| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Even more irritating than machine translation: machine project management (looking at you, agencies) Thread poster: Daniel Frisano
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Daniel Frisano 
Italy
Local time: 21:54
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
Dear agencies (many of which regularly read these fora),
If you wish to use your XTRF portal or whatever other system for your vendor management, please keep it for your internal purposes.
Just as I don't use machine translation ever, just as my work will never lose its human touch, kindly have a PM contact me personally, send me the material via email, and interact as human beings. How else do you think we can build a relationship based on mutual trust and respect, if ... See more Dear agencies (many of which regularly read these fora),
If you wish to use your XTRF portal or whatever other system for your vendor management, please keep it for your internal purposes.
Just as I don't use machine translation ever, just as my work will never lose its human touch, kindly have a PM contact me personally, send me the material via email, and interact as human beings. How else do you think we can build a relationship based on mutual trust and respect, if not through direct personal contact?
Sincerely,
D.F. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | It's time for all of us to wake up indeed! | Dec 13, 2022 |
Daniel Frisano wrote:
Dear agencies (many of which regularly read these fora),
If you wish to use your XTRF portal or whatever other system for your vendor management, please keep it for your internal purposes.
Just as I don't use machine translation ever, just as my work will never lose its human touch, kindly have a PM contact me personally, send me the material via email, and interact as human beings. How else do you think we can build a relationship based on mutual trust and respect, if not through direct personal contact?
Sincerely,
D.F.
I couldn't agree more!
I find those automatic chain-mails quite shameful and - above all - disrespectful. As for me, I've long decided not to give a damn and to junk them straight to the dustbin. Fair and square. Question of dignity. Period.
Once all those indelicate (impolite, I should say) vendor managers will stop treating their outsourcers like "cattle" (I think the word is quite appropriate in many instances), they will eventually (and hopefully) understand that we all are their best asset to get them make running their lousy business...
It's time for all of us to wake up indeed!
[Modifié le 2022-12-14 08:26 GMT]
| | | | | I hate mass mailings | Dec 13, 2022 |
The worst case is receiving a massive job notification sent out to dozens or hundreds of translators with a notice to the effect that it's a "first-come first-take" job.
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Vladimir Pochinov wrote:
The worst case is receiving a massive job notification sent out to dozens or hundreds of translators with a notice to the effect that it's a "first-come first-take" job.
The "Delete" key is your friend.
I just consider this to be part and parcel of being a freelancer professional, and I delete those mails along with the rest of the spam.
If the volume ever gets large enough for it to be a problem, I'll think again, but at present it doesn't take me more than 30 seconds per day.
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 21:54
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| I don't mind | Dec 14, 2022 |
Daniel Frisano wrote:
Kindly have a PM contact me personally, send me the material via email, and interact as human beings.
I don't mind getting these notifications. Many of my clients work like this, and it works fine for us.
What I dislike is when there is no way to contact a human being for follow-up questions. Usually the name of the PM is visible, so if I have their address, I can at least contact them. I also have a slight dislike for when I can't preview the files before accepting the job (because then I have to take steps to cancel the job when I realize that I can't do the job, and remember to make sure that the PM received the cancellation).
I have a dislike for invoicing systems that are difficult to figure out.
| | | | | I don't accept jobs before having a look at the source files | Dec 14, 2022 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
I also have a slight dislike for when I can't preview the files before accepting the job (because then I have to take steps to cancel the job when I realize that I can't do the job, and remember to make sure that the PM received the cancellation).
I don't like unprofessional translation requests that don't offer any information except "We have a document to translate into Russian. Are you available?"
Since I'm rather picky about accepting jobs, I need to know the following details before responding:
Subject
Source format
Requested target format
CAT tool (desktop or cloud-based)
Word count
Deadline
Reference (style guide, approved glossary to be followed, if available)
It's best when they attach the source document(s) for review.
[Edited at 2022-12-14 08:35 GMT]
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Sometimes it’s just quicker for both parties to automate these things.
Tbh few customers go beyond saying thank you and making a brief comment on the football anyway.
| | | | | Project management automation | Dec 14, 2022 |
Ice Scream wrote:
Sometimes it’s just quicker for both parties to automate these things.
Typically, agencies can choose one of the approaches:
1) A job notice goes to their preferred translator. In the absence of response within a preset timeframe, the system notifies the second-best linguist, and so on.
2) The notorious "you snooze, you lose" approach, when the system notifies multiple translators that there's a job for grabs.
[Edited at 2022-12-14 14:37 GMT]
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| Very comfortable indeed! | Dec 14, 2022 |
Ice Scream wrote:
Sometimes it’s just quicker for both parties to automate these things.
Fancy that before the nowadays almost fully automated translation process (keyword "DeepL") you as a freelancer also employ a translation management bot connected to DeepL that in return answers those automated offers automatically, according to your price and deadline settings. Then we only need a central bidding hub (= CBH, perhaps provided by proz?), where all agencies and freelancers are connected to and that separates all the chaff from the wheat, and based upon the decision of the CBH and the settings of the bots of both parties the automated translation will be delivered in no time and for almost no costs and effort for all parties involved, thanks to Deepl! Stock exchanges of today worldwide already work with that principle, so why don't we? Just sit and relax and watch the money coming in.
| | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 20:54
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| We are all different, but | Dec 14, 2022 |
Am I the only one who doesn't get irritated by my work?
Some agencies I work with use these systems, but there is always contact by email and by phone which can be rare...
It is all part of the business...
However, I can agree there are things that make lots of us feel angry, like this one I have just received
"Hi expressisverbis,
We are looking out for linguists to work with us on o... See more Am I the only one who doesn't get irritated by my work?
Some agencies I work with use these systems, but there is always contact by email and by phone which can be rare...
It is all part of the business...
However, I can agree there are things that make lots of us feel angry, like this one I have just received
"Hi expressisverbis,
We are looking out for linguists to work with us on our ongoing project of English to Bahasa
Here is a quick brief of the scope:
Language pair: English to Bahasa
Domain :IT
Service: Human Translation (HT) + Review
Start date: immediate
Rate: Please provide your word rate
Tool- XTRF
If you are interested, kindly fill in the following form."
People say laughter is the best medicine, so give a loud laugh!
P.S.: I have lost count of the number of emails sent to me with the most "strange" language pairs!
[Edited at 2022-12-14 18:11 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Metin Demirel
Türkiye
Local time: 22:54
Member (2018)
Italian to Turkish
+ ...
| The same here | Dec 14, 2022 |
expressisverbis wrote: However, I can agree there are things that make lots of us feel angry, like this one I have just received "Hi expressisverbis, We are looking out for linguists to work with us on our ongoing project of English to Bahasa Here is a quick brief of the scope: Language pair: English to Bahasa .... P.S.: I have lost count of the number of emails sent to me with the most "strange" language pairs!
I just received the same email tonight. I am also tired of receiving emails for projects with the languages spoken in Turkey other than Turkish (Kurdish, Zazaki, Syriac, etc.). Somehow I also get contacted to translate into Turkmen. Imagine contacting a random translator in an African country for an English to Afrikaans project, because, well, they are all African languages.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 21:54
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Metin Demirel wrote:
Imagine contacting a random translator in an African country for an English to Afrikaans project, because, well, they are all African languages.
In my 20 years, this has happened to me fewer than 10 times. (-:
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Metin Demirel
Türkiye
Local time: 22:54
Member (2018)
Italian to Turkish
+ ...
Samuel Murray wrote: Metin Demirel wrote:
Imagine contacting a random translator in an African country for an English to Afrikaans project, because, well, they are all African languages. In my 20 years, this has happened to me fewer than 10 times. (-:
I thought I was making a far-fetched scenario with that imaginary example
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 22:54
Member
English to Turkish
| Got one of those recently | Dec 15, 2022 |
Metin Demirel wrote:
I just received the same email tonight. I am also tired of receiving emails for projects with the languages spoken in Turkey other than Turkish (Kurdish, Zazaki, Syriac, etc.).
I received one of those emails from a best rate Indian agency and kept getting email notifications, as if in a Whatsapp group, from those included in the CC replying to the email saying they didn't speak Syriac.. annoying as f*ck.
| | | | | Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member because it was not in line with site rule | | Pages in topic: [1 2] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Even more irritating than machine translation: machine project management (looking at you, agencies) | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
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