COVID-19: exceptional allowances for extensions for in-page translation

[grahamperrin]

@jorgev and colleagues

Please consider straying from ordinary policies at this extraordinary time.

I ask for acceptable versions of least two of the extensions below to be:

• non-blocked
• allowed at AMO

– with the possibility of one being recommended, by Mozilla, for a limited period.

Candidates

S3.Translator

• https://www.s3blog.org/s3gt.html
• https://www.s3blog.org/s3translator/

Google Translate This Page

• https://github.com/andreicristianpetcu/google_translate_this/

Page Translator

• https://github.com/jeremiahlee/page-translator/

Thoughts

Blocks, for execution of remote code, were understandably contentious. Discussions were widespread and emotive; points of discussion were sometimes exaggerated. To repeat, or continue, those discussions here will, I believe, be counterproductive.

The coronavirus pandemic should be cause to review the acceptability of these extensions. Please consider policy exceptions in cases such as this.

Thank you

Use cases

First example:

Potrestaná lékařka vyvinula vlastní test. Je zdarma a zájem o něj mají v USA – Novinky.cz (… doctor has developed … own test. … free …) : COVID19 – Reddit

Archived https://archive.is/u39vQ can be used with full-page translation extensions such as S3.Translator; the original content can not.

Critically:

• extension S3.Translator succeeds
• Google’s https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&u=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.is%2Fu39vQ fails

The page you requested was too large to translate.

Related

Covid-19 & Community

Hi Mozillians, We are in an odd and difficult period, unprecedented for most of us. We are thinking about all of the members of our communities and how we can stay connected and support one another as things progress. Staying safe: We continue to encourage you to follow local guidance and to avoid unnecessary travel or meet-ups. If you want to cancel an event or postpone it because of the virus, that is absolutely ok. If you have already received resources for that event (swag, budget or both…

[jorgev]

There are numerous translation extensions available on AMO. They might not be as convenient as the ones that resort to using remote code injection, but they exist and at least in my opinion are an acceptable trade-off in order to keep users safe. I don’t think the lack of those particular extensions will impede people from accessing international content during this crisis.

I’ll share this post with the rest of the team in case they have different thoughts about it. Thanks.