So, you want to translate some of the contents? Great! Here are a few important things to now.
Contrary to translations within diaspora*, we see translations on our project site a bit more critical. The contents on there are not only visible to our users, but are also an important piece of information for interested people, journalists, and other folks who are not on diaspora* yet. Therefore, we are a bit more careful. In concrete, this means:
- All translations have to be reviewed by a trusted community member before being visible on the production site.
- New languages will only be approved if there are multiple people interested in translating to that language, to ensure we reach a 100% translation relatively quickly.
- Whenever the source contents change, translation of that page will get invalidated and have to be validated by a translator again. We do this to avoid outdated content showing up in certain languages.
- Some contents, especially contents that require a high accuracy or change frequently, are not translateable. See the list below for more information.
The following contents are not translateable:
- All blog posts, because coordinating with translators before pushing a post is unrealistic, and translating after the fact is not really worth it for content that expires soon.
- Installation guides, because those need to be 100% accurate all the time, every time. Podmins and developers need, at some point, read or write English text either way, so there is no direct benefit from translating it.
We try to be as friendly as possible to all people, so please avoid complex language unless it is absolutely needed. If there is an easier to understand alternative for a technical term, but the meaning is still clear, it is probably better to use that.
It is not requried to end up with a very literal translation. It is fine to deviate from the original wording if the result sounds nicer. However, make sure the text's meaning does not change.
We use the Kramdown-variant of Markdown on this site. Please make sure to keep the syntax inact, make sure link URLs are copied properly, do not touch additional image attributes, and most importantly: escape your asterisks in diaspora\* :)
Some sites, especially those with more complex layouts or interactive elements contain ERB markup, for example:
<%= partial "components/headline_divider",
id: "principles",
headline: "diaspora* is based on three key principles"
%>
In this case, you are free to translate the value of headline, but make sure to leave the rest of the syntax. If you are not sure, look at other translations or ask us!
If you have any question, or you are unsure about something, please do not translate something. Ask us beforehand, and we will help out.
The official diaspora* project site is translated on Transifex. You need an account there, so go ahead and sign up. When you have signed up and confirmed your eMail address, head to the project's site and hit the join button:
If your desired language is not availble yet, please do not propose adding it on Transifex. Instead, open an issue on GitHub, so we can have a discussion about that.
When you are approved as a translator, access the resources list to see all available sites. The name of the resources there is a representation of the location of the English markdown files in this repository. For example, the file contents/site/get_help.md would show up as contents_site_get_help on transifex.
The file name itself is related to the URL the site is accessible under. For example, contents for https://diaspora.software/get_involved are located at contents/site/get_involved.md, the guide visible at https://guides.diaspora.software/users/are_aspects_groups is at contents/guides/users/are_aspects_groups.md and so on. If you cannot find something, ping us, and we will help.
Once you have found the site you want to translate, you can select a language, and once you picked a language, you are free to edit the contents!
Check these official documentation sites for more information: