How long does it take for the gift points from translations to go through?

[Snowcrash000]

I translated a few strings some weeks ago, just for fun and to get a feel for it but also to see how long it would take for the gift points to go through. I thought maybe a week or two, but I still haven't gotten anything after about 4 or 5 weeks.

[thoun]

I think it's one month, so it should be very soon for you!

[Joe]

Indeed, a month.

Though you will not get anything for correcting an already translated item (I believe). Or was it an "approved" item even?

[KongKing123]

I think it's one month, so it should be very soon for you!

It is, assuming nobody has changed it in the meantime (if the translation was correct and consistent, this should not happen).

Indeed, a month.

Though you will not get anything for correcting an already translated item (I believe). Or was it an "approved" item even?

If the entry has not been validated yet, you just "take over" the translation from the previous entry and the 1 month timer starts again. After 1 month without changes, the entry is validated and gift points are awarded.

See also: https://boardgamearena.com/faq?anchor=faq_translations

[Snowcrash000]

I think it's one month, so it should be very soon for you!

It is, assuming nobody has changed it in the meantime (if the translation was correct and consistent, this should not happen).

Indeed, a month.

Though you will not get anything for correcting an already translated item (I believe). Or was it an "approved" item even?

If the entry has not been validated yet, you just "take over" the translation from the previous entry and the 1 month timer starts again. After 1 month without changes, the entry is validated and gift points are awarded.

See also: https://boardgamearena.com/faq?anchor=faq_translations

So people could just make a minor stylistic change to a string you already translated to "hijack" it and get the gift points instead?

[Nastaa]

Yes. I know at first it may seem unfair, but:
1) The fact that only the last user to modify the translation before validation gets the gift point sort of even out globally (eg. you may not get the point for a string that you translated and then got improved by someone else, but may get a point for a string in which you just corrected a typo).
2) The modifications are all tracked, so if really a user intentionally changes lots of translations without any improvement just to steal the points they can be caught easily I think.

[Snowcrash000]

Some strings can be quite long and if someone changes a single comma for example, perhaps even incorrectly, the string is considered theirs? That doesn't seem right to me, to be honest...

I'm also very curious how validation actually works. Who validates these strings, a professional translator in the employ of BGA, some senior BGA member with a lot of translations under their belt, or what? Also, does this person only take the current string into consideration when validating or do they look at the translation history as well and choose the better string?

[KongKing123]

Some strings can be quite long and if someone changes a single comma for example, perhaps even incorrectly, the string is considered theirs? That doesn't seem right to me, to be honest...

I disagree: this incentivises proper translation, including the fine details. If someone translates a long string but makes several small typos or doesn't bother to use the punctuation from the original string, then it is simply a bad translation that doesn't deserve credit.

The alternative is that minor changes do not affect the owner of the entry, thus discouraging people from making these small corrections. And then you have to set an abritrary treshold for something to count as a new entry (based on what, how many characters were changed?). The system has no way of differentiating an "impactful" small change from a "non-impactful" one.

If you translate correctly and consistently, there is no risk of this happening. And if you notice someone is going around stealing points by messing up entries, you can report this and that person will be banned from translating.

I'm also very curious how validation actually works. Who validates these strings, a professional translator in the employ of BGA, some senior BGA member with a lot of translations under their belt, or what? Also, does this person only take the current string into consideration when validating or do they look at the translation history as well and choose the better string?

Nobody validates the strings, the last entry that was left unchanged for 30 days gets validated automatically. The assumption is that if nobody touches it for that long, it must be correct. Sometimes this can of course not be the case if the mistakes weren't noticed in time.

See also the FAQ I posted earlier.