Update on changes made to the ProZ.com job posting system, 16 April, 2010

David Moore wrote:
One factor appears not to have been addressed up to this point. In these days of e-correspondence, it is so easy for a customer in Germany to contact TA's in India, China, and other "threshold countries", where translation rates are generally much lower than here, for cheaper translations than are available locally. This also applies to a certain extent to the Americas, from where I have feedback that my rates are "far too high to be considered for translation work" there. Okay, that's my privilege, and if I have so much work already that I can't accept their lower rates, then I don't accept it anyway.

The point I am making is that if an Indian or Chinese (or American!) TA approaches me with a project in a speciality field of mine, I may well shave my rates notwithstanding the fact that bank charges may be incurred and so on. Am I then excluded from receiving job notifications in similar cases, based on the rates offered? And if so, is there anything which can be done about this without undue complications?

If not, I'm quite happy to continue as at present - most of my approaches come via the profile page anyway - though I often have to say "I cannot accept your (Chinese, Indian, American) rates, because I am living in Germany".

Tomas Mosler wrote:
Actually, is this 80 % etc. info shown only in the ad (for translators), or already during the job posting process - for the outsourcer? From the wording of Jared's post it is not too clear to me, so I wouldn't be so sure that outsourcers are made aware of that with this change?