to grade or not to grade answers
Thread poster: Rebekka Groß (X)
Rebekka Groß (X)
Rebekka Groß (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 02:24
English to German
Jun 12, 2001

This post is a spin-off of a post suggesting to block people who haven\'t graded between 5 and 10 answers so you might have come across it above.



I am not sure if it is such a good idea to block people who haven\'t graded a certain number of answers. I have not graded answers in the past because none of the answers really fit.



Would this not also cause people to grade answers just for the sake of grading them even if they don\'t use the term/expression s
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This post is a spin-off of a post suggesting to block people who haven\'t graded between 5 and 10 answers so you might have come across it above.



I am not sure if it is such a good idea to block people who haven\'t graded a certain number of answers. I have not graded answers in the past because none of the answers really fit.



Would this not also cause people to grade answers just for the sake of grading them even if they don\'t use the term/expression suggested?



In fact, I just received an e-mail informing me that I hadn\'t graded 23 answers some dating back to March 1st! I was surprised because I\'m normally quite good a grading answers and immediately sat down to go through them. Despite my efforts, about a third of the answers were not suitable and I declined some of them. In other instances, I still don\'t know what the correct term would be - so what do I do in such a case. These 8 answers (or thereabouts) are still registered as ungraded. It would be good to have an option called \"Decline all answers\" and to be able add a short explanation if they\'re not suitable. This should then prevent new e-mail reminders that answers haven\'t been graded and potential blocking (should blocking be introduced on the site).



I would appreciate other people\'s comments on this subject.



[ This Message was edited by: on 2001-06-12 09:38 ]
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Henry Dotterer
Henry Dotterer
Local time: 22:24
SITE FOUNDER
Jun 12, 2001

If all answers are unacceptable, you should decline them all. Only questions that have answers that are neither graded nor declined count in your \"open questions\" total.



Questions without answers, or with all answers declined, do not result in reminders, and are not \"counted against you\" when you ask a new question.


 
Buzzy
Buzzy
Local time: 03:24
French to English
Jun 13, 2001

Hi Rebekka,

Following on from what Henry says, if none of the answers suggested are suitable, from experience I\'ve discovered that when you \"close\" an answer you can actually type in your own answer if you\'ve found a better one. This means the question has an answer. I have to admit that I also gave points to colleagues who had suggested answers, because they did help me in my search for the right term. Perhaps other translators think awarding points for helpfulness despite not fin
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Hi Rebekka,

Following on from what Henry says, if none of the answers suggested are suitable, from experience I\'ve discovered that when you \"close\" an answer you can actually type in your own answer if you\'ve found a better one. This means the question has an answer. I have to admit that I also gave points to colleagues who had suggested answers, because they did help me in my search for the right term. Perhaps other translators think awarding points for helpfulness despite not finding the term is not the right way to use the system?
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Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Nikki Scott-Despaigne  Identity Verified
Local time: 03:24
French to English
Jun 13, 2001

Hello Buzzy. Nikki here! Yes, points should be rewarded for the usefulness of an answer! When awarding points, the guidelines indicate that points are to be awarded for the most helpful answer. Sometimes, a perfect term may be given but without any explanation. Another answer to the same question may have provided a lot of useful info which not only helped you with the term but demonstrated understanding of the context, the subject area and gave you lots of extra leads for the rest of your text.

 
Didier Fourcot
Didier Fourcot  Identity Verified
Local time: 03:24
Member (2004)
English to French
Jun 18, 2001

Perhaps the question is in the definition of \"the most helpful answer\": an answer may not give the precise term you want but lead to a specific link or raise an idea that IS extremely useful.

Common cases:

- no useful answer at all: decline all questions (there could also be an option to close the question declining all of them in one step?), questions should be closed as any job has a deadline, and ProZ is more a job-oriented help than a general terminology discussion
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Perhaps the question is in the definition of \"the most helpful answer\": an answer may not give the precise term you want but lead to a specific link or raise an idea that IS extremely useful.

Common cases:

- no useful answer at all: decline all questions (there could also be an option to close the question declining all of them in one step?), questions should be closed as any job has a deadline, and ProZ is more a job-oriented help than a general terminology discussion

- two or more useful answers: point sharing should be really complicated and little useful (few points involved per question), I occasionnally received a mail to thank for the suggestion or useful link, perhaps this cannot be good for all cases, but I did appreciate it and should probably use it also if needed

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Daphne Theodoraki
Daphne Theodoraki  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 03:24
Swedish to Greek
+ ...
Jul 20, 2001

Quote:


On 2001-06-12 19:09, Henry wrote:

Questions without answers, or with all answers declined, do not result in reminders, and are not \"counted against you\" when you ask a new question.





I don\'t know whether the following is due to some delay in the system, but here is what happened: I posted a question in the Norwegian-French language pair some days ago. I knew what the Norwegian term me... See more
Quote:


On 2001-06-12 19:09, Henry wrote:

Questions without answers, or with all answers declined, do not result in reminders, and are not \"counted against you\" when you ask a new question.





I don\'t know whether the following is due to some delay in the system, but here is what happened: I posted a question in the Norwegian-French language pair some days ago. I knew what the Norwegian term meant, I just wasn\'t sure of the exact French equivalent(I should probably have posted it in the French monolingual section, but didn\'t think of it at the time). I got two answers. They were not wrong, but I wasn\'t satisfied either, and, as it were, I found the correct one myself a little bit later. So, I declined both answers, explaining to both contributors why I had done so. And what happens next? I get an e-mail from proz (a couple of days after I had declined the answers) telling me that I have an open question and should award Kudoz points. And that I\'ll be getting the reminder every second day for a week! So? Have I done something wrong? Does the fact that I declined both answers mean that the question is still open?

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Nikki Graham
Nikki Graham  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:24
Spanish to English
Sep 29, 2001

I\'m very confused by the decline option as well. What actually happens? What notification do the answerers receive? Does it delete their answer so that when someone looks it up in the glossary it isn\'t there? I once declined an answer because it was ridiculous (in my opinion), but then felt a bit guilty becasue I have no idea what the consequences of doing this are.

On the other hand, if you decline all answers, you are in effect giving 0 points, so I think this should be an option.
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I\'m very confused by the decline option as well. What actually happens? What notification do the answerers receive? Does it delete their answer so that when someone looks it up in the glossary it isn\'t there? I once declined an answer because it was ridiculous (in my opinion), but then felt a bit guilty becasue I have no idea what the consequences of doing this are.

On the other hand, if you decline all answers, you are in effect giving 0 points, so I think this should be an option. At least the question can be closed. I don\'t know about others, but if I\'ve got involved in trying to translate a term, I like to know the final result, see what others have put, add it to my personal lists, etc. And you can only really do this when the question is closed. However, I\'d personally probably continue to give at least 1 point to someone who answered to appreciate their effort/input/time.

Which leads me to another point. Why don\'t you get BrowniZ for answering questions? You get them for putting agree, which is very simple. Some questions are very complicated, require research, and you may not get chosen, yet your effort has been far greater than simply clicking a button. Perhaps there could even be a third category - points for questions you\'ve answered, but not been chosen.



Nikki Graham
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to grade or not to grade answers






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