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otw_news2008-01-25 08:30 pm
ciderpress.livejournal.com) wrote in otw_news2008-01-25 08:30 pm
Entry tags:
Upcoming events: International Outreach
Last week's anti-fanfic bingo voting had a fantastic turn out. If you didn't have the chance last week, please swing by to check out the questions and answers and tell us which ones are your favourites.
*
There has been a great deal of discussion during and after our "Why OTW?" week, not only about OTW, but also about what it is to identify as a fan, what fandom means to different people and how individual fans and groups shape their own fannish experiences.
It's evident from what we've read that there have been some misconceptions about what our org is and what we hope to do. We apologise if we have been unclear about some of the concepts and policies, and we hope you will understand that we are still in the process of setting up policies and honing language. We don't have all the final, polished answers yet and we need time, hard work and your help to do that. In fact, our content policy will be up for discussion and feedback in a fandom-wide setting before we set our policies in stone.
This week, we have been discussing and working on plain language FAQs which address some of the concerns and rumours making the rounds. For example, the rumour that we will ban men from using the archive and other org services -- not only is that rumour completely untrue (and on the internet, how would we even know if you're a man?), we'd like to remind everyone that we have men among the staffers at OTW. We welcome all fans, regardless of gender, race and age, who wish to use the archive and wiki or need advice. (Plus, we don't eat babies, no matter how much ketchup there is and how tasty they look.)
Keep a look out for those FAQs as well as some interviews with some of the board members in the next few weeks!
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Finally, we need your help. We're kicking off our outreach campaign this March. One of our outreach goals is to make the archive and website accessible to a wide population. The archive is being built so that fanfiction in any language can be uploaded and read.
We know that there are a huge number of fandoms across the world: German fandoms, Spanish fandoms, Japanese fandoms, Korean fandoms etc... all kinds of different language fandoms. If you are currently in fandoms that are conducted in a language other than English or have been in these fandoms, we would appreciate your advice and your experience! We want to know about archiving, we want to know about legal situations in different countries, we want to know about how large the fandoms are, and what kind of fandoms there are.
Currently, we would like to start off by translating the OTW website into different languages so that people who speak various native languages can find out about us. We've also realised that organising chats in different time zones can be tricky. We're planning to open some discussion posts conducted in different languages where various native speakers of those languages can ask questions more easily.
We need volunteers who can give us a hand with international outreach. If you are interested, please read the Volunteers post following this post for more info.
ETA: changed "this spring" to "this March". My gravest apologies, Southern Hemisphere.
*
There has been a great deal of discussion during and after our "Why OTW?" week, not only about OTW, but also about what it is to identify as a fan, what fandom means to different people and how individual fans and groups shape their own fannish experiences.
It's evident from what we've read that there have been some misconceptions about what our org is and what we hope to do. We apologise if we have been unclear about some of the concepts and policies, and we hope you will understand that we are still in the process of setting up policies and honing language. We don't have all the final, polished answers yet and we need time, hard work and your help to do that. In fact, our content policy will be up for discussion and feedback in a fandom-wide setting before we set our policies in stone.
This week, we have been discussing and working on plain language FAQs which address some of the concerns and rumours making the rounds. For example, the rumour that we will ban men from using the archive and other org services -- not only is that rumour completely untrue (and on the internet, how would we even know if you're a man?), we'd like to remind everyone that we have men among the staffers at OTW. We welcome all fans, regardless of gender, race and age, who wish to use the archive and wiki or need advice. (Plus, we don't eat babies, no matter how much ketchup there is and how tasty they look.)
Keep a look out for those FAQs as well as some interviews with some of the board members in the next few weeks!
*
Finally, we need your help. We're kicking off our outreach campaign this March. One of our outreach goals is to make the archive and website accessible to a wide population. The archive is being built so that fanfiction in any language can be uploaded and read.
We know that there are a huge number of fandoms across the world: German fandoms, Spanish fandoms, Japanese fandoms, Korean fandoms etc... all kinds of different language fandoms. If you are currently in fandoms that are conducted in a language other than English or have been in these fandoms, we would appreciate your advice and your experience! We want to know about archiving, we want to know about legal situations in different countries, we want to know about how large the fandoms are, and what kind of fandoms there are.
Currently, we would like to start off by translating the OTW website into different languages so that people who speak various native languages can find out about us. We've also realised that organising chats in different time zones can be tricky. We're planning to open some discussion posts conducted in different languages where various native speakers of those languages can ask questions more easily.
We need volunteers who can give us a hand with international outreach. If you are interested, please read the Volunteers post following this post for more info.
ETA: changed "this spring" to "this March". My gravest apologies, Southern Hemisphere.
no subject
One of the issues that can crop up when more than one translator is working on the same text is that consistency is lost - particularly when there's more than one acceptable translation for a term, and translator 1 opts for translation A and translator 2 for translation B. Ideally, translators would communicate during the translation process to agree on which translation is best. Or if there are too many translators in a language for that to be practical, what we sometimes do at my work is create a small style guide - just a little list of terms and the standard translations we are going to apply across the board. If the translators don't communicate and sort out that sort of thing during the translation process, someone generally needs to go through and harmonise things afterwards. (Though having someone check over a translation is always a good thing - typos/misunderstanding/lack of inspiration happen to us all!)
One thing we always insist on at my workplace is to have a specified person to contact in case of questions. We tend to find that there's always something that's not 100% clear to a non-native speaker, regardless of how well-written the text is. And sometimes additional information is needed so the translator can be sure they're translating something correctly - I could imagine that being the case for legal terms, for instance, or the details of the non-profit status process. It might be a good idea to designate someone on the committee as the contact person for the translators - and to actively encourage the translators to get in touch with them if there's something they're not sure about or need more information on. A lot of new translators tend to be a bit reluctant to do that, in my experience, because they see it as giving up or a sign of ignorance or something, when really it's perfectly normal and in everyone's best interests.
Another issue that might be best considered by the committee is whether to insist on / actively encourage gender-neutral phrasing. In a lot of languages that's far more difficult than in English, or can get really unwieldy. You might still want to encourage people to go for a gender-neutral form where there is one available, though, for instance - a lot of novice translators lose sight of the issue entirely unless they are reminded of it.
Anyway, those are just a few points I thought I'd raise - they are probably all fairly obvious, but just in case they might be helpful. If there is anything I can do to help on the translation front, please do let me know!