Suggestion for platinum membership solely in exchange for BrowniZ
Tina Vonhof Canada Local time: 17:53 Member (2006) Dutch to English + ...
What is a text ad?
Jul 4, 2007
Hi Amy,
Here are a few FAQ that may help you understand how the Text Ads feature works.
I hope this helps.
Mihai
[/quote]
The link explains how to create a text ad but not what a text is. Where can I see an example?
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Christine Andersen Denmark Local time: 01:53 Member (2003) Danish to English + ...
First time only?
Jul 4, 2007
The privileges of being a paying member are 'addictive'!
What about allowing people who make major contributions like Narasimhan to become full members for one year, and limit the number of times (or the frequency, perhaps, as the years roll by)?
E.g. one year in five or six can be earned with BrowniZ and the rest have to be paid for? I think some members would get 'hooked' that way, and most can find the subscription if they really want to. It's a matter of priorities.
But I do understand that no one can afford all the professional associations, websites, terminology resources etc. that it is possibe to subscribe to, and that the contributions like translating site pages, and taking part in the activities are in fact what make the site interesting, so Narasimhan has a point.
I have tried giving BrowniZ away without success, so in the end I used them myself and gave the money I saved to a different cause.
It would be good if there were more ways of using them or transferring them, but it doesn't seem to be a big problem for most of us.
[Edited at 2007-07-04 19:04]
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Mihai Badea Luxembourg Member (2004) English to Romanian + ...
Definition + Text Ad sample
Jul 4, 2007
Tina Vonhof wrote:
The link explains how to create a text ad but not what a text is. Where can I see an example?
Hi Tina,
The link I mentioned includes some other links. One of them leads here .
I quote "The text ad consists of a heading and up to two lines of body text, and it is targeted at a single language pair and discipline. A sample Directory Text Ad is shown below."
A general definition of “text ad” can be found here : "Advertisement using text-based hyperlinks."
And if you want to see how a “real” Text Ad looks like, you can take a look here
I hope this answers your questions.
[Edited at 2007-07-04 17:57]
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Mahmoud Helmi Egypt Local time: 01:53 Member English to Arabic
What about multi-year membership
Jul 4, 2007
Dear Narasimhan,
I'm a ProZ.com full member, and I would like to give you my advice despite the fact that I'm only 23 years old. I'm from a country with high exchange rate for the dollar, which means that I can't afford to pay the 120 US$ - ProZ's membership fees-on an annual basis. And, in order to cut down expenses in both short and long run to its minimum, and after encountering some failures to have my fees paid via some means, I made a crazy decision. I made a subscription for a ten-year membership (for 750 US$), and thus paying only 75 dollars each year (i.e., a total discount of 450 US$, which also means 4 years of free membership!!). And, If you take into consideration the free hosting service given to full members (which allows you to establish a site for yourself for nothing!) , you will find yourself actually paying only 50 dollars each year. Also, If I wasn't wrong, the fees will inevitably increase during these 10 years, so taking this decision was wise in my point of view. Do others share me this viewpoint, or I'm just naive and "still young"?
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Gerard de Noord France Local time: 01:53 Member (2003) German to Dutch + ...
A smart investment
Jul 5, 2007
Dear Mahmoud,
I think you've made a wise investment, provided you want to stay a freelance translator in the years to come. I would even suggest you to invest 10 or 20 dollars more a year to buy and host your own Internet domain via ProZ.com.
The yearly subsription fee is steep, even for a European translator, but you don't even have to be a fan of this site to understand that it's a profitable investment.
Kind regards,
Gerard
Mahmoud Helmi wrote:
I made a subscription for a ten-year membership (for 750 US$), and thus paying only 75 dollars each year (i.e., a total discount of 450 US$, which also means 4 years of free membership!!). And, If you take into consideration the free hosting service given to full members (which allows you to establish a site for yourself for nothing!) , you will find yourself actually paying only 50 dollars each year. Also, If I wasn't wrong, the fees will inevitably increase during these 10 years, so taking this decision was wise in my point of view. Do others share me this viewpoint, or I'm just naive and "still young"?
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Mahmoud Helmi Egypt Local time: 01:53 Member English to Arabic
Thank you Mr. Gerard...
Jul 5, 2007
I've already invested more 21.5 dollars for a two-year registeration of my own site, although I've not yet uploaded any content to it. I could have invested more, but I found that I may change its name in the future. I registered my domain just 10 days after my becoming a full member so that I can at least gain experience on how to deal with sites and manage them.
Best regards,
Mahmoud
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Enrique wrote:
No modification of the current policy regarding Browniz-based membership discounts is in the books, but special offers are periodically made during membership campaigns targeting users and members with large amounts of Browniz.
Thanks for your hard work and your well-intentioned post.
Enrique has answered your question, but I would like to add that it is clear that what you have done in terms of contributing to the site as a non-paying member is worth much more than the annual membership fee. From this standpoint, it must seem sensible that a membership option payable purely in browniz could be made available to you and others in a way that benefits all parties.
One thing we must consider is that the browniz "economy" is imperfect and it would be possible to game the system in ways that, beyond reducing membership income (of course), would lead to a degradation of some of the community's knowledge bases. You can imagine the ways.
It also bears pointing out that at the end of the day, operation of the workplace we share requires cash. Resources are consumed in any use of the site, even contributory, and I consider it significant that we have a member community in which all parties bear a portion of those costs.
If the idea of sharing costs together is not compelling to you, however, consider that feedback suggests that annual membership in ProZ.com is an investment that pays off for the overwhelming majority of professional translators anywhere in the world. You might ask local colleagues who are members for feedback directly in order to confirm that this is the case.
I hope you will consider becoming a full paying member of the site, Narasimhan. Based on your past contributions, we would certainly be proud to welcome you as a full member of the community. In any case, thank you again for your various contributions, and for helping to localize the site into Tamil!
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Mahmoud Helmi wrote:
... I made a crazy decision. I made a subscription for a ten-year membership (for 750 US$), and thus paying only 75 dollars each year (i.e., a total discount of 450 US$, which also means 4 years of free membership!!)...
Do others share me this viewpoint, or I'm just naive and "still young"?
Thank you very much, both for your investment and for the vote of confidence that it carries. A few people a month do what you have done, and as a result there is an additional benefit that you have not listed: because we reinvest membership income in development, we are able to provide requested services to you (and others) more quickly than would have been possible in the absence of long-term "investors" like you.
And you do not need to question whether your decision was naive or unwise, because our prorated refund policy applies also to multi-year memberships. If you are ever unsatisfied, just enter a support ticket requesting a refund of the unused portion, and it will be returned.
Thanks again and good luck at ProZ.com!
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sandhya India Local time: 05:23 Member (2003) German to English + ...
Clever investment
Jul 5, 2007
Dear Mahmoud,
That was a very clever move on your part! You took care of future fluctuations in exchange rates, possible increase in membership fees and got a 4 year membership free at the current fees of 120 US$!
I might receive some flak from some fellow Indians for this... but here goes...
Narasimhan and others who think alike, at present the US$ is rather low which is good for the Indian currency. If you become members now, you benefit. It means at the current rate of US$ 1 = INR 40 approx. you pay only INR 4800 per year, that works out to INR 400 per month, which is not at all a very big amount.
Of course, one must appreciate the hard work you put into the Tamil site, but we must also keep in mind that running a portal or association or any kind of setup requires monetary funds.
So, if you think you really want to become a full-time member of Proz, then now is the right time!
PS: Nope, Proz.com is not paying me for this bit of marketing and PR... I just thought with the dollar value dropping, it was the ideal time to leap into the market
cheers
Sandhya
Mahmoud Helmi wrote:
Dear Narasimhan,
I'm a ProZ.com full member, and I would like to give you my advice despite the fact that I'm only 23 years old. I'm from a country with high exchange rate for the dollar, which means that I can't afford to pay the 120 US$ - ProZ's membership fees-on an annual basis. And, in order to cut down expenses in both short and long run to its minimum, and after encountering some failures to have my fees paid via some means, I made a crazy decision. I made a subscription for a ten-year membership (for 750 US$), and thus paying only 75 dollars each year (i.e., a total discount of 450 US$, which also means 4 years of free membership!!). And, If you take into consideration the free hosting service given to full members (which allows you to establish a site for yourself for nothing!) , you will find yourself actually paying only 50 dollars each year. Also, If I wasn't wrong, the fees will inevitably increase during these 10 years, so taking this decision was wise in my point of view. Do others share me this viewpoint, or I'm just naive and "still young"?
[Edited at 2007-07-05 15:24]
[Edited at 2007-07-05 15:27]
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Narasimhan Raghavan India Local time: 05:23 Member (2007) English to Tamil + ...
TOPIC STARTER
Hello Sandhya, nice talking to you after a gap of 38 months
Jul 5, 2007
It was by attending the Bombay Powwow that I got my ID verified. As a result, I got the same privilege as a platinum member in being able to post my forum topics without vetting by a moderator. Thank you very much for verifying my ID.
As I already mentioned in this thread, I am quite well off with my present comfortable position of BrowniZ points. As everyone agrees, I got them by rendering good service to ProZ.
But my suggesting full membership in exchange of just BrowniZ is something entirely different. It is not without precedent. I am already a full-fledged member in another portal through just such arrangement.
As for the dollar rupee exchange rate, that too is not an issue. At my prevailing hourly rate, it is just 8 hours' work. Money is not at stake as far as I am concerned.
I sincerely feel that ProZ is in need of all sorts of members, those who pay and those who do service and earn BrowniZ. When partial concession is already there, I propose full concession as well.
After all, I will act in my full interest just as others do. My interest lies in the proposal I made. That is all.
Regards,
N.Raghavan
[quote]sandhya wrote:
Dear Mahmoud, Narasimhan and others who think alike, at present the US$ is rather low which is good for the Indian currency. If you become members now, you benefit. It means at the current rate of US$ 1 = INR 40 approx. you pay only INR 4800 per year, that works out to INR 400 per month, which is not at all a very big amount.
Of course, one must appreciate the hard work you put in with the Tamil site, but we must also remember that running a portal or association or any kind of setup requires monetary funds.
So, if you think you really want to become a full-time member of Proz, then now is the right time!
PS: Nope, Proz.com is not paying me for this bit of marketing and PR... I just thought with the dollar value dropping, it was the ideal time to leap into the market
cheers
Sandhya
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Paul Dixon Brazil Local time: 20:53 Member (2009) Portuguese to English + ...
Platinum membership for brownies please
Oct 24, 2007
I am in a similar situation, as I can not afford the annual fee for membership, However, I do have some 8 thousand BrowniZ which I have accumulated and would gladly seek to bring this up to 10 or 12 thousand if there is a chance of getting one year of free Platinum membership. These Browniz have been earned with much effort, including the organisation of three PowWows.
The way I see it is: if someone is able to get a year's Platinum membership in exchange for BrowniZ points, the extra work gained would enable the translator to pay from then on, so this benefit could be a one-off perk. After all, the features available to non-members are so very limited that we do not have much chance of getting much in the way of jobs through this medium - we have to wait for bids (and by then the jobs are usually closed), can't publish articles, can't place ads...
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