[MF] peercoin.net and Peerunity translators

General
1

Contact Information
I am GLock on Peercointalk. You can reach me directly by bitmessage BM-2cVD3MkPg4EmdTZDGt8Ji3JiK4JnBG83V1 (preferred) or by PM.

Submission date
Tuesday 30th September 2014

Summary
I propose a bounty for translators of peercoin.net website and the software Peerunity.

Details

I believe that to spread the knowledge of Peercoin to non english speaking users around the World it is necessary to translate to as many languages as possible the peercoin.net website and the Peerunity software.

With a bounty on translation we will boost the translations to a variety of languages of the peercoin.net website and we will manage to have finished most of the translations of Peerunity that at the moment are incomplete.

Requirements are as follows:

[ul][li]native speaker of the language that you want to translate or fluency in the language[/li]
[li]the translation has to be as close as possible to the original english language of peercoin.net website / Peerunity software. Minor paragraph restructuring due to the target language constraints is accepted.[/li]
[li]the translation should re-use bitcoin translation to the same language, if possible[/li][/ul]

The translations must be submitted using the following websites:

[ul][li]for peercoin.net → https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/website-ppc/[/li]
[li]for Peerunity → http://www.getlocalization.com/Peerunity/
[/li][/ul]

Initially the target of this project is to have peercoin.net and Peerunity translated in 10 languages that can be picked from the following:

Mandarin
Spanish
French
Italian
Hindi
Russian
German
Japanese
Indonesian
Tagalog
Portuguese
Swahili
Arabic

The assignement will be on first come first serve basis.

The Available languages are as follows:

peercoin.net

Level of completness
0% = incomplete
100% = fully translated
Peercoin.net
Mandarin 0%
Spanish 50%
French 100%
Italian 100%
Hindi 100%
Russian 0%
German 5%
Japanese 0%
Indonesian 100%
Tagalog 0%
Portuguese 0%
Swahili 0%
Arabic 0%

Peerunity

Level of completness
0% = incomplete
100% = fully translated
Peercoin.net
Mandarin 100%
Spanish 50%
French 100%
Italian 50%
Hindi 0%
Russian 50%
German 50%
Japanese 0%
Indonesian 0%
Tagalog 0%
Portuguese 50%
Swahili 0%
Arabic 0%

Note on Peerunity: Peerunity translations will start as soon as we will have Peerunity v0.2 pulled to getlocalization, applications are already welcome.

For partial translations at the time of start you will be paid pro rata:

e.g.: 50% on peercoin.net = 15 PPC

However, be reminded that you will not be paid at all unless the translation is completed in full by the same applicant submitting the translation request.

Verification Process

The translations will be verified on social fora or other social networks with native speakers selecting 3 random paragraphs once the translation is flagged by the translator as completed.
The outcome and the reference of the validation will be published in this thread.

Target audience

Visitors of peercoin.net website and users that utilize Peerunity.

Budget

Budget is as follows:
Full peercoin.net translation in one language = 30 PPC
Full Peerunity transation in one language = 15 PPC

Total Budget for ten (10) languages (10 x 30) + (10 x 15) = 450 PPC

Progress management, verification and adminsitration = 2 PPC per language fully translated in either peercoin.net or Peerunity
Total Budget for administration = 2 PPC x 20 (10 peercoin.net + 10 Peerunity) = 40 PPC

Maximum Grand Total (as the languages are pro rated) = 490 PPC

Deadlines

From application the translator has three weeks (21 days) to complete and submit the translation work in full on https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/website-ppc/ for peercoin.net and http://www.getlocalization.com/Peerunity/ to be eligible for the bounty.

Metrics

The progress of the translations is available on transifex and getlocalization websites.

Funds management

The funds can be distributed directly from the Marketing Fund once is confirmed that an applicant has completed in full the translation work as per the initial application and within the deadline.

The administration and verification process of the translations will be done by GLock and rendered public on this thread.

2

Great to see another proposal. Like the looks of it.

Just my first questions to start the conversation.

  1. Who would review the translation delivered and should we include that in the bounty?

  2. I would prefer a separate peer4commit instance for this so it is clear how the funds are spend and that they not get confused with the Marketing Fund’s grants. The Peer4commit.com fee can be paid by the MF. I’m ok to manage the grant if requested and respond to successful reviews to transfer the agreed bounty. But it would be good to have a trusted backup person.

  3. Is it agreed with the devs that Peerunity translations won’t come from transifex, but from getlocalization? I don’t want to get into a position where they are not willing to accept PRs from one or the other. Maybe Ben can enlighten us here?

  4. Would you consider a target list with preferred languages as I’m not sure whether Frisian or Urdu would provide much value. No offense meant to native speakers of those languages.

3

I am happy to check the progress of the translations, keep a list of the translated languages and to check that the users are meeting the deadlines with a little bounty that could be added to the initial proposal.

If we want to review also the content, it will be the most challenging of your points as to review a translation we need at least another person proficient in the language translated and this could double the expenses.

If we have two applicants for one language, the first applicant could do the translation meanwhile the second one could get half of the reward for checking. My worry here is that is possible to create a fake user from the first applicant just to get the other 50% of the reward, so unless someone else has a better idea, I am against it.

2) I would prefer a separate peer4commit instance for this so it is clear how the funds are spend and that they not get confused with the Marketing Fund's grants. The Peer4commit.com fee can be paid by the MF. I'm ok to manage the grant if requested and respond to successful reviews to transfer the agreed bounty. But it would be good to have a trusted backup person.

I am happy with this solution.

3) Is it agreed with the devs that Peerunity translations won't come from transifex, but from getlocalization? I don't want to get into a position where they are not willing to accept PRs from one or the other. Maybe Ben can enlighten us here?

As mentioned here Cryptoblog - notícias sobre bitcoin e criptomoedas! I thought it was the last agreed mean for translation, a feedback from a Peerunity developer could confirm that this is the preferred way for translations

4) Would you consider a target list with preferred languages as I'm not sure whether Frisian or Urdu would provide much value. No offense meant to native speakers of those languages.

What about this 13 languages to choose from

Mandarin
Spanish
French
Italian
Hindi
Russian
German
Japanese
Indonesian
Tagalog
Portuguese
Swahili
Arabic

they will be assigned first come first serve basis, is a balance of the most widely spoken languages in the world and potential users due to their high use of remittances. (source various Wikipedia articles)

4

I think is this a great proposal, and the budget seems reasonable to me. Thank you, GLock, for bringing this forward!

5

Thanks for the support Chronos, I hope we will be able to involve many people from different countries and increase adoption and better knowledge of what Peercoin tries to achieve.

Once we will agree on the proposal I will publish it also on bitcointalk forum for better visibility.

6

Thanks Glock, happy with your answers on 2,3 and 4.
Your comment on the first one still bugs me as basically wehave no means on quality control and everyone with Google translate can go with it.
So how would you vet people as being qualified for the job in the first place?

Especially when they have no track record on this forum or another decent forum, otherwise people could share their accountname.
Would we just thank them? Would you have them write a paragraph of native language?
Just trying to socialise some ideas. Keen to prevent abuse of the bounty and leave us empty handed.

Anyone reading this, please feel free to chip in on what you think on where to lay the bar and what risk is acceptable.

7

Thank you for bringig up that idea and for backing it with a bounty!

I think the approach is reasonably chosen and the list of preferred languages for the translations seems to be sorted by the importance of the “markets”.
With 30 PPC or 15 PPC, respectively, you can’t afford paying a review of the translation, but I think it might be fine this way.

…if we were at Nu, I’d tend to say: you have my vote for this motion :wink:

8

[quote=“Cybnate, post:6, topic:2931”]Thanks Glock, happy with your answers on 2,3 and 4.
Your comment on the first one still bugs me as basically wehave no means on quality control and everyone with Google translate can go with it.
So how would you vet people as being qualified for the job in the first place?

Especially when they have no track record on this forum or another decent forum, otherwise people could share their accountname.
Would we just thank them? Would you have them write a paragraph of native language?
Just trying to socialise some ideas. Keen to prevent abuse of the bounty and leave us empty handed.

Anyone reading this, please feel free to chip in on what you think on where to lay the bar and what risk is acceptable.[/quote]

Hi,

I’m socialising my ideas :slight_smile: This should remain on the part of the translator to prove that he or she is appropriate for the job, let people be creative. Writing a paragraph in native language? Maybe, all depends if the person can show any “Internet” proof of their residence. I see that the work is in progress, so I guess you’ve managed to solve the problem.

As for verification, it would be easier to verify that something is well-written in a particular language (from the grammar side) than to verify if the translation is done properly- the translator needs to pay attention to details in order to explain pseudo-technical texts (I believe those texts bear a characteristic of technical ones). In other words, the translation needs to make sense+ the translator needs to know what he or she is writing about. A long time ago I translated into English some texts about aerial laser scaners that use a cloud of points to grab a scan of the surrounding-land, this was a real adventure :slight_smile: I see your texts are much easier.

As Cybnate touched upon this issue, the first step of verification should be comparing the translated text to what Google Translator gives:) The remaining verification could be done by good-hearted people, as following mOD, the budget’s rather low. It’s easier to read and verify than to translate.

One idea that comes to my mind is looking for a translators’ forum in a given language and asking for verification- there are people who will do it for free, as often such a forum is used by translators to look for help from other folks. Those people might be willing to help for free, it just would require an appropriate introductory text that would be kindly asking for help and explaining the nature of the project. Another idea to consider is posting at bitcointalk language sections and asking for help there, for people to verify the content.

If you ever need translation into Polish, please feel free to contact me.

Kind regards,
Piotr

9

Having people writing a paragraph in their language would be as easy as a copy and paste but I really like the idea of going to a third party forum with native speakers to verify a translation. There are several around that could be used for that purpose (see http://forum.wordreference.com/)

We could select few random paragraphs, especially in the most articulate sections; after the final work for consistency, grammar and other translation issues.

10

Having people writing a paragraph in their language would be as easy as a copy and paste but I really like the idea of going to a third party forum with native speakers to verify a translation. There are several around that could be used for that purpose (see http://forum.wordreference.com/)

We could select few random paragraphs, especially in the most articulate sections; after the final work for consistency, grammar and other translation issues.[/quote]

How about giving the wannabe-translator a topic that would require him/her to create a text, a text not possible to be copy-paste. How about asking for a report on the state of crypto-currencies in their country. They’d need to do a short research and share their ideas and observations. It can’t be too time consuming, so the guideline should be precise and not too general, e.g:

Create a report on the state of Bitcoin in your country. Please include the following:

  1. What is the awareness of the general population with regard to Bitcoin (press releases, media coverage)
  2. Is there a group of enthusiasts centred around particular fora, how active are they
  3. Is it easy to find information about Bitcoin in your language, how detailed is the information
  4. How many businesses have adopted Bitcoin as a payment method (please refer to coinmap.org as a source of info)
  5. What is the government approach towards Bitcoin (is the government trying to regulate Bitcoin usage, what is the taxation approach)
    OPTIONAL
  6. Talk to 5 people and try to persuade them to download a Bitcoin wallet for their Android phone in order to use Bitcoin- how many of them agreed and what were their reactions

The writing should be limited to a certain amount of words (not signs, as some languages are monosyllabic and some are polysyllabic- English is mono, the words are short, my native is poly, words are long), so that it doesn’t take too much time but at the same time isn’t too short.

P.S. I just thought that my neighbour is from India, he may know a suitable language :slight_smile: I’ll try and think about verifying, in my city there’s a university with language department, students are always willing to help for a beer :slight_smile:

11

Thinking twice about the order of the preferred languages I come to the conclusion that Portuguese might be more important.
For example Brazil is a country where the official language is Portuguese, there are more than 200 million inhabitants and there’s might be need for crypto currency.

12

Having people writing a paragraph in their language would be as easy as a copy and paste but I really like the idea of going to a third party forum with native speakers to verify a translation. There are several around that could be used for that purpose (see http://forum.wordreference.com/)

We could select few random paragraphs, especially in the most articulate sections; after the final work for consistency, grammar and other translation issues.[/quote]

How about giving the wannabe-translator a topic that would require him/her to create a text, a text not possible to be copy-paste. How about asking for a report on the state of crypto-currencies in their country. They’d need to do a short research and share their ideas and observations. It can’t be too time consuming, so the guideline should be precise and not too general, e.g:

Create a report on the state of Bitcoin in your country. Please include the following:

  1. What is the awareness of the general population with regard to Bitcoin (press releases, media coverage)
  2. Is there a group of enthusiasts centred around particular fora, how active are they
  3. Is it easy to find information about Bitcoin in your language, how detailed is the information
  4. How many businesses have adopted Bitcoin as a payment method (please refer to coinmap.org as a source of info)
  5. What is the government approach towards Bitcoin (is the government trying to regulate Bitcoin usage, what is the taxation approach)
    OPTIONAL
  6. Talk to 5 people and try to persuade them to download a Bitcoin wallet for their Android phone in order to use Bitcoin- how many of them agreed and what were their reactions

The writing should be limited to a certain amount of words (not signs, as some languages are monosyllabic and some are polysyllabic- English is mono, the words are short, my native is poly, words are long), so that it doesn’t take too much time but at the same time isn’t too short.

P.S. I just thought that my neighbour is from India, he may know a suitable language :slight_smile: I’ll try and think about verifying, in my city there’s a university with language department, students are always willing to help for a beer :)[/quote]

It is a nice idea and it might push newcomers to Peercoin but I doubt that many would go through the effort of these many points for only 15 or 30 PPC, especially if they are not driven by an authentic interest towards Peercoin or crypto in general.

It could work on the long run, but only very slowly if we try to reach new people only here or other fora.

If we manage to get interested young communities of students belonging to universities, as you have mentioned, it might work. So really depends on how and where we manage to get in touch with people using this “selection” system for translators.

At the moment the most practical solution, in my opinion, still the one to hold the award until the translation is verified by an independent community with random articulated paragraphs.

[quote=“masterOfDisaster, post:11, topic:2931”]Thinking twice about the order of the preferred languages I come to the conclusion that Portuguese might be more important.
For example Brazil is a country where the official language is Portuguese, there are more than 200 million inhabitants and there’s might be need for crypto currency.[/quote]

The languages in the list are in no particular order, is just a list to restrict the needed translation for budget reasons.

13

@GLock, you’re right, all depends on how fast do we need the translation, how many translators are needed, what a wannabe-translator has as a proof of them being competent. I would simply ask them to prove it in a creative way:) therefore shifting the weight of proof to their side, instead of asking them to comply with our rules. This might work for the start.

Could you please give an update on what languages are still vacant? My neighbour is from India, he might help with the Hindi part, just need to know what dialect he’s using. The point is that I could help him and clarify the bits that are unfamiliar to him. With regard to other languages, I might find some reviewers, especially the European languages.

14

[quote=“GLock, post:12, topic:2931”][…]
The languages in the list are in no particular order, is just a list to restrict the needed translation for budget reasons.[/quote]

But the order is not bad, imho. It’s close to the order I’d create if someone would ask me for the most important languages…

15

[quote=“thExit, post:13, topic:2931”]@GLock, you’re right, all depends on how fast do we need the translation, how many translators are needed, what a wannabe-translator has as a proof of them being competent. I would simply ask them to prove it in a creative way:) therefore shifting the weight of proof to their side, instead of asking them to comply with our rules. This might work for the start.

Could you please give an update on what languages are still vacant? My neighbour is from India, he might help with the Hindi part, just need to know what dialect he’s using. The point is that I could help him and clarify the bits that are unfamiliar to him. With regard to other languages, I might find some reviewers, especially the European languages.[/quote]

Level of completness
0% = incomplete
100% = fully translated
Peercoin.net
Mandarin 0%
Spanish 50%
French 100%
Italian 100%
Hindi 100%
Russian 0%
German 5%
Japanese 0%
Indonesian 100%
Tagalog 0%
Portuguese 0%
Swahili 0%
Arabic 0%

Most of the Peerunity languages are at about 50% I will personally complete the translation in Indonesian and Italian as I did for peercoin.net

Peerunity Hindi language is at 0%

For the Hindi dialect, maybe your friend could clarify for us which dialect would be the most suitable for our purpose.

16

[quote=“GLock, post:15, topic:2931”][quote=“thExit, post:13, topic:2931”]@GLock, you’re right, all depends on how fast do we need the translation, how many translators are needed, what a wannabe-translator has as a proof of them being competent. I would simply ask them to prove it in a creative way:) therefore shifting the weight of proof to their side, instead of asking them to comply with our rules. This might work for the start.

Could you please give an update on what languages are still vacant? My neighbour is from India, he might help with the Hindi part, just need to know what dialect he’s using. The point is that I could help him and clarify the bits that are unfamiliar to him. With regard to other languages, I might find some reviewers, especially the European languages.[/quote]

Level of completness
0% = incomplete
100% = fully translated
Peercoin.net
Mandarin 0%
Spanish 50%
French 100%
Italian 100%
Hindi 100%
Russian 0%
German 5%
Japanese 0%
Indonesian 100%
Tagalog 0%
Portuguese 0%
Swahili 0%
Arabic 0%

Most of the Peerunity languages are at about 50% I will personally complete the translation in Indonesian and Italian as I did for peercoin.net

Peerunity Hindi language is at 0%

For the Hindi dialect, maybe your friend could clarify for us which dialect would be the most suitable for our purpose.[/quote]

|I’ll ask him about that, I’ll give you an update in a day. If you wish I may try to find a suitable Russian translator (locally).

17

Thanks for both, would be very useful.
Just bear in mind that as we are still discussing the proposal here, requirements and eventually rewards could change in the following days.

18

Thanks for both, would be very useful.
Just bear in mind that as we are still discussing the proposal here, requirements and eventually rewards could change in the following days.[/quote]

I’ve talked to my friend, he says Hindi is the best choice, he uses the “proper” dialect, I’ll email him the details so he’ll see if he can do it. If no, then he may direct us to an appropriate person.

I’ll keep an eye on the discussion to see if conditions change, so that I know what I can offer to people wanting to participate, and what do we need on their part.

19

[quote=“GLock, post:15, topic:2931”]Level of completness
0% = incomplete
100% = fully translated
Peercoin.net
Mandarin 0%

Most of the Peerunity languages are at about 50% I will personally complete the translation in Indonesian and Italian as I did for peercoin.net[/quote]

Peerunity has all been translated to Mandarin Chinese except for one sentence. The history of Peerunity translation was from qt locale config files to transifex to getlocalization. Peerunity was fully translated to French and Mandarin and partly(?) to Notweigian and Dutch in the qt-locale era if I remember right.

Quite some effort was spent to rationalize peerunity translation process. To summarize from my view point, I think we should have followed bitcoin’s method because main functional developmenet progress brought to peercoin/peerunity is still from bitcoin development, if we use bitcoin’s method, we can update peercoin translation easily because bitcoin has all translations. Please look at the issue tracker on gitub for peerunity for details. However it was decided to use getlocalization in the end.

It is great that GLock is getting onto the translation and coordinate translation.

20

It is a big jigsaw to solve then…I had a look at github, is it possible to port the translations to getlocalization to make easier and more accessible future updates and completness level?

if we use bitcoin's method, we can update peercoin translation easily because bitcoin has all translations.

How’s Bitcoin tackling translations?