Recent translations on Crowdin have been filled in with wrong translation

[Patriccollu]

Hello,

 

I provided Corsican translation to paint.net in September 2021 and this new language was distributed with version 4.3.3.

 

I regularly maintain the translation on Crowdin for the new and modified strings.

 

I recently received the following notifications from Crowdin regarding paint.net:
    Nov 23, 2022    05:30    220 strings were added to the project paint.net
    Nov 23, 2022    18:00    1 string was added to the project paint.net
    Nov 27, 2022    19:35    1 string was added to the project paint.net
    Dec 01, 2022    02:40    1 string was added to the project paint.net
    Dec 01, 2022    17:20    2 strings were added to the project paint.net
    Dec 03, 2022    02:20    2 strings were added to the project paint.net
    Dec 05, 2022    02:25    2 strings were added to the project paint.net
    Dec 08, 2022    00:50     1 string was added to the project paint.net

 

When I checked the remaining strings to translate, I was expecting several but I was surprised to see that Corsican was translated at 100%! But after checking the translations which have been provided, I noticed that most of them contain a wrong translation.

 

I translate several applications on Crowdin (and other translation systems) and the process is usually the following: for each string added or modified, a notification is sent and Crowdin shows the untranslated strings. Then the translator fills in the strings with the appropriate translation. Sometimes the string can be automatically filled in with machine translation when its contents match at 100%.

 

In the present case, 257 strings were filled in by user skizatch and they all need to be checked, then most of them need to be updated with correct translation. It would have been simpler for the translator to leave the translation empty.

 

Please can you explain the current situation and clarify the process of translation? And automatic machine translation if any?

 

Best regards,
Patriccollu.

[Patriccollu]

By the way, I uploaded on Crowdin the whole Corsican translation file 4 hours ago.

[Rick Brewster]

When I upload new strings, I give some time for translators to provide translations during the alpha release stage. Once a new version gets to the beta release stage, I go in and fill in any of the un-translated strings with machine translations. This is the normal process for Paint.NET (and it's actually a lot of work to fill in machine translations for 30 languages times 200 strings!). Some of the languages aren't even maintained by humans anymore because they just never came back to update their translation, and I can't keep track of or manage 30+ volunteers. It's not possible for me to know who will or won't come back to update any particular translation.

 

You're free to go in and provide better translations for the new/bad strings -- in fact, that's desirable! But, an incomplete translation would show the UI partially in English, and machine translation is used to avoid that.

[Patriccollu]

Hi @Rick Brewster,

 

Thank you for having clarified the process, especially regarding machine translations used to avoid the UI partially in English.

 

Best regards,
Patriccollu.