| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Is TM-Town "working" for you? Thread poster: Mirko Mainardi
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| @Robert: Time will tell | Oct 1, 2016 |
Robert Rietvelt wrote:
..... you wrote: '...it shows that TM-Town is an avenue that can lead to business, as it has done in my case.'
Good for you, and I do believe it can, but please see my earlier thread in this forum, I doubt whether the time I put into it to make perfect TM's will pay back?
Only time will tell you that, Robert.
I didn't actually expect to be found and contacted that way, not being a technical translator.
Therefore I didn't put huge amounts of time and effort into it; I just uploaded those TMs I that I was comfortable sharing, and then put TM-Town out of my mind and went on doing something else.
Good luck everyone!
| | | | | But the TMs are not shared | Oct 1, 2016 |
Stephanie Busch wrote: Robert Rietvelt wrote:
..... you wrote: '...it shows that TM-Town is an avenue that can lead to business, as it has done in my case.'
Good for you, and I do believe it can, but please see my earlier thread in this forum, I doubt whether the time I put into it to make perfect TM's will pay back? Only time will tell you that, Robert. I didn't actually expect to be found and contacted that way, not being a technical translator. Therefore I didn't put huge amounts of time and effort into it; I just uploaded those TMs I that I was comfortable sharing, and then put TM-Town out of my mind and went on doing something else. Good luck everyone!
are they?
| | | | Jeff Whittaker 
United States
Local time: 22:28
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| I thought that the idea was that... | Oct 1, 2016 |
clients could use the TMs in TMTown to find matches with uploaded TMs and thus find translators who had worked on projects similar to the one they need translated?
So, if I search the database for Walmart, BMW or the name of a company's CEO, I would be able to locate all translators who have done work for those clients?
If I'm an agency and my client is COMPANYx and I search the database for COMPANYx, would I want to work with that translator knowing that my client's da... See more clients could use the TMs in TMTown to find matches with uploaded TMs and thus find translators who had worked on projects similar to the one they need translated?
So, if I search the database for Walmart, BMW or the name of a company's CEO, I would be able to locate all translators who have done work for those clients?
If I'm an agency and my client is COMPANYx and I search the database for COMPANYx, would I want to work with that translator knowing that my client's data will be uploaded to a third party?
If not, then what is the purpose of uploading TMs?
[Edited at 2016-10-01 18:37 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Bruno Depascale
Italy
Local time: 04:28
Member (2009)
English to Italian
+ ...
| a waste of time | Oct 1, 2016 |
I am currently ranked 4th in the medical translation field from English into Italian and haven't received a single message in 5 months
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..... (X)
Local time: 11:28
| No public sharing of TMs | Oct 1, 2016 |
@Stephanie - thank you for sharing your experience. I'm happy to hear that you found a good client!
@Alvaro - correct. TMs are not publicly shared. All documents you upload are private (only you can view them) and it is impossible to make them public.
@LegalTransform
LegalTransform wrote:
I thought that the idea was that...
clients could use the TMs in TMTown to find matches with uploaded TMs and thus find translators who had worked on projects similar to the one they need translated?
So, if I search the database for Walmart, BMW or the name of a company's CEO, I would be able to locate all translators who have done work for those clients?
If I'm an agency and my client is COMPANYx and I search the database for COMPANYx, would I want to work with that translator knowing that my client's data will be uploaded to a third party?
If not, then what is the purpose of uploading TMs?
Clients can search a text and find translators who have worked on similar material in the past. However, the content of the material a translator has uploaded is never revealed. The search engine only returns a "Similarity score".
If a visitor attempts to search using a short text (i.e. only one sentence or only one word) a warning pops up "The text you entered is short. The more text you include from your source document, the better Nakōdo can match. Very short excerpts are unlikely to provide reliable matches.".
TM-Town has various protections built in so that the scenario you outlined can be avoided:
1) Nakōdo Blacklist tool (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrK10LKn2uE). You can blacklist terms that you do not want to be searched on (i.e. company name, etc.)
2) Confidential Information Redaction tool (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8x1F-DYMWA). You can easily redact confidential terms from a document you upload.
3) Deshi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STCG_ow4240) - You can analyze your TM offline and redact any confidential terms from it, and only the analysis file is sent to TM-Town.
| | | | | Not sure if it works and how | Oct 1, 2016 |
If I understand it correctly, I am ranked first for medical EN-DE. I haven't received a single job yet through TM-Town. My profile in TM-Town ranks quite well in Google searches, so maybe sooner or later it might deliver.
Being quite conservative in certain aspects I prefer to stick to things that do work and what definitely works is a good ProZ profile (even if my definition of a good profile might differ from what was presented here 3 days ago).
I always wondered why... See more If I understand it correctly, I am ranked first for medical EN-DE. I haven't received a single job yet through TM-Town. My profile in TM-Town ranks quite well in Google searches, so maybe sooner or later it might deliver.
Being quite conservative in certain aspects I prefer to stick to things that do work and what definitely works is a good ProZ profile (even if my definition of a good profile might differ from what was presented here 3 days ago).
I always wondered why there are only so few of us using the more advanced possibilities of the ProZ profiles and I actually see no reason to cough up additional money for features that I do not fully understand. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Any luck anyone? | Aug 18, 2018 |
I haven't received a single message, not even spam, from this TM thing.
[Edited at 2018-08-18 17:44 GMT]
| | | | Mirko Mainardi
Italy
Local time: 04:28
Member
English to Italian
TOPIC STARTER | Deafening silence | Aug 18, 2018 |
Álvaro Espantaleón Moreno wrote:
I haven't received a single message, not even spam, from this TM thing.
No change since my last post, from 2 years ago...
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Same here, despite ranking well for my language pair and having a complete profile. Well, at least the subscription is now offered with ProZ Plus.
No blame on the creators though, the idea of matching the best suited translators to projects in itself is interesting. It's all about marketing and sales in the end, I guess.
| | | | Peter Leeflang
United States
Local time: 22:28
Member (2014)
French to English
+ ...
| it has no value for me | Aug 19, 2018 |
TM-town had zero impact on my business beyond one or two unqualified potential customers contacting me quite a while ago and that went nowhere. My membership there started a couple of years ago, before Proz took over.
The effort to merely establish a presence AND maintain it (including TMs) and the iffy nature of sharing one's confidential translations online, made me abandon putting any time in this. The ROI is not there for me.
Also, there is no real transparency what... See more TM-town had zero impact on my business beyond one or two unqualified potential customers contacting me quite a while ago and that went nowhere. My membership there started a couple of years ago, before Proz took over.
The effort to merely establish a presence AND maintain it (including TMs) and the iffy nature of sharing one's confidential translations online, made me abandon putting any time in this. The ROI is not there for me.
Also, there is no real transparency what one's benefit would be based on one's effort. It is merely a vague benefit promise, a puig in the poke.
Another aspect I could do nothing with was that there is no evidence that potential customers look for translators the way the owners intend it to.
Furthermore, I'm not interested in appearing high or higher with the rest of our herd in a general ranking. On the contrary, I'm interested in appearing in a individualized manner for the very specific needs a customer has since I have a very unique profile that will fit specific jobs. TM-town does not rank translators per job based on job specs, nor is there any matching based on specs known about the customer, such as whether they have lots or little paperwork, what their payment terms are, whether they work with end customers or are an intermediary, their payment behavior etc. and it does not seem to provide potential customers with special tools to share otherwise not otherwise available data about them to get better matches than without.
Getting translators and customers matched is not simply a translation test and rate matter. Better outcomes require better overall individualized matches and those require sharing more about one another, on both sides, since this is a trade not a one-sided deal.
Our available time to market ourselves is very limited, since in the end we need most time to produce translations that get paid not unpaid marketing. Services like TM-town that are supposed to take over our marketing for a fee should not cost us more work but less and this is especially applicable with those already having busy schedules.
When one is busy one seeks first freeing up more time and only then more business to use that time with. Otherwise one cannibalizes one's time for more business one could not accommodate anyway.
[Edited at 2018-08-19 12:25 GMT]
[Edited at 2018-08-19 12:28 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mirko Mainardi
Italy
Local time: 04:28
Member
English to Italian
TOPIC STARTER | This would be nice, even more so on ProZ... | Aug 19, 2018 |
Peter Leeflang wrote:
TM-town does not rank translators per job based on job specs, nor is there any matching based on specs known about the customer, such as whether they have lots or little paperwork, what their payment terms are, whether they work with end customers or are an intermediary, their payment behavior etc. and it does not seem to provide potential customers with special tools to share otherwise not otherwise available data about them to get better matches than without.
Getting translators and customers matched is not simply a translation test and rate matter. Better outcomes require better overall individualized matches and those require sharing more about one another, on both sides, since this is a trade not a one-sided deal.
... although that would probably scare off 90% of the current client base...
| | | | Peter Leeflang
United States
Local time: 22:28
Member (2014)
French to English
+ ...
Mirko Mainardi wrote: Peter Leeflang wrote:
TM-town does not rank translators per job based on job specs, nor is there any matching based on specs known about the customer, such as whether they have lots or little paperwork, what their payment terms are, whether they work with end customers or are an intermediary, their payment behavior etc. and it does not seem to provide potential customers with special tools to share otherwise not otherwise available data about them to get better matches than without.
Getting translators and customers matched is not simply a translation test and rate matter. Better outcomes require better overall individualized matches and those require sharing more about one another, on both sides, since this is a trade not a one-sided deal. ... although that would probably scare off 90% of the current client base...
That is a theory. It was never tried.
Also, is it better to instead scare off the translators?
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Mirko Mainardi
Italy
Local time: 04:28
Member
English to Italian
TOPIC STARTER | Commercial viability | Aug 21, 2018 |
Peter Leeflang wrote: Mirko Mainardi wrote: Peter Leeflang wrote:
TM-town does not rank translators per job based on job specs, nor is there any matching based on specs known about the customer, such as whether they have lots or little paperwork, what their payment terms are, whether they work with end customers or are an intermediary, their payment behavior etc. and it does not seem to provide potential customers with special tools to share otherwise not otherwise available data about them to get better matches than without.
Getting translators and customers matched is not simply a translation test and rate matter. Better outcomes require better overall individualized matches and those require sharing more about one another, on both sides, since this is a trade not a one-sided deal. ... although that would probably scare off 90% of the current client base... That is a theory. It was never tried. Also, is it better to instead scare off the translators?
As I said, I would personally like to see that. I think it was never tried before, and will never be, because this platform and TM-Town aren't evidently born and geared to be "exclusive" platforms for carefully selected clients and service providers, but the exact opposite.
In other words, my "theory" is that most clients wouldn't really like the transparency you and I both advocate, and with fewer clients using them, both services would lose appeal to most service providers, which would in turn mean less profits for the people operating these platforms, and considering their evolution throughout the years, I'm pretty sure they don't want that, even though that would obviously result in a much healthier and safer environment for users on both ends.
| | | | | Any update on TM-Town since 2018? | Jun 28, 2021 |
It seems TM-Town is a still-born project. Any different opinions from colleagues registered there?
| | | | | Wouldn't wonder... | Jun 28, 2021 |
Vladimir Pochinov wrote:
It seems TM-Town is a still-born project. Any different opinions from colleagues registered there?
...if that only worked good for DeepL, with all the nice TMs provided in the online version of TM town.
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