Clearly out of their depth Thread poster: Tom in London
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:11
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Today in Kudoz we have just the latest example of a translator in my language pair flooding Kudoz with a series of questions about the meanings of specific single words.
Dear colleagues, if you have taken on a job that is completely outside your area of expertise and you have no idea of what the actual words mean, or of how to do your own research, please don't come running to Kudoz hoping that somebody else will do the work for you.
| | | | Dan Lucas 
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:11
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Tom in London wrote:
please don't come running to Kudoz hoping that somebody else will do the work for you.
Especially given that you probably undercut serious translators to get the work in the first place.
Dan
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 23:11
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| Tell them in Kudoz | Feb 21 |
There have been cases where I have told this to the OP in KudoZ.
You'll also see people there looking for translations of marketing claims - they have no idea how things actually work in the marketing field and what such work usually costs.
| | | | | Similar things have been happening regularly in my feed | Feb 21 |
Usually it's technical stuff where a person gets to translate a badly written text, most often in Chinglish, and starts flooding KudoZ with individual bits taken from segments, several queries per segment (not single words, no, it's usually not that bad). Whenever I see Chinglish at play, I tend to pay no attention to the whole stream of questions, but if it's something tricky but interesting, I may care to answer a few (like I did a while ago with bits of text about aviation). The asker won't b... See more Usually it's technical stuff where a person gets to translate a badly written text, most often in Chinglish, and starts flooding KudoZ with individual bits taken from segments, several queries per segment (not single words, no, it's usually not that bad). Whenever I see Chinglish at play, I tend to pay no attention to the whole stream of questions, but if it's something tricky but interesting, I may care to answer a few (like I did a while ago with bits of text about aviation). The asker won't be any better off because of the asker syndrome while I will get more chances to practice translation problem solving ▲ Collapse
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| In Italian to English? | Feb 21 |
In the IT>EN pair one asker has posted two questions this morning. Is that your definition of "flooding Kudoz with a series of questions about the meanings of specific single words"?
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 23:11
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Are you the “culprit”? | Feb 21 |
TranslationCe wrote:
In the IT>EN pair one asker has posted two questions this morning. Is that your definition of "flooding Kudoz with a series of questions about the meanings of specific single words"?
Was it you?
Honestly I think it’s stupid opening a topic about an alleged specific person, while this kind of things are happening on KudoZ all the time, since it’s been established. Why or how is it different this time that it merited its own separate topic?
The answerers are no better always fighting and being on some sort of unfounded power trips. And it’s always the same people who answer behaving as if they own the entire KudoZ and like it’s their own private enterprise.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:11
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
Lingua 5B wrote:
. Why or how is it different this time that it merited its own separate topic?
Because I felt like it. And a large number of people agreed it was worth raising.
[Edited at 2024-02-21 12:39 GMT]
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 23:11
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| You opened a public topic | Feb 21 |
You opened a public topic, you received an opinion. Is there anything else I could help you with?
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Lingua 5B wrote:
You opened a public topic, you received an opinion. Is there anything else I could help you with?
A little courtesy?🤷♂️
| | | | | Someone using the term help system to get term help... | Feb 21 |
I checked the Italian to English pair, and as TranslationCe pointed out, there are two questions that have been asked so far today by the same user. I looked up the two terms in term search, and see that these terms have been requested previously, many years ago, with (I think, possibly) similar intent/context, by translators I don't picture people here alleging being out of their depth; they are in fact well-respected and well-established professionals. For at least one of those previous... See more I checked the Italian to English pair, and as TranslationCe pointed out, there are two questions that have been asked so far today by the same user. I looked up the two terms in term search, and see that these terms have been requested previously, many years ago, with (I think, possibly) similar intent/context, by translators I don't picture people here alleging being out of their depth; they are in fact well-respected and well-established professionals. For at least one of those previous term help questions, Tom himself had proposed a possible answer.
Both of the above mentioned questions from today appear to be "normal" questions, very much in line with what the term help system is for-- getting and giving term help. Just some context, which is helpful outside of the term help system too.  ▲ Collapse
| | | | Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:11
Serbian to English
+ ...
| Leaving aside the specific Kudoz questions | Feb 22 |
that motivated Tom to start this tread, the fact is that some Kudoz questions are asked by people completely out of their depth, so much that they can't even recognize the right answer when it's staring at them.
Kudoz works well when questions are asked by people who know the subject matter and need help with only few terms, not when askers are completely lost, can't make head nor tail of the whole source text.
But then, who ever said Kudoz was perfect?
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Zea_Mays wrote:
There have been cases where I have told this to the OP in KudoZ.
You'll also see people there looking for translations of marketing claims - they have no idea how things actually work in the marketing field and what such work usually costs.
Have you read the rule below?
https://www.proz.com/siterules/kudoz_answ/3.7#3.7
"3.7 Commentary on askers or answerers, and their postings or decisions to post, is not allowed.
Comments or insinuations concerning an answerer's or asker's experience or profile, his/her decision to post a certain question or answer, grade or close a question in a certain way, make a certain glossary entry, etc., are strictly prohibited (whether posted publicly, made directly to the person in question, or made to another site user)."
I think that's why Tom has refrained from telling this particular asker not to post any stupid question(s) on KudoZ. I understand his frustration.
This happens in my working language pair too, and believe me, I was tempted many times to post a comment on KudoZ to tell the asker how incompetent you are both linguistically and making a bad decision to accept a job which is out of your league.
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