| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | 6th ProZ.com Translation Contest: Not enough qualification votes in. Please help! Thread poster: RominaZ
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RominaZ 
Argentina
English to Spanish
+ ...
Dear members,
Thanks for taking part in the sixth translation contest.
The qualification round of voting was to have closed today. However, with more entries received than ever before, the ratio between qualification round votes and entries was lower than in past contests, and this led to a situation in which relatively few entries were disqualified. Rather than go to the final round of voting with a large number of entries, we have decided to extend qualification round... See more Dear members,
Thanks for taking part in the sixth translation contest.
The qualification round of voting was to have closed today. However, with more entries received than ever before, the ratio between qualification round votes and entries was lower than in past contests, and this led to a situation in which relatively few entries were disqualified. Rather than go to the final round of voting with a large number of entries, we have decided to extend qualification round voting for another week.
On a more general note, as suggested by some members, we plan to try something different with qualification round voting next time.
For pairs that have not yet collected enough entries, submissions remain possible. Bosnian, Afrikaans, Malay, Tamil and Macedonian are each one entry away from being "live" - so if you work in these languages, please consider submitting an entry, as yours will put the pair into contention! (Already, this contest has more "live" pairs than any previous contest...)
If you have not yet voted, please do so! You can vote here http://www.proz.com/contests
Thanks for your attention.
Romina ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Spanish translations: ¿to what Spanish? | Mar 19, 2008 |
I was just about to vote against a translation, when I realized that perhaps what I thought it was wrong, could be right in another Spanish speaking country. You know, to mention an extreme example, the diferent meaning of the word "coger" in Spain and Argentina (for non Spanish speakers: "to take" vs. "to fuck").
So, I think you'd better specify if the translation is to Mexican Spanish, Argentinian Spanish, Spanish from Spain and so on. Otherwise, I feel I can't say if something is... See more I was just about to vote against a translation, when I realized that perhaps what I thought it was wrong, could be right in another Spanish speaking country. You know, to mention an extreme example, the diferent meaning of the word "coger" in Spain and Argentina (for non Spanish speakers: "to take" vs. "to fuck").
So, I think you'd better specify if the translation is to Mexican Spanish, Argentinian Spanish, Spanish from Spain and so on. Otherwise, I feel I can't say if something is right or wrong. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 14:11
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| I might if it was anonymous | Mar 19, 2008 |
RominaZ wrote:
For pairs that have not yet collected enough entries, submissions remain possible. Bosnian, Afrikaans, Malay, Tamil and Macedonian are each one entry away from being "live" - so if you work in these languages, please consider submitting an entry, as yours will put the pair into contention!
I might submit something if the submission can be anonymous. Why this strange request? Because all the source texts are always weird, literary, artsy-fartsy types of texts that only the author and his mother knows how to interpret (and of course literary critics, but I suspect they only pretend to understand it), and that's not really my specialty. Now if I were to submit a translation of such drivel under my own name, I don't think it would be good for my image.
I don't mean to offend the person selecting these texts, though. I'm just saying... asking folks to translate such types of texts is in line with the theory (or ideology) that a good translator can always translate a literary text if he just tries hard enough.
[Edited at 2008-03-19 07:54]
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Samuel Murray wrote:
I might submit something if the submission can be anonymous.
But you can be anonymous. When you submit your translation, you have the option "Show your name", or something like that. After submitting, you can still toggle your identity visibility on and off.
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biankonera
Latvia
Local time: 15:11
Italian to Latvian
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I wouldnt mind translating these so called "artsy-fartsy" texts and post translation under my own real name because I dont really see how could that possibly damage my reputation since I consider these contests purely as an entertainment. The reason why I cant be bothered for now is that in my language pairs that would be the only entry and it would be a waste of time anyway.;)
| | | | vera12191
Germany
Local time: 14:11
English to Russian
+ ...
| Need for a clear set of rules and schedules | Mar 19, 2008 |
RominaZ wrote:
The qualification round of voting was to have closed today. However, with more entries received than ever before, the ratio between qualification round votes and entries was lower than in past contests, and this led to a situation in which relatively few entries were disqualified. Rather than go to the final round of voting with a large number of entries, we have decided to extend qualification round voting for another week.
Romina
Sorry, the contest is slowly losing its dynamics while getting more and more amateurish.
The only result in prolonging the qualification round for another week might be a (dis-)qualification of 2-3 another entries in each language combination. All persons who could vote have already voted. All translators who wanted to submit their entry(ies) have already done so. There was enough time to submit entries and to review translations before the deadline(s).
After the five contests completed the organizers have gathered sufficient experience through leaning from the early mistakes and getting feedback from the participants. It is time to formulate a clear set of rules with an official schedule.
[Редактировалось 2008-03-19 11:48]
| | | | | Thanks, vera12191 | Mar 19, 2008 |
vera12191 wrote:
Sorry, the contest is slowly losing its dynamics while getting more and more amateurish.
I can understand why you would say that, but looking at the activity this time, this does not seem to be the case. Thanks to the change made last time to require a reason when one votes to disqualify, the volume of feedback is quite significant this time around. There is lots of constructive feedback for those who entered.
What was not anticipated was the significant drop in the number of votes to disqualify as a result of the change. That was the problem that led to the extension, and this is the first time we experienced it.
The only result in prolonging the qualification round for another week might be a (dis-)qualification of 2-3 another entries in each language combination...
Not true. In many cases only one vote in either direction is needed to settle the matter for a given entry. People have already responded to the request for help in some pairs. In English to Spanish, for example, in a half day, 12 of the 29 entries that had been pending have now either been qualified or disqualified. There are still 17 to go (please consider voting now, English to Spanish translators!)
After the five contests completed the organizers have gathered sufficient experience through leaning from the early mistakes and getting feedback from the participants. It is time to formulate a clear set of rules with an official schedule.
Point taken, we will try to avoid changes to the schedule in the future. On the other hand, improvements and adjustments have been made in each of the first five contests, and I think you should expect that improvements will be ongoing for at least several more rounds (and really, forever - you can see that changes are made to parts of the site that are more than eight years old...)
Thanks for taking part and for posting!
| | | | | Strange, Mighty Strange... | Mar 19, 2008 |
vera12191 wrote:
Sorry, the contest is slowly losing its dynamics while getting more and more amateurish.
Yes, compared to the strange dynamics in En-Ru pair, where the first 4 votes qualified the first entry (which refutes all probability theories) and several next votes qualified another one — the dynamics is 'suspiciously lost'. You want to speed it up? Sorry, I cannot see the reason why you personally want to do that. It never occurred to me that more votes can do more harm. I think you regretted there were too few votes in Ge-Ru pair. Now you regret there'll be more votes. No logic.
After the five contests completed the organizers have gathered sufficient experience through leaning from the early mistakes and getting feedback from the participants. It is time to formulate a clear set of rules with an official schedule
What concerns the rules and the strategy in general, you know better than anyone how dissatisfied I am with many tendencies in the competition in En-Ru pair. But, on the whole, I can only support the measures aimed at making the contest more effective, more proffesional and less corrupted (that is especially important in the En-Ru pair). Amateruishness is not imposed from above, the worst symptom of amateurishness is thoughtless and unprofessional (or unfair) voting for poor translations. The organizers try to improve the rules to avoid that, too, I think. I am now working with several other contest winners on summing up the suggestions to the organizers that, in our opinion, could raise the quality of the contest.
So, if you are really against amateurishness and the winners being decided in the first seconds after the start of the voting, you may join us.
Respectfully,
Your humble servant and the admirer of your talent
[Edited at 2008-03-19 18:03]
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Magda Dziadosz
Poland
Local time: 14:11
Member (2004)
English to Polish
+ ...
| I tried to vote, but... | Mar 19, 2008 |
RominaZ wrote:
... Rather than go to the final round of voting with a large number of entries, we have decided to extend qualification round voting for another week....
It doesn't seem possible to vote in my language pair, apparently the submission phase is not over yet, even if it was supposed to end yesterday (or even a day before yesterday?)
I tried to help, but - sorry - can't really find my way in this mess, I mean, no wonder there is not enough qualification votes, if you don't make it possible to vote.
Magda
| | | | RominaZ
Argentina
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Qualification round. Voting only possible in language pairs under qualification. | Mar 20, 2008 |
Dear Magda,
It doesn't seem possible to vote in my language pair
You are right, your language pair is not in the qualification round because by the time the qualification round started there were fewer than six entries.
apparently the submission phase is not over yet, even if it was supposed to end yesterday (or even a day before yesterday?)
Yes, I said rather than go to the final round of voting with a large number of entries, we have decided to extend qualification round voting for another week....
I tried to help
Thanks for your willingness to help and I hope you vote in the final round.
Thanks
Romina
| | | | Elizabeth Hill Barsanti (X)
Italy
Local time: 14:11
Italian to English
| Would vote, but... haven't figured out how | Mar 20, 2008 |
I know you won't believe it, but I can't figure out how to cast my votes.
Elizabeth Hill
| | | | RominaZ
Argentina
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Voting in the qualification round | Mar 20, 2008 |
Dear Elizabeth,
The reason why you don't see the option to vote is that Voting in the pair English to Italian pair has closed. All the entries in that pair received the number of votes required to qualify or disqualify.
Please remember that you can vote only in the language pairs you reported in your profile i.e. Italian to English.
However, voting is still open in English to Italian, and I see in your profile that you declared both English and Italian a... See more Dear Elizabeth,
The reason why you don't see the option to vote is that Voting in the pair English to Italian pair has closed. All the entries in that pair received the number of votes required to qualify or disqualify.
Please remember that you can vote only in the language pairs you reported in your profile i.e. Italian to English.
However, voting is still open in English to Italian, and I see in your profile that you declared both English and Italian as your native languages. If you are interested in voting in the English to Italian combination and you also work in this pair please report this pair in your profile. You'll then see the option to vote in that pair too.
I hope my explanation has been clear.
Please let me know.
Regards,
Romina ▲ Collapse
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| Number of votes needed to disqualify an entry | Mar 20, 2008 |
I would like to know how many negative votes are needed to disqualify an entry and how many positive votes are needed to qualify one. Does it change with the number of entries for a language pair and how?
In the English to Italian context (in which I didn't submit an entry but I can vote) I was really surprised by the great number of qualified entries which, in my opinion, are really poor. I see that only very few entries have been disqualified so far, therefore I assume that the nu... See more I would like to know how many negative votes are needed to disqualify an entry and how many positive votes are needed to qualify one. Does it change with the number of entries for a language pair and how?
In the English to Italian context (in which I didn't submit an entry but I can vote) I was really surprised by the great number of qualified entries which, in my opinion, are really poor. I see that only very few entries have been disqualified so far, therefore I assume that the number of disqualifying votes necessary to do so must be high...
Given the circumstances, it's very difficult to vote in the qualification round and, personally, I didn't express an opinion about many entries which I didn't like but which are always better than others which have been qualified. I though that it would be unfair to vote against them when there is the risk that a worst entry might win.
I dont' know about other language pairs but it was shocking for me to see the general level of the EN>IT translations (although luckily there are exceptions).
Elisa ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Share your concern | Mar 20, 2008 |
Elisa Comito wrote:
I dont' know about other language pairs but it was shocking for me to see the general level of the EN>IT translations (although luckily there are exceptions).
Share your concern about the general level of translations (in EN>RU pair, in this case). It's been a 'movable feast of a shock'. At times it looks more of a 'beauty contest' than a competition in translation skills. But, hopefully, the steps that have been taken and will be taken by the organizers will yield results. The website that gave the mankind the greatest invention of the XX/XXI century — kudoz, cannot ruin the idea of the translation contest. I believe that
Btw: I share your conviction about exceptions, too. There have been just admirable translations (not all of them became winners, though).
[Edited at 2008-03-20 21:28]
| | | | Magda Dziadosz
Poland
Local time: 14:11
Member (2004)
English to Polish
+ ...
| Sorry to be a nuisance, but I try to understand the rules... | Mar 20, 2008 |
Hi again Romina,
Today I check the voting page again and I see that for ENG-PL there is no qualification round at all even if there are 10 entries. It says that the submissions are closed and final voting will start on Wed 26th - and what about the qualification round? I see that in other language pairs the qualification round took place with less then 10 entries (7,8,9), but for Polish, Hindi, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Indonesian different rules apply. Why?
Magda
[Edit... See more Hi again Romina,
Today I check the voting page again and I see that for ENG-PL there is no qualification round at all even if there are 10 entries. It says that the submissions are closed and final voting will start on Wed 26th - and what about the qualification round? I see that in other language pairs the qualification round took place with less then 10 entries (7,8,9), but for Polish, Hindi, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Indonesian different rules apply. Why?
Magda
[Edited at 2008-03-20 22:42] ▲ Collapse
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