(https://dumping-grounds.hexstream.xyz/archived/i18n.discord.hexstream.xyz/#3_august_2018 for a bit more context)


Unofficial independent translations, including fandom-specific translations!


Hello. (Apologies, this is not entirely Politically Correct™. I don't claim this is well-written either, it isn't, I just don't have the time, ok? ;P)

For context, I am a former major contributor to the (France) French and Quebec French Discord i18n projects. (You might have seen a lot of my stuff as "REMOVED_USER", and no I was never banned, I just deleted my account (twice), that's just stupid wording from stupid Crowdin.) I had about 1/3 of the validated strings in (France) French when I left it (due to some completely retarded vendetta), and then when the separate Quebec French translation was finally created (which I had requested for more than a year: https://feedback.discordapp.com/forums/326712-discord-dream-land/suggestions/15857188-separate-quebec-french-and-france-french-translati) I quickly joined, and within less than a week I was already in the top 10 (#8)! (And then I was banned from a crucial unofficial Discord i18n server by some random psychopath (Mikesky) for no fucking reason, so I had to give up on i18n again).

(https://dumping-grounds.hexstream.xyz/archived/i18n.discord.hexstream.xyz/ for the "exciting" details of my sad Discord i18n story.)

Alright, so. With that shit out of the way, let me tell you that I am acutely aware of how profoundly the Crowdin i18n process SUCKED. Some major components of the suckery were:

1. Crowdin is just absolutely TERRIBLE. A fractal of bad design. It's been getting a bit better, but it's still pretty terrible as a communication platform. I don't even remember all the details of how much it sucks, but let me tell you, it's not pretty. The unofficial Discord i18n server that came later was a bit better, but heh. Mikesky. (And doubtless other problems.)

2. SEVERE UNDERSTAFFING (at least as of 6 december 2016, it might have gotten better after). For a big while there were like TWO active managers for an absolutely massive amount of work, as I chronicled here: https://dumping-grounds.hexstream.xyz/archived/i18n.discord.hexstream.xyz/#6_december_2016

3. ENDLESS POLITICAL BULLSHIT. You've tried the "billions of monkeys" approach, and witnessed first hand that it sucks and it doesn't scale. There is endless bickering about stuff, and sometimes the issues are more or less "unsolvable" (as when there were countless (France) French VS Quebec French issues and somehow no separate Quebec French project in sight: https://feedback.discordapp.com/forums/326712-discord-dream-land/suggestions/15857188-separate-quebec-french-and-france-french-translati)

Fun fact: Since I'm pretty competent at this, I could easily make high-quality Quebec French and Brony English translations all on my own.
(You know, "X has been banned TO THE MOON!" and "X has been bucked out of the room." and stuff.)

Do you see where this is going?

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

SO. WE FINALLY GET TO THE SUGGESTION. (Sorry.)

Just let anyone make their own Discord translation and share it as some file. With ZERO oversight (at the lower tier). Just implement some crude mechanism whereby someone can upload a translation file to Discord for their own personal use on their own clients (Discord web or mobile). Just let individual competent people or communities figure out the rest, all the process of how to make a quality, worthwhile translation. Independent programmers can build whatever nice UIs they like to generate the raw translations file.

This way, individual competent people or communities, using whatever formal or informal processes, can produce translations of varying quality, and then maybe at some point you can try to implement some process whereby someone can submit some allegedly high-quality translation so that Discord can "bless" it and distribute it as something semi-official or something.

THIS WOULD RESULT IN HIGH-QUALITY TRANSLATIONS FOR ANY COUNTRIES OR REGIONS OR FANDOMS OR OTHER COMMUNITIES ANYONE CAN THINK OF, WITH VERY LOW OVERHEAD AND HIGH TRANSLATOR AND USER SATISFACTION AND LOW TURNAROUND TIMES.

This is the memeest thing that Discord could do. Discord would EXPLODE! Please do this. Thank you for your consideration.