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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: And the Web site... (was Re: How to make your translators....)
From:       Cristian Tibirna <ctibirna () total ! net>
Date:       1999-05-28 20:04:33
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On Fri, 28 May 1999, Aaron Levinson wrote:

> The same goes for the Web site.  "lastest development news"???  At least

				      ^ too fast hands, too lazy eyes.

> 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").

You certainly have your idea about this. While I certainly am not a native
English speaker and not even a very good English apprentice, I know one
thing: as long as you stay at spelling error correction, all is good. But
when it comes to sense, there *can* be situations where people coming from
different cultural backgrounds will understand the same expressions
differently. This is true both for the one who writes and for the ones
who read.

> 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?

You are perfectly right and I couldn't agree more. But unfortunately it
has been proven until now that we have two choices: my errors on the news
pages from time to time or no news at all. :-(
 
> 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

You're right. I can't wait for those offering this help.

> 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.

Funny you've mentioned. Web pages are quite difficult to credit for.
Especially the dynamic news. That's why you didn't know it's me the one
who does them since last october ;)


Cristian

P.S. I'm sorry for the errors. It happens often that I write on the news
page late in the morning (3:00AM is a current time for this), after 14-18
hours of work on coding. I am very open for help and/or corrections.

---
Cristian Tibirna     : ctibirna@total.net     : www.total.net/~ctibirna
PhD Student          : ctibirna@gch.ulaval.ca : web.gch.ulaval.ca/~ctibirna
KDE contact - Canada :  tibirna@kde.org       : www.kde.org

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