internationalizing the site: NEED TRANSLATORS

Non-reading activities need your help too!
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hugh
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Post by hugh »

Edit in 2015:
Thank you for your interest in translating our homepage.
LibriVox's homepage received a complete revamp in 2013.
At the moment, we are not planning to do any homepage translations.



LV's Homepage was updated in August 2007. Go here for what regards the translations' update: http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=180891#180891

Looking for volunteers to translate our Librivox homepage into french, italian, spanish...etc,
Please help translating. More info here: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Homepage_Translation

(stephane in charge!)

1. set up wiki pages to do the translation of relevant pages
2. next, add to the front page of LV.org ...

International:
-spanish
-french
-german
-etc...

leading to simple page with (condensed?) versions of:

http://librivox.org/about-librivox/
http://librivox.org/podcast-page
http://librivox.org/volunteer-for-librivox/
other?
Last edited by hugh on May 29th, 2006, 5:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Stephan
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Post by Stephan »

roger.

Need a volunteering librivox-admin. I assumed you don't have time to do this, hugh.

----------------------

i disagree to offer simpler, condensed versions. Actually simpler would be a total 100% conversion of every page. Easier to compare, overlook, maintain. And not confusing for multi-lingual visitors. Parts they learned to skip in their mind they can keep skipping in the new language too. Parts they learned to navigate they can navigate the same way as before. Not if the translated pages have a slightly different structure, places for links, etc. All shold look EXACTLY the same if you ask me.
[url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/PromotionalMaterial][color=indigo]Want to promote LV? Print the poster and pin it at your library[/color][/url] | [url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/Stephan_Moebius][color=indigo]My wiki page[/color][/url]
hugh
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Post by hugh »

ok. i agree.

my thought was to have an international jump page that gives the brief overview in several languages:

LibriVox: free audiobooks
LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then we release the audio files back onto the net (podcast and catalog). Our objective is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet. We are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project

then leads to a french, german etc pages.
hugh
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Post by hugh »

oh & don;t think we need admin, or rather important thing is to get the content done, then the uploading to wordpress site will be easy. either you or someone else can take that on once the content is done, no?

Oh: maybe we could add an english page like this which is easy for visually impaired people to read (had complaints that the site is not friendly to VI people).
kayray
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Post by kayray »

I'll help. Stephan, you can just make plain text files (with html coding if you need fun colors/fonts etc.) and I can create the appropriate wordpress pages later.
Kara
http://kayray.org/
--------
"Mary wished to say something very sensible into her Zoom H2 Handy Recorder, but knew not how." -- Jane Austen (& Kara)
Stephan
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Post by Stephan »

Here is the start of something in the Wiki:
http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/LibrivoxHomepageTranslation

I will give it a better structure tonight.
Last edited by Stephan on May 29th, 2006, 11:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
[url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/PromotionalMaterial][color=indigo]Want to promote LV? Print the poster and pin it at your library[/color][/url] | [url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/Stephan_Moebius][color=indigo]My wiki page[/color][/url]
Stephan
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Post by Stephan »

Kara, thanks for beeing there and doing this with me.
Hugh, you know what i was thinking. Icons and the complete site translated.

Image

Image

Image

Image

My idea is probably not so clever for any changes in the english version would then have to be copied in the other languages too. We'll all have to discuss this. But let me get content first.
Last edited by Stephan on May 29th, 2006, 11:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
[url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/PromotionalMaterial][color=indigo]Want to promote LV? Print the poster and pin it at your library[/color][/url] | [url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/Stephan_Moebius][color=indigo]My wiki page[/color][/url]
Stephan
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Post by Stephan »

Done in german so far:
Frontpage (Main Content, Sidebar, Footer)
Volunteering for Librivox
Podcast Page
About Librivox
Last edited by Stephan on May 30th, 2006, 1:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
[url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/PromotionalMaterial][color=indigo]Want to promote LV? Print the poster and pin it at your library[/color][/url] | [url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/Stephan_Moebius][color=indigo]My wiki page[/color][/url]
Stephan
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Post by Stephan »

Done in German:
Contact LibriVox
Catalogue MainPage
How to Listen


http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/GermanHomepageTranslation
Of course needs revising by another german.
It looks messy. But i can't think of a better way to do it.
[url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/PromotionalMaterial][color=indigo]Want to promote LV? Print the poster and pin it at your library[/color][/url] | [url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/Stephan_Moebius][color=indigo]My wiki page[/color][/url]
Stephan
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Post by Stephan »

I really thought we?d have volunteers in no time. But there is no rush of course. We can just wait until we have enough translation.
Until then let's discuss the translation:

The two options that i see we have:
I am sure you can think of more ways.

1.Offering a Site-Translation.
Every single page and word translated one to one. You click another country-flag, Librivox simply appears in another language - EVERYTHING.

2. Offering the most used help-pages as translated versions
Using well-placed links. This could be done in several ways: (again, think of more ways)
2.1 A link below the headline saying <german> <french> <spanish> linking to a translated version of that page
2.2 Using the right sidebar: giving a list of special help-pages
- Hilfe in Deutsch
- Aide en francaise
- Aiuto in italiano
- Ayuda en espa?ol
- помощь на русском языке

Arguments
1. Good:
- users keep most overview, can surf the whole site and understand everything. The least language barrier. He will never get lost anywhere.
- we can reach a huge number of more visitors, i.e. all those not speaking english at all!!!
- a word by word translation is easy. No need then to invent new clever help pages that would at best give hewn translated paths through the site.
1. Bad:
- every effort doubles, triples, quadruples with each additional language, because every change in the english content has to be done in the other language versions too. This could be circumvented a bit by letting the other language versions become outdated on purpose and do an overhaul every three month or so.

2. Good:
Certainly easier handled. A simple addition of pages. Could even be "outsourced" to the wiki"
2. Bad:
- Ok, so he can read how some things works, but he still won't find his way around the english site easily. He doesn't stay in the natural navigation of the site, but gets sidetracked to a help-page in his language (worse if he gets thrown to the Wiki - WHERE AM I?) and then thrown back into the english LibrivoxSite.
- a simple translation of the already existing help-pages won't do. We?d have to tailor them, giving deep-links etc., to help those who really don't speak english well enough and who barely made it to the help-page in their language.
[url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/PromotionalMaterial][color=indigo]Want to promote LV? Print the poster and pin it at your library[/color][/url] | [url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/Stephan_Moebius][color=indigo]My wiki page[/color][/url]
gypsygirl
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Post by gypsygirl »

I can help with the Spanish translation, if you don't mind Latin American, rather than Iberian Spanish.
Stephan
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Post by Stephan »

Awesome! I am sure latin american is just as fine.
Can you translate these pages?
http://librivox.org/about-librivox/
http://librivox.org/podcast-page (is small)
http://librivox.org/volunteer-for-librivox/
http://librivox.org/about-listening-to-librivox/

You can put your translations here, in a forum-post, or several posts.
You can put them in an ordinary .txt file and send them via yousendit.
Or you can send emails to me: moebius AT anymotion DOTT de

I will work them into the Wiki. Or do you want to do that too? A good chance to learn how to use the Wiki if you don't know how yet - be warned: it takes it's time at first.

Thanks for your helping hand.
[url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/PromotionalMaterial][color=indigo]Want to promote LV? Print the poster and pin it at your library[/color][/url] | [url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/Stephan_Moebius][color=indigo]My wiki page[/color][/url]
gypsygirl
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Post by gypsygirl »

I'll get started on those, and I wouldn't mind learning how to use the wiki (they're thinking of starting to use one at work, so it would come in handy).
Stephan
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Post by Stephan »

Roger. Cool that you jump into the Wiki. PM me if you have question.

You will have to create a login/username at the Wiki.
http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/LibriVoxWiki
After you 're logged in you're already good to go and may edit almost any page you like.

The translation in the Wiki starts here:
http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/LibrivoxHomepageTranslation

As you can see I already created the spanish subpage for you.
Follow the link to the spanish translation page - there you are - it's all yours. Edit to your hearts extend.
Perhaps you'd like to study an example-page, to see how its done. For this i recommend to take a look at the german translation page. Just edit the german page and take a look at the code. You may even copy and paste stuff to help you a great deal in your translation. The english parts are all there for grabs.

While Editing, this page is particularly usefull
http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/SyntaxReference

I'll be there if you need me.
Thanks a lot.

-----------------------------------------
PS.: I know, too much at once. But try out my style for the Wiki. It makes the wiki more legible. Under user-preferences, put the following address into the USER-CSS-URL field: Then save settings. Done.
http://www.moebius.mynetcologne.de/librivox/style2.css
[url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/PromotionalMaterial][color=indigo]Want to promote LV? Print the poster and pin it at your library[/color][/url] | [url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/Stephan_Moebius][color=indigo]My wiki page[/color][/url]
gypsygirl
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Post by gypsygirl »

Contact LibriVox page complete.
About LibriVox page almost done.
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