Please see the opportunity, not the threat

That specific edit was quite fine (fixing such a tiny typo would, indeed, be just a triviality, and explaining the correct usage to a newbie would be simple). But see for instance this “I don’t know what ‘wiki set’ means, so I’ll ignore one word and use just ‘wiki’ instead”. How do you explain that to a newbie? “Don’t translate what you don’t understand and don’t just wildly guess”? Is it really necessary to explain such obvious rules? Huge red warning “This message uses technical terminology. Do not translate it, if you are unsure of the meaning this message has in context.” does not suffice, I guess?

My main problem with translation rallies are the completely wrong incentives it generates. They are focused on bulk quantity. Some languages might need a big push in raw quantity of newly translated messages, I guess. But newcomers leaping to mass-translate API messages as quickly as they can, what good is that? If translation rallies would be more focused (e.g. “we need to translate this new extension”, “this language needs more translators” etc.), more quality-minded (e.g. only proofread translations count), that could help, I believe. Or, at least, exclude API translation from the rally (IMHO, it would be better to somehow separate API in Translate completely, I believe). (Currently, the translation rally even guides newbies to translate API messages.)

I admit enlarging the translator pool is a good motive, but I doubt translation rallies work in that regard. Do we have statistics on past rally winners and their work here after a rally ended? How large percentage stayed to do (unpaid) translations?

People read badly is a scientifically provent fact, Niklas pointed out to me last week. The obvious, unfortunately, has to be explained explicitly more often than now. The end result will be a true collaborator. Yes, you have to be patient, yes it's not easy. I feel your pain. I dealt with it over the past 11 years that I've been doing translations. I'm also happy that (most) people treated me with understanding for my mistakes in my early years, because I don't know if I'd become the expert I am now otherwise.

If you get frustrated, please do feel free to vent to me by e-mail or on-wiki, but preferably on IRC in #mediawiki-i18n, because that's the place where people are available almost 24 hours a day to help you and guide you towards doing the right thing. Cheers!

Some stick around after a rally, most people don't. Still, something is better than nothing. Not doing this, would mean we miss out on more than 20.000 translations.

Hi, I am a contributor to the Czech translation and I am happy to see someone pointing out Mormegil's behavior towards other translators.

While his contributions are surely remarkable, his attitude towards others can often come across as arrogant and I believe can be putting off people from contributing (at least speaking from my own experience).

You can see from a few recent examples that his comments tend to be vulgar if he disapproves of a translation without providing any explanation or helpful feedback (see for example [1], [2] or [3]). One of my favourites is this one [4] - his comment says "Again Cvanca", while I made a contribution he didn't revert nor delete - the referred issue he corrected was made way before my edit.

I think such behavior is harming the community and may be putting off newcomers and I personaly find this means of expression disrespectful. We all make mistakes and we all learn, if he is more experienced he should rather guide others or share his knowledge, because complaining and insulting people is something anyone can do.

@Siebrand: Thank you for starting this thread. If you have any further pointers how to improve the situation and make contributors feel more welcome, please share your thoughts.

But share them elsewhere, please, I’d rather not have my talkpage bombarded with that.

(One of my favorites is [1]. And “didn’t revert”? ORLY?)

I think that patently wrong translations are worse than no translation at all. (When the user sees an untranslated English message, he/she might understand it, ask someone, or put it into Google Translate. When the message is completely wrong, he/she is mislead without hope.)

Hi Mormegil,

I think I didn't manage to convey the message, so I will try to explain what I wanted to express.

We are all intending to improve translations with this particular goal in mind and I believe that each one of us has something to offer. It is about learning from each other, sharing opinions and knowledge. Open source communities don't work on basis of a directive managerial style.

Assuming your goal is the same, I have decided to share a few points that might help you be better understood, because people often don't realize how their words and actions impact others, especially if English is not their mother tongue (e.g. please don't use "wtf", is considered highly offensive):

1. Assume people mean well, majority of us is doing it for fun, so let's keep the positive spirit - more in the Wikipedia behavioral guidelines.
2. Try to avoid some specific words, symbols, or their combinations, such as "phew" ("uf" in Czech), "wtf", or "ahem" ("ehm" in Czech), especially if it is the only comment you provide, and please stop using exclamation marks (also in combination with question marks). Instead try to start your comment with "Thank you for the edit, but I believe the correct form is ...", it will have better effect on the learning curve of other translators.
3. It is important to treat other contributors with respect, making them feel welcome so that they would stick around and get better, because you have once been a beginner yourself. In other words "nothing scares potentially valuable contributors away faster than hostility", quoted from Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers, see my previous point.
4. Treat people case by case, if you see a person has submitted a few hundred translations and made a mistake or two, it is not fair to accuse them of vandalism, because they may feel unwelcome and lose interest in contributing. Typical vandalism would be "adding irrelevant obscenities and crude humor to a page, illegitimately blanking pages, and inserting obvious nonsense into a page", quoted from Wikipedia:Vandalism. Also try to avoid the word "vandal" as "this word should not be used to refer to any contributor in good standing, or to any edits that might have been made in good faith", quoted from the same source.
5. Don't hesitate to share your knowledge and explain why some translations might be better than others, by for example sharing links to external sources or explaining unwritten standards of translating. You will be surprised to find out that many people actually want to get better and will likely listen to your advice and possibly come back to you if they are unsure in the future.

You can find more in the Wikipedia Etiquette, it could help keeping the atmosphere in the community friendlier and hopefully result in better translations as well as higher quantity.