Ethics in translation
Thread poster: brenda-pv
brenda-pv
brenda-pv
Local time: 22:34
English to Spanish
Jul 7, 2012

Hello everybody! I just want to ask for your help to answer a questionnaire/interview regarding ethics in the translation area. This is a task that I need to do for one of my classes in university because my classmates and I think that it is important to know how ethics is applied in other countries/cities. Hope you can help me. If you´re interested, please send me an e-mail to [email protected].

 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 22:34
Dutch to English
+ ...
Undeliverable Jul 8, 2012

I sent you an e-mail but it was undeliverable. This is the message I received:

The following message to was undeliverable.
The reason for the problem:
5.1.2 - Bad destination host 'DNS Malformed Query Error looking up gmail.com. (MX).'


 
Thomas Pfann
Thomas Pfann  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:34
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
"gmail.com", not "gmail.com." Jul 8, 2012

Try again deleting the full-stop at the end of the email address and it should work fine.



 
Phil Hand
Phil Hand  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 12:34
Chinese to English
SurveyMonkey Jul 8, 2012

I don't want to enter into an email correspondence with you. Put it up on a dedicated survey site, and I might have a look.

 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 06:34
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
I agree Jul 8, 2012

Phil Hand wrote:
I don't want to enter into an email correspondence with you. Put it up on a dedicated survey site, and I might have a look.

Seconded.


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 06:34
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Tina -- blame ProZ.com's developers Jul 8, 2012

Tina Vonhof wrote:
I sent you an e-mail but it was undeliverable.


It's not his fault. ProZ.com's developers developed the forum system so that if text that is recognised as a URL is placed at the end of a sentence, the fullstop gets included in the hyperlink.

My humble opinion is that anyone who uses e-mail should know that e-mail addresses do not end on fullstops, and that if there is a fullstop in the "To:" line after an e-mail address, it should be removed before hitting "Send", but some people might not agree with me and say that one can't really expect users of e-mail to know that, and that the users' e-mail programs should take care of that.


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 06:34
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Surveymonkey? Just use an MS Word file... Jul 8, 2012

Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
Phil Hand wrote:
I don't want to enter into an email correspondence with you. Put it up on a dedicated survey site, and I might have a look.

Seconded.


Surveymonkey is incredibly complex to use (have either of you tried it?), and even if you are able to figure out how it works, if you don't know what you're doing, you end up with an user-unfriendly and useless survey very easily.

Brenda, another option is to put the survey in an MS Word file, upload it to the internet somewhere (e.g. wikisend.com) and then put the link to that document in the forum. Be sure to include the forwarding e-mail address in the MS Word file.


 
Cetacea
Cetacea  Identity Verified
Switzerland
Local time: 06:34
English to German
+ ...
Surveymonkey Jul 8, 2012

Samuel Murray wrote:
Surveymonkey is incredibly complex to use

No, it's not, just use one of the templates they offer.

if you don't know what you're doing, you end up with an user-unfriendly and useless survey very easily.


If you've already established your survey, which I assume Brenda has, you'll only end up with a useless survey if it was useless to begin with.

Brenda, another option is to put the survey in an MS Word file, upload it to the internet somewhere (e.g. wikisend.com) and then put the link to that document in the forum. Be sure to include the forwarding e-mail address in the MS Word file.


Well, I for one don't want to download Word files from unknown sources, and I don't want to disclose my e-mail address to said sources, either. No offense, Brenda.


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 06:34
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Would not participate Jul 9, 2012

Samuel Murray wrote:
Brenda, another option is to put the survey in an MS Word file, upload it to the internet somewhere (e.g. wikisend.com) and then put the link to that document in the forum. Be sure to include the forwarding e-mail address in the MS Word file.

Brenda can decide her best options, but to me the most sensible approach would be a web survey, for instance with SurveyMonkey. I would not feel at all inclined to communicate by email or download MS Word files from anywhere. If a web survey is created, I will be happy to participate.

(Edited for obvious typos.)

[Edited at 2012-07-09 12:13 GMT]


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 06:34
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
No objection to SurveyMonkey Jul 9, 2012

Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
Brenda can decide her best options, but to me the most sensble approach would be a web survey, for instance with SurveyMonkey. I would not feel at all inclided to communicate by email or download MS Word files from anywhere. If a web survey is created, I will be happy to participate.


I think most people think the way you do -- if the survey is online, then it is easiest for everyone... provided that the person creating the survey can figure out how to do it, and does not create something that is difficult for users to fill in. I have seen SurveyMonkey surveys that looked very nice but which took ten times as long to fill in than a simple Word file would have.

One problem with SurveyMonkey is that it does not use standard HTML form elements but fancy-looking elements that do not respond to browser keyboard shortcuts, so you are forced to use the mouse. This is fine if the survey is simple, but anything grid-like becomes a nightmare to fill in, especially if the survey does not allow you to leave anything empty before moving to the next question. Many surveys that I have started filling in I abandoned before finishing because of that.


 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 22:34
Dutch to English
+ ...
@Samuel Jul 9, 2012

Samuel Murray wrote:

My humble opinion is that anyone who uses e-mail should know that e-mail addresses do not end on fullstops, and that if there is a fullstop in the "To:" line after an e-mail address, it should be removed before hitting "Send", but some people might not agree with me and say that one can't really expect users of e-mail to know that, and that the users' e-mail programs should take care of that.



My humble opinion is that anyone who clicks on a link provided should not be required to spell-check it first. I just clicked on the address without scrutinizing it.

I do agree that there are better ways to conduct a survey but given that this was posted by a student, I did not expect her to be aware of that and I wanted to help out anyway.


 


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Ethics in translation







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