[Solved] Create a Vietnamese language-specific forum?

[Clytie]

Hi everyone

A few months back, I was testing the Vietnamese interface to this phpBB forum, in preparation for opening a Vietnamese-language user sub-forum here.

Unfortunately, I became too sick, for some months, to continue, and meanwhile, I have forgotten with whom I was setting all this up. We had a test forum with the translated interfaces.

Now I'm back in action, and my team is testing our full interface and help translation of OpenOffice.org 3.0, we're very keen to get a forum opened, since we have a lot to talk about.

We would very much like to keep the main structure of this forum in our subforum. Our members have requested:

• Board Index
  *International
  ...
  **Tiếng Việt
  + Cài đặt và Thiết lập
  + Việt hoá
  + Writer
  + Calc
  + Impress
  + Draw
  + Math
  + Base
  + Phần mở rộng

The top-level item says "Vietnamese", the next two "Install and Setup" and "Localization", and the lowest level is "Extensions". We have already had a lot of enquiries on the mailing lists, so we would really like to direct them to this forum, and start publicizing it as a language-friendly forum for OpenOffice.org users.

Virtually all of our users will be new users, since this release is our first with a complete UI and Help translation. So we hope to use this forum to support our users.

Thankyou for your help with this.

[Hagar Delest]

Hi, if DrewJensen or TerryE don't reply, feel free to PM them.

I move your thread to the Site feedback forum, OOPM is not for that kind of question.

[TerryE]

At one level you just ask, and we set it up for you, if you feel that there is a sufficient user constituency. We forum sys admins can do that side for you, but to be viable you need to remember that there is sort of a 99:1 rather than 90:10 rule of thumb for these forums: you can almost entirely divide forums users into two categories: those that come to seek help and only dialogue on their Q, and those supporters who answer Qs. You need a small group of reasonably knowledgeable OOo users who are willing to spend time answering Qs, and a couple will need to act as moderators.

The second thing is that all of the international language pack Vietnamese needs to be developed. If you look at the phpBB website phpBB Languages then you will see that one hasn't been released yet, though a point of contact (QuanGL) has been designated and you might want to PM this contact through the phpBB support forum.

[Clytie]

Terry said:

At one level you just ask, and we set it up for you, if you feel that there is a sufficient user constituency.

Yes, please do that.

We forum sys admins can do that side for you, but to be viable you need to remember that there is sort of a 99:1 rather than 90:10 rule of thumb for these forums: you can almost entirely divide forums users into two categories: those that come to seek help and only dialogue on their Q, and those supporters who answer Qs. You need a small group of reasonably knowledgeable OOo users who are willing to spend time answering Qs, and a couple will need to act as moderators.

I am aware of this issue: I use fora widely.

Yes, our language team is willing to act as support. This is already happening on our mailing lists, but we would prefer to shift it here, where it is more easily referrable, and it's easier to follow a thread.

I am willing to act as admin for our fora, and moderator, and will ask for one or two other team members to moderate as well.

The second thing is that all of the international language pack Vietnamese needs to be developed.

<sigh> Go back two years, and you could say that for any piece of software. Things have improved, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us. However, I am puzzled that you say the interface hasn't been translated, because a few months ago, at Drew's request, I was testing the Vietnamese interface to this forum. Have you swapped to a different forum software?

If you look at the phpBB website phpBB Languages then you will see that one hasn't been released yet, though a point of contact (QuanGL) has been designated and you might want to PM this contact through the phpBB support forum.

I will chase this translator up if we don't have a translated interface here (if we don't, what was I using on the testing forum before?). Thankyou for the info.

[TerryE]

Clyte, re the Vietnamese Lang Pack, its just that I'm, out of touch with the current phpBB work, and with your last dialogues with Drew on this, but since then Drew has brought me up to speed. As a rule of thumb, its better that we literally have these conversations "in open forum" so those that are interested can track what is going on.

[Clytie]

At the time, I didn't know where to ask about this. Now I do, I'm quite happy to do it here. So what is the status of the Vietnamese interface translation I was testing some months ago?

I'm still awaiting replies from the official Vietnamese language-pack contact at phpBB, and the other Vietnamese translator I found posting there. If nothing else, this will at least sort that situation out.

Our aim is to get a Vietnamese-language sub-forum working ASAP. I hope we can do that.

[Clytie]

1. phpBB translation

OK, I've talked to the people at phpBB. I believe there is a working Vietnamese translation for phpBB 2.x. What version are we using here? If it's 2.x, then we can enable the builtin Vietnamese interface and start using it.

If OpenOffice.org is using phpBB 3.x, we have a problem. There is no Vietnamese language pack for version 3.x. It also looks like their Vietnamese contact has gone missing. I've talked to the phpBB l10n coordinator in detail, and to another volunteer translator who had also created a phpBB 2.x translation. If the previous official translator doesn't respond to email, I will take on that project and make sure we have a phpBB 3.x translation. However, that will take time, since phpBB have almost completely changed the translation file format between versions 2 and 3, so you can't transfer translation work from 2 to 3. So it would be much better for Vietnamese users, and probably for users of other languages as well, if we use version 2.x here until everybody can catch up.

2. My team is very keen to start using this forum. Do we have a Vietnamese sub-forum yet? Please point us to it, or create it if it does not yet exist. I can't see it in the main forum listing. This is a great opportunity for us to support our releases, which are becoming very widely-used. We anticipate a flood of users enquiries after the release of OpenOffice.org Việt 3.0. We've also just had an enquiry from the Vietnamese government which will result in a lot more participation, and even greater need for the Vietnamese-language forum.

Thankyou for your help.

[ccornell]

If OpenOffice.org is using phpBB 3.x, we have a problem. There is no Vietnamese language pack for version 3.x.
.....
So it would be much better for Vietnamese users, and probably for users of other languages as well, if we use version 2.x here until everybody can catch up.

The forum runs on phpBB3. Can the Vietnamese users manage in an English interface (with Vietnamese postings/answers) until the user interface translation is completed?

[Clytie]

Well, I have been having an interesting time!

I've been talking to people who don't know what the status of our phpBB translation is, others who want me to take it on, yet others who have translated 2.0 unofficially but the format has changed in 3.0, not to mention a very helpful friend who is trying to convert the unnecessarily complex PHP format of the phpBB translation files into gettext PO format...

...but to cut to the chase, I have unexpectedly good news. There is an existing Vietnamese translation of phpBB 3.0.

(That link leads to the language-pack details and download page, in English.)

I'm now trying to arrange for this translator to submit his work to the main phpBB project, but meanwhile, it's certainly of the quality we need here. It's been fully-tested in production.

So, would you please use this language pack to provide our Vietnamese-language sub-forum?

Thankyou for all your help with this issue.

[TerryE]

I will try out the language pack on our test rig and if it looks OK then I'll put up a version on usOOo. It will be offline but you me and Drew will be the system admins, so will be able to see it.

[Clytie]

Great, thanks. Please advise when it is up and what you need me to do.