[Translators-l] What to do with outdated translated pages?

[Aphaia]

Hello habj, thank you for bringing it up.
Outdated translations are one of our problems in coordinating request.
Tagging them {{outdated}} or expired or whatever appropriate, is one
of idea.

I would like to watch this issue more closely.
There are several cases we call it "outdated requests"
A. One time request which was submitted past and now it makes no sense
to make its translation
--> Past fundraising is exactly the case. Deleted pages of the
Foundation wiki would be too. Now no one request for translating those
materials. Even we can call it {{historical requests}} or just
{{close}}
B. Still meaningful or historical interest but not news at this moment.
--> For example: Registration of Wikimania 2006, Board Election Result
etc. It is not so much meaningful to make their translation right now,
specially some information is available on other document (like
[[Board of Trustees]]) and the latter is also listed on [[Translation
requests]]. It is something different from just "outdated". "Not in
urgent"? Or simply "historical" or "close".
C. The source updated somewhere but not on meta.
--> When "source" document on meta request page isn't properly
updated, it occurs. (sorry...) . They are however not to need to be
tagged "outdated", if someone update the source properly. Now I am
engaging in maintaining TR subpages. I will appreciate your
participation. Any meta admin can help this "updating" with importing
files from the Foundation wiki.
C1. The source was properly updated and request was flashed but
translation is not.
--> See [[Wikimedia:Board of Trustees]] and some language versions.
How we are better to treat meta working page? Just blanking? Eh, but
some materials seems to be reusable ......  Zocky's machine has an
"updated" tag. But no "need to update". "wait" tag can convey this
meaning? I am not sure. Thought?
C2. Similar case. The source was recently updated. It is not different
so much from the meta "source" but difference is difference. The
editor who updated the original may not be interested in updating meta
version too. It frequently happened. Board members are tend to be so,
(it is not a criticism but a fact - they may be busy too much) and
other editors so. Even I cannot avoid from this accusation. I am
trying to synchronize two versions, but I may be late. And translators
who are not aware of differences make a translation from "the outdated
(even slightly)" version. And inconsistency is slowly but surely
spreading from version to version ... It is a problem we need to
solve.

If you know another case, please point it out. To solve the issue,
first we need to beat things to dead.

On 12/23/06, habj <sweetadelaide at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have just started to look into the translation requests. I wonder a
> couple of things, and I bring it to the list since I am sure there
> must be plenty other translators in similar situations.
>
> The pages for the current fundraiser will only be used for a couple of
> weeks, but many other pages remain for a long time. Those pages
> generally get changed and updated as reality changes. In the current
> translation requests, there is for example the page on the Board, and
> on the current staff. In both cases, new people will come and others
> will leave. If a page like this is translated and not updated, it
> looks very bad. Old or wrong information is often worse than no
> information at all, and in this case outdated translated info will
> prevent people to instead visit the corresponding page in a language
> where the info is correct.
>
> If I translate a page, I can not promise to be here to update it
> later. If my local community was bigger - and/or more generally
> interested in stuff above the local community level - I could count on
> other people replacing me, but as things are now I can that is
> something I can hope for but not count on. If we don't implement some
> kind of system to deal with outdated pages, I am a little afraid of
> translating such pages. I feel that in the end I might have done more
> bad than good.
>
> How can we deal with outdated translations? One _could_ tag a
> translated page saying which version of another page it is translated
> from. Others who don't speak the language in question can then decide
> whether the information is too outdated to be around, and somehow
> remove the page - I suppose redirecting it to the English, or other
> suitable, version is a working idea. Does anyone have a better
> suggestion?
>
> /habj
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