Multi-language support thought

[azurelunatic]

The other day I ran into one of the (unnoticed?) pitfalls of a multi-language support file system. One of the FAQs had been updated. Naturally, there are different versions of the FAQs in each language.

There is a field at the bottom, saying when the last update was, and who was the last updater.

Now, I view the site in UK English. Said updater had updated the US English (master?) version of the FAQ.

I was viewing the unchanged UK English file. The translator-people hadn't had their hands on that FAQ yet, to share the updates. I was viewing it with the date and updater for the US English FAQ file, and I had to exchange messages with the updater to find that we really were looking at two different things, even though going by the info down at the bottom they were the same.

Proposal: make sure that "master file updated" and "file that you are viewing now updated" information are distinct in the FAQs, and to have them displayed distinctly. Something like: Master FAQ [language] updated [date] by [name]; Translated FAQ [language] updated [date] translated by [name].

Comments

[juuro.livejournal.com]

Good grief. That should have been obvious.

Shows how seldom I use anything but US English content on LJ, I guess.

Re:

[azurelunatic]

For whatever reason, the update time and name stamp on all the FAQ files, no matter the translation, seems to be the time/name of the updater of the master file. This ... really shouldn't be.

[thette.livejournal.com]

So you can see who translates what?

That would be a good idea, so one could revoke some translating privilegies. (Remember, people, to translate, you have to know both the original language and the language you're translating to _really_ well.)

Re:

[azurelunatic]

That would be a good reason to have it, too.