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You can help close the last translation contest (new edition coming up!)
Thread poster: Tatiana Dietrich
Tatiana Dietrich
Tatiana Dietrich  Identity Verified
Argentina
Local time: 16:24
English to Danish
+ ...
Sep 28, 2017



Hi there!

We are Enrique and Tatiana. We have recently joined the ProZ.com Member Services Staff Team and we are going to be taking the lead on translation contests.

We want to share with you the news that we are cooking up a new edition!

As Jared said in this forum post, we want to give it our best shot to closing the last contest first.

So now we reach out to you and ask for your help: help us close this contest so we can launch a new edition.

What to do now?

The contest has been reopened to submit ratings to entries in language pairs in Qualifications phase and votes in language pairs in Finals.

If you work in any of the language pairs that remain open, and have not done so already, please help by rating as many entries as you can if they are in the Qualification phase, or by voting for your favorite translations if they are in the Finals phase. Also, you can help by spreading the word to your colleagues!

For more information: You can check out the contest's main page and read the FAQ section. You can see the contest's rules too.

Language pairs in Finals phase (more voters needed):



Language pairs in Qualification phase (more raters needed):



 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 19:24
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Tatiana + Enrique Sep 28, 2017

This is a heavy burden to inherit! After the deafening silence that followed the last contest which was held in… 2014 (?!), I will not vote and will not take part ever again on any translation contests staged by Proz.

Teresa

P.S. Until 2014 I considered them both entertaining and challenging and I know that my opinion is shared by other Prozians.


 
Enrique Manzo
Enrique Manzo
SITE STAFF
Improvements will be made to future contests Sep 28, 2017

Teresa Borges wrote:

This is a heavy burden to inherit! After the deafening silence that followed the last contest which was held in… 2014 (?!), I will not vote and will not take part ever again on any translation contests staged by Proz.

Teresa

P.S. Until 2014 I considered them both entertaining and challenging and I know that my opinion is shared by other Prozians.


Dear Teresa,

I am sorry you feel that way. We are very much aware of the fact that there were a few bumps along the road regarding the last contest, but we are also very eager to get contests going again.

We are planning to introduce some modifications so that future contests have a better outcome. Also, we are thoroughly going over feedback provided by contest participants over the years.

We will make an effort to keep contests exciting and challenging!

Regards,

Enrique M


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 19:24
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
@Enrique Sep 28, 2017

A few bumps? Three years without a single explanation is, to say the least, disrespectful. I’m extremely disappointed because this looks very much like lack of consideration toward those members who keep the site alive. To sum up, it is too little, too late...

 
Christel Zipfel
Christel Zipfel  Identity Verified
Local time: 20:24
Member (2004)
Italian to German
+ ...
"A few bumps"? Come on.... Sep 28, 2017

Enrique Manzo wrote:


Dear Teresa,

I am sorry you feel that way. We are very much aware of the fact that there were a few bumps along the road regarding the last contest, but we are also very eager to get contests going again.



And I feel the same way as Teresa. You'll need to introduce some really heavy changes in order to be credible again.


 
Gitte Hoveds (X)
Gitte Hoveds (X)
Denmark
Local time: 20:24
Danish to English
+ ...
Flogging a dead horse Sep 29, 2017

I entered the last contest (I was a paying member at the time), but withdrew my entry when it all went into this ridiculous limbo state. And I must admit that I cannot even be bothered to go back to read the source text, let alone the measly 11 entrant translations in my language pair to give them any kind of peer review.

Why don't you just admit/accept that the last contest was a disaster, apologise to all those who took the time to get involved, and move on. Yes, those who entered
... See more
I entered the last contest (I was a paying member at the time), but withdrew my entry when it all went into this ridiculous limbo state. And I must admit that I cannot even be bothered to go back to read the source text, let alone the measly 11 entrant translations in my language pair to give them any kind of peer review.

Why don't you just admit/accept that the last contest was a disaster, apologise to all those who took the time to get involved, and move on. Yes, those who entered the competition may be a bit miffed, but in all fairness, they cannot have spent more than a couple of hours doing the translation to enter the contest, so it really isn't such a big deal.

It's all very old hat by now...

Instead, I would highly recommend that you spend your energy, time and resources on designing new contests that people will enjoy entering, with fixed regulations for entry, final (and I mean FINAL) entry dates, rating dates, and dates where winners will be declared.

As long as you show how many entries there were for each language pair, and how many people rated the entries, nobody can complain that the contests were 'unfair'. The huge differences in numbers of people in the different language combinations will always mean that the contests will have different numbers of participants and raters. Nobody should pretend anything else.

The contests cannot possibly be anything but a bit of fun in this forum.
But they have not been much fun because of this excruciatingly prolonged process.
Collapse


 
Agneta Pallinder
Agneta Pallinder  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:24
Member (2014)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Write the old one off! Sep 29, 2017

I think you should not burden yourselves and the ProZ community with any more effort on the 2014 contest. Just accept that it was a failure and write it off.

Then start again with some new and better concepts for new competitions.


 
Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 20:24
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
+ ...
Forget it Sep 29, 2017

I agree with the general notion that it's not worth beating that dead horse any further.

If you think you can come up with a better way to ensure a satisfying contest, why not take the entries from the failed contest and put your ideas to the test with those, instead of urging fellow translators to invest their time again with no certainty that there will ever be a winner?


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 20:24
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
How many more? Sep 29, 2017

Tatiana Dietrich wrote:
Language pairs in Qualification phase (more raters needed):
  • English to Afrikaans


  • How many more? How many have rated so far? Is the "enough raters" threshold the same for all languages, or is it relative to something e.g. the number of entries or the number of members in that language combination?

    Is there a difference between "rating" and "commenting"? How many ratings or comments are required for a rater to be considered a rater for counting purposes?

    You say "more raters needed", but something just occurred to me: do you, perhaps mean, "more ratings needed"?


    [Edited at 2017-09-29 10:06 GMT]


     
    Sarah Lewis-Morgan
    Sarah Lewis-Morgan  Identity Verified
    Germany
    Local time: 20:24
    Member (2014)
    German to English
    + ...
    Move on Sep 29, 2017

    I agree with everyone who has said to just forget the last competition. Since probably most of those who entered have put it behind them anyway after such a long time, it seems pointless trying to resurrect it at this late stage.

     
    Angie Garbarino
    Angie Garbarino  Identity Verified
    Local time: 20:24
    Member (2003)
    French to Italian
    + ...
    Agreed Sep 29, 2017

    Sarah Lewis-Morgan wrote:

    I agree with everyone who has said to just forget the last competition. Since probably most of those who entered have put it behind them anyway after such a long time, it seems pointless trying to resurrect it at this late stage.


    It is dead...lets forget it.


     
    Mirko Mainardi
    Mirko Mainardi  Identity Verified
    Italy
    Local time: 20:24
    Member
    English to Italian
    It's dead Jim Sep 29, 2017

    Angie Garbarino wrote:

    Sarah Lewis-Morgan wrote:

    I agree with everyone who has said to just forget the last competition. Since probably most of those who entered have put it behind them anyway after such a long time, it seems pointless trying to resurrect it at this late stage.


    It is dead...lets forget it.


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3at_Ev2kOoI


     
    Henry Dotterer
    Henry Dotterer
    Local time: 15:24
    SITE FOUNDER
    Thanks, Gitte Sep 29, 2017

    Gitte Hovedskov wrote:

    I entered the last contest (I was a paying member at the time), but withdrew my entry when it all went into this ridiculous limbo state. And I must admit that I cannot even be bothered to go back to read the source text, let alone the measly 11 entrant translations in my language pair to give them any kind of peer review.

    Why don't you just admit/accept that the last contest was a disaster, apologise to all those who took the time to get involved, and move on.

    The last contest was not managed well. It should have been closed out. At the end of the day, this is my responsibility. I apologize.

    Instead, I would highly recommend that you spend your energy, time and resources on designing new contests that people will enjoy entering, with fixed regulations for entry, final (and I mean FINAL) entry dates, rating dates, and dates where winners will be declared.

    We plan to set dates and keep them. This, I believe, was the major error.

    As long as you show how many entries there were for each language pair, and how many people rated the entries, nobody can complain that the contests were 'unfair'. The huge differences in numbers of people in the different language combinations will always mean that the contests will have different numbers of participants and raters. Nobody should pretend anything else.

    This is the key point. You can submit a translation in German to Vietnamese, no problem. I think people have generally understood that there may not be any other entries, or even reviews, in such pairs. I don't see a reason to bar such entries --there are still potential benefits to the entrant, even if it doesn't go any further than that.

    The contests cannot possibly be anything but a bit of fun in this forum.

    That's the point, yes.

    But they have not been much fun because of this excruciatingly prolonged process.

    Understood. We'll speed things up.


     
    Mirko Mainardi
    Mirko Mainardi  Identity Verified
    Italy
    Local time: 20:24
    Member
    English to Italian
    Contest Sep 29, 2017

    Henry Dotterer wrote:

    You can submit a translation in German to Vietnamese, no problem. I think people have generally understood that there may not be any other entries, or even reviews, in such pairs. I don't see a reason to bar such entries --there are still potential benefits to the entrant, even if it doesn't go any further than that.


    Then that's not a 'contest' anymore, but just something like adding another translation to your portfolio (only not in your portfolio)... I believe that when someone enters a contest, they expect it to be what the word suggests, that is to say: 'a competition in which each contestant performs without direct contact with or interference from competitors'.

    If, for some reason, you don't want to limit it to pairs where it's presumably possible to have a sufficient number of entries and jurors to reach a verdict, then it would be probably best to clearly inform participants in more "exotic" pairs that their entries will probably never go beyond submission phase and that the contest will be closed anyway after a given amount of time...


     
    JaneD
    JaneD  Identity Verified
    Sweden
    Local time: 20:24
    Member (2009)
    Swedish to English
    + ...
    Another vote for buying the corpse Oct 1, 2017

    Let's just forget about it and all devote our time to working on a new contest, shall we? This time with clear deadlines for each stage, beyond which any language pairs not decided will simply be declared void.

     
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