Should Askers choose the answer that best fits their document? Thread poster: B D Finch
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B D Finch 
France
Local time: 23:31
French to English
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I have seen quite a few examples of Askers justifying their selection of an answer that does not seem to be the best, or even appropriate, on the grounds that it best fits the particular document they are translating. This does, in my view, detract from the value of KOG as a resource to all translators, not just to the Asker of that particular question.
Should there be guidelines to Askers telling them that the answer chosen should be the one that best fits the information posted, ... See more I have seen quite a few examples of Askers justifying their selection of an answer that does not seem to be the best, or even appropriate, on the grounds that it best fits the particular document they are translating. This does, in my view, detract from the value of KOG as a resource to all translators, not just to the Asker of that particular question.
Should there be guidelines to Askers telling them that the answer chosen should be the one that best fits the information posted, and not some circumstance that means nothing to the Answerers or to people referring later to KOG? ▲ Collapse
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B D Finch wrote:
I have seen quite a few examples of Askers justifying their selection of an answer that does not seem to be the best, or even appropriate, on the grounds that it best fits the particular document they are translating. This does, in my view, detract from the value of KOG as a resource to all translators, not just to the Asker of that particular question.
Should there be guidelines to Askers telling them that the answer chosen should be the one that best fits the information posted, and not some circumstance that means nothing to the Answerers or to people referring later to KOG?
The primary objective of "help" KudoZ questions is to provide help to the asker.
Askers are requested to select the answer that was most helpful to them, and they are not required to justify these decisions.
Regards,
Enrique
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
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| approved by the Client? | May 25, 2009 |
Hello Enrique.
I agree with your point, the only things is ‘post scriptum’ effect. I mean Asker can use some almost-the-best suggestion, but would it be accepted/ approved by his Client?
Sometimes ‘the best chosen answer‘ makes me smile because even I can see that it’s out of context. So, what about ‘Approved’ feature?
Cheers
[Редактировалось 2009-05-25 14:04 GMT]
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 22:31
Member (2007)
English
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| Present guidelines should suffice, IMO | May 25, 2009 |
B D Finch wrote:
Should there be guidelines to Askers telling them that the answer chosen should be the one that best fits the information posted, and not some circumstance that means nothing to the Answerers or to people referring later to KOG?
Hopefully the Asker will post all the necessary information to help with the translation in context - if that is done then the term for translation, the context and the proposed translation are all there together and the KOG will be quite clear that this translation fits that specific context. I stress the "hopefully"!
The problem is not with the guidelines - it's the old GIGO problem: Garbage In eguals Garbage Out. I'm afraid we're stuck with an element of that until we all get fitted with positronic brains.
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Jenn Mercer
United States
Local time: 17:31
Member (2009)
French to English
However, the asker also has the discretion to not add the best answer to the glossary if he or she recognizes that the answer is unlikely to be helpful in other contexts.
I agree that context in the question, the answers, and the chosen answers is the key to making sure that the KudoZ system is useful.
| | | | Parrot
Spain
Local time: 23:31
Spanish to English
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| Caveat on the use of KOG | May 25, 2009 |
KOG users should always bear in mind that KOG is not a top-> down tool. Quite the contrary; rules make it a reference based on very specific term readings. Hence, users should read the whole page in case of doubt.
We already have our dictionaries. What they don't offer us is precisely where the KOG should be useful, the way I see it.
| | | | B D Finch
France
Local time: 23:31
French to English
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TOPIC STARTER | What is the point of the points? | May 25, 2009 |
Enrique wrote:
The primary objective of "help" KudoZ questions is to provide help to the asker.
Askers are requested to select the answer that was most helpful to them, and they are not required to justify these decisions.
The question and its answers hang around on the Web long after the Asker and Answerers have forgotten all about it. Ideally, this is an extremely useful resource for other translators. So long as the Asker gave adequate context, there should be no problem; however, sometimes the context given is misleading or inadequate. Occasionally, an Asker declines an apparently good answer on the grounds that the Client preferred something wierd, wonderful or even wrong. Askers also sometimes close questions because they have found the answer elsewhere.
When we post questions, we are benefiting from the fact that there is a community wanting to give us answers out of some strange notion of public benefit or mutual self interest. Indeed there are comments, references and research posted that are clearly not just motivated by chasing after points. We do not have to use the answer we select if there is a good (or even a bad or indifferent) reason for using something else. I have, at least once, selected an answer that I did not use, because it was a good answer on the basis of the information I had given in my question and had been useful in clarifying an issue for me. I appreciated the trouble that the Answerer had gone to to be helpful and the quality of their answer. Sometimes, it is frustrating not to be able to divide the points, but that would be a whole other topic...
I still think that the linking of choice of answer directly to the needs of a source document that has not been disclosed undermines both the goodwill of Answerers and the usefulness of KudoZ to future researchers. Certainly when I use KudoZ for research, I find that I have to be very careful and the really useful answer is sometimes not the one that got the points.
| | | | Lirka
Austria
Local time: 23:31
Member (2010)
German to English
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SITE LOCALIZER | Totally agree with Enrique | May 25, 2009 |
Everyone has a different way of selecting answers and we cannot police that on top of all the rules that already apply.
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Claire Cox
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:31
French to English
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| Surely context is everything? | May 25, 2009 |
Hi Barbara,
I see what you're getting at, but given that the glossary entries and search terms, plus the search entries all come up when you do a KudoZ search, surely it's up to any new searcher to read the entries and determine whether the context is appropriate. In French, in particular, a given word can have a huge range of meanings depending on the context, especially in technical language. If I was looking for a term, I certainly wouldn't rely on the glossary entry alone, but w... See more Hi Barbara,
I see what you're getting at, but given that the glossary entries and search terms, plus the search entries all come up when you do a KudoZ search, surely it's up to any new searcher to read the entries and determine whether the context is appropriate. In French, in particular, a given word can have a huge range of meanings depending on the context, especially in technical language. If I was looking for a term, I certainly wouldn't rely on the glossary entry alone, but would read the individual discussions to see which was most suitable.
That said, I personally don't make glossary entries if I know a particular query is slightly off the wall, such as a phrase. I recently had a German phrase "Freuen Sie sich diebisch" in a marketing brochure for agricultural machinery with a picture of a magpie on the front. The phrase means to enjoy yourself hugely, but "diebisch" means like a thief, so I wanted to maintain the thieving magpie link. The resulting discussions were enormously helpful and I eventually gave the points to the person who suggested "It's a steal" even though I didn't actually use that in the end because it didn't quite fit the rest of my context (which of course answerers don't have access to). I didn't make a glossary entry on that occasion because the term was so context-linked, but I'd like to think the discussion will be useful to someone in the future, regardless of any glossary entries. ▲ Collapse
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B D Finch wrote:
Certainly when I use KudoZ for research, I find that I have to be very careful and the really useful answer is sometimes not the one that got the points.
Same here. And we should all always be careful whatever source we are using... and never rely on a single source. I'm not sure that "I find I have to be very careful" is really a valid justification for your request
Askers justifying their selection of an answer that does not seem to be the best, or even appropriate, on the grounds that it best fits the particular document they are translating
To be fair though, if an Asker has never seen a term before, how are they supposed to know which of the answers is most likely to be most useful most of the time to other people, irrespective of their specific need at that moment? It's an impossible request.
The current situation as regards answer seelction may have its flaws, but I do think it is the least worst.
| | | | Anne-Marie Grant (X)
Local time: 22:31
French to English
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| I agree with Charlie | May 25, 2009 |
The asker selects the most appropriate answer for their needs, then the question and, perhaps, a glossary entry are archived. After that, it's a case of 'buyer beware' on all subsequent glossary searches, as is the case with any dictionary/Google searches etc.
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