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Credits go to Arvidsson, anonymous, Arthur Kalliokoski, bamccaig, Crazy Photon, Evert, Fishcake, FMC, gnolam, Goalie Ca, GullRaDriel, Jakub Wasilewski, Johan Halmén, Jonatan Hedborg, kenmasters1976, lambik, Neil Black, Oscar Giner, Slartibartfast, type568, Vanneto, and weapon_S for helping out!
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Allegro.cc Translator Experiment 2010
gnolam
Member #2,030
March 2002
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We still need jhuuskon

Or Inphernic. Or ixilom.

--
Move to the Democratic People's Republic of Vivendi Universal (formerly known as Sweden) - officially democracy- and privacy-free since 2008-06-18!

bamccaig
Member #7,536
July 2006
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Dario ff
Member #10,065
August 2008
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bamccaig said:

Inphernic would fuck it all up. You might as well recruit Yves.

Why doubt in Inphernic? Like if you were Mr. Responsibility.

Why don't you join us? Here's your first sentence:

"Piracy isn't theft."

EDIT: Ok, since there's a big amount of languages that need 1 more translator, and the people that could participate don't seem to be online now, I'll push the entries date 1 more day. The problem is we are on 10 translations again, since I had to drop out one of the links in the PM chain.

Hopefully, some of the people I have in mind will log in tomorrow. Tomorrow nearing the night, no matter how much people we have, we'll start the translations.

TranslatorHack 2010, a human translation chain in a.cc.
My games: [GiftCraft] - [Blocky Rhythm[SH2011]] - [Elven Revolution] - [Dune Smasher!]

Johan Halmén
Member #1,550
September 2001

Just to be sure you got it right, I can do
English <=> Swedish
English <=> Finnish
Finnish <=> Swedish

I think I could add
German => English
German => Swedish
German => Finnish

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Years of thorough research have revealed that the red "x" that closes a window, really isn't red, but white on red background.

Years of thorough research have revealed that what people find beautiful about the Mandelbrot set is not the set itself, but all the rest.

bamccaig
Member #7,536
July 2006
avatar

Dario ff said:

Why doubt in Inphernic?

In the past I have known Inphernic to be quite the troll. He's (and I say "he" loosely!) the only member whom I have CSS to block; and not his posts, but his goddamn avatar!!!1 >:( That is one sick minded fuck...

Dario ff said:

Why don't you join us?

This. ???

If by "us" you mean "intellectual property pirates" then search the forums. I've met no good reason to "pirate" "intellectual property". I find it quite weak.

anonymous
Member #8025
November 2006

Dario ff said:

Why don't you join us? Here's your first sentence

"Piracy is not theft."

...54 translations later we get:

"Software piracy is theft."

type568
Member #8,381
March 2007
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anonymous said:

...54 translations later we get:

Nice one.

However, some additional idea(not sure how is it currently implemented to be honest, oh well):

I think it would be nice, if we wouldn't be translating just one paragraph, but a set of phrases(or whatever, but not too long), which would be as a list and unrelated to each other.

Aka:
Not:
Software piracy is not theft because after copying an original content it isn't lost.

But more like:

1. Software piracy is not theft.
2. I love eating bananas.

It's of course to be something longer, but.. I hope you get the point.

P.S.
It looks like I'm selected for Hebrew.. If so, I'd highly prefer to translate Hebrew => English, and not the opposite as I don't have Hebrew on my keyboard.

anonymous
Member #8025
November 2006

type568 said:

I think it would be nice, if we wouldn't be translating just one paragraph, but a set of phrases(or whatever, but not too long), which would be as a list and unrelated to each other.

What makes translating hard is that things only make sense with sufficient context. A single sentence (and definitely single phrases) may not carry enough context to determine its meaning precisely. But a whole paragraph already might.

Machine translation on the other hand works mechanically only with words and phrases and perhaps some syntactic constructs.

GullRaDriel
Member #3,861
September 2003
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I've just received your pm.

I join in the French <= => English part (please notice the double <= => ;-) )

"Code is like shit - it only smells if it is not yours"
Allegro Wiki, full of examples and articles !!

weapon_S
Member #7,859
October 2006
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The lack of context is what makes it interesting: how bad compared to a computer translator will we do? Dario, you could do the initial translation to Spanish, couldn't you? I assume you have made a roster and we will notice when things get started.

Dario ff
Member #10,065
August 2008
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Yay for me hunting people down.

We got Gully onboard doing French, and jhuuskon has confirmed for doing Finnish.

bamccaig said:

This. ???

If by "us" you mean "intellectual property pirates" then search the forums. I've met no good reason to "pirate" "intellectual property". I find it quite weak.

Oh come on, it's obvious I was teasing you to translate a sentence that goes against your morality. :P (It's confirmed, your sense of humour is beyond human comprehension)

anonymous said:

"Software piracy is theft."

Good one. ;D

type568 said:

I think it would be nice, if we wouldn't be translating just one paragraph, but a set of phrases(or whatever, but not too long), which would be as a list and unrelated to each other.

I didn't make an statement in the first post, but we decided it'll be 5 independent sentences, varying from a simple phrase, to something much more complicated. That way, I want to see which aspects of a sentence have a bad influence when doing translations.

Quote:

It looks like I'm selected for Hebrew.. If so, I'd highly prefer to translate Hebrew => English, and not the opposite as I don't have Hebrew on my keyboard.

Good call, I had you for doing English --> Hebrew. I already switched your place with Slartibartfast. Now you'll be translating from him to English.

weapon_S said:

Dario, you could do the initial translation to Spanish, couldn't you?

You're right. I guess I wouldn't be biased at all. And that way, I don't have to leave Crazy Photon out. That increases the roster to 16 translators!

There's only then 3 people that need another translator:

  • Jakub Wasilewski(Polish)

  • FMC(Italian)

  • Fishcake(Malay)

Or they'll have to be left out. :-/

Quote:

I assume you have made a roster and we will notice when things get started.

Yep, I already have the PM chain organized. All of you will receive a PM first explaining who should send you the sentences and in what language, to what language you must translate, and your recipient. Then, I'll start the chain when the time arrives. Probably this night or tomorrow.

TranslatorHack 2010, a human translation chain in a.cc.
My games: [GiftCraft] - [Blocky Rhythm[SH2011]] - [Elven Revolution] - [Dune Smasher!]

Jonatan Hedborg
Member #4,886
July 2004
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Swedish <-> English here

Dario ff
Member #10,065
August 2008
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Thanks Jonatan. If I find another swedish translator, I'll put you in the chain too.

TranslatorHack 2010, a human translation chain in a.cc.
My games: [GiftCraft] - [Blocky Rhythm[SH2011]] - [Elven Revolution] - [Dune Smasher!]

type568
Member #8,381
March 2007
avatar

You're doing all the work anyways, so perhaps it's not nice.. But anyways:
Perhaps some magic with skipping some English, would let no one be out?

& btw, will we get all the chain as a forum post in the very end?:D
I guess that would really be an interesting addition..

Dario ff
Member #10,065
August 2008
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type568 said:

You're doing all the work anyways, so perhaps it's not nice

It isn't really much effort at all. I'm merely coordinating the list. Translating 5 sentences isn't hard.

Quote:

Perhaps some magic with skipping some English, would let no one be out

Even if I skipped some English parts, I would still need two people that can translate the same language. The three participants I listed don't have any chance to participate if there's no one else that can translate their language. I think Fishcake would have to be left out specially, since Malay isn't a widely known language. I'm sorry for that, maybe I'll look a way to compensate the ones who're left out.

Another solution would be to use Google Translator for the languages that don't have 1 more translator, but that would go against the original rules!

Quote:

btw, will we get all the chain as a forum post in the very end

Yes. Maybe in a new thread so anyone can see and discuss the results. Each of the sentences will be shown first as the initial and final result, and the whole chain in detail to see where they changed.

TranslatorHack 2010, a human translation chain in a.cc.
My games: [GiftCraft] - [Blocky Rhythm[SH2011]] - [Elven Revolution] - [Dune Smasher!]

type568
Member #8,381
March 2007
avatar

Dario ff said:

Another solution would be to use Google Translator for the languages that don't have 1 more translator, but that would go against the original rules!

Nope, nonsense.. For obvious reasons.

Quote:

Yes. Maybe in a new thread so anyone can see and discuss the results. Each of the sentences will be shown first as the initial and final result, and the whole chain in detail to see where they changed.

Woot!

P.S:

Piracy is not theft.
Пиратствo этo не вoрoвствo. => Poor structuring but correct.
Piracy is not theft. (no idea if he used his memory, or whatsoever, but..)

.....

Same with Hebrew.

& same with Eng=>Rus=>Heb=>Eng

But his grammar sux. (translate.google.com)

Edit:
So maybe we can use translate.google.com, but.. I dunno how right will it translate..

Append:
No, it's dangerous.
"There is no cow level." translates in to Russian nonsense, that much nonsense that I've literally no idea what does it mean.

Append1:
Though who doesn't risk, doesn't drink champagne..

I vote for everyone in, and google translator for those without a pair.

Dario ff
Member #10,065
August 2008
avatar

type568 said:

I vote for everyone in, and google translator for those without a pair.

No, I'll take back the idea. It'd tamper the results. The experiment would be in vain.

I'm sorry if some people will be left out.

EDIT: BTW, the Bad translator:
"Piracy is not theft"

"Theft is theft."

TranslatorHack 2010, a human translation chain in a.cc.
My games: [GiftCraft] - [Blocky Rhythm[SH2011]] - [Elven Revolution] - [Dune Smasher!]

kenmasters1976
Member #8,794
July 2007

No Google translator. The idea is to see how bad human translators do in comparison with it, in the first place.

Jonatan Hedborg
Member #4,886
July 2004
avatar

Dario ff said:

Thanks Jonatan. If I find another swedish translator, I'll put you in the chain too.

gnolam said:

Put me down for Swedish <-> English then.

Dario ff
Member #10,065
August 2008
avatar

Arvidsson said:

Swedish <--> English

TranslatorHack 2010, a human translation chain in a.cc.
My games: [GiftCraft] - [Blocky Rhythm[SH2011]] - [Elven Revolution] - [Dune Smasher!]

Johan Halmén
Member #1,550
September 2001

Dario fortissimo, if you do this properly and document it very well, it might have some real scientific value. I bet some linguistics and maybe sociologists would be very interested in the results. Everybody is talking about social networks in education nowadays and a.cc is clearly a social network with a rather high coherency. a.cc might even hit the headlines somewhere.

I hope all participants will obey the rules. No cheating, no asking of what others did, no no-noes at all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Years of thorough research have revealed that the red "x" that closes a window, really isn't red, but white on red background.

Years of thorough research have revealed that what people find beautiful about the Mandelbrot set is not the set itself, but all the rest.

Dario ff
Member #10,065
August 2008
avatar

That's why I'll insist that each of the translators send me the sentences too. If I spot something weird going on(One of the participants sends me a confirmation when the last one hasn't), I'll decide in redoing the experiment or solving it if it's possible.

And I'm also wondering if I should make the list of the PM chain public. Maybe it'd be good for organization, but participants shouldn't know in what position they are or who to ask the past iterations of the sentences.

I'm also amazed that we got so much people involved! This will surely have really interesting results. Thanks to everyone.

We're at 16 translators now. I'll try to send all the PMs tonight(which would be in 6 hours here). Then when that's done, I'll make my translation and send to the next one. Hopefully, all goes along smoothly.

If we can get 4 more translators(or 2, for Italian or Polish), that'd make a much nicer number.

TranslatorHack 2010, a human translation chain in a.cc.
My games: [GiftCraft] - [Blocky Rhythm[SH2011]] - [Elven Revolution] - [Dune Smasher!]

Neil Black
Member #7,867
October 2006
avatar

if you do this properly and document it very well, it might have some real scientific value.

Which would be awesome. Now I wish I knew a second language so I could participate.

Dario ff
Member #10,065
August 2008
avatar

1 hour remaining for entries. I have tested the PM chain, made all the messages(took me a while to write them), and everything seems to work fine.

Yet, I'm asking urgently for any non-participants to do me a little favour. I have 5 sentences, but I don't really know if they meet the standards of perfect, clean English. So if any of you English speakers could confirm if they're formed well, drop me a PM.

Now I wish I knew a second language so I could participate.

Maybe we can put you in the credits like a witness and supporter of the idea:
"I was there while it all happened! I can confirm it, it was great!" - Neil Black.

TranslatorHack 2010, a human translation chain in a.cc.
My games: [GiftCraft] - [Blocky Rhythm[SH2011]] - [Elven Revolution] - [Dune Smasher!]

Neil Black
Member #7,867
October 2006
avatar

Dario ff said:

Maybe we can put you in the credits like a witness and supporter of the idea

But I didn't really do anything. However:

Quote:

I have 5 sentences, but I don't really know if they meet the standards of perfect, clean English. So if any of you English speakers could confirm if they're formed well, drop me a PM.

That's something I can do.



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