Inactive user profiles and freelancer's last visit to ProZ.com Thread poster: Lubain Masum
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Lubain Masum 
United States
Local time: 10:40
Member (2006)
English to Bengali
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When we search for freelancers in the ProZ.com directory, we see that there is an icon beside the name of each freelancer that indicates whether he/she visited ProZ.com today or not. The purpose of the icon may be to give an idea to the outsourcers how active the person is in ProZ.com apart from other indicators such as Kudoz, forums and others.
I think the icon should not just indicate the freelancer's one-day visit but also his/her last visit, for example 'visited ProZ.com in the... See more When we search for freelancers in the ProZ.com directory, we see that there is an icon beside the name of each freelancer that indicates whether he/she visited ProZ.com today or not. The purpose of the icon may be to give an idea to the outsourcers how active the person is in ProZ.com apart from other indicators such as Kudoz, forums and others.
I think the icon should not just indicate the freelancer's one-day visit but also his/her last visit, for example 'visited ProZ.com in the last three days/last week/last month' and so on.
There are some freelancers who were active at ProZ.com for some time and later became inactive for some reasons and years passed but the profiles of those freelancers are still on ProZ.com occupying space and misleading the potential clients because most of them no longer offer translation service. So I think ProZ.com should fix a timeframe, for example maximum one year and preferably less than that, within which one must log in to ProZ.com in order to retain his/her profile, otherwise the profile should be deleted from ProZ.com. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | inactive user profiles | Mar 17, 2007 |
Lubain Masum wrote:
When we search for freelancers in the ProZ.com directory, we see that there is an icon beside the name of each freelancer that indicates whether he/she visited ProZ.com today or not. The purpose of the icon may be to give an idea to the outsourcers how active the person is in ProZ.com apart from other indicators such as Kudoz, forums and others.
I think the icon should not just indicate the freelancer's one-day visit but also his/her last visit, for example 'visited ProZ.com in the last three days/last week/last month' and so on.
There are some freelancers who were active at ProZ.com for some time and later became inactive for some reasons and years passed but the profiles of those freelancers are still on ProZ.com occupying space and misleading the potential clients because most of them no longer offer translation service. So I think ProZ.com should fix a timeframe, for example maximum one year and preferably less than that, within which one must log in to ProZ.com in order to retain his/her profile, otherwise the profile should be deleted from ProZ.com.
No, I disagree. I am against automatic deletion of profiles of users who have committed no offence other than not accessing their profiles for longer periods of time.
| | | | Will Matter
United States
Local time: 07:40
English
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| I'm with Birgit | Mar 17, 2007 |
I can think of many, many good reasons why askers might not access their profiles for *quite* some time. I think that automatic deletion is a bad idea, a very bad idea indeed. Not only would it accomplish little (if anything), it violates the spirit of cooperation and friendliness that I believe ProZ stands for and I'm against it.
| | | | Luisa Fiorini
Italy
Local time: 16:40
Member
English to Italian
+ ...
| inactive user profiles | Mar 18, 2007 |
I am with Birgit and Willmatter. Automatic deletion is a really bad idea. Many of us have the full membership and pay for it. How would you react if you were deleted after paying for membership?
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Lubain Masum
United States
Local time: 10:40
Member (2006)
English to Bengali
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | I am not advocating 'automatic deletion' | Mar 18, 2007 |
Dear Birgit, Willmatter and Luisa
Thank you for sharing your views.
"Automatic deletion is a really bad idea."
I am also with you as far as 'automatic deletion' is concerned.
"Many of us have the full membership and pay for it. How would you react if you were deleted after paying for membership?"
I would really react sharply. I did not indicate in any way that the profiles of full members should be deleted. The word I used is 'us... See more Dear Birgit, Willmatter and Luisa
Thank you for sharing your views.
"Automatic deletion is a really bad idea."
I am also with you as far as 'automatic deletion' is concerned.
"Many of us have the full membership and pay for it. How would you react if you were deleted after paying for membership?"
I would really react sharply. I did not indicate in any way that the profiles of full members should be deleted. The word I used is 'user', not member.
"many good reasons why askers might not access their profiles for *quite* some time. "
Can you please name some of the 'good' reasons so that ProZ.com can excuse them from deleting their profiles for these valid reasons?
Another point is that I did not say to delete the profiles of askers but those of 'freelance translators' who once were translators and then ceased to be translators but did not themselves delete their profiles.
"Not only would it accomplish little (if anything), it violates the spirit of cooperation and friendliness"
Does it really violate the spirit of cooperation or enhance the cooperation? There are freelancers with good profile description and also with Kudoz points who got registered with Proz.com some years ago. Now any potential client may feel interested to take their service and may email them. But as they left translation profession, they may not receive the mail or may not reply and as a consequence the potential client will lose time and effort to track these people. And to avoid this situation or help and extend the hand of 'cooperation' to potential clients, we should delete these kinds of users' profiles.
Apart from these, there are users who get register with Proz.com out of curiosity and never again come back to it. Now what is use of keeping this person's profile on Proz.com?
Even if we consider the profile of 'askers', who do not log in to Proz.com for one year or so, and after that time, if they want to ask another question, they ask it without profile or if necessary can create another profile within five to ten minutes!
I think I could not make my points clear. My point is not automatic deletion of profiles of inactive users, rather, pondering over this kind of inactive users and formulating a policy about them that may include deletion of their profiles. And the deletion should not be automatic. Proz.com staff may demand explanation to them and warn them through emails for few times saying that their profiles might be deleted after a certain period if they do not be active or log in to Proz.com
The bottom line is that there is no point to jam the site with inactive users. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Inga Jakobi
Germany
Local time: 16:40
Member (2006)
Chinese to German
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| some reasons not to log in and my humble opinion | Mar 18, 2007 |
Lubain Masum wrote:
Can you please name some of the 'good' reasons so that ProZ.com can excuse them from deleting their profiles for these valid reasons?
Longer absence
Stay abroad
No need to update profile
Enough work, so profile - at the moment - not that important
Temporarily employment
Long illness
...
I think there are a lot of good reasons. I am thinking of working abroad for one year as employee and therefore might not visit my profile very often. But when I will be back, I would like to carry on working as a freelancer and still use proz. I might also like to have a look at forums etc. without accessing my profile or logging in.
Now any potential client may feel interested to take their service and may email them. But as they left translation profession, they may not receive the mail or may not reply and as a consequence the potential client will lose time and effort to track these people. And to avoid this situation or help and extend the hand of 'cooperation' to potential clients, we should delete these kinds of users' profiles.
How much time did I loose then writing applications (even to agencies who stated in the Application section that they needed translators) and never receiving any reaction, not even a message "your quote hase been declined" or a return reseipt??? AFAIK, when searching for a freelancer, you can choose only to search for those available, or maybe also partially available. Using this function, an outsourcer would hardly find a translator who has not visited his/her profile for a longer period, as those probably haven't set their availabilty.
But still I think it would be a good idea to show when the member last logged in or how often in average or in the last month or something like that just to show that the freelancer is still active on the site.
Apart from these, there are users who get register with Proz.com out of curiosity and never again come back to it. Now what is use of keeping this person's profile on Proz.com?
You are right here. But I registered at many websites and have many accounts I haven't used for a longer period and still I don't get any reminders to visit the site to not have my profile deleted.
All in all, I think the idea of showing the activity is good, deletion not, but it would be an idea to send freelancers who have not logged in for a certain period, maybe 6 months, anf reindly message to check their profile, or in case they don't want to use it anymore, to delete it themselves.
Cheers,
Inga
[Bearbeitet am 2007-03-18 13:41]
| | | | | Show date/time of last login, send reminders, don't delete. | Mar 18, 2007 |
Inga Pier wrote:
All in all, I think the idea of showing the activity is good, deletion not, but it would be an idea to send freelancers who have not logged in for a certain period, maybe 6 months, a friendly message to check their profile, or in case they don't want to use it anymore, to delete it themselves.
Cheers,
Inga
Very well said, Inga. I fully agree.
Lubain, I appreciate your posting of this thought-provoking topic. It hadn't occurred to me before. We may not all agree with your particular suggestions, but the general idea is worth consideration, IMO.
Jane
| | | | Hipyan Nopri
Indonesia
Local time: 21:40
Member (2005)
English to Indonesian
+ ...
| Agree with Activeness Icon, Disagree with Deletion | Mar 19, 2007 |
Inga Pier wrote:
All in all, I think the idea of showing the activity is good, deletion not, but it would be an idea to send freelancers who have not logged in for a certain period, maybe 6 months, anf reindly message to check their profile, or in case they don't want to use it anymore, to delete it themselves.
I fully agree with what Inga said. Showing activeness icon is a good idea, but deletion is not a good idea.
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Lubain Masum
United States
Local time: 10:40
Member (2006)
English to Bengali
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | My basic purpose is not delete somebody's profile | Mar 19, 2007 |
Thanks that at least some of you understood my main idea and gave conditional support. As I said earlier my basic purpose of the post is not delete somebody's profile but to make the site 'jam' free.
Thank you again for sharing views.
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Although I agree that displaying the level of activity could be a good thing, I don't agree with displaying when I last logged on. First off, it's nobody's business, second, if I log on at 3 a.m., some potential clients may end up thinking I'm a night owl, that I am late on an assignment and therefore deduct that I may be unreliable when it comes to delivering on time. I just want to remind you all that this is not a "hobby" site, it is a professional site where we go to get work. I think it is ... See more Although I agree that displaying the level of activity could be a good thing, I don't agree with displaying when I last logged on. First off, it's nobody's business, second, if I log on at 3 a.m., some potential clients may end up thinking I'm a night owl, that I am late on an assignment and therefore deduct that I may be unreliable when it comes to delivering on time. I just want to remind you all that this is not a "hobby" site, it is a professional site where we go to get work. I think it is therefore important to keep confidential information confidential.
I would not feel comfortable knowing that people I have no idea they exist can see when I last logged on. I would feel spied upon... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lubain Masum
United States
Local time: 10:40
Member (2006)
English to Bengali
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | *this is not a "hobby" site* | Mar 20, 2007 |
Viktoria Gimbe wrote:
I just want to remind you all that this is not a "hobby" site, it is a professional site where we go to get work. I think it is therefore important to keep confidential information confidential.
I couldn't agree more with you as I strongly believe Pro.Z.com is professional site where there should be a 'weight' meaning that no one should come from no where and make fun here! That is why it is important to have a system so that we can identify the 'playful' users and let them know that 'If you are not serious enough in translation industry, you need not remain here'.
Well regarding exact time of log-in, I agree that it will violate privacy and confidentiality. However, you know the site already mentions beside your name (in directory) whether you logged in today or not. My suggestion is to extend it for example 'visited Pro.Z.com in the last three days/last week/last month' and so on.
Thanks for sharing idea.
Regards
Lubain
| | | | | I would just add a "degree of activity" | Mar 23, 2007 |
I think we agree.
However, I would not say today, in the past week, in the past month. Instead, if I log in every day, I would be identified as very active. If I logged in at least once a week but not more than 3 times per week, I would be active. If I logged in at least three times in the last month but no more than once a week, I would be partially active. And so forth.
By the way, I think it is OK for any user to not be very active. As mentioned above, people ... See more I think we agree.
However, I would not say today, in the past week, in the past month. Instead, if I log in every day, I would be identified as very active. If I logged in at least once a week but not more than 3 times per week, I would be active. If I logged in at least three times in the last month but no more than once a week, I would be partially active. And so forth.
By the way, I think it is OK for any user to not be very active. As mentioned above, people can have various reasons not to be very active on this site, one of them, not mentioned yet, being that they are just too busy working to visit the site. I don't think all users should correspond to a specific criteria. The other reason why I think it's OK for people not to be active on here is that, if clients think a translator is not serious enough just because they are not very active on the site (and I know some clients do think this way), it will make me look good in comparison with those who log on sporadically, because I am very active here If we were all the same, there wouldn't be any competition anymore, and this site wouldn't be as incredibly diverse as it is. This diversity makes all parties happy - users, clients, outsourcers and probably even site administrators. ▲ Collapse
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