| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | A way of making KudoZ more useful for askers Thread poster: Alistair Ian Spearing Ortiz
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| the usefulness of enforcing the criteria | May 21, 2011 |
B D Finch wrote:
However, I have been annoyed, when I have posted questions, to have my time wasted by answerers who either have inadequate knowledge of the language pair, or who are quite ignorant of the subject matter. If the Asker has specified criteria for Answerers, I do wish ProZ would block people who don't meet the criteria from answering.
I am not so sure. I guess we can just look at the glossary-building Kudoz, which does currently block people who don’t meet the criteria from answering. However, there have been a few times I had to use the discussion area to point out submitted answers that were wrong — and I have never met the criteria for answering any of these questions.
And — just hypothetically — if someone is intent on making trouble, why would he/she not just change his/her language pairs and specializations, answer the question, and then change them back?
| | | | | Restrictions will not serve their purpose | May 21, 2011 |
I understand the topic starter's motivation, but I don't think any restrictions will help.
Personally, I've seen native speakers give totally misleading and ludicrous KudoZ answers. Conversely, on a couple of occasions I had to give an answer in a language that I not only didn't work in, but never even studied, just because I happened to know the right answer, and the ones already given by the natives were wrong.
When I teach translation, I usually tell my students that by far... See more I understand the topic starter's motivation, but I don't think any restrictions will help.
Personally, I've seen native speakers give totally misleading and ludicrous KudoZ answers. Conversely, on a couple of occasions I had to give an answer in a language that I not only didn't work in, but never even studied, just because I happened to know the right answer, and the ones already given by the natives were wrong.
When I teach translation, I usually tell my students that by far the most important skill of a good translator is professional diligence - that is, doing research whenever you are less than 100% sure of the right answer. The second most important one is the knowledge of the subject, and only then come the languages. Furthermore, studying one's own language is more important than a foreign one - being a native speaker does not prevent one from making the silliest and most shameful mistakes; a very frequent problem, even among experienced translators, is the transfer of the source language sentence structure and style into the target language, where it may be totally inappropriate.
[Edited at 2011-05-21 18:16 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Heinrich Pesch 
Finland
Local time: 20:21
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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| Kudoz goal is to increase traffic to the site | May 22, 2011 |
This is a common misunderstanding. You thing Kudoz should be more professional. The owner of Proz.com thinks on how to get more traffic.
I think Kudoz is quite useful as it is, and no improvements will be implemented that would decrease traffic.
| | | | | Impossible to make rules so that 'one size fits everyone' | May 23, 2011 |
Anton Konashenok wrote:
I understand the topic starter's motivation, but I don't think any restrictions will help.
Personally, I've seen native speakers give totally misleading and ludicrous KudoZ answers. Conversely, on a couple of occasions I had to give an answer in a language that I not only didn't work in, but never even studied, just because I happened to know the right answer, and the ones already given by the natives were wrong.
When I teach translation, I usually tell my students that by far the most important skill of a good translator is professional diligence - that is, doing research whenever you are less than 100% sure of the right answer. The second most important one is the knowledge of the subject, and only then come the languages. Furthermore, studying one's own language is more important than a foreign one - being a native speaker does not prevent one from making the silliest and most shameful mistakes; a very frequent problem, even among experienced translators, is the transfer of the source language sentence structure and style into the target language, where it may be totally inappropriate.
[Edited at 2011-05-21 18:16 GMT]
Here I entirely agree with Anton.
Another point is that in the less widespread language pairs, restrictions would rule out a lot of useful answers.
There are fewer resources in the nature of things, and KudoZ is sometimes the only way of getting a clue. My experience of the Scandinavian languages is that it is also taken very seriously. Abuse does occur, but rarely.
On the other hand, answerers do not always register all the languages they work in, even though they may in practice be qualified to answer KudoZ.
I myself work in Swedish to English, and sometimes Norwegian to English, but have not registered those pairs. I received far too many specialist job offers that I was not able to take on, and it was a waste of everyobody's time. However, I read Swedish, have contacts in Sweden and some good dictionaries and reference books, so I answer KudoZ when I can. My acceptance rate is above 50%.
Conversely, Swedes and others often make very useful contributions to Danish-English KudoZ.
Anton himself is among those who give good answers to Danish questions from time to time.
English is my native language, and it annoys me as much as anyone when people 'can English real good' and jump in with KudoZ answers that only reveal how little they really understand.
It is fair enough to flag answerers who may not be qualified. Regular KudoZ users soon know who to block and whose answers to check an extra time because they are probably useful.
But it would be impossible to formulate rules that would stop the abuse without damaging the effective side of KudoZ.
There may be so few people who know enough about the subject matter at all, that restricting them would not mean better help. It would mean no help, and that is not the intention behind this proposal.
[Edited at 2011-05-23 11:34 GMT]
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B D Finch
France
Local time: 19:21
French to English
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| Blocking specific nuisance answerers | May 23, 2011 |
Perhaps it should be possible for an Asker to specifically block answers from certain people who habitually post answers that are just a nuisance; particularly when those answers are accompanied by reams of irrelevant Google derived stuff in a different language from those posted. When I am rushing to complete a job, I am extremely grateful for help from KudoZ Answerers, but the minority of points trawlers I am referring to are just a pain in the backside.
[Edited at 2011-05-23 12:10 GMT]... See more Perhaps it should be possible for an Asker to specifically block answers from certain people who habitually post answers that are just a nuisance; particularly when those answers are accompanied by reams of irrelevant Google derived stuff in a different language from those posted. When I am rushing to complete a job, I am extremely grateful for help from KudoZ Answerers, but the minority of points trawlers I am referring to are just a pain in the backside.
[Edited at 2011-05-23 12:10 GMT]
[Edited at 2011-05-23 12:10 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Individual nuisance answerers can be blocked = filtered. | May 23, 2011 |
Go to your profile, and click Settings -> KudoZ Dashboard.
Here you will see three tabs, one of which is Asker Flags and Filters.
Simply find the profile of the person you want to block or filter out, and enter the ID number.
As far as I am aware, only you and the system know who you have filtered, but then you will not receive notifications of that person's answers. You will see them if you go to the question, but then it is up to you to ignore them.
... See more Go to your profile, and click Settings -> KudoZ Dashboard.
Here you will see three tabs, one of which is Asker Flags and Filters.
Simply find the profile of the person you want to block or filter out, and enter the ID number.
As far as I am aware, only you and the system know who you have filtered, but then you will not receive notifications of that person's answers. You will see them if you go to the question, but then it is up to you to ignore them.
Flagging - a bit like following on other sites - requires the consent of the person you are flagging. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Askers can be filtered, but not answerers | May 23, 2011 |
Christine Andersen wrote:
Individual nuisance answerers can be blocked = filtered.
Go to your profile, and click Settings -> KudoZ Dashboard.
Here you will see three tabs, one of which is Asker Flags and Filters.
Simply find the profile of the person you want to block or filter out, and enter the ID number.
Yes, but this filters ASKERS, not answerers.
Katalin
| | | | | Sorry... I was just wondering how it worked! | May 23, 2011 |
My mistake.
In that case, I agree, it would be a good idea if we could block answerers too! It might not be so straightforward technically to make them invisible to individuals... But it would be great!
Apologies again...
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