Posting a translation of another member's post.

[Jet Cash]

One of the reasons that I agreed to add a Spanish language section to the Fit to Talk project, was to enable me to read some of the posts from the Spanish language board here. I gather that there are some really good threads and posts there, but I don't speak Spanish, so they are lost to me.

Obviously there is no problem if the original poster is bilingual, but what happens if a member translates and posts another member's posting. There is an obvious issue of plagiarism. What is the best way to avoid this accusation? My feeling is that the translator should state that it is a translation, and give credit to the creator of the post. He should also provide a link to the natural language post. Would this be an acceptable practice, or can somebody suggest a better option. Also, I believe that the translator should obtain the permission of the OP before using his work.

I appreciate that this suggestion could lead to a flood of low value translation posts, and I hope that anyone considering posting translations will be responsible, and only use exceptional posts for translation. Obviously if this concept is abused, it will be banned, and I think that will be a  loss to all of us.

[funsponge]

Should at the very least have a link to the original non translated source. I wouldn't punish those who are translating without the permission of the op as long as they provide a source. It's courtesy to ask permission though so should be encouraged. 

[Jet Cash]

Another consideration that I thought of after I had started this thread, is who should get the merit if the original post is really good. I believe that the originl ntive language poster should get the reward, but should the trnsltor get something for finding the post and translating it?

[mu_enrico]

One of the reasons that I agreed to add a Spanish language section to the Fit to Talk project, was to enable me to read some of the posts from the Spanish language board here. I gather that there are some really good threads and posts there, but I don't speak Spanish, so they are lost to me.
Obviously there is no problem if the original poster is bilingual, but what happens if a member translates and posts another member's posting. There is an obvious issue of plagiarism. What is the best way to avoid this accusation? My feeling is that the translator should state that it is a translation, and give credit to the creator of the post. He should also provide a link to the natural language post. Would this be an acceptable practice, or can somebody suggest a better option. Also, I believe that the translator should obtain the permission of the OP before using his work.
I appreciate that this suggestion could lead to a flood of low value translation posts, and I hope that anyone considering posting translations will be responsible, and only use exceptional posts for translation. Obviously if this concept is abused, it will be banned, and I think that will be a  loss to all of us.

Based on my experience, if article wasn't stated as CC0 or public domain it has copyright nature so anyone must ask permission before modify, copy, or translate. The problem is that sometimes "smart" translator will be able to rephrase the original article so that it become a brand new local article or may I say require peer review to really examine that article.
To overcome this issue some forum stated CC0 for all its contents, so anyone can use it freely.
Others stated CC-BY to indicate he/she must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. So, it depends on forum's license.

Anyway, this is a difficult issue and requires willingness of both party to cooperate, especially the translator one. The most viable one is to do peer review, in this case moderator can punish plagiarists.

Another consideration that I thought of after I had started this thread, is who should get the merit if the original post is really good. I believe that the originl ntive language poster should get the reward, but should the trnsltor get something for finding the post and translating it?

Usually both got reward (in publishing case) in term of royalty split. In some case, the translated one give better result, many books got famous overseas (meanwhile not so lucky in its home country).

Maybe it can be somewhat tuned into merit system.

[funsponge]

 Both should get a reward it's up to you whether you give more to the original poster or not. but translating also requires effort and should be considered a high quality post as long as it's translated well. It's probably better if the native language of the translated text be responsible for rewarding merits. You could check the translated text against google to make sure that it hasn't just been translated from there.

[shahzadafzal]

I appreciate that this suggestion could lead to a flood of low value translation posts, and I hope that anyone considering posting translations will be responsible, and only use exceptional posts for translation. Obviously if this concept is abused, it will be banned, and I think that will be a  loss to all of us.

Translating the post and quoting the original one should be ok and it should be acceptable to the original author also, as long as the translation is exactly the same. Of course all the credit goes to the original author. But translator can be appreciated for putting efforts in translating and bringing some thing interesting or valuable to the local community.

Now regarding the copyrights claims, if proper reference is provided then there should not be any copyright concern. For example if I take a screenshot of any post from this forum with the author clearly visible and put it on twitter with translation into my native language. I'm not breaking any rule here, since it was posted on the public domain, I did not steal the content and I'm publishing exactly what was posted. Same can be applied to translated posts with original post quoted inside.

[Jet Cash]

I've started a thread in the Ivory Tower to see if I can get some merits over to the local boards. Here is the link to the thread -
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4034912.0

Let me know if you think the concept need a bit of tuning.

[DdmrDdmr]

I’ve had a few requests for permission to translate some of my stats into other local languages, be it totally or partially. I believe it is good in order to spread knowledge around other areas and so had no problem at all. They sent me a pm in order to get my permission ,so I was good to go with that.

Nevertheless, on other people’s translations of the kind I saw that they included a reference to the OP and author at the top of the post, and suggested that it would be a good way of avoiding any possible conflicts (I.e. being a used of plagiarism).

[Jet Cash]

As a courtesy, I sent a pm to Gothorum to tell him that I had used one of his posts, and I'm grateful for the supportive reply that I received from him.

It seems that the best approach to take with this translation project is to take the following steps.

- Contact the original poster, and ask permission.
- Include a link to the original post at the start of the translation.
-  Make sure that you give the creator of the original post a credit. This could be at the start or the end of the translation post.

[Jet Cash]

Another possible plagiarism alert has popped up with this project, and I thought I had better mention it here.
I've added a pre-posting comment board to the Spanish Main on Fit to Talk. The idea is that a translator can run his work past the members there for comment before posting on Bitcoin Talk. I believe that this could improve the quality of the post on Bitcoin Talk, and it would also give the original poster a chance to comment on the translation. This could lead to a duplicate thread or post on both Bitcoin Talk and Fit to Talk. It will be easy to monitor, as the poster's name should be the same in both cases.

Do you think that the Fit to Talk thread should be deleted before submitting it to Bitcoin Talk, or would it be sufficient to restrict viewing to FtT members only. The difficulty with restricting viewing is that the OP may not be a member, and thus would not be able to see the translation.

[seoincorporation]

Do you think that the Fit to Talk thread should be deleted before submitting it to Bitcoin Talk, or would it be sufficient to restrict viewing to FtT members only. The difficulty with restricting viewing is that the OP may not be a member, and thus would not be able to see the translation.

I think it should be explained when you post the translation. I mean: if the translation is coming from the FittoTalk project, then you can write a short introduction explaining the whole process this text has lived in order to make the people understand this is a project in which more people are involved and, also, the product of cooperation.
In addition, of course, sending a PM to the original poster I believe to be obligatory. Maybe he/she is not interested in being translated.

So, in short: just explaining the whole process behind the translation and the "whys" behind them should be more than enough. This is a great initiative.