Hi ! i’m a french user with some experience with translating opensource projects.
I was using Mailcow and wanted to contribute some translations as i saw several strings still being in English and some others that could use better wording. But when i reached your Weblate instance at https://translate.mailcow.email/projects/mailcow-dockerized/ i faced so many small hurdles it refrained me from contributing altogether, in fear i might do something wrong.
Here are the two main points i’d like to bring up :
Do you have unified and up-to-date contribution guidelines regarding Mailcow localization ? If it is the case, please make it way more accessible to potential contributors: on your website, in the project’s README…
Right now i don’t know how to contribute or if i even should. I have trouble finding a reliable source of information regarding Mailcow i18n and l10n and wondered if i just missed a key document or if it was simply non-existent… what i found is only scattered github issues with vague directions and advice.
The Mailcow instance i’m using is up to date with the latest Mailcow release (Version: 2024-08a), i am surprized to see french translations from Weblate (august 15th) dating back before the release (august 20th) that did not get included in it.
What’s you release plan regarding translations ? Do you automatically include them in the next release ?
Crowdsourced translation is a fantastic tool that can incredibly speed-up the translation of your projects and greatly expand its reach, engaging many people without the need for in-depth technical knowledge. But for that to be possible, you have to keep the entry bar low and give these potential contributors clear advice on how to get in and do it right.
I understand this might feel a burden to maintain but the Weblate documentation provides lots of tools to automate things and guide people through the process: for Mailcow for example, there is Access Control that you can enable to only allow Suggestions from untrusted contributors, or to allow them to request new languages on Weblate, or even this specific official add-on that squashes commits by author name so as to prevent too many merge-commits from Weblate… both things i’ve seen being an issue for you apparently.
Thanks for you amazing work with Mailcow, i hope this all proves useful to you and this project ! 🌸