Third ProZ.com Translation Contest!

Katalin Horvath McClure wrote:

Florencia,
I remember at the last contest there was a button saying something like "None of the entries are good enough".
Was this removed intentionally or is it just a bug?

I think this button is very useful, because if a voter, after reading the entries finds that none of the entries are good enough to vote for, could express that opinion. After all, if he/she took the time to read the entries, it would be nice to count him/her among the total voters.
If this button is not there, when you see only a few votes in a certain language pair, you will not know whether the pair lacks voters altogether (nobody is reading the entries) or they do read the entries, but they think the entries are not good enough to vote for.

Would it be possible to put that button back to function?

Csaba Szenes wrote:

Hi Florencia,

You are talking about language pairs with only 2 entries... But as I've seen, for example in English to Hungarian pair where you can find 3 entries, it's also impossible to vote... Is it just because one of the three entries is mine(so, does it mean, that it's just for me impossible?), or have I misunderstood something? By the way thank you so much for your work on organizing the contest! It was a really good idea, especially for those with poor experience and credentials...
The problem is the lack of activity of the members by voting:((and at some language pairs also in the submission -phase...))

Kind regards,
Csaba

Csaba Szenes wrote:


Dear Csaba Szenes,

Thanks for reporting the issue. I will have it fixed by our developers right away.


Thanks for participating.

Kind regrads,
Florencia



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Just to keep you all posted that the bug has been solved.

Kind regards,
Florencia

This button could make sence only for those who did not participate - otherwise everyone will push this button TO INCREASE OWN CHANCES

And, as the practice shows that mostly the voters are the same as participants with one or two exceptions

such button is absolutely unnecessary and even dangerous.

In any case you can select a translation which is somewhat better than the others - right?

Alexander Onishko wrote:

If an entry becomes disqualified it may no longer receive positive votes.

It is mathematically ungrounded and incorrect from the point of view of statistics.

Lets us consider the entry A, which would have received + 10 and -4 votes

What will happen if the 4 people who intended to vote against it would vote first ?

The entry will be disqualified and will not be able to receive its positive votes.

[Edited at 2007-07-03 11:14]

Nik-On/Off wrote:

Now I can add a note to my own translation. A very useful feature

It would also be interesting to see voting progress. Is that possible?

Dmitrii

Katalin Horvath McClure wrote:

Alexander Onishko wrote:

I think this is probably right, but I am sure it is not a problem technically, because as far as I understand the participants have a different view of the contest page anyway. So I think the site programmers could easily make sure that the participants would not have that button enabled. Although, I am not sure I agree with participants voting at all - I thin if I participated, I would want to refrain from voting. But maybe it's only me - and this was not the issue at hand anyway.


Well, I am not sure. I did not see any statistics about this regarding the previous contests but I know for a fact that in one of my language pairs several people who did not participate, took the time to vote.


I respectfully disagree, see above.



Well, maybe, but if that "somewhat better than the others" entry is still below the level that the voter would expect for a winning entry for a translation contest, he/she may want to express that opinion.
In other words, the voter may wish to select the "best of the crop", but not the "best of the crap" - excuse my language, but couldn't resist...
I have seen contests, competitions, where no winner was announced, simply because the judges did not find anybody's performance worthy the grand prize. Sometimes they only have second or third places announced (sometimes as a tie), or only "honorable mentions".

By the way, this whole issue does not reflect my direct opinion about the current entries in any of my own language pairs - it is a general question/suggestion about a feature that was available at the last contest and seems to be not present now.

[Módosítva: 2007-07-04 16:05]

As I have an entry in a pair with less than 3 entries I received via my e-mail the link to the contest page in order to choose what to do next but, to my surprize...no options are shown, only my translation.

Can someone look into that?

megane_wang wrote:



I agree with Alexander, and would add my first thoughts up to date:

1. I think that voting AGAINST anyone should be forbidden if participants can vote.

2. The qualifying phase does not make sense to me if everyone can vote, and negative votes are allowed. A good translation could be kicked out of the list very easily without solid reasons. What's the problem with voting on 30 entries in 1 unique round? For me it looks like a better idea... If there is a problem, I would try to work on the process usability, not on the contest rules.

My estimate is that, currently, if a participant does not vote during the qualifying round, it favors him/her, because, at least, no votes are added to the competitors who may be interested to disqualify his/her "good" entry. Again, if there's a qualifying round, participants should not be involved in that qualification.

As far as I see, the overall result of the current system is that entries with translation errors and no significant differences with "medium level" ones are to ready be voted as the best (I can't talk much about the "disqualified ones", because the moderators told me that it was not possible to view them anymore in that round, even shown as "anonymous" as all the others were).

Ruth @ MW


[Edited at 2007-07-05 20:04]