Train site staff in responding proportionally and not robotically
Thread poster: Chris Says Bye
Jul 1

Time after time, reasonable suggestions and discussions are shut down with reference to “site rules”. Very often there is no violation of site rules anyway, and sometimes it seems that it is down to a poor grasp of English, but site staff should at the very least give relevant and specific justifications for such actions.

This would give site users better customer service.


Jennifer Levey
Christel Zipfel
ibz
Cilian O'Tuama
Becca Resnik
Zea_Mays
Dan Lucas
 
ibz
ibz  Identity Verified
Local time: 22:01
English to German
+ ...
Absolutely Jul 1

Not sure anymore how to write a suggestion without violating any rule …

Jennifer Levey
Cilian O'Tuama
Barbara Carrara
P.L.F. Persio
 
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 18:01
SITE STAFF
Thanks Jul 1

Thanks Christopher and ibz. Agree; I think it was a bit hasty to close the thread which I imagine led to this one (a thread discussing a KudoZ rule in general, as I read it). It is relatively common that threads like that devolve into discussion of specific administrative or moderator actions, which was the rule cited. Hopefully that will not happen in this case. I've unlocked the thread.

ibz
Jennifer Levey
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Cilian O'Tuama
Cilian O'Tuama  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:01
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+ ...
And why is this thread no longer visible? Jul 1

Plenty of "things" are closed/hidden hastily (and unwisely), if I may say so w/o being banned from the site forever.

 
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 18:01
SITE STAFF
ProZ.com staff exercise editorial control over what appears on the homepage Jul 2


And why is this thread no longer visible?

Plenty of "things" are closed/hidden hastily (and unwisely), if I may say so w/o being banned from the site forever.


Cilian, why would you be banned from the site? Forever is a relatively long time. Maybe I missed something?

However, this comes up every now and then, and I will address it again here now: staff do exercise editorial control over what appears on the home page, including forum threads, and the recent threads list, absolutely (assuming that is what you are referring to). The home page is "prime real estate", so to speak. And the ProZ.com forums' purpose is to provide a space for people to request and give assistance related to language service work, business, and related issues, so those are the threads which receive priority. https://www.proz.com/faq/3094#3094


 
Cilian O'Tuama
Cilian O'Tuama  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:01
German to English
+ ...
"Forever is a long time" Jul 2

I'd agree with you there.

But most of us would get on just fine without ANY staff intervention or censorship! Most of us are "normal" and know how to interact with others. Of course there will be disagreements - that's only human - and there's nothing wrong about that. Let us argue amongst ourselves!!!

Whew.
"Why would I be banned from the site?", you asked:
Well, recently I've received so m
... See more
I'd agree with you there.

But most of us would get on just fine without ANY staff intervention or censorship! Most of us are "normal" and know how to interact with others. Of course there will be disagreements - that's only human - and there's nothing wrong about that. Let us argue amongst ourselves!!!

Whew.
"Why would I be banned from the site?", you asked:
Well, recently I've received so many notifications from Proz that my contributions/comments have been hidden and that further "violations" on my part will result in whatever (seemingly drastic measures). All my comments now require vetting.

(The above is not just about the homepage.)

(Posted at 2:45 on July 2 - Don't know if or when it will have been vetted/approved.)
Collapse


Becca Resnik
Chris Says Bye
P.L.F. Persio
 
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 18:01
SITE STAFF
But at the same time, not so long Jul 2

Cilian O'Tuama wrote:
But most of us would get on just fine without ANY staff intervention or censorship! Most of us are "normal" and know how to interact with others.


That is probably true. You might be surprised, however, at how much time it takes to attend to the handful who cannot agree to maintain a results-oriented environment, to the detriment of every-one-else.

Censorship. Kind of a non-starter. ProZ.com is not a "free speech zone". As a place with a limited scope, you cannot expect to say anything you want in any way you want. There are so many other places where you can do that if you want to nowadays. The site's rules exist, and have existed for a long time now, in the interest of providing a different type of environment. If the argument is "we don't need any rules, let us do things however we want", I'm afraid that, in the context of a global community, here on ProZ.com, that is not going to happen. If the argument is "site rules could be applied more consistently across the board", well, I'm up for that, and that is probably always going to be true where humans are involved.


Chris Says Bye
P.L.F. Persio
 
Cilian O'Tuama
Cilian O'Tuama  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:01
German to English
+ ...
And why is this still not visible on the homepage? Jul 2

Just wondering.

Thought we were making progress.

(Posted at 03:10 on July 2 - Don't know if or when it will have been vetted/approved.)


 
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 18:01
SITE STAFF
ProZ.com staff exercise editorial control over what appears on the homepage (again) Jul 2

Cilian O'Tuama wrote:
And why is this still not visible on the homepage?

Just wondering.


Why would I put it on the homepage?

See my post in this same thread, https://www.proz.com/post/3046943#3046943


 
Cilian O'Tuama
Cilian O'Tuama  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:01
German to English
+ ...
Because it's a "suggestion for improvement" Jul 2

and some of us have ticked that forum to appear on our homepage.

I did and it doesn't.


Chris Says Bye
 
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 18:01
SITE STAFF
Suggestion taken Jul 2

Cilian O'Tuama wrote:
Because it's a "suggestion for improvement"

and some of us have ticked that forum to appear on our homepage.

I did and it doesn't.


I'll be as straightforward as I can be on this one: not a huge priority, though I may not be understanding the issue fully. Staff exercise editorial control over what appears on the homepage (to be clear, this is used pretty infrequently). I would be fully in favor of allowing paying members to override that control, however. I will add this to the development queue.


 
Cilian O'Tuama
Cilian O'Tuama  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:01
German to English
+ ...
Do you expect it to appear anytime soon? Jul 2

Cilian, non-payer

 
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 18:01
SITE STAFF
Dunno Jul 2

Cilian O'Tuama wrote:

Do you expect it to appear anytime soon?

Cilian, non-payer


Probably not terribly soon, but maybe I'm wrong and it's quick and easy to add in amongst other things being developed. When implementing suggestions, how many paying members the suggestion will benefit and the possible concrete impact on the member does get weighed, since they are paying for it. And there is a lot to do.

Having said that, I'm back to work, and I'll let this thread get back on topic, since otherwise I've got to remove this whole exchange as OT.


 
Barbara Carrara
Barbara Carrara  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 22:01
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
Cilian Jul 2

Cilian O'Tuama wrote:

Do you expect it to appear anytime soon?


To check the Forum timeline, and therefore that your own posts show up as soon as you post them, you have to click on 'Recent translation forum posts' top right of the 'Recent topics in translator forums' section on the homepage.

HTH


 
Chris Says Bye
Chris Says Bye
TOPIC STARTER
Consistency Jul 2

Jared Tabor wrote:
Agree; I think it was a bit hasty to close the thread which I imagine led to this one

It did indeed prompt this one. But more generally, when a post is deemed worthy of administrative action, there is some inconsistency in what happens. Sometimes you are invited to edit your post, and sometimes not. Sometimes the post is hidden, and sometimes it is deleted. Sometimes the email from ProZ tells you which post has been actioned, and sometimes it doesn't. There is no reply email where you can challenge an inappropriate administrative action. It seems that the system could be made more user-friendly (for us, that is).

As a hypothetical example, if a hypothetical user in, say, the UK used the perfectly innocent English idiom "teach your grandmother to suck eggs" and a hypothetical staff member in, say, Argentina deleted the post and banned the user from the forums for a month because they misunderstood the phrase as being obscene based on an alternative meaning of the Spanish word for eggs, it would be reasonable for there to be a right of reply.

Untitled


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Train site staff in responding proportionally and not robotically






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