Give translator feedback Thread poster: DLyons
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DLyons 
Ireland
Local time: 10:11
Spanish to English
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I occasionally come across someone who claims to specialize in a particular technical area but makes glaring elementary mistakes.
It seems like the "Give Feedback" http://www.proz.com/translator-feedback/give-feedback only allows posting about people one is willing to work with again WWA. Is there no way of saying No, I wouldn't WWA?
| | | | Ilan Rubin (X)
Russian Federation
Local time: 12:11
Russian to English
There are many other ways for a buyer to verify creds without reading publicly available negative comments. This would open a real Pandora's Box in my view, score settling, maybe even legal action.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 11:11
French to English
I agree that the potential for nastiness would have no limits.
You mention technical translations. OK, there are bog-standard ways of referring to nuts and bolts, and someone using the wrong terms can easily be proved to be incompetent by way of a quick Internet search.
For those of us working in other fields, subjectivity comes into play. I recently did a translation about some cute trompe l'oeil products with a playful element (raising the whoopee cushion to an art f... See more I agree that the potential for nastiness would have no limits.
You mention technical translations. OK, there are bog-standard ways of referring to nuts and bolts, and someone using the wrong terms can easily be proved to be incompetent by way of a quick Internet search.
For those of us working in other fields, subjectivity comes into play. I recently did a translation about some cute trompe l'oeil products with a playful element (raising the whoopee cushion to an art form if you like). I had great fun doing it. There were a couple of puns in the source that wouldn't translate, however I came up with a couple of rhymes and ended up producing a tongue-in-cheek limerick which worked the technical details in while simultaneously projecting the humour underpinning the product's appeal.
The client rejected my translation and I'm going to have to come up with something else. I had been told to transcreate, but it appears that I did a Ziggy* and now they realise that they'd rather have some no-nonsense rock'n'roll. I suspect that they didn't fully understand the linguistic complexities of my lyrical envolée, and this is by far the greatest issue we transcreators have when dealing with clients whose working language is the source language.
So this client could well decide that they don't want to work with me any more, and I wouldn't say it had anything to do with the quality of my translation, it's just that they can't trust me that my text would work, because they don't speak much English, let alone have any perception of the British sense of humour.
* i.e. I made it too far, just in case some are still not familiar with the song ▲ Collapse
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I wouldn´t wonder if there isn´t already a black list running outside of proz with limited access and for outsourcers only.
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DLyons
Ireland
Local time: 10:11
Spanish to English
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TOPIC STARTER
That's my era
Yes, I generally agree it could get out of hand. I'm only talking about black and white, no creativity, bog standard, nuts 'n bolts type technical terms but I need to remember that ProZ has become a site for amateurs when one still finds the occasional professional.
Your ST sounds like fun!
| | | | | Within companies, yes, they do this | Feb 27, 2016 |
Matthias Brombach wrote:
I wouldn´t wonder if there isn´t already a black list running outside of proz with limited access and for outsourcers only.
I don't know of any cross-company "blacklist", but I do know that agencies (at least those who care about quality) have their own "blacklist", i.e. they note in their database when a translator proves to be substandard, and avoid sending them work. Large companies with multiple international offices do this, too, to avoid multiple branches being "burned" by the same person.
There are others who rank their translators into 'tiers', based on the quality of their work, and they work their way down the list based on availability, end client requirements, budget, etc. Working with a lower tier translator often results is higher editing and proofing costs, but sometimes they opt for it due to availability issues with the top tier translators.
| | | | | A question of possible conspiracy and therefore OT ;-) | Feb 27, 2016 |
Katalin Horváth McClure wrote: I do know that agencies (at least those who care about quality) have their own "blacklist"
That sounds plausible and would make sense.
I don't know of any cross-company "blacklist"
That´s what´s either still missing or already existing, but with other or at least additional criterias like you mentioned for the internals. Better never don´t misbehave in any way, no questions, no criticism, no doubts and no arguing, etc., right? Just speculating...
| | | | Carolina Garrido
United States
Local time: 04:11
Member (2015)
English to Spanish
| Opening feedback to anybody could be a problem | Feb 29, 2016 |
ILAN RUBIN wrote:
There are many other ways for a buyer to verify creds without reading publicly available negative comments. This would open a real Pandora's Box in my view, score settling, maybe even legal action. pening
Whenever there is a system like this in play, it causes problems. Unfortunately, people start giving feedback out of spite or to prove they are better than others. I had a problem in a platform that allows this kind of feedack with a translation being rated low because of an alleged mistake. I sent the links to the language academy that proved the translation was actually right to the person who gave the feedback. The person said "Yes, you are good at defending yourself, so I will raise your score, but to my mind you will always deserve a lower one". That was the end of my participation in that platform.
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 11:11
French to English
DLyons wrote: That's my era Yes, I generally agree it could get out of hand. I'm only talking about black and white, no creativity, bog standard, nuts 'n bolts type technical terms but I need to remember that ProZ has become a site for amateurs when one still finds the occasional professional. Your ST sounds like fun!
It certainly is! 
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 11:11
French to English
While I was working in-house, my boss had a run-in with a colleague and she ended up taking him to court (on fully justified counts of racism, sexism and unethical conduct).
He immediately sent out a mail to all members of the professional translation agency organisation to warn his fellow entrepreneurs not to ever hire her.
Not sure whether that was defamation or not, I unfortunately lost touch with her and never found out what happened in the end, but I remember her... See more While I was working in-house, my boss had a run-in with a colleague and she ended up taking him to court (on fully justified counts of racism, sexism and unethical conduct).
He immediately sent out a mail to all members of the professional translation agency organisation to warn his fellow entrepreneurs not to ever hire her.
Not sure whether that was defamation or not, I unfortunately lost touch with her and never found out what happened in the end, but I remember her lawyer was very excited when I sent her a copy of the mail he sent out.
All in all, I think it's far more profitable all round to focus on the positive ▲ Collapse
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