as their translators.  
As with Wikipedia itself, there's no control over who gets to contribute, 
and there aren't necessarily people available, or willing, to proof-read.  
As you know, the best way to get something fixed is to contribute 
yourself - this is how the free "something" world works.
 
> If I were a beginning Danish wiki-editor, I would see this as
> unprofessional - something which I already do in my current position -
> and as a result, probably leave, or contribute less than I had
> intended.

Are there any live examples of this in the Danish language Wikipedia?
If so, please point them out so they can be fixed (I looked through 
your local contributions without finding any pointers to such mistakes 
- did you fix it in Translatewiki?).
 
> It's unfortunate to see less and less Danes taking Danish serious
> enough, with English's slow integration into the Danish language.

Nod.

> Many things can be translated, but not necessarily everything should.

The last point is a matter of opinion which varies wildly.  There's 
likely translations which have been adopted in the Danish language 
Wikipedia, and may seem odd to less frequent contributors until they 
get used to see a Danish word instead of the usual English one.
 
> It's a balance.

Indeed.

-- 
Regards, Kaare