Editing Zero no Tsukaima:Guideline

This page has been created to revised the policies of the entire Translators Registration System, the new revised system will be given a trial run under the Zero no Tsukaima project to monitor it's effect and evaluate it before a decision is brought to the table.

The policies listed below are for discussion until sufficient debate over them has been agreed by all parties involved in the Baka-Tsuki Community.

These parties consist of:

*Founder - [[user:thelastguardian|Thelastguardian]]
::*Unless stated will be currently Represented by Baka-Tsuki Editor-in-Chief - [[user:onizuka-gto|Onizuka-GTO]] 

*Staff Members - Forum Listed [http://www.baka-tsuki.net/forums/memberlist.php?mode=leaders here]

*Community Citizens - Forum Listed [http://www.baka-tsuki.net/forums/memberlist.php Registered Users] 

*The People - Anonymous Readers/Contributors (Vote only)

The topics below are '''DRAFT''' thus are not in effect until codified, and all agreed "guidelines" will be transferred to a page labelled under the "Guideline" title and listed in the forum [http://www.baka-tsuki.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=4 United Format Guideline] 


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=Revision of Translators Registration System=
Current translators registration system, as discussion on Baka-Tsuki forums showed, can be improved in several ways. Few proposals have been made there already, and they are listed below on this page; if you wish to read or join the debate over the following issues, you may find original Thread in the forum [http://www.baka-tsuki.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1831 here].

=== Estimated time of Evaluation & Conclusion of this proposal ===

Apologies for the delay, I have schedule a deadline to conclude this proposal in regards to the revision of the entire translation registration process.

While it seems that some the procedures mentioned here are already being employed in other projects, I'm setting a deadline for an official conclusion by the '''24-26th December 2008''' so realistically I will be resuming commenting on the following forum thread here:

http://www.baka-tsuki.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1831

At leased a week in advance. 


==Overview==
Registration is a process of assigning chapter to a single translator. It is required in order to efficiently manage translation process by means of coordinating work on given project  between several translators and avoiding/resolving possible conflicts.

Important note: each and every sentence below is assumed to be applied to Baka-Tsuki "Zero no Tsukaima" project ONLY (unless explicitly stated).

==Term Definitions==
*'''"He"''' simply substitutes term "person" and can be equally read as "she"; more accurate forms "he/she" and "(s-)he" simply aren't so convenient to read and write.

*'''"Month"''' is period of 30 days, including the day one's counting from. For example, on 15th of April "last month" is "March, 16 - April, 15" (note "16" vs. "15": March is 31 days long).
:Default time zone is UTC (equals to now obsolete GMT).

*'''"Registration page"''' means translators registration page of current project.

*'''"<NewNick>"''' and '''"<OldNick>"''' mean nicknames of user who is starting process and user he's addressing, respectively.

*'''"Contributor"''' is someone who provides content for Baka-Tsuki wiki articles, edits and/or creates them. Contributor can be registered as translator and/or editor (these jobs don't exclude each other) or can be anonymous (referred by an IP-address).

*'''"Registered editor"''' is editor who works on the project. He must regularly patrol project to revert vandalism, correct mistakes and make sure published works conform every condition of project specific guidelines and the rest of conditions of general guidelines (project specific gudelines being of higher priority than general ones in case of contradictions).

*'''"Registered translator"''' is translator who provided '''1 kB''' or more of translated text for each chapter he had wanted to be assigned to (including length of wiki-specific markup, if any).

*Contributor's '''"activity"''' reflects amount of his work done on the project within specific period of time, and has various degrees:

::*'''"active translator"''' has provided '''1 kB''' or more of translated text (probably in several parts) within '''last month''' - for those who have been registered for one month or longer; translators that have been registered for less than month are considered to be active since their first contribution.

::*'''"active editor"''' has made more than '''one edit''' of published translation (not of preview script) within '''last 2 weeks''', regardless of edit's type (vandalism reverse, lexical, grammar, style etc. corrections) and size.

::*if '''Baka-Tsuki staff member''' isn't translator or editor, he's "active" when he has made any contribution to B-T wiki or forum within '''last month'''.

::*'''"inactive"''' contributor simply doesn't fall into "active" category.

:::*'''A.W.O.L.'''

:::*'''M.I.A.'''

:::*'''K.I.A.''' (last three definitions will be listed later, if necessary)

==Translation Management==
Usually translation starts when translator registrates chapter he wants to work on.
Process of (un-)registration depends on the status of chapter in question - whether it's already been registered or not yet.

If one is going to translate '''unregistered chapter''' in a whole, he must provide '''1 kB''' of its translation from the start of chapter and sign his nickname at this chapter's entry on registration page.

If the chapter is '''already taken by active translator''', they two must negotiate via user talk page (on B-T wiki) of translator who has registered this chapter first and come to a decision by themselves; last expressed opinion of initial translator is of higher priority if they disagree.
In case chapter in question is '''registered to currently inactive translator''', new translator can take this chapter over, but first he must inform inactive translator via latter's user talk page on wiki (and, optionally, by other means: forums, e-mail, IRC, ICQ etc.) that he takes this chapter over, simultaneously adding

 "(reregistering to <NewNick>)"

note to this chapter's entry on registration page. Later, if inactive translator hasn't published negative reply on his user talk page within '''one week''' from the moment he had been informed, new translator can take chapter over in following manner: he must publish '''1 kB''' of his translation and change chapter's entry to

 "<NewNick> (previously <OldNick>)"

on project registration page; since then the chapter is registered to new translator only. He has '''another week''' to do this, and if he fails, chapter can be unregistered from him by anyone. If inactive translator denies takeover, he must provide another '''1 kB''' of translation (or chapter remainder) within '''one week''' from the moment takeover request was made; if he fails, new translator can take chapter regardless of old translator's opinion.

If translator has been '''inactive over 1 month''' (= more than 2 months since his last contribution), his '''reply isn't required''' for his chapter(-s) to be taken over by other translator.

If translator has been '''inactive over 2 months''' (= more than 3 months since his last contribution), his '''registration can be removed by anyone''', changing chapter's status to

 "dropped by <OldNick>".

However, the one making changes to chapter's status must inform old translator (and everybody) of his actions via wiki (both translator's user page and project registration page, as described above) in any case.

=Discussion=

If you wish to read or join the debate over the following issues, you may find the Thread in the forum here:

Revision of [http://www.baka-tsuki.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1831 Translators Registration System]