3 ms·

What languages Internet users in general speak is not relevant unless you are Google. That's like saying 90% of those who have a phone don't speak English, so i

by xorcist 12y ago

What languages Internet users in general speak is not relevant unless you are Google. That's like saying 90% of those who have a phone don't speak English, so if you answer the phone you have to cater to them too. You should care about your customers first, and potential customers second. Unless you actually offer your services, can give support in the language in question, and will take payments from the users, there is really no use translating your web pages. More importantly, and I will say this in the nicest possible way: Never ever publish anything that has been automatically translated. Never. Don't even think about it. You don't know the number of times I've had to re-run the translation backwards to English just to guess what the original intention was... and I speak a western language closely related to English. Botching someone's language does not gain you a user.

renaudg 12y ago
"Never ever publish anything that has been automatically translated. Never. Don't even think about it. You don't know the number of times I've had to re-run the translation backwards to English just to guess what the original intention was." This. I've been telling Backblaze for years that their French localization is beyond unusable, and the copy in the very first screen of the installer makes this look like some 12 year old's job, not a company you're about to trust your data with. Have it proofread by a native or just don't do it, period.
- brianwski 12y ago
  I'm the Backblaze employee that advocated for this system we have, which is: 1) Developers must add all features fully internationalized, meaning if the locale specific file is present it will display that translation, then 2) The developer must ship a locale specific file which was machine translated, then 3) We have native speakers fix any problems. Usually the first person who complains finds out there is a static text file they can edit to fix the product. I can email you the straightforward installer French locale file if you want to help us fix it!! (Or on Windows run "install_backblaze.exe -unpackonly" and go to the folder it tells you and edit the file called InstallerConfig.xml with Notepad on Windows (NOT Wordpad) or TextEdit on the Macintosh. This system allowed us to do a large deal in Japan, where the Japanese company helped us improve the Japanese with very very little additional Backblaze developer time involved because everything was "ready to go". We also did a pretty good German version. The Russian is Ok because several employees at Backblaze are native Russian speakers, but the Brazilian Portuguese is probably a train wreck. I am curious, why does the presence of the badly translated French hurt you? You can always display it in English (one menu click away), or you can help us translate it better. If it is not there, there is nowhere to "start with", why does that make you happier? I'm USA born, so it might be a cultural thing. It might be it doesn't offend and bother Japanese people to have a bad Japanese translation available (as long as they can fall back to English), but it REALLY bothers the French that bad French is ever seen in any form, or something like that?
  - tovmeod 12y ago
    a tip for fixing the pt-br translation: offer a year of free service for a native Brazilian to send the full fixed translation.
s_dev 12y ago
I don't think the phone analogy is a good one to the case here. You can write software that serves people in other languages without ever speaking those languages in a way you could never communicate over the phone. Mobile apps are a good example -- it does largely depend on the product and the target audience though but most things should aim to be international. It's not massive effort either in most cases just include a LocalizedStrings.h or whatnot. Not every language has to be supported but simply have the abstraction of two languages usually means more can be added later quite easily.

by xorcist 12y ago

renaudg 12y ago

"Never ever publish anything that has been automatically translated. Never. Don't even think about it. You don't know the number of times I've had to re-run the translation backwards to English just to guess what the original intention was." This. I've been telling Backblaze for years that their French localization is beyond unusable, and the copy in the very first screen of the installer makes this look like some 12 year old's job, not a company you're about to trust your data with. Have it proofread by a native or just don't do it, period.

brianwski 12y ago
I'm the Backblaze employee that advocated for this system we have, which is: 1) Developers must add all features fully internationalized, meaning if the locale specific file is present it will display that translation, then 2) The developer must ship a locale specific file which was machine translated, then 3) We have native speakers fix any problems. Usually the first person who complains finds out there is a static text file they can edit to fix the product. I can email you the straightforward installer French locale file if you want to help us fix it!! (Or on Windows run "install_backblaze.exe -unpackonly" and go to the folder it tells you and edit the file called InstallerConfig.xml with Notepad on Windows (NOT Wordpad) or TextEdit on the Macintosh. This system allowed us to do a large deal in Japan, where the Japanese company helped us improve the Japanese with very very little additional Backblaze developer time involved because everything was "ready to go". We also did a pretty good German version. The Russian is Ok because several employees at Backblaze are native Russian speakers, but the Brazilian Portuguese is probably a train wreck. I am curious, why does the presence of the badly translated French hurt you? You can always display it in English (one menu click away), or you can help us translate it better. If it is not there, there is nowhere to "start with", why does that make you happier? I'm USA born, so it might be a cultural thing. It might be it doesn't offend and bother Japanese people to have a bad Japanese translation available (as long as they can fall back to English), but it REALLY bothers the French that bad French is ever seen in any form, or something like that?
- tovmeod 12y ago
  a tip for fixing the pt-br translation: offer a year of free service for a native Brazilian to send the full fixed translation.

s_dev 12y ago

I don't think the phone analogy is a good one to the case here. You can write software that serves people in other languages without ever speaking those languages in a way you could never communicate over the phone. Mobile apps are a good example -- it does largely depend on the product and the target audience though but most things should aim to be international. It's not massive effort either in most cases just include a LocalizedStrings.h or whatnot. Not every language has to be supported but simply have the abstraction of two languages usually means more can be added later quite easily.