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Translator staff member role

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ImmortalDread

ImmortalDread

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Introduction​

The art of translation, particularly within the realm of Japanese fandom, holds a paramount significance as a fundamental and vital aspect. Given that the majority of our pages originate in languages other than English, the process of translation into English is indispensable. Notably, automated translations are susceptible to imprecision and lack of coherence in the resulting text.

Thus, the role of our Translation Helper team is crucial for ensuring accurate and effective translations of texts while also providing an appropriate contextual framework.

Responsibilities​

What is required of TH team in addition to regular member responsibilities:
  • Translators need to monitor our official translation requests thread, and help out with evaluating text when it is needed.
  • They should also be willing to help out with other translation-related work, such as context and quality evaluation.

Benefits​

The benefits of being a TH team:
  • Staff member: Translators are part of the managing staff, and as such can take part in staff discussions. In other words, they are allowed to offer input regarding the future direction of the site, and their opinions will be taken into consideration when creating/modifying site policies.
  • Their opinions are considered highly valuable in areas of translations, evaluation, and translation quality.

Appointment​

The following prerequisites must be met for appointment as a TH Team:
  • The member should be highly familiar with translation and text evaluation of languages that are very difficult for English speakers to properly understand, especially Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.
  • The member should have contributed with at least 5 high-quality translations for the above-mentioned requests threads. Alternatively, the member should have been of significant help with evaluations that are useful for this wiki. This includes translating important scans/dialogues by the member's own wish. It is naturally important that the member has performed productive work, as it will not count otherwise.
  • The member should have been active for at least 4 months, with at least 2 months of frequent activity.

Removal​

The TH Team position may be removed under any of the following conditions:
  • Severe violation of the wiki rules.
  • Bad-mouthing the wiki policies, or direct disobedience of an administrator or bureaucrat in relation to site policies.
    • Personally disagreeing with them is an entirely separate issue. In case of such a disagreement, try to resolve it via private conversation with the higher-ranked staff members, instead of exploding publicly.
  • Inactivity for a prolonged period of time:
    • Complete inactivity for a period of three months or more, without informing the administrators of valid reasons beforehand.
  • Continuously failing to meet the requirements of appointment.

Here is the draft for a VSBW staff page.

Note: This discourse is exclusively intended for staff members. In the event that you wish to contribute input that bears significant relevance and pertinence to the ongoing discussion, it is imperative that you obtain explicit authorization from a staff member.
  • The role color code: #F3B0C2
 
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Permission from maverick to speak here

I have a question, what defines a high quality translations, how good does the translation have to be in order for it to be high quality.

Also does this also mean that all staff who are good at translating will automatically receive this role, or will it be a certain number at a time? (I mean I know they have to do high quality translations but I was curious if all staff who have high quality translations will all be promoted at once or no)
 
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After thoroughly reviewing the draft, I have taken the liberty of making several revisions, including the correction of any spelling errors and ensuring that the formatting aligns with that of the other staff pages. As for the proposal itself, I do not see any issues with it. I am unable to discern any negative aspects, if any exist at all, but maybe it's just that I don't see them yet. Consequently, I do not believe that I have any significant contributions to add to the discussion. That being said, it is possible that the basic rules of the initial post on the Official Translation Requests thread may require some minor alterations to correspond with the responsibilities of the role (just maybe, not definite, so I'm not sure).

In my personal view, I perceive this idea as a promising and attractive prospect. However, I'm not entirely sure about the level of difficulty involved in putting this idea into action. I'm not suggesting that it will necessarily be difficult, only that I lack the necessary knowledge to assess its feasibility. I'm curious to hear the opinions of others on this matter though.
 
I see a big problem with this.... The willingness of people to become staff for this position. It must be taken into account that the current users who help in the translation thread are doing it for the sake of doing it or for hobby, we don't have any members who are willing to spend time a day translating and I even doubt that they want to be called to translate every possible CRT and yes, the premise of becoming staff would be attractive, but the willingness issue still there, it would be useless to have a staff position where no one could appoint.

Personally i'm not sure if this is a good or bad idea, i'm just neutral.
 
This proposition may be applicable across various positions within the staff, with a particularly fitting example being the function of calculation members. It is not anticipated that said calculation staff member would fulfill all requests conveyed through the calculation request forum, and this notion extends to image helpers as well.

Furthermore, the inclination of translator staff member is to furnish a proficient contextual interpretation to the populace, as they are accountable for their respective obligations, and therefore compelled to offer elaboration in case of any concerns or inquiries. Such staff members are distinguished by their proficiency and reputation for exhibiting adaptability and precision.
 
My question to the OP: does translating important statements/dialogues/phrases on one's own wish grant one the Translator position? I want to mention that there's a kind of profile makers who add characters from their homeland verses, and those verses may not possess an official English translation. If there are important non-visual feats in such verses, then such profile makers often need to explain them via translations.

As such, verses with untranslated stuff outside of the East Asian Big Three are translated by enthusiastic members themselves and not by request in the Official Translation Requests thread in 95% of cases. IMO, the position should be given to members who help out in either of these two paths (by request and by one's own).

Also I'd propose to call the position «Volunteer Translator Team» (similar to the Human Resources Group).
 
In brief, the «VT team» is grappling with a perplexing quandary regarding the appropriate hue to assign to a particular role. However, I shall abstain from deliberating on the matter any further.

Be that as it may, I find your inquiry to be quite intriguing and significant. Members who submit verses in their native tongue are obliged to furnish an English rendition in their profile, whereas references do not necessitate such an undertaking.

It goes without saying that translators or the VT team are expected to undertake responsibilities akin to those of any other personnel. They must extend their aid, assess context as expounded in my original post, and contribute substantially to the community.

One should note that this role is not as facile as commonly presumed; it mandates devotion of time, effort, and an unwavering commitment to assisting and fostering the community.
 
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Good answer. Should we update the draft page to include my example of volunteer translation work? After all, this part is also important to feature many interesting gems on the wiki, which may be pretty popular in certain countries, resulting in increasing numbers of our visitors. May as well motivate our community to add more such verses.
 
Ogurtsow said:
Good answer. Should we update the draft page to include my example of volunteer translation work? After all, this part is also important to feature many interesting gems on the wiki, which may be pretty popular in certain countries, resulting in increasing numbers of our visitors. May as well motivate our community to add more such verses.
Click to expand...
Certainly, would you like me to suggest a format for the presentation, or do you prefer that I create one and you can assess it?
 
ImmortalDread said:
Perhaps a shade of pink? One that is lighter than the color of bureaucrats. I am uncertain which specific shade to select, but it should be easily distinguishable.
Click to expand...
Would a color code of #F3B0C2 work? Cause I did find some cherry blossom images on google and used this site as a reference
 
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I know that i'm not a staff and you guys can just delete my comment if you want to, but isn't time for you guys to tag the bureaucrats in this?
 
Antvasima said:
Well, Translation Helper might be grammatically better than Translations Helper.
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You actually said it in your first post

So do you think the idea is fine? Did you read the draft? I created a page for it, so you guys can't be overwhelmed with it.
 
That's what I said, you have to have members who are willing to accept such a position and the responsibilities of it and I also emphasized that most of those who translate here do it casually, there is no sense in having the position if we do not have the willing users to accept such position....
 
Antvasima said:
Well, they should preferably be able to handle the language almost fluently or better in order to qualify.
Click to expand...
I think you could ask @Maruishimaryishi

The article on multilingual members says

“(Advanced knowledge, learning in Japanese public university, can read Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. {Low percent chance of knowing proverbs and idioms})”

he lives in Japan as well. So maybe that along with advanced knowledge, might be enough for you to consider asking him about it?
 
Artorimachi_Meteoraft said:
I think you could ask @Maruishimaryishi

The article on multilingual members says

“(Advanced knowledge, learning in Japanese public university, can read Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. {Low percent chance of knowing proverbs and idioms})”

he lives in Japan as well. So maybe that along with advanced knowledge, might be enough for you to consider asking him about it?
Click to expand...
I already did.
 
Antvasima said:
Well, we mainly have problems with Japanese, Korean, and Chinese translations.
Click to expand...
Because these three are the most requested ones by non-speakers. However, we also have members who enjoy adding/improving verses that are originally in their native language. In that particular case, they translate stuff by themselves when they encounter non-visual feats. I believe that this kind of translators should be considered for the position too. In fact, there are many French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Indian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, etc. verses without proper translations that could be added to the wiki with the aid of such translators.
 
I am sorry, but that would swarm our staff with translators that are not necessary, as such tasks can usually be sufficiently well handled by Google Translate and similar.
 
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