| Pages in topic: [1 2 3] > | Disturbing "featured translator" images... Thread poster: Andrew Levine
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Andrew Levine 
United States
Local time: 18:28
Member (2007)
French to English
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Did anyone else see the same "featured translator" image I did on Proz's main page a few moments ago?
It was a rather horrifying animated .gif in which a computer user pounds at his keyboard until his arms are bloody red stumps, then bangs his head repeatedly until blood spurts from his skull, as his eyes dislodge from their sockets! It was not even cartoonish, just gory. This was an extremely disturbing image and I am surprised it was displayed near the top of the main page of Proz... See more Did anyone else see the same "featured translator" image I did on Proz's main page a few moments ago?
It was a rather horrifying animated .gif in which a computer user pounds at his keyboard until his arms are bloody red stumps, then bangs his head repeatedly until blood spurts from his skull, as his eyes dislodge from their sockets! It was not even cartoonish, just gory. This was an extremely disturbing image and I am surprised it was displayed near the top of the main page of Proz for several minutes. Mercifully, it is gone now. What sort of face does this present to the professional community?
I think that it should be a requirement that, in order to be featured on the main page, a translator's image should be a picture of him/herself or his/her company logo, or at the very least there should be some sort of moderator vetting to ensure that images like this are not displayed on Proz's main page.
Does anyone else have any thoughts? ▲ Collapse
| | | | milinad
Local time: 03:58
German to English
| Featured translator | Sep 4, 2007 |
I fully agree with Andrew. Only the translators who have posted their photographs should be displayed (selected) as 'featured translator'. There is no point showing other graphic images whether gory or not.
| | | | Marcelo Silveyra
United States
Local time: 15:28
Member (2007)
German to English
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| Uhmmm....I actually found it funny | Sep 4, 2007 |
and I can't really say that I found it horrifying or excessively gory (in a realistic sense). As a matter of fact, it made me laugh so much that I saved it on my desktop and sent it to a couple of friends.
However, I do understand where your "professional community" comment is coming from. I personally would say that this is, after all, the Internet, and a little humor is allowed, but I can perfectly understand why you would disagree.
What I do think, speaking from a ... See more and I can't really say that I found it horrifying or excessively gory (in a realistic sense). As a matter of fact, it made me laugh so much that I saved it on my desktop and sent it to a couple of friends.
However, I do understand where your "professional community" comment is coming from. I personally would say that this is, after all, the Internet, and a little humor is allowed, but I can perfectly understand why you would disagree.
What I do think, speaking from a practical point of view, is that featured translator images are up for a very brief time and it really wouldn't make much sense to have someone monitoring them (or all profiles with an image) if there is no invading horde of mutilation-related GIFs taking over ProZ. In other words, I would say: take this one with a grain of salt. Or, if you find it too offensive, perhaps it would be a good solution to simply stay away from the main ProZ page for a few minutes.
But coming back to the "professional community" aspect - I would say that, as long as there are no invading hordes, we can rest assured that a single goblin isn't going to destroy the kingdom. And that I'm going to quit with the Dungeons & Dragons imagery right now. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I personally find photos boring | Sep 4, 2007 |
But I am not calling for them to be banned. I have no interest in showing my picture or my logo on this site. I rather like my avatar and think it symbolises me to perfection.
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Irene N
United States
Local time: 17:28
English to Russian
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| No problem:-) | Sep 4, 2007 |
I shall gladly give up the joy of being featured but I am not about to give up my cat:-)
This is neither a dating service nor a modeling agency to impose the above restrictions.
| | | | Vadim Pogulyaev
Thailand
Local time: 05:28
Member (2007)
English to Russian
+1
I'm not giving up my wires either=)
[Edited at 2007-09-04 08:06]
| | | | liz askew
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:28
Member (2007)
French to English
+ ...
| "Disturbing" translator images | Sep 4, 2007 |
Come on folks!
Lighten up.
Although I didn't see the image (unfortunately) I can't help but look at the featured translator. From my own experience, 99.9% of the time the pictures/logs are OK.
One out of thousands is surely not going to threaten the majority?
Liz Askew
p.s. I don't have a logo or photo; just haven't got round to it!
Too busy answering queries.
| | | | nordiste
France
Local time: 00:28
English to French
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| no censorship please | Sep 4, 2007 |
IreneN wrote:
This is neither a dating service nor a modeling agency to impose the above restrictions.
I totally agree with Irene. Every translator should be free to offer the image of their choice - or no image at all - it's no criterion for being featured.
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| I find it really funny/ironic | Sep 4, 2007 |
I am quite familiar with that animation and I find it quite amusing. I think it would help us in our lives to laugh at ourselves a bit more...
And obviously everyone should be free to choose whatever image (within certain limits) one wants. In this case I find nothing disturbing at all.
| | | | | Have the same image | Sep 4, 2007 |
on my MSN list of smileys. I use it as a joke sometimes - to writer/translator friends.
However, I was a bit astonished that someone would actually pick that one as their "image" on proz.com.
Wold YOU hire a translator like that? 
| | | | | Photo/logo as a marketing tool | Sep 4, 2007 |
I think that any translator, either on ProZ or somewhere else where you can upload photos, logos etc. to a profile, ill have to decide himself/herself what is good marketing.
Starting to censoring pictures here on ProZ would not only be a real waste of energy, it will probably also bear the risk of a denunciation campaign against anyone. "Hey ProZ Staff! I found this logo on xxx's profile and I don't like it. Can you remove it?". Ever read George Orwell?
I don't want t... See more I think that any translator, either on ProZ or somewhere else where you can upload photos, logos etc. to a profile, ill have to decide himself/herself what is good marketing.
Starting to censoring pictures here on ProZ would not only be a real waste of energy, it will probably also bear the risk of a denunciation campaign against anyone. "Hey ProZ Staff! I found this logo on xxx's profile and I don't like it. Can you remove it?". Ever read George Orwell?
I don't want to say that I agree with all profile photos or logos (there are even some scary photos around where the face made me think of drug addicts), but I think it's up to you to decide what's good or not for your business.
Erik
[Bearbeitet am 2007-09-04 09:19] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Yes, a marketing tool, but.... | Sep 4, 2007 |
Erik Hansson wrote:
I think that any translator, either on ProZ or somewhere else where you can upload photos, logos etc. to a profile, (w)ill have to decide himself/herself what is good marketing.
Starting to censoring pictures here on ProZ would not only be a real waste of energy, it will probably also bear the risk of a denunciation campaign against anyone. "Hey ProZ Staff! I found this logo on xxx's profile and I don't like it. Can you remove it?". Ever read George Orwell?
I don't want to say that I agree with all profile photos or logos (there are even some scary photos around where the face made me think of drug addicts), but I think it's up to you to decide what's good or not for your business.
Erik
Erik, I agree with most of your statement above (except the drug addict part, because I find it hard to deduce a drug addiction from just a picture).
However, I have often wondered if any potential customer really considers a picture/photo in order to select you as a translator.
I find this very "shaky" territory, because we could have a number of prejudices or pre-conceived ideas (both positive and/or negative) about someone in particular when looking at their photo, so I think this could be a catch-22 situation.
Of course, I also agree that some pictures or avatars are maybe a bit "scary", but, as we have just read in some of the previous replies, "scary", like all terms, is a subjective idea.
I just hope that if any potential outsourcer looks at my profile and sees my cat, they at least acknowledge both the humor part of it and the explanation I include in my profile about this, to see that I am just not a translation robot, but a person with different characteristics besides my translation expertise.
Best,
Ivette
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| Depends on job | Sep 4, 2007 |
Hilde Granlund wrote:
Would YOU hire a translator like that?
Didn't see the featured translator, have seen the image (if it's the one I think it is) a thousand times. I find it amusing. Or did, the first 400 times I saw it. Which is, to my mind, one drawback of using a "quirky" image - the novelty soon wears off.
I digress - I might not put that translator top of the pile for a statement from the Chairman about future prospects. I might to translate a video game.
As you can tell, I have played safe - no image - no-one is deterred, but then no-one is attracted either. It can work both ways, I imagine. But one significant advantage of allowing images that are not of the person that is sometimes overlooked is that it rules out any discrimination, be it racial, sexual or any other kind.
(Although obviously, having a picture of a cat makes it clear you're female ! )
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Charlie Bavington wrote: (Although obviously, having a picture of a cat makes it clear you're female ! )
How about Gianfranco's???
See http://www.proz.com/profile/12340
| | | | gianfranco
Brazil
Local time: 19:28
Member (2001)
English to Italian
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| My picture... | Sep 4, 2007 |
... is clearly a tomcat, no doubt
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