How to Onboard new translators in project?

Tips and Tricks
1

When new translators join the Nextcloud project, they are initially overwhelmed by the scale of the project.

I’d like to provide new translators with information to help them get off to a good start.

Now my question:
How can I provide the new translator with information?
What options are available on Transifex for onboarding a new translator?
Is there any integrated option (email after first login, message, …)?

We have a starter kit (instructions, how-to guides, FAQs).

2

Hi @rakekniven

It is completely normal for translators to feel overwhelmed when joining large projects. While Transifex does not currently offer an automated “first-login trigger” email, there are several integrated, native options available to share your starter kit, FAQs, and guidelines directly with linguists:

1. Translator Style Guides (Directly in the Web Editor)

  • How it works: Create and attach a project style guide containing your brand voice, tone, formatting rules, and direct links to your external starter kit or documentation.
  • Translator experience: Translators can open the Style Guide link in the top-right corner of the Web Editor at any time without leaving their workspace.
  • Help Center Guide: Adding Style Guides

2. Project Announcements (Instant Email + Pinned Banner)

  • How it works: Post a welcome announcement directly on the project dashboard.
  • Translator experience: Transifex sends an instant email notification containing your message and starter kit links to all project collaborators. It also remains permanently visible under the Announcements tab.
  • Help Center Guide: Announcements, Discussions, and Messages

3. Team Discussions & Direct Messages

  • How it works: Under the Teams section, start targeted discussion threads for specific language groups or message individual translators directly.
  • Translator experience: Team members receive an email notification and an alert in their notification center with a link back to the discussion.
  • Help Center Guide: Announcements, Discussions, and Messages

Let us know if this information helps you and address your concerns.

Best regards,
Carlos from Transifex Support

3

Hello Carlos,

thank you for your quick response.

  1. We don’t currently use any style guides. I took a look at it, and the translator first needs to know that these style guides exist.
  2. We use announcement often. My goal is to reach new translators, not all of them.
  3. Sending direct messages is a possibility. Here on discourse you can use text templates to send to user. At Transifex I first need to pick the text from somewhere and insert it into a message. And first of all I need to find out when a translator joins the project.

It helps, but onboarding new volunteers is a bit cumbersome and takes time.

Ideally, a translator would receive a message (email) as soon as they join our project, and I would be able to update the content of that message in the Transifex web UI.

Best regards

4

Hello Carlos,

how do other communities managing the onboarding of their volunteers?

5

Hi @rakekniven

Volunteer onboarding and community management are owned independently by each organization rather than by Transifex directly, so we cannot tell in detail how this is being managed.

Most of the common practices include the ones that were shared in my previous answer plus the public documentation about starting with the basics

We know that this might not be the expected answer but for now these are the only ways to communicate with this new users.

Best regards,
Carlos Olvera

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