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11th ProZ.com translation contest, submission open
Thread poster: Jared Tabor
Ambrose Li
Ambrose Li  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 04:35
English
+ ...
The way the deadline has been pushed Jan 16, 2013

I wouldn’t say pushing back the deadline is the end of the world, but even I (who didn’t know about the original deadline) am feeling annoyed. I don’t mind it being pushed back, but why push it back by half-day intervals before pushing it back by a whole week? Why not just push it back by a week right away?

(The first time I saw it pushed back I was like “Great!” The second time I was mildly amused. The third time I was like “Did I waste my time?” I’m sure this was n
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I wouldn’t say pushing back the deadline is the end of the world, but even I (who didn’t know about the original deadline) am feeling annoyed. I don’t mind it being pushed back, but why push it back by half-day intervals before pushing it back by a whole week? Why not just push it back by a week right away?

(The first time I saw it pushed back I was like “Great!” The second time I was mildly amused. The third time I was like “Did I waste my time?” I’m sure this was not the intention, but that’s how it’s perceived by at least one person…)

And why not mention the postponement in an announcement? I’ve seen deadlines being pushed back in other contests, but those always come with an announcement…

[Edited at 2013-01-16 04:24 GMT]
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Tomas Zahradnicek
Tomas Zahradnicek  Identity Verified
Local time: 09:35
English to Czech
... Jan 16, 2013

Phil Hand wrote:

Actually, extending the deadline has proved to be a very effective way of getting more people to enter, which is great from my perspective. There were only 2 Chinese entries, now there are 6, so we can have a real competition and a real winner.

It's a harmless bit of psychological trickery, and the rest of us lose nothing by it. Good work.


So why not extend the deadline only for languages that don't have enough entries? Some have just enough, some have far more than enough. I see you work in Chinese so your opinion is biased. Let me be biased back then. I declared myself unavailable to my clients in order to make the deadline, missing out on paid work, because I noticed the contest at the last moment. Sure, I could have just assumed the deadline will be extended but I didn't have the guts like many other linguists with some sense of responsibility. I understand the deadline extension may allow more participants to enter who would otherwise have missed it because they hadn't known, which is good, after all, I almost did too, but this could have been avoided had the site staff informed the community better. And now, how many of those that made their submission late did so because they didn't care for the previous deadline? I for one don't see why such individuals should be allowed to compete in pairs that already have enough entries from people who did their best to make the deadline.

[Edited at 2013-01-16 10:55 GMT]


 
Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 09:35
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
+ ...
Very annoying indeed Jan 16, 2013

I agree: I find it very annyoing to extend the deadline so often (and without any announcement). Surely not the end of the world, but certainly very disrespectful.

 
Alexander Onishko
Alexander Onishko  Identity Verified
Russian to English
+ ...
For me it's not annoying or anything in that kind Jan 16, 2013

efreitag wrote:

I agree: I find it very annyoing to extend the deadline so often (and without any announcement). Surely not the end of the world, but certainly very disrespectful.


Dear friends!

For me it's not annoying or anything in that kind. Site staff has all the rights to do so.

I would be rather worried if the submission term was shortened.

I think there is nothing bad that the site staff gives a chance to new participants to submit their entries. Also, bear in mind that the more entries arrive the more prestige the context will have.

In the end, Efreitag, I think you will be more pleased to win over, say, 20 other participants than over pitiful two contestants, will you not?

Therefore, guys, let's take it easy and have fun.

p.s. Also, this gives you a good chance to correct a comma or two in your entry


 
Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 09:35
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
+ ...
Then why a deadline to begin with? Jan 16, 2013

Alexander Onishko wrote:

I think there is nothing bad that the site staff gives a chance to new participants to submit their entries. Also, bear in mind that the more entries arrive the more prestige the context will have.



Why do we need a deadline at all?


 
Alexander Onishko
Alexander Onishko  Identity Verified
Russian to English
+ ...
because... Jan 16, 2013

efreitag wrote:

Alexander Onishko wrote:

I think there is nothing bad that the site staff gives a chance to new participants to submit their entries. Also, bear in mind that the more entries arrive the more prestige the context will have.



Why do we need a deadline at all?


Because nothing is eternal on this planter Earth.


 
Barbara Carrara
Barbara Carrara  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 09:35
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
Another Contest-Related Thread Jan 16, 2013

This one was started by a colleague complaining about the lack of HTML tags on the contest pages.

I totally agree with the deadline issue, BTW, which I also brought up in my comment to th
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This one was started by a colleague complaining about the lack of HTML tags on the contest pages.

I totally agree with the deadline issue, BTW, which I also brought up in my comment to this thread,

http://www.proz.com/forum/prozcom_translation_contests/241273-footnotes_and_cursive_letters_are_not_displayed_on_contest_entries.html
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John Farebrother
John Farebrother  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
French to English
+ ...
Assessors Jan 16, 2013

Will the entries be assessed by native language speakers only this time? Otherwise there's no point.

 
Ambrose Li
Ambrose Li  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 04:35
English
+ ...
Deep philosophical question here Jan 16, 2013

John Farebrother wrote:

Will the entries be assessed by native language speakers only this time? Otherwise there's no point.


I wonder.

I mean, I felt the greatest challenge in this contest was in understanding the source text. So native speakers of what? The source language or the target?

[Edited at 2013-01-16 19:35 GMT]


 
Phil Hand
Phil Hand  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 16:35
Chinese to English
@Ambrose Jan 17, 2013

The English text was particularly difficult this year, but even so, I think you have to accept that our pair is a bit special. In other language combinations, you can generally assume that translators do have a decent grasp of English. Outright errors will not usually pass, and the focus is rightly on finding the best way to express the meaning in the target language.

Obviously in our pair that is not the case, as the fiasco of the last competition demonstrated. But Proz has to set
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The English text was particularly difficult this year, but even so, I think you have to accept that our pair is a bit special. In other language combinations, you can generally assume that translators do have a decent grasp of English. Outright errors will not usually pass, and the focus is rightly on finding the best way to express the meaning in the target language.

Obviously in our pair that is not the case, as the fiasco of the last competition demonstrated. But Proz has to set rules that work for the majority of language pairs.

And even in our pair, I certainly shouldn't be judging translations. Just sitting with my wife looking at the Yogi Berra entries, it's very obvious that my reading is not like hers. I'm not qualified to assess the impact of good Chinese writing.
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Ledja
Ledja  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:35
English to Albanian
+ ...
Native speakers of the source language should be able to contribute Jan 17, 2013

Phil Hand wrote:

Outright errors will not usually pass


I wouldn't be so sure of that. My language pair usually barely makes it to the voting round due to the low number of entries, but even if that were not the case, the tagging and agrees and disagrees in past contests have highlighted the fact that the English phrasing can sometimes throw off the contestants and voters alike. That is why I particularly welcomed the commenting feature added to the original text in the case of the Yogi Berra quotes (it didn't save "making good time" from being mistranslated, but non-native speakers will learn to take heed). To keep the contest fair, however, this feature should only be activated after the voting is open. (This way, I should, hopefully, not have to defend myself on why, say, calling on a girl does not mean giving her a call - especially not in 1902. Duh!)

Regards,
Ledja


 
Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 09:35
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
+ ...
Finals - deadline bumping again? Feb 5, 2013

Today, the final phase was supposed to begin in my language pair (EN-DE). Rating had been closed and the start of the final phase was announced for tomorrow. Shortly afterwards though, rating has been re-enabled.

Are we going to see the deadline being bumped seven or eight times again? I hope not.


 
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 05:35
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
Finals are set to begin tomorrow (the 6th) Feb 5, 2013

Hello efreitag,

Finals are set to begin tomorrow (the 6th). The transition out of the Hybrid phase is currently underway in most pairs.

Jared


 
Ambrose Li
Ambrose Li  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 04:35
English
+ ...
. Feb 6, 2013

Sorry, I found the answer to my question.

[Edited at 2013-02-06 03:40 GMT]


 
Roland Nienerza
Roland Nienerza  Identity Verified

Local time: 09:35
English to German
+ ...
MT helps - Feb 9, 2013

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

Probably I should attempt Georgian? I'm eager to get to know what the text was about. We all should start using the Georgian alphabet, it is the most beautiful of them all.



You seem not only to diskllike Machine Translation, Heinrich, when, in your view, in is inappropirately discussed in the Finnish forum, you seem even to forget that it exists, e.g. in Google. - To know what the Georgian text was about you would only have had to "run" it through Google Translate.


 
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11th ProZ.com translation contest, submission open






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