Off topic: That's what you get from crowdsourcing... :-) Thread poster: Nesrin
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Nesrin 
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:08
English to Arabic
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...the translation of Facebook:
Happy bitchday from Facebook
Yesterday my colleague Pablo Teijeira, who is based in our Madrid office, logged into Facebook as normal and was confronted with a rather unusual message in place of the usual reminder of whose birthday it was today:
Rather than "Hoy es cumple de" ("Today is the birthday of") the Spanish language version of Facebook was saying "f*ck you bitches". Charming.
Pablo dropped me a line, wondering if I knew if Facebook had been hacked or if there was some other sinister explanation.
Well, the good news is that it wasn't malware and it was more done as a prank than with malicious intent. Facebook has relied upon volunteers to translate its site, and if enough people vote for an incorrect translation it can automatically replace the legitimate wording.
It's all very well harnessing the power of the net to get your website translated, but maybe Facebook should put a few more checks in place before the system is abused again in future - perhaps with more malicious intentions.
By the way, the Turkish translation version of Facebook was also abused in a similar way changing messages such as
Your message could not be sent because the user is offline
to
Your message could not be sent because of your tiny penis
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2010/07/30/happy-bitchday-facebook/
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 08:08
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Crowdsourcing versus individualsourcing | Jul 30, 2010 |
It would take several (or several hundreds of) users to pull off such a prank, but if they had done individualsourcing instead of crowdsourcing, it would have taken only two users to pull off the prank.
| | | | lexical
Spain
Local time: 08:08
Portuguese to English
| a point to ponder | Jul 30, 2010 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
It would take several (or several hundreds of) users to pull off such a prank, but if they had done individualsourcing instead of crowdsourcing, it would have taken only two users to pull off the prank.
Which raises the question, "How many crowdsourcers does it take to change a light bulb?"
| | | | Nesrin
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:08
English to Arabic
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TOPIC STARTER | Accountability.. | Jul 30, 2010 |
Samuel Murray wrote: It would take several (or several hundreds of) users to pull off such a prank, but if they had done individualsourcing instead of crowdsourcing, it would have taken only two users to pull off the prank.
With the one drawback, Samuel, that individualsourcing brings up the issue of accountability for such serious pranks, whereas crowdsourced pranks are anonymous and thus completely safe.
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Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:08
Russian to English
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In memoriam | How many crowdsourcers does it take to change a light bulb? | Jul 30, 2010 |
It depends what they're trying to change it to. It would take fewer to change it to "dark bulb" than to change it to "nuclear power station".
| | | | | The mischief of crowds | Jul 30, 2010 |
I would think the tale of the Christmas No. 1 single in the UK last year would be ample demonstration that "the crowd" is more than willing and able to be mischievous.
Personally, I think it is utterly splendid.
| | | | | Out of touch | Jul 30, 2010 |
@Charlie
Could you fill us in on that hit single reference? It's a while since I followed the UK charts (35 years perhaps).
btw I also think this is splendid - almost moved to say "I'm lovin' it"...
Noni
[Edited at 2010-07-30 12:03 GMT]
| | | | | OK then, I'll do what you tell me. | Jul 30, 2010 |
aceavila - Noni wrote:
Could you fill us in on that hit single reference? It's a while since I followed the UK charts (35 years perhaps).
Likewise, I doubt I could name five number singles over the last 20-25 years.
But here's one article of many:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8423340.stm
Google RATM christmas and you'll have more info than you could possible want
Warning: the song in question does contain swearing which was, in terms of the message contained therein, largely why it was picked.
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| Thanks Charlie | Jul 30, 2010 |
I'm taking my time reading the article and listening to the links - the language is making me wince - not the so-called bad language, but the "I'm good"s and "I'm gutted"s... those 35 years are taking their toll on my language tolerance!
Cheers, Noni
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 02:08
Spanish to English
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| | My personal experience | Jul 31, 2010 |
When I was running my GT4T ads on facebook, I noticed the page title "facebook|editing ad" was translated into "facebook|I am a stupid egg."
| | | | Ade Indarta
Indonesia
Local time: 13:08
Member (2007)
English to Indonesian
| Proof that the crowds are not always wise | Aug 3, 2010 |
Especially when the crowds are pranksters.
Ade
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| How many phychologists ... | Aug 3, 2010 |
Jack Doughty wrote:
It depends what they're trying to change it to. It would take fewer to change it to "dark bulb" than to change it to "nuclear power station".
It also depends on whether the light bulb really WANTS to be changed.
Jenny
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