Sunday, May 30, 2010

Tatoeba update (May 30th, 2010)

What's new

This is a small update.
  • We simplified the registration process. If it doesn't bring too much spam, we'll leave it like that.
  • We started reviewing the texts in Tatoeba. There's still a lot of editorial work to do though.
  • We added support for right to left languages (like Arabic). They are not actually displayed right to left.

What's next
  • Import lists from CSV file (I have already mentioned this many times).
  • We will try as well to implement tags for sentences.
But you have to know that we are currently investing more time in promoting the project. That means less time on implementing new features.

The reason is because we have registered to Drumbeat last weekend. Drumbeat is a platform launched by Mozilla earlier this year. It was made for people to promote their projects that can make the Web better and keep it open. The best projects can even get seed funding, and we kind of hope we will :)

Monday, May 24, 2010

Moderators in Tatoeba

Translations of this article:



This is a little guide/FAQ to explain what is the role of a moderator in Tatoeba, and to make sure moderators use their powers wisely.


Why do we need moderators?

Every community needs their moderators, but in Tatoeba more specifically, the problem is that unless you are the admin, you (currently) cannot :
  • delete sentences, not even your own sentences
  • edit sentences that do not belong to you
So with the growing community, more and more sentences are getting in the "delete me" and "correct me" queues (due to members who never come back to correct their sentences).

Moderators are here to help take care of these sentences that no one else can take care of.


What can moderators do?

Moderator can currently delete, edit, link/unlink any sentence. Yes, this is a lot of power, but since contributions are logged and can be seen by everyone, we don't need to worry too much about a moderator going nuts and ruining others' work.

Keep in mind that the moderator's rights are not "stable" yet. We will balance out the permissions over time. For now, we don't really have time, so we'll trust moderators for doing the right things.


When should moderators edit or delete?

Only use your moderator rights as the last resort.

This is especially true when dealing with others' sentences. Some people will gladly let you edit or delete their sentences without having to be notified about it (they may even be annoyed by this). But other people may feel that you are abusing of your powers, not respecting their work, not acknowledging their presence in the project, or whatsoever.

To avoid any kind of conflict, only edit sentences where the latest correction request says "two weeks ago" (or more) and no correction has been made. Only delete a sentence after asking the owner if they're okay with their contribution being deleted.

Basically, give people the time to do their work first, and only if they don't do anything, you can step in.


How do you become a moderator?

You can either ask Trang or wait for her to notice that you are a good candidate to be a moderator. The criteria is that you are at least already a "trusted user". The rest is subjective.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Tatoeba update (May 22nd, 2010)

What's new
  • Pagination in lists (so that it won't take forever to load long lists).
  • Edit/Show pages for lists. Edit: for editing, translating sentences from the list. Show: simply for viewing the sentences and listening to them.
  • Slightly better looking lists index page.
  • Moderator status.
  • Possibility to specify language of next and previous links in "Browse" section.
What's next
  • Things in the last update post that we didn't do: import lists from CSV, simplifcation of registration process.
  • Registration of Tatoeba to Mozilla's Drumbeat platform. We will need everyone's support!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Tatoeba update (May 16th, 2010)

What's new

There has been a lot of new stuff implemented this weekend! :)
  • Contributors can now edit and translate sentences directly from a list (as well as adopt, favorite and add to another list). This will, I believe, enhance a lot the contribution process.
  • You can display translations in all the languages, and not just one language (I'm still talking about the lists).
  • You can download a list into a file. I feel this is going to be extremely useful. We made it so that users can import the file to use in Anki.
  • You can specify the target language when searching sentences. That is to say, you can not only search "from", but also "to" a specific language.
  • Indirect translations are taken into account in the search. You may not realize this, but it's an incredibly, incredibly powerful feature.
So we worked very hard this week, which is why the update was delayed of one day.

What's next
  • Have a "moderator" status. Moderators will be able to edit anyone's sentences, link and unlink any sentence, and delete sentences.
  • Simplification of the registration process. We will get rid of the whole "validate your registration" step.
  • Import lists from CSV file. This will be a way to feed Tatoeba more quickly ;)
  • Have two modes for the lists : "show" and "edit". Only the "edit" mode will have the various buttons to translate, adopt and so on. This will make the list less crowded for people who simply want to browse.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Tatoeba update (May 8th, 2010)

What's new

Just like the previous update, there's nothing extremely new.
  • You can now add Tatoeba as a search engine in your little Firefox search bar.
  • You can also browse sentences that belong to a specific user, and you can filter them by language.
  • And we did some small UI improvements.
We have been mostly working on cleaning, improving, debugging and optimizing the code.


What's next

You will be able to download lists into a CSV file as well as import sentences into Tatoeba from a CSV file. It was originally planned for this week, but we decided to delay it as we still had things to discuss about in how we were going to do this.

We will first implement these features so we can use them for our "massive validation and correction" process, but of course we will adapt them to other needs afterwards. For instance, it could give users the possibility to download sentences to be used in Anki, as well as to import an Anki deck into Tatoeba.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Tatoeba update (May 1st, 2010)

What's new

This update doesn't really bring any thing hugely new. The only new things are:
  • Icons (instead of text), for the "Inbox" and "Log out" link in the top menu.
  • Update of the Downloads page. The download files are now (officially) updated every week, and there's a new format.
The rest is bug fixes and optimization, so nothing really worth writing about.


Checking sentences

However, this update marks the beginning of an important phase in Tatoeba : massive correction and validation of sentences. We actually have the necessary features to do it, and in a way that is not just "random". This is all explained in my previous post on the reliability of the sentences.

We will start with French sentences. The primary goal is to correct the spelling and grammar mistakes by the end of May.


What's next

We will mostly revamp the lists section so that it can support in a better way the massive correction and validation of sentences.