The GNOME translations in Valhalla have a whole lot of issues, for some bad reasons.

For the next release better process for the GNOME translations will be followed,
including probably putting in the translations earlier in the release cycle
so they can be debugged, and putting the po files on gnome.org instead of
i18n.redhat.com.

I'm sorry Valhalla GNOME i18n was messed up, I'm taking steps to fix it next time.

The "Start Here" message is translated in upstream Nautilus though, so if the
patched Red Hat version and this particular desktop file also uses intltool and
the translations from Nautilus I'm having trouble understanding why it doesn't
show up translated as the other "Start Here" occurences.

About using gnome cvs: Sounds promising. The problem I'm having though is
maintaining several different branches in general, and the upstream branches
have higher priority for me. Also, the Red Hat packages are usually old and
sometimes ancient, and both keeping track of and merging fixes that have long
since gone into upstream or "back-porting" the upstream translation is both
time-consuming and not particularily attractive. So in my case I would be
happiest if the Red Hat packages could be branched from upstream as late as
possible, thus requiring as little as possible work with back-porting translations.
Hmm, perhaps this discussion is better suited for i18n-list?

Yes, i18n-list is probably good (though you'll have to cc me, I'm not on there).

One of the goals for the next release will be to branch as late as possible. We
do usually have a version freeze a couple months before release, so there will
still be some pain there, but I'm hoping that having the po files in gnome.org
CVS will help. I'll also be imposing string freeze on our patches to upstream
sooner than 
in the past.

Sounds excellent.

I'll be asking the same question on i18n-list then and cc: you.