How much effort is enough for asking translation questions?

Question

We have had some translation requests and Nathaniel wrote a nice guide for asking them. One of the key points is that questions should show effort to solve the problem before coming here. But how much effort is enough? How little effort is a sufficient reason to close?

For example, consider such demonstrations of effort:

• Google translate gives <insert gibberish>.
• I tried to translate it myself and got <insert gibberish>.
• I tried to translate it myself and got <insert attempt>. Here is why I think this may be wrong: …
• This is what I want to say in Latin: <insert detailed description>.
• This is what I want to say in Latin: <insert description>. I looked up some words from an online dictionary and these Latin words seem to be most appropriate: <insert words>.
• Just translate these words from English to Latin for me.
• I want to give my company/project/dog a Latin name. I came up with this but I'm unsure if it's Latin: <insert catchphrase>.

What demonstrations of effort are clearly insufficient, and what are clearly sufficient? There is inevitably a gray area in between, but it would be nice to give clear guidelines to new users asking such questions.

Most questions related to this meta question can be found under the tag translation. This tag seems quite popular among newcomers as one might expect.

Answer 1

Here my opinion in the form of an incomplete answer. I would like to see more other views of the matter.

A good translation request should

1. explain what the asker wants to express in Latin (translating short phrases without context is often impossible),
2. give a list of appropriate words found from a dictionary (start with an English word, get a list of translations, look up a list of English translations of each one, then pick the most suitable ones),
3. give an attempted translation with own assessment of its validity, and
4. ask a question.

I don't mind if part 3 is missing if the first two things are well done. Judging by my experience of translating things to Latin upon request, part 1 is extremely important. It is too harsh to require all these points, but demanding the first two would not make a bad policy. It might be good to give a list of explicit requirements or give some model questions to help.

This is what a good translation request might look like, in my opinion:

I have made a painting of a dog who cannot sleep because the cat is so loud. The curator of an art exhibition asked me to give my painting a Latin name. The title in English would be something like "The dog who cannot sleep because of the cat's noises". The cat is not meowing, but banging kettles together. I looked up some words from an online dictionary, and some were easy: dog (canis), who (quis), can (posse), not (non), sleep (dormire), because (quia), cat (feles). There were several words for noise, and I think strepitus is best here. Or would turba or tumultus be better? I haven't studied any Latin. How can I combine these words into a sentence? Can you please explain what you did so I might do the same in future myself, especially if the structure is the same?

(I might offer Canis qui felis strepitus causa quiescere non potest with some explanations, but that is irrelevant.)