Is it true that you can no longer search by language variant? Thread poster: Sheila Wilson
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Sheila Wilson 
Spain
Local time: 14:07
Member (2007)
English
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I tried to search for members/users who specialise in English, i.e. either localising from one variant to their native one or simply working on monolingual English texts (editing, QA, etc). Is that un unreasonable expectation, I wonder?
The long-standing directory search only allows you to search by language, not variant. So although you can specify EN>EN as the top/only pair, plus EN as native language, you're going to get a list of all variants mixed up.
The new Find ... See more I tried to search for members/users who specialise in English, i.e. either localising from one variant to their native one or simply working on monolingual English texts (editing, QA, etc). Is that un unreasonable expectation, I wonder?
The long-standing directory search only allows you to search by language, not variant. So although you can specify EN>EN as the top/only pair, plus EN as native language, you're going to get a list of all variants mixed up.
The new Find search seems totally abysmal! If you look under "proofreading", which is the closest category to the one I'm looking for (as the job involves QA checks of US>UK localisation), you have to supply two totally different languages. English to Middle English is possible, but not American to British! In fact, looking for an English specialist in the Find feature is pretty useless. You can select "editing" in the "other" services section and then you're just offered a single language. But again, no variant is offered. You are then asked to select on "field" and then given a list of a few other filters, none of which apply to the search I need to make. I clicked "other", thinking that would come up with something helpful, but it seems to have no function whatsoever. The first three selected do indeed (almost) meet my criteria. They all have an entry of "★ Specializes in English" which is exactly what I need, although one is an American native speaker. But the fourth is a native speaker of Russian who doesn't even claim English as a second native language. He simply has English monolingual as his third pair. But he does have a total of 14,457 KudoZ points! Interestingly enough, I myself have EN>EN as my top pair and British English as my only native language but I'm only on page eight  . It seems as though Kudoz points override the selection criteria. Shouldn't it be the other way around?
Interestingly enough, just scanning through them, I don't think there's one single name on the first page of one that appears on the first page of the other!!!
There used to be a "new" directory search feature. It never worked reliably but you could at least specify variants, native language, monolingual pairs, and top/only pair. Has this now been replaced with something that seems pretty useless? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Try Editing? | May 11, 2019 |
Hello Sheila,
Could the Editing category be more suited to your research?
It does seem to require setting only one language, and allows you to define language variants.
Here is a quick link: https://www.proz.com/find?st=20&q=
After setting the language you seek, you can define variants in More language options.
[Edit: After choosing Engli... See more Hello Sheila,
Could the Editing category be more suited to your research?
It does seem to require setting only one language, and allows you to define language variants.
Here is a quick link: https://www.proz.com/find?st=20&q=
After setting the language you seek, you can define variants in More language options.
[Edit: After choosing English and, then British or US, when I launch the search I get an HTTP ERROR 500. WTF?
After some trial and error, I have just successfully conducted a search by choosing English, then setting the Native language and Native language variant, but leaving the first option "Target language variant" unchecked. This option is hidden afterwards. Not a smooth experience…]
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It is telling that a tenured user has this kind of feedback for the Find search feature. I hope less experienced users (and, hopefully, clients) do find what they are looking for, without having to resort to other means, which would defeat the purpose of the ProZ directory search…
Jean
[Edited at 2019-05-11 14:29 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No choice of variant when using standard navigation | May 11, 2019 |
If you start in the Proz main menu, choose Proz Find, then Editing, choosing English and skipping all other filters, you end up here:
https://www.proz.com/find?mlwz=eng&st=20&q=&ml=eng&nit=y
Under More language options, there is no choice of variant.
The URL you mentioned has a Target variant option, but no source variant option, so it's stil... See more If you start in the Proz main menu, choose Proz Find, then Editing, choosing English and skipping all other filters, you end up here:
https://www.proz.com/find?mlwz=eng&st=20&q=&ml=eng&nit=y
Under More language options, there is no choice of variant.
The URL you mentioned has a Target variant option, but no source variant option, so it's still not good enough.
It's also unclear in which category one is expected to look to find localisation from US to UK English, Swiss German to German German, Canadian French to French French, etc. The Find function has a Website/software localisation category, but why should only websites and software be localised? What about user manuals? Why does Proz need to restrict what can be localised?
Nobody seems to have given this a thought when this feature was designed. ▲ Collapse
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@Thomas
I confirm there is no choice for setting a language variant when using the wizard for Editing, and the URL you provide does not allow setting it later either.
In the manual search: https://www.proz.com/find?st=20&q= you can choose the Native language, in More language options, then the Native language variant is also offered as a choice.
Something is defin... See more @Thomas
I confirm there is no choice for setting a language variant when using the wizard for Editing, and the URL you provide does not allow setting it later either.
In the manual search: https://www.proz.com/find?st=20&q= you can choose the Native language, in More language options, then the Native language variant is also offered as a choice.
Something is definitely rotten in the state of ProZ Find…
[Edited at 2019-05-11 14:34 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| Manual search | May 11, 2019 |
How do you navigate to the manual search?
Yes, there is native language, but that would typically be the same as the target language, and we're looking for source and target here, not simply native language.
In any case, it looks like a bug that the filter options vary, based on how you reach the Find results screen.
At least we now have the fantastic option of paying a higher annual subscription to be allowed to chat in a Facebook forum.
| | | | | Manual search | May 11, 2019 |
To do that, I went to the ProZ Find home page: https://www.proz.com/find and selected "Skip - go directly to search" at the bottom.
I too would expect the ability to set the Target language variant, not simply the Native language variant, and not only in Editing, but also in other categories, consistently.
I think this is a serious oversight, and should be fixed soon.
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Thanks. So it's a subversive wizard.
>I too would expect the ability to set the Target language variant, not simply the Native language variant, and not only in Editing, but also in other categories, consistently.
And the source variant, perhaps.
And it may not be a good idea under Translation and possibly elsewhere to prevent the source and target main languages from being the same, as the user may need different variants of the same main language.
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 14:07
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Glad it wasn't just me | May 12, 2019 |
I did wonder whether I'd become even less IT-able than before, if that's even possible.
As it's now confirmed to be functionality that has been removed from the site, and it's something that directly affects my own livelihood, I definitely want some action on this. And soon. I pay ProZ.com to provide me with visibility. If I fully complete my profile, with variants etc., clients should be able to filter by those criteria and find me easily and quickly.
@ Jean: it took ... See more I did wonder whether I'd become even less IT-able than before, if that's even possible.
As it's now confirmed to be functionality that has been removed from the site, and it's something that directly affects my own livelihood, I definitely want some action on this. And soon. I pay ProZ.com to provide me with visibility. If I fully complete my profile, with variants etc., clients should be able to filter by those criteria and find me easily and quickly.
@ Jean: it took me a while to figure out how to get to that screen - not intuitive at all. And when I finally got to put in the variants for target and native language, I got a big fat nothing. A totally blank screen. Repeatedly; not a one-off glitch. ▲ Collapse
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Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 14:07
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Support ticket | May 14, 2019 |
I've now sent a support ticket so hopefully there will be some improvement at some time.
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