Submitted by Rob on Tue, 2007-04-24 01:25.
Yep, we're finally getting ready to take the plunge and start making the comic and some of the "official" pages multilingual within the next month or two, as well as making the comic searchable by character, storyline, etcetera, if everything goes as planned. We've got a couple of other exciting things coming, as well, so read on.
Multilingual stuff
I've been looking into solutions for making the comic multilingual, and I've pretty much decided on one. I won't bore you with the technical details (Okay, if you must know, I'll be using a contrib module for Drupal called Internationalization.), but the way it will work is as follows:
There will be a transcript of each comic below that day's comic, and new controls on the site through which non-English-speakers can read transcripts in their native languages. Hopefully, we'll also get things like the tutorials and cast pages and stuff set up like that, as well.
I considered automated site translation services (and I may start off with some machine translations as placeholders until we get things going), but I think we'll get better translations from real live people. That means that to really make this happen, we'll need volunteers. While we can't pay you anything, we WILL upgrade your status on the site to let you surf ad-free, put you on the upcoming volunteer staff page, and whatever else we can think of to say thank you. For the right kind of major, it might even be a resume-builder.
Priority languages are (going by what I see on our stats page) French, Swedish, Dutch, Portugese, German, Japanese, and Chinese (both simplified and traditional), but I'd love to have the comic translated into as many languages as possible.
Over half the comics have already been transcribed in English (Several of you have worked on transcribing BCK for ohnorobot, but one person has transcribed literally hundreds of comics all on her own. Thanks, monique!), but I'll still have to get them into our database. Also, we'll of course need volunteers to finish the English transcriptions.
So hey--I won't start the official push until I've got the infrastucture set up for it, but if you think you might be interested in volunteering, feel free to leave a comment.
Other upcoming features
Some other things I plan to set up within the next couple of months are a way to search the comic by character and storyline, and a cast listing that actually stays updated--in which each character gets his or her own page.
(I've got to tell you, I love Drupal, the world's best open source CMS. Drupal is what is making all of this possible.)
I can't promise it right
I can't promise it right now, but depending on how my work situation evolves I could work to translate to spanish, it may take some time, but I may be able to do that.
That'd be great!
That'd be great if it works out! What I'd be asking is essentially just to keep up with current updates and chip away at the archives. I also hope to have more than one translator per language to both make things go faster and to keep one person from having too much of a burden, and have one person in charge of coordinating each language, as well.
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
Id like to help
i just wanted to tell you that i could help you to do the french translation
Sounds good! Thank you! I'll
Sounds good! Thank you! I'll let you know when we're ready to get started.
:-)
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
Still willing to help translate/transceribe Blue Crash Kit?
If you're still willing to translate, you can just post the translation as a comment to the relevant comic for now, along with relevant keywords (For instance, if there are zombies in that comic, zombie would be a keywords. If it's a coffee joke, coffee could be a keyword.) and maybe a description of the action?
I'll post more stuff in the translators forum as we go.
Whether you're still able to do it, thanks for offering when I first asked.
--Rob
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
Hey, man, if you're still
Hey, man, if you're still willing to translate, you can just post the translation as a comment to the relevant comic for now, along with relevant keywords (For instance, if there are zombies in that comic, zombie would be a keywords. If it's a coffee joke, coffee could be a keyword.) and maybe a description of the action?
I'll post more stuff in the translators forum as we go.
Whether you're still able to do it, thanks for offering when I first asked.
--Rob
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
For the Finnish readers
Yeah so um, I might be able to do some translation into Finnish if I can fit the work into my upcoming very strict upper secondary school schedule. I'm just not really sure if the strips are updated very frequently because I'm a new reader so I'd appreciate the information about that... I might be able to do some translation into Swedish later on but that'd take about 3 years because I'm still on 9th grade (almost three years of studying Swedish behind). Ahehe...
That would absolutely rock
That would absolutely rock if you can do it, man. Thanks. And welcome aboard! We're updating Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays right now. I hope to be back to at least five days a week soon, but with Shan's new graphic design job, I'm not certain of that.to get it
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
Hey, man, if you're still
Hey, man, if you're still willing to translate, you can just post the translation as a comment to the relevant comic for now, along with relevant keywords (For instance, if there are zombies in that comic, zombie would be a keywords. If it's a coffee joke, coffee could be a keyword.) and maybe a description of the action?
I'll post more stuff in the translators forum as we go.
Whether you're still able to do it, thanks for offering when I first asked.
--Rob
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
Translation
I'd like to volunteer to trasnlate the comic to Portuguese, Portugal's portuguese is a bit different from Brazilian's portuguese, but if is ok for you, I'd like to translate it
I'm net at the forum, but I follow the comic since a long time ago, so it's be great to help one of my favorites comics ^^
Thanks! It is my
Thanks! It is my understanding that those two forms of Portuguese are about as similar as American and British English. Is that right? Even if not, I can set things up so that if someone else wants to translate into Brazilian Portuguese that it would be seperate from your translation.
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
My honor
Yes it is, as far I know, the difference is mostly on some words with different meanings and speeling(but the writting is the same), but nothing that would make a huge difference, so don't worry about it.
And just to add, I'll translate it to Brazil's portuguese.
Portugal Portuguese is fine
If it's only a difference like that between American and British English, go with what you're most comfortable with. I don't want you to have to duplicate your effort.
:-)
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
Hey, man, if you're still
Hey, man, if you're still willing to translate, you can just post the translation as a comment to the relevant comic for now, along with relevant keywords (For instance, if there are zombies in that comic, zombie would be a keywords. If it's a coffee joke, coffee could be a keyword.) and maybe a description of the action?
I'll post more stuff in the translators forum as we go.
Whether you're still able to do it, thanks for offering when I first asked.
--Rob
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
translation in Bulgarian
Hello,
If you are interested, I am willing to make a translation of the comic in Bulgarian. Hunting for experience opportunities, this one looks fantastic to me. So if you're interested, write me to my e-mail: desislavasht [at] hotmail [dot] com. :)
Hey, man, if you're still
Hey, man, if you're still willing to translate, you can just post the translation as a comment to the relevant comic for now, along with relevant keywords (For instance, if there are zombies in that comic, zombie would be a keywords. If it's a coffee joke, coffee could be a keyword.
I'll post more stuff in the translators forum as we go.
Whether you're still able to do it, thanks for offering when I first asked.
--Rob
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
i guess i can help
Hey, Rob!
I don't know whether you still need volunteers to translate the transcripts, but if you do, I'd be glad to help. I could translate into Russian and Romanian, and even into French. Well, I guess Romanian is not a very popular language around the world, but transcripts in Romanian might bring Romanian-speakers to your website!
I'd also like to ask you a favor... In case I start working for you, could you please write me a recommendation letter at the end?
let me know what you think about that!
Greetings from Moldova! ( That's in Eastern Europe)
Hey, man, if you're still
Hey, man, if you're still willing to translate, you can just post the translation as a comment to the relevant comic for now, along with relevant keywords (For instance, if there are zombies in that comic, zombie would be a keywords. If it's a coffee joke, coffee could be a keyword.
I'll post more stuff in the translators forum as we go.
Whether you're still able to do it, thanks for offering when I first asked.
--Rob
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
i guess i can help
Hey, Rob!
I don't know whether you still need volunteers to translate the transcripts, but if you do, I'd be glad to help. I could translate into Russian and Romanian, and even into French. Well, I guess Romanian is not a very popular language around the world, but transcripts in Romanian might bring Romanian-speakers to your website!
I'd also like to ask you a favor... In case I start working for you, could you please write me a recommendation letter at the end?
let me know what you think about that!
Greetings from Moldova! ( That's in Eastern Europe)
Maaaybe.
I might be able to translate into swedish, though we'll have to see how things work out. I'm going to start going to college (or whatever the swedish equivalent for that is) on wednesday, so there'll be a lot of work to do.
I love the comic though, so i'll gladly translate if i have the time to do it!
Translation into German
Hi!
I've not been active in the forum as well, but I really enjoy the comic and can probably help with the German translation (as I am German). So, how is it going to work?
Still willing to translate?
Hey, man--Are you still willing to do a German translation? If so (and why didn't I think of this before?), you could just post each one as a comment to the relevant comic, with "German" as the subject line.
If you're not interested in helping out anymore, I understand. Thanks for offering!
Tschuss! (Did I spell that right?)
--Rob
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
P.S.
I'll posting about this more in the translators forums.
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
Still willing to translate?
Hey, man, if you're still willing to translate, you can just post the translation as a comment to the relevant comic for now, along with relevant keywords (For instance, if there are zombies in that comic, zombie would be a keywords. If it's a coffee joke, coffee could be a keyword.
I'll post more stuff in the translators forum as we go.
Whether you're still able to do it, thanks for offering when I first asked.
--Rob
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
Heh... I actually had
Heh... I actually had forgotten about the whole thing. I'll have to back out from anything related to translating. The gymnasium I study in requires more work than most others with the school events, musical studies and other things like that. Not to mention the fact that I have relatively high goals when it comes to our monthly grades and studying in every other way. Well, I doubt that there are many Finnish readers out there anyway.
Oh, and I hope that you get this translation thing rolling! It should be a great way to get more readers if you get it to work!
Hi! I'm still willing to
Hi!
I'm still willing to help. I'm in my exams now, so it will probably delay a little bit, but I'll stop by and translate some as often as I can.
Translation
I can translate in to Australian.. He he he.
you little ripper.
Heh! ;-) "What the
Heh!
;-)
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
dutch transcripton...
are you still looking for a Dutch translator...
I don't have much time right now but I will see if I could translate some comic's...
Although I think its not really necessary because there is no one above the age of 14 in holland that doesn’t know enough English to read this comic…
but as I said if I have the time I will do my best…
greetings from: vIDo
Yes! :-) As you can see,
Yes! :-)
As you can see, updates aren't coming often right now, but they'll resume soon. And yes, although I know that most people in Netherlands speak English in addition to Dutch, I'm excited about the idea of a Dutch translation.
Netherlands is, according to my research, the most socially progressive nation on Earth, and is in fact, someplace Shannon and I, if we ever decide to live outside the states, one of our first choices.
So yeah--Although it might not be strictly necesssary, I love the idea. And thanks!
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
greetings form holland...
oke I did the first one...
Hope you like it, and thanks for the compliment on my motherland…
(I’m not sure if the sentence above is correct… pleas say if it isn’t so I can learn from it…)
no time...
Sorry for the lack of translating but I’m very busy lately (starting my own webcomic…)
I feel a bit bad about it because I said I would translate but now I can’t so…
Sorry sorry sorry…
(if I get my website don I’ll probably have more time to work on the translations but that will take some more time…)
English / Portuguese Translator
Dear Sirs,
I have a Certificate from "BBC English" and I have been making translations from English to Portuguese since almost 20 years.
Fees: Eur 0,045/word.
I make special discounts for jobs with a minimum of 30.000 words.
Areas: commercial, law, medical, cinema, literary (books), among others.
Contact through e-mail ramos.helena [at] sapo [dot] pt or mobile 00351968737311.
Accuracy, quality and professionalism.
Paymento: 30 days after receipt issue date.
I also provide text revision services and other kind of computer work. Fees to be agreed.
Best Regards
Helena Ramos
English to Welsh
I'd be perfectly willing to do an English to Welsh translation, but I'm not sure anyone besides me would read it!
Still willing though.