[Translators-l] Ready for translation: Tech News #29 (2016)

[Nick Wilson (Quiddity)]

I've rephrased the item, to avoid the acronym entirely. I did not
invalidate the many existing translations. Sorry for the distraction.

I'll wait a few more hours before sending the final "frozen" announcement.

On Fri, Jul 15, 2016 at 10:16 AM, Philippe Verdy <verdy_p at wanadoo.fr> wrote:

> Of course it needs some translation, but not necessarily an equivalent.
> May be this acronym is known in English, but only in a few select
> countries. Many people reading articles in another language will just
> wonder what it means or why it is there.
> If you're speaking about some Emergency team, jsut name it correctly,
> instead of using vague allusions that are country and language specific.
> And even if you think this is a sense of humour, this is not shared across
> the world and culture.
>
> For example, almost nobody knows that acronym in France, or may be
> confusing it with other English terms (I know some of them associate it to
> some meaning related to spider or spider webs, or some 6-feeted bugs, or
> bees, or confuse it with some terrorist group, and don't even think this is
> a special police force). If we were looking for some equivalent of SWAT in
> France we would use "GIGN", do you really think I'd ask you to keep it in
> English??? But then people would also wonder why we associate them to some
> Wikimedia project, even if it's technical and limtied in scope (but this
> limtied scope is even farther from the activities of the real SWAT).
>
> The simpel fact of associating the name of an official enforcement force
> to these independant volunteered projects is a bad idea I think. And beware
> of homour, it mayu be fun in sopme context when you know what is your
> public, but here it is very bad in a context where you ask for translations
> for use worldwide. Even when you use a wellknown international brand name,
> it must be done accurately on topic.
>
> 2016-07-15 18:37 GMT+02:00 Nick Wilson (Quiddity) <nwilson at wikimedia.org>:
>
>> On Fri, Jul 15, 2016 at 4:32 AM, Benoît Evellin (Trizek)
>> <bevellin at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > On Fri, Jul 15, 2016 at 12:57 PM, Purodha Blissenbach
>> > <purodha at blissenbach.org> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Hi Benoît,
>> >> yes, thank you. I had found that page already. Now it is a bit clearer
>> >> what the SWAT window does mean, but I still do not have a clue what
>> "SWAT"
>> >> is. Is it related to the military abbreviation S.W.A.T.? If so, I'd
>> >> probably
>> >> leave it untranslated as a(n English) technical term, do I ?
>> >
>> >
>> > I think to refers to the tactics police forces: the point is to act
>> quick.
>> > I've put that "SWAT" term, because I know some people know it. I don't
>> think
>> > it needs a translation.
>> >
>>
>> SWAT has a humorous definition, explained (with dry humour) at
>> https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/SWAT_deploys#Humour (and is
>> possibly a backronym - a definition chosen after the word itself was
>> selected, not before.)
>> It does Not need a translation in Tech/News! :-)
>>
>> I would guess that the term was chosen partially because it is meant to
>> imply (in my words) "heavily trained/experienced developers, working
>> on something complicated and time-critical", with a vague allusion to
>> the name of the specialized police teams.
>>
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>
>
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-- 
Nick Wilson (Quiddity)
Community Liaison, WMF
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