The fifteen problems · 02 of 15 · translation
Machine translation is weak enough that human review is the product
For English content, human-in-the-loop is a quality upgrade; for Amharic it is the only viable path. The locked decision made English and reviewed Amharic peers, and it was violated within a day.
Recorded on 18 July 2026 in the video-production lane: for English content, human-in-the-loop is a quality upgrade; for Amharic it is the only viable path. A vendor's "175+ languages" checkbox and usable Amharic are different claims.
The locked site-design decision became: English and reviewed Amharic are peers; agents do not invent Amharic translations; every public Amharic string carries a visible reviewed or awaiting-review state.
× What it broke
The gate was violated within a day. A button label, አማርኛ, shipped with no review marker, alongside bare Ethiopic specimens in the design system. The archivist seat caught both in its three-defect design review.
✓ What it established
The fix kept the "reviewed" example as a Latin placeholder, explicitly stating that no Ethiopic string was yet certified. The project's working name still awaits native-speaker naming review. This site follows the same rule: every Amharic string here is awaiting review.
2026-07-18 (video lane) · 2026-07-22 (archivist design review) · build report §4.2 · retrieved 2026-08-21
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