Q/A ratio

texjax wrote:



Unrelentingly pointing out to this kind of people that there are rules for asking might be a deterrent:
2.1 KudoZ shold be used for requesting terms help only after other resources have been exhausted. Resources available include the KudoZ archives (KudoZ > ProZ.com Term Search from the main menu), dictionaries, search engines, etc. ..
2.4 Sufficient context must be provided with each question...







[Edited at 2006-09-10 21:10]

craigs wrote:

On the other hand, laziness or abuse aside, it makes for an easy way to rack up KudoZ if you are quick on the draw answering the questions.

Also consider those with ratios heavily weighted in the opposite direction: those that answer tons of questions and never ask any. Different strokes for different folks.

craigs wrote:

I can side with the complaint of abuse if an unqualified translator is making a living off of freebies and undercutting more qualified peers. But really--how far can a person get in that situation?

Viktoria Gimbe wrote:

Why not make all questions not for points?

I mean, ProZ would simply cancel the whole points system. Yes, there would be less people answering the questions, but then again, those who would answer will be motivated by other than the points, which would probably help the overall quality of answers. The bonus is that the KOG would improve also - now that would be some relief.

If this happened, I would not change my use of KudoZ - would you?

Mario Cerutti wrote:



If you give a look at the Italian forum as well, you will see some questions made in the recent days by a member to which a junior high-school student would be able to answer even without opening the simplest English-Italian dictionary.

Outsourcers can exclude non-members from the bidding system probably because they suppose that non-paying members aren't worth pursuing for professional works, while they wouldn't hesitate to pick up one of these blue-ribboned champions without suspecting that they have to rely on Proz.com even for very simple and common expressions.

Mario Cerutti

http://www.aliseo.com/english/

[Edited at 2006-09-11 02:44]

[Edited at 2006-09-11 07:51]

CMJ_Trans wrote:

However tolerant one may be - and I don't claim to be particularly tolerant, there comes a point when tolerance is going beyond the call of duty. No names, no pack drill but there is one person in Portuguese-English, for example, who seems to have been cutting up an enormous text into bite-size morsels and delivering them to ProZ colleagues for translation for months (literally) by just keeping within the question limits each week/month/day. And bizarrely, there are still those who volunteer assistance. I got caught once but never again. The context alone gives the lie to those who may try to justify their action by suggesting it is a different job each time.
For me, this is the worst case I have seen, even though there a quite a few people out there who have been known to abuse the site rather than using it, when they take on more than they can chew - which they seem to do frequently (perhaps everything is more than they can chew and they need to consider a change of profession?)

A thought however that crosses my mind is that the site is a victim of its own success. Those who study translation at a proper school now seem to learn as much if not more about using the website and IT programs than about the language aspects. For the younger generations, using Internet, googling and even Prozing are part of the basic tools of the trade in their minds.
So is it that surprising in the end that they seem to think it their right to be helped by their "peers"? (though "peers" implies someone of equal standing.....)

The result is that the professionals are getting increasingly cheesed off by the presence of so many rank amateurs polluting the translation profession. Are you surprised?

CMJ_Trans wrote:

However tolerant one may be - and I don't claim to be particularly tolerant, there comes a point when tolerance is going beyond the call of duty. No names, no pack drill but there is one person in Portuguese-English, for example, who seems to have been cutting up an enormous text into bite-size morsels and delivering them to ProZ colleagues for translation for months (literally) by just keeping within the question limits each week/month/day. And bizarrely, there are still those who volunteer assistance. I got caught once but never again. The context alone gives the lie to those who may try to justify their action by suggesting it is a different job each time.
For me, this is the worst case I have seen, even though there a quite a few people out there who have been known to abuse the site rather than using it, when they take on more than they can chew - which they seem to do frequently (perhaps everything is more than they can chew and they need to consider a change of profession?)

CMJ_Trans wrote:


The result is that the professionals are getting increasingly cheesed off by the presence of so many rank amateurs polluting the translation profession. Are you surprised?

Vito Smolej wrote:

and also when see free rider on a subway. When I see somebody jump the line. Or when the lady in front of me cleans the shelf... etc etc.

You don't want me to go on, do you?

Every realistic society is based on rules, and on those who stick to them. In the literature they're called the (great) reciprocators ("you gave me two KudoZ answers, I have two (or maybe even four) for you"). And then there's that freeloading breed... I'd say that a lot of them just don't know yet the rules: Reminds me of the time, when I tried to step into a mosque with my shoes on (the first and the only time - but thank God somebody hinted to me, what the rule is - guess there were too many shoes at the entrance for me to realize it on my own...).

Anyhow, it's the ratio of free loaders vs reciprocators that makes the systems stand or fold. So KudoZ is in absolutely no danger. except if our blood corporatively boils over - and I dont think this is likely to happen.


regards

Vito

Christine Andersen wrote:

Although I agree entirely with all of the above, life is too short to boil over with fury at things like that beyond righteous anger. The system can never automatically distinguish between abusers and people who really need a lot of help for whatever reason. If others can use the answer too, it's good to get it into KOG. Beginners often learn to contribute their share later.

I use the function on the KudoZ dashboard where you can flag or filter other KudoZ askers.

Only you and the system know who irritates you enough to be filtered out. No need for rational explanations.

I'm human, not a saint. ProZ user no. XXXXX makes me sick. I want to pretend that person does not exist. Goodbye, go and annoy someone else!

It's not something I do often, because there are very few people like that in my language pairs, but it is a brilliant safety valve when the need arises.

If lots of people all filter the same abusers, they might decide ProZ is useless and stop abusing it, but don't hold your breath while you wait for it.

Just my two penn'orth!

Daniela Zambrini wrote:



Exactly! Still, there are so many more ways to contribute: adding links to the Glosspost, offering advice in forums, sharing resources and experiences, etc.

Ciao, D.

Kim Metzger wrote:

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”—Author unknown

Lia, your thread reminds me of a recent interesting discussion of a poll asking "At what stage in a translation do you ask KudoZ questions?"

http://www.proz.com/topic/48851

I think many if not most of the long-term freeloaders are people who don't want to learn to be translators; they just want the answers so they can make some money. They don't read these forum discussions and they don't learn from KudoZ answerers.

Instead of requiring them to contribute to ProZ.com, maybe we should require them to learn something about the trade. After asking x number of questions, they wouldn't be able to ask additional questions unless they've passed a quiz on some required reading material.

Probably a pipe dream, but I thought I'd make the point.