Translation Rally
Such translation contests are a step ahead in improving certain language localizations, but sometimes it can make things a little bit worse. Every year there are new translators enrolling hoping to win a stake from the prize, but their translations are often poor and annoying for the rest of us. Shortly after the contest comes to end they simply vanish until next year leaving behind the mess.
I think there has to be some limitations when taking part into the rally (I even find becoming a translator a not-so-necessary easy process). Otherwise me and my Romanian colleagues, we have to review and undo tons of poor translations. It is simply not fair for the work we do here.
Hi, thanks for your quality work and for sharing your experience as well as talking with the new translators.
I noticed your reverts yesterday and I think the issues you found were mainly with edits to existing translations, correct? The rally is only about new translations.
If talking to the user fails to improve the situation, remember that exclusions from the rally are possible: for instance if a translator abuses machine translation, or translates "like a bot", or editwars, or ignores feedback from other translators. We can and should stop bad faith translators, but not good faith ones.
Spending time with good faith but low-quality translations is often frustrating, I know; but it should be seen as a way to train more translators in your language. Try to consider it an investment: if you help increase the bus factor in your language, you make sure than your work will be preserved if/when you stop being active, maybe in 5 years from now.
I admit we don't have statistics to prove it, but I believe that translation rallies have been useful to (re)activate translators who then continue being active for long, even though most of them disappear quickly.