Since the site pretty much died for a week, this seem like the best way to get some more interest. I've already drafted the first translation golf post, I just need an idea for what the source text should be.

Thanks for refloating this, Moshi! In Spanish.SE we were translating from English, normally. Since here in Codidact we are in an English site and no other language is 'expected' to be known, my idea was to make the challenge focus on shrinking the text.

@fedorqui I don't see why we can't have both - the same rules would apply to an English -> English "translation" golf challenge.

@Moshi well I wouldn't call English -> English a translation, but this is just a terminology matter :D

Is it enough to just make the text comprehensible even if it sounds odd? For example "(human) languages" could be translated to "(Man) languages", which sounds weird but gets the meaning across.

@Lundin Sure. The only limit is that it has to remain grammatical.

Rule 4 doesn't make sense outside a bilingual context.

I don't like the fact that the translation is given into another language (including English). The nice part in SE was to help each other to find interesting synonyms and ways to express things more succinctly. With each one talking their own language, the purpose is lost.

@fedorqui I tried to make the rules as general as possible; This set of rule would also allow e.g. the Spanish -> English translation-golf. Also, I thought it'd suite L&L better, we're all here to learn another language (or learn something about our own), aren't we?

@PeterTaylor If you're referring to how the rules allow English -> English golfing challenges, then yes, #4 doesn't particularly make sense in that context. The entire idea of "translation" golf doesn't particularly make sense in a non-bilingual context, so there are bound to be some odd rules left over. I could of course just tack on "(excluding same-language golfs)", would that make sense?

I was more referring to the multilingual nature of the existing challenge - an example translation from English to Swahili is pointless for non-Swahili-speakers.

@PeterTaylor Ah, I see what you mean. I admit it's also kind of weird there; but that challenge is kind of a special test run case on it's own. The next one probably will probably be a straight challenge with only one target language.