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Rating and voting now open for most pairs in the 2014 annual translation contest
Thread poster: Jared Tabor
Mario Altare
Mario Altare
Local time: 19:42
Russian to Italian
+ ...
/ Aug 5, 2014

I agree with Ms. Christel. Since I have taken part to the contest, I do not vote nor comment other's entries.

 
Alexander Onishko
Alexander Onishko  Identity Verified
Russian to English
+ ...
*** Aug 5, 2014

Elizabeth Tamblin wrote:

Ah, it's worse than I imagined, then - you're saying that the contest is judged solely by the people who have submitted an entry!


Of course, I can only guess, but I think that maybe 75% of the voters are participants.


 
Katalin Horváth McClure
Katalin Horváth McClure  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 14:42
Member (2002)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Ones own work or not? Aug 5, 2014

Jared,
When someone submits a translation to this contest, is there a checkbox or something that says "I swear/certify/state... that this translation is my own work."?
What happens if it comes to light that someone submitted a translation that was not produced by him/her? Will the translation be disqualified?


 
Georgia Morg (X)
Georgia Morg (X)  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:42
Portuguese to English
Fascinating Aug 6, 2014

Well, this is my first experience of a translation contest and I am fascinated to see how other people have translated the same text I did. This is something I have never had the opportunity to do before and I find it very enlightening and interesting. What I don't much like is the fact that our ratings and comments are not anonymous. I don't want to create bad feeling between myself and any other colleagues, but I really would like to pick fault with bad grammar, wrong lexis etc. I also like h... See more
Well, this is my first experience of a translation contest and I am fascinated to see how other people have translated the same text I did. This is something I have never had the opportunity to do before and I find it very enlightening and interesting. What I don't much like is the fact that our ratings and comments are not anonymous. I don't want to create bad feeling between myself and any other colleagues, but I really would like to pick fault with bad grammar, wrong lexis etc. I also like highlighting phrases I find particularly good, but this is easier to do knowing the translator/contestant will see your name. I have no interest in "winning" but I do find the whole process fascinating, I must say.Collapse


 
Katalin Horváth McClure
Katalin Horváth McClure  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 14:42
Member (2002)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Regarding non-anonymous tagging Aug 6, 2014

Georgia,
If your comments are purely linguistic, and not personal, if they are factual and to the point - in other words, professional - then you have nothing to fear. Those who submit entries to these contests should be prepared to receive critique - after all, this should be a learning experience. If someone gets angry with you for pointing out objective errors, it is their fault - and their loss.
The truth is that some people simply cannot take criticism, no matter how true, polit
... See more
Georgia,
If your comments are purely linguistic, and not personal, if they are factual and to the point - in other words, professional - then you have nothing to fear. Those who submit entries to these contests should be prepared to receive critique - after all, this should be a learning experience. If someone gets angry with you for pointing out objective errors, it is their fault - and their loss.
The truth is that some people simply cannot take criticism, no matter how true, polite, objective and constructive it is, but that alone should not hold you back from voicing your opinion.

I think the idea behind non-anonymous tagging is that it ensures a more professional approach, in other words, if one could place tags anonymously, there is a greater chance of malicious comments - don't you think? In other words, if you know your comments will be public at the end of the contest, you would probably take better care of wording them.

Just my two cents
Katalin
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philgoddard
philgoddard
United States
German to English
+ ...
. Aug 6, 2014

Katalin Horváth McClure wrote:

Jared,
When someone submits a translation to this contest, is there a checkbox or something that says "I swear/certify/state... that this translation is my own work."?
What happens if it comes to light that someone submitted a translation that was not produced by him/her? Will the translation be disqualified?


I'd like to know the answer to this question too, as one entry I found was unedited and extremely bad machine translation.


 
Elizabeth Tamblin
Elizabeth Tamblin  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:42
French to English
machine translation is allowed... Aug 6, 2014

philgoddard wrote:

Katalin Horváth McClure wrote:

Jared,
When someone submits a translation to this contest, is there a checkbox or something that says "I swear/certify/state... that this translation is my own work."?
What happens if it comes to light that someone submitted a translation that was not produced by him/her? Will the translation be disqualified?


I'd like to know the answer to this question too, as one entry I found was unedited and extremely bad machine translation.


Quote from FAQs:

2.6 - Are contestants allowed to use machine translation when preparing their entries? [Direct link]

Yes. There are no restrictions on tools used for the translation of entries.


 
Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 19:42
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
+ ...
Doesn't matter Aug 6, 2014

Elizabeth Tamblin wrote:

Quote from FAQs:

2.6 - Are contestants allowed to use machine translation when preparing their entries? [Direct link]

Yes. There are no restrictions on tools used for the translation of entries.



Well, it's a disgrace to see MT submissions, but I think nobody is going to expect serious competition from machine translation, do they? So it doesn't really matter much.


 
philgoddard
philgoddard
United States
German to English
+ ...
No Aug 6, 2014

It just makes me think there are some very strange, deluded people lurking in the woodwork of ProZ.

 
Christel Zipfel
Christel Zipfel  Identity Verified
Local time: 19:42
Member (2004)
Italian to German
+ ...
Agree Aug 6, 2014

Erik Freitag wrote:

Well, it's a disgrace to see MT submissions, but I think nobody is going to expect serious competition from machine translation, do they? So it doesn't really matter much.


I too saw machine translations in the past editions. For the sake of the contest it doesn't really matter. It's only extremely annoying - and stupid, as well.


 
564354352 (X)
564354352 (X)  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 19:42
Danish to English
+ ...
Machine translation is a reality Aug 6, 2014

I actually considered submitting one or two translations from languages I don't master using MT and then doing some post editing based on my common sense and whatever research I felt necessary. I thought it would be a valid experiment.

Whether we like it or not, MT is here and it won't go away. It is a part of some people's translation toolbox, so why shouldn't they be allowed to use MT if they want to? The proof will be in the pudding at any rate. What the contests will show is wha
... See more
I actually considered submitting one or two translations from languages I don't master using MT and then doing some post editing based on my common sense and whatever research I felt necessary. I thought it would be a valid experiment.

Whether we like it or not, MT is here and it won't go away. It is a part of some people's translation toolbox, so why shouldn't they be allowed to use MT if they want to? The proof will be in the pudding at any rate. What the contests will show is what we as translators are able to produce, regardless of which tools we consider part of our trade.

Just for the record: I didn't submit any dodgy MT-based translations, but I won't promise that I won't do it for the next contest.
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Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 15:42
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
I don't see participants' ability to rate skewing results, 2 Aug 6, 2014

Hi all,

The subject of contest participants who have made an entry being able to participate in rating and voting was also brought up in the release announcement for this contest in May, and I responded there, http://www.proz.com/post/2295398#2295398 . Basically,

  1. Participants who have submitted an entry are in a unique position to evaluate entries. They have work... See more
Hi all,

The subject of contest participants who have made an entry being able to participate in rating and voting was also brought up in the release announcement for this contest in May, and I responded there, http://www.proz.com/post/2295398#2295398 . Basically,

  1. Participants who have submitted an entry are in a unique position to evaluate entries. They have worked on the same text, and their insight is likely to be different, though not more or less valuable, than participants who have not submitted an entry.

  2. I don't see participants who have made an entry making efforts to "rate down" or otherwise harm other participants' chances of winning any more than those who have not made an entry do. If they did, the results would be somewhat a waste of energy in comparison to the outcome. And those who rate or vote are not swayed by others' ratings. Results have shown that those evaluating entries make their own decisions at the moment of selecting which translation is the best, thankfully. This is one advantage of a contest like where members of the community involved are intelligent, work with and are accustomed to scrutinizing language, and are not necessarily willing to make a decision based on the anonymous word of another (which is what comments are until the end of the contest).

Negative tags or dislikes on entries are more common, across the board, than positive tags or likes, regardless of whether participants have made an entry. Why that happens may be an interesting discussion on its own.

Jared
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Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 15:42
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
No need to disqualify a poor translation which will get weeded out Aug 6, 2014

Hi Katalin,

Katalin Horváth McClure wrote:

Jared,
When someone submits a translation to this contest, is there a checkbox or something that says "I swear/certify/state... that this translation is my own work."?
What happens if it comes to light that someone submitted a translation that was not produced by him/her? Will the translation be disqualified?


The checkbox reads:
"I have read and agree to the contest rules. This translation is my own and I have not had access to anyone else's translation of this text."


As Elizabeth states, MT or other tools can be used in elaborating an entry. This would not be grounds for disqualification. Regardless of the tools used, a poor translation is a poor translation, and the tools to mark it as such are there.

Jared


 
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 15:42
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
Good approach Aug 6, 2014

Hi Georgia,

Georgia Morgan wrote:

Well, this is my first experience of a translation contest and I am fascinated to see how other people have translated the same text I did. This is something I have never had the opportunity to do before and I find it very enlightening and interesting. What I don't much like is the fact that our ratings and comments are not anonymous. I don't want to create bad feeling between myself and any other colleagues, but I really would like to pick fault with bad grammar, wrong lexis etc. I also like highlighting phrases I find particularly good, but this is easier to do knowing the translator/contestant will see your name. I have no interest in "winning" but I do find the whole process fascinating, I must say.


It's good to hear that the experience has been interesting. As Katalin says, keep the comments linguistic and you should be good to go. Most people participating in a contest like this appreciate this sort of interaction, and I've seen some interesting discussion come out of it. Marking translation choices which are good is also important, and part of the experience.

Jared


 
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 15:42
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
The MT experiment Aug 6, 2014

Hi Gitte,

Gitte Hovedskov, MCIL wrote:

I actually considered submitting one or two translations from languages I don't master using MT and then doing some post editing based on my common sense and whatever research I felt necessary. I thought it would be a valid experiment.

Whether we like it or not, MT is here and it won't go away. It is a part of some people's translation toolbox, so why shouldn't they be allowed to use MT if they want to? The proof will be in the pudding at any rate. What the contests will show is what we as translators are able to produce, regardless of which tools we consider part of our trade.

Just for the record: I didn't submit any dodgy MT-based translations, but I won't promise that I won't do it for the next contest.


This does sound like an interesting experiment. Having participated in various contests, and with a couple of wins under your belt already, you would be in a good position to compare the experiences.

Jared


 
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Rating and voting now open for most pairs in the 2014 annual translation contest






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