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Contest results for Relationships (67 winners)

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Feedback - 6th ProZ.com Translation Contest
This space is provided for feedback and suggestions about the contest as a whole.
RominaZ
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to the voters!
Paula Mangia Garcia Terra
Muitíssimo obrigada, Romina!!
Thank you so much!!
María San Raimundo Vega
Thanks a lot Romina;-)
Miguel Cabelo
Thank you Romina.
ClaudiaDragomir
Grazie, Romina!
Isabel Fernandez
¡Muchísimas gracias, Romina!
Christelle Juin
Merci, Romina!
C.M. Rawal
Thank you very much, Romina!
रोमिना जी, आपका बहुत-बहुत धन्यवाद!
Barış ALKIM
Thank you so much Romina!!!
Jonas Frizell
Tack så mycket!
Iwona Szymaniak
Dziękuję i ja, and I am so happy!
Maria Antonietta Ricagno
Thank you - grazie mille Romina!
simon tanner
Thanks very much!
Adriana Grigorescu
Thank you very much, Romina! :)
Carlos Sanmiguel
Pleeeeasee, how can I stop those annoying mails from bounce-handler, they got me crazy, please stop filling my mailbox replying every comment to me...!!!!
Paula Mangia Garcia Terra
Carlos, I think that you can unsubscribe yourself to the contest related notifications at the bottom of page. That should help... =)
marinabasile
Grazie Romina! :))
Rodolfo Frei
Muchísimas gracias Romina. Fue realmente excitante!
Ingo Breuer
Thank you very much.
Van harte dank...
Lena Samuelsson
Thanks to Proz.com staff and the Swedish colleagues, who voted for my text :-))
Pavel Tsvetkov
Dear Romina,

Thank you for the organization of the 6th Translation Contest. I am the winner in the English to Bulgarian language pair - and it was a landslide victory (by 20 points). However, what makes one man's day, is another man's pain in the ass. Comments started to appear on the corresponding Contest page (http://www.proz.com/?sp=contests&sp_mode=current&sp_sub_mode=view_language&contest_id=13&ctlid=673), stating that my translation was rubbish and implying that I must have manipulated somehow the voting process to get such results. I know that such comments are best left unanswered, however they put in question the integrity of the Contest as a whole, so I wonder what could be done. Is there a practice to publish the names of the voters (and points given) so that people feel confident about the validity of contest result? Anyway, I strongly believe that comments implying on foul play in an anonymous contest in which judge and jury are the very members of this site, must be forbidden as they are immaterial and disrespectful.

This is the second time I am writing to you (I also sent an e-mail to your address on April 12) and I hope you can supply me with an answer, since I am a paying member and I believe I am entitled to one.

Yours sincerely,
Pavel Tsvetkov
Henry Dotterer
Hi Pavel. Congratulations. Please rest assured that we understand the situation that winners may be put in when there is room for the legitimacy of a victory to be questioned. This is why it is so important for the integrity of the contest to be beyond question (within reason). We are not there yet, but improvements are made each time and we will get there.
Pavel Tsvetkov
Dear Henry,

Thank you for your prompt answer. My request had a specific practical reason which still remains unaddressed: is it possible to publish the names of the voters (and points given) in the "English to Bulgarian" pair, so that it is made clear how the winning score has been accumulated? It took me considerable time to polish my translation and I was satisfied with the voting results, however I have had only negative emotions since. People who have voted me first do not feel the urge to comment (quite logical since the final score has proven them right) and so the sore losers have a field day (which, among other things, is made possible by the fact that there is a possibility for entries to remain anonymous after the contest has finished).

Thank you for your time!
Henry Dotterer
Hi Pavel,

I'm sorry not to have commented on your specific proposals. I agree that prohibiting insinuations of foul play, without evidence, is worth considering. As for showing voter names, we won't do it retroactively, but it has been suggested elsewhere and we will consider making something like that a policy going forward.
Pavel Tsvetkov
Thank you! RominaZ has also contacted me and promised that she "will have a moderator oversee the discussion in the language pair to make sure it's in line with the site rules".
I am looking forward to the Moderator's interference - I feel that my status has suffered as a result of my winning the Contest (which is absurd). I expect people who make false accusations to be sanctioned (penalized) if not able to supply proof of foul play - and their comments deleted.
Larissa Boutrimova
I support this idea - people who make insinuations of foul play, without evidence, should bear the consequences of their actions. I am talking about En-Ru pair.
Pavel Tsvetkov
Dear Henry,
sorry to bother you again. As stated above, I was promised that an independent mediator will review the degrading comments and it did sound like a good idea at the time. However, a new threatening comment has been posted just today. The tone of the comment suggests that this person has been selected to mediate the language pair. Now, could it be true that one of the offenders has been chosen to sanction his own conduct?
personally feel that this whole affair has been blown out of proportion. I took part in the contest because a member of your staff specifically asked me to (Bulgarian being an “underrepresented” language). I submitted my proposal for a translation and I won. That is all I know. I do not intend to answer any specific questions as to why I have chosen to translate this word in that way – or I will never see the end of it. That is the whole meaning of contests: people submit entries, other people vote, then it is over. If someone feels I do not deserve to win he should have voted accordingly when he had the chance to do so, or even – submit his own proposal for his colleagues to vote on. There is no use being bitter about it, or posting insinuations I cannot defend myself from. And I really feel I am doing your job here, trying to fight these people off and defending the integrity of the contest you have organized.
The quality of my translation is not what is in question here. Translating art texts is an art form in itself and there will always be people who disagree with a specific translation, think they know better, etc. However, thinking that you know better is one thing and implying that someone has manipulated the contest results (and also his KudoZ answers and points) is a whole different story. Those are serious accusations and if they can supply proof of foul play, I will be happy to withdraw my entry or even leave www.proz.com. However, if they cannot, I expect them to be penalized and their comments deleted.\r\nI really think that at this point energetic steps need to be taken to resolve this argument, in which I do not feel I am the only one whose reputation has suffered.

Yours truly,
Pavel Tsvetkov
Pavel Tsvetkov
Since this space has been provide to us "for feedback and suggestions about the contest as a whole", I would like to make my suggestions public:

1. After the contest has finished, ALL entries should be shown with the names of their authors. If entries are listed anonymously, then bitter losers start posting offending remarks on the winning text, pretending to be voicing their just indignation with the quality of the winning translation. They would not do that if they had their own names in plain view - next to an entry that has failed to win.
2. Winners should not be obliged to answer any questions. Knowing how heated the discussions can become in KudoZ - and those concern the translation of a single word - can you imagine a discussion concerning a whole page? We will never see the end of it.
3. No comments implying on foul play (manipulation of contest voting) - and not offering any proof! - should be allowed. If such comments are posted they must be deleted and their authors - penalized.
4. Detailed statistics should be posted on contest end: who voted and how many points he gave in this specific language pair. Then nobody will feel that the contest results have been manipulated.
5. There should be strict rules as to who can vote for what. Team members should not be allowed to vote for members of their own team or against members of competing teams. Those who have posted positive WWA for someone should not be allowed to vote for the same person in contests.
6. Winners should be chosen by experts and community vote, but the prevailing vote should be given to community vote. If you can assure that no manipulation of voting can occur then community vote should be quite enough. And one more point to consider: who would you put on that board of experts? Technical translations and art translations are in different divisions so make sure you do not pick translators of technical texts to be the judges of art translations or the result of the experts' evaluation and the community vote may differ drastically.
7. Deadlines must not be changed in those pairs that have enough entries to qualify (instead think of what an acceptable qualification number is). This is the first rule of Public Relations: when you say that something is going to happen at a specific time on a certain date, you should make every effort to keep your own word, or you risk loosing credibility.

I hope that my suggestions will help you improve the organization of future contests!

Best regards,
Pavel Tsvetkov
Irena Pizzi
Dear Romina,
First of all thank you very much!
The second thing I would like to say is that when things like this happen suffers not the reputation of one person, but the reputation and credibility of the contest itself. Before taking whatever step I think it would be reasonable to evaluate wich one more destructive for the sake of the community.
It looks like when somebody is unable to defend his own professional choices he starts to shout out loud in public of being offended, threatened etc. - ridiculous, and not true at all! We are not in the kindergarten to call mummy each time when somebody pinches us, and all the members have the right freely to express
their opinion, provided the language and style is approptiate in order to respect the decorum(even though there are other pairs, such as Eng>Rus, where the discussion arrived to an unbelievable level, you name it, but the involved colleagues took it as mature persons and defended their translations with dignity and without all this fuss.)
As a paying member, as somebody said, I am entitled to express my opinion and to be treated the same way as others. Do we have privilleged members who are entitled to a special treatment or it is just the ability to shout louder that the others being respected?
Best regards,
Irena Pizzi




These language pairs were below the threshold of voting. You can view the entries and leave your feedback.


German to CroatianEntries: 1 Spanish to GreekEntries: 2 Romanian to HebrewEntries: 1
German to CatalanEntries: 1 Spanish to HungarianEntries: 2 Romanian to RussianEntries: 1
German to CzechEntries: 1 Spanish to SlovakEntries: 1 Russian to BulgarianEntries: 2
English to BosnianEntries: 2 Spanish to TagalogEntries: 1 Russian to CatalanEntries: 1
English to HebrewEntries: 1 Italian to AlbanianEntries: 2 Russian to DutchEntries: 1
English to KannadaEntries: 1 Italian to ArabicEntries: 2 Russian to FinnishEntries: 1
English to MacedonianEntries: 2 Italian to CzechEntries: 1 Russian to HungarianEntries: 1
English to MalayalamEntries: 1 Italian to HungarianEntries: 1 Russian to JapaneseEntries: 1
English to MalayEntries: 2 Italian to MacedonianEntries: 1 Russian to Portuguese (EU)Entries: 1
English to TamilEntries: 2 Italian to SwedishEntries: 2 Russian to RomanianEntries: 1
Spanish to SerbianEntries: 1 Romanian to SpanishEntries: 1 Tamil to EnglishEntries: 2