I was about to make a (negative) entry about a translation agency for whom I recently worked and who demanded a rebate, citing poor quality. The quality problem was entirely fictitious (the 'corrections' they sent me were complete gobbledegook, the text had been 'corrected' to the point where it no longer bore more than a passing resemblance to the English language). I am nonetheless prevented by the blue board conditions from making a blue board entry reflecting my experience (to which the outsourcer does of course have the right of reply).
(I could of course have pursued the company through the courts, but given that we're in different countries and that the sum involved is small, it was simply not worth the effort.)
This seems to me to undermine the purpose of the blue board. By excluding translators against whom agencies make unsubstantiated quality complaints, i.e. those likely to post low scores, the blue board scores will be seriously skewed.
Or does everyone else simply ignore this stipulation?
Jeremy Amos
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I am not a full member yet. I actually came to the forums after trying to get a full membership and being deterred by something that I have seen in the "subscription wizard".
I have never made any LWA entry either. However, I have recently read a blog post by Jill Sommer posted on January 11, 2012 discussing the practices of the Blue Board. You should google that post and read it.
Unfortunately, a truly fair rating system would be way too complex to implement. It would mandate that any complaint be backed up with evidence of some sort, which isn't really realistic, is it?
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Jeremy Amos United Kingdom Local time: 20:46 German to English
TOPIC STARTER
Any chance of a link to that posting...
Feb 13
waav wrote:
However, I have recently read a blog post by Jill Sommer posted on January 11, 2012 discussing the practices of the Blue Board. You should google that post and read it.
Thanks waav, but I can't find that posting via either Google or the forum's advanced search facility. I'd be very interested to read it though (I worked with Jill on a project briefly a couple of years ago) - would you be able to post a link to it?
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Ty Kendall United Kingdom Local time: 20:46 Member (2011) Hebrew to English
Here it is......
Feb 13
Jeremy Amos wrote:
waav wrote:
However, I have recently read a blog post by Jill Sommer posted on January 11, 2012 discussing the practices of the Blue Board. You should google that post and read it.
Thanks waav, but I can't find that posting via either Google or the forum's advanced search facility. I'd be very interested to read it though (I worked with Jill on a project briefly a couple of years ago) - would you be able to post a link to it?
I often see on 'questionable' outsourcers' BB records, translators complaining that they were paid 3, 4, or more months late. These outsourcers, by way of rebuttal, often say that there were 'quality issues', without any need to provide evidence.
If rule 1.3 were in fact enforced, this would cause such (low WWA & quality complaint) entries to be removed by Proz staff. Obviously, if 'rogue' outsourcers learned about it, they would always resort to raising subjective quality issues, which would automatically rid them of all low LWAs they got.
Bottom line is that only the 5s and 4s would remain on the BB, rendering it useless.
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