[Sussex] A little translation please

[Andy Smith]

On Fri, Jun 23, 2006 at 11:12:43AM +0100, Steven Dobson wrote:
> Andy
> 
> On Fri, 2006-06-23 at 09:28 +0000, Andy Smith wrote:
> > On Fri, Jun 23, 2006 at 08:56:30AM +0100, Steven Dobson wrote:
> > > There are currently 180 e-mail addresses (I just checked) signed up to
> > > the SLUG mail-list, now some of those will be duplicates as some sign up
> > > their work and home e-mails, but there must be a number of our members
> > > some who speak German, French and others languages resonably well.
> > 
> > Cool; any that are left, some of them should be able to do my
> > ironing also.  There are 180 of you after all.

No offers then?

> > (point is, maybe you should be asking actual users of your software,
> > or paying someone; software translation is possibly the most boring
> > job after ironing)
> 
> Do you get the FOSS idea, Alan? 

(I'm Andy) Yes, I think so, but do you?

> Did you personally pay anything to Linus Torvalds, Alan Cox, RMS
> and all the of millons and millons of other software developers
> that have spent their time and skill to produce the software that
> you use?

Not directly no - but neither did they turn up in my mailbox, say
"1.8 million people are using Linux; please can one of you write a
device driver for my USB kettle?"

I'm trying to tell you that your strategy is not likely to be
terribly successful.  I am telling you this as a Free software
author who has needed people to do translations in the past.
Contacting random non-users of your software and saying "there's a
lot of you here, can some of you do some translations for me
please?" is not likely to work.

Having actual users and then saying to THEM, "translating this
software that you use to another language is on my TODO list, some
help would be great, thanks" may be more successful.

> I have been on this list for years now.  I've given far more than I've
> taken.  If I see an unanswered question that I can help with I reply,
> some times I add to the answers of others, and I do this with no thought
> of charging.

As do many people, but translating software that you don't use is a
big ask.

> So why now, when _I_ lack a skill, when _I_ need help, should _I_ have
> to pay?  Why can I not ask for help from those I've help in the past?

Because it is the most effective way of getting this done.  I
susepct that of the people you have helped over the years on this
list, very few of them use the software/web service you are
developing.  What stake do they have in your product?

If I did not have to do any ironing I could perhaps spend more time
doing useful community work.  Shall I mail all persons I have ever
helped and ask them to come and do my ironing, as it is the leats
they could do, and there are hundreds of them, and why shouldn't
they after all the help I have given?  I do not think the response
would be overwhelming.  Translating is boring work.  Fact.

You may have heard of the term "scratching an itch".  Does the
prospect of translating someone else's work in a field that is
uninteresting to you scratch any itches?

> For me the FOSS movement is not about giving software away for free, it
> is all about helping each other out.  Together we are much greater than
> the sum of our parts.

It's one aspect, and I have helped you out by giving you this advice
for free.  I will spend my time helping others in proportion to my
interest in subject and I suspect most people are the same.

Cheers,
Andy

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