Thank you for your interest in volunteering to do translation/localization work for the Storj project.
All translation of the various Storj resources is handled through Transifex. You will need to signup for an account there, if you haven't already. Then, check if your language is already in the list of languages. If it's not, you can use that page to request it by clicking the "Add language" button. Someone will have to manually accept your request, so expect your language to be added shortly. If your language exists already, you can use that page to add yourself to the language. After that you can start translating.
At the moment we only need some resources in a translated form. The ones listed on Transifex always need translations, though. If you're just starting out on a fresh language, you might consider to prioritize translating the FAQ and the whitepapers. Other than that, we need translations for some blog posts, articles, and video subtitles.
To get started, click your language from the Storj dashboard, and you will be presented with a list of the resources that need translation. Click one and then "Translate now" to go to the actual translation interface. If you are not the first contributor to your language, you probably want to go to your local forum section and coordinate your efforts with other translators.
Every string should be translated by one person and reviewed (proof-read) by another person. Note that both translating and reviewing are processes that require a substantial amount of work. If, for instance, you are just going to quickly skim through translated texts, you are not likely to find all errors, and it would be inappropriate to mark the strings as reviewed.
All translators and reviewers should be quite comfortable with the English language, and they should be fluent and be able to handle grammar in the language into which they wish to translate.
Contributors to a certain language usually handle distribution of roles internally, the roles being: Translators (can translate strings), Reviewers (can translate and mark strings as reviewed), Coordinators (same as reviewers, but can also grant roles to other people). However, if the language team wishes so, one of the project coordinators can be requested to coordinate their specific language.
Translating video subtitles poses some extra challenges over articles, etc. because of their special format and purpose. The following recommendations are often a matter of taste, and it might not be necessary or even possible to follow them all precisely. However, common to them is to keep a high level of readability in subtitles that are only shown on screen for a couple of seconds. This is especially important in videos that contain a lot of talking, such as Storj's.
Every subtitle is represented as a string in Transifex. Every subtitle may consist of one or two lines.
Words can be moved from one line to the other, or in extreme cases even from one subtitle to another, but only if this meets the following recommendations. Also, keep in mind that any specific subtitle is timed to show up on screen during the time where those exact words are spoken. The most frequent situation where words are moved from one subtitle to another should be in languages where the order of words are not the same as in English.
Technically, more than two lines per subtitle is possible, but it is highly discouraged as it will use up too much of the screen real-estate and make viewing of the video less enjoyable for the audience.
- Each subtitle should consist of one or two lines. Depending on the length of the lines, a subtitle of one line is preferred over a subtitle of two lines for readability.
- Each line in a subtitle should not be longer than 35-40 characters.
- Make sure to add line breaks at places where they go logically in your language. In English, for instance, you would NOT want to add a line break between the two words "subtitle translation", unless you really have to. Also don't split a word on two lines using hyphenation.
- Ideally, the top line should be the shorter one, but only if this can be done while keeping readability.
- Some subtitles may require slight editing from the source in order to keep readability. This may be the case in some languages more than in others. However, make sure to keep the essence of the original text at all times. A great subtitling tutorial puts it this way: "The golden rule is to edit out what doesn't fit and isn't important to the dialogue."
- Tags that are not officially in the srt standard (such as "
<i></i>" for italics) should not be used, as e.g. Youtube does not recognize these. - Abbreviations should be avoided in most cases, if possible, to keep as high a level of readability as possible. Acronyms should only be used if they are very widely recognizable. Other abbreviations, such as "e.g.", ought to be avoided and written in full instead.
- Mostly, it is a good idea to skip filler words, such as "um", "right" and "oh", depending on how well it fits in the target language. If is distracts reading just the slightest, leave it out.
Happy translating!