docs(translation): set a translation release policy

[flpm]

The site is currently being translated into multiple languages, but the work in most languages is just starting.

The language with the most strings translated is at 30% completion.

We should discuss and decide on a policy for when to release a language to the site.

Releasing languages with just a few strings translated will confuse users because most text will appear in English.

Waiting until a translation reaches 100% to release might take a long time.

I would suggest a compromise so languages are released when they reach a “critical mass”. For example, release a language when:

• A minimum percentage of strings is translated (eg, 50% or 75%)
• The homepage has been fully translated.
• The landing page of each section has been fully translated.

When we decide a translation is ready to go live, we add it to the Astro configuration to build it along with the English version.

[flpm]

@lwasser @JimMadge would love to hear your opinion on this!

[lwasser]

Thank you for thinking about this @flpm

I think it makes sense to have a % and key pages translated like the home page and maybe overview?

How many languages have over 50%?

I suppose 1 plus of releasing languages with less is users can visually see gaps which might be motivating to contribute but confusing to others.

My next question is who decides a language is ready as in the 50% is actually good enough to release? I'm asking this because if we need language editors or maintainers decision making becomes more complex. For instance I couldn't make a decision that another language was both at 50% and good enough of a translation to release. But I could certainly look at % complete. So that could become another resource challenge.

[flpm]

Ideally you would have per-language coordinators that would be reviewing/editing the translations in CrowdIn and approving them, to make sure there are no issues (i.e. in case of a malicious user injecting bad content).

These coordinators could make the decision, based on the guiding rules we establish for the project. We could give them discretion to release before or after the target percentage, as they see fit.

Finding these coordinators will be hard, but it is not critical for the launch now, we can do that later on.

[flpm]

Ok, sorry for spamming with comments here. I deleted some comments where I had posted incorrect data. There was a problem (that I created) with the source configuration in CrowdIn that caused the numbers I reported before to be so low.

So here are the real numbers which are much nicer. If we make the cut at 50%, there would be 15 languages released!

You can see this in the CrowdIn dashboard:

[lwasser]

@flpm i think a 50% rule with some files (specifically the home page and section landing pages) being translated being a part of that rule is a great idea. Let's go with that for now.

Maybe we can add translation policy to the project section of the docs?

[flpm]

Based on this issue from 2019 (Call for translators #143), looks like the threshold to put a translation in the site was set at 50% before, in line with our discussion here.

[lwasser]

This sounds like a great way to move forward @flpm !!! Thank you for all of the thought around it!!

[JimMadge]

Such an interesting question. My intuition would be any translation is better than no translation. However, this isn't my area so I'm not really sure what is best for accessibility. 50% seems like a sensible threshold 👍.