SITE ABUSE

Spanish translation: This issue should be posted at the forums

17:30 Jan 16, 2002

English to Spanish translations [Non-PRO]

English term or phrase: SITE ABUSE

Should we help those who compete unloyally with us to pass their translation tests? Today the same questions have been posted by a number of translators, and have to do with a translation job that is being bidded. If they cannot answer simple questions, how will they do their job? And they are probably offering very low rates (2 or 3 cents per word?

Robert INGLEDEW KudoZ activity Questions: 1179 (4 open) (10 without valid answers) (7 closed without grading) Answers: 6705 Argentina
Local time: 21:22

Spanish translation:This issue should be posted at the forums

Explanation:
... but I certainly agree with you that this must come to an end as soon as possible.

Best regards,

BSD

Selected response from:

Bertha S. Deffenbaugh
United States
Local time: 17:22

Grading comment

All answers are good. However, we must not set up a storm in a glass of water. By the number of answers received, I notice that this is no big issue for most of the translators.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

5 +2

This issue should be posted at the forums

Bertha S. Deffenbaugh

5 +1

I agree, it's time to stop them

Andrea Bullrich

Agree and we should do it for all language pairs

Hermeneutica

Yes and no

Marian Greenfield

4 +1

Rosa

Bertha S. Deffenbaugh

You are absolutely right!

Judith Facio

4 +1

Monica

Bertha S. Deffenbaugh

Answers

6 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

This issue should be posted at the forums

Explanation:
... but I certainly agree with you that this must come to an end as soon as possible.

Best regards,

BSD

Bertha S. Deffenbaugh
United States
Local time: 17:22
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in pair: 743

Grading comment

All answers are good. However, we must not set up a storm in a glass of water. By the number of answers received, I notice that this is no big issue for most of the translators.

7 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

I agree, it's time to stop them

Explanation:
As I've said a hundred times, we should agree not to answer site abusers such as Salto and his many selves (Sibila, faustina and who knows how many others). There are also many other forms of abuse and we don't always agree on criteria for identifying these. I encourage everybody to join the discussion I opened at the cooperative forum so we can help one another identify and standardize criteria on site abuse.

Best to all,
Andrea

Andrea Bullrich
Local time: 21:22
Native speaker of: Spanish
PRO pts in pair: 1650

11 mins confidence:

Agree and we should do it for all language pairs

Explanation:
It is absolutely disgusting that those of us who are professionals and experienced and are already making sure we don't charge our highest rates don't ever even get contacted for a test but these folks actually get the jobs. They cheapen translation, because the ignorant client who picked them in the first place will not know any better, and give us all a bad name, plus lower the rates people expect to pay without realizing of course that they will get garbage. Not to mention that sometimes we are so stupid as to do the work for these people and then we enable them all the more to take the work away from us.

Disgusted in the Ardèche

Dee

Hermeneutica
Switzerland
Local time: 02:22
Native speaker of:

Spanish,

English
PRO pts in pair: 48

13 mins confidence:

Yes and no

Explanation:
THere is a fine line in this business between what is <kosher> and what is not <kosher>.

In the real world, the most comepetent translators ask questions and collaborate with one another. Part of the indication of competence is how intelligent their questions are and whether or not they know enough to choose the right answers among the variety of suggestions made.

It's the same dilemna I run into with my translation students. I tell them I don't consider it cheating if they ask one another or a more experienced translator for terminology help. Copying entire sections of text is another matter.

I assume by <compete unloyally> you refer to unfair competition. What makes it unfair? In most cases any decent company knows that you get what you pay for in translation and many other fields/industries.

Foreigners competing on the higher-paid U.S. market often face resistance from the best companies because of two deficiencies: either non-native English if they claim to translate into English or insufficient knowledge of English and U.S. culture to properly render the concepts into their target language, even if they write their target (hopefully native) language fluently.

So in a perfect world, translators would only claim to translate into their native language, in specific fields they know well, and from one or two or maybe three related source languages that they know intimately. And they would be wise enough to know when to ask questions and know the fields they translate well enough to properly evaluate responses.

20 years in the business - most of it managing translation service for an investment bank

Marian Greenfield
Local time: 20:22
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 5071

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

Rosa

Explanation:
Someone under the name of Rosa, has been posting dozens of questions on the last days. Only today, she has already posted at least ten in a row.

What to do? I did not realize it was her and answered one of her questions. Now I feel reluctant to continue answering her.

:)

BSD

Bertha S. Deffenbaugh
United States
Local time: 17:22
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in pair: 743

1 hr confidence:

You are absolutely right!

Explanation:
It is completely unfair and it abuses the concept of this site: helping each other with those tough terms you run into once in a while. Using the knowledge of the same people you are competing against for a translation is not fair at all.

Judith Facio
Local time: 02:22
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in pair: 8

2 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

Monica

Explanation:
Someone named Monica has asked 16 questions already. She has got answers for all of them.
:(
BSD

Bertha S. Deffenbaugh
United States
Local time: 17:22
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in pair: 743

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