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For many years, our coders and translation volunteers have been working to internationalize AO3. Today, we are excited to announce that registered users will now be able to receive notification emails from us in another language! If you are logged in to your AO3 account, you can go to your Preferences page and choose the locale that we will use when sending you emails, such as kudos or subscription notifications.
We are starting off by enabling the option to receive notification emails in Simplified Chinese (中文（简体）). After we are sure that the new preference is working correctly and the translated emails are going out smoothly, other languages will be enabled – hopefully very soon!
Note that we are not translating user-created content, such as fanworks or comments. For example, in a translated kudos email, the subject "You've got kudos!" and the number of guests who left kudos will be translated. However, the list of usernames and the titles of your works will remain in their original languages.
When will my language be available?
Simplified Chinese (中文（简体）) is currently the only available language, because we wanted to focus on enabling the locale preference. More languages will be made available once we've confirmed that the new preference is working correctly. This staggered rollout allows us to get the completed translations to you as soon as possible, instead of delaying them until everything is fully coded, tested, and translated.
Why are some emails still in English after I select a locale?
AO3 has over 30 different types of emails, but not all of them are translated yet. Instead, we are focusing on the most common emails, as well as some emails that are needed for technical or security reasons. As translations for more emails become available over time, we will start sending out the translated versions based on the locale you've chosen instead of the default, English text. This means that some emails may remain in English for some time, or be partially in English, even after you select a different locale in your preferences. Enabling a language as soon as the most used emails are translated helps get translations to you faster.
Additionally, we can't send translated emails to guests, such as notifications for replies to comments you left without logging in.
Can I volunteer to translate emails in my language?
Yes! The Translation committee accepts translator applications year-round, and would love to hear from you, whether you'd like to join an existing language team, or pioneer a team for a language we don't cover yet! Please note that our translators work on a variety of content, including AO3 email localization, FAQs, news posts, and other documents, and if you pass our selection process, you'll receive several different types of tasks to work on. If you enjoy working in a team and would like to help make even more content available in your language, please get in touch with Translation!
Why isn't the rest of the site translated?
We chose to translate notification emails first, because they are relatively self-contained and thus simpler to translate and technically implement compared to the full website interface. This has allowed us to use the emails to develop coding standards and translation processes which we can now utilize for the interface. We're already making progress on this, but we can't promise anything yet.
If you have experience with web application development, especially in Ruby on Rails and internationalization, you can become a code contributor to help us further this and other initiatives.
I spotted an incorrect translation, how can I tell you about it?
Please contact Translation with the following information, and they will review your suggestion.
- the subject line of the email notification
- a full quote of the text that you believe is incorrect
- and an explanation of what you think it should be changed to and why
We’re excited to move forward with this important work to make AO3 more accessible to our international user base, and we look forward to adding more languages, as well as internationalizing the main website interface, in the future!