SOTT.net in Czech

[anka]

Note: Not sure whether or not this thread should be in the private section but thought the discussion might be quiet valuable for any future potential translators without access to FOTCM members' area so it’s placed here for now.

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We want to ask for feedback from the SOTT crew and the Forum administrators. The Czech blog with translations of SOTT articles remains on its course and we would like to move it one level up and start official CZ mutation of the SOTT.net if agreed by the community. Let me give you a short background of the blog’s existence as I remember it.

Rylek has established the blog (https://na-severu.blogspot.cz/) as a one man show about 10 years ago (it could be 2006?) and during the first approx. 5 years he translated a good portion of some essential texts with focus on psychopathy and Laura’s work. After that came a break which resulted in a few years of sporadic activity and then he and I met in the Autumn of 2014 after getting touch through the forum messages. I worked in Holland back then and rylek headed for Malaysia from England so it was sort of a short introduction.

The next year though we both returned back home with intention to stay in the country to see what we can do here and decided to give the blog a proper restart. Rylek did a great job on it with another bulk of articles published. I did a few myself but focused mainly on proof-reading as I kept working full-time and couldn’t get a hold of the way I had been living (work on different sites and a semi-stable accommodation).

Somehow we kept going throughout the year of 2016 and beginning of this year. We knew that if we wanted to move on and dedicate more time to the blog we should set up an office and a living place together, kind of a mini FOTCM house. And we were getting close enough to that (or that’s what we thought at the time) just before we realized it’s not gonna be that way. Short of money, with uncertain prospects of how to make living and not finding a little suitable place with a bit of perspective, we decided to first get our lives backed up so we could afford to really start such a project. Rylek left for England and I went on to working self-employed officially.

Although the situation is far from being solved now, we keep going in a steady pace and, as I see it, are ready to step up our publishing activity. With this in mind, we would really like to start transferring all the articles into the SOTT database which in itself is a task that will take some time. We have started proof-reading the original texts continuously along with publishing new ones and our impression is that it would be far better not to wait and start storing the files in the proper SOTT format on the website so whenever we feel strong to kick off, we have the foundation ready. There are over 200 hundred pieces on the blog of which about half is well worth being published on SOTT. The rest might be somewhat out-of-date (these are mostly shorter articles focused on current issues, although they might not need to be discarded).

During the last three years of my own activity on Facebook I have also made many connections with politicians and activist within the Czech pond and explored the alternative as well as mainstream media. Now I feel ready to put it to use and alongside with occasional translating and regular proof-reading we shall be able to keep the website updated on regular basis. Right now the speed is about one translated article per week (on average over period of the last three years) and if we add let’s say two reprinted CZ articles with original comments, it could be the starting level for the SOTT CZ site. The main focus will remain on getting the original SOTT authors’ articles & original videos with subtitles translated. From that point we can expand whenever it suits.

So the question is – what does the SOTT crew and forumites think of the idea and in case the green light was given, would you suggest what we should improve and prepare before we dive into this project? Thanks very much for your feedback. It will be very appreciated.

P.S. Here you can find the extended hand of the blog on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/naseveru.media/
and give it a like

 

[rylek]

Thanks anka for getting the ball rolling on this potential SOTT Czech mutation by starting this thread. Yes, this project is something we've been discussing for a while now and until recently we didn't feel confident enough about whether we would be able to live up to the commitment - that is, we first wanted to have tangible and consistent results to show for and not just do the usual thing where everyone gets excited about all the potential work they'll do and then fizzle out in a short time. So to both of us it was important to first demonstrate our commitment to this project and that we can stay committed.

Personally I think anka summed up well the last 3 or so years of both our personal situation as well as co-operation on the Sott related translation work. I don't really have anything to add at this point, maybe worth mentioning might be that we've also been taking regular part int the Earth changes video translations over the last year or so.

Looking forward to any feedback on this topic! :)

 

[Dirgni]

I think another SOTT in Czech would be great. But it is not up to me to decide this. Do one or both of you have experience in posting articles in SOTT e.g. in English SOTT? If not then you could ask to get some experience there how to post articles. Which content do you plan besides translations?

I wish you good luck with your plans.

Edit: Added the last sentence

 

[rylek]

I think another SOTT in Czech would be great. But it is not up to me to decide this. Do one or both of you have experience in posting articles in SOTT e.g. in English SOTT? If not then you could ask to get some experience there how to post articles. Which content do you plan besides translations?

I wish you good luck with your plans.

Edit: Added the last sentence

I used to be an English SOTT editor for a while at one point so do have experience with posting articles. It's an idea worth considering to re-start posting on English SOTT first and then transition to a Czech version.

As for what other content apart from translations we want to focus on, in general local and international political topics with additional commentary in line with SOTT's take / perspective on the subject, but basically we would aim to cover as many categories - health & wellness, earth changes, psychology etc. - from local sources as well, again with additional commentary / links to already translated original SOTT articles as necessary.

 

[anka]

I think another SOTT in Czech would be great. But it is not up to me to decide this. Do one or both of you have experience in posting articles in SOTT e.g. in English SOTT? If not then you could ask to get some experience there how to post articles. Which content do you plan besides translations?

I wish you good luck with your plans.

Edit: Added the last sentence

I used to be an English SOTT editor for a while at one point so do have experience with posting articles. It's an idea worth considering to re-start posting on English SOTT first and then transition to a Czech version.

As for what other content apart from translations we want to focus on, in general local and international political topics with additional commentary in line with SOTT's take / perspective on the subject, but basically we would aim to cover as many categories - health & wellness, earth changes, psychology etc. - from local sources as well, again with additional commentary / links to already translated original SOTT articles as necessary.

I have joined the SOTT editor team a few years ago and produced only one short original article. Upon teaming up with rylek we reconnected with the Yahoo translators group and for some time we had been exchanging messages there. After that we started communicating in a messenger mode on FB and during our weekly video chats.

You are right, Dirgni, that posting on the main SOTT site would be useful. At the same time though transferring of the existing articles is the very same process. One needs to learn all the functions of the editing SW (TIPE). I am sure both of us would like to produce original pieces for the English SOTT but I think this can happen only occasionally for obvious reasons. The amount of work is huge so taking it step by step with focus on the Czech part is the only viable approach to avoid burn-outs and wishful thinking.

Considering the Czech scene, there are some interesting articles / persons / groups for the Health & Wellness category to pay attention to, surely we will also be following the Earth Changes & Fire in the Sky events and as rylek mentioned the Politics & Psychology side of things.

 

[Altair]

So the question is – what does the SOTT crew and forumites think of the idea and in case the green light was given, would you suggest what we should improve and prepare before we dive into this project? Thanks very much for your feedback. It will be very appreciated.

Your situation is not much different from the situation before creation of Russian Sott. Keit created an external blog and posted there some translated and other articles. At some point we decided to create Russian Sott and transferred then some of the most important articles from this blog to Russian Sott. The blog was closed with a notice for readers that we moved. I don't think you need any special preparation before diving into this project. If you both feel committed to do it and get green light, you can start right now, IMO.

 

[anka]

Your situation is not much different from the situation before creation of Russian Sott. Keit created an external blog and posted there some translated and other articles. At some point we decided to create Russian Sott and transferred then some of the most important articles from this blog to Russian Sott. The blog was closed with a notice for readers that we moved. I don't think you need any special preparation before diving into this project. If you both feel committed to do it and get green light, you can start right now, IMO.

That is basically what I thought how it can be done and how we plan to proceed but there are some technical things to be set up before this can be started if I understand correctly. For example there needs to be a dedicated section created with the Czech flag to add an article under the right category. I guess there are other issues we are yet not aware of. The Czech section would be naturally first fed with data/articles in off-line mode and once it's in a ready state we would ask for official kick-off.

We also expect the other senior members might raise some questions regarding our plan; hence this thread.

 

[Niall]

That is basically what I thought how it can be done and how we plan to proceed but there are some technical things to be set up before this can be started if I understand correctly. For example there needs to be a dedicated section created with the Czech flag to add an article under the right category. I guess there are other issues we are yet not aware of. The Czech section would be naturally first fed with data/articles in off-line mode and once it's in a ready state we would ask for official kick-off.

We also expect the other senior members might raise some questions regarding our plan; hence this thread.

It's quite a bit more work than that. A new website would need to be created, translations made of all terminology into Czech, a new daily Czech Sott news email set up, a new Sott email account, and more.

We can only agree to doing all this if you understand that you would have to hit the ground running. Going by your blog statistics, your current rate of posting is once per week. You would need to increase the volume to at least 5 items per day. There would need to be Sott comments accompanying as many articles as possible, while you also actively work to publish your own content. You could initially translate EN Sott Focuses as the site's 'original content', but you would be expected to write our own content too. There should also be engagement with readers, both on the site and on social media, while also dealing with messages they send directly to the site.

If you convince us that you are able to work at this level, then we will put in the work to create a new site.

 

[anka]

It's quite a bit more work than that. A new website would need to be created, translations made of all terminology into Czech, a new daily Czech Sott news email set up, a new Sott email account, and more.

We can only agree to doing all this if you understand that you would have to hit the ground running. Going by your blog statistics, your current rate of posting is once per week. You would need to increase the volume to at least 5 items per day. There would need to be Sott comments accompanying as many articles as possible, while you also actively work to publish your own content. You could initially translate EN Sott Focuses as the site's 'original content', but you would be expected to write our own content too. There should also be engagement with readers, both on the site and on social media, while also dealing with messages they send directly to the site.

If you convince us that you are able to work at this level, then we will put in the work to create a new site.

Thank you for the reply, Niall. Let me answer it in parts.

A new website would need to be created

Here I was perhaps thinking a bit naively when I presumed that for the most part it just takes creation of a new subdomain and transfer the functioning code identical to the original, requiring only to get the terminology localized for the new language. Not taking it lightly, I can imagine that it would need some fine tuning and online cooperation with us too because of correct display of menus in Czech, links etc.

translations made of all terminology into Czech

That's understood, we would provide that.

a new daily Czech Sott news email set up, a new Sott email account, and more.

I supposed there is quiet a bunch of those smaller but time-taking jobs and that the admins would need to put in extra time for this purpose.

We can only agree to doing all this if you understand that you would have to hit the ground running. Going by your blog statistics, your current rate of posting is once per week. You would need to increase the volume to at least 5 items per day. There would need to be Sott comments accompanying as many articles as possible, while you also actively work to publish your own content.

That's a level I personally cannot guarantee. When looking at other SOTT teams, some of the smaller ones don't reach that limit either but don't get me wrong here. I surely understand that this is a reasonable standard where any language mutation of SOTT should be. For readers, for admins who put their work into it and for the site to be taken seriously and its ability to send the message out.

When we thought of switching from the blog to SOTT, I had two options on my mind.

1) either we would aim to translate all original, 'Focus' pieces by SOTT since they are on rise, thankfully, and additionally we would reprint a few articles from Czech sites with original comments, depending on how much time we have. This way we would be somewhere around 2 SOTT pieces plus about 5 reprints a week.

2) or I would let rylek continue translating those gems he picks (and he really goes for the substantial, fairly long articles so there's not much time left for him to do something more) and I would focus on the Czech scene with original comment along with translating really short articles with videos, e.g. FireInTheSky category which are often just 1-2 paragraph things. That way I could guarantee something around 15 articles per week to start with.

If I said we could do more than that now, it would not be a realistic estimation. As we go and learn, these numbers could go perhaps somewhat higher.

You could initially translate EN Sott Focuses as the site's 'original content', but you would be expected to write our own content too. There should also be engagement with readers, both on the site and on social media, while also dealing with messages they send directly to the site.

As to SOTT Focus pieces, I mentioned that above. When it comes to writing our own articles, I want to learn that skill by writing original comments to gain some confidence. That also comes from reading the Focus pieces by others, including reading of discussions below those articles but here I must practice and engage much more, I know that. Expressing myself and formulating ideas/opinions in a longer-than-one-paragraph wording is not a stable ground for me yet.

Engagement with readers... do you mean comments below the articles? I don't think we could handle this in such a manner that would be of the standard we get on the English SOTT with all of you senior writers engaged but I practice on FB Na Severu page posts when people react. The traffic from readers on our page is really low when it comes to comments, only in the groups where we promote the posts it is more lively and I engage there too. I would do my best to at least stand our ground and to make sure that people understand our take on a given article and its context.
And the same goes for emails. However, I would welcome some sort of workshop or a video talk where the more experienced editors could share their handling of all affairs.

If you convince us that you are able to work at this level, then we will put in the work to create a new site.

The best way to convince the SOTT team would be to show a blog that fulfills the order. We were actually thinking of that, stepping up our effort along with changing the now-unsuitable graphic design of the blog according to SOTT format or even setting up a proper website which would allow us to really get close to the original with all the categories (the old wordpress blogspot format is pretty limiting in that way) but than we thought of one crucial thing. The transfer of all data from the blog to a new site is a time-taking process and if we were to move to SOTT later on, we would have to do it again all over. With all interlinks to other articles etc. That's how we ended up here, asking you what you think of our idea.

So this is how I see it.

If you think we should rather stick with our blog and show our commitment by giving the blog a good kick before coming back to you then that's where we will focus now. And in that case I might ask whether there is a chance that we could speak to admins about possibility of getting some tech info concerning the format of the articles. Perhaps we get some friend - web designer - to build a new simple site for our purpose and if we were able to incorporate the SOTT data format for articles into our site so a later transfer would be more user-friendly, that on its own would be of great help.

 

[Niall]

That's a level I personally cannot guarantee. When looking at other SOTT teams, some of the smaller ones don't reach that limit either.

We're considering shutting down the other-language sites that are not very active.

I think you should focus on making what you already have better.

There are plenty of one-man-shows out there that have made major impacts with meager resources. The sky is the limit!

Of course, you're always welcome to try working on English Sott. But maybe you feel like your calling is to work in the Czech language and for a Czech audience.

 

[anka]

I think you should focus on making what you already have better.

There are plenty of one-man-shows out there that have made major impacts with meager resources. The sky is the limit!

Of course, you're always welcome to try working on English Sott. But maybe you feel like your calling is to work in the Czech language and for a Czech audience.

Thank you, Niall, for your comments. We will proceed as suggested. Our main focus will be the Czech audience but the intensified effort on that part should actually bring us back to the mother ship with some material worth publishing. It only makes sense.

 

[anka]

I want to ask admins to move this thread to the C' Sandbox / Bloggers Blog section. Think it will fit better there and we will continue to update it along the way. Desired name of the thread is: "NaSeveru.org - CZ/SK blog with focus on SOTT articles". The new domain will be put online soon, at the moment we are working on formatting the bunch of the already translated files transferred from previous blogspot site.

 

[Gawan]

I want to ask admins to move this thread to the C' Sandbox / Bloggers Blog section. Think it will fit better there and we will continue to update it along the way. Desired name of the thread is: "NaSeveru.org - CZ/SK blog with focus on SOTT articles". The new domain will be put online soon, at the moment we are working on formatting the bunch of the already translated files transferred from previous blogspot site.

IMO it would be better as soon as the new site is available to announce it in a new topic in the bloggers section, like a fresh start.

 

[anka]

IMO it would be better as soon as the new site is available to announce it in a new topic in the bloggers section, like a fresh start.

Point taken. Thus will be done :)

 

[anka]

Ok, here it is at last: Na Severu ... a Czech web full of SOTT