ME3Explorer Tutorials (Beginners) in german

[flumme]

Hello,

I don't know where to write this, sorry.


A friend of mine have writen 3 great Tutorials about ME3Explorer. One Tutorial is a bit older. The two other ones are new and about the ME3Explorer v3.0.

--link removed--

The two new Tutorials are for absolute Beginners and with a lot of great pictures.

Hope it helps a few german users.

Greetings

[ottemis]

Looks (in part) like a translation of my original first time setup guide, very cool indeed.

[giftfish]

You should mention a couple things to your friend.

1. It's very clear they have pulled -- at the very least -- some images straight from the ME3Explorer wiki. This, in theory, is fine. However, they don't provide any credit to myself (as uploader) or the wiki, which is against the terms of the CC-BY-SA that Wikia distributes its content under. Not a single tutorial  -- of the now 4 tutorials -- links to the toolset's own wiki. EDIT: That statement was in error. There's a link I initially missed at the bottom of one tutorial with a very simple "Source" label. However, this links to the wiki home page, not the actual source material for the article.

2. Your friend is distributing their tutorials under a CC BY-NC-ND license, which goes against Wikia's terms. All their content is distributed under CC-BY-SA. One of the terms of that license is that any derivative works are distributed under the same license. That means, if you use any of Wikia's content in your work, then it MUST be distributed under CC-BY-SA.

This means that any content your friend has pulled from the official ME3Explorer wiki, is technically being used illegally as they have not followed the the terms of the license. If they change their own licensing to CC-BY-SA, then they also still need to link and cite the exact toolset article(s) used in each tutorial. Their other option is to remove every piece of content (written or image) that they've pulled from the wiki.

I may report the problem to their host and Wikia, I may not. Dealing with licensing and copyright issues, frankly, sucks. It's no fun for anyone. For now, I've removed the link in your post, as we certainly aren't going to provide traffic to a site that's used our own wiki content without using the appropriate licensing terms. If they fix it, I'll restore the link.

---

Legal issues aside, any tutorial is only as good as the knowledge of the person writing it.

These tutorials, specifically, seem a bit unnecessary as all they do is explain -- in german -- the exact content that is already on the toolset's own wiki. How to set up the toolset. How to use Texplorer. How to use TPF Tools. Any webpage can be translated with Google Translate. For example, here's a translation in german of the Texplorer article. I'm sure it's not perfect -- automated translations never are -- but, if I were a german user, I'd rather use an automated translation of the official manual (which is what the wiki is), then a user-created translation that could contain their own misunderstandings or incomplete information.

On a slightly different note, all toolset users are *expected* to use the official toolset wiki. For tool usage, troubleshooting, and especially for things like setup. This is why the wiki has been created. So we know there is a consistent and correct source of information for users. If a bunch of translated versions pop up from dozens of people on dozens of sites, and they all create their "own version" of the wiki articles, that's a problem. Wisest course of action for non-English language speakers is to use Google Translate and translate the toolset's wiki directly.

EDIT: Grammar, word choice. New paragraph at the bottom.

[sil]

I disagree entirely with saying that translating tutorials is a bit unnecessary. Google translate is far from perfect and tends to do literal translation which will create confusing sentences. It makes sense for someone to put the effort in the create tutorials in other languages as it could go a long way towards bringing talented individuals into modding.

I do agree that the translator should have asked permission to translate it, but I think it is overkill to consider reporting it.

[giftfish]

Jun 15, 2017 15:00:27 GMT sil said:

Google translate is far from perfect and tends to do literal translation which will create confusing sentences.

I'm aware of that, as I stated.

Jun 15, 2017 15:00:27 GMT sil said:

It makes sense for someone to put the effort in the create tutorials in other languages as it could go a long way towards bringing talented individuals into modding.

The better way to do this would be working with us and publishing it to the wiki to ensure a complete and as literal as possible translation. Otherwise, the potential problems I pointed out with translated copies stands. They aren't alleviated simply because it would be nice to get more people into modding.

Also, remember that the wiki in its current form contains content mostly for mod users, not modders themselves. Similarly, these particular tutorials aren't about "bringing talented people into modding". They are about teaching User X how to set up the toolset and install a texture. That was the context in which I made the comment.

The wiki was set up *precisely* b/c we had problems with this previously. Because every modder was having to publish their own tutorials and instructions as to how to use the toolset. Modder X would say "do this", modder Y would say "do that". Users need a consistent, reliable source of information from the product creator. *We* need to know as the toolset admins that users are following our instructions, which we know are correct.

Jun 15, 2017 15:00:27 GMT sil said:

I do agree that the translator should have asked permission to translate it, but I think it is overkill to consider reporting it.

Permission is entirely unnecessary. That's why the content is distributed under a Creative Commons license. As one of the wiki admins I absolutely *don't want* permission requests sent my way.

The issue is with following the terms of the license properly. This person has not. I'm not saying there's malicious intent -- there often isn't. The problem is sometimes people just don't think things through clearly before they do them. There's also tendency among certain folks that they want to be able to USE whatever content they find on the internet however they want, but when it comes to other people reusing content THEY publish, they want to be highly-restrictive. I'm not saying that's what's happened here, but the appearance is there. It's much more likely the person simply didn't check how the Wikia content is licensed -- and that in itself is a problem.

Also, if what you're publishing is a translation of something that already exists, it's better form to be very clear about it at the outset. A clear notice at the top of the page, rather than a tiny source citation at the bottom (that can be easily overlooked, as I initially did, and that doesn't even link to the page being translated).