Hi everyone! I have barely been playing CubeCraft at all in the past months and been not involved in the community at all on the forums. I only read the past three months of threads today, where I found one of the smallest parts of a thread which I did not expect to see. I added the full piece in a multi-quote so you can read it here, but you can also navigate to the thread by clicking here
I cannot state how disappointed I am with the translation team being returned in it's original form. CubeCraft back in the days made executive decisions to cut the Translation Team removing a massive group that found community and purpose while contributing on voluntary basis for CubeCraft. It back then was dismissed as it was too hard for people to join the process and help out with translating strings, but I suppose the real reason cannot be anything but the fact that the backend staff was not big enough. Later, this was revised by cutting the idea entirely, falling back to translations through AI (I cannot find the related post, please @ me if you do find it). I think this shows the real reason, not caring about community driven translations at all.
Mind you, I was a massive fan of the TT and hated the update back then, but I want to explain why this is terrible as an update to return from this statement and returning TT. Firstly, the original Translation Team is gone, and I don't expect anyone to return. From all the threads made by former TT members, it was clear the communication prior to this decision was abysmal, as the team heard no longer than 24 hours beforehand that their function would be ended with immediate effect. Now, three years later, starting the same exact project shows how little CubeCraft and Ziax cared about this department and likely will in the future. Nowhere in the thread it explained what led to the decision to bring the team back and what will be different in comparison to the team that was brutally removed from the network before.
Secondly, assuming the reason of removal was indeed backend resources and had nothing to do with community related reasons, I do not see a reason to prioritise availability of different languages as Polish and Mexican (which is basically Spanish, sue me) to the masses compared to making gamemodes available and having better management over this. The main issue with the network, now on both Bedrock and Java instead of just the latter, is the player count. I don't see how the availability of languages will attract more people to the network. Allocating the precious resources CubeCraft has to something that has no significant added value to the network in terms of player count seems bizarre to me.
Say the reason was community after all, I don't see how bringing back the team in it's original state will change anything from the reasoning that caused the TT's demise. With that, I think it would be perfectly fine to bring back MinerWare as well, as the player count argument does not hold up anymore - it is a new period anyways, so now it will work, I guess.
Lastly, I don't think the team will have any real effects, as there are simply not enough developers to implement translations at all right now. This has the consequence of the inevitable repeat of history, which I think is infinitely worse than not having a TT at all. This is likely to happen because even though the community is completely on voluntary basis, CubeCraft apparently still has to moderate and guide this community, which apparently requires more resources than we could initially tell. I think that there could have been clear guidelines three years ago with the original TT, but seeing that didn't happen I don't expect any of it in the future. If you read it, team CubeCraft, please take in mind that your communication is so much more valuable than you might ever know.
Overall, the return of TT shows weakness and deceit to the community. CubeCraft has not taken accountability for their mistakes in the past with Translation Team, gave faulty reasons of removing the team in the first place and tries to cover it up as a positive. It's like someone else cutting your finger and them asking for celebration when they bring the band-aid. With yet again no communication about this change, I cannot help but feel sick in my stomach about this update, even though it might eventually be beneficial for the network in the long run. Please, CubeCraft, take some accountability for either unrightfully removing the team or for giving faulty argumentation that led to your decisions. These inaccuracies in the communication EVERY TIME is what upsets the community the way it does. There might not be many people of the old guard left to argue for it anymore, but this cannot go by as easily as it slides by right now.
Translations Have Arrived
A couple of months ago, we announced on our Public Notion Board, that we're working on Translations for CubeCraft. Today we're here to announce that Translations are live on CubeCraft!
If you speak English & more than one other language, apply to become a CubeCraft Translator HERE! - Requirements are minimal.
We already have some translations live on the network, you might not see them straightaway, but as time passes, strings are added for translation and translators and reviewers push updates, you'll see a translated CubeCraft in no time! - Currently Spain & Dutch strings have the most translated with what we have given to Weblate.
To change your language settings, on Java, it'll be located in the settings menu (8th item in your hotbar when in the main lobby). For Bedrock, we automatically take the language you have set from your Minecraft game settings.
Over the next couple of months, we'll be adding more and more strings onto the Weblate website for translation. So far, our cosmetics, settings and lobby text strings are on the system. We'll be adding our most popular games next for translation (Pillars of Fortune, BedWars, EggWars etc), and then expanding it more and more as time goes on, where all text strings are on Weblate for you guys to translate.
Languages Setting - Java Edition.
Additional information for Translation can be found here.
I cannot state how disappointed I am with the translation team being returned in it's original form. CubeCraft back in the days made executive decisions to cut the Translation Team removing a massive group that found community and purpose while contributing on voluntary basis for CubeCraft. It back then was dismissed as it was too hard for people to join the process and help out with translating strings, but I suppose the real reason cannot be anything but the fact that the backend staff was not big enough. Later, this was revised by cutting the idea entirely, falling back to translations through AI (I cannot find the related post, please @ me if you do find it). I think this shows the real reason, not caring about community driven translations at all.
Mind you, I was a massive fan of the TT and hated the update back then, but I want to explain why this is terrible as an update to return from this statement and returning TT. Firstly, the original Translation Team is gone, and I don't expect anyone to return. From all the threads made by former TT members, it was clear the communication prior to this decision was abysmal, as the team heard no longer than 24 hours beforehand that their function would be ended with immediate effect. Now, three years later, starting the same exact project shows how little CubeCraft and Ziax cared about this department and likely will in the future. Nowhere in the thread it explained what led to the decision to bring the team back and what will be different in comparison to the team that was brutally removed from the network before.
Secondly, assuming the reason of removal was indeed backend resources and had nothing to do with community related reasons, I do not see a reason to prioritise availability of different languages as Polish and Mexican (which is basically Spanish, sue me) to the masses compared to making gamemodes available and having better management over this. The main issue with the network, now on both Bedrock and Java instead of just the latter, is the player count. I don't see how the availability of languages will attract more people to the network. Allocating the precious resources CubeCraft has to something that has no significant added value to the network in terms of player count seems bizarre to me.
Say the reason was community after all, I don't see how bringing back the team in it's original state will change anything from the reasoning that caused the TT's demise. With that, I think it would be perfectly fine to bring back MinerWare as well, as the player count argument does not hold up anymore - it is a new period anyways, so now it will work, I guess.
Lastly, I don't think the team will have any real effects, as there are simply not enough developers to implement translations at all right now. This has the consequence of the inevitable repeat of history, which I think is infinitely worse than not having a TT at all. This is likely to happen because even though the community is completely on voluntary basis, CubeCraft apparently still has to moderate and guide this community, which apparently requires more resources than we could initially tell. I think that there could have been clear guidelines three years ago with the original TT, but seeing that didn't happen I don't expect any of it in the future. If you read it, team CubeCraft, please take in mind that your communication is so much more valuable than you might ever know.
Overall, the return of TT shows weakness and deceit to the community. CubeCraft has not taken accountability for their mistakes in the past with Translation Team, gave faulty reasons of removing the team in the first place and tries to cover it up as a positive. It's like someone else cutting your finger and them asking for celebration when they bring the band-aid. With yet again no communication about this change, I cannot help but feel sick in my stomach about this update, even though it might eventually be beneficial for the network in the long run. Please, CubeCraft, take some accountability for either unrightfully removing the team or for giving faulty argumentation that led to your decisions. These inaccuracies in the communication EVERY TIME is what upsets the community the way it does. There might not be many people of the old guard left to argue for it anymore, but this cannot go by as easily as it slides by right now.
