Research talk:Wikipedia Editors Survey 2011/Translation

I'm not sure I understand the current tips: are they really relevant to other languages? Capitalization works differently in other languages, too. Well, perhaps everything will be clearer with the source text. Nemo 23:17, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Comments

Reading (and translating) this page prompted the following comments:

• "discussion page" or "talk page" should be used consistently
• from a Danish perspective, I think that internet sites mentioned here like Farmville, CityVille, FourSquare, GoWalla, Yelp, Quora and Fluther are very little known and do not provide good examples of the meaning.
• Please remember that a lot of people from smaller wikis have no idea at all about internal phenomena like CU, oversight, mediation, and arbitration.
• Q19 seems to announce a list, which is not there
  Hmmm..."not ready for translation yet" - missed that :-)

--Sir48 18:10, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

• Please feel free to change the examples to sites that are more relevant from a Danish perspective.
• It is not a problem if editors don't know or have never heard about phenomena like oversight etc. In fact, the data will validate that it is a phenomena that is popular in larger wikis.
• The list in Q19 will be computer generated from the previous question based on answers of the respondent. So it is ready for translation :) We left out the programming instructions since we don't want respondents to see them. The person programming does not know Danish or other languages so they would not know whether it is programming instruction or question for the respondent.--Manipande 23:39, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Since you're not the only one who asked about this, I've added the programmer notes to the request information page. Cbrown1023 talk 01:27, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Copy edit

I just tried to copy edit this a little, but was reverted on the grounds that this has to stay in sync with the master copy. [1] Does anyone know where the master copy is; and how to contact Mani Pande? It would benefit from some light tweaking. SlimVirgin ^(talk) 04:08, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

It would benefit from quite a bit of tweaking, IMO. Graham87 03:19, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

SlimVirgin did copy edit the master. --Manipande 18:06, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

I agree with Graham87. This survey could use a heavy dose of textual improvement, which makes sense to do now, before it is translated into numerous different languages. That way, there's only one master to fix (now), rather than dozens to fix (later). Do we have permission to improve the master text, or is it too late? -- Thekohser on surveys 20:33, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

I've reintroduced my changes, since it seems from the above message by Mani Pande that Wikipedia Editors Survey 2011/Translation/en *is* the master copy. I don't have time to incorporate SV's changes right now, however. Graham87 00:24, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Education level completed

I know of some editors who have not completed any level of formal education; they are self-taught, or informally educated, or had to leave school early. This may only apply to a few, but could you consider adding an answer to cover these cases? Lloffiwr 07:36, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

We want to know what is the highest level of education. From an analysis perspective, it would be great to see what is the educational background of a respondent. This is more a follow-up question. --Manipande 23:43, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Q7b - reasons for being less active

This section does not include the option of being less active on Wikipedia because of spending more time on other parts of the Wikimedia Foundation or Mediawiki. For example, some of us who are translating this rather long piece might want to choose this option (and the longer the questionnaire, the more likely this is:-)). Lloffiwr 07:47, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

There is other, please specify, for exactly this kind of issue. :) --Manipande 23:38, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, didn't see this first time round. Lloffiwr 10:43, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Q3 needs clarification

I'm translating the survey to Bulgarian and I reached question Q3, which I believe needs clarification, especially considering the preceding questions.

Q3. What is your user access level? (Please choose all that apply) 

Having asked the editor to first list ALL applicable versions of Wikipedia where they contribute, and then the ONE where they contribute primarily, its obscure then which of both aspects does Q3 exactly refer to. For instance, I may contribute to both Bulgarian and English Wikipedia (Bulgarian being the primary one) and I may have a basic account on the English WP, while being a sysop on Bulgarian WP. Then, how am I supposed to answer the question? :) Hence, the question should either stipulate that the answer is given for the primarily edited version of Wikipedia, OR it shall allow the user to provide their maximal user access level ever reached. I think both answers would be helpful for the survey, or even one of them, as long as all users understand the question uniformly. →Spiritia 20:39, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

The respondent can choose all those that are applicable. It would be a good to have if we knew what level of access they have for multiple Wikipedias, but it is not a must. --Manipande 18:00, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

logo/banner in Russian?

we'd like to show the survey banner in Russian, too - are there any plans to make and supply the logo in translation, too? can we help with Russian? thanks, --Koltzenburg 15:34, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

We are translating the survey notification in all languages. Please do help with the translation. --Manipande 18:01, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

ok, Manipande, we're happy to do the one in Russian, can you point me to the image file in a good quality so we can replace the script? thanks --Koltzenburg 20:45, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

What logo? To translate the banner into Russian, you just need to edit Wikipedia Editors Survey 2011/CentralNotice#ru. Russian has actually been translated already, it just needs to be proofread. Cbrown1023 talk 21:25, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

thanks, cannot find the expert barrier survey logo there, what we are offering is to redesign the image file (for a banner ad) so it looks inviting to Russian-speaking supporters, where can we find the image file (.jpg or whatever) in high resolution to contribute our work? --Koltzenburg 09:07, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

thanks to Dario via Daniel, issue closed --Koltzenburg 14:53, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Ah, you're talking about the expert barrier survey. That was the issue/confusing part — this is about the editors survey, not the expert survey. :-) I'm glad you figured it out though! Cbrown1023 talk 20:35, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Q5b, Q6

Q5b

I believe that information should be freely available to everyone

I suppose "freely" here means "free as in freedom", and not "free as free beer", yet I'd like to verify. In Bulgarian, as probably in many other language, both words are different unlike in English. (I guess it was going to be even more informative if both aspects of "free" were reflected in the answers.)

"Free as in freedom"--Manipande 19:49, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Q6

Automated assisting tools like Twinkle, Huggle, AWB, etc.

On Bulgarian Wikipedia we don't have all of these, I think we only have Huggle. However, all listed samples shall be included in the translation, right?

All the examples can be listed. --Manipande 19:49, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

To clarify, you should try to include as many examples as possible (usually at least two) since people might not be familiar with just one. I'm pretty sure that you can take some out and fill in some bgwiki examples if need be though. Cbrown1023 talk 20:45, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks in advance. I can't promise that these will be my last questions here. :D →Spiritia 18:50, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Statement of confidentiality

copy of post on Strategic planning wiki.

The survey says "We will not share any individually identifiable data with any outside organizations or use the data in any way that is not associated with the objectives of this survey." But the general Wikimedia privacy policy says that there are circumstances when information may have to be released, specifically in response to a subpoena. Does this apply to the survey responses? If so, we should qualify the statement of confidentiality by reference to the general policy. Lloffiwr 19:39, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Reply received today at 13.34 from Mani Pande on translators-l list. Lloffiwr 23:05, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

enrolled in school or university

D3b says: "Are you currently enrolled in school or university?"

Does the "school" here refers to a college or does a primary school or a high school count, too? --Amir E. Aharoni 19:47, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

I think anyone enrolled in any level of schooling (kindergarten through graduate school) could answer this question responsibly. This would include full- and part-time modes of education. -- Thekohser on surveys 20:44, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Gender

Would it be possible to have a Hebrew translation in the feminine gender, too? The default can be masculine, but putting a button at the beginning that switches to feminine would make the translations much more natural. In Hebrew the second person ("you") is very gender-dependent; in MediaWiki messages we manage to avoid it, but in this survey it would be very bad.

It may be useful for other languages, too. --Amir E. Aharoni 19:56, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

I could be wrong, but I don't think this is currently possible in LimeSurvey. Cbrown1023 talk 20:39, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Nationality

"Nationality" is a very overloaded term. What does it mean exactly here? --Amir E. Aharoni 20:14, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

I imagine it to mean "the country you identify as your homeland or place of origin". I don't find it to be too "loaded", but it could use some clarification. -- Thekohser on surveys 20:41, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Overloaded in the computer science sense - it has many meanings.

It may be unnecessarily politically loaded, too, but that's a separate question. --Amir E. Aharoni 22:50, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Our experience from the previous survey was contrary to this. Everyone understood the question, and answered it as country of citizenship. --Manipande 19:53, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but it's just plain wrong. "Country of citizenship" would be the furthest from my mind. I would understand "nationality" as "ethnicity" or "place of birth". Unless you asked them, you can't really know what the respondents understood - they just wrote some country there.

If you want to ask about country of citizenship, ask about country of citizenship. --Amir E. Aharoni 20:32, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

I translated "nationality" into Chinese 國籍 "citizenship". --Deryck Chan 18:52, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

to do block edits?

I'm a contributor with > 65K altogether, however I've never heard of "doing block edits" (Q13a):

*** A feature that allows editors to do block edits like paragraphs and sentences

What is this supposed to mean? May I have an example? →Spiritia 17:48, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

It means limiting editing to a sentence or paragraph. --Manipande 19:54, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

As "block" does have a very specific and unrelated meaning on the English Wikipedia, I would suggest not using that word. Instead you could ask people whether when they edit they update whole articles, update individual sections of articles or do "minor edits". Of course some will do two or three of these depending on the change they wish to make. WereSpielChequers 14:23, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

"You"

Where there are differences between the formal and informal "you", should the formal version or the informal version be used? (German uses informal, whereas Japanese avoids using the second person altogether, and uses you plural if necessary). What should we do? --Deryck Chan 18:55, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

I'd suggest using what the interface translation uses. I think the Chinese interface translations use the formal nín (您) so I would suggest using that, but you should double-check just to be sure. Cbrown1023 talk 22:25, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Q11 write reviews for

Do you really mean to ask whether you 'write reviews for restaurants or products'? I'm going to translate this as 'write reviews of restaurants and products' unless I'm told that it really should be 'for'. Lloffiwr 22:19, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

"I research articles"

What does that mean? Doing research for writing an article? --Deryck Chan 00:01, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

I asked this question on the translators-l list and got this answer from Manipande - "I research articles" is gathering information to write the article. It can be reading/researching about the subject online, offline etc. Lloffiwr 12:32, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

In America they say "research" where in the UK we would say "look up" or "find out" (or at least we used to say that!). Lloffiwr 13:37, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

I've rephrased it, hopefully this is now clearer. WereSpielChequers 14:34, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

Do you have kids

Do you have children is an overly vague question, some of our editors will have children who live in other continents and have grown up children of their own. I would suggest that what we are really trying to find out is whether our editors:

1. Live alone
2. Live with another adult
3. Live in the same household as children

I'm not sure the best way to phrase the question, but my suspicion is that silver surfers whose children have flown the nest are just as likely to edit as other silver surfers, but that having kids under foot is not conducive to editing. WereSpielChequers 16:02, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Content and policy pages

Q6 lists "Content and policy pages" as one of the tools for editing Wikipedia. I understand what policy pages are, but what are content pages? Articles?! --Amir E. Aharoni 17:37, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, the "mainspace", see w:Wikipedia:Content. Special:Statistics gives the Hebrew translation as "דפי תוכן". Cbrown1023 talk 20:49, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

Other comments about de, fi translations

On bugzilla:28635. Nemo 22:32, 20 October 2011 (UTC)