Notes from the Rosetta sites discussion at #WCSF Community Summit

Hey everyone,

As you already know last week following WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. San Francisco there was a Community Summit followed by two contributor days to give Make teams the chance to work together and discuss important subjects.

In the next couple of days I will be posting my notes from all of the discussions and meetings we had so all of you are up to date with what’s been said and done.

Starting right now with the first discussion of the Community summit, suggested by Xavier.

Who was there: Andy Christian, Andrew dela Serna, Birgit Olzem, Catia Kitahara, Konstantin Obenland, Marko Heijnen, Mayuko Moriyama, Petya Raykovska,Rafael Funchal, Sam Sidler, Xavier Borderier,

RosettaRosetta The code name of the theme for the local WordPress sites (eg. bg.wordpress.org is a “Rosetta” site). All locale specific WordPress sites are referred to as “Rosetta sites.” The name was inspired from the ancient Rosetta Stone, which contained more or less the same text in three different languages. sites and Local Communities

We tried to see what different local communities are doing with their local sites and mark what improvements are needed for Rosetta sites to enable communities to grow.

Right now a lot of the more active communities just use their Rosetta sites for downloads of the localised WordPress version because of all of the limitations. Rosetta administrators/editors and validators get access to approve stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. for local translations but can’t actually change the website, just add pages, write blog posts and release translations.

We discussed different tools Rosetta sites need to be a viable tool for local communities: 

Desired Rosetta extensions

What kind of extensions do communities need for Rosetta: 

  • A public feed aggregator (aka “planet”)
  • Event calendar / community events
  • Job board
  • Documentation (to replace Codex and work with developer.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/)
  • Community map
  • Team list – can be public or not
  • Local community pages (P2s)
  • Widgets for homepage

External Community websites

Some communities have put a lot of work and effort into external community websites because they can not extend Rosetta sites. Some examples are Germany, France, and Portugal.

No community will be forced to move back to the local Rosetta site, but an effort can be made to provide more tools and options for Rosetta sites so communities are actually willing to move back. 

If that becomes the case, there needs to be an easy way to transfer the existing content or at least have a plan on what will be done with the external sites so all of that content is not lost, perhaps by archiving.

Check how it works for most of the active communities:

  • How should current community sites be integrated?
  • What different user roles will be needed in order to facilitate adding 20+ more validators per localeLocale Locale = language version, often a combination of a language code and a region code, for instance es_MX denotes Spanish as it’s used in Mexico. A list of all locales supported by WordPress in https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/?
  • How can migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. of community sites happen?
  • There has to be a plan for if you want to move your site. Let’s check if .org can host it.

With the plans of themes and plugins being localized, each locale will probably need at least 20 validators in the future (with plugins and themes in there).

User roles

With themes and plugins coming, there will need to be some more user roles for Rosetta sites and probably some clear separation between translators and community leads. 

A new “super validatorValidator See translation editor.” role (name-pending) will be needed to ensure quality of the translations for the top projects (WordPress and the projects that are already in GlotPressGlotPress GlotPress is the translation management software that powers Translate.WordPress.org. More information is available at glotpress.org. plus the top 25 plugins and themes).

And the project will need to bring in a lot more validators to be able to handle translating plugins and themes. 

A super validator will be needed for adding validators and removing validators that are not performing well. We need to be more sensitive about this thing. Translators need to be trusted.

Consider the forums for the localesLocale Locale = language version, often a combination of a language code and a region code, for instance es_MX denotes Spanish as it’s used in Mexico. A list of all locales supported by WordPress in https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/ that want it. Consider P2s and news blogs. We need to consider all of the features that are needed and then pick up roles that make sense.

Expectations for external links and Showcases on Rosetta sites:

  • Showcase:
    • Validators cannot have their websites in the showcase.
    • Community sites are generally not allowed in showcases, because they’re linked to elsewhere on the site.
    • Explicit sites are not allow in showcases.
  • Community Sites (when linked to from Rosetta sites):
    • Must have a prominent link back to the relevant Rosetta site (e.g., bg.wordpress.org).
    • Cannot have advertising on them. One exception is that we allow a “hosted by” graphic/link if a company is sponsoring the community site (but no money can exchange hands).
    • Donate links are not allowed unless they go to the WordPress Foundation.
  • Advertising is not allowed on Rosetta sites, including advertisements for hosts, validators, translators, or other forms of advertising. Sites are allowed to list validators and translators with links to the blogs on a separate page (say, “About”).
  • Private information (phone numbers, email addresses) is not allowed on Rosetta sites.

#community-summit, #local-sites, #rosetta