| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Should we thank "agreers"? Thread poster: Comunican
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Comunican
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:28
Spanish to English
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As a frequent, and grateful user, of Kudoz, I have recently decided to try and give something back by answering some questions myself. It's very exciting, seeing if you can give the best answer fastest: And I have discovered that it is a good way of getting real, detailed feedback on your translation work - something we so rarely get from our clients.
However, I am intrigued by the custom of thanking people who agree with answerers to Kudoz questions. On the one hand, of course ... See more As a frequent, and grateful user, of Kudoz, I have recently decided to try and give something back by answering some questions myself. It's very exciting, seeing if you can give the best answer fastest: And I have discovered that it is a good way of getting real, detailed feedback on your translation work - something we so rarely get from our clients.
However, I am intrigued by the custom of thanking people who agree with answerers to Kudoz questions. On the one hand, of course it is polite, but on the other hand, it does result in a lot of e-mails being sent around between the "agreers" and the thanking "answerers"!.
Of course, I don't wish to be rude and so I too have adopted the custom of thanking people who agree - but I do wonder whether it might save a lot of time if we simply assumed thanks were given rather than actually giving them?
What do others think? Let's have a heated debate! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Check the forum | Apr 3, 2008 |
Check the forum, and you will find that this topic has already been discussed several times. No need for yet another "heated" debate.
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Comunican wrote:
As a frequent, and grateful user, of Kudoz, I have recently decided to try and give something back by answering some questions myself. It's very exciting, seeing if you can give the best answer fastest: And I have discovered that it is a good way of getting real, detailed feedback on your translation work - something we so rarely get from our clients.
However, I am intrigued by the custom of thanking people who agree with answerers to Kudoz questions. On the one hand, of course it is polite, but on the other hand, it does result in a lot of e-mails being sent around between the "agreers" and the thanking "answerers"!.
Of course, I don't wish to be rude and so I too have adopted the custom of thanking people who agree - but I do wonder whether it might save a lot of time if we simply assumed thanks were given rather than actually giving them?
What do others think? Let's have a heated debate!
This has been already discussed in the past. My idea is that thanking is useless and should be avoided.
| | | | Comunican
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:28
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Didn't realise it had ben discussed. Will delete this topic, if I can. | Apr 3, 2008 |
Oh, sorry - I didn't realise - I did a quick look, but didn't see it. Will delete this topic, if I can.
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| Practice varies from language to language. | Apr 3, 2008 |
I know there has already been a thread, but before you disappear (if you can!)...."to thank or not to thank" seems to depend on the practice that has built up in each language pair. Is this a cultural thing one wonders?! We Spanish-English lot are a very hands-on verbally grateful bunch it would seem! Is this because the Spaniards here are aware that Brits express their thanks more frequently than is the custom in Spanish (not saying that the Spanish are ungrateful, simply that they make less of... See more I know there has already been a thread, but before you disappear (if you can!)...."to thank or not to thank" seems to depend on the practice that has built up in each language pair. Is this a cultural thing one wonders?! We Spanish-English lot are a very hands-on verbally grateful bunch it would seem! Is this because the Spaniards here are aware that Brits express their thanks more frequently than is the custom in Spanish (not saying that the Spanish are ungrateful, simply that they make less of a song and dance about it). ▲ Collapse
| | | | Stéphanie Soudais (X) 
France
Local time: 01:28
English to French
| johnjack (X)
Belgium
Local time: 01:28
English to Italian
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if you can't help thanking, a tip could be to thank beforehand everybody in your question!
bye, filippo
| | | | | Thanks can be counterproductive and don't thank me | Apr 3, 2008 |
Luca Ruella wrote:
This has been already discussed in the past. My idea is that thanking is useless and should be avoided.
I think the exact same thing.
The thing is that sometimes the Agree and Thank You fields are indeed useful if there's going to be an exchange of ideas or some useful information is going to be shared. However, most of the times is just thank you's and irrelevant chatter which sort of bury the constructive responses.
This is even more problematic with the Agrees and email notifications. Sometimes, the person who agrees adds relevant information for the asker and answerer, but most of the times the comment field is left blank. There should be a option to notify the answerer only about non-empty agrees.
Nothing wrong with being polite, but I happen to think in this case the thank you's are unnecessary. For the record, feel free not to thank my agrees, my feelings won't get hurt.
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Brandis (X)
Local time: 01:28
English to German
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| not necessarily.. | Apr 3, 2008 |
Comunican wrote:
As a frequent, and grateful user, of Kudoz, I have recently decided to try and give something back by answering some questions myself. It's very exciting, seeing if you can give the best answer fastest: And I have discovered that it is a good way of getting real, detailed feedback on your translation work - something we so rarely get from our clients.
However, I am intrigued by the custom of thanking people who agree with answerers to Kudoz questions. On the one hand, of course it is polite, but on the other hand, it does result in a lot of e-mails being sent around between the "agreers" and the thanking "answerers"!.
Of course, I don't wish to be rude and so I too have adopted the custom of thanking people who agree - but I do wonder whether it might save a lot of time if we simply assumed thanks were given rather than actually giving them?
What do others think? Let's have a heated debate!
| | | | Vito Smolej
Germany
Local time: 01:28
Member (2004)
English to Slovenian
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SITE LOCALIZER | Who's thanking those who disagree? | Apr 4, 2008 |
Their opinion is just as useful and welcome.
| | | | Nikki Graham
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:28
Spanish to English
| Very good idea, Claudia | Apr 4, 2008 |
Claudia Alvis wrote:
There should be a option to notify the answerer only about non-empty agrees.
It could be a tick box option. For example, notify me of all agrees, only notify me of agrees with comments, do not notify me of agrees, with all neutral and disagree comments being sent automatically.
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Vito Smolej wrote:
Who's thanking those who disagree?
Their opinion is just as useful and welcome.
If you really wanted to be polite, you would thank everybody who took the time to give an "agree", "neutral" or "disagree" for the term or phrase you suggested. Instead, in my experience, a lot of people get very huffy about neutrals or disagrees.
Only thanking the agreers smells of favoritism. If someone agrees with you, it should not be because they want to do you a favor, but because they think you have the right answer. The only person to thank the answerers and the agreers should be the asker.
Just my 2 cents - I know this has been discussed before and it probably will be discussed as long as the KudoZ system is in place.
Regards,
Benjamin
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| Disagrees are the only ones I thank! | Apr 4, 2008 |
Vito Smolej wrote:
Who's thanking those who disagree?
Their opinion is just as useful and welcome.
Disagreers and neutrals are the only people I do thank - because they have to give an explanation, and I usually learn something I did not know before, a new dimension to the question, or a finer shade of meaning in the answer.
Or they show me a trap I have fallen into, and can avoid in future.
There is a little box beside the agree/disagree window with a tick in it and "send me the response." If you remove the tick, you do not get a mail with thanks. I practically always remove that tick. If I want to go back and look at the question again, I can, but usually I leave it.
I don't like receiving or generating 'empty' mails, so I don't generally thank people who agree with me!
Happy translating and may you find the answers you look for in KudoZ, everyone
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Unless the agreer has added a comment that merits a comment, I don't. I hope no one interprets this as ungrateful or rude; I suspect there may be some cultural differences at play. In fact, from my cultural perspective, thanking someone for agreeing with your POV is ever so slightly "toady-ish". When I agree with a suggestion, it's because I think it is correct or best, not because I'm doing any sort of favor for the answerer. No favor = no need for thanks. If anything, when I register an agree,... See more Unless the agreer has added a comment that merits a comment, I don't. I hope no one interprets this as ungrateful or rude; I suspect there may be some cultural differences at play. In fact, from my cultural perspective, thanking someone for agreeing with your POV is ever so slightly "toady-ish". When I agree with a suggestion, it's because I think it is correct or best, not because I'm doing any sort of favor for the answerer. No favor = no need for thanks. If anything, when I register an agree, I consider myself to be rendering a service to the person who asked the question, not the person who answered it!
I've never followed KudoZ terms in language pairs other than Spanish and Portuguese, and I wonder if anyone has noticed differences in the thanks to agreers in different pairs? It's endemic in SP>EN and EN>SP, and I've thought once or twice about revising my stance just so I don't seem like an ungrateful a-hole. Maybe this post can serve as a blanket "thanks to anyone who ever has agreed or ever will agree with my answers"? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | old debates never die | Apr 6, 2008 |
Luca Ruella wrote:
This has been already discussed in the past. My idea is that thanking is useless and should be avoided.
By the way, not to single you out or anything, but I'm not sure the fact that something has been discussed before doesn't mean that it doesn't merit discussing again, especially if there are new participants and new opinions to add to the discussion. It's not as if the end result of the previous discussions is to come up with some "final answer," case closed, move on to the next topic. Pointing out where things have been discussed earlier is a useful start, but it shouldn't, IMHO, imply that there's no point in continuing to talk about it.
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