Why make a site-wide announcement about a restricted Proz event?
Ildiko Santana United States Local time: 19:30 Member (2002) English to Hungarian + ...
nothing wrong with raising awareness
May 13, 2011
I agree, why *not*? Besides, it can potentially direct users' attention to the Pro network, which is a good thing. This thread makes me wonder, why make a site-wide announcement about one's inability to attend an event...
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writeaway Local time: 04:30 Partial member Dutch to English + ...
TOPIC STARTER
I am a pro, just not at site PRO
May 13, 2011
ildiko wrote:
I agree, why *not*? Besides, it can potentially direct users' attention to the Pro network, which is a good thing. This thread makes me wonder, why make a site-wide announcement about one's inability to attend an event...
Fwiw, I am perfectly able to attend, just not allowed to. I am not even saying I would like to attend, I just wondered why it was announced all week long to the site as a whole when it was only open to a relatively small group.
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Freedom on a public site !! Please, don't kill it !
May 13, 2011
I'm sorry, but there is no (t yet) law forbidding to publish an announcement on a public site, provided it is not offensive, of course Don't kill this freedom, please
I'm sorry, I'm not a P member, but I appreciate to be informed of what happens on this site.
Should I protest if the launch of a new forum for Martian-speakers were announced on this site while I don't understand Martian language? Of course I shouldn't and I would be very pleased to be informed of this event, it would reflect this site healthy status.
I'm sorry, but the "P" members do not belong to a sect, so why should they keep their activities hidden ? Don't you think that it is precisely when they are hidden that things might be suspicious ?
Have a nice week-end
Catherine
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Laurent KRAULAND France Local time: 04:30 Member (2007) French to German + ...
Indeed...
May 14, 2011
Catherine GUILLIAUMET wrote:
(.../...)
I'm sorry, but the "P" members do not belong to a sect, so why should they keep their activities hidden ? Don't you think that it is precisely when they are hidden that things might be suspicious ?
Have a nice week-end
Catherine
Thank you Catherine!
I think there is no other comment needed.
ETA - Commenting nevertheless:
I'd rather complain (and I actually did) about a virtual conference aimed at direct clients, which was also announced site-wide and to which freelance translators -and not only "P" freelance translators! - had no access.
[Edited at 2011-05-14 05:22 GMT]
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Katalin Horvath McClure United States Local time: 22:30 Member (2002) English to Hungarian + ...
Not a conference, only a Powwow
May 14, 2011
Just to clarify it.
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Catherine GUILLIAUMET wrote:
I'm sorry, but the "P" members do not belong to a sect, so why should they keep their activities hidden ? Don't you think that it is precisely when they are hidden that things might be suspicious ?
but some secrecy, yes... the "P" forums are hidden from "non P badge holders"... I find that a bit weird, to be honest.
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Nicole Schnell United States Local time: 19:30 Member English to German + ...
I agree
May 14, 2011
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote:
Not a sect...
but some secrecy, yes... the "P" forums are hidden from "non P badge holders"... I find that a bit weird, to be honest.
I would find it perfectly okay if non-badge paying members can not actively participate in such forums (see: Student Forum. We can read them but we can not reply). Not being able to at least read in those forums is a bit bizarre.
I helped at least 4 colleagues to obtain their badge by writing the references. When I tried to apply myself, there were technical difficulties because of my dual status as freelancer as well as a corporate member.
Especially as a corporate member, paying more than twice as much as a regular member, I find it disappointing that my access to information is restricted.
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but some secrecy, yes... the "P" forums are hidden from "non P badge holders"... I find that a bit weird, to be honest.
Over the last years I was thinking quite a lot about the question, why the whole "P" program feels so wrong to me. Well, I am not an economist, a long time I couldn't figure it out.
Recently I heard about the term "lock-in effect" in economics and right away I had the impression, that the lock-in effect of the "P" program surely was it, what felt so wrong about it to me.
As we know translators can apply for the "P" badge, they can be approved for the "P" badge, but as long as they don't want to pay the ProZ membership all the time even the approved ones never get the "P" badge displayed, so for their business they won't gain anything despite of the fact, that they are approved as "P"s (not visible to anybody but themselves). It's true that the application and approval process itself is free of charge, but even then one has to make considerable efforts to get the approval, so these efforts don't make sense if afterwards the translator doesn't get his "P" badge displayed in the profile.
Even worse, those who pay the membership fee and have their "P" badge displayed, they will feel that they would loose some part of their good reputation, if they would decide to stop paying the annual membership fee.
In my eyes this is a clear lock-in effect, bad business practice. It makes the "P" people reluctant to even think about stopping to pay the membership fees. I would feel quite odd if I would support something like this with my money, so I never applied.
N.b.: Please note that English is neither my target language nor one of my source languages.
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The translation workplace 
Don't kill this freedom, please
