WP-Mix

How I respond to “translation spam”, which happens when greasy organizations ask permission to translate your script, extension, plugin, etc.

Can has translation?

As a WordPress plugin developer, I get the occasional email requesting permission to translate one of my plugins into whatever language. The email requests tend to look something like this:

Or something along those lines. If you’ve been involved with WordPress development for any length of time, and have plugins or themes available at WordPress.org, you’re no doubt familiar with this type of request.

Sure, such requests may seem legit on the surface, but after following through on a couple of them, you begin to understand that it’s all just another scheme for the “translator” to get backlinks to their site. Yes of course some translation requests may come from legitimate sources, but in my experience 99% of them are just trying to get some links to their site.

Help to educating the translators

So that’s the context, and after getting so many of these types of “translation requests” over the years, I now reply with a copy of the following template:

You see, even though a translation request seems like the sender wants to do you a favor, they eventually will hit you up for a “credit link” or similar back to their site. This is the whole point of going out of their way to “ask” you for permission; so you are made aware of the “favor” and will feel obliged to reciprocate with a link back to their site. Typically they will indeed send you a translation of your plugin, and along with the request ask for the link back. Bada boom, bada bing. Scam complete.

In my experience legit translators will just send you a copy of the translation files. Then it’s up to you to include any credit link (which I usually do). Besides, anyone working on translating plugins should understand that no permission is required because it’s all open source. Thus, it’s the “asking” for permission that makes it suspicious.

The more you know..

In any case, just wanted to share this experience with anyone else wondering about why they periodically receive translation requests for their scripts/plugins.

My advice? Do a little research on the person sending the request. If they look legit to you, then by all means knock yourself out and accept the free translation.

Otherwise, if it looks like they are affiliated with some greasy company looking for links, then let them know that there is absolutely no need to ask permission to translate WordPress plugins or themes because they are open source. That will deflate their “favor” and free you from any “obligatory” links back to their site. You’re also leaving it open for them to go ahead and send a translation if that’s what they really want to do. Most likely, however, you’ll never hear from them again :)