Board Game Arena

Hi,
I think there's a problem with the validated translation fixing policy, which currently reads as follows (upon clicking a validated translation):

• You speak English and have indicated it in your language preferences
• You have reached a reputation of at least 90☯
• You have a seniority of at least 3 months on Board Game Arena
• If this translation concerns a game, you have played this game at least 10 times
• If this translation concerns the mainsite, you have played at least 100 games.

Furthermore, the popup says that changes to validated translations "should only be [made] to fix clear and obvious mistakes".

I think this policy might not always work very well. Case on file: I've translated a bunch of strings for The Castles of Burgundy over the course of this weekend, and my translation now amounts to more than half of all the game strings (although, to be fair, that also includes tutorial session strings). However, someone else had done some CoB translation two years ago, and their translation has been automatically verified by now, even though they abandoned this effort around midway. My terminology differs from theirs, even for words like "tile". What that means is that the Lithuanian translation for CoB will now be inconsistent. And if nobody touches my translations for three months, they will be autoconfirmed as well, resulting in that inconsistency being cemented.

IMO, it would be great if that translation fixing policy accounted for cases like this and was a bit more relaxed towards translators who did more than X percent of the current translation for the game in question, or simply didn't apply to translations which aren't at least X% complete.

Not sure if this is the right forum to post, but just wanted to share this idea and maybe get feedback.

At some point, if you have enough validated translated strings, you will be confirmed as a translator and will be able to translate any string. I think it's 100 strings.

So translate 100 strings, wait 30 days, and you'll be able to translate anything. At which point you can go back to CoB and make sure the strings are consistent.

Oh, really? I wasn't aware of this, and the popup doesn't mention this possibility.

What I did instead was go back to my translations and change most of the mismatching terms in my translation to what the other translator used. I guess that'll do for now.

I think consistant translations inside one game is first priority.
And the intent to provide something helpful for the users who read the translations is important also

Nidhoeggr42 wrote: ↑16 December 2024, 18:31 I think consistant translations inside one game is first priority.
And the intent to provide something helpful for the users who read the translations is important also

I really wish I could just like your post instead of writing this reply saying that I fully agree with you.

I have found a bunch of horrible but validated translations, where words are left in the source language or even parts of the text missing completely. Looks like I hardly have the chance to achieve what is needed to be allowed to mend validated translations. There is not enough strings open for translation to complete 100. I can't believe there is an automatic validation. Obviously the translation pages are not frequently enough visited by people good at languages, to prevent that creepy translations get auto-validated. There should be a possibility to vote for translations like in the links for game rules, so that bad translations get unvalidated again. Moreover I think that the gift policy is unfair, if you get no reward for correcting bad translations that others have received gift points for.

HI, @oeconormal, these are very fair points, I totally agree with you as well.

oeconormal wrote: ↑25 December 2024, 17:59 I have found a bunch of horrible but validated translations (...) There should be a possibility to vote for translations like in the links for game rules, so that bad translations get unvalidated again. Moreover I think that the gift policy is unfair, if you get no reward for correcting bad translations that others have received gift points for.

I likewise wish I could just upvote your post, but instead I'll write just to say:
I agree a lot

Dunefarm wrote: ↑27 December 2024, 17:07 I likewise wish I could just upvote your post, but instead I'll write just to say:
I agree a lot

You could create a sugestion at https://boardgamearena.com/bugs and post the link here, so that others may vote for it.