[GERMAN] [IMPORTANT REQUEST] Moderation for the German language.

To the developers, especially Krolli:

Dear developers of Space Engineers,

I write this as a important request and in the name of all contributors which want or wanted to improve the game by translating Space Engineer's for free into German.

The more dedicated translators, noticed a growing inconsistency in the translations, top-voted wrong translations, typos and grammatical mistakes.

We can't vote all strings again and again to make sure, we can hold the quality of the translated strings.

So I wrote to TheAustrianPro and RedPhoenix this weekend and asked if they want to cooperate as a kind of comittee of 3 moderators with me to rework the translation and improve the quality, in

After a short conversation TheAustrianPro and I decided to get things started and name the 3rd moderator, as soon we get the answer from RedPhoenix.

So this is the request:

Code:

[SIZE=4]Promote the users:[/SIZE]
[LIST][*][SIZE=4]TheAustrianPro[/SIZE]
[*][SIZE=4]Hyphon[/SIZE]
[/LIST]
[SIZE=4]at the localziation/globalization group located at "https://www.getlocalization.com/SpaceEngineers" to moderators, responsible for the German language.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=4]A) The users named above will nominate a third user, to complete the team.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=4]B) The users named above will check the German translation for typos, inconsistencies, grammatically mistakes, length of the contributions, etc. to improve the quality of the German translation.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=4]C) They can delete obvious wrong and senseless translations on their own and correct mistakes found in the translation without a special permission by the other moderators[/SIZE]

[SIZE=4]D) All (3) moderator's are needed to do a final validation on strings, but if the strings are just one common word or short phrase, mod's are allowed to validate them alone.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=4]E) The user named above, don't receive any payment from KSH. But the user's would be feeling honored to become named in the Credits. ;[/SIZE])

Please agree to this request so we can improve the quality of the German translation.

 

Why didn't you wait for a response from me first before getting this thing rolling?

At first, I am totally off from translation. I will not support any further translations as we have getlocalization.com.
Furthermore, all other languages despite english are community-made, and as far as I know not officially supported. Therefor I don't see any necesity in promoting someone to a moderator there.


Also: I will not support anyone beeing moderator there without a proper background in studied linguistics.

 

As stated above i can only support that idea. We definitly need a quality control in the german localization. And RedPhoenix if youre out of translating, thats sad but that does not change the high necessity of a clear translation as the current state of the german localization can be described as partly terrific.

 

I do not understand the idea of just giving 2 random guys without a proper educational background some more rights because they want to enhance something.
I understand that the german translation may be a bit off, but from my point of view I will not give my yes to this idea.

What I could do is get organized with some german forum members to create a topic and maybe a GoogleDoc document where we can discuss over certain linguistical, or morphological or semantical errors. Then I would ask the devs to give myself some moderators rights there to sort those out. But I should be the only one having those (and I think the other mods will agree so too).

 

I see you're not trusting us but finding someone with a degree in linguistics who is willing to do that for free is pretty unrealistic and i also do not think that something like that is needed. We just have a big problem and that should be solved. I dont really understand whether you are willing now to help with that as you said in your previous comment that you are not contributing to the localization project anymore. But if we at least get this limited version of quality control which you offered i would be very grateful as something really needs to be done.

 

@RedPhoenix:

If you don't want do participate, that's OK.

I'm not an English teacher nor a certified translator, but I'm doing videogame translations a while now. I have learned a bit, how C++, C#,... handle globalized strings.
What to do, why some strings can be bigger as the original, other's not. I also learned to review a translation and how to review it, without loosing the red line.
But that seems not enough for you. Maybe you'll right, and a professional translator should do that job. I'm with TheAustrianPro and rarely believe, that he/she would
do that without any fee.

The idea behind community driven translation is to reduce costs by giving the community the tools to suggest translations, to discuss, review them and get responsible for the translation.


Your suggestion with the a special forum thread is just a small step in the right way, but from my side of view, we running in a never-ending discussion with many people want to add something or a empty thread. My experience with the Game Dev Tycoon translation as moderator was this:

First I just tried to write down every mistake I noticed. But after two days I gave up, we had an active community those days. I think I worked one week to get the first half of the suggestions done. In my spare-time, without any help and I was nearly thrown-out from my wife, because I was more at the PC than at the kitchen table!

SE got a lot more strings to review, than GDT when I started as moderator and as far as I know, actual the community hasn't the possibility or a special member to mark strings verified, so changes are possible every time. But on the other hand, why should I discuss something if I still can write it directly in the translation or vote random a suggestion from any other user?

I'm wondering a bit, I have to ask for moderator-rights at the localization website, to get one of the forum-moderators awake and make them move the things a bit.

Especially you, had the great Idea to create a special thread. I have suggested a German localization thread or a special tag in the title of posts regarding the German translation branch two or three weeks ago . Where was your: "OK! That sounds good. I will help you to realize this."?

The request was not out of the blue. It's a compromise from different methods to perform a community-driven translation. Something we tested with the first translations of a game.
Even that I did the request and I wanted you and Austrian to be with me in the time, was a logical decision and hey, it had solved the make a forum moderator, translation moderator problem.

But because I'm no professional translator, I'm not good enough for you, to decide how to translate game. You made you point clear.

If you had read my PM you should know, that my work as moderator for the translation is maybe just for a short period, because I also work as localization team manager for an other game and I have a deadline there. So we had the time to find a member that made good suggestions and has good activity rate as substitution.

For me I just wait for a decision of the developers.

 

I think this is a great idea... What happened to it?

 

Nothing yet.

I just came back from my vacation.

 

Ok. We need a solution for the errors in the German translation. The translations aren't wrong but there are mistakes in the German language and to recognize that you don't even have to know what the English string says. E.g. there is an error in "Bremskraft des Rotors: Wie schnell er stoppt (wird aktiviert wenn der Rotor abgeschalten wird)". "abgeschalten" is a mix of the infinitive with the perfect participle. The correct word is the perfect participle of "abschalten" what is "abgeschaltet". I corrected the translation but my translation is currently rank 2. There are several errors like this and that's why we need a solution. I'm not sure if there are enough "translators" who are willing to participate but I think we should try it.

 

yes, it is a good idea.

 

Yep, I agree

 

Anyone started a thread with it?

I'm too busy at the moment. Other projects have got higher priority, because I use to finish them on time.

Otherwise, just a thought. To discuss a translation, because of space of the textbox or the translation is contextual wrong, is OK for me. But it needs some kind of moderator, who's able to correct typos, like Sp[a]cemarine mentioned above.

It's not OK, that small typos can't be voted down or marked by the active translators.

Rulin makes the pace at the moment. He's quick and he has the right feeling for the game context of the strings and he share his thoughts in the comments, if something seems not correct to him.

 

<div>Hm, maybe you should make known the considerations of this project and the timeliness in addition in the German part of the Forum.
At the same time, scope and approaches should be described precisely in this work; because many hands do the work in an instant. Who could take this for example?

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Hm, vielleicht sollte man die Überlegungen zu diesem Vorhaben und die Aktualität zusätzlich im deutschen Forenteil bekannt machen.

Gleichzeitig sollten Umfang und Herangehensweisen an diese Arbeit genau beschrieben werden; denn viele Hände erledigen die Arbeit im nu. Wer könnte das zum Beispiel übernehmen?


</div>

 

The lack of grammatical and contextual correctness of the gernam translation made me switch back to english after the 1st start of the game.
There are many "ok" translated sentences there, but if looked at in detail they have inconsistant tenses or are just not 100% grammatically correct.
Some are using the casual "facebook"-styled "du" personal pronoun to refer to the player, some are using the more polite "Sie". It's inconsistant at times.
Or they are correctly translated, but not when lookig at the final position of the phrase in-game.
But It's also really hard to get this right if you have no context given.

I don't think we need "moderators".
There are not as many translators participating in the getlocalization project. So a few educated votes can bring the best translations to the top.
Also: Most people (regardless of age) think they are good in german grammar and think they can understand english well.
But in fact, most do not. They can get along, but they are not proficient enough to deliver a high quality translation.
And from what I saw, even the english text is sometimes incorrect in tense or grammar. The developers have the very same challenge to master here when creating the english phrases as non-native speakers.
What I would like to see is: More discussions via comments in the translation project. So people who made "wrong" or "imperfect" translations will get feedback why another version is better.