[bisq-network/proposals] Switch from Transifex to Weblate infrastructure (#111)
Scott Anecito
notifications at github.com
Sun Sep 1 04:39:39 UTC 2019
> _This is a Bisq Network proposal. Please familiarize yourself with the [submission and review process](https://docs.bisq.network/proposals.html)._
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**Proposal:** Move from using Transifex to translate the project to Weblate (non-self-hosted instance)
**Implementer(s):** @erciccione (mentioned in Slack that they'd be happy to help, has experience moving from Pootle to self-hosted Weblate), myself, and/or those who implemented Transifex (was thinking mainly for feedback / lessons learned, but if they want they can set up the config too). Weblate admins and language maintainers would be the same as Transifex.
**Why should the Bisq community care about improving our localization tools?:** Apart from maybe adding new fiat processing methods, localization is arguably the biggest factor in improving liquidity. Don't believe me? Look at other language based issues where you hear things like [this](https://github.com/bisq-network/proposals/issues/37):
> Yes, the language barrier has been the biggest obstacle on-boarding new users to Bisq in Japan, as nobody really speaks English except foreigners or internationalized Japanese people. Since non-English speakers are afraid they might make a mistake and lose funds, they are too scared to try it. Currently the order book is entirely made up of a few foreigners who are the members of the Tokyo Bitcoin community, and we really need Japanese translations to get Bisq adoption in Japan. Thank you for this!
**But we already have Transifex and it works well enough. Why should any effort be put into moving to another tool when we could spend it elsewhere?:**
- **In short, FOSS has value.** Let's assume for a moment that Transifex and Weblate are exactly the same, with the only difference being that Transifex is proprietary and Weblate is FOSS. Which one would you choose? People would most likely choose FOSS. Let's break down why FOSS is boss.
- **Anyone can submit a patch**. Is there a feature you want or bug that's irritating you with Transifex? Too bad; the code is proprietary, you can't help make the tool better. Furthermore, since Bisq is a (presumably) free customer of Transifex, any requests to add features or fix bugs are likely going to be the lowest priority for Transifex as Bisq isn't a paying customer. Conversely, Weblate you can take ownership and work with other members of the Weblate community to get that feature, that bug fix, or even further improve the localization of Weblate itself.
- **No worries if the Weblate maintainers leave:** This is admittedly a low risk, but if Transifex were to go out of business that would be it. Weblate is FOSS which means anyone can fork and become new maintainers or we can resort to self-hosting.
- **Free advertising on Weblate's front page.** Visit both https://www.transifex.com/ and https://weblate.org While both advertise their product, Weblate also advertises the active communities (seen below). Free advertising is great as it means more eyeballs which can translate into more localizers for Bisq. **Note that this is for Weblate hosting, not for self-hosted.
- **Arguably more feature rich than Transifex.** There's a variety of features that Weblate has over Transifex. One such feature is the ability to [easily advertise the Bisq project and current status via widgets](https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/devel/share.html)
- **Weblate has a better UX which translates to better productivity.** I'm not going to provide an exhaustive list, just a few examples. Let's start with the Watching settings. Transifex tells you to go to the project page and subscribe there:
But I'm already here in the config panel and I know the project name, why not just let me type and subscribe? Weblate gets this:
A proprietary mindset leads to proprietary design which is at odds with FOSS collaboration ideals. Take for example Huey today highlighted in Slack for Persian/Farsi localizers to look at strings like [this](https://www.transifex.com/bisq/bisq-website/translate/#fa/vision/174374890). Let's say I'm on mobile and just want to look at the string in question. Can't, because you have to have to be logged into an account to look at anything. Even when I'm logged in on PC it doesn't let me look at how the Persian/Farsi speakers translated it, only 'my' language, Japanese. Weblate you can easily see how other people might have semantically styled things:
Probably the biggest quality of life improvement from a localizer viewpoint that I've come across is that Weblate nicely marks up when a string has been modified, no clicks to show the diff required:
Transfiex on the other hand requires that you click around in Translation Memory:
**In Summary:** Moving to Bisq gives us among other things: the ability to fix or add features to our tool, free advertising to other fellow FOSS contributors which can turn into more Bisq localizers, and a better UX which leads to better productivity. We can further improve the liquidity offered on Bisq by switching from Transifex to Weblate.
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