Archive all old i18n repos and teams

[bnb]

We have quite a few old localization repos that, quite frankly, we've not maintained a strong relationship with. They've come up in organization management conversations over the past ~5 years, and generally we've just chosen to let them sit. If there's not currently a meaningful process that includes these repos, I'd rather not provide misdirection for people who might actually be interested in helping with i18n.

I'd like to propose that we begin to archive them, since it seems relatively clear to me that this approach to i18n isn't something we're committed to. If there are folks who are still contributing to them (the only one I can find is the, the nodejs-ko repo, acting completely independently on its own GitHub Pages site, occasionally publishing translated versions of official blog posts, cc @taggon, @yous), I'd like to see what we can to bring that in line with our current process for @nodejs/website rather than splitting it across tooling and domains.

I do think it might be time to ask for fiscal support from the Foundation to get a meaningful website redesign shipped. The scope of that work could/should absolutely include the foundations for strong i18n. I think that's likely a separate discussion, though.

[bnb]

example activity from quite a few i18n repos:

[srl295]

FYI @nodejs/i18n / @obensource

So we've been trying to leverage these into cross-community discussion, such as with nodejs/nodejs-vi#23  … nodejs/i18n#505 …  hasn't quite taken off.

I think some of these have already been archived. If there's not activity it may be worth doing so.

I'd propose having some kind of positive recommendation, such as, "lets get this group going again!" and if there's not a response then archive.

[bnb]

I mean, it looks like nodejs/nodejs-vi#23 was opened in 2018 and hasn't gotten any kind of response. Feels like a pretty strong indicator that it's not active and is not going to be active.

I'd propose having some kind of positive recommendation, such as, "lets get this group going again!" and if there's not a response then archive.

I think this is fair, although I don't actually know what "activity" would look like for these groups since fundamentally how they were initially structured around the iojs.org website is not a system that's supported anymore.

I think one approach might be "hey we'd really love to do i18n stuff with you! since this repo was last active, we've moved over to nodejs/i18n. we'd really love to work with you there." in any repo that's not had activity in the past... i dunno, 6 months?

[srl295]

Great suggestion.

[zeke]

one approach might be "hey we'd really love to do i18n stuff with you! since this repo was last active, we've moved over to nodejs/i18n. we'd really love to work with you there." in any repo that's not had activity in the past... i dunno, 6 months?

👍🏼

[obensource]

@bnb @srl295 @zeke I've reached out to all the l10n teams via these repos 2 or 3 times over the past few years and I've never got much of a response at all. However, my messaging activity in Crowdin with l10n teams has typically been successful and I get a decent response there. This is as it should be now since the l10n surface is entirely contained in Crowdin, and i18n for node projects remains within the project repository as an entirely decoupled effort.

The i18n team could reach out one more time this week expressing the intent to archive the repos, and give one final invitation to join the new teams via Crowdin – and point each old team to their new respective l10n team there.

Sound good?

[srl295]

Sounds good @obensource I think this sounds like a plan.

[obensource]

Also @srl295 @zeke (and @nodejs/i18n), let's start meeting again this Friday? Happy new year! 🎉🚀

[obensource]

"that work could/should absolutely include the foundations for strong i18n" – @bnb

Very excited for that discussion! 🙌

[Trott]

So what's the next step? There are a few of these repos that I'd like to see archived for other reasons, but I don't want to stomp on this effort and whatever has been agreed to here.

[srl295]

Proposed wording:

Dear nodejs-____ team,
Thank you for being part of the Node.js community.
This repository doesn't seem to have been very active recently, and so it is scheduled to be archived on ____-__-__.

Meanwhile, we'd love to have you come over and be a part of the i18n WG at https://github.com/nodejs/i18n#contributing

Best,
[somethiing something]

[obensource]

@Trott @srl295 @bnb @zeke – since a few days have passed and the general consensus is to archive them, I'll iterate on @srl295's proposed message now and open an issue on each l10n group's repo. We can give them until this Friday (01/14/22) and then archive if there's no response. If there is a response, we can work with whoever is interested to migrate over to our active l10n groups in Crowdin and then archive the repos. Either way, these repos need to be archived since they're outside the scope of the project now.

Additionally, I recently threw this conversation out on twitter – and the only response I got was 'kill it with fire' 🔥. So as far as I can tell, community consensus is aligned with our direction here here as well. 👍

[obensource]

Gotta run at the moment, but I'll send out the rest before the day is over. 👍

[obensource]

@Trott @srl295 @bnb @zeke, follow up: I've opened new issues on every localization project that still exists within the project to establish the intent to archive. The only two repos that appear to have somewhat recent activity are nodejs-ko, and nodejs-pt. Hopefully they can let us know if there's any useful activity occurring there beyond translation, and if there is we can help direct their efforts to the best place(s) possible.

So now, we can let the clock roll and plan to archive them all on Friday (unless a reason not to archive any of them surfaces). 👍

[obensource]

@Trott / @bnb: It doesn't appear that I have the privileges to archive a repository though, so I may need to leave that up to one of you (unless I qualify to be granted those privileges). Thanks a million all! 🙏

[obensource]

nodejs-pt just let me know that their repo is inactive, and ok to be archived. 👍

[Trott]

nodejs-pt just let me know that their repo is inactive, and ok to be archived. 👍

I've archived that repo. One thing this brings up though is that we don't really have a way to audit the teams. Unless Crowdin provides a way? Or unless we're going to not have those teams anymore? Or maybe we only need them for existing localizations on the main website? Like, if someone submits a PR to update the translation for Esperanto, it's useful to have an Esperanto team to tag for review. But otherwise, maybe we don't need teams for languages that we don't actually have translations for?

[srl295]

nodejs-pt just let me know that their repo is inactive, and ok to be archived. 👍

I've archived that repo. One thing this brings up though is that we don't really have a way to audit the teams. Unless Crowdin provides a way? Or unless we're going to not have those teams anymore? Or maybe we only need them for existing localizations on the main website? Like, if someone submits a PR to update the translation for Esperanto, it's useful to have an Esperanto team to tag for review. But otherwise, maybe we don't need teams for languages that we don't actually have translations for?

Is there a way to sync the crowdin users with a github team? edit or may ping a team via some kind of crowdin message board (?) please review this PR

[Trott]

I've archived all the nodejs-XX repos with the exception of nodejs-ko. That one seems relatively active but might be archivable or moveable to someplace outside the org. Someone ought to reply to nodejs/nodejs-ko#1198 (comment).

[ovflowd]

Is there a way to sync the crowdin users with a github team? edit or may ping a team via some kind of crowdin message board (?) please review this PR

Bump. This is a very interesting point. It would be great to sync Crowdin <> GitHub

[alexandrtovmach]

Kindly inviting everyone to this meeting, to discuss this and other questions related to i18n nodejs/i18n#725

[Trott]

@danielleadams

[ovflowd]

An announcement was done: nodejs/node#47147

[Trott]

All nodejs-<LANGUAGE CODE> teams have been removed.

[Trott]

All nodejs-<LANGUAGE CODE> repositories have been archived.

[Trott]

All members who, as a result of these changes, are in 0 teams, have been removed from the org.