Page is a not externally linkable
- Code, Content, and Presentation
-- Content Management
---- User Translation, what are the best practices?
deadsea - 4:27 pm on May 7, 2012 (gmt 0)
I have a site that is available in about 40 languages. I'm asking my users to do the translations for me. Here is how it works right now.
Each bit of text used on the site is assigned a translation id
To serve the site in a different language, the server looks up the text for each translation id in the specified language.
There is a template system for building some messages like "Hello $user, you have $messagecount messages waiting for you."
When I launch a language I run the English text through translation software to produce an initial (often very shoddy) translation.
Users on the international sites are invited to improve translations through a translation interface.
When a user submits a translation it takes effect on the site right away for them (stored in their session) but isn't immediately available to other users.
I get a notification when translations are submitted and can choose to accept them in the admin interface.
The response from users has been promising but lackluster. I'm getting one or two people a week submitting corrections, usually for 4-6 translation strings. Has anybody here tried this before? How do you entice users into making your site better with translations?
I'm currently detecting if a user on an international site has English as one of their browser languages. If so, I put a more prominent call to action for them (otherwise it is in the footer). Any other techniques that I can use?
Thread source:: http://www.webmasterworld.com/content_management/4450406.htm
Brought to you by WebmasterWorld: http://www.webmasterworld.com