New? translator website Thread poster: neilmac
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 15:15
Spanish to English
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This morning I received an email inviting me to sign up to a new (to me anyway) website (www.translatorshome.com). I'd like to find out if anyone knows who is behind it - especially whether or not it is "officially" related to proz.com and if there is feedback available on the merits or otherwise of this site.
All I know is that after visiting it I had to go through at least 3 steps to get bac... See more This morning I received an email inviting me to sign up to a new (to me anyway) website (www.translatorshome.com). I'd like to find out if anyone knows who is behind it - especially whether or not it is "officially" related to proz.com and if there is feedback available on the merits or otherwise of this site.
All I know is that after visiting it I had to go through at least 3 steps to get back out, and had to log back in to proz, which suggests a strong link at least on the "mechanical" side, which I already find offputting in the same intrusive, "fait accompli" manner as Outlook and similar chimerae that do things unbidden. ▲ Collapse
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I don't know where they're from for sure but when you go to "Compmany Location" (sic), it shows the HQ in Dubaï!! I guess it's just another company of those trying to make money on our back.
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IMO looks like scam or just a really cheap "website"
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 15:15
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Christophe Delaunay wrote:
I don't know where they're from for sure but when you go to "Compmany Location" (sic), it shows the HQ in Dubaï!!
So let's assume for a moment that the head office is in Dubai. How does that change things?
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:15
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| I'll post feedback later, I hope | Jul 5, 2013 |
neilmac wrote:
I'd like to find out if anyone knows who is behind it - especially whether or not it is "officially" related to ProZ.com...
We can be 99.9% certain that it is not related to ProZ.com.
All I know is that after visiting it I had to go through at least 3 steps to get back out, and had to log back in to Proz.com, which suggests a strong link at least on the "mechanical" side...
I had no such difficulty. Visiting their site did not cause me to be logged out of ProZ.com, and I was able to get "back" out of it by pressing the back-button just once.
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They have a feature whereby you can see some of the new members. You can't view any profile pages if you're not logged in, and the only thing you can see about members is a photo, a first name, and a language. However, thanks to Google Image Search's reverse image search capability, I was able to track down several of their "new members", and some of them are ProZ.com members too. So I wrote to them to ask about the site. I'll post here again when I've had some feedback.
| | | | Attila Piróth
France
Local time: 15:15
Member
English to Hungarian
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| "thousands of skilled translators" | Jul 5, 2013 |
We have thousands of skilled translators ready to bid on your jobs and produce high quality job quickly and to budget.
So, where are all those translators? Click on the "search" button, without specifying source or target language, location, etc. A complete list comes up - with 6 pages. That's a whooping 90 profiles. They look entirely empty (at least if you are not logged in).
Compared to this, their physical location is indeed secondary.
| | | | | "Translators home" is not related to ProZ.com | Jul 5, 2013 |
Hello all,
The website you mention, neilmac, is in no way related to ProZ.com. Can you tell me if they state so in the message sent to you? Also, would you mind providing me with a copy of that message? This will help me to look into it further as well. Thanks!
Lucia
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:15
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| First dozens, then scores, then hundreds, then thousands | Jul 5, 2013 |
Attila Piróth wrote: They write:
We have thousands of skilled translators... So, where are all those translators? ... a whooping 90 profiles.
Well, I suppose if they were 101% honest, you could have expected them to start off with "dozens", and then later upgrade to "scores" (with 90 profiles, they're now at that level), and later "hundreds", etc. Personally, I don't fault them for that statement -- it is just marketing language. Clearly they hope to reach the "thousands" mark sooner or later. I would not judge a company's scamness by such a statement.
Their search feature does seem to be a bit off, though. I searched for "English-Spanish" translators in "United States" and got six results... none of which were in the United States and only three of which had Spanish in their language combinations. So I think it's safe to say that their search box is broken.
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Attila Piróth
France
Local time: 15:15
Member
English to Hungarian
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Samuel Murray wrote:
Well, I suppose if they were 101% honest, you could have expected them to start off with "dozens", and then later upgrade to "scores" (with 90 profiles, they're now at that level), and later "hundreds", etc. Personally, I don't fault them for that statement -- it is just marketing language. Clearly they hope to reach the "thousands" mark sooner or later. I would not judge a company's scamness by such a statement.
You know, Samuel, about two years ago a company in the UK won a huge contract. A contract that was worth about 50 million GBP per year. Previously, the company's annual turnover had been less than one-tenth of this amount.
It was estimated that about 1200 interpreters were required to fulfill the contract. The company said it had thousands of interpreters on their books. It was taken for granted.
From day 1, there were very serious problems. You certainly read about them. A parliamentary committee was set up to investigate the matters. It turned out that when the Framework Agreement took effect, the company had only 280 interpreters on their books who were qualified.
The consequence: the total destruction of the court interpreting profession in the UK. Speak to colleagues who had to leave the profession because a company chose to use similar "marketing language" that you defend here.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:15
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Very little feedback | Jul 9, 2013 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
However, thanks to Google Image Search's reverse image search capability, I was able to track down several of their "new members", and some of them are ProZ.com members too. So I wrote to them to ask about the site. I'll post here again when I've had some feedback.
Two out of six people replied. One said that she could not remember having registered, but certainly hasn't received any job offers yet. The other said that she almost certainly never registered there.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:15
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Attila Piróth wrote:
Speak to colleagues who had to leave the profession because a company chose to use similar "marketing language" that you defend here.
I hear what you're saying, but I don't think the two situations are comparable. When the company whose name used to start with "A" and now starts with "C" said that they had "thousands" of interpreters on their books, they did not make that statement to the public in a sales-talk context -- instead, they made the statement to the single customer for whom they were submitting a tender. The customer needed a specific number of interpreters and the company claimed specifically and in response to that specific question to have a number that exceeds it.
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