User:Yatalu/WLB

Want to know what the Wikia Language Brigade is all about? You've come to the right place! Here, you can read about what we are and what our history is, as well as what we do and what you can help us with.

What's in a name?
The name, Wikia Language Brigade, is coined by Albugineous and consists of three parts,
 * Wikia – we work Wikia-wide: on our wiki, on your wiki, and everywhere else on Wikia.
 * Language – we translate and correct many existing languages; we cover more than 30 already!
 * Brigade – we are a group, a team: many hands make light work :)

This means we are a team of people who work Wikia-wide to help translate/correct wiki resources and articles in any language, for the improvement of the Wikia community.

In short, this is a voluntary project by our Brigadiers (project members), who translate and correct things on request for other users or wikis. Since this is a wiki, it is also a collaborative project: we can work together on big translations and correct each other's mistakes.

Short history
Yatalu, who has a (unhealthy?) liking for foreign wikis, got the idea to start a translation project on Wikia in late spring of 2013. She began working on its templates in an external sandbox on July 4th and moved them to Community Central the day after when a project name was found: "Wikia Language Brigade."

Thanks to blogging and other promotion, the number of people joining was high, with 8 members after only 24h. As the project crossed the 10 members mark the next day, the Language Brigade Wiki was also founded as a place to store rules and overview the project. Promotion through visiting chats and blogging and growth continued further.

In the last quarter of 2013, the WLB crossed the milestones of 100 "Brigadiers" and native speakers of 25 languages. Both WLB members and volunteers helped to blog in Russian (Ivaristal), German (TheMaven), Catalan (Piece enrik), Chinese (SammyLau), Polish (Pio387) and Italian (TheMaster001).

Requesting
You can request translations and language checks. The rules for both can be found on Request policy. Translations and language checks can happen either on individual basis, or on request pages. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages.

With individual requests, you just go to w:Template:WLB and match the source and goal language of your translation, or the language for your language check. This method may be faster, especially in the case of uncommon languages, but then the request has a chance of being refused. On the other hand, you also know what level your translator will have, which is convenient if you have high expectations.

Requesting on a non-individual basis happens on this wiki. There are two pages for this: Translate:Requests for translations and Correct:Requests for pages that need language checks. This method may be slower, since it depends on if our Brigadiers check those pages, unless the language is one with a lot of native speakers.

Joining
We can always use more members! Joining can be done in a couple of easy steps,
 * Put your name and info in w:Template:WLB.
 * How? Read up on the page Join.
 * Put yourself under every language you are able/willing to help with.
 * What's my level? See Babel.
 * If you want to, put one of our Templates in your profile.
 * Regularly check for requests!

Translating/correcting
When you are translating or correcting, remember that your language quality should be at its best: the better you translate/correct, the more it'll improve the community you are helping. Good work also puts not only you in high regards, but also the community you helped, the wiki(s) you represent, the WLB, and even entire Wikia. You may think this sounds too idealistic, but many a little makes a mickle, right?

A few tips for a good translation,
 * Don't accept requests you don't want: others might be more motivated to put effort in a good translation.
 * Grammar and content are more important than literal translations.
 * With intermediate level, it is better to split sentences up to avoid mistakes.
 * If you're unfamiliar with the topic, ask the requester about words you're not sure of.

Reviewing
You may feel like putting your opinion about the project or about the completion of an individual translation – whether you are happy with the results or not – on the page Testimonials. Anyone can review! From our own members to someone who never heard of us before today: the more, the better!

The rules for reviewing that can be found on Project:Review policy are rather logical: mention what you are reviewing, explain your positive/negative opinions, sign with your username. However, it never hurts to read these rules to be sure.

Recruiting
Want to let others know about this project? Feel free to do so! We always like extra members, but we also like extra requests – without things to do, we would become lazy.