Simplifiying the localization how-to

SUMO
#1

Hello everyone,

From some conversations that I had with localization leads it seems one thing that is common in a lot of locales is that new people who join the community, and contact us to know how to get started, disappears after they are pointed into the how-to docs and never contribute.

Checking the how-to my assumption is that a long, multi-page documentation is scary for most people who just want to help mozilla to have the support articles in their language.

One of the things I would like to do is to create an “evergreen” activity around SUMO localization for the Mozilla Activate site which contains simple wording on how to contribute. I want to see how people pointed there engage with community and, as a result, inform which changes we should do to SUMO how-to to get the same outcomes.

I’m asking for your help as experienced localization contributors to outline in this topic what are the basic things a new person should know to effectively contribute (I want to start from scratch here, without following our current how-to to avoid being constrained by previous structure/wording) .

An example would be:

  • Create an account.
  • Find their locale dashboard
  • Understand which articles need attention first.
  • Understand the edit screen for new articles and to update articles.
  • Know about their locale style guide and SUMO markdown.
  • Understand the review process.
  • Know how to get in touch with local community and with global community.

Cheers.

4 Likes
#2

Thank you for starting this effort. I have a few notes to this.

  • The current KB about L10N is exhaustive. I am all in to have something more lightweight.
  • But what we have now is localized to many languages. It’s important that whatever there is on Mozilla Activate is available for localization (and all people know about that). And not just for translation, but also it’s possible to adjust it or rewrite completely for a specific team. Each can have (and I guess do have) a different workflow, communication channels etc.
  • When any materials are available, SUMO localizers should translate them. Assuming any Mozilla Activate is available for l10n through Pontoon, SUMO localizers should pick it up rather than people translating products or web applications in Pontoon. The flow of the teams prefer and want to encourage on SUMO can be very different from what people on Pontoon are used to.
#3

Thanks for the comments. Can you elaborate a bit more on which parts are general for every locale and which ones are different? (If you have some examples in mind, it would be extremely useful)

Cheers!

#4

Hello everyone,

I would like to hear your feedback here. I’ll keep this topic open for a few days more and then I’ll draft an initial doc for you review.

Thanks!

#5

Hello, one of the important things to translate the articles of sumo is to know how to use the knowledge base, if you only want to help us to atraducir we must facilitate the entrance to the knowledge database (I think that it is now easy to find the documentation available to translate )

I also believe it will be important to have clear information about the process to update the documentation. I think that we do not have manuals