Names Are Identifiers
App names, package names, API names, feature names, and commands are often identifiers. Translating them can make the product harder to find and discuss.
Core position
Translate apps properly, or leave the original text intact.
If nobody owns the wording, nobody should ship it as part of the product experience.
Why It Matters
Translation is product work. It needs context, review, layout testing, support ownership, and respect for terms that should remain unchanged.
Context Decides Meaning
Words like key, token, fork, watch, pin, draft, archive, and release are easy to mistranslate when the translator cannot see the product.
Layouts Can Break
Automatic translation can overflow buttons, tabs, dialogs, notifications, tables, and mobile views that were designed for reviewed copy.
Support Gets Confused
Users report problems with labels the developer never wrote. Screenshots, documentation, and support replies stop matching the app.
Syntax Is Fragile
Placeholders like {count}, %@,
Markdown links, HTML attributes, CLI commands, and code snippets
must be preserved exactly.
Risky Text Needs Review
Billing, deletion, permissions, privacy, security, consent, and legal messages should not be silently rewritten by a browser, store, mirror, or AI tool.
Not Anti-Translation
This is not about disrespecting languages or translators. It is about ownership. If a project cannot maintain a translation, it should not accept one just because someone submitted it.
No Translation PRs
Please do not send drive-by translation pull requests. If maintainers cannot read, review, test, and update a translation, it becomes unsupported product surface.
Use Glossaries
Respect the terms a product already uses. Workspace, project, team, space, and organization may mean different things.
Make It Opt In
Let users request translation when they need it, and let developers mark surfaces where rewriting would break the product.
Translations Need Owners
Community translations often start with care, then fall behind as product copy changes. A stale translation can be worse than no translation.
Use The Badge
Add a visible request to your README, docs, or app footer. Keep it clear: automatic rewriting and unsupported translation contributions are not accepted.
<a href="https://stoptranslatingmy.app">
<img src="https://stoptranslatingmy.app/badge.svg" alt="Please Don't Translate" height="20">
</a>[](https://stoptranslatingmy.app)