Smartest improvement ever to the Blue Board!
Thread poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 03:21
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Jan 17, 2018

Praise when it's deserved.

I noticed it today, but now there is a truly effective parameter for "reading between the lines" on the Blue Board: each Prozian's Average LWA given and their number of entries.

If one Prozian:
a) has a considerable number of entries, say, at least one or two dozen,
b) their average LWA is above, say, 4, and
c) they give a 1 or 2
... See more
Praise when it's deserved.

I noticed it today, but now there is a truly effective parameter for "reading between the lines" on the Blue Board: each Prozian's Average LWA given and their number of entries.

If one Prozian:
a) has a considerable number of entries, say, at least one or two dozen,
b) their average LWA is above, say, 4, and
c) they give a 1 or 2 to a client,
... smart translators have a good reason to avoid working for them.

On the other extreme, if another Prozian:
a) has only one entry,
b) average LWA is 5, and
c) obviously gave a 5 to that one client,
... their input should be taken lightly, as there is sufficient probability that s/he only did one small job for this client, received (peanuts?) paid COD, but was insistently requested to make that BB entry.

This feature is a definite hole under the waterline for those outsourcers that manage to keep a high LWA score from over a hundred one-short-night-stand translators, while they'll create payment trouble on every big-bucks job.
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Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 06:21
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
I agree Jan 17, 2018

I noticed this Blue Board feature recently too and find it very helpful, as José Enrique says. Be aware, fellow Prozians!

 
Robert Forstag
Robert Forstag  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 02:21
Spanish to English
+ ...
I agree, but... Jan 17, 2018

Such comparative data may be helpful. And I think it especially useful to take the mutual backscratching [ruder terminology self-censored here] element of the translator/outsourcer LWAs into account.

But I think it even more helpful to take all positive ratings and comments on the Blue Board with a grain of salt.

For me, the main usefulness of the Blue Board has to do with gauging whether an agency I am considering working for is likely to pay me on time. Thus, if I se
... See more
Such comparative data may be helpful. And I think it especially useful to take the mutual backscratching [ruder terminology self-censored here] element of the translator/outsourcer LWAs into account.

But I think it even more helpful to take all positive ratings and comments on the Blue Board with a grain of salt.

For me, the main usefulness of the Blue Board has to do with gauging whether an agency I am considering working for is likely to pay me on time. Thus, if I see at least 5 ratings of "5" over the past two years, I can be fairly confident that there won't be payment problems with the agency, and I will consider working with them.

And I take *any* ratings of "1" very seriously (although I do pay attention to the replies of the agency, which sometimes indicate that payment was discounted or withheld because the translator did a poor job - which, if not a frequently cited occurrence, is certainly plausible).

Other than that, positive ratings and accompanying comments mean next to nothing to me. The kinds of comments typically accompanying positive ratings are either things I would expect in any collaboration (e.g., "responsive," "polite," "timely payment"), subjective ("interesting assignments"), or "fluffy" ("great to work with").
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José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 03:21
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
In memoriam
That's the point Jan 17, 2018

Robert Forstag wrote:

For me, the main usefulness of the Blue Board has to do with gauging whether an agency I am considering working for is likely to pay me on time. Thus, if I see at least 5 ratings of "5" over the past two years, I can be fairly confident that there won't be payment problems with the agency, and I will consider working with them.


An agency can accrue 100 LWA=5 entries by insisting that one-night-stand translators receiving COD for jobs under $20 make them, and will get one LWA=1 from one translator they defaulted a $2,000 payment 60 days after delivery.

After this change, not any more.
A translator who gets assigned a $2K job usually has more clients to comment on; s/he can tell the wheat from the chaff.


 
Ricki Farn
Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 07:21
English to German
Great discovery Jan 17, 2018

... and to add just an aside, I love spying on (potential) clients on glassdoor too, to get an inkling of their inhouse atmosphere.

[Edited at 2018-01-17 17:49 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:21
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Method Jan 18, 2018

My preferred method is to scan down the list of people who've given BB ratings, to see if I recognise any of the names from these forum discussions. If I recognise anyone I may contact them privately for further information.

 


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Smartest improvement ever to the Blue Board!






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