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Access to Blue Board records and jobs using browniz points and cash to be discontinued as of Nov. 15
Thread poster: Jared Tabor
Artem Vakhitov
Artem Vakhitov  Identity Verified
Kyrgyzstan
English to Russian
+ ...
I only use BrowniZ for BB access Nov 6, 2016


I wonder how many people do regularly buy BB access with BrowniZ, or regularly add money to their wallet. This may all just be a storm in a teacup.


This was my primary use for BrowniZ as a non-paying (at the moment) ProZ user.
I do plan to renew my membership soon (though not only for the sake of BB access). But currently I'm not sure that my new membership round will last longer than a year.

[Edited at 2016-11-06 15:26 GMT]


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 11:50
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
@Samuel Nov 6, 2016

Why am I disappointed? I gained a lot of Browniz points (95,041 at the last count) by contributing in various ways to the site and to be truthful I don’t care about these points, but it so happens that Proz and its moderators are always so eager to enforce site rules and guidelines and to report any violations that I feel that, when site rules are suddenly changed, it would be polite to make that information available to members in due time. The same happened with the translation contest: We a... See more
Why am I disappointed? I gained a lot of Browniz points (95,041 at the last count) by contributing in various ways to the site and to be truthful I don’t care about these points, but it so happens that Proz and its moderators are always so eager to enforce site rules and guidelines and to report any violations that I feel that, when site rules are suddenly changed, it would be polite to make that information available to members in due time. The same happened with the translation contest: We are almost at the end of 2016 and still there is no end on sight for some language pairs. I have been taking part in the translation contests since 2008 and I considered these both entertaining and challenging, but waiting and waiting for an outcome without a single explanation is, to say the least, disrespectful. So, I’m disappointed because this looks very much like lack of consideration toward those members who keep the site alive.Collapse


 
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:50
Member (2004)
English to Italian
Disappointed too... Nov 6, 2016

Teresa Borges wrote:

Why am I disappointed? I gained a lot of Browniz points (95,041 at the last count) by contributing in various ways to the site and to be truthful I don’t care about these points, but it so happens that Proz and its moderators are always so eager to enforce site rules and guidelines and to report any violations that I feel that, when site rules are suddenly changed, it would be polite to make that information available to members in due time.


I agree... I spent years answering KudoZ and contributing to the site, gaining BrowniZ, and now they are scrapped, with nothing in return...


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 11:50
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
By the way... Nov 6, 2016

... can we offer Browniz points to partial members?

 
Ilan Rubin (X)
Ilan Rubin (X)  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 14:50
Russian to English
My philosophy... Nov 6, 2016

...if you want something, earn enough to buy it and then buy it. Don't expect to get anything for free. Don't have a sense of entitlement or victimhood.

By getting access to BB and jobs 'for free' people are effectively being subsidized by paying members.


 
Artem Vakhitov
Artem Vakhitov  Identity Verified
Kyrgyzstan
English to Russian
+ ...
It's not that simple Nov 6, 2016

ILAN RUBIN wrote:

...if you want something, earn enough to buy it and then buy it. Don't expect to get anything for free. Don't have a sense of entitlement or victimhood.

By getting access to BB and jobs 'for free' people are effectively being subsidized by paying members.


It's not that simple. Non-paying members contribute significant value to the site by participating in the forums and KudoZ. This resource would be much less popular without it.


 
Ilan Rubin (X)
Ilan Rubin (X)  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 14:50
Russian to English
That's like saying... Nov 6, 2016

Artem Vakhitov wrote:

ILAN RUBIN wrote:

...if you want something, earn enough to buy it and then buy it. Don't expect to get anything for free. Don't have a sense of entitlement or victimhood.

By getting access to BB and jobs 'for free' people are effectively being subsidized by paying members.


It's not that simple. Non-paying members contribute significant value to the site by participating in the forums and KudoZ. This resource would be much less popular without it.


...you go into a supermarket and helpfully tell customers where to find the items that they want to buy, and then expect the supermarket to give you some free shopping in return

[Edited at 2016-11-06 17:11 GMT]


 
Venkatesh Sundaram
Venkatesh Sundaram  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 17:20
German to English
I'm also disappointed Nov 6, 2016

Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote:

Teresa Borges wrote:

Why am I disappointed? I gained a lot of Browniz points (95,041 at the last count) by contributing in various ways to the site and to be truthful I don’t care about these points, but it so happens that Proz and its moderators are always so eager to enforce site rules and guidelines and to report any violations that I feel that, when site rules are suddenly changed, it would be polite to make that information available to members in due time.


I agree... I spent years answering KudoZ and contributing to the site, gaining BrowniZ, and now they are scrapped, with nothing in return...


It does sound very disappointing - especially for those who have been active on the site and contributing regularly - it's like a sudden devaluation of a currency you hold by 99.9%...

I'm also sorry to note that sufficient notice has not been given regarding this - people should have been given time to consume their points.


 
Mirko Mainardi
Mirko Mainardi  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 12:50
Member
English to Italian
Beside the point Nov 6, 2016

ILAN RUBIN wrote:

Artem Vakhitov wrote:

ILAN RUBIN wrote:

...if you want something, earn enough to buy it and then buy it. Don't expect to get anything for free. Don't have a sense of entitlement or victimhood.

By getting access to BB and jobs 'for free' people are effectively being subsidized by paying members.


It's not that simple. Non-paying members contribute significant value to the site by participating in the forums and KudoZ. This resource would be much less popular without it.


...you go into a supermarket and helpfully tell customers where to find the items that they want to buy, and then expect the supermarket to give you some free shopping in retur


Strawmen aside, in our case there was a system in place, whereby users (paying and non-paying) earned "points" by doing certain things, and those points could be used for certain purposes. Then, all of sudden, the same people who came up with that system, decide to dismantle it and that all the points that users have earned so far for doing those things are basically useless. Quite frankly, I do see a fairness/ethical issue with that...

Going back to your strawman, it's more like the supermarket owner told you he would "give you some free shopping" if you "helpfully tell customers where to find the items that they want to buy", then, after you have been doing that for a while, he just thanks you and says the deal is off.


 
Anton Konashenok
Anton Konashenok  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 12:50
French to English
+ ...
It's not about the brownies as such Nov 6, 2016

Ilan Rubin wrote:

...if you want something, earn enough to buy it and then buy it. Don't expect to get anything for free. Don't have a sense of entitlement or victimhood.

By getting access to BB and jobs 'for free' people are effectively being subsidized by paying members.


It's not about the sense of entitlement. Personally, I won't mourn the loss of privilege to browse Blue Board for brownies. It's about corporate citizenship. It was socially responsible of ProZ to provide a token of incentive for the culture of giving and mutual help (KudoZ, forums, etc.). What we are seeing now looks very much like sacrificing that social responsibility for the sake of additional profits. Henry has every right and reason to do so, yet it remains ethically deplorable, at least by the standards of the 21st century.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:50
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Brownies Nov 6, 2016

We didn't ask from Brownies; they came as part of the Proz. package.

They were offered as a way of building up points to improve your profile.

Now they are being taken away, with a resulting negative effect on our profiles, and a concomitant increase in the membership fee.

Caveat emptor. There are other places on the Internet to search for translation work.

To those who worry that Proz has a near-monopoly and can do as it likes: well, that's n
... See more
We didn't ask from Brownies; they came as part of the Proz. package.

They were offered as a way of building up points to improve your profile.

Now they are being taken away, with a resulting negative effect on our profiles, and a concomitant increase in the membership fee.

Caveat emptor. There are other places on the Internet to search for translation work.

To those who worry that Proz has a near-monopoly and can do as it likes: well, that's not healthy for the market and goes against our interests as translators. What if there were only kind of car you could buy? Would that be the best car?

[Edited at 2016-11-06 20:02 GMT]
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Erzsébet Czopyk
Erzsébet Czopyk  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 12:50
Member (2006)
Russian to Hungarian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
Cui bono? Cui prodest? Nov 6, 2016

Anton Konashenok wrote:

It's not about the sense of entitlement. Personally, I won't mourn the loss of privilege to browse Blue Board for brownies. It's about corporate citizenship. It was socially responsible of ProZ to provide a token of incentive for the culture of giving and mutual help (KudoZ, forums, etc.). What we are seeing now looks very much like sacrificing that social responsibility for the sake of additional profits. Henry has every right and reason to do so, yet it remains ethically deplorable, at least by the standards of the 21st century.


There is an another point, it is not just about the Browniz-points (actually, I never checked but I do have 22,560 - I donated to my colleagues, inviting them to the site and used 4000 of them each year for a discounted membership renewal) and I happily agreed to an early renewal of my membership
BUT
taking them away just because they are taken away is unfair.
Why no timeframe was given to spend them/*possibility was given to donate them?
It looks we worked for them and now we are left with nothing as they turned out for dust.
A part of the new features (in particular, TM-Town) literally force me to share my TMs which I do not want and sometimes it is irritating to receive notifications that my TM is on "life support".
As Theresa wrote, "it so happens that Proz and its moderators are always so eager to enforce site rules and guidelines" - nowadays... uhm... strange things are happening which called resulting the feeling "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others" and leading to leave of some active members in the past.
The Certified Pro status is bounded to a membership so I, likely, face a challenge:
1. remain a member and remain silent;
2. counting which costs me more: build a strong personal website plus investing marketing campaign to boost their visitors and decide how to proceed further;
3. giving BOTH of us a solid chance to rebuild and rethink this partnership, considering I am a paying member for over a decade. Too much 0.045 USD per source words circulating and I see no protection against those agencies/agency tricks.
4. it's like a sudden devaluation of my virtual wallet - same as a devaluation of my strong commitment.



I loved ProZ.com I still do love ProZ.com, but its changes are scary and devastating.


 
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei  Identity Verified
Ghana
Local time: 11:50
Japanese to English
I'm okay with browniz points being taken away Nov 6, 2016

Proz.com is a money-making site (let's not kid ourselves), and the Blue Board is one of their biggest selling points. I'm more surprised that they've been giving it away for free so far than surprised that they're taking it away now. But it seems a bit hasty to take away the Cash For BB system. Hike up the price, maybe, but cutting off non-members altogether would cut off a lucrative revenue stream IMO. Well, good luck, guys!

 
Paul Dixon
Paul Dixon  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 08:50
Portuguese to English
+ ...
We should pull out of ProZ Nov 7, 2016

A good solution would be to pull out of ProZ. If enough people did this, Pro$$$ would soon learn the lesson.

 
Henry Dotterer
Henry Dotterer
Local time: 07:50
SITE FOUNDER
Browniz discount implemented Nov 8, 2016

Hi all,

OK, Jason has made it so that members and site users who have at least 4000 browniz get a $10 discount when selecting either package (Plus or Standard). Note that this discount applies for the first year only, since (to repeat) the subscription management service that we are using does not support payments with points.

Regarding price, which someone incorrectly said has gone up, this $10 discount brings the price of the Standard package in the current campaign d
... See more
Hi all,

OK, Jason has made it so that members and site users who have at least 4000 browniz get a $10 discount when selecting either package (Plus or Standard). Note that this discount applies for the first year only, since (to repeat) the subscription management service that we are using does not support payments with points.

Regarding price, which someone incorrectly said has gone up, this $10 discount brings the price of the Standard package in the current campaign down to $99, for even a new member. So that is 20-40% less than it was before. I hope you can see that we are working very hard to deliver value in the Standard membership at a minimal cost.

That said, of course $10 is a small amount to discount, especially when compared to the magnitude of contributions by some of you who have earned browniz by doing things like localizing the site. This is mostly meant just as a symbolic token of appreciation.

Amel, Anton, The Misha, Siegchen, Maxi: please consider finally giving ProZ.com membership a try. I can assure you that we work very hard to have it be worth the price to you, and more. And I would say that if you look for it, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that we do ok. (Seventeen years of history, the testimonials, the ROI guarantees and so on.)

Thank you!

Henry
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Access to Blue Board records and jobs using browniz points and cash to be discontinued as of Nov. 15






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