bitcoin.org and weusecoins.com in other languages

[jl2012]

Today I read a Chinese blog discussing bitcoin: http://blog.qq.com/qzone/622007907/1341497503.htm

The most interesting part is the reader's comment: 5 out of 20 comments complain that they can't read the English websites.

According to wikipedia, Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world, followed by English and Spanish. The number of Chinese internet users has surpassed the total population of the US. For historical and technical reasons the web is dominated by English. As a global and decentralized currency, however, bitcoin should serve the needs of non-English users.

Therefore, I propose the 2 major entry websites: bitcoin.org and weusecoins.com should be fully translated to non-English languages. I can do the Chinese translation, and other volunteers will work on other languages. As this will appear on the "official" websites, the translations should be peer-reviewed to make sure they are properly done.

I will start working on it if this is approved by the devs who are controlling the domain names.

[rudrigorc2]

curiously I visited this website today and noticed the same thing.
there is only a japanese translation on a .jp domain.

I could easily translate it to Pt-BR.  I guess the videos are already subtitled in Pt-br

[Tacticat]

Hello jl2012!

If you're looking for Spanish bitcoin content, you might want to check out Queesibtcoin.info (Translated: Whatisbitcoin.info). I have written this website a couple of weeks ago and it features a simple yet full guide with everything that's needed to start using Bitcoin and written in such a way that non-techies can understand it as well.

The website is pretty new and not very well known yet, but if you know any spanish speaking community that might appreciate an introduction to Bitcoin feel free to link them there. Also, the text is licensed under Creative commons Share Alike.

Here's a banner:


Also, another excellent Spanish website is elbitcoin.org, which is a great blog with up to date information.

[jl2012]

curiously I visited this website today and noticed the same thing.
there is only a japanese translation on a .jp domain.

I could easily translate it to Pt-BR.  I guess the videos are already subtitled in Pt-br

The link to the Japanese site is so difficult to find. They should put it on the front page with a small Japanese flag or something like that

[jl2012]

Hello jl2012!

If you're looking for Spanish bitcoin content, you might want to check out Queesibtcoin.info (Translated: Whatisbitcoin.info). I have written this website a couple of weeks ago and it features a simple yet full guide with everything that's needed to start using Bitcoin and written in such a way that non-techies can understand it as well.

The website is pretty new and not very well known yet, but if you know any spanish speaking community that might appreciate an introduction to Bitcoin feel free to link them there. Also, the text is licensed under Creative commons Share Alike.

Here's a banner:


Also, another excellent Spanish website is elbitcoin.org, which is a great blog with up to date information.

It's always nice to have language-specific website, but what I'm proposing is adding non-English languages to the "official" websites

[nobbynobbynoob]

Great idea!

bitcointip jl2012 +BTC0,05

[acoindr]

The number of Chinese internet users has surpassed the total population of the US

People, including myself, I think really underestimate the impact on things like the Internet by sheer numbers the Chinese will have. There was a Chinese social networking site or something that was comparable to Google in users already if I remember.  Insane.

For historical and technical reasons the web is dominated by English. As a global and decentralized currency, however, bitcoin should serve the needs of non-English users.

I totally agree.

Therefore, I propose the 2 major entry websites: bitcoin.org and weusecoins.com should be fully translated to non-English languages. I can do the Chinese translation, and other volunteers will work on other languages. As this will appear on the "official" websites, the translations should be peer-reviewed to make sure they are properly done.

I will start working on it if this is approved by the devs who are controlling the domain names.

All any site needs to do is add the following:

http://translate.google.com/manager/website/?hl=en

This will make all the site's pages available in 60+ languages. All the user has to do is select their language from a drop down box. The only drawbacks I see are that I don't know about the quality of all translations, and users have to know to use the drop box.

EDIT: also, any users viewing pages in Google's Chrome browser automatically get the option to have the page translated, whether the website has any translation options available or not.

[flix]

Hello jl2012!

If you're looking for Spanish bitcoin content, you might want to check out Queesibtcoin.info (Translated: Whatisbitcoin.info). I have written this website a couple of weeks ago and it features a simple yet full guide with everything that's needed to start using Bitcoin and written in such a way that non-techies can understand it as well.

The website is pretty new and not very well known yet, but if you know any spanish speaking community that might appreciate an introduction to Bitcoin feel free to link them there. Also, the text is licensed under Creative commons Share Alike.

Here's a banner:


Also, another excellent Spanish website is elbitcoin.org, which is a great blog with up to date information.

I second that, both www.queesbitcoin.info and www.elbitcoin.org are great sites.

[flix]

All any site needs to do is add the following:

http://translate.google.com/manager/website/?hl=en

This will make all the site's pages available in 60+ languages. All the user has to do is select their language from a drop down box. The only drawbacks I see are that I don't know about the quality of all translations, and users have to know to use the drop box.

Google translate still leaves a lot to be desired, it screws up grammar in Spanish, German and French all the time, you should probably only use it to translate from other languages to english... I can only imagine the mess it might make from English to Chinese. Still... it's better than nothing.

[acoindr]

you should probably only use it to translate from other languages to english...

lol As the OP says translations to English are the only thing NOT needed  

I can only imagine the mess it might make from English to Chinese. Still... it's better than nothing.

Yeah, I guess Google needs to hire Chinese engineers as well as other nationalities to really get things right.

[SouthernComfort]

Im surprised Bitcoin hasnt taken off more in China then it has, considering that the government spys on internet usage. With Bitcoin payments could be transferred anywhere in the world in a instant, without verification.

[jl2012]

The number of Chinese internet users has surpassed the total population of the US

People, including myself, I think really underestimate the impact on things like the Internet by sheer numbers the Chinese will have. There was a Chinese social networking site or something that was comparable to Google in users already if I remember.  Insane.

For historical and technical reasons the web is dominated by English. As a global and decentralized currency, however, bitcoin should serve the needs of non-English users.

I totally agree.

Therefore, I propose the 2 major entry websites: bitcoin.org and weusecoins.com should be fully translated to non-English languages. I can do the Chinese translation, and other volunteers will work on other languages. As this will appear on the "official" websites, the translations should be peer-reviewed to make sure they are properly done.

I will start working on it if this is approved by the devs who are controlling the domain names.

All any site needs to do is add the following:

http://translate.google.com/manager/website/?hl=en

This will make all the site's pages available in 60+ languages. All the user has to do is select their language from a drop down box. The only drawbacks I see are that I don't know about the quality of all translations, and users have to know to use the drop box.

EDIT: also, any users viewing pages in Google's Chrome browser automatically get the option to have the page translated, whether the website has any translation options available or not.

Are you suggesting something like this?



or



or

[acoindr]

Are you suggesting something like this?



or



or

I don't know what you're talking about for that last one:

The biggest world sports meeting will be blown up

That is accurate slang. When something is blown up it means it becomes very popular. For example, Bitcoin will blow up in 2013!

[jl2012]

It is a slang that has several meaning and not suitable for a banner like this.

Anyway, I just want to point out that machine translation is not acceptable at all. You can not promote bitcoin with such bad translation

More for you

[acoindr]

It is a slang that has several meaning and not suitable for a banner like this.

I know. I was joking 

[jl2012]

Great idea!

bitcointip jl2012 +BTC0,05

Thank you. However, I cannot do it without devs support. Any comments from the dev team?

[MemoryDealers]

For those who are interested:

www.bitcoin.co.jp
www.weusecoins.jp

[John (John K.)]

I could help with the Chinese and Malay/Indonesian translation too if needed.

[matthewh3]

Yes this is something that is definitely needed for more bitcoin information in especially the major foreign languages.

[D.H.]

All any site needs to do is add the following:

http://translate.google.com/manager/website/?hl=en

This will make all the site's pages available in 60+ languages. All the user has to do is select their language from a drop down box. The only drawbacks I see are that I don't know about the quality of all translations, and users have to know to use the drop box.

Google translate still leaves a lot to be desired, it screws up grammar in Spanish, German and French all the time, you should probably only use it to translate from other languages to english... I can only imagine the mess it might make from English to Chinese. Still... it's better than nothing.

Yeah, an automatic translation can make an otherwise professional website look extremely amateurish. It could be better than nothing but then you should probably make your reader aware of the fact that it is an automatic translation and that you know that it is of low quality.

[jl2012]

2 weeks gone and no reply from devs. Who is currently holding the bitcoin.org?

[furrycoat]

So chinese dont have google translator? A shame..

[knight22]

I would like to contribute for french translation

[jl2012]

So chinese dont have google translator? A shame..

Google translation may become acceptable 20 years later, but definitely not at this moment.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5-JtnlhAI9s/SvGOFWxxxFI/AAAAAAAAAIM/X9kv9wtehII/s400/fuck+the+certain+price+of+goods.jpg

[siesatsu]

So chinese dont have google translator? A shame..

Google translation may become acceptable 20 years later, but definitely not at this moment.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5-JtnlhAI9s/SvGOFWxxxFI/AAAAAAAAAIM/X9kv9wtehII/s400/fuck+the+certain+price+of+goods.jpg

LOL! I laughed

[acoindr]

2 weeks gone and no reply from devs. Who is currently holding the bitcoin.org?

You know you don't need to ask permission. Just make a translated site and promote it. If it's good enough maybe the devs will see it and link to it. Nobody needs to ask anything with Bitcoin. Nobody controls it. Just do what you like and the free market will sort it out. The devs are often too busy for administrative decisions.

[blockgenesis]

Presentation is everything. There is already amazing work done and I believe it would be a shame that bitcoin.org and weusecoins only get a restricted audience. Official Bitcoin client and blockchain.info are now internationalized. I think it's time to do the same with Bitcoin online presentation.

Stefan Thomas is most probably working on things that really requires him. So I suggest that he delegates this part to the Bitcoin community. After all, I'm sure that we have, on this forum, many people speaking many languages that would be willing to participate. That of course, if they agree.

Here is 3 things that probably need consideration :

Social network / news integration (twitter, bitcoinwatch, etc)
Those are all pure english from now. It could be necessary to remove them until localized groups / news websites / blogs emerge.
Or to find appropriate existing replacement, if possible.

StackExchange integration
StackExchange provides many questions / answers, but english only and cannot be translated.
So it would most likely require a static equivalence that could be translated.

Future updates
The way each website is translated should not be too structure dependent, so if we don't find a translator for a specific language in the future, it will still be possible to update the content of the pages for all languages except the few problematic ones.

I would gladly offer myself to make bitcoin.org or weusecoins.com multilanguage and provide french translations myself.

You know you don't need to ask permission. Just make a translated site and promote it. If it's good enough maybe the devs will see it and link to it. Nobody needs to ask anything with Bitcoin. Nobody controls it. Just do what you like and the free market will sort it out. The devs are often too busy for administrative decisions.

This is fragmentation. Not bad in itself, but working in team in such a case always create more powerful results. And since the content is MIT and CC licenced, it does not represent a single point of failure, even if it does a bit of centralization.

[pointbiz]

I'm searching for someone to translate bitaddress.org into french. See here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=139612.new

I'm also looking for someone to translate it into Chinese (simple or traditional... you pick).

There is an English JSON at the bottom of this page:
https://www.bitaddress.org/bitaddress.org-v2.3-SHA1-1d067dc4f3103622ca9de332c3c86fc57d76ec83.html?unittests=true

For the person who provides the majority of translations for a respective language your Bitcoin address will be included in the
"footerlabeltranslatedby" variable.

It is preferred if you provide the translations as a pull request on github but it is not required.
https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org

[jl2012]

I'm searching for someone to translate bitaddress.org into french. See here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=139612.new

I'm also looking for someone to translate it into Chinese (simple or traditional... you pick).

There is an English JSON at the bottom of this page:
https://www.bitaddress.org/bitaddress.org-v2.3-SHA1-1d067dc4f3103622ca9de332c3c86fc57d76ec83.html?unittests=true

For the person who provides the majority of translations for a respective language your Bitcoin address will be included in the
"footerlabeltranslatedby" variable.

It is preferred if you provide the translations as a pull request on github but it is not required.
https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org

I can help translating to Chinese (both simple and traditional) but I don't know how to use github

[jonwaller]

Hi. I did the weusecoins.jp site.

I was holding off doing translations in other languages because I can't answer emails in a language I can't speak.

jl2012: If you can translate the site text into Chinese, and get a domain name, I can open-source it on Github and put it online.

Anyone else: If you can translate the site at a native level and get a domain name - I can help you getting the site online.

[jl2012]

Hi. I did the weusecoins.jp site.

I was holding off doing translations in other languages because I can't answer emails in a language I can't speak.

jl2012: If you can translate the site text into Chinese, and get a domain name, I can open-source it on Github and put it online.

Anyone else: If you can translate the site at a native level and get a domain name - I can help you getting the site online.

I don't think having different domain names for different languages is a good idea. There should be one centralized website for different languages

[jonwaller]

I agree. But I think Stefan is super-busy, so it may be more efficient to do things separately.

[pointbiz]

I can help translating to Chinese (both simple and traditional) but I don't know how to use github

Pardon my ignorance regarding Simple vs Traditional Chinese... is one of those forms more widely used? Can most Chinese read both? Ideally to make ongoing translation maintenance easier we would just pick one form... the more well known :-)

Don't worry about github. Just copy the JSON from the text area in the link I provided. Do the translation and send it to me via private message on the forum.

Code:

Please paste it inside a code tag like I'm doing with this sentence :)

[jl2012]

I can help translating to Chinese (both simple and traditional) but I don't know how to use github

Pardon my ignorance regarding Simple vs Traditional Chinese... is one of those forms more widely used? Can most Chinese read both? Ideally to make ongoing translation maintenance easier we would just pick one form... the more well known :-)

Don't worry about github. Just copy the JSON from the text area in the link I provided. Do the translation and send it to me via private message on the forum.

Code:

Please paste it inside a code tag like I'm doing with this sentence :)

This is a very long story.

Q: Is one of those forms more widely used?
A: Simplified

Q: Can most Chinese read both?
A: I think so

However, some traditional Chinese users (mostly in Taiwan and Hong Kong) would feel irritated by simplified Chinese as they see it as a mean of cultural oppression of the Chinese Communist government, and call it "broken Chinese". (Just imagine your government publishes a "Simplified English scheme" and forces everyone in your country write in shorthand).

Anyway, to respect all Chinese speakers, I prefer to offer both versions. That would not be too trouble to maintain both version because there are tools (e.g. M$ Word and many online converters) to convert between them. Actually I will translate it to Traditional and convert it to Simplified with one click. Automatic conversion from Simplified to Traditional may lead to some funny consequences. For example, "dry" and "fxxk" are represented by the same character "干" in Simplified Chinese, where in Traditional Chinese they are "乾" and "幹" respectively. Therefore, don't surprised if you see a menu like this in China:

[blockgenesis]

I don't think having different domain names for different languages is a good idea. There should be one centralized website for different languages

I agree. But I think Stefan is super-busy, so it may be more efficient to do things separately.

I'm working on a suggestion to allow a single multi-language website while not putting more job in the hands of Stefan..

[pointbiz]

jl2012, I'm not interested in machine translation for exactly the reason youve stated. I'm looking for persons fluent in a particular language to translate a technical geek site.

If I trusted Google's machine translation then youd already see more languages available on bitaddress.

[jl2012]

jl2012, I'm not interested in machine translation for exactly the reason youve stated. I'm looking for persons fluent in a particular language to translate a technical geek site.

If I trusted Google's machine translation then youd already see more languages available on bitaddress.

No, that's not worked like you think. There is a simple, deterministic matching scheme to convert Traditional Chinese to Simplified Chinese. Actually they are the same language, just some characters are written differently. They share the same grammar. Therefore, it is not even "translation". It's just "conversion".

[001sonkit]

I am a Hong Kong guy and I might be able to help with translations between English and Chinese since we got both Chinese and English as our official language. So I am able to translate without those hilarious Google fail.

Contact me if you are interested, I translate JSON to context too.

[pointbiz]

jl2012, I'm not interested in machine translation for exactly the reason youve stated. I'm looking for persons fluent in a particular language to translate a technical geek site.

If I trusted Google's machine translation then youd already see more languages available on bitaddress.

No, that's not worked like you think. There is a simple, deterministic matching scheme to convert Traditional Chinese to Simplified Chinese. Actually they are the same language, just some characters are written differently. They share the same grammar. Therefore, it is not even "translation". It's just "conversion".

Ah OK. I had no clue :-)

[blockgenesis]

A multilanguage version of weusecoins.com is online here as a demonstration :
http://174.142.20.145/

The code is published here :
https://github.com/saivann/weusecoins

The README gives a complete list of what needs to be done to translate the website.

French : I provided french language and french weusecoins video also.
Japanese : jonwaller weusecoins.jp version is linked, and with is help, could be integrated.
Chinese : Recent comments on this thread shows we could have help for Chinese language too.

What has been done

Many embed text in images has been replaced by text, to facilitate translation.
PHP integration with BitcoinWatch for the News section.
Top language menu.
Hardcoded urls for Sharethis (to keep previous counter).
Auto-detection of user language based on browser support.
Cleanurls with a simple .htaccess redirect
How-to for translators with guidelines

What I suggest for the future

Stefan Thomas could give me FTP access (no need to give me access to the domain name).
I could take care to welcome future translations.
And I could take care of other periodic updates, such as Bitcoin version and else..

This would allow Stefan to delegate more, while still being in control of weusecoins.
No change in the meaning of texts would be done, unless Stefan want to delegate this part also.

Leave your comments

Please let me know what you think about this work. Is it what we want?

Initially, I would have preferred some JSON also. But the reality is that the HTML structure, the resources, the fonts, the pictures, the dialogs, the css. Every of these categories might need some differences between each language. And I think we need to be prepared so that if one translator is not be available in the future, so we should be able to update other languages without hassle.

So I sticked to plain static and fast HTML. Which is, I believe, easy enough to maintain for this use.

[Stefan Thomas]

Hey Saïvann,

Looks fantastic, amazing work! Ok, let's start integrating this.

Here is a quick checklist on what we need to take care of:

- We need to make sure we set up redirects for all old URLs so we don't break any existing links.
- I set up a Github org at github.com/weusecoins and added you as an owner. The repo is now at https://github.com/weusecoins/weusecoins
- I'll set you up with FTP access.
- How do we keep the translated versions up-to-date?

Any other input and thoughts would very welcome! If you're reading this, give us your opinion!

Cheers,

Stefan

[jonwaller]

I agree about sticking to the HTML for now.

Here's my code for the japanese site, let's merge it into the weusecoins repo:
https://github.com/jonwaller/weusecoinsjp-website

Here's my code from the original site: (Thank you wget)
https://github.com/jonwaller/weusecoins-website


Blockgenesis: It sounds like your image to text updates would be good for the jp site too. Let's discuss.

Stefan: I can help out with other languages too. Can I have Github/FTP access?


> No change in the meaning of texts would be done, unless Stefan want to delegate this part also.
For the JP site, I changed some text for things that didn't make sense any more and removed some dead links.
I think we should be intelligent and keep things current if possible.

In fact, depending on your country, you may not be able to use some exchanges, so the content may differ depending on the site language.


To keep things up to date, a well placed "Have an improvement to this site? Contact info@---" (in the page's language) might do the trick.

[blockgenesis]

We need to make sure we set up redirects for all old URLs so we don't break any existing links.

Done, good point.

- How do we keep the translated versions up-to-date?

I was thinking that we could simply call for translations on the forum after important changes in the english version. Perhaps we can also create a CONTRIBUTORS file so that existing translators can be contacted easier at need. However if one language is not up-to-date, I think its far less an issue than not having a translation at all. Changing Bitcoin version can be done without the need for a translator.

BTW, if you can drop some original graphics and fonts (FOR MERCHANTS, Download button, etc) on the FTP (with layers or without texts). I can dig the stuff that would make the translations of pictures easier, put that on git and update the README.

[blockgenesis]

Here's my code for the japanese site, let's merge it into the weusecoins repo:
https://github.com/jonwaller/weusecoinsjp-website

Great! Can you prepare a pull request? If you don't have time, let me know and I will take care of it.
The ISO 639 for your language is ja, so your work can go in the "ja" folder.
The top-right language menu needs to be added to all of your pages and needs to be updated in en and fr weusecoins
Also you might have to make sure that all links are relatives so that they work correctly with the ja/ prefix
You can also see the README in case I forget something
https://github.com/weusecoins/weusecoins/blob/master/README

Blockgenesis: It sounds like your image to text updates would be good for the jp site too. Let's discuss.

I was able to remove all hardcoded texts for the menu (half of all hardcoded images, you can copy the CSS and it will also work for yours)
And I think we could also apply this logic to the download buttons and perhaps the walletget image.
However, a few pictures will still need to contain texts.

No change in the meaning of texts would be done, unless Stefan want to delegate this part also.
For the JP site, I changed some text for things that didn't make sense any more and removed some dead links.
I think we should be intelligent and keep things current if possible.

I agree. I also say in the README "This should not prevent you to add unique things for some languages". The README can be updated if we find a clearer way to explain this. I only think we need to put some guideline so that translators creates accurate content that is relevant to the english version. But for sure, I also added french Bitcoin websites to the fr version as well, and I think it should be encouraged while always being synced with the officiel english version.

[jonwaller]

If you've got time, it would be very helpful if you could do the merge. Maybe I'll have some time at the weekend.

BTW: For the language bar, Japanese should be 日本語, not 日本人, as it's currently written.

Thanks!

[blockgenesis]

If you've got time, it would be very helpful if you could do the merge. Maybe I'll have some time at the weekend.

BTW: For the language bar, Japanese should be 日本語, not 日本人, as it's currently written.

Thanks!

I'll do it probably in a few hours. If possible, I'd like you to review the result when it will be done to make sure everything is ok.

Thanks, I was confident that you would find a mistake in the demo and give me the correct answer :-)

Once the website is online, you could redirect the traffic of weusecoins.jp to weusecoins.com/ja

[blockgenesis]

jonwaller : Your japanese version has been merged. Thanks!

Now a few questions for you :

Asian characters are replaced by squares in Internet Explorer without Asian characters installed, which is a bit ugly. If we show "Japanese" instead of "日本語" in the language bar, is it obvious for japanese people?

Can you translate "Bitcoin wallets are free" for the main page? http://174.142.20.145/ja/

Your email is still used instead of info@weusecoins.com, do you want to keep it like that?

[jonwaller]

Great!

> IE
I think Japanese people would miss it if it were written in English. I think we should stick to the Japanese.
If you really mind, we could embed an IE webfont to make sure everyone can see the text.

> "Bitcoin wallets are free"
ビットコインウォレットは無料！

> Mail address
I think it would be better if mails in Japanese go to someone who can speak it. Having said that, I've never had an email to that address.
Keep it as .jp for now, I think.

[jonwaller]

I've sent a pull request.

[blockgenesis]

> IE
I think Japanese people would miss it if it were written in English. I think we should stick to the Japanese.
If you really mind, we could embed an IE webfont to make sure everyone can see the text.

Ok, putting that to a low priority-list. It does not affect IE9, only IE8/IE7

I've sent a pull request.

Looks good, merged, thanks!

[blockgenesis]

So we now have English / French / Japanese, great start!

Before I call for translations in local forums, I am waiting to see if Stefan has the fonts and graphics that are required to translate the last pictures. Otherwise I will search for good replacement fonts.

Any comment on the project is appreciated. And if you want to translate weusecoins in your language, your work is welcome!

[blockgenesis]

Concerning the translation of bitcoin.org, I did much more. Here is the resulting work in progress :
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=148712.0

[blockgenesis]

We now have a deutsch version, thanks to nerzahd! http://174.142.20.145/de/

[rudrigorc2]

portuguese is coming in the next hour or so.

Id like to translate the text in pictures too, can anyone send me the original image files, or at least confirm which font those files use?

edit: my email rudrigorc2@gmail.com

[fr33d0miz3r]

[blockgenesis]

portuguese is coming in the next hour or so.

Id like to translate the text in pictures too, can anyone send me the original image files, or at least confirm which font those files use?

edit: my email rudrigorc2@gmail.com

Thanks!!

I'm waiting for Stefan on this. Maybe it will be easier to update this later if we get the material.

[blockgenesis]

I think that weusecoins and bitcoin.org are now ready to call for translations.

Here is the thread : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=159129.0