| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | What a single KudoZ question can do to you! (I've decided to call it a day) Thread poster: Nesrin
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| If they didn't have KudoZ... | Jul 10, 2009 |
Marina Aleyeva wrote:
clueless proofreaders/editors who genuinely think they know better because they have just asked a KudoZ question or two
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all the crap which KudoZ "validates" and helps disseminate
...they would come up with their own crap, or with a randomly-chosen dictionary translation, or with the top Google hit, or whatever. And they do. If KudoZ helps to reduce the above by 10% (and I believe it does more), it does a good thing. It "validates" nothing. The only thing it does that makes you feel disgusted every so often -- is to reveal the mental processes going under some of our colleagues' skulls. And it is actually another good thing about it.
| | | | Marina Aleyeva 
Israel
Local time: 16:37
Member (2006)
English to Russian
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| Not as simple as that | Jul 11, 2009 |
Roman Bulkiewicz wrote:
If KudoZ helps to reduce the above by 10% (and I believe it does more), it does a good thing.
The fact that KudoZ helps people is obvious and beyond the scope of this discussion. The point I am trying to make (and I hope I make myself clear enough) is that, apart from helping people, KudoZ is also a link in the crap dissemination chain.
Roman Bulkiewicz wrote:
It "validates" nothing.
Well, let's see how it works. Once crap is chosen as the most helpful answer, it gets not only in a translated document but also in a TM and glossaries. The translation is returned to the end client who says it's ok (the client is not an expert, or is too busy to check, or just trusts the agency to do a good job - after all, the client pays their money and expects the job to be done). The agency then sends out the TM and glossaries to several other translators with an instruction not to change a single term, so it gets multiplied in dozens or even hundreds of translated documents. Also, anyone who searches the term in the KudoZ glossaries, will find that KudoZ question and see that the crap got support by peers, which may even be ProZ.com certified. For many, the fact that others have supported crap is enough to see it as credible. Crap dissemination cycle goes on until crap is everywhere including Microsoft glossaries, EU glossaries and even national standards, not to mention thousands of Google hits. Next time you try to tell someone that crap is crap you will be pointed directly to all those authoritative sources and Google hits.
If this is not a validation process, then tell me what is.
[Edited at 2009-07-11 15:57 GMT]
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The most surprising, or should I say annoying thing, is the number of people who regularly use the facility instead of first checking their own dictionaries and glossaries. Making a search in Google, Wikipedia or whatever seems to be unknown to them.
| | | | | If they didn't have Kudoz... | Jul 11, 2009 |
Roman Bulkiewicz wrote: Marina Aleyeva wrote:
clueless proofreaders/editors who genuinely think they know better because they have just asked a KudoZ question or two
...
all the crap which KudoZ "validates" and helps disseminate
...they would come up with their own crap, or with a randomly-chosen dictionary translation, or with the top Google hit, or whatever. And they do. If KudoZ helps to reduce the above by 10% (and I believe it does more), it does a good thing. It "validates" nothing. The only thing it does that makes you feel disgusted every so often -- is to reveal the mental processes going under some of our colleagues' skulls. And it is actually another good thing about it.
A lot of them would suddenly have to stick to fields and languages they actually know. Some would perhaps even disappear from the www world of translation... Who knows. It seems that all the pleas in the past to tighten up quality and professionalism on Kudoz only resulted in Kudoz becoming an Asker's paradise. Any mention to Askers of the rules/guidelines that supposedly apply to them brings down the wrath of the Mods policing the comments.
Is it any wonder that Kudoz keeps disintegrating and more and more pro translators no longer participate at all? This thread could be seen as yet another wake-up call to the powers that be. Will they take notice this time?
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Lia Fail (X)
Spain
Local time: 15:37
Spanish to English
+ ...
| last straw for me too... | Jul 11, 2009 |
I sympathise entirely, also with the need to let off steam about it:-)
I stopped answerring a long time ago, now I'm going to stop asking.
A language Q of mine has just been squashed as not a language Q ... I find it hard to credit.
| | | | | I don't understand the agrees | Jul 17, 2009 |
I can understand the asker who doesn't have enough criteria to choose the right answer, I can understand the answerer who answers mistakenly but what I don't understand is why anyone agrees with an answer without a good basis for giving that agreement.
| | | | Jean Chao
United States
Local time: 06:37
English to Chinese
+ ...
| How about the "answer hog"? | Jul 18, 2009 |
No matter what time of the day, no matter which field, you see the same person Googles pretty much the whole Internet to come up with pages and pages of research paper type of "proof" to support his or her answer, while nobody really cares about the logic behind the "Internet-found" translation.
Even worse, some word-for-word translations don't even make sense, but with the "Internet-backed" findings, all of a sudden, the logic and meaning of a sentence is not as important as the ... See more No matter what time of the day, no matter which field, you see the same person Googles pretty much the whole Internet to come up with pages and pages of research paper type of "proof" to support his or her answer, while nobody really cares about the logic behind the "Internet-found" translation.
Even worse, some word-for-word translations don't even make sense, but with the "Internet-backed" findings, all of a sudden, the logic and meaning of a sentence is not as important as the answer who-knows-from-where.
That's what made me decide to come to the forum to get some sensible reading.  ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I wonder which pair that was ... | Jul 18, 2009 |
Hello Jean
How are you. I wonder which pair that was, En->Zh, or Zh->En.
Lesley
[Edited at 2009-07-18 06:17 GMT]
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 15:37
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Seconding that... | Jul 18, 2009 |
Jean@LA wrote: No matter what time of the day, no matter which field, you see the same person Googles pretty much the whole Internet to come up with pages and pages of research paper type of "proof" to support his or her answer, while nobody really cares about the logic behind the "Internet-found" translation. Even worse, some word-for-word translations don't even make sense, but with the "Internet-backed" findings, all of a sudden, the logic and meaning of a sentence is not as important as the answer who-knows-from-where. That's what made me decide to come to the forum to get some sensible reading.
Excellent account. Especially the last sentence.
| | | | Vadim Zima
Local time: 06:37
English to Russian
+ ...
| Sad but true | Jul 26, 2009 |
Marina Aleyeva wrote:
Crap dissemination cycle goes on until crap is everywhere including Microsoft glossaries, EU glossaries and even national standards, not to mention thousands of Google hits. Next time you try to tell someone that crap is crap you will be pointed directly to all those authoritative sources and Google hits.
[Edited at 2009-07-11 15:57 GMT]
Excellent description of the multiplication of nonsence and a road to lingvo-catastrophy. When I first realized that, while at MSFT a few year ago, I thought something can be done about it. Very quickly my hopes vanished. Once a term is inside that "Redmond giant's" circulation, it's carved in stone! NOBODY is capable of changing anything.
| | | | Anne-Marie Grant (X)
Local time: 14:37
French to English
+ ...
| My favourites | Jul 26, 2009 |
are the characters who answer Kudoz questions into languages that are not listed AT ALL on their profile. Their answers tend to be....unusual.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:37
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| And while we're on the subject | Jul 26, 2009 |
Nesrin wrote:
I just need to let off some steam.....peers who follow a copy-cat pattern in providing their agrees
And while we're on the subject: the word "agree" is not a noun. As one who loves languages and is pernickety about seeing them used correctly, I find its misuse in Kudoz, in place of "agreement" very distasteful !
[Edited at 2009-07-26 16:48 GMT]
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Arnaud HERVE
France
Local time: 15:37
English to French
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The "agree" referred to is an object in the interface. So the neologism of making it a noun is quite right.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:37
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Arnaud HERVE wrote:
The "agree" referred to is an object in the interface. So the neologism of making it a noun is quite right.
I'm not going to argue with you.
| | | | | I am grateful to all Pro answerers! | Jul 26, 2009 |
I appreciate your frustration. Just let me say that I am very grateful for all answers provided when I have submitted a question. I pick out the best one, but I always give points to everyone who has answered the question.
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