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Poll: In your opinion, what is the appropriate rate for MT post-editing? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "In your opinion, what is the appropriate rate for MT post-editing?".
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The appropriate rate depends on the “quality”. I never accept a job without having first a good look at the document to be edited. One of the MTPE jobs I’ve done was charged at full rate after long discussions, while others were charged at 50%. I refuse most of the MTPE jobs, I’m at the end of my career and I only accept the ones I find kind of enjoyable.
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Straight MT output is usually quite bad, and then I will either refuse it or ask for 70-100% of my translation rate. However, I have one client offering texts that are a mix of MT and high-percentage matches against their huge TM. These are of surprisingly stable quality, so I edit them for 40% of my regular translation rate.
[Edited at 2024-07-14 23:22 GMT]
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Alex Lichanow
Germany
Local time: 04:07
Member (2020)
English to German
+ ...
This depends on the exact kind of MT used to generate the raw translation output:
- Traditional MT: completely worthless mess, 100%.
- LLM: acceptable or even good linguistic quality, but very prone to bullshit (I am NOT going to call it "hallucinations" because I am not about to humanize machines); said bullshit is hard to spot without an extremely close comparison to the source. I am not saving any time vs. providing a human translation, so 100%.
- NMT: mostly solid linguisti... See more This depends on the exact kind of MT used to generate the raw translation output:
- Traditional MT: completely worthless mess, 100%.
- LLM: acceptable or even good linguistic quality, but very prone to bullshit (I am NOT going to call it "hallucinations" because I am not about to humanize machines); said bullshit is hard to spot without an extremely close comparison to the source. I am not saving any time vs. providing a human translation, so 100%.
- NMT: mostly solid linguistic quality, somewhat prone to omissions, but by far the best option for MT overall. 60-70% would be acceptable.
[Edited at 2024-07-15 04:52 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 04:07
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
The starting rate €0.10 psw.
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| Can you put a price on it? | Jul 15 |
It’s going to cost you your soul.
And your foot will be like Trump’s ear.
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 04:07
Spanish to English
+ ...
I don’t offer that kind of service to random clients any more. Most of the MT proofing or revision work I do these days consists of scientific or technical articles ‘translated’ by the authors themselves, who nowadays are obviously using automatic translation programs (or AI) on their material.
For example, I’ve just delivered one where the original MT had spat out “Headline” when the correct translation should have been “Full Professor” (the Spanish term “titular” cove... See more I don’t offer that kind of service to random clients any more. Most of the MT proofing or revision work I do these days consists of scientific or technical articles ‘translated’ by the authors themselves, who nowadays are obviously using automatic translation programs (or AI) on their material.
For example, I’ve just delivered one where the original MT had spat out “Headline” when the correct translation should have been “Full Professor” (the Spanish term “titular” covers both meanings). Spotting things like this can be fun… ▲ Collapse
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I try to get an hourly rate - and set it realistically high from the start.
(Basically I'm hoping the client will go away and annoy someone else  )
I have one good client who occasionally sends files in Trados and has a matrix, which varies per segment and probably averages somewhere around 60%. As these are small jobs, I do them, but I am never quite happy with them, and I probably would not accept them from... See more I try to get an hourly rate - and set it realistically high from the start.
(Basically I'm hoping the client will go away and annoy someone else )
I have one good client who occasionally sends files in Trados and has a matrix, which varies per segment and probably averages somewhere around 60%. As these are small jobs, I do them, but I am never quite happy with them, and I probably would not accept them from a new client.
But I am at the end of my career too. I am tryhing to learn to do it properly, but I am just so glad I don´t seriously have to make a living from MTPE!
[Edited at 2024-07-15 09:09 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 04:07
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
As Alex already stated, 60-70% is acceptable for NMT post-editing (DeepL, e.g.).
As far as LLM is concerned: until this day I haven't had a single request to post-edit a ChatGPT translated text. I suppose agencies know very well that LLM isn't the better option for the moment.
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| 0.10 cents per word | Jul 15 |
I never apply for MTPE, but often get asked to and I always refuse because I keep being proposed 0.01€ or 0.02€ and those times I get sent the file the quality is really not worth the headache.
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Richard Jenkins
Brazil
Local time: 23:07
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
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I'm glad this is an open discussion instead of being hidden away like a dirty secret.
Pretty much every job these days is some type of MTPE hybrid, such is life. I don't mind the extra volumes providing the quality is decent and customers are sensible with their requests and prices.
I work at 50% to 60% of my 'normal' or 'old' fee, providing the quality it good.
Please do NOT ask me to MTPE 1500 words per hour, it is offensive and ridiculous! I can barely e... See more I'm glad this is an open discussion instead of being hidden away like a dirty secret.
Pretty much every job these days is some type of MTPE hybrid, such is life. I don't mind the extra volumes providing the quality is decent and customers are sensible with their requests and prices.
I work at 50% to 60% of my 'normal' or 'old' fee, providing the quality it good.
Please do NOT ask me to MTPE 1500 words per hour, it is offensive and ridiculous! I can barely edit native English text at that rate! ▲ Collapse
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Liena Vijupe
Latvia
Local time: 05:07
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
+10% for the extra effort of having to delete and clean up the mess.
But what do I know. Earlier this year an agency from Greece wanted me to do MTPE for 0.03 cents per word and then told me that despite 13 years of daily experience in the exact subject field I do not meet their high quality standards. I should have probably apologised for ruining those beautiful and perfectly clear MT sentences with my ridiculous and incompetent corrections, but I didn't want them to know I've made... See more +10% for the extra effort of having to delete and clean up the mess.
But what do I know. Earlier this year an agency from Greece wanted me to do MTPE for 0.03 cents per word and then told me that despite 13 years of daily experience in the exact subject field I do not meet their high quality standards. I should have probably apologised for ruining those beautiful and perfectly clear MT sentences with my ridiculous and incompetent corrections, but I didn't want them to know I've made no effort at all. We should be glad the agencies haven't noticed it yet and are still sharing the money with us! ▲ Collapse
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| Airing dirty laundry | Jul 15 |
R. Alex Jenkins wrote:
I'm glad this is an open discussion instead of being hidden away like a dirty secret.
It most certainly is an embarrassing secret that should be hidden away. Accepting MTPE work at 50% is tacit acceptance that MT is 50% as good as you are. Is that a great thing to air in public?
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Liena Vijupe
Latvia
Local time: 05:07
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
| give the devil a little finger | Jul 15 |
Christopher Schröder wrote:
Accepting MTPE work at 50% is tacit acceptance that MT is 50% as good as you are
and allows to push for even lower rates because it's not so bad, is it? Either you rewrite everything and end up spending more time to earn less or only correct the most critical errors to make it worth your time, the agencies will think it's fine and they could probably save even more.
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... but the companies just want to pay 10%.
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