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Kudoz strategies
Thread poster: Phil Hand
LilianNekipelov
LilianNekipelov  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:23
Russian to English
+ ...
Exactly. Sep 1, 2014

EvaVer wrote:

if somebody is stupid, it's their problem, isn't it? Yes, pity about the glossary. But does anybody use it?
If you are worried about your points, I will just say that Kudoz is a tool to help people, not a competititon!


Also someone's knowledge can be shown through comments--not just the options themselves. If they make crazy comments about a correct answer out of some malicious intent--it may tell people something about their language knowledge and translation skills.


 
danya
danya
Local time: 15:23
English to Russian
+ ...
priceless) Sep 1, 2014

Dear DLyons, thanks for putting it into words so aptly and succinctly. I will be quoting you, if you permit.

... the single incorrect one is selected for no apparent reason other than cluelessness. Personally, I give an agree to all the right answers, a disagree to the selected one, and a note saying that this Glossary entry is incorrect. I then filter the asker and sometimes add a separate note to that effect (which typically gets deleted by site staff) but at least the asker is made aware that their actions have some infinitesimally small consequences.

There is a significant cohort of people on ProZ who are not only not professionals, but who are so bad as not even to be amateurs - these are beyond help, fortunately most of them don't last very long. Their standards can't be raised, just note their errors and wait for them to go away. Anything else is, pardon the French, pissing in the wind.



 
Phil Hand
Phil Hand  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 20:23
Chinese to English
TOPIC STARTER
Hope to see you more on Chinese questions Sep 2, 2014

DLyons wrote:

...beyond help...standards can't be raised...wait

Bit pessimistic, but probably right. I spotted you over in Chinese the other day. Hope you will come and spend more time there, the more the merrier!

Thanks, everyone, for your comments.


 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 13:23
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Which is probably why no changes will be made Sep 2, 2014

Elizabeth Tamblin wrote:

With regard to changing the system so that ranking is determined by the percentage of answers accepted, I feel that this would be unfair to people who spend a good deal of time researching terms in order to help other translators.

Consider the situation whereby someone posts a suggestion, but with a low confidence level. Shortly afterwards, somebody else posts exactly the same suggestion, but with a higher confidence level, and whose answer is, therefore higher up the list of suggestions. This person receives the points.

Then there are many occasions when a person makes a suggestion that is correct, and is a good answer. Someone else comes along and tweaks it slightly; their answer is given preference and they receive the points. Surely it would be wrong to suggest that the other person who also made a good suggestion, should be penalised in the rankings, due to being unlucky that their good answer wasn't chosen.

This new system you advocate would also discourage people from making suggestions, which would surely result in fewer options for the asker to choose from. If I ask a question on kudoz, I want as many suggestions as possible. Even if I don't choose any of them, they may sometimes prompt me to come up with a different solution myself.


These are perfectly valid points of view, and what encourages some people will put others off.

So we are back to looking at all the comments, adding agrees and disagrees as appropriate, and making the best of the system as it is.
And forming our own strategies for getting noticed on that basis


 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 13:23
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Context issues Sep 2, 2014

I see a lot of problems arising from lack of context or the asker/answerer not being aware of what context really entails...

For instance, while there is something to be translated/understood as a semantic unit/phrase we see the asker asking just one word out of that phrase and struggling with it. There are many other different kinds of examples...


 
Susana E. Cano Méndez
Susana E. Cano Méndez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 13:23
French to Spanish
+ ...
I always do my best to help O_O Sep 2, 2014

I'm shocked by all of this, because I'm still a newcomer in some way; I never thought this could happen among pros. Of course I have seen hostilities and people who obviously join to get "agrees", but I stick to answering the best I can, most of times with references, links even images. I am a teacher and I believe in spreading knowledge, not in selfishly keeping it for my own sake.

 
DLyons
DLyons  Identity Verified
Ireland
Local time: 12:23
Spanish to English
+ ...
Sorry to be pessimistic Sep 2, 2014

Phil Hand wrote:

DLyons wrote:

...beyond help...standards can't be raised...wait

Bit pessimistic, but probably right. I spotted you over in Chinese the other day. Hope you will come and spend more time there, the more the merrier!

Thanks, everyone, for your comments.


Yes, I saw your answer Phil. A bit presumptuous of me to be there, but at least I got the discussion started and teased out some context. Math is a language in its own right, so I'm fluent in two of the three languages involved (and it's rare to find people with all three!).


 
DLyons
DLyons  Identity Verified
Ireland
Local time: 12:23
Spanish to English
+ ...
Glad you liked it! Sep 2, 2014

danya wrote:

Dear DLyons, thanks for putting it into words so aptly and succinctly. I will be quoting you, if you permit.



Thanks Danya. Feel free to quote


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 12:23
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
You aren't alone, Susana Sep 2, 2014

Susana E. Cano Méndez wrote:
I'm shocked by all of this, because I'm still a newcomer in some way; I never thought this could happen among pros. Of course I have seen hostilities and people who obviously join to get "agrees", but I stick to answering the best I can, most of times with references, links even images. I am a teacher and I believe in spreading knowledge, not in selfishly keeping it for my own sake.

There are a lot of us who feel the same way. It's just that the few who misuse it do taint the entire system. But don't let them spoil your use of the site.


 
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Kudoz strategies






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