| Pages in topic: [1 2 3] > | What a single KudoZ question can do to you! (I've decided to call it a day) Thread poster: Nesrin
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Nesrin 
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:28
English to Arabic
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I have to say I don't feel very comfortable reading about people's frustrations with Kudoz, because I often feel we're just hearing one side of the story, and the person complaining may just be the person others are complaining about elsewhere.
So I hesitated a bit before posting this, but then decided I just need to let off some steam instead of letting it out on my kids!
So now, after about six years of being an active and enthusiastic participant in the Kudoz system, I've d... See more I have to say I don't feel very comfortable reading about people's frustrations with Kudoz, because I often feel we're just hearing one side of the story, and the person complaining may just be the person others are complaining about elsewhere.
So I hesitated a bit before posting this, but then decided I just need to let off some steam instead of letting it out on my kids!
So now, after about six years of being an active and enthusiastic participant in the Kudoz system, I've decided to call it a day, after a single question proved to be that proverbial straw ... unfortunately it seems to represent a combination of a number of rising trends, at least in my main language pairs: askers who don't quite elaborate on their question, answerers who don't quite read the questions, peers who follow a copy-cat pattern in providing their agrees, and to top it all, an asker who goes along with the majority without explaining just what what WHAT convinced him/her ... yeah yeah I don't expect you to know who's right and who's wrong, and I know I sound bitter and frustrated, but once I've posted this, I promise to move on and find more important things to do with my life!
Thank you for listening
[Edited at 2009-07-10 12:17 GMT]
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2009-07-10 13:14 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Nesrin wrote:
askers who don't quite elaborate on their question, answerers who don't quite read the questions, peers who follow a copy-cat pattern in providing their agrees, and to top it all, an answerer who goes along with the majority without explaining just what what WHAT convinced him/her
I know the feeling, Nesrin, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "an answerer who goes along with the majority without explaining just what what WHAT convinced him/her". Did you mean "an ASKER" who goes along with the majority without explaining just what what WHAT convinced him/her?
| | | | Susan Welsh
United States
Local time: 08:28
Russian to English
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| Still a very valuable system | Jul 10, 2009 |
Having just posted a couple of questions that unfortunately led to some fights among the answerers, I have to say that while I recognize what you say to be true, it is also the case that Kudoz has been invaluable to me, as a less than fluent translator. People here are terrific in coming through to help, even if there is sometimes a little bit of ego involvement.
In some cases, I, the asker, did not provide enough cont... See more Having just posted a couple of questions that unfortunately led to some fights among the answerers, I have to say that while I recognize what you say to be true, it is also the case that Kudoz has been invaluable to me, as a less than fluent translator. People here are terrific in coming through to help, even if there is sometimes a little bit of ego involvement.
In some cases, I, the asker, did not provide enough context. I always try to do so, but in one particular recent case, I understood the sentence so poorly that I did not recognize exactly what context was needed to help the answerers. Luckily they figured it out anyhow, and then I provided the missing info to confirm.
Susan ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nesrin
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:28
English to Arabic
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Kim Metzger wrote: Nesrin wrote:
askers who don't quite elaborate on their question, answerers who don't quite read the questions, peers who follow a copy-cat pattern in providing their agrees, and to top it all, an answerer who goes along with the majority without explaining just what what WHAT convinced him/her I know the feeling, Nesrin, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "an answerer who goes along with the majority without explaining just what what WHAT convinced him/her". Did you mean "an ASKER" who goes along with the majority without explaining just what what WHAT convinced him/her?
It was indeed a typo, Kim, now corrected. Thanks for pointing that out!
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I think I've seen the question you're referring to, and while of course I don't understand any Arabic at all, there was enough written in English for me to understand your frustration. You answered a very specific question, someone else provided a suggestion for the phrase as a whole, and then someone disagreed with your answer even though it had never been intended as a suggestion for the entire phrase... and everyone rushed to agree with the translation of the whole phrase, even though that wa... See more I think I've seen the question you're referring to, and while of course I don't understand any Arabic at all, there was enough written in English for me to understand your frustration. You answered a very specific question, someone else provided a suggestion for the phrase as a whole, and then someone disagreed with your answer even though it had never been intended as a suggestion for the entire phrase... and everyone rushed to agree with the translation of the whole phrase, even though that wasn't what the asker was actually requesting. (And then he chose that one anyway.)
Annoying, certainly. Trivial, too - but if this kind of thing happens time and again, you start wondering why on earth you bother. And in fact I don't very often, not any more.
[Edited at 2009-07-10 12:32 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nesrin
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:28
English to Arabic
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Thanks Susan and Marie-Hélène | Jul 10, 2009 |
You're right of course you two, these trivial things happen, and I could not deny the enormous benefit I've drawn from Kudoz over the past years, and not just as an asker! It's just, like you said M.-H. - you get to a point where you ask yourself, why do I even bother!
Maybe I just need some time off, then I'll break my promise and come back running and asking Kudoz to please take me back!
[Edited at 2009-07-10... See more You're right of course you two, these trivial things happen, and I could not deny the enormous benefit I've drawn from Kudoz over the past years, and not just as an asker! It's just, like you said M.-H. - you get to a point where you ask yourself, why do I even bother!
Maybe I just need some time off, then I'll break my promise and come back running and asking Kudoz to please take me back!
[Edited at 2009-07-10 13:36 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | A mad scramble | Jul 10, 2009 |
Sometimes it's like things have gone completely crazy. Members climbing all over themselves to agree with a totally inadequate answer - and as you say, because neither the answerer nor the peers have spent time thinking about the question. Just a mad scramble to get an answer in and a mad scramble to agree. And if you throw in an asker who is equally clueless, you get a depressing mess. English monolingual is an absolute hell hole in that respect, although a few brave native speakers and knowled... See more Sometimes it's like things have gone completely crazy. Members climbing all over themselves to agree with a totally inadequate answer - and as you say, because neither the answerer nor the peers have spent time thinking about the question. Just a mad scramble to get an answer in and a mad scramble to agree. And if you throw in an asker who is equally clueless, you get a depressing mess. English monolingual is an absolute hell hole in that respect, although a few brave native speakers and knowledgeable non-natives haven't yet given up trying to make it a respectable site.
[Edited at 2009-07-10 13:36 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 08:28
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Anonymous Profiles = No Answer | Jul 10, 2009 |
Nesrin,
Your response was correct. As a beginning speaker of Arabic, I suspect what happened was that the asker recognized two of the words in the phrase (kaan and maa) and thought he/she knew what it meant, but did not understand the "yaa".
You can see from the asker's anonymous and empty profile, that Arabic is not even one of his/her language pairs.
I do not answer KudoZ very often, but when I do, I only answer questions from those using their real name... See more Nesrin,
Your response was correct. As a beginning speaker of Arabic, I suspect what happened was that the asker recognized two of the words in the phrase (kaan and maa) and thought he/she knew what it meant, but did not understand the "yaa".
You can see from the asker's anonymous and empty profile, that Arabic is not even one of his/her language pairs.
I do not answer KudoZ very often, but when I do, I only answer questions from those using their real names and with some information and background about them. This saves a lot of frustration. I suspect that there are a lot of anonymous "translators" using the KudoZ platform as their free answer portal. ▲ Collapse
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Next time you get frustrated about a clueless asker choosing an outrageously wrong answer at KudoZ, this thought may give you some comfort:
Imagine what kind of crap they might feed to their clients without ever asking.
| | | | | I understand | Jul 10, 2009 |
I completely understand what you mean. I have the same feelings about it, and in fact cooperate in Kudoz less and less. My idea of a sensible question, sensible replies and sensible Kudoz assignment is far from what happens in my language pairs...
| | | | Nikki Graham
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:28
Spanish to English
| Take time off | Jul 10, 2009 |
Nesrin wrote: Maybe I just need some time off, then I'll break my promise and come back running and asking Kudoz to please take me back!
That's what I'm doing. I haven't managed to muster up any enthusiasm for KudoZ for a few weeks.
| | | | | Empty profile, perhaps, but busy, busy, busy | Jul 10, 2009 |
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
You can see from the asker's anonymous and empty profile, that Arabic is not even one of his/her language pairs.
You can also see that they have asked 1,262 questions and answered one.
I doubt think I can express my true feelings about this without breaking every single site rule there is.
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Marina Aleyeva
Israel
Local time: 15:28
Member (2006)
English to Russian
+ ...
Roman Bulkiewicz wrote:
Next time you get frustrated about a clueless asker choosing an outrageously wrong answer at KudoZ, this thought may give you some comfort:
Imagine what kind of crap they might feed to their clients without ever asking.
There is no comfort in thinking of all the crap they feed to their customers that later gets imposed on you though the customers' valuable TMs, or thinking of the clueless proofreaders/editors who genuinely think they know better because they have just asked a KudoZ question or two and chosen some very eagerly supported crap as the most helpful answers.
There is even less comfort in thinking of all the crap which KudoZ "validates" and helps disseminate in the language, and which then comes back to you as a de facto established term that you have no choice but to use. The Russian translation of "non-governmental organisations" is just one example.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:28
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| An additional comment | Jul 10, 2009 |
To Nesrin,
Try to ignore the bad sides and only embrace the good aspects of KudoZ.
[Edited at 2009-07-10 22:06 GMT]
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