FWIW as a native of English... I've translated the whole text sentence-by-sentence because Google Translate still sometimes falls short in the stuff that
is understandable, and I can't let it pass.
Ľuďia by chceli vedieť písať posty.People would like to know how to write posts.This carries the nuance for us English natives that it's not a matter of
physical capability (e.g. Am I at my computer or not? Do I have enough energy to post stuff?") but rather one of skill (i.e. I've learned how to express myself). Vero's interpretation is more in line with my understanding than Cavesa's even though the difference is slight and in some cases I'm sloppy/lazy enough to use "can" + bare infinitive or "able" + to-infinitive when for precision I really should use "know how" + to-infinitive.
Ale často sa stane, že nevedia písať posty a tak to nemá vyzerať.Yet it often happens that they don't know how to write posts and it's not supposed to be like this. seems a little more idiomatic to me than Vero's
And this is how it shouldn't look like despite the original as
tak to nemá vyzerať. Cavesa's translations of
And this is what it shouldn't look like. and
And that's not the way it should look. are natural enough to my eyes and are closer to the Slovak original than what I'd use. I guess that I just keep wanting to translate it as "to be like" rather "to look like".
Ak už viete TRPG hrať, toto téma s čistým svedomím môžete preskočiť.If you already know how to play TRPG, (then) you can freely skip this subject. (this seems more natural to me as using
s čistým svedomím "with a clear conscience" seems a little out of place in the translation despite its being in the Slovak original. For my English mind, "clear conscience" makes me think of situations where there's a dimension of guilt or even morality in the sentence.
Posty píšeme minimálne štvorriadkové, aby sme predišli že celý príbeh sa bude skladať z jednoriadkových postov, ktoré vám nič o sebe nepovedia.We write posts in groups of at least four lines so that we'd avoid a case of an entire story consisting of one-line posts which tell you nothing about what's happening. (rather loose but idiomatic translation to me)
We write at minimum four-lined posts so that we could prevent the situation/case/instance* that an entire story will be made up of one-lined posts which tell you nothing about themselves. (closer but somewhat unidiomatic translation to me. It's still slightly better than Google Translate, in my view)
*
Predísť means here "to prevent" and can be used in a phrase literally translated as "so that we could prevent that..." (
aby sme predišli že...). This is strange but understandable in English and my native sense compels me to add an explicit direct object rather than a subordinate clause to complement "prevent".
To ako píšete vás vidia hráči, vaše posty sú vaše vizitky.How you write is seen by other players. Your posts are your calling cards. (This is how I'd translate it even though it deviates a bit from the original.
Vizitka is most often translated as "business card" nowadays but this isn't what I'd use here considering that this kind of card has a sense of merely passing along contact information for professional purposes. In contrast, a
calling card can refer to a literal card from the 1800s and earlier that acted as a marker of your presence or nowadays a figurative one that refers to a characteristic or quirk (cf.
"Steelers News: Is the Steelers’ defense going to be their calling card in 2019?")
Depending on the context,
to can be translated as a filler slightly akin to the affectation of initial
so in informal English (e.g. "So I was talking to my friend and...", "So we're getting married this summer...") or as a repurposing of
to "that" (neuter) as a shorthand reference to something just brought up by the speaker. I agree with Vero and Cavesa on its use here.
In Slovak, placing the subject immediately after the conjugated verb can act as a way to reduce the subject's importance or even convey something translateable to the English passive. In this case, the writer is focusing on the effect of your writing style on others rather than the people making judgements on your writing style.
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I think that all of the above should illustrate how tough translation can be when looking for idiomaticity. I figure that someone who's native in both English and Slovak (or native in one and near-native in the other) would be able to comment better on the above even though for all intents and purposes, what Vero, Cavesa and I have posted is probably plenty for you to see what's happening.