Overuse of KudoZ - please limit questions per day (or per hour)

On 2003-01-30 01:39, awilliams wrote:

... but restricting postings would mean that genuine queries were ruled out (10 queries at the end of a 20,000 word translation=not bad)...



A





Welcome Amy! (I see that you are a new member)



A 20,000 word project would take more than 1 or 2 days (!!!) to be completed. So if we had a \"5 Kudoz question/day limit\", there would be no problem if an asker had 10 questions related to that particular job.



My problem with the issue of unlimited Kudoz is the very important \"SAFETY\" factor.



It seems that a lot of members tend to forget that what they are translating may have a dangerous impact in the end, if they handle a job which is clearly outside their scope of expertise!



I can understand that a client sends a job and you look at it quickly (while working on another project with a looming deadline), and you do not catch that there\'s a mention about something technical that you know absolutely *nothing* about on page 5.



So, yes, after exhausting other resources (checking with the client first if possible - unless it\'s the middle of the night of course , various dictionaries, online glossaries, etc...) you then come to Kudoz for help.



That\'s what Kudoz is for. And if other resources are checked first, you would not find the flooding of questions that we see on a regular basis.



How many times has Henry (and other members, including myself) have *reminded* members that they are supposed to check into their own dictionary first (it seems that some people are just too lazy to open up one... or perhaps to cheap to buy one???)



So a ceiling would make it that people would ask the questions that they REALLY need to ask and force them do their research on the easier stuff.



For argument\'s sake: A translator on average can handle 2,000 words per day - if the job they are handling is \"a 1 day job\" to be delivered that night or the next morning, and an asker needs to ask more than 5 questions on these 2,000 words or less (after exhausting all other venues), then maybe that translator should not have been handling this translation to begin with!



It could have serious repercussions down the line.



Too many newcomers to the profession do not have the proper training and/or do not realize the full (potentially dangerous) impact that their work can have in the end!



So I remind everyone to handle *only* the jobs that they are actually suited for.



Regards,

Nathalie ▲ Collapse

On 2003-01-30 01:28, antrib wrote:

Just another exemple:



70 postings for the past 9 days.

When asked about this, her comment was: \"I am just helping a friend of mine to develop a these and I am no so good at English...\".



What is the name for this kind of behaviour? I call it ABUSE.





There is no strict policy regarding what can be considered abuse in KudoZ.



Let\'s assume this case. You have in hands a rather long and complex project, start collecting terms that you don\'t know and, at the end of each day, you post them here. We are free to answer or just ignore the questions. If we have free time, are familiar with the subject area, want to get some points, decide to use the opportunity to add a few more terms to the glossary, AND would like to help the asker, we would submit our replies. Otherwise, we would keep away and I don\'t see how this could affect negatively any of us or the site itself.



If a translator accepts a job on a subject with which he is not comfortable and then starts posting a big number of questions, he is showing to all of us that he\'s not a professional. My gut reaction to this would be to abstain from answering, because I would NOT like to help the asker. But I can\'t expect everybody to think like me, and shouldn\'t withdraw the right to answer from them.



In this particular case, she\'s not a translator trying to get all of us to do the job for her. She\'s helping a friend developing a thesis and we are free to help her or refrain from it. ▲ Collapse