[DISCUSSION] Translation policy

Summary:

Cause turns out we don't have one of those

[DISCUSSION] Translation policy

psychicprogrammer 25 Sep 2022 18:14

04 mirror: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-15230647/discussion-translation-policy

So turns out we don't actually have a policy of how translations work so here is a proposed policy

http://05command.wikidot.com/sandbox:translation

Key questions:

Does the author translator rights balance work and should we change this

What does the -INT community think of this

Does this policy make it harder for translations to be posted onto the wiki

Should we allow translated SCPs to be posted on the EN mainlist,

This discussion will go on for one week

Last edited on 26 Sep 2022 08:09 by psychicprogrammer Show more

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

stormfallen 21 Oct 2022 18:56

Voting thread: http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-15265698/voting-translation-policy

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

Siddartha Alonne 25 Sep 2022 19:39

Ain't much to discuss. Points should be partially rewritten to phrase them better, but all-around it's still as translations worked with an additional clause for INT authors. Fully supporting.

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

Uncle Nicolini 25 Sep 2022 19:58

for context, i have translated 40 articles from ES and FR to INT, 32 articles from EN and INT to ES, and one from EN to FR. i also have posted 9 translations (10 if you count my image guide) from ES, FR, and INT to EN.

i think this is fair, though it could be worded a little better. in particular, this:

Secondly if the original work is not an official SCP branch (see https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-international) then you must obtain explicit author permission to post it here

i dont see why this is explicitly the case. what does it matter that a branch isnt official yet? if someone thinks an EL scp is good enough to post to EN then why would they have to get author permission?

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

Jerden 25 Sep 2022 21:04

Seconding that this seems weird to me, it's unclear why there needs to be a specific exception for unofficial branches.

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

psychicprogrammer 26 Sep 2022 04:40

The idea here is that authors from places like say Swedish AO3 might not understand things like the CC licence, this will prevent drama from that sort of thing.

Mostly I didn't want to define what exactly a non official offsite branch is

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

Uncle Nicolini 26 Sep 2022 14:17

fortunately, int already defines what is and isnt an official branch.

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

psychicprogrammer 26 Sep 2022 18:01

Yep, changed the link to here: http://o5command-int.wikidot.com/branch-list and noted that it can be official or recognized branches.

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

Jerden 27 Sep 2022 09:43

My bad, I should have pointed you towards that list and totally forgot. I agree that for anything not on that list, explicit authorial permission should be required.

Last edited on 27 Sep 2022 09:44 by Jerden Show more

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

Jerden 25 Sep 2022 21:07

Other than the point noted above, I am in favour of these rules, I think they clear up some grey areas and address concerns raised, without being creating too much work for translators.

I will note that the rule against posting with a different URL implicitly bans posting INT SCPs as Mainlist EN SCPs, obviously it isn't going to be enforced retroactively, but I think we should explicitly say what we'd do if that occurred again in the future - I assume that we'd rename the page?

Additionally, I think we should also amend the site rules to specify that the original author does not have to be a site member. Currently this rule is just ignored for translations, I'm personally a fan of only having the rules you intend to enforce.

Last edited on 25 Sep 2022 21:51 by Jerden Show more

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

Jerden 27 Sep 2022 09:41

I see the reasoning but I'm not sure it should be an absolute rule, because some people in the past have posted on other people's behalf.

Finally you must either be the author or the translator of the work to post it onto the SCP wiki

If the author is not an English speaker and/or not a member of EN, but would still like the translation of their work brought to a broader audience, I think it should be permitted for someone else to post the translation to EN with their permission. I know this would usually be the role of the translator, but there are many translations on the International Translation Archive where the translator is no longer active.

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

stormfallen 28 Sep 2022 23:40

I'm…conflicted on allowing the original author to delete a translation. On one hand CC is CC and there's no requirement for staff to delete anything under the license, especially if the deleter isn't the "creator" of the translation. On the other hand, there's currently no recourse for unfaithful/poor translations or "spite" translations aside from pointing it out in the comments and voting accordingly.

Re: [DISCUSSION] Translation policy

Jerden 01 Oct 2022 07:49

I think the translation policy should explicitly say that corrections to the translation to make it more accurate to the original are an allowable edit for anyone to make, similar to the way that spelling and grammar corrections are allowed on original article.

This handles the issue of minor updates needing to be made, as well as some of the issues with quality and fidelity. It seems unfair to place the burden on people to correct unfaithful translations, but that's probably simpler than arguing endlessly about whether it should be deleted.

I am unsure of exactly what to do if the original article is deleted or totally rewritten such that it requires a new translation - arguably archiving would be suitable to make way for the replacement, however this does not seem to respect the wishes of the original author to have their article removed, even if it does preserve the translators work.