Having translated documentation for sure makes it more accessible to the non-English speaking users. The main problem though is that, firstly, there is a lot of content to translate, and secondly, someone will have to maintain such translations, keeping them up-to-date in the future, which I would say is usually the main problem in such cases.
For instance, uBlock Origin (which is also a free and open source project) has recently removed all their non-English readme files, simply because they were heavily outdated and didn’t match the current release of the software anymore.
I’ve published the syncthing-docs-l10n project, which aims to translate the Syncthing Documentation into multiple languages. If you’re still interested in contributing to the Simplified or Traditional Chinese translation, feel free to join this project.
Thank you for doing this project and digging up such an old post.
However, in my opinion, creating a translation document for a single project may no longer be necessary, given the rapid development of AI. Simply installing a plugin, inserting an API, or using a local ollama model can instantly translate documents quickly and accurately, allowing you to view bilingual versions for comparison and modify the translation style you desire through prompts – far superior to the overly elaborate consideration of “fidelity” and “elegance” in translation.
Now, when I browse non-native language pages and need to quickly search for information, I simply right-click and translate to quickly browse.
I believe that in the future, everyone will use their native language and express themselves in the most comfortable way, and readers will use AI as an intermediary layer to translate documents into their preferred way of expression. At most, only the UI interface will require some translation and localization work.
Like our current conversation, which is entirely expressed in my native language through voice input, selecting, translating, and pasting – is much better than the effort I would expend trying to express it in English.
谢谢你做这个项目，还能挖出这么古老的帖子。
不过，在我个人看来，单独为一个项目去做翻译文档，可能已经不再需要了。因为 AI 的发展实在太快了，只需要安装插件，填入 API，或者用本地的 ollama 模型，一键就可以将文档翻译的又快又准，还可以查看双语版本对照，还可以通过提示词修改自己所想要的翻译风格，远比文绉绉的要考虑信达雅的翻译好得多。
我现在浏览非母语页面，在时间紧张、需要快速搜索信息的时候，都是直接右键翻译，然后快速浏览。
我相信，在以后，每个人都使用自己的母语，用自己最顺畅的方式去表达，然后，阅读者用 AI 作为中间层将文档翻译成自己最喜欢的表达方式进行阅读，是未来的趋势。最多只有 UI 界面需要做一些翻译和本地化工作。