README.md add link to translations

[yurtpage]

Closes: #173

To make it easier to translate it would be great to integrate a translation service.
The https://toolate.othing.xyz/ is an instance of the Weblate, it has no pre-moderation, it can send a PR with translations, it has automatic translations from Baidu to help to translators. It's used by many of the F-Droid apps.

I created a translation project on the Toolate https://toolate.othing.xyz/projects/cutemusic
and also made a testing translations and it sent you a PR #182.

If you are fine with the solution then please merge the PR that adds the Toolate link to the README to help users to find it. Also if you wish I can send you an invitation to become an admin of the translation project (needed sometimes to resolve merge conflicts).

Thank you for the app!

[sosauce]

Thanks alot for this, translation platforms have been a pain for me, I will look at it after my holidays

[nubesurrealista]

I must say, as a contributor and translator I support the use of a platform like weblate. But, I think we should use the main instance where most of the projects using weblate are normally located.

https://hosted.weblate.org/

I don't see the benefit in using a minority instance if what we want are translations from the community and where translators feel comfortable, I think the main one can group all of us together. Also, I think we should avoid automatic translations at all costs, as a general rule this does not help, it makes it worse. Since sometimes some projects depend on them a lot due to the lack of translators willing to do it, as a user I prefer an app that is not translated to one that is poorly translated or translated with AI.

[sosauce]

@yurtpage Please review what @nubesurrealista as I know he knows alot about it

[yurtpage]

I don't see the benefit in using a minority instance

First of all having more independent services makes more diversification and more in a spirit of open source. For example the Toolate have some minor patches, it's deployed in a Singapore which makes it more accessible from Asia and Pacific regions. At least we don't consume the free plan of the Weblate as a company.
There main reason why the Toolate was created is that the Hosted Weblate has a pre-moderation and they deleting new translation projects for a new apps published in the F-Droid simply because they don't think it's so important. They are more interested in more mature and bigger projects.
So in the "F-Droid translators" chat an enthusiast simply deployed own instance and invited anyone who need to simply make projects there. You don't have a pre-moderation but there is just a wish to not use it for a very big projects with a long Git log, likely most Android apps are small. So now I made a list of F-Droid apps and simply creating translation projects for them one by one in a spare time. I just trying to save their time and support in this, periodically resolving merge conflicts or report problems.

There is no a big community but this is more a question of time and involvement. I don't expect that many small apps are interesting for most translators, in the same time if some user wants to make a translation it can do that easily.
Off course, the Hosted.Weblate or Codeberg Weblate are also good platforms and can be used for free. The Toolate is more convenient because it has AI helpers (that Hosted doesn't really have) and it can send a PR (that Codeberg can't do).

I think we should avoid automatic translations at all costs

I prefer an app that is not translated to one that is poorly translated

Yeah, that's a common thoughts, I replied here 2bllw8/anemo#73 (comment)

[nubesurrealista]

There main reason why the Toolate was created is that the Hosted Weblate has a pre-moderation and they deleting new translation projects for a new apps published in the F-Droid simply because they don't think it's so important. They are more interested in more mature and bigger projects.

Is this a fact? do you really have evidence of that? Because I translate some projects on Weblate, not particularly large, and we have never had any problems. So it sounds weird to me

Yeah, that's a common thoughts, I replied here 2bllw8/anemo#73 (comment)

I do not want to start a discussion of principles in a project that is not mine.

However, I totally disagree with that position and honestly I would not feel comfortable here if that were the case.

I have been translating and promoting this app almost since its origins, I proposed this in fact a long time ago. However, I think what makes CuteMusic great is Sosauce, of course, and those of us who have helped translate and promote the app.

We don't have many translations, CuteMusic doesn't support many languages, however everything is human. Using poor quality machine translations is something we really should fear. We don't need it, in any way

---

My position on this remains the same: Weblate yes, small instance no, and, of course, under no circumstances bad automatic translations.

This is obviously a change with more implications than it originally seemed. I don't think this should be merged hastily, however, I trust Sosauce a lot and I will support the decisions they make for the good of the project. But if we do this without addressing the aforementioned points, I, at least, will accept it under protest and continue to do my translations via PR. I’m not getting on board with this until my issues with the proposal are resolved.

[yurtpage]

Is this a fact?

Yes. There are requirements:

Established projects

• The project receives a reasonable number of contributions.
• The project has had active development for at least three months.

For many apps this a complicated requirements. One dev didn't touched his app for years then made some changes on a weekend, merged translations and made a release.
Maybe since then they become more relaxed. Anyway, this particular app meets requirements of the Hosted.Weblate so it can be used too.

we really should fear

I mean... this is a music player, what to fear? :-) Basically you can just remove all text and users still will understand how to use it. It won't format your SD card, won't steal your money, no any harm.

poor quality machine translations

First of all, why do you think they are so poor? When I translated to Russian I did a bulk translation using Google Translate and then reviewed and rewrote what should be better. It was grammatically correct, some phrases needed to be changed by a style, in some places context wasn't clear so it translated it slightly different but generally speaking this was absolutely fine translation to use. And the Russian translation is one the most complicated thing to do, maybe only Polish is harder. You need to change SVO order, use a correct synonym out of context, change cases and keep grammatical genders. The AI translator made this job fine.
For small languages where not so many translators the auto translations are used very often as is, this is common situation and it always was like that.

The auto translation is part of the Weblate UI and you can't disable it. The Hosted.Weblate uses LibreTranslate engine that is good for German but it works badly with Italian, Russian and some others (check their forum). The Toolate has better engines, but anyway 90% of strings are simple like "Save", "Import" and translated by anyone just fine.

If you don't want use the Toolate that's totally fine, let's register on the Hosted Weblate. I It would be better to make by the repo owner because there is a requirement that a repo owner should first give an explicit approval. I wanted to save a time for you because I already know how to configure it quickly. Let me know and I'll make a translation project for you there.

[sosauce]

I'll read everything when home, but i'd like to say I am against the use of AI or translation models to translate the app, I want the strings to have an emotional impact (I always loved apps with fun text) And anyone who has the app in french (which is the language I translate since i'm french) will tell you how personal and fun the texts are (since french is very distinct between formal and friendly)

[sosauce]

Hey so after reading everything, I think I prefer we use the main instance, why ? Because first off, I don't think CuteMusic is a "small" project as per the saying of the requirements, i'm very actively developing it releasing updates and it gets quite a good amount of contribution. Then for the more "moral/ethical" part of it, I understand the premise "its open source minded" and more diverse but then we might aswell all use Linux and Linux phones if we're gonna follow this logic right ? Sometimes the easiest and more accessible solutions aren't the most "ethical" ones, plus the main instance would provide far better help online, and again, automatic or AI strings will make the app look cheap, and I know what I'm talking about as a french person who's seen laughable translations. Sorry if I don't agree with everything, but for something like translation that has been a hassle for me, I'd rather take the easy route :)

[nubesurrealista]

@sosauce I'm glad you made that decision, I support it.

[yurtpage]

Happy new year! If you need, I can prepare an instruction for you on how to configure a translation project on the Hosted.Weblate. You first have to apply to the free plan.

[sosauce]

Hey @yurtpage will look into it in a few days, if you want to provide instructions feel free :)