Translating all plugin headers?

[pavelevap]

I am really not sure if translators should be able to localize Author, Author URI or Plugin name? Description is very helpfull, but why translating strings like "Matt Mullenweg" or "​http://ma.tt/" which are in current admin localization file?

Related: #19597

Plugin Name - Example
Author - Sergey Biryukov
Author URI - http://sergeybiryukov.ru/english/ (example)

Plugin Name - whatever "Example" is in Russian
Author - Сергей Бирюков
Author URI - http://sergeybiryukov.ru/

I don't see the harm in offering these strings for translation. At worst, they simply aren't translated.

That's a nice example :)

While translating a plugin name doesn't make much sense for bundled plugins, this might be helpful in other cases. I guess the bundled plugins will eventually end up with their own text domains and those strings will be removed from wordpress-admin.pot.

Someone might want to transliterate the Author name as well (along the lines of ​Readable Names).

:-)

Yes, but plugin name can be sometimes specific brand and plugin authors will not be happy when they see it translated. Also translators can change author URL to their site with localization files. I understand transliteration, but I am not sure if all headers should be translatable. Description field can be enough for translators, they can mention for example some special URI there. For example Chinese (Taiwan) translation uses english brand "Hello Dolly" and only Description is translated...

Replying to pavelevap:

Yes, but plugin name can be sometimes specific brand and plugin authors will not be happy when they see it translated.

Branding would be a big argument against translating the plugin name. Translate the description, absolutely, but not the name. I can also see the inherent value in translating the author name as in @nacin's example.

I don't see an issue in translating a plugin name. In many cases, it is going to make sense.

We're simply offering the name for translation. Ultimately, it is up to the developer to accept the translation (even when we do language packs, they will have control over translations of their plugins). If they don't want the name translated, then they don't need to accept that. In some cases, it is a branding thing, but only in some cases.

We need to think about the best experience for the user, which is localizing everything — yes, including the plugin directory and readmes. (In due course.)

I can only emphasize what @nacin said:
It's really important to have all strings to be translateable, especially for the plugin title and description! The other data like URL and Author could be important in some cases, like other languages like Russian or so.

So please keep the data in there!

Thanks, Dave from Germany (who uses & needs this mentioned stuff every day!)