There is not one singular Global Voices website. There are many sites, from all of the language sites at Global Voices to the various sites dedicated to individual projects. With publishing happening in so many different places, what’s the best way for Lingua translators to find a story to translate?

Claiming a story to translate

Before you start looking for a story to translate, it’s important to first understand the process by which you claim a story to translate.

To confirm that no one else is working on the story that you want to translate, you need to “fetch” it within WordPress while logged into your language site: Add a New Post, insert the original URL in a section called GV Lingua Translation, and click Fetch Post Data. Once you have done so, you have effectively claimed the story to translate – no one else can work on it at the same time as you.

The “GV Lingua Translation” section in the backend of a WordPress post.

However, if, after clicking Fetch Post Data, you see an error message at the top of the screen and [translation_placeholder] in the title field, it means someone has already claimed the story on your language site, so you’ll need to pick a different one. See the Beginner’s Guide to Translating Global Voices Stories for details.

Places to look for stories to translate

Now that you know how to claim a story to translate, where can you look for available stories? There are three main ways.

Look at the home pages of Global Voices sites

The most popular source of stories for translation is Global Voices in English, where most stories are originally published. But you can also translate stories from any of the other language sites, from the Advox and Rising Voices sites, or from the Community Blog. Simply navigate to any of those sites and scroll through the home page. When a story catches your eye, you need to check if it is available for translation before you can start translating. See the section Claiming a Story to Translate above.

Some stories about arts and culture published on the Global Voices in English site.

Browse the “Lingua All Original Posts” list in WordPress

In the backend of our WordPress, which is the content management system that Global Voices uses to publish stories, there is a section called GV Stats where you can see various reports about our publishing. One of these lists, called Lingua All Original Posts, is particularly helpful for finding stories to translate. It presents an overview of all original stories published across all Global Voices sites – all possible source texts for a translator – as well as information about their translations.

The “Lingua All Original Posts” list is accessed in the “GV Stats” section of the backend of WordPress.

In order to access the Lingua All Original Posts, you need to log into your WordPress account on your language site. Next, click on GV Stats in the black WordPress sidebar. Locate Lingua All Original Posts among the options and click on it.

You will be taken to list with five columns:

• • The Title column contains the headline of the original story and a link to it.
    • If the story has been translated on your language site, this column will also contain 1. the translated headline; 2. a link to that translation; and 3. an indication of its status: DRAFT, PENDING, or its date of publication.
    • The Date column contains the date that the original story was published.
    • The Site Slug column contains the Global Voices site where the original story was published. For example, globalvoices_en means the story was originally published on Global Voices in English.
    • The Translations column contains links to all of the original story’s translations published across all language sites.
    • The Local Version column indicates if the original story in question is translated on a language site:
      • If you see that the column is empty, it means that the original story is available for translation in your language.
      • If you see that the column contains the word Translation, it means someone is already working on translating that story.
      • If you see that the column contains the word Original, it means that the story was originally published in your language and therefore is not available for translation in your language.

The “Lingua All Original Posts” list has five columns: Title, Date, Site Slug, Translations and Local Version. The screenshot here is the list as seen on the English-language site.

You can tailor the list according to your own personal needs in two ways:

• • • Filter the results according to whichever time period you prefer.
      • For example, if you only want to show stories published in the past seven days, select Past 7 days in the dropdown and then click the Go button.
    • Sort the results however you prefer.
      • For example, if you select the Site Slug option, the results will be ordered alphabetically according to their “site slug,” which indicates the language site where the original story was published. A site slug includes the word “globalvoices” followed by an underscore and the language’s ISO 639 language code.

In summary, simply browse the list. If a certain story catches your eye and you see that the Local Version column is empty, it means that the story is available for translation in your language. However, before you can start translating, you need to “fetch” the story in WordPress. See the section Claiming a Story to Translate above.

As you browse the list, you will notice that not all Global Voices stories are originally published in English. Some are originally published in other languages, like Spanish and French. If you have the capacity to translate from these non-English source languages, and your Translation Manager agrees, you are welcome to translate these stories as well. There is no need to wait until these stories are translated into English.

Stay in touch with your Translation Manager

Some Translation Managers promote specific stories for translation by sending a message to their entire language community; the first translator to respond to the message wins the right to translate the story. In other cases, a Translation Manager might individually assign you a specific story to translate. Make sure that you are in contact with your Translation Manager and that you belong to whichever communication channel (e.g. mailing list, Slack channel, WhatsApp group) is used for your language community.

In either scenario, before you can start translating, you need to “fetch” the story in WordPress. See the section Claiming a Story to Translate above.