There are numerous ways to contribute to the Polyglots team. Contributions can be local and global, and anywhere from translation to overseeing translation quality.
On this page, you’ll find a description of:
- Roles and expectations for global and local Polyglots teams
- User roles and permissions on translate.wordpress.org, Rosetta sites, team sites, and local forums
User roles on locale sites are similar to pre-defined WordPress roles. On locale sites, some additional capabilities are added to the Editor role and an additional Translation Editor role is available. Translation Editor is a complementary role that can be assigned to Editors, Authors, Contributors, and/or Subscribers.
Locale forums are running on bbPress and have a different set of roles and capabilities.
The contributor ladder
A contributor ladder generally shows how it may look for a contributor to progress over time. This can be a useful tool for:
- new translators to understand how to grow in their role as Polyglots contributors
- translation editors to think through ways to keep community members engaged
- general translation editors or locale managers to create clearer expectations within their teams
As a general guide, the Polyglots contributor ladder often looks like this.
How to use the contributor ladder
The contributor ladder is a suggestion that may be helpful for teams. If you’d like to use this resource for your local team, you may:
- Translate the image above, as well as portions (or all) of this page
- Adapt the image to reflect your team’s structure better
- Potentially add new roles, as well, if it’s an improvement to your team
You can translate the image above using this template from Canva, or this blank document.
While it may seem obvious, sharing this contributor ladder is valuable for new contributors to understand how to grow within their role. For example, additional mentorship roles can help new contributors seek mentorship and experienced contributors develop skills as they teach others.
This is not “one size fits all.” Each locale team will have its own needs, depending on size, local customs, and interest. You are encouraged to use only what helps and revisit your local contributor ladder regularly to ensure your team structure supports your goals.
Team roles and responsibilities
Translator
Translator is typically how most, if not all, Polyglots contributors begin. Translators are the volunteers that translate projects into their language. Translation contributors can suggest translations to any project that then need to be verified by a translation editor.
Since all contributions (including validation of translation) are based on voluntary work, some locales (target languages) have large backlogs of pending strings. The current number of waiting strings for each locale can be seen in https://translate.wordpress.org/stats/. The preferred way to deal with this is for the translator to contact the Polyglots’ team for their locale to get feedback on the translations and perhaps get promoted to PTE. Therefore, strings suggested by an active and reachable individual contributor have larger chances of being approved, than automatically generated translations of low quality, semi-anonymously uploaded by a developer.
Project Translation Editor
A Project Translation Editor (PTE) is a person (i.e. an individual contributor) who has access to validate strings on a specific project (e.g. the BuddyPress plugin, WordPress for iOS app, or Twenty Twenty theme) for one specific locale (e.g. Hungarian). A PTE can translate and approve translation suggestions that are added by translation contributors to the project for which they’re an editor. PTEs are appointed by a General Translation Editor after a request by the project author or by the contributors themselves. In most cases, this request is made directly within each locale team, but can also be made as a post on the team blog https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/.
Super Project Translation Editor (Optional)
A Super Project Translation Editor (Super PTE) is an optional role. It refers to a person who has access to validate strings on a specific group of projects, such as all Plugins or Themes, for a specific locale. Super PTEs can translate and review suggested translations to any project within the group of projects for which they’re an editor. A General Translation Editor must appoint a Super PTE. While not all locale teams use this role, it can be helpful for teams wishing to allow consistent and committed contributors to build experience before becoming a GTE.
General Translation Editor
A General Translation Editor (often referred to as GTE) is a person (i.e. an individual contributor role) who has global access to validate strings on all projects for a specific locale. GTEs are promoted by a Locale Manager for the same locale. If there are no active GTEs for the locale, a new GTE can be appointed by a Polyglots Global Mentor after a request on make.wordpress.org/polyglots.
GTEs typically act as community leaders in their locale. Depending on the size of the locale and number of GTEs, they may decide to prioritize and divide tasks, such as the following:
- Translation consistency and quality
- Community building
- Documentation, e.g. locale handbooks or translating support documentation
- Marketing, e.g. promoting local events or translating /news posts
It may be helpful for locale teams to decide if they want to divide these roles. For example, a large locale team may wish to have one GTE focused on community building while two others are focused on translation reviews and feedback. This can help to divide tasks and allow for other contributors to grow into different types of leadership roles based on interest and experience.
Locale Manager
A Locale Manager is an individual contributor role, who is often responsible for many of the same tasks as GTEs. In addition, Locale Managers are also responsible for:
- Generally maintaining and assisting with access to the local Rosetta site
- Appointing new GTEs
- Assisting with package releases for new versions of WordPress
Polyglots team representative
The team representative role – often shortened to team rep – is an annual position on the global Polyglots team. Team reps act as liaisons between the Polyglots contributor team and the rest of the WordPress project. Nominations typically open at the end of the year. Historically, team reps have often led weekly Polyglots meetings and coordinated with one another to share important information relevant to the global Polyglots team.
Global Mentor
A Polyglots Global Mentor is a role on the global Polyglots team. There are two sub-roles within the Global Mentor role:
- Global Mentor
- Tech Lead
Global Mentors are typically responsible for mentoring the Polyglots contributor team on a high-level through tasks such as:
- triaging requests on the Make/Polyglots blog
- removing obstacles to contribution, e.g. providing editor access when a translation team is inactive
- conflict resolution
- general advice on best practices for translators, editors, and developers
Tech Leads help with the technical aspects of translating WordPress and related projects. This may include helping troubleshoot issues with translate.wordpress.org, general best practices for internationalization, and often acting as a liaison to share relevant information on the Core development process with locale teams.
Cross-Locale Project Translation Editor
A Cross-Locale Project Translation Editor (CLPTE) is an administrative function that can be assigned to a special account owned by a plugin or theme author (or the authoring organization), which uses professional translators to localize their product. The CLPTE can import strings on their specific projects for all locales, but doesn’t have access to review/accept/reject other users’ strings. CLPTEs need to meet a set of criteria before being appointed by a Global Mentor.
Since a CLPTE just administrates translations, the translation quality must be assured by the translator. Therefore, the following should be observed:
- Professional translators should be used.
- Translator should be informed about the target locale’s style guide and glossary. See https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/translating/glossaries-and-style-guides-per-locale/
- Translator should be informed about how to contact the locale team, in case of questions. See https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/translating/teams/local-slacks/
It is not possible to combine CLPTE and PTE for the same user account. (The CLPTE access and limitations take over).
A manually maintained list of current CLPTE’s is located at https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/clpte-list/
Other roles
Polyglots’ work often extends beyond translation and localization. In many communities, the local translation community is also directly tied to support and forums, Meetups and other WordPress-related events, and generally building the local WordPress community.
Other related roles and responsibilities to keep in mind include:
- Locale documentation to build out the local Handbook, guides, and information for contributors to that specific language.
- Meetup and/or WordCamp organizers, who can help to recruit new contributors or introduce new contributors to best practices and processes, especially at events like Contributor Days.
- Other Make team roles and contributions, such as Docs, Marketing, Training, and WordPress.tv. For example, some locales have a community member contributing directly to the Training team to help with localizing existing Learn WordPress content or helping to create new tutorials in their language.
- Local forms of communication, including local Slack instances and/or chat groups to help contributors communicate and coordinate with one another.
As you explore your local contributor journey, it can be helpful to see where these roles connect and overlap with your translation needs.
Overview of user roles and permissions
translate.wordpress.org user roles
| Global Mentor | Locale Manager | GTE | PTE | CLPTE | Contributor | |
| Moderate all translations for a locale | YES | YES | YES | |||
| Moderate translations for a project in a locale | YES | YES | YES | YES | ||
| Moderate translations for a project in all locales | ||||||
| Suggest translations | YES | |||||
| Import translation file as “Current” status | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES* | |
| Import translation file as “Waiting” status | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
CLPTEs can’t approve, reject, edit, or replace translated strings from other users.
Local sites (Rosetta) user roles
Locale Manager
- all capabilities of a pre-defined editor role
- add/promote/remove users
- add/remove Translation Editors
- release WordPress packages
Editor
- all capabilities of a pre-defined editor role
Author
- all capabilities of a pre-defined author role
Contributor
- all capabilities of a pre-defined contributor role
Subscriber
- all capabilities of a pre-defined subscriber role
| Polyglots Global Mentor | Locale Manager | |
| Admin all Rosetta sites | YES | |
| Assign CLPTEs | YES | |
| Admin a locale Rosetta site | YES | YES |
| Assign LMs for a locale | YES | YES |
| Assign other roles for locale site (editor, etc.) | YES | YES |
| Assign PTEs for a locale | YES | YES |
| Assign GTEs for a locale | YES | YES |
Team site user roles
An example of a “team site” is https://fr.wordpress.org/team/, which also contains a handbook section like https://fr.wordpress.org/team/handbook/.
Locale managers of the parent Rosetta site of a team site have an Editor role unless the role is explicitly removed.
Editor
- all capabilities of a pre-defined editor role
- add/promote/remove users
- change theme settings
Author
- all capabilities of a pre-defined author role
Contributor
- all capabilities of a pre-defined contributor role
Subscriber
- all capabilities of a pre-defined subscriber role
| Global Mentor | Locale Manager | GTE | PTE | Contributor | |
| Moderate posts | YES | ||||
| Review PTE requests on P2 | YES | YES | YES | ||
| Add users | YES | YES |
Locale forums user roles
Keymaster
- add/edit/remove forums, topics and posts
- open/close topics
- stick/unstick topics
- promote/demote users
- edit users’ profile
Moderator
- add/edit/remove topics and posts
- open/close topics
- stick/unstick topics
- edit own profile
Member
- add topics and posts
- read forums/topics/posts
- edit own posts for up to 35 minutes from the time of submission
- edit own profile
Inactive
- read forums/topics/posts
- change own password
Blocked
- No capabilities (only applies to that particular locale)
| Global Mentor | Locale Forum Admin | Locale Forum Moderator | |
| Moderate a locale forum | YES | YES | YES |
| Assign locale forum admin | YES | YES | |
| Assign locale forum moderator | YES | YES |
Other
| Polyglots Global Mentor | Locale Manager | GTE | PTE | CLPTE | WP.org User | |
| Host a weekly meeting on Make WordPress Slack | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Polyglots table lead at Contributor Day | YES | YES | YES | YES | ||
| Spotting plugins and themes that use not-very-translatable-strings | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |