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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    And the Web site... (was Re: How to make your translators....)
From:       Aaron Levinson <alevinsn () inetarena ! com>
Date:       1999-05-28 19:35:24
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On Fri, 28 May 1999, Daniel Naber wrote:

> And yet another idea: Since many (most?) of the KDE apps are written
> by people who donīt speak english natively, what about exporting all
> i18n strings and check them by somebody who speaks english as his
> mother tongue?

The same goes for the Web site.  "lastest development news"???  At least
someone could do a spell check (it should be "latest")!  I'm also not
quite sure what is meant by "pill" in "Navin's pill".  At least, "pill" is
not normally used in this way in English (unless it is ALWAYS prefixed
with "growth"--i.e. "pill" alone does not imply "growth").

BTW, I feel it is far more important that the KDE Web site use proper
English than applications.  English speakers are willing to forgive a
little bad English here and there in the apps as long as the app does what
it's supposed to do and is easy to use.  On the Web, however, the main
functionality is the text... the information.  If that looks poor, then it
makes the KDE Web site (and the KDE development effort, which is
represented by the KDE Web site) look unprofessional.  Just imagine how
many people look at the main KDE Web page every day--can we really afford
to have simple spelling mistakes and improper grammar?

Recruiting native English speaking developers is not the solution to this
problem.  Developers already have enough work as it is.  Besides, who
knows how well they speak/write English.... :-)?  Instead, KDE users,
users who want to help make KDE even better, who feel that, because KDE
has done so much for them, that they should give something back to KDE,
should be recruited.  The users that I speak of are out there--I've seen
it with Kmp3, and I've seen it with KDE in general.  As long as anyone
that contributes receives proper credit for their efforts, the users will
want to help out.

Aaron Levinson

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