I created my first Account on the de-WP in October 2005. Before that, I edited as anon occasionally.
How long have you been translating on Wikipedia?
I don't translate as such, I write new articles based on sources. Wikipedias can be such sources, but usually I take only very basic information from other Wikipedias.
Which languages do you translate from? (If you translate from English to another language, please mention it here.)
I write mainly on US-topics in de-WP. Occasionally I venture into French geography and/or history, very rarely I have topics with links to Spanish colonial history in the Americas.
Do you translate from more than one language at a time? (For example, a translation could be primarily done from the German-language Wikipedia, but with parts translated from the Italian-language and French-language Wikipedias.)
It has happened that I used English language sources along with French ones on a French topic. Or took a fact or two from a Spanish source while writing mainly from English language publications. But that's rare.
Do you add information not in the text of the source language? If so, during or after your translation?
Always, as I use the WP-articles not as foundation for my work, but only as supporting sources.
Do you correct errors in the source language article when you come across them while working?
Rarely, but it has happened.
How do you choose the articles you translate?
Personal interest, based on experience.
What kind of rhythm do you work at? (Frequency of translation, length of time spent translating...)
Rhythm? White men don't have rhythm (or that's what I have been told). Depends - mostly on real life constrictions and at least in summer time on the weather.
Do you translate more for one wikiproject in particular?
Only de-WP
Do you use your home Wikipedia's version of Project:Translation, or do you translate solo? In both cases, why?
My topics are very remote and I usually work on them alone. I call for feedback occasionally, but real teamwork is rare in my fields.
Have you translated at your "real-life" job? Are you a professional translator?
Yes. Not really, but I work with English language texts and more and more often I work at least partly in English, and in that case occasionally I translate stuff from or to German.
What do you think of your work in translation on Wikipedia?
I hope it's decent.
How do you think your work is seen by the rest of the community?
Eight "Exzellente Artikel" (~ Featured), a few "Lesenswerte Artikel" (~ Good), all of them based almost exclusively on English language sources. Two of "my" featured articles were since translated to fr-WP, one was used as example in the process of writing a Featured article on en-WP.
Have you seen criticism of translations because the bibliography and sources are primarily or entirely in a foreign language?
Not seen criticism. English language sources are well established in almost any scientific community, and other languages are expected, when dealing with topics from that culture. But my main issue with translation in WP is, that most translators never see the original sources, but only translate from the other language project. To me that is inconsistent with major project rules such as en:WP:Verifiability. But that is only partly an issue of the languages, it's verifiability of working from tertiary sources (WP-articles).
Have you translated the text in images (diagrams, graphs...) while translating articles using said images?
No, but the other way around: If I ask a graphics guy for help with special illustrations for an article, I make sure, that he creates an English version along with the German and a third one, where the text is left blank for further internationalization.
Would you like to see something changed in the way translation is done on Wikipedia?
As long as GFDL is not merged with CC-by-sa there are issues with the ridiculously complicated verbatim of the license. In regard with translations: What steps are necessary to preserve the "history" of the source in the new work - to comply with a license that was not written for an online publication written by massive collaboration? I hope this will be an issue of the past soon, when FSF, CC and the WMF announce their new, interchangeable licenses. --h-stt!? 31 mai 2008 à 00:09 (CEST)
