"choose a winner" - are the other answerers losers? Thread poster: Dipl.-Kfm. Bernhard Aicher MBA
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I have just selected the most helpful answer to a translation question and I find it quite unpleasant to have to "choose a winner".
When asking questions I am grateful for any help and I don't want to be forced to tell the other helpful fellow translators that they are loosers.
I would change the wording "choose a winner" into "choose the most helpful answer".
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2005-08-29 06:46]
| | | | | Excellent idea! | Aug 28, 2005 |
Dipl.-Kfm. Bernhard Aicher MBA wrote:
I would change the wording "choose a winner" into "choose the most helpful answer".
Your proposal seems much more appropriate to me.
KudoZ ist not a lottery!
[Edited at 2005-08-28 18:41]
| | | | | We are competitors, though | Aug 28, 2005 |
We are competitors, as well as colleagues - at least we are competitors with other translators working in the same fields and language pairs. Kudoz seem to be taken seriously both by prospective clients and by many of the translators. The advantage of gaining more Kudoz points than your fellow competitor is that your name is placed higher up the list in the directory. This is actually serious business, if prospective clients are going to choose from the names at the top of the list.
... See more We are competitors, as well as colleagues - at least we are competitors with other translators working in the same fields and language pairs. Kudoz seem to be taken seriously both by prospective clients and by many of the translators. The advantage of gaining more Kudoz points than your fellow competitor is that your name is placed higher up the list in the directory. This is actually serious business, if prospective clients are going to choose from the names at the top of the list.
It seems a very nice idea to change "Choose a Winner" to "Choose the most helpful answer" - however, it is not going to take away the competitive factor that (rightly) exists between competitors. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Christian
Local time: 20:22
English to German
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| Brilliant idea! | Aug 28, 2005 |
Dipl.-Kfm. Bernhard Aicher MBA wrote:
I would change the wording "choose a winner" into "choose the most helpful answer".
I don't want to choose winners/losers either.:( I agree that "choose the most helpful answer" is definitely to be preferred.
Best,
Christian
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De la Vera C (X)
Argentina
Local time: 15:22
English to Spanish
| Not losers... | Aug 28, 2005 |
I agree in that "the most helpful answer" should be more appropriate, but I also agree with Astrid in that there is something about competition here. But anyway, I wouldn´t feel a loser if my answer is not chosen, perhaps frustrated if I am absolutely sure my answer was correct and a wrong answer is chosen. But many times, if not most of the times, answers are very similar and if the asker decides for another answer (not mine, I mean), I would not feel a loser at all, those are the rules after... See more I agree in that "the most helpful answer" should be more appropriate, but I also agree with Astrid in that there is something about competition here. But anyway, I wouldn´t feel a loser if my answer is not chosen, perhaps frustrated if I am absolutely sure my answer was correct and a wrong answer is chosen. But many times, if not most of the times, answers are very similar and if the asker decides for another answer (not mine, I mean), I would not feel a loser at all, those are the rules after all.
Verónica ▲ Collapse
| | | | paula arturo 
United States
Local time: 14:22
Spanish to English
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Dipl.-Kfm. Bernhard Aicher MBA wrote:
I have just selected the most helpful answer to a translation question and I find it quite unpleasant to have to "choose a winner".
When asking questions I am grateful for any help and I don't want to be forced to tell the other helpful fellow translators that they are loosers.
I would change the wording "choose a winner" into "choose the most helpful answer".
We have to admit, no matter how many changes are made, it's not always the most appropriate answer that gets the points anyways.
I think your idea's great. Wording can be very motivating if used right.
| | | | IanW (X)
Local time: 20:22
German to English
+ ...
| Does it really make any difference? | Aug 28, 2005 |
Honestly, does it really make any difference if you select an answer and call it "the winner" or if you call it "the most helpful"? If the other answerers were referred to as "losers", then I would agree, but that's not the case as far as I am aware.
As far as I'm concerned - and with all due respect to the suggestor - this is simply rewording to avoid treading on over-sensitive toes.
| | | | Gina W
United States
Local time: 14:22
Member (2003)
French to English
Ian Winick wrote:
As far as I'm concerned - and with all due respect to the suggestor - this is simply rewording to avoid treading on over-sensitive toes.
Yes, I see it as the same thing and there would be no point to making this change. JMO.
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| does it really make a difference? | Aug 28, 2005 |
Ian Winick wrote:
Honestly, does it really make any difference if you select an answer and call it "the winner" or if you call it "the most helpful"? If the other answerers were referred to as "losers", then I would agree, but that's not the case as far as I am aware.
As far as I'm concerned - and with all due respect to the suggestor - this is simply rewording to avoid treading on over-sensitive toes.
Just what I wanted to say myself.
As long as the idea behind the whole thing works, why bother about such things as wording?
PC is not an issue in Romania so far, but I sometimes find PC annoying (like the zillions of words always changing to refer to persons with "disabilities", which to me personally seem to be a futile effort, because it seems that no matter what you call them, in one or two years the new term becomes politically incorrect and a new one pops up, to replace it, until it becomes used by many people and then it is considered politically incorrect, and again a new word is used and so on). I really don't see a point in this.
I think all such issues end up the same way: there will always be one person who won't agree with the wording and then we will keep changing words, instead of focussing on what's really important (like the quality of answers, not the label on a button, which I usually don't even read when grading an answer).
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 20:22
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Dipl.-Kfm. Bernhard Aicher MBA wrote:
I would change the wording "choose a winner" into "choose the most helpful answer".
Seconded. The "choose a winner" makes me feel like I've lost some sort of race... and indeed it is a race, for often the asker chooses the first answerer's answer, and the first answerer is simply the one that happened to be free to answer the question at that moment. It's even worse if many askers are in a certain time zone, because those answerers in other time zones mostly lose out because they're late.
| | | | A/C Raynsa Galvao (X)
English to Portuguese
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| choose a winner?why? | Aug 30, 2005 |
Everybody here looks for the best answer that matches our question.We're learning all the time with each other.The best answer is enough, more than this is irrelevant.
| | | | Özden Arıkan
Germany
Local time: 20:22
Member
English to Turkish
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| It's already changed in the new design | Aug 30, 2005 |
Now it reads: "Select this answer as the most helpful."
So, perhaps you should simply switch to the new design But I want to add that I find this thinking meaningful and worthwhile, because part of the problems we experience in Kudoz boil down to the wrong perception that it's a racecourse, even an arena, instead of being a help network. And the wording "choose a winner" could only reinforce that wrong perception.
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Mats Wiman
Sweden
Local time: 20:22
Member (2000)
German to Swedish
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In memoriam | Seconded! Wording is important. | Aug 30, 2005 |
Elvira Stoianov wrote: As long as the idea behind the whole thing works, why bother about such things as wording?
Misunderstanding one another is not good for anyone. To decrease misunderstanding should logicallly improve things.
There are no winners and loosers. One should choose the most helpful answer according to KudoZ rules and philosophy.
Therefore, one should say so.
Mats
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