freedomofpress/securedrop

Hi everyone! :wave: I'm Gonzalo (he/him) (UTC +10:00)

TL;DR: Hello! I'm keep on getting a glossary template / Spanish glossary started because I believe it would help addressing consistency issues both in Spanish and in the English sources by making easier for translators to provide feedback. I also believe it could be used to iterate towards improving #2331 and make the source and journalist experience better. Does this sound useful now? What's the best place / way to discuss ideas that span across Github and Weblate? Who should be involved?

I've been looking at the SecureDrop component in Weblate (Spanish and French), and noticed some improvement opportunities in making the translations more consistent, as well as the source strings formatting more consistent. I also noticed that there is currently no Glossary in Spanish. Besides, I've also read through this discussion about the consistency of multi-factor auth terminology freedomofpress/securedrop#2331.

I think they are two distinct topics. However, I believe there could be an opportunity in thinking about them as related.

I've helped setting up parts of our localization pipeline at work, and tend to be friends with translators. In my experience, localization teams can be great allies when it comes to ensuring the copy is effective, and creating shared references with the development/design team goes a long way.

The French glossary seems centered on technical terms. Considering the audience of SecureDrop, I think that is probably the best area to focus on for a start. (And it aligns with building towards #2331). I did a quick spike around the Spanish .po file and it looks worth it to me. I feel comfortable making a few calls when multiple translations are used in Spanish or French, as well as raising issues/opening PRs/providing suggestions in source strings and applying design recommendations (@ninavizz?).

The way I see it the deliverables could be successively (although order can vary depending on what seems most valuable):

• a list of technical terms currently in use (including terms related to multi-factor authentication)
  • that list could inform #2331
  • that list could also be used as a template to start/extend glossaries in any language
  • that list could be used by translators to feedback/call out when source strings are diverging from preferred terms
• (maybe/cost) a series of small adjustments to the formatting of source strings for consistency (e.g. punctuation)
• identifying elements of vocabulary or grammar that could be made consistent in the Spanish translations
• a Spanish glossary of technical terms
• an extension / adjustment of the French glossary

The expected outcome is reducing the cognitive load of users by providing more consistent copy, specially for technical terms.

Questions

I'm not sure I have a clear/up-to-date picture of the team composition or organization (I've been trying to figure it out by reading issues and docs on GitHub). What is the best place to discuss this? Who are the best people to ask?

Does this sound like a contribution that would be useful now? Is there bandwidth for someone to be a contact person? (I'm UTC +10:00 so I'm assuming communication would be mostly async.) Any other thoughts?

@rmol (because we've briefly talked in Weblate)