Baka-Tsuki:Machine Translation Guidelines
This page is a DRAFT.
Please use caution. There many be inaccurate or incomplete material.
This page describes Baka-Tsuki's default policy towards machine translations.
Please note that this policy is a convention—individual translation projects may have stricter or more relaxed policies with regards to machine translations. Please check Project-Specific Guidelines to learn more about your project's stance on machine translations. All members should follow these guidelines by default.
Definition of Machine Translations
This is a general guideline for ~Preview~ scripts submitted using machine translations:
Scripts employing this method are not unwelcome, but are restricted to guidelines and unfortunately cannot be submitted as "official" scripts.
We can only allow machine translated scripts to be presented as ~Preview~ scripts. This is due to the consensus of the wiki-communist state of Baka-Tsuki concluding that the quality of machine translation has yet to rival human translators. The representation of machine translation should not be acknowledged as "official" scripts to risk Baka-Tsuki's reputation upon.
However, with the improvement of software and technology, Baka-Tsuki is hopeful that the quality of machine translations will improve and that we should not dismiss this method of translation. The current generation of machine translators are still useful for helping human translators reference and give a general idea of the layout and/or to help translate bulk parts of text.
The best machine translator we have currently reviewed is called "Atlas". We encourage all contributors who wish to help using machine translation to use this current engine.
While other software and "online" translators are not dismissed, please be aware that they have less of an ability to translate the correct context of a script compared to "Atlas".
They will, as mentioned in the first sentence, require a lot of editing as the general context of the dialog and background may be severely damaged by the engine's translation.
Editors are advised to seek human translator consultancy over these machine translations to review/conduct a general analysis for integrity and contextual coherency within the volume/series.
Authors using Machine Translated Scripts are advised to take the following actions:
1) Post machine translated scripts on the Forum for examination.
2) The script must be consulted by a human Translator that can conduct a general proofreading of the script with the original raw(s) used for it (in the same language used, if possible ).
3) All machine translated script needs an approval by a Baka-Tsuki Staff member before being published on the wiki.
4) Machine translations must be placed in a page with "~Preview~" in the title.
5) The link must clearly state it is a "~Preview~" and must be placed next to the non-hyperlinked title on the appropriate series page.
6) The beginning of the page must contain the following:
CODE: SELECT ALL
Chapter [number/Symbol] - [title of chapter here]
This is a preview script.
Please be aware that the degree of translation error may be higher than usual due to the translation speed & method employed.
7) The Author of the Machine translation must register their Wiki username on the appropriate series registration page, clearly stating that it is for the preview script.
Once a Preview script has fulfilled all the requirements as shown by the guidelines, please be aware that the script will become Baka-Tsuki Wiki-communist state property.
Baka-Tsuki staff have the final authority to remove the script, provided that they have fully transparent and accountable reasons.
As a contributor of machine translations, your contribution does not have to be recognized.
