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A typical day on Proz forums (many SDL posts)
Thread poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 13:40
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Dec 8, 2015

I saw it coming a long time ago, sent a few Support Requests, suggestions, and even Ideas on it, to no avail.

Today I opened the Proz "recent messages" forum page, and saw this:



A staggering proportion of 90% of the first 10 recent posts on varied forums is made up of SDL Trados support requests

A staggering proportion of 90% of the first 10 recent posts on varied forums is made up of SDL Trados support requests and remedies (= training).

If SDL has no useful technical support outside Proz, maybe it's high time SDL paid for everybody's subscription, making Proz completely free.

Plan B - as I suggested - would be to allow Prozians who don't have/want Trados to filter these "SDL Trados support" messages from their "recent messages" forum page completely. As I don't see any messages in, say, Bulgarian, Tagalog, Hindi, and countless other languages there, it should be technically feasible.

[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2018-06-13 17:12 GMT]
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Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:40
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
:| Dec 8, 2015

I thought this was possible, but maybe it isn't, because I just tried it and it didn't work. What am I talking about? Good question. This:

I thought that you could switch on or off what you wanted to see on the http://www.proz.com/forum/ page by doing the following:

1. go to your profile
2. click "Settings"
3. find "Select forums to be listed on the homepage" and click on
... See more
I thought this was possible, but maybe it isn't, because I just tried it and it didn't work. What am I talking about? Good question. This:

I thought that you could switch on or off what you wanted to see on the http://www.proz.com/forum/ page by doing the following:

1. go to your profile
2. click "Settings"
3. find "Select forums to be listed on the homepage" and click on it
4. remove check marks from the ones you don't want to see

However, I just tried it (deselecting "SDL Trados support"), and all the SDL garbage is still shown @ http://www.proz.com/forum/
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José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 13:40
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
In memoriam
That was my very point: It isn't. Dec 8, 2015

Michael Beijer wrote:

I thought this was possible, but maybe it isn't, because I just tried it and it didn't work.


It is not possible for Proz Members/Users to switch that off.

However it is possible for Proz developers to enable switching it off.

Evidence of it is that we can freely select the language-specific forums we see messages from there... or not.

[Edited at 2015-12-08 12:20 GMT]


 
Emma Goldsmith
Emma Goldsmith  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 17:40
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
Useful technical support outside ProZ Dec 8, 2015

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:

If SDL has no useful technical support outside Proz, maybe it's high time SDL paid for everybody's subscription, making Proz completely free.


Good idea
However, SDL is unlikely to pay for everyone's ProZ subscription because it does have its own user forum:
https://community.sdl.com/products-solutions/solutions/customer_experience_cloud/language/translationproductivity/
It's free and you don't even have to have a license to use it. Simply register on the SDL site.

The forum on ProZ is so busy - as you point out - that it ranks very high when anyone Googles a Studio problem. People arrive here and post their own question, thus adding to the busy list.

I agree that it would be good to be able to filter it out in your personal settings.


 
Andrea Muller (X)
Andrea Muller (X)  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:40
English to German
+ ...
Yes, this would be very useful Dec 8, 2015

Emma Goldsmith wrote:


I agree that it would be good to be able to filter it out in your personal settings.



Yes, I also wish it would be possible to filter out certain forums from the 'recent messages' list, and not only from the short list on my home page.

Can we have this as Xmas present?


 
Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 17:40
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
+ ...
Provide a filer for the recent topics list Dec 8, 2015

I agree, in the sense that a general way of filtering forums on the recent topics list would be very useful.

It looks like the option Michael has found relates to the homepage (proz.com) rather than the forums page (proz.com/forum/) where a list of recent forum topics exists as well. Never noticed that, as I never access proz via that page.

Edited to add: It should be possible to filter any topics, not just Studio support.


[Edited at 2015-12-
... See more
I agree, in the sense that a general way of filtering forums on the recent topics list would be very useful.

It looks like the option Michael has found relates to the homepage (proz.com) rather than the forums page (proz.com/forum/) where a list of recent forum topics exists as well. Never noticed that, as I never access proz via that page.

Edited to add: It should be possible to filter any topics, not just Studio support.


[Edited at 2015-12-08 13:19 GMT]

[Edited at 2015-12-08 13:50 GMT]
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Eugenia Sánchez
Eugenia Sánchez  Identity Verified
Argentina
Local time: 13:40
Member (2005)
French to Spanish
+ ...
That would be nice Dec 8, 2015

I agree, that would be a nice touch from Proz team if they allow us to filter Trados Studio support posts from the list of recent posts.

Thank you for suggesting such a thing, José Henrique.

Have a nice day!

Eugenia Sánchez


 
SDL_Steve
SDL_Steve  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:40
English to Arabic
SDL Studio Support. Dec 8, 2015

Hello Jose,

After reading your comments I have taken a look to understand your point of view (as a user of a different tool).

When a translator posts a question on the Forums in relation to our software-
we will of course do our very best to assist the professional translators in any way we can! and through which ever channels necessary.

I see the simple fact that we answer the most posts is simple proof that we are proactive and care about our transl
... See more
Hello Jose,

After reading your comments I have taken a look to understand your point of view (as a user of a different tool).

When a translator posts a question on the Forums in relation to our software-
we will of course do our very best to assist the professional translators in any way we can! and through which ever channels necessary.

I see the simple fact that we answer the most posts is simple proof that we are proactive and care about our translators - no matter how they wish to contact us-
(9/10 users cannot be wrong.

You can of course see many posts from users of other tools which have simply been left unanswered or ignored.
If other vendors do not offer assistance through Proz.com-
then obviously questions will not be posted! and therefore SDL will form the majority of the posts.

Many years ago- obtaining (SDL) support (let alone FREE support) was a task in itself and often required a paid for support contract for even a basic help request.

However over the last years we have invested heavily in technical support and PROACTIVELY offer our assistance through sites like Proz.com and other social media outlets along with all the other (completely FREE support) resources listed below.

kb.sdl.com
-search problems and solutions in an extensive free knowledge base
-log a free support ticket if you still cannot find a solution

SDL Community @ xl8.one Simply copy into your browser
- a community of like minded translation professionals and SDL gurus who go out of their way to provide free support no matter what the cause

Need to know how to do something? or need advice on a particular tool/process?
Then check out the YouTube site or the hundreds of free Webinars
https://www.youtube.com/user/sdltrados
http://www.translationzone.com/events/webinar-recordings/

Have a quick question general question?
then chat with us 'sdl.com/chat'
if we cannot help direct we CAN advise on where to get the help you need.

I think you will agree-
the above resources prove that we DO care and have probably the widest and richest support resources available to the professional translator and therefore DO NOT rely on PROZ to provide support -
but use PROZ as an extra touch point for our complete support package.

Kr

SDL_Steve
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Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 16:40
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
I tried ... Dec 8, 2015

Several years ago, I tried to filter out the "Trados Help!" messages from the "most recent forums" list without success. I even submitted a "support request" and received the blunt reply that it wasn't possible. If I wasn't already somewhat "CAT" averse, the frequency of the problems people report with Trados and other CATs would be enough to put me right off them.

 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 13:40
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
In memoriam
@SDL_Steve Dec 8, 2015

SDL_Steve wrote:

Hello Jose,

After reading your comments I have taken a look to understand your point of view (as a user of a different tool).

When a translator posts a question on the Forums in relation to our software-
we will of course do our very best to assist the professional translators in any way we can! and through which ever channels necessary.

I see the simple fact that we answer the most posts is simple proof that we are proactive and care about our translators - no matter how they wish to contact us-
(9/10 users cannot be wrong.

You can of course see many posts from users of other tools which have simply been left unanswered or ignored.
If other vendors do not offer assistance through Proz.com-
then obviously questions will not be posted! and therefore SDL will form the majority of the posts.

(snip)

I think you will agree-
the above resources prove that we DO care and have probably the widest and richest support resources available to the professional translator and therefore DO NOT rely on PROZ to provide support - but use PROZ as an extra touch point for our complete support package.

SDL_Steve


Steve, you are definitely correct in providing the best support you can for Trados users, your clientele, through every possible channel. My point here is that every consumer in the free world is entitled to a choice. While many choose Trados, another many might prefer other CAT tools.

Let's take a different example: cars.
Assume two things:
a) I own and drive a Renault because I like it, and it never has mechanical trouble, only one lamp burns out every couple of weeks.
b) In order to avoid slandering any other car brand, let's say that there is a car make named Krankel, of which you can see one sample fuming in front of a perplexed owner/driver scratching his head at every corner in any nondescript metropolitan area.

I choose to pay for a subscription to a fictional magazine named "Car Buff". However I see that most (90%) of its contents are tips & tricks from Krankel Auto on how to fix/circumvent all its possible flops.

While I haven't been to a Renault shop for years, and admire Krankel's determination in supporting its customers, should I go on subscribing to that magazine?

I find it odd that some translators use more than one CAT tool, but again, they are free to choose, and I don't think any of them uses ALL the ones available in the marketplace. Though I don't care about all CAT tools that I don't use, their total traffic on the Proz forum is marginal. Mind you that I don't care about the reasons for that either.

So I think that Proz should just give its members/users the choice to screen out forums where they have no interest at all, just like each of us is empowered to screen out forums in languages of which we don't understand squat.

The software is there, it's just a matter of Proz enabling it on individual CAT tool forums too.

[Edited at 2015-12-08 14:36 GMT]


 
Rachel Fell
Rachel Fell  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:40
French to English
+ ...
Yes Dec 8, 2015

Jenny Forbes wrote:
If I wasn't already somewhat "CAT" averse, the frequency of the problems people report with Trados and other CATs would be enough to put me right off them.

Yes, I used to look down the forum topic list and find interesting threads, but these days it's nearly all about "CATs", of which I am not a user, so it's consequently pretty dull.


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 16:40
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Ditto! Dec 8, 2015

Jenny Forbes wrote:

If I wasn't already somewhat "CAT" averse, the frequency of the problems people report with Trados and other CATs would be enough to put me right off them.


 
Giuseppina Gatta, MA (Hons)
Giuseppina Gatta, MA (Hons)
English to Italian
+ ...
So true Dec 8, 2015

Jenny Forbes wrote:

Several years ago, I tried to filter out the "Trados Help!" messages from the "most recent forums" list without success. I even submitted a "support request" and received the blunt reply that it wasn't possible. If I wasn't already somewhat "CAT" averse, the frequency of the problems people report with Trados and other CATs would be enough to put me right off them.


Thankfully, none of my clients is requesting me to use SDL Trados. I have an old license which was supposed to be "unlimited" and was discontinued by SDL based on some wrong assumptions from them. I contacted them many times explaining them that was wrong and why it was wrong but to no avail. That's enough to keep me away from this program forever.


 
SDL_Steve
SDL_Steve  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:40
English to Arabic
Unable to use purchased license license Dec 8, 2015

Hi Giuseppina,

You may remember that I was in contact with you a couple of months ago regarding this issue and that I explained to you the original license you purchased (amongst the three purchased in total had been upgraded to Studio 2014 (possibly without your consent) by one of the other people you purchased the software and shared the account access with.

Due to the fact that one of the other people accessed the account to perform the upgrade from 2009 to 2014- mea
... See more
Hi Giuseppina,

You may remember that I was in contact with you a couple of months ago regarding this issue and that I explained to you the original license you purchased (amongst the three purchased in total had been upgraded to Studio 2014 (possibly without your consent) by one of the other people you purchased the software and shared the account access with.

Due to the fact that one of the other people accessed the account to perform the upgrade from 2009 to 2014- meant of course that your 2009 license (and their 2009 version) was no longer available as this version had now been UPGRADED.

if you are still in contact with those named on the account- and we can all get in contact with each other- we can split the account into individual ones
and start afresh with individual accounts and up to date licenses.

This way everyone has there own accounts and licenses and none can be tampered with.

SDL_Steve
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Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 17:40
Member
English to French
Habits Dec 8, 2015

I am used to accessing proz.com through www.proz.com, and I have selected long ago the topics I don't want displayed, also because Trados support threads were overwhelming.
You can set what topics you don't want d
... See more
I am used to accessing proz.com through www.proz.com, and I have selected long ago the topics I don't want displayed, also because Trados support threads were overwhelming.
You can set what topics you don't want displayed in proz.com home page using http://www.proz.com/dashboard/forum/?sp_forum_mode=homepage_forums

To set how many threads to display on the home page: http://www.proz.com/?sp=profile&eid_s=xxxxx&sp_mode=settings&sp_submode=general_settings , xxxxx being your proz.com number

Philippe

[Edited at 2015-12-08 15:49 GMT]

[Edited at 2015-12-08 15:50 GMT]
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