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translatewiki.net so locked down I can't communicate with anyone there
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Description

Author: sminthopsis84

Description:
Reporting a bug here seems to be the only way to even ask what I might be misunderstanding about translatewiki.net. I've been trying to sign up as a translator, with the hope of translating wikilove messages for the Simple English wikipedia. [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Thread:Talk:WikiLove/Simple_English_Wikipedia I asked a question here.]

I tried twice to make a signon at translatewiki.net, which results in email that includes "Thank you for applying as a translator at translatewiki.net. I regret to inform you that I have rejected your application, because the quality of your translations did not meet the requirements." Well, duh! no signon=no translations=0 quality rating.

I've read all sorts of material including
[https://translatewiki.net/wiki/FAQ the FAQ] and its discussion page, which offer nothing that I can discern to be of any help. [https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Support#Translator_rights_43528 This discussion] includes the interesting statement "(we have no idea how many users we're losing by restricting account creation, also because none speaks up)", but without a signon I can't "speak up".

[https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:How_to_start The How_to_start page] says "When in doubt, request support!", but the support page says "You cannot post new threads to this discussion page because it has been protected from new threads."

I'm quite expecting that the answer to this is that no translators are wanted, and the Simple English wikipedia is in a limbo land where it cannot be helped, but I thought I should try my best to get a message through to someone, anyone.


Version: unspecified
Severity: normal

Details

Reference
bz70612

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Needs Triage.Nov 22 2014, 3:45 AM
bzimport set Reference to bz70612.
bzimport added a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).

I'm sorry you are having this much trouble. It certainly is not the intention.

The idea is that after you fill in your username and email, you will get back to the main page with a button to do try out the interface in a sandbox mode. After you have done that someone will approve your account to give full rights.

Unfortunately, we do not have Simple English as a language at translatewiki.net as we believe that the interface messages should be made simple enough in the first place.

Thanks for taking the time to write this!
Currently the expected process for such a case is that the user figures out to click the "Not a translator? You can still join the community" link written in blue on light blue under the button... I realise it's frustrating.

I've rewritten the FAQ entry which was overly optimistic about users finding their way thorough the forms: https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=FAQ&diff=5765406&oldid=5669175

gerritadmin wrote:

Change 159397 had a related patch set uploaded by Nemo bis:
Less assumptions in twnmp-join-community-info

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/159397

sminthopsis84 wrote:

Thanks. I did find the blue link "Not a translator? You can still join the community", which took me to "Join the community
If you are a developer interested in documenting translations, or just exploring the platform, you are also welcome.
Enter your account details …" which just seems to be the same "create an account" path that leads to an emailed rejection slip. Thank you for adding the "email an active staffer" link; that appears to work.

So, it appears that since I couldn't get anywhere with the interface for the special case of Simple English translation, that probably explains some of my difficulties. Perhaps it's easier for someone working with a pair of significantly different languages.

It doesn't seem to be the case that Simple English is completely missing, because there is a way to get to the list of needed translations, which is discussed here:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Thread:Talk:WikiLove/Simple_English_Wikipedia

Created attachment 16422
Test as "Simple English" translator, seen from the staffer's perspective

I tried registering as Simple English translator and (weirdly enough) the test translations were accepted, although I had to manually change interface language (originally Italian), registration language (originally Italian) and translation target language (originally... llonggo!). I could also translate in Gothic (which is disabled)!

Not sure what's the expected behaviour here, but I see two bugs/possible enhancements:

  1. if we're accepting disabled languages, we could as well accept any language in CLDR;
  2. when I select English interface, every refresh of https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:TranslationStash selects a new, random language (!).

Attached:

ManageTranslatorSandbox.png (900×1 px, 137 KB)

(In reply to sminthopsis84 from comment #4)

It doesn't seem to be the case that Simple English is completely missing,
because there is a way to get to the list of needed translations

And you can even save them! https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=MediaWiki:Wikilove/simple&oldid=5765483 But they'll go nowhere, so please don't do it. It's a known bug, bug 48804.

sminthopsis84 wrote:

Sorry, I misunderstood. I had thought that whoever created the account for me was working behind the scenes and thought I should proceed. Clearly, translatewiki.net is beyond my comprehension. I'll see if there is a way to request that my account be deleted.

(In reply to sminthopsis84 from comment #7)

Sorry, I misunderstood.

No problem.

I had thought that whoever created the account for
me was working behind the scenes and thought I should proceed.

"Whoever" was me, and I wasn't disagreeing with myself. :-)

gerritadmin wrote:

Change 159397 merged by jenkins-bot:
Less assumptions in twnmp-join-community-info and friends

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/159397

(In reply to Gerrit Notification Bot from comment #9)

Change 159397 merged by jenkins-bot:
Less assumptions in twnmp-join-community-info and friends

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/159397

sminthopsis84, can you confirm this was an improvement from your perspective?

I still am...

...Not sure what's the expected behaviour here, but I see two bugs/possible
enhancements:

  1. if we're accepting disabled languages, we could as well accept any

language in CLDR;

  1. when I select English interface, every refresh of

https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:TranslationStash selects a new,
random language (!).

If someone agrees with those two points, we can split them to their own reports.

Then, if the worst case described in comment 0 is mostly handled by these improvements, we could close this report. Otherwise, I can imagine a third request to discuss (more related to the bug summary):

  1. sandboxed users should be able to write a (LQT?) message somewhere.

sminthopsis84 wrote:

Sorry, I can't comment. It sounds as if some useful thought is going into the matter, but as someone who is not experienced in using translate.wiki.net, I'm not able to work through an appropriate set of thought experiments. I won't be upset if you go ahead and merge the bug reports because I don't plan to ever try again to use the system.

(In reply to Nemo from comment #10)

  1. if we're accepting disabled languages, we could as well accept any

language in CLDR;

  1. when I select English interface, every refresh of

https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:TranslationStash selects a new,
random language (!).

Both seem reasonable things to fix.

I'm closing this bug based on Nemo's work of rewording some messages on the main page.

(In reply to Niklas Laxström from comment #12)

Both seem reasonable things to fix.

Split to bug 73663, bug 73664.