I agree with Blay_paul
for the more precise guideline, we will write a blog post, my commments are just to warn, as one user was adding a bunch of sentences like this and I've deleted them.

So basically, yep "Buy." may be imperative mood, but then we can illustrate it in more obvious context.
Moreover I haven't said "Buy." has no value for a learner, it's just it's not the goal of tatoeba.

for the definition of "ONE WORD" of "one" and "word" , rather than word I will say "one sementical unit", I know for language such as Turkish you can have one """word""" but which is in fact a whole sentences, and a complex one.
So I will say (but the definition will may be change, for the definitive one, we will wait the blog post) that if an entry in tatoeba can also be found in a dictionnary, (delta the flexion), then it should be illustrated.
After for the example with cats, as Swift said, the purpose of tatoeba is not only to illustrate words, but also to point out some "pattern", which you can't find at all in a dictionnary, I think for this one, we need quite "obvious/stupid" sentence, to be sure everyone understand and to focus on the grammar point (because I think not all users in tatoeba are expert in foreign languages, so for them we need simple sentences).

anyway in a not so far future, even "natural" single word sentences (hello etc.) are made to be moved in a more suitable project. Because adding a language just because one has found on his dictionnary how to say "hello" in Azeri ...

Single word sentences.

I know we have some sentences like, hello / bye / thanks
But please do not add more,

"Go." "Sell." tough valid sentence, grammaticaly speaking, add no value to tatoeba. We want on tatoeba sentences, yes, but sentences which bring more value than simple dictionnary entry.
So from now, except for new users, as they maybe don't know rules, I will simply delete them. Especially if they're added by people who pretend to have a behaviour which make them suitable for "trusted users" status.
We will soon edit the contributor guide about this.

what about now ? :)

yep, and I have no idea of how to fix it :s (nor time to think about it :s:s), but it's true I haven't note it down into the bugs list.

For words, sure it's not the goal of tatoeba, we're focusing on sentences. I'm discussing with the guys of shtooka (those who provide us audio) as their first focus was too record words, and they're on the way to extand more the "website"/"works over the internet" part, maybe they will be the tatoeba of words ?

tu m'as mal compris

trang et moi parlons français et anglais, donc malheureusement nous n'avons pu dans un premier temps que fournir le site à des francophones, et des anglophones. Partant de cela, les premiers contributeurs / utilisateurs n'ont pu être que des francophones ou anglophones. Et ces derniers étant plus nombreux, il y a rapidement eu plus d'anglophones, qui ont attiré d'autres anglophones etc.

Bien sur que si je parlais 50 langues, nous aurions mis tatoeba dans ces 50 langues. Mais comme tu vois, Trang et moi ne sommes pas sectaire, et c'est avec grand plaisir, que nous avons ouvert la possibilité au utilisateurs, voulant étendre l'accessibilité du site à des non francophones et non anglophones (justement en pensant à ces 6 milliards de personne, ou au simple fait qu'il est toujours plus agréable de pouvoir avoir une interface dans sa langue natale, surtout pour un site qui propose du contenu multilingue) de traduire le site en lui même.

donc j'avoue ne pas avoir ou nous avons des principes qui repousseraient l'adoption de tatoeba par des non anglophones, francophones ? Mis à part que par la force des choses, Trang et moi ne pouvons produire l'interface qu'en anglais/français dans un premier temps, et devons relayer le travail à la communauté pour la traduction.

It's because me and Trang speak fluently French and English, and most people speak English than French, because anyway tatoeba has always been in at least both this languages, and we always answered in French to people who posted in French.
But I agree this is something we should change, to enlarge the bases of trusted users / moderator. For this I think I will enlarge the wall system to several one, maybe one dedicated per language (it's still an idea), this way people will not feel "oppressed" by the fact most of messages on this wall(99%?) are in English.

for tag translations, for the moment it's in English, because we don't have the translation system that will require, nor the time to implement it, so for the moment to avoid duplicate tags which only differs by language, it's better to choose english, as it's the language spoken by the majority of trusted users (the only ones who can tag yet)

in fact for some of them, it must no be tags, some other kind of meta informations. (tags are part of them)

We will do this in the new version, (yeah it's my new "How can I make people wait sentence :p" )
To be honnest the code which manage the user profile is a bit crappy, and the time it will take is too long compare of the use "I'm talking for the do not show transliteration"
For the point 2, the new version will use a totaly new architecture, which will permit really easily this kind of "only what I need" filtering.

it's typically what will be the purpose of the API :)

you mean, what is the goal of Tatoeba project ?:)

great :D

http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/tv...tv_click.shtml Saeb finds a link :)
I have a Iranian friend, so when I will see him, I can ask him to help me understand :)

I mean, do you have a youtube link, or in BBC Persian website, where we can see this ?:) I'm really curious ^^
No problem for not being bilingual, I'm also struggling with English hehe

Have you a link or so ?:)

I was really happy to know you Demetrius.

In fact seems tonight something has made tatoeba famous in Iran, if someone can explain why ? Anyway I hope they will find tatoeba usefull, tough we only have 31 sentences in Persian yet :(

As blay_paul said, the goal of tatoeba is to do what dictionnaries don't, so to be used in parallel with them, not to replace them. The main reason is that it's no use to create duplicate works, and we prefer to make only one things and make it good, rather than too much things of poor quality/quantity.