| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10] > | In case you've missed it (survey on perceptions and experience of ProZ.com) Thread poster: Barbara Carrara
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Lefteris Kritikakis wrote: Andrew Morris wrote:
one in which we have volunteers from all over the world, from Africa to Asia and from Australia to Latin America. Andrew, is this a translation-related program?
Sorry Lefteris, this one got lost among the swirl. Yes it is: www.probono.proz.com – launched in 2022 and in excellent health.
| | | | | Yep, that was a bad move | Feb 9 |
Anton Konashenok wrote:
Oh. Mah. Gawd.
Yeah, that was me. I was in a rush and asked ChatGPT to help. Bad idea. I promise to do better.
| | | | Zea_Mays 
Italy
Local time: 14:32
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
I have googled ProZ on Trustpilot... @ProZ, do you at least reply there and check for fake or unreasonable reviews?
BTW, you'll also find people there who were'nt satisfied with the FB group...
As for issues...
::: Jul 8, 2021 :::
I am a paying member and I do not…
I am a paying member and I do not receive offers by e-mail, having to look each time to see if there is any new work.
I'd suggest to do https://www.google.com/search?q=online%20reputation%20management too.
[Bearbeitet am 2024-02-09 09:57 GMT]
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:32
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| The return of must have last word-itis | Feb 9 |
ibz wrote:
Me too. Not only because of the attitudes and behaviours of some Proz moderators / staff members but also because in spite of all the nice words and big plans, lots of questions remain unanswered and technical problems are not solved.
I have been taking a backseat this week due to work pressure, and frankly lack of interest, but I agree. Moderators are largely missing the point.
(a) The feelings and views of staff are of no more than tangential relevance to paying members; we are not here to provide them with external validation
(b) You can win battles - on the 2019 thread Samuel memorably described one participant with prodigious posting stamina as suffering from "must have last word"-itis - and go on to lose the war, in the sense that you can browbeat thread participants into a kind of sullen submission but achieve no material change over the longer term
(c) We've heard all the well-meaning talk about improving the site before, many times, so the onus is on the management side to deliver improvements that are wanted by members rather than wringing their hands (or making snidely passive-aggressive remarks) about what they perceive to be the character of this community
Regards,
Dan
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Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 14:32
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Dan Lucas wrote:
(a) The feelings and views of staff are of no more than tangential relevance to paying members; we are not here to provide them with external validation
I agree. There are forum rules. If they are violated, the poster should be punished. But that's as far as the punishment should go. Getting all emotional hence irrational as a moderator or staff member is just inappropriate.
I understand the frustration, but it's probably the same for us. We remain polite towards a customer (let's not forget that paying members are the customer here) that might not be worth it, while we might be yelling at our screen at the same time, so to speak. Remaining calm and businesslike (or at least giving that impression) is called being professional. In a business relationship I can't see a better way to act.
[Bijgewerkt op 2024-02-09 10:24 GMT]
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 15:32
Member
English to Turkish
| People do love a fight | Feb 9 |
This thread got more than 20K views in about 3-4 days. Just goes to show how tedious and boring life can be as a stay-at-home translator when the only source of excitement comes in the form of a heated online debate.
While the usual "advice for a newbie", "how many cups of coffee do you drink a day?", "Cafetran expresso added bitcoin as an option" threads seem to appeal to only a few hundred people, this one is going for a record. This should say something to the Proz management. Where th... See more This thread got more than 20K views in about 3-4 days. Just goes to show how tedious and boring life can be as a stay-at-home translator when the only source of excitement comes in the form of a heated online debate.
While the usual "advice for a newbie", "how many cups of coffee do you drink a day?", "Cafetran expresso added bitcoin as an option" threads seem to appeal to only a few hundred people, this one is going for a record. This should say something to the Proz management. Where there is demand there should be supply! And Tanya is a keeper apparently! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 14:32
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Zea_Mays wrote:
BTW, you'll also find people there who were'nt satisfied with the FB group...
After 2 days of membership I can say that the FB page is basically the same as the forums here: people asking for advice, people warning about scammers, people complaining about MT and/or AI, people embracing that same MT...
There seems to be more activity (not difficult since the forums are basically visited by the same few people over and over again), but the flood of messages makes it less orderly.
Oh and there is a "positive Friday" initiative from the side of the group management, where they ask you to post one positive thing about your translation life. I guess it's quite telling that there seems to be a need for. 😬
[Bijgewerkt op 2024-02-09 13:46 GMT]
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People seem mainly to be complaining about mistreatments by the agencies and their abysmal rates there. You do need a Happy Friday post at the end of the week... 
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| Just 175 pages to go | Feb 9 |
Baran Keki wrote:
this one is going for a record.
I suspect the thread would still be running even now if someone hadn't blocked replies
See:
http://www.proz.com/forum/prozcom_suggestions/227485-should_“native_language”_claims_be_verified.html
[Edited at 2024-02-09 13:26 GMT]
| | | | | This "communication team" needs some improvement, if I may say so | Feb 9 |
Not only is it clearly lacking in its HR skills, like we noticed in this very thread, but also in its communication skills themselves there seems to be room for improvement, see the forementioned mysterious Susan that we never heard of before, and this one, for example:
[quote]Lefteris Kritikakis wrote:
Andrew, is this a translation-related program?
Andrew Morris wrote: Sorry Lefteris, this one got lost among the swirl. Yes it is: www.probono.proz.com – launched in 2022 and in excellent health.
Or also this one:
Tanya Quintieri wrote: Anton Konashenok wrote:
Oh. Mah. Gawd.
Yeah, that was me. I was in a rush and asked ChatGPT to help. Bad idea. I promise to do better.
Puzzled that a native English speaker of the ProZ's communication team uses ChatGPT to communicate in English...
| | | | | Daily "micro-abuses", participation, small-dose daily poisoning, fighting the wrong fight | Feb 9 |
Baran Keki wrote: People do love a fight
What's the object of the fight? I was absent for years. Tools to push yourself harder through agency doors?
Even 10 years after I entered the market, project managers of well-known agencies would grab the phone at 11:00pm trying to convince the (already exhausted and nose-bleeding) translator to finish one more file. Fast forward 15 years, PMs just "post a project" on a platform, and it's like throwing a piece of meat in the middle of a hungry pack of dogs.
Lately some are experimenting on the psychology of the desperate gambler, by placing everyone who accepted the project on a "Waiting manager approval" list (result is decided in advance, but it's fun from the PM side to play, and induce more participation). If you decide not to participate, you may get an email reminder (just like Facebook). Others send emails "waiting for client approval", because some translators will reduce their offered prices to expedite the result (psychology...). There are no proz postings about these practices. New translators think it's normal.
-- I remember an email many of us received in 2008 by a PM of a small agency which had just been sold. She had quit from the new arrangement, because their new training involved methods to psychologically manipulate, underpay and cheat translators. I called her on her personal phone, she described something I named "online plantation".
Over the years that followed, continuous daily "micro-abuses" by a few large agencies turned a lot of translators into nervous wrecks, with low self-confidence. Add some gaslighting by exaggerating client assessments, and presto. At the same time, they ignored the small agencies just like the child holding on to the skirt or pants of its abuser and begging, while ignoring the good parent. The dedicated full-timers of course, those who feel most betrayed. Because part timers are relatively immune.
I think I can see now why proz fora changed so much in character over the last decade, and why personal attacks are so easily initiated (so many people on edge).
To say that the market is now over-saturated is an understatement. Large agencies are acting like super-models surrounded by adoring fans desperate for a little attention (we are in the "attention" economy).
So people here are fighting about the wrong things: an improved proz interface or a better online seminar will not get the attention of the super-model. An improved "AI" making the super-model less relevant, definitely will. Not the chatty "champion of useless words" ChatGPT, but a simple interface or simple method, this time in the hands of the major end-clients without intermediaries. My two cents.
| | | | | Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member because it was not in line with site rule |
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| because that's where the problems are | Feb 9 |
Lieven Malaise wrote: Oh God, there we go again. 🤦♂️
A few broken Proz links/seminars have zero effect on your success, just like broken Facebook links have zero effect on your social life. Meanwhile nobody's asking Agency Department Managers about what's really going on behind typical corporate communications (I used to contact them a lot many years ago, when they still acted like humans and partners, and was getting real results in $$$). Nowadays it's impossible, you may as well as ask ChatGPT for "answers on a cereal box by an HB-1 NPC". It used to be "us vs. the end-client", now it's "translators vs. agencies". This mentality, initiated approx. 20 yrs ago and propagated by the two largest agencies to eventually affect everyone, frustrate the 'remote workers' (this term was used by the then CEO of the 2nd largest agency) who think Proz can fix it by improving "something". From what I saw in this thread, nothing crucial or important is missing from Proz for what Proz is supposed to be. As a matter of fact it contains too much, it's over-bloated. Something else makes you guys upset and resort to analyzing "behaviors" or "someone said something" or "let's character-assassinate A or B" or "who is Susan" (!). Susan is my cousin.
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So you are Ice Scream
Did not realize that until 5 minutes ago
| | | | | View from one of the few lucky Titanic lifeboats: | Feb 9 |
Wow, the band is still playing! And all lights are on! Perhaps we better should row back aboard?
[Bearbeitet am 2024-02-10 19:00 GMT]
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