Topic: Unclear description for "Maximum emails to send per minute"

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

In many languages context is key, for example if some one asked me to translate "Set to 0 to disable" in to any other language I know, I would first ask in which context would this be used? Disable is not a word that is easily translated.

So, in english; super generic.
In other languages, eh - not so much.

[Arantor]

And that is a problem systemic to the language files

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Indeed, it is.

[Kindred]

Came across a similar issue in my IRL job...

"If you identified a custom directory structure for certificates during the previous step of the installation, Certificates should be in the directory..."

In English this makes sense....
however, it makes multiple senses....

The Japanese interpreted that to mean "The installer will add certificates in the custom defined directory. If the certificates are not added, there is an issue."
What it actually means "For a custom directory structure, certificates must be placed in the target directory before the installer is run."

[m4z]

When I read some of the previous german translations of some SMF strings, it was quite obvious that the previous translator(s) didn't understand what the string meant, or how the described feature works in SMF. And some strings were veeery loosely translated.

[Kindred]

yeah, but loosely translated can work in german...   it's still comprehensible.

[Arantor]

All too often this becomes “I don’t care what language it is, I don’t speak it, not my problem and any old rubbish is fine because it’s not my problem”

[m4z]

I totally agree: If you don't speak the language, why bother? Focus on improving the english "translation" or other stuff.

You can try to fix everything, but usually you can't fix it all yourself. Leave some of the "fun" for others.

[Arantor]

Developers should care on some level though because with a bit of care, they can make it less hard to translate sensibly.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Developers should care on some level though because with a bit of care, they can make it less hard to translate sensibly.

Exactly, that is basically what i18n means. Planning and coding with international markets in mind.

[Gwenwyfar]

In many languages context is key, for example if some one asked me to translate "Set to 0 to disable" in to any other language I know, I would first ask in which context would this be used? Disable is not a word that is easily translated.

So, in english; super generic.
In other languages, eh - not so much.

Yep. It's why I didn't finish the portuguese one yet, I was checking every string (besides large phrases) in context. 2.1 made this even harder with the language strings that aren't used directly, so you can find where they are. English is considered so easy to learn because it is much simpler than a lot of other languages. And after a poor translation was already made, good luck checking eevery single string to see if it was correct.

In this particular case disable is very straightforward and there's no other alternative translation for portuguese, but it'd be nice if there were two strings, one for each situation. I was confused about this some times as well, while using the forum in english. It is just as confusing in either language.

[Antechinus]

It is just as confusing in either language.

This has to be the definition of i18n success.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

In this particular case disable is very straightforward and there's no other alternative translation for portuguese, but it'd be nice if there were two strings, one for each situation. I was confused about this some times as well, while using the forum in english. It is just as confusing in either language.

In all honesty, I can also translate that one quite easily so that it is understandable, but then it's not necessarily good language - in Finnish, there isn't really a one word translation for disable
The go to translation I would use without context is "poistaa käytöstä" = "remove from use/turn off", and this can easily turn in to the problem described in the OP - what are we turning off here? The emails, or the limit? Specially if I have to make similar compromises with the other string. Just using this as an example, of a problem that is not really unique with translations.