I would like to be able to translate the Common voice logos, the ones I’m pointing at with a green marker in the attached screenshots.
Also I would like to translate “GitHub” “Discourse” as well, the ones I’m pointing at with a red marker in the attached screenshot.
Hi,
These three are considered brand names and should not be translated. Is there a specific reason you want them to be localized?
Thanks!
My main goal is always to make Common Voice as friendly, as close to the local people as possible. I want people to fall in love with it, I want everything to be in their language as if it’s their own, nothing foreign just theirs, isn’t that the whole point of translating the web interface?
Also I want them to understand what the brand means, or the very least be able to say it, when they discuss it over a cup of coffee and share their experience with friends.
I don’t think people translate brand names though, like it does’t make sense. But you could add a noun to facilitate its branding, I usually say “Projeto Common Voice” or “Common Voice Project” when talking about this project so people know about it.
This depends on the situation, if the brand is an abbreviation, or a word that holds no direct apparent meaning in it’s syntax then it would probably be a good idea to leave it as is, still if it’s in Latin letters, it can be written in other scripts.
i.e iPhone is uttered in Crylic as АиФон, Mozilla as Мозелла.
On another hand if a brand holds a direct apparent meaning, such as Common Voice, it should be translated to deliver the idea, brand becomes more of a slogan than just a brand, it holds a meaning that is intimately connected to the project as a whole.
Other situations where a brand holds an apparent meaning but still shouldn’t be translated but only uttered, for example FireFox has a tangible meaning, but it doesn’t relate to the functionality of the browser itself, thereof it can be uttered rather than translated so FireFox is uttered in Cyrillic as ФаиарФокс
My take on this, it depends on the context and situation, I would say give me the freedom to do it the way I think it best fits my needs.
@daniel.abzakh I know in general, and checking other Mozilla products, we avoid localizing brands so the can be identified globally.
Maybe @pmo or @flod from the localization team can bring perspective here on how we deal with this.
Hello Daniel,
Thank you for sharing your view on this topic. This has been discussed in different settings which involved legal and branding teams, communities, in addition to studying the practice of other big tech companies and how their brands are used in other markets. The current guideline is to leave these names in English. Despite the instances you cited about iPhone in non-Latin scripts, the practice of spelling the brand differently is never approved or endorsed by the company.
For now, all the brands should remain in English. Unless Mozilla or Firefox is trademarked and registered and up to date in a particular country or region, otherwise, both should be left in English, no declension either.
Unless the policy changes, please also keep Common Voice in English as well.
Peiying
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Hello Peiying,
I’ll stick with the guidelines, but this is my feedback.
Daniel.