When we import user uploaded PO files today, we want to treat them as if they were done inside Launchpad. However, there are a few problems with that:
1. We attribute translations to the Last-Translator as listed in the PO file
2. People forget to update Last-Translator field before re-uploading
3. If upload is done by a reviewer on behalf of a translator, we lose information on one of them
What we should do:
1. drop Last-Translator on PO file export (so translators have to fill it in or we'll use the uploader, but it will be explicit on our side) when only a single PO file is requested (we want last-translator to be present on bzr exports, tarball exports and such)
2. use uploader as the "reviewer" for any new translations, but only for user uploads; we should keep the behavior for maintainer uploads the same as it is today (iow, set only the submitter to last-translator)
This is a follow-up bug from bug 118527.
As an alternative, consider signing the last-translator; that will let
you detect updated translations that have not had the translator
updated. A simple few-character hash (e.g. the first 16 bits of
md5(translation
easy for tools that want to support last-translator externally.
That way the export process will be identical, so that folk using
external tools on bzr branchs and then uploading the results via a
reviewer will still be served better than they are today.