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Complimentary TM-Town membership for ProZ.com members
Thread poster: Jared Tabor
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 10:22
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
I did say "aligned", not "translated" ;) Apr 15, 2016

Kevin Dias wrote:
If someone has translated the Bible, I think that they would have some very good expertise in the sector of religion. So why shouldn't they get matched to a religion job (with terminology matching that of the Bible) if it comes up?

If the point you are trying to make is that the person didn't actually translate the Bible and they are misrepresenting their work, I address how we deal with that here.


If a client searches a text in Nakōdo they'll be given a list of results of translators who have translated similar documents in the past. You are right that the volume a translator has loaded is no indication of the quality.

That's what worries me, you see. On ProZ.com, the directory is ordered by specialisation in a particular subject area, with specialisations being chosen by ticking a box. There's no proof and any client who has his/her head screwed on right will understand that the claim must be checked out by reading the profile text, entering into a series of emails, maybe checking qualifications or asking for a free sample, etc. They know they can't decide until they have further evidence.

The idea on TM-Town is that translator lists are ordered by the fact that they have translated similar documents in the past. Facts don't lie, they say, so the client can be confident about the top translator in the list: it's bound to be a translator who has definite experience, maybe massive amounts of experience, in the subject area. Why search further? Choose that one! And yet, as in the example I give, that TM could be 100% bogus. Isn't that a case of false representation? I know you can say the same about those who lie on their ProZ.com profiles, but there it's much easier to check as the potential client will be reading the holder's own words from their profiles and emails - and liars very rarely write convincingly.


 
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Local time: 19:22
I'm not sure you read my post? Apr 15, 2016

There's no proof and any client who has his/her head screwed on right will understand that the claim must be checked out by reading the profile text, entering into a series of emails, maybe checking qualifications or asking for a free sample, etc. They know they can't decide until they have further evidence.


It works the same way on TM-Town.

Try a search yourself: https://www.tm-town.com/nakodo

And yet, as in the example I give, that TM could be 100% bogus. Isn't that a case of false representation?


Did you click the link I put in my prior post? As I said, I have addressed how we handle that here: http://www.proz.com/forum/tm_town/296266-whats_your_take_on_tm_town-page2.html#2504689


 
Jo Macdonald
Jo Macdonald  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:22
Member (2005)
Italian to English
+ ...
OK Apr 15, 2016

Kevin Dias wrote:


It's another potential marketing channel for you. I don't think you have anything to lose by giving it a try.

Kevin


I'll give it a go.


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:22
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Nope... Apr 15, 2016

Kevin Dias wrote:
If you go to your account settings page (https://www.tm-town.com/translators/edit) and scroll down a little you will see a section entitled 'Blogs, Social Media, & Translator Profiles'. Hover over that and click edit. A modal will pop up and you should see the green button to link your ProZ.com account.

No, I'm afraid this does not show up in the case of my account. Why could this be happening? Thanks in advance!


 
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Local time: 19:22
Issue with 'Connect your ProZ.com Account' button Apr 15, 2016

If anyone else experiences the same issue as Tomás (where you can't see the buttons), check to see if you have any ad blockers enabled. In the case of Tomás, an ad blocker was hiding the button.

 
Robert Rietvelt
Robert Rietvelt  Identity Verified
Local time: 11:22
Member (2006)
Spanish to Dutch
+ ...
@Kevin Apr 15, 2016

Kevin Dias wrote:

Hi Robert,


Luckily, I didn't update any TM's yet, but do I understand you correctly? As a Proz-member I can "try out" the Starter membership for free? If so, for how long? (I don't want to be a "guinea pig" for some kind of advertisement campaign, I resent that).

So, do I have to delete my application for the third time.


You do not have to delete your account. If you are a ProZ.com member and you have uploaded at least one qualifying document then your account will automatically be upgraded within 48 hours.

Just be sure to link your ProZ.com account on TM-Town (you can do this in your TM-Town account settings). This is how we check on your ProZ membership and upgrade your account.

The free Starter membership is for 1 year.

Kevin


Hello Kevin,

Let me get this straight, the clock starts ticking the moment I upload a qualifying document and not at the moment I link my ProZ.com account on TM-Town. Right?


 
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Local time: 19:22
When both are met Apr 15, 2016

Let me get this straight, the clock starts ticking the moment I upload a qualifying document and not at the moment I link my ProZ.com account on TM-Town. Right?


Your 1 year Starter membership will be granted (within 48 hours) once you have both:
a) connected your ProZ.com account
b) uploaded at least 1 qualifying document


 
Ivonne Reichard-Novak
Ivonne Reichard-Novak  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:22
English to German
+ ...
Advantage of sharing my TMs? Apr 15, 2016

"Load a translation memory (TM) file into your private TM-Town account. TMs are how we index you by your expertise in Nakōdo."

I’m not sure I understand correctly. I’m supposed to upload my private TMs and glossaries? Why would I do that? As a translator working full time for close to 10 years, my TMs and glossaries are quite extensive and frankly – they are worth quite a lot. So I’m basically paying for sharing my work for free but should be happy as I don’t have to pay
... See more
"Load a translation memory (TM) file into your private TM-Town account. TMs are how we index you by your expertise in Nakōdo."

I’m not sure I understand correctly. I’m supposed to upload my private TMs and glossaries? Why would I do that? As a translator working full time for close to 10 years, my TMs and glossaries are quite extensive and frankly – they are worth quite a lot. So I’m basically paying for sharing my work for free but should be happy as I don’t have to pay for the first year of doing so? There is clearly something that I misunderstand here otherwise others would have jumped on that already. From here it sounds like scamming translators out of their TMs and glossaries, and I don’t think that ProZ.com would go that far.

Could you please clarify this for me? I’d appreciate it.
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Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 07:22
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
Options for showing your areas of expertise Apr 15, 2016

Hi Ivonne,

Uploading a TM, glossary, sample translation, etc. allows Nakōdo to connect you with potential clients searching for someone in your areas of expertise, but remain private to you. Potential clients are not able to see these documents.

There are various kinds o
... See more
Hi Ivonne,

Uploading a TM, glossary, sample translation, etc. allows Nakōdo to connect you with potential clients searching for someone in your areas of expertise, but remain private to you. Potential clients are not able to see these documents.

There are various kinds of documents you can use for this purpose; see https://www.tm-town.com/getting-started#loading-work for a more in-depth explanation.

Also note that, in your ProZ.com profile, you have the option to publish sample translations in your Portfolio. These do not have to be actual work you have done. They are useful because they give potential clients and collaborators another means to verify your skills and areas of expertise. If you have sample translations in your Portfolio, you can export one or more of those samples to your TM-Town account. As long as they are representative of your areas of expertise, that's all you need in order for potential clients to start to find you via TM-Town (and it also improves the strength of your ProZ.com profile).

Jared
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Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 10:22
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
I did read the post itself Apr 15, 2016

Kevin Dias wrote:
I'm not sure you read my post?

I confess that I was using my phone and it doesn't seem to handle links well.

I see from the link that you give different weight to some TUs, and you do have functionalioty in place to deal with obvious and/or known frauds. But what concerns me is how the client sees things. When I go to the directory search screen, here: https://www.tm-town.com/directory-search/new I, as a client, read that I can search for a suitable translator the old-fashioned way, or I can do it a new ("better" is implied of course) way, the Nakodo way, which "will use the latest in natural language processing to find translators who have translated similar material in the past." (The bold highlighting is mine.) So I, as a client who knows little about translating, will put my faith in this statement, however erroneous.

But my original post was a question to ProZ.com about the marketing of TM-Town on this site. I'm not going to be uploading any TUs to TM-Town anyway. Apart from my own personal misgivings, I don't really see how this Nakado search engine would be of value to any marketing translators. We make very little use of matches as it is. I do use my CAT for most translations, and I value my TMs personally, but I don't think they'd help a client to understand my abilities as a translator. They'd be much better off looking for my profile in the traditional way.


 
Ivonne Reichard-Novak
Ivonne Reichard-Novak  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:22
English to German
+ ...
Quality or quantity? Apr 15, 2016

Jared Tabor wrote:

Hi Ivonne,

Uploading a TM, glossary, sample translation, etc. allows Nakōdo to connect you with potential clients searching for someone in your areas of expertise, but remain private to you. Potential clients are not able to see these documents.

Jared


Thank you for explaining this, Jared.

I performed a search in Nakōdo with a long legal text. It matched me to someone who has no legal expertise at all. He doesn’t even suggest he does, hasn't mentioned it in his profile, and does not represent himself as a legal translator on the web. (I googled him.) What he does, however, is having a lot of uploaded material.

I repeated the same for a medical text. Again, the top 4 translators were translators who have nothing to do with the medical field and don’t pretend to do so. They have a lot of material uploaded, though. No. 5 was the first to mention the medical field in her expertise. She had less material uploaded, hence, she was only No. 5.

At this point, I don’t think this is working. I think Nakōdo matches to the translator with the most uploaded material and while I’m happy to hear that the TMs remain private to the translators, it just makes Nakōdo a potential great MT-tool, harvesting the material from hundreds of hopefully job-hunting translators.

I will take this as a clue to what I have already realized several years ago and let my remaining ProZ.com membership run its course. I kept it not because of potential work (as not a single one of the job offers within the last few years scratched the bottom of my regular rates which clients are actually happy to pay me and keep me in work full time) but because of it being just another source of publicity. At this point I don’t think it’s the publicity I want.



[Edited at 2016-04-15 17:26 GMT]


 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:22
Member
English to French
An attempt to understand how it works Apr 15, 2016

I've followed the TM Town saga from a distance, I may not have read everything there is to read about it, so apologies in advance if I'm being redundant or silly.

But since some people (including me) are concerned about how helpful TM Town could be for getting new business, even more so with the requirement of sending stuff to the cloud, I thought it could be interesting to try to link the whole approach to a TV program I watched some time ago:
It mentioned new ways offered to
... See more
I've followed the TM Town saga from a distance, I may not have read everything there is to read about it, so apologies in advance if I'm being redundant or silly.

But since some people (including me) are concerned about how helpful TM Town could be for getting new business, even more so with the requirement of sending stuff to the cloud, I thought it could be interesting to try to link the whole approach to a TV program I watched some time ago:
It mentioned new ways offered to make employers and employees meet more easily through "state-of-the-art", "ground-breaking", "innovative" (add you own blabla) technology.

If I remember well, it goes like this:

As a prerequisite in this process, all possible job positions/functions/roles are thoroughly detailed with all soft/hard skills expected.

Employers write their job offer and pick/rank all qualities/attributes that they should except from applicants (from leadership and thoroughness to flexibility and team spirit).

Job seekers sign up to the service and list/rank their own qualities/attributes.

A number-crunching program tries to match attributes from the job seeker with attributes from job vacancies and comes up with a list of "matches".

The idea behind the whole thing is that even though you're educated as a boiler-maker, you may have qualities/abilities that could be helpful in drastically different job positions.
And hence it helps you widen your job-seeking horizons: instead of looking only for boiler-maker jobs, you may have opportunities to go sideways and explore new areas.

Of course, the attributes you select as a job-seeker are not shown to anybody and the "matching" program operates seamlessly and unmanned.

To make a parallel with TM town, the job offer would be the text to be translated (or the keywords extracted from it), the job seeker would be the translator registered in TM Town and TMs (or the keywords extracted from them) would be the list of the job seeker's attributes/qualities.
Translation seekers could therefore widen their net and find people who have already translated e.g. a flowmeter manual for this very brand, even if the translator in question has not listed flowmeter specialist in his standard profile.

In the TV program, the outcome would sometimes be rubbish, some job seekers found this approach vastly useless while others found it very eye-opening.

Does it make sense?

Philippe
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Bernhard Sulzer
Bernhard Sulzer  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:22
English to German
+ ...
How do you prove your skills by posting someone else's work? Apr 15, 2016

Jared Tabor wrote:

Hi Ivonne,

Uploading a TM, glossary, sample translation, etc. allows Nakōdo to connect you with potential clients searching for someone in your areas of expertise, but remain private to you. Potential clients are not able to see these documents.

There are various kinds of documents you can use for this purpose; see https://www.tm-town.com/getting-started#loading-work for a more in-depth explanation.

Also note that, in your ProZ.com profile, you have the option to publish sample translations in your Portfolio. These do not have to be actual work you have done. They are useful because they give potential clients and collaborators another means to verify your skills and areas of expertise. If you have sample translations in your Portfolio, you can export one or more of those samples to your TM-Town account. As long as they are representative of your areas of expertise, that's all you need in order for potential clients to start to find you via TM-Town (and it also improves the strength of your ProZ.com profile).

Jared


Could you please elaborate?

Thank you.
Bernhard


 
Bernhard Sulzer
Bernhard Sulzer  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:22
English to German
+ ...
Intellectual property rights Apr 15, 2016

Ivonne Reichard-Novak wrote:

"Load a translation memory (TM) file into your private TM-Town account. TMs are how we index you by your expertise in Nakōdo."

I’m not sure I understand correctly. I’m supposed to upload my private TMs and glossaries? Why would I do that? As a translator working full time for close to 10 years, my TMs and glossaries are quite extensive and frankly – they are worth quite a lot. So I’m basically paying for sharing my work for free but should be happy as I don’t have to pay for the first year of doing so? There is clearly something that I misunderstand here otherwise others would have jumped on that already. From here it sounds like scamming translators out of their TMs and glossaries, and I don’t think that ProZ.com would go that far.

Could you please clarify this for me? I’d appreciate it.


I would add that there might be ramifications of intellectual property rights as well.
Bernhard


 
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 07:22
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
You don't Apr 15, 2016

Hi Bernhard,

It sounds like you are referring to me saying that the sample translations do not have to be "actual work you have done." By this I mean that the sample translation does not have to be extracted from a job you performed, but can be a short text you chose, that is in your area of expertise, to translate for the purpose of being able to show an example of the kind of work you do. Since some have stated that their work is under NDA, this is one way of still being able to "
... See more
Hi Bernhard,

It sounds like you are referring to me saying that the sample translations do not have to be "actual work you have done." By this I mean that the sample translation does not have to be extracted from a job you performed, but can be a short text you chose, that is in your area of expertise, to translate for the purpose of being able to show an example of the kind of work you do. Since some have stated that their work is under NDA, this is one way of still being able to "show" rather than "tell" (using the Portfolio feature of your ProZ.com profile).

Jared
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