GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 757792
Unfreeze inactive translations automatically after a 1-year timeout or on minor version update?
Last modified: 2015-11-09 04:07:02 UTC
Some translations, like [GTK+ UI master in zh_CN] has been reserved for a long time, sometimes with multiple major upstream version bumps (e.g. GTK+ 3.14 -> 3.20.) This (especially for master branches) blocks new collaborations from coming in, and it looks like a good idea to clean them up. I have two possible proposals for such automatic unlocking: 1. Unlock a master translation after 1 year of inactivity. The actual time may be determined by something like (mean release cycle + 1 month). 2. Unlock a master translation after a minor update release. Here minor update release is defined as a bump in major or minor number in a given git tag version `major.minor.patch`. [GTK+ UI master in zh_CN]:https://l10n.gnome.org/vertimus/gtk+/master/po/zh_CN // worse story: the zh_CN team coord is in the inactive members list
Let's add a more neutral solution B. An alternative solution might be archiving all the states of master to the corresponding frozen version branch, like GTK-master -> GTK-3-14 when 3-16 comes out.
I'm very reluctant to do any automatic unlocking here. I know that in some teams for example, locking (reserve) a translation is a mean to attribute some modules to the same person over time. Even if it's not the recommended use case, we should respect it. I think that's the coordinator's role to arbitrate such issues. So in your specific case, if the coordinator is inactive, you should write to the gnome-i18n mailing list (with coordinator CC'd) asking for a coordinator change. Feel free to discuss the case on the mailing list, and reopen if you find some consensus about a technical proposal to solve this issue.
I think solution B may be still worth considering, possibly as an optional setting adjustable by the coordinator. I will try to figure out a nice recommendation for a new coordinator.
Mails sent to gnome-i18n list. * zh_CN team problem: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-i18n/2015-November/msg00002.html * technical solution: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-i18n/2015-November/msg00005.html