Holidays Scope

Very hard to translate "Sorry!" sentence

Bug #1513311 reported by Bartosz Kosiorek
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Holidays Scope
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

In Holidays scope there is sentence: "Sorry!" which is very hard to translate, located in ../src/query.cpp:209

Why it is hard to translate:
1. Ubuntu Phone is screaming to the user (by "!" sign).
2. It is still unknown who is "sorry". Is it "I'm sorry!" (as a Ubuntu/ phone) or "We are sorry!" (as a team). For Polish language it will be two completely different translations ("Przepraszam!" - "I'm sorry!", or "Przepraszamy!" - "We are sorry!")
3. It is very uncommon and inconsistent, that ubuntu Phone is talking with user. I cannot find other strings, where Phone is "sorry" for something.
4. Polish translation: "I'm sorry!" - "Przepraszam!", is very bad, because it mean that Ubuntu Phone has feelings and it is sorry for something.

See original description
Bartosz Kosiorek (gang65)
description: updated
description: updated
Bartosz Kosiorek (gang65)
Changed in holidays:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Kyle Nitzsche (knitzsche) wrote :

Hi,

The exclamation point is not screaming, it is only emphasis. :)

If this message displays it indicates something is not right. This "Sorry!" message is the title. The text below that tells the user, for example, that holiday info cannot display because they need to enable location awareness ins cope settings. So this is a polite and informal way to begin informing the user there is something wrong with their settings that they can fix.

I understand your concern that the term "Sorry" indicates the phone has feelings. I think you are being too literal. The focus here is on being polite and ifnormal.

If there is no direct translation in Polish for "Sorry", then use "We're sorry" or some carefully considered equivalent. I don't want it to be a direct and cold statement like "Error".

(By the way, normally someone other than the bug creator sets the status to Confirmed :)

I welcome comments from Ubuntu UX here as well.

Revision history for this message
Bartosz Kosiorek (gang65) wrote :

What about "Warning:" "Location data must be enabled to display holidays from your current location." (or something else)?
It is widely used (also in ubuntu phone/desktop).

If no, can we be more explicit, and use: "We are sorry" to translation?

@Kyle I don't want to make you upset with this papercut bug.
It is very important for me to have the best User Experience also for other languages.
For Slavic languages we cannot separate Verb from person. We must say who is "Sorry".

For Ubuntu Core applications we have similar bugs:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-weather-app/+bug/1493466

Revision history for this message
Kyle Nitzsche (knitzsche) wrote :

Hi Bartosz,

"Warning" seems like a good compromise. Although I would not append the colon (":") because this is the title part of the scope result.

Thanks!

Bartosz Kosiorek (gang65)
no longer affects: ubuntu-ux
Revision history for this message
Bartosz Kosiorek (gang65) wrote :

It is perfectly for me.
I'm removing ubuntu-ux to do not bothering them.
Thanks!

no longer affects: ubuntu-translations
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