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Do clients check KudoZ questions, and what happens if they recognise their documents?
Thread poster: Susanna Garcia
Neil Coffey
Neil Coffey  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:03
French to English
+ ...
Educate clients and colleagues Jun 6, 2010

I think the key on this matter is to educate clients and any colleagues that you collaborate with.

I have a disclaimer on my web site saying that for the purpose of consulting other colleagues on the translation, minimal, anonymised sections of the source text may be shared with other colleagues and/or posted on public translation fora. However, I agree that such sections will be of minimal length necessary to give enough context for the query, and that identifiable references will
... See more
I think the key on this matter is to educate clients and any colleagues that you collaborate with.

I have a disclaimer on my web site saying that for the purpose of consulting other colleagues on the translation, minimal, anonymised sections of the source text may be shared with other colleagues and/or posted on public translation fora. However, I agree that such sections will be of minimal length necessary to give enough context for the query, and that identifiable references will be removed/replaced.

Then, other translators that I collaborate with have been asked to adhere to the same agreement, and I then do my best to "police" the questions asked by colleagues to make sure they're sticking to this.

Obviously, there is a slight issue that the very terms that are unknown to a translator can turn out to be unknown precisely because they're proprietory/identifying terms. So where you suspect this to be the case, checking with the client should obviously be the first recourse before posting on a public forum.
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ChristineS
ChristineS  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 08:03
English to Chinese
+ ...
This is awful, lol. Jun 6, 2010

jyuan_us wrote:

I was asked to evaluate 20 test samples for a company. To my supprise, many words in the test have been asked by a test participant on Kudoz. The answers people offered were helpful to me but I just didn't know if I should cry or smile at that time

Some people's behaviors are just weired.


Hey it's amazing to have 20 test samples for the same project, but if they were for the same company's different projects then that's fine, lol. We get fraternity here while at the same time find competitors, you don't have to cry, just keep smiling as you also get resource from your bros on this site. No competition no improvement, no communication no advancement, this is true for both outsourcers and freelancers. God bless us, AMEN.o(∩_∩)o...


 
ChristineS
ChristineS  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 08:03
English to Chinese
+ ...
Sounds good. Jun 6, 2010

Neil Coffey wrote:

I think the key on this matter is to educate clients and any colleagues that you collaborate with.

I have a disclaimer on my web site saying that for the purpose of consulting other colleagues on the translation, minimal, anonymised sections of the source text may be shared with other colleagues and/or posted on public translation fora. However, I agree that such sections will be of minimal length necessary to give enough context for the query, and that identifiable references will be removed/replaced.

Then, other translators that I collaborate with have been asked to adhere to the same agreement, and I then do my best to "police" the questions asked by colleagues to make sure they're sticking to this.

Obviously, there is a slight issue that the very terms that are unknown to a translator can turn out to be unknown precisely because they're proprietory/identifying terms. So where you suspect this to be the case, checking with the client should obviously be the first recourse before posting on a public forum.

One can never be too carful to his/her job. Better make sure a post won't be a troublesome act.


 
Susanna Garcia
Susanna Garcia  Identity Verified
Local time: 00:03
Italian to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
In memoriam
Overestimation of capabilities Jun 6, 2010

Nicole Schnell wrote:

You might be amazed how many clients will read your KudoZ-questions and -answers. Especially if they contacted you through this portal in the first place. However, asking KudoZ questions is never an indication of weakness. Overestimation of one's own capabilities is.


Hi Nicole,
I wouldn't be amazed at all - that was what I was trying to discover really with my question. However,.....'never an indication of weakness.......one's own capabilities', I'm in two minds about this, a string of questions could indeed indicate overestimation of one's ability to deal with the subject matter but then again, being charitable, just be an indication of the desire for confirmation, though others might view it as laziness, it all depends. It can however feel like shooting fish in a barrel at times.
Buona domenica
Suzi


 
Andrei Yefimov
Andrei Yefimov  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 02:03
English to Russian
+ ...
my experience Jun 6, 2010

I once posted a Kudoz question only to receive an immediate e-mail from my outsourcer saying I should refrain from doing so in the future. So, I think it really depends on an outsourcer and the subject matter you are working on. IMHO military, medical, legal, financial texts often have stricter confidentiality requirements than other kinds of materials, and if someone is posting too many questions, an outsourcer may start asking themselves whether a job has landed in right hands in terms of both... See more
I once posted a Kudoz question only to receive an immediate e-mail from my outsourcer saying I should refrain from doing so in the future. So, I think it really depends on an outsourcer and the subject matter you are working on. IMHO military, medical, legal, financial texts often have stricter confidentiality requirements than other kinds of materials, and if someone is posting too many questions, an outsourcer may start asking themselves whether a job has landed in right hands in terms of both competence and the duty of confidentiality.



[Edited at 2010-06-06 19:18 GMT]
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polyglot45
polyglot45
English to French
+ ...
as an outsourcer Jun 7, 2010

I do not post jobs on this site. I work through my network. When I place jobs, I always explain that I am available for questions and to establish contacts with the experts. If a translator then seemed to prefer to ask "peers" here than take the course I offer, apart from feeling a tad insulted, I would also be very dismayed. The standard of answers being what it is, I would feel worried about the end result.
If all other avenues had failed and asking for assistance here were the last reso
... See more
I do not post jobs on this site. I work through my network. When I place jobs, I always explain that I am available for questions and to establish contacts with the experts. If a translator then seemed to prefer to ask "peers" here than take the course I offer, apart from feeling a tad insulted, I would also be very dismayed. The standard of answers being what it is, I would feel worried about the end result.
If all other avenues had failed and asking for assistance here were the last resort, I would be more understanding.
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Sandrine Ananie
Sandrine Ananie  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 01:03
Member (2009)
English to French
A few answers from my own experience Jun 7, 2010

About the subject of outsourcers contacting us after reading our forum posts, I have to say that one of my clients contacted me after accessing my profile through a message I posted on a forum. Obviously my forum post was not the only thing that attracted them, but it acted as a starting point.

About the original topic: sometimes I do wonder why people post so many KudoZ when it could (should?) be so much simpler to just ask the client for more context etc. At least this is what I
... See more
About the subject of outsourcers contacting us after reading our forum posts, I have to say that one of my clients contacted me after accessing my profile through a message I posted on a forum. Obviously my forum post was not the only thing that attracted them, but it acted as a starting point.

About the original topic: sometimes I do wonder why people post so many KudoZ when it could (should?) be so much simpler to just ask the client for more context etc. At least this is what I try to do. I always post a question here as a last resort, which is why I haven't posted many.

A client of mine, whom I have a very good relationship with, once advised me to post questions here when we were faced with a few tough terms, so obviously not all outsourcers object to KudoZ.

As most of my clients found me through this site and reviewed my KudoZ answers before contacting me, I would find it a little bit strange/unfair if they objected to me posting questions from their documents, as long as I keep vital information confidential.
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Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 01:03
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Depends.. Jun 7, 2010

Nicole Schnell wrote:
However, asking KudoZ questions is never an indication of weakness. Overestimation of one's own capabilities is.


Depends on how you ask and whom you ask. These parameters will help you discern whether it's weakness or strength.

I personally wouldn't be too happy finding my own content publicly exposed on the Internet without my permission ( even if it's just an excerpt). I'm talking about a potential content I hired someone to translate. I would count on utmost confidentiality ( regardless of the content type).

If I have questions about a term and content, I contact my client directly and they are always very helpful regarding this. Moreover, the serious and professional clients encourage asking questions during the project realization ( and they have very efficient systems to assist you: fast links to the direct client, highly trained PM's etc). I definitely prefer asking them and getting relevant first-hand information than asking a group of random strangers on the Internet ( I won't even mention that this would leave the content open to all sorts of uncontrollable abuse on the Internet).


 
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:03
Member (2004)
English to Italian
The very rare occasions... Jun 7, 2010

in which I outsource (never done via Proz.com, mind), I do come to this site to check the profile (if any) and the number of KudoZ questions (if any) asked by the people who put themselves forward for the job... would you give a job to someone who's asked over 5,000 questions here? Even with a scintillating CV?

EDIT: or even 500 for that matter...

[Edited at 2010-06-07 12:11 GMT]


 
Claudio Porcellana (X)
Claudio Porcellana (X)  Identity Verified
Italy
never an indication of weakness Jun 7, 2010

even when someone asks "what's the colour of Napoleon white horse?"

certain queries are so trivial that I can barely understand how you can state that they are never an indication of weakness ...

Claudio


Nicole Schnell wrote:

However, asking KudoZ questions is never an indication of weakness. Overestimation of one's own capabilities is.


 
Nicole Schnell
Nicole Schnell  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:03
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam
Nice example. Jun 7, 2010

Claudio Porcellana wrote:

even when someone asks "what's the colour of Napoleon white horse?"

certain queries are so trivial that I can barely understand how you can state that they are never an indication of weakness ...

Claudio


Nicole Schnell wrote:

However, asking KudoZ questions is never an indication of weakness. Overestimation of one's own capabilities is.



I thought, we were talking about professional translators, not KudoZ-abuse?


 
Claudio Porcellana (X)
Claudio Porcellana (X)  Identity Verified
Italy
Nice example Jun 8, 2010

I'm speaking about KudoZ-use that is quite equal to KudoZ-abuse ...
;-D

and it's the main reason why I don't use/check kudoz
that are the most over-rated Proz feature, to me

Claudio

[Modificato alle 2010-06-08 00:06 GMT]


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 01:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Several issues here... Jun 8, 2010

Susanna Garcia wrote:
Just wondering, 1. do we know if clients like to check kudoz and 2. if they ever recognise their documents and, if they do, what happens then? 3. Do they ever doubt someone's competence if they see a string of questions or understand that the translator is just making sure that everything is correct?


1. I'm sure some of them do.
2. Well, you're not really supposed to ask KudoZ in such a way that anyone (not even your client) can recognise their file.
3. Perhaps, but I think a client should be happy if a translator realises his limits and is willing to ask questions instead of making a best guess because he's afraid he'd look stupid.


 
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Do clients check KudoZ questions, and what happens if they recognise their documents?







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