Polyglots Translator Research 2020 Results

Thanks to everyone’s participation and help with the promotion, we received 330 replies to the Polyglots Translator Research! We are happy to share that polyglots contributors from 118 different 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/ and 71 countries took their time to answer the questions.

Image of research response overview. Completed Surveys: 330, Completion Rate: 73%, Incomplete Surveys 120, Most Popular Locations: France (29), Spain (24), Germany (21), India (20), Italy (20), Brazil (16), Netherlands (15), Islamic Republic of Iran (10).
And a heat map of respondent locations.

Summary of the Results

(You can find the more detailed data at the bottom of this post)

A big motivation behind our first-ever Polyglots Translator Research form was to better understand the current pain points of the Polyglots community and to help inform our goals for 2021. From our results, a few items stood out as particularly interesting and can help us with our goals for next year.

  • Better communication and feedback came up a number of times in both the survey responses and in free-form questions. While incorporating a feedback tool into GlotPress will likely help with this, it also highlights other ways we can better use our existing communication tools. Using Slackbots to help encourage new contributors, reaching out directly to new contributors via SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/., or pinging contributors on your 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/ P2p2 "p2" is the name of the theme that blogs at make.wordpress.org use (and o2 is the accompanying plugin). When asked to post something "on the p2" by a member of the Polyglots team, that usually means you're asked to post on the team blog https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/./forum may help. What other ideas could be useful to improve communication?
  • A lot of respondents felt that growing their team of active translators is a significant task! How can we explore outreach next year? What actions have helped your locales with recruiting new translators, and how can we collaborate globally to recruit overall?
  • For translators, uncertainty regarding how to get translations approved and the time it takes for approval were shared as barriers to contribution. What could improve this experience? In addition to tools and practices for communication, would locales benefit from onboarding/training guides that can easily be translated or other tools to familiarize new contributors with the process?
  • One surprising result that we noted was how heavily featured machine translation was in these results, both as a tool and as a resource people would like to see included in GlotPressGlotPress GlotPress is the translation management software that powers Translate.WordPress.org. More information is available at glotpress.org.! Was that surprising to anyone else? How do you feel about or use machine translation in your work?

What do you think?

Were you surprised with the results or were they as you expected? Which ones were especially interesting?

And as we are nearing the end of the year, we’d love everyone to take a moment and think about how we can learn from the results and set our 2021 goals as global & locale teams. 

What’s the one thing you want to focus on as a translation contributorTranslation Contributor Translation Contributors (formerly known as Translators) are volunteers that focus on translating projects into their language. They contribute to improving their language either in a small way, like fixing a typo, or a large way, likes translating entire projects. in 2021?

This post was compiled & written by @nao, @psmits, and @evarlese. Also, thanks @chaion07 @devinmaeztri @meher @webcommsat (and the rest of the marketing team) for your help through this project!

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#survey

The 2020 Polyglots Translator Research Form is Now Open!

(Please note that we’ve changed the name of the project from “2020 Polyglots TeamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. Survey” to “2020 Polyglots Translator Research.” We are referring to the same thing, but wanted to avoid any confusion with the WordPress 2020 Survey.)

After some planning and tweaking, we now have all the pieces we need to kick off the 2020 Polyglots Research. We need your input and help with the following:

  • Take part by answering the questions in the 2020 Polyglots Translator Research form (roughly 15 questions, this should take you about ~5 minutes)
  • Translate the announcement template into your language and publish it on your 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. site (/news/ blog or /team/ P2p2 "p2" is the name of the theme that blogs at make.wordpress.org use (and o2 is the accompanying plugin). When asked to post something "on the p2" by a member of the Polyglots team, that usually means you're asked to post on the team blog https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/.)
  • Share the form and/or the announcement post with translation contributors (on your local SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/., personal groups & social media, or any other appropriate channels)
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#survey

Feedback Wanted: 2020 Polyglots Survey Questions

Update!

The scope for leaving feedback is closed now and the team is currently preparing the 2020 Polyglots Survey. Thanks to everyone for helping us out!

Dear Polyglots,

Hope you are all doing well. As you are aware, in the past few weeks we have been quite active with the ‘Translation Day 2020‘ Mini Events across different 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/. We appreciate the input by the locales who have been posting updates of their activities with the community. As planned earlier we are conducting a survey across the community to gather information on the Translation Day initiative. We have created a draft set of questionnaire thanks to @nao, @evarlese, @devinmaeztri & @psmits1567. The document has suggestion/comment option enabled for all.

We request you all to share your feedback to help finalize the questionnaire for the 2020 Polyglots Survey.

#feedback, #survey

2020 Polyglots Team Survey meeting #1

On Monday, Oct. 12th a small group of Polyglots teamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. members met in response to our call for volunteers to create a team-wide survey. We’ve summarized the notes from our first chat below.

We’d love your input as well! What do you think of the goals 1-4? Can you think of any other information that’s more important in deciding our team’s direction? Any thoughts on the format? Please leave a comment and share your insight.

Attendees

@devinmaeztri, @evarlese, @nao, @psmits1567 (also, @nilovelez, @timhergty, and @chaion07 contributed asynchronously)

Background

  • The idea for conducting a Polyglots contributor survey came up because: 
    • We have many things we want to improve within the process and tools but need to set priorities.
    • Setting those priorities based on our instinct or knowledge can be done, but it’s not enough to clearly decide the next steps.
    • We need a better understanding of the situation, but we don’t have enough data at hand – so let’s gather some 🙂
  • Annual WordPress MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. Organizer Survey
    • The survey we’re working on will be separate from this and, instead, will focus specifically on the Polyglots team.

Goals of the Survey

What do we hope to take away from the survey? (The questions are just examples for now, not final)

  1. Figuring out the pain points for both editors, and new contributors.
    • Was it difficult to start translating WordPress?
    • Did you need help joining SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.? Was it hard to get in touch with your 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/ team?
  2. Understanding the contributors’ motivation.
    • How do people find out about translating WordPress?
    • What keeps them doing it, especially if translations/stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. aren’t approved?
  3. Understanding contributor satisfaction levels.
    • Why are there different levels of satisfaction between 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/?
    • Do people feel happy about contributing? If not, how can we make it better?
  4. How do teams onboard and recruit?
    • How are new contributors onboarded? What tools do locales use to communicate?
    • Is there any training provided?
    • How are different locales structures (i.e. having a lead)? Are there regular meetings scheduled?

We have a large number of related questions we’ve brainstormed related to these goals and are continuing to collect more so we can use them to build the survey.

Survey Format

  • Based on our goals, it’s most likely that we will want to have two separate surveys: one for editors and one for individual translators.
    • The survey for editors will likely be more in-depth/longer, but we will aim to keep the one for translators short.
  • The survey should include general questions that apply to all locales, but we can add the option of asking if the respondent would be willing to do a follow-up interview.
  • We also talked about asking if we could include a question about whether or not people are aware they can translate WordPress on the 2020 WordPress community-wide survey.
#survey

Call for Volunteers: 2020 Polyglots Survey

As mentioned in our weekly meeting, we are looking for volunteers to help create a survey for Polyglots teamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. members.

The Goal

The goal of the survey is to collect data to help inform and prioritize future projects. We hope to collect input from PTEs, GTEs, and 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/ managers to better understand potential areas of improvement, as well as what is working well for local teams. We’d also like to explore interviewing or surveying new translation contributors to get their input and perspective as well.

Over the past year, the global Polyglots team has worked on a number of improvements to help both new contributors and community leaders in each locale. With your help, we can make sure we’re asking good questions to uncover new ways to better support each locale.

Who Translate WordPress? 15,225 active translators, 635 GTEs, 3,275 PTEs.

How You Can Help

Some of the task examples are:

  • Reviewing the survey questions
  • Setting up the survey form (in your language too, if you want to)
  • Helping spread the word on a blog, social media, and other outreach channels
  • Analyzing and/or translating the results

Let Us Know

If you’re interested in helping, please reach out on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. to @nao or @evarlese or comment on this post. Any level of help is useful, so don’t hesitate to join!

#call-for-volunteers, #stats, #survey

The Glossaries in the WordPress localization

Hi everybody,
this title it’s for a call to action in filling a survey.
I proposed a talk for the Mozilla Festival (http://mozillafestival.org/) in London “GlotDict and glossary in WordPress” https://github.com/MozillaFoundation/mozfest-program-2016/issues/8 .
As you can see the topic is the glossaries in WordPress and how much they are important as polyglot.
The talk is under consideration so if that talk will be not approved I will prepare the talk for a future 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., so no worry!

All the data gathered will be published publicly for the end of September 2016 on make.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/ so all the community can benefit from this information!

The anonymous survey: https://goo.gl/forms/jPq9TBu9vkiclW2v1

Thank you for your time!

#glossary, #survey