Copy editing is go!

[rho]

Hot on the heels of introducing the site copy team, it's now time for me to introduce the copy editing team. Everyone, say hello to:

bohemianeditor
chasy_la
cheyinka
ivorygates
rainbow
ryan

Their job will be to go over all the text written by the site copy team and the userdoc team, and correct all the dumb typos we inevitably make. OK, all the dumb typos I inevitably make, and possibly one or two made by the rest of the team.

Copy editors, here's what I want you to be doing now:

I'm afraid you're going to be grappling with the translation system. I'm so very very sorry. There's a guide to it on the wiki that katieastrophe wrote for us, but here are the cliff notes:

* Go to http://www.dreamwidth.org/translate/edit.bml?lang=en_DW (I've given you the privs you need)
* In the top left frame, scroll down and select prf: no and upd: yes, then hit search.
* Select one of the pages in the bottom left frame to bring up a list of translation strings.
* In the list, select "edit" for one of the strings, then copy edit it, and select proofed.
* When you're done with the age, click save at the bottom.

In proof reading you should be checking for:

* typos
* spelling mistakes
* grammar and punctuation
* Manual of Style compliance
* correct use of terminology

(Please read through both of these thoroughly before you get started.)

If you see any problems with any of these, change them and mark the string as being proof read. If you proof read a string and see that it's fine as it is (hopefully most of them will be!) then mark it as proofed without making any changes. If you see anything that you think needs a more substantial rewrite, then don't update it yourself, but instead comment here letting me know which string you think needs rewriting, and what you think the problem is. We might revisit this if we end up with a lot that need substantial rewrites, but we'll go with this for now.

Above all, have fun with it, and don't be shy of contacting me if you have any questions.

Comments

[rainbow]

Is is acceptable to not do all of the entries on a given page? There are a few that are more complex than just something in the [[brackets]], and I don't know what the other bits mean * to be able to proof them.

* Things like

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a [[aopts]]>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

Is is acceptable to not do all of the entries on a given page? There are a few that are more complex than just something in the [[brackets]], and I don't know what the other bits mean * to be able to proof them.

* Things like <a [[aopts]]>log in</a>, for instance.

[rho]

Totally acceptable, yes.

[WARNING! Techie bit follows!]

In this case, the [[aopts]] will get replaced with something like href="http://www.dreamwidth.org/login.bml" so the whole thing will expand to give a full HTML link.

If you aren't comfortable with this, or with HTML, feel free to just leave any that you're unsure of.

[rainbow]

Thank you!

The Management

[ivorygates]

When we refer to The Gods of the Copybook Headings here at Dreamwidth, what is the appropriate terminology to use when referring to the Court of Last Resort, They at Whom the Buck Stops, Da Man (and Da Woman), the Owners, Site Administrators, etcetera and so on and so forth?

Re: The Management

[denise]

"Site administrators".

[zorkian]

"* When you're done with the age, click save at the bottom."

Suggest page. *ducks*

[rho]

Hey, I did mention that they'd mostly be correcting my dumb typos, didn't I?

Re: The Management

[ivorygates]

Thank you!

[ivorygates]

Code: /community/moderate.bml.error.noentry

My question with this addresses no lapse in due diligence upon the part of he or she who wrested it from the primordial bml.ylem, but rather, one of the great metaphysical questions of our age: since the person whose comm it may well be is now an administrator, and may indeed be a comm's sole suzerain, language in messages such as this, which speaks of "another moderator", may perhaps be unduly confusing, since a comm may have no moderators at all.

[rho]

I hate community owner/admin/maintainer/moderator/founder/grand-poobah nomenclature. I want to just change every single string that contains any of them to just say "tapirs are cool!" then run away giggling and hide behind the sofa. I'm not sure that mark and denise would get behind that, though, alas.

I hereby decree that we shall keep this as it is now, partly because I think it's sufficiently clear that there won't be any great misunderstandings, but mainly because I totally can't think of anything to change it to that would be better.

[ryan]

The string in question will only be shown to moderators (not administrators), as it's for handling the moderation queue. Moderator would be the correct term in this case.

[chasy]

I just need to make sure I'm understanding correctly what I'm doing here.

I click the edit box. The text I see is "Change Status". <-- That's all I'm copy editing on this string, correct? So then I check "Proofed" and move on to the next string which is "There has been a database error processing your request." (And is also spelled correctly, etc.)

I guess it seems "too simple" so I'm wondering if I'm misinterpreting what's supposed to be happening here.

Halp!

[rho]

Nope, you're doing it right!

Some translation strings are very short. A air few are just one word. But then there are also some that are complete paragraphs. The whole system is a confusing mess, I'm afraid.

[rainbow]

Code: /manage/circle/add.bml.add.text2 Sev: 0

English:
[[ljuser]]'s status in your circle has been updated.

I'm thinking "ljuser" might be an error?

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

Is too late to volunteer to pitch in and join the team? Sorry, only found my way to DW this week...

[rho]

Things in [[brackets]] aren't rendered literally. They're used to refer to variables that get passed to the translation system by the code. In this case [[ljuser]] will be replaced by the username of the person in question.

[rainbow]

Thank you. And just to make sure I'm understanding properly -- so as long as "lj" is only used inside the double brackets, I can safely ignore it when proofing.

[rho]

That's right, yes.

[rho]

We have all the people we need for this for now. You might want to keep an eye on dw_volunteers though, as that's where we're planning on posting new volunteer opportunities as and when they come up.

[bohemianeditor]

*waves hi!*

Is there an IRC Participation Guide for the Clueless? I may need a real-time HALP! resource.

[rho]

There is! Behold: http://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/IRC_help

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Doing that. Thanks. And congrats on having enough people for the current project. :)

[ivorygates]

*NODNOD* I get that, and as a friend of mine says, "perfection is found only in Heaven", so we should go for "fast" and "good" and leave "perfect" for some other space/time continuum. My actual point goes to the inevitable rules-lawyer who will come along eventually to announce that they are the Administrator of their comm and the comm doesn't have any [additional] "moderator/s".

Nothing to see here, move along...

[rainbow]

Thank you again!

[bohemianeditor]

I'm pretty sure I made it there. ;) Thanks!