| Stranica u temi: < [1 2] | Tired of askers not providing context Postavljač teme: Fiona Grace Peterson
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| a strange word, indeed | Jun 23, 2009 |
Özden Arıkan wrote:
...some think asking for context is a form of harassment from the potential answerer
My experience exactly!
When prompted for more context, many askers seem to be taken aback, which has led me to believe that a simple misunderstanding of that word must be at the root of it all! Some askers seem to think that context must be:
- a typo for “convex”, referring to the weird shape of some ProZ.com Software that they must have failed to install
- an obscure legal term, probably a waiver of some sort ?
- a Spanish slang word for a “hyphenate all”, making your question high priority
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Özden Arıkan wrote:
Some of them think context is a paragraph to paste from the text, some think asking for context is a form of harassment from the potential answerer, some of them think bad translators would need context. Once, I was scolded by a certified professional that a term would be the same term with or without context, that I was committing this crime of asking context all the time (which makes me a repeat offender, I guess).
These should go to the vet, too!
| | | | Susanna Garcia 
Local time: 04:59
talijanski na engleski
+ ...
U sjećanje
I think that I may be the guilty party here and, if so, I apologise for any unintentional aggravation....I thought the information supplied was sufficient but obviously not, although, to be fair, some answerers didn't have a problem.
Mea culpa.
Suzi
| | | | Ian Forbes
Novi Zeland
Local time: 17:59
Član (2007)
indonezijski na engleski
+ ...
give the moderators the power to remove KudoZ questions which do not provide sufficient context? They already have the power to remove questions which have too many words, are deemed offensive etc. I’m sure that the moderators in my language pair would be happy to oblige in this regard.
(Apologies if this has been suggested previously)
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Henry Hinds
Sjedinjene Američke Države
Local time: 22:59
engleski na španjolski
+ ...
U sjećanje
I'm one the those who is always screaming for it, so I suppose I should contribute something. I would guess that the problem is a mixture of all that has been mentioned so far, including laziness, disregard for those who are helping and overall cluelessness, but the main reason could be a true lack of understanding of what CONTEXT really is, and how important it is. It is also apparent that many people in our field have never received any instruction on the subject or even pondered it on their o... See more I'm one the those who is always screaming for it, so I suppose I should contribute something. I would guess that the problem is a mixture of all that has been mentioned so far, including laziness, disregard for those who are helping and overall cluelessness, but the main reason could be a true lack of understanding of what CONTEXT really is, and how important it is. It is also apparent that many people in our field have never received any instruction on the subject or even pondered it on their own.
In its most basic form, CONTEXT can be understood to be additional text around the term requested so an answerer can get a handle on the subject. Words do not live alone; they live in a society and are a part of a whole, so that whole needs to be understood. We translate ideas, not words, so therefore the idea needs to be expressed through the CONTEXT.
In addition to the above, a good explanation may be necessary to supplement extra text supplied as CONTEXT. In so many circumstances the simple use of common sense can be very helpful in determining what to provide. Yet common sense is not always that common, it needs to be developed.
But that is only a part of the story. In pairs like mine (EnglishSpanish) these two languages themselves cover a lot of the world comprising many different nations and societies. Thus, knowing both origin and destination is often of great importance, because local usage, institutions, legal systems, etc. can vary greatly, and the answer may have to be specific to those factors.
Perhaps some kind of reference can be developed to help people with the idea of CONTEXT which is really quite broad. I am not offering to do it myself, but I would certainly be pleased to contribute what I can to the subject. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Russell Jones
Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo
Local time: 04:59
talijanski na engleski
I don't ask many questions. When I do though, it is often because the unintelligible phrase is nothing whatever to do with the rest of the document and it is the complete absence of relevant context which has created the difficulty.
Sometimes we just have to trust our professional colleagues' judgement.
Perhaps too often - and I am guilty myself - a question is treated as a challenge to find the answer, rather than responded to because we already know the answer - and the c... See more I don't ask many questions. When I do though, it is often because the unintelligible phrase is nothing whatever to do with the rest of the document and it is the complete absence of relevant context which has created the difficulty.
Sometimes we just have to trust our professional colleagues' judgement.
Perhaps too often - and I am guilty myself - a question is treated as a challenge to find the answer, rather than responded to because we already know the answer - and the context it comes from - or have it somewhere in our glossaries. Sometimes only the latter approach will do.
It is worth considering - and I speak from experience - just how irritating it can be to be asked for more context when you have comprehensively given all the background information you have available. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No more context? Then tell us! | Jun 24, 2009 |
Russell Jones wrote:
It is worth considering - and I speak from experience - just how irritating it can be to be asked for more context when you have comprehensively given all the background information you have available.
But we don't really know how much information is available... In situations in which you don't have any more context, please state it so that we can know!
| | | | Ron Willems
Nizozemska
Local time: 05:59
Član
engleski na nizozemski
| Sentence(s)/paragraph should be a required field | Jul 3, 2009 |
Aniello Scognamiglio wrote:
One possible solution is to implement a required field, a context field that must be filled with the best possible description of the context.
I agree wholeheartedly that it should be required to provide context (really astonishing that it hasn't been made a requirement until now - there's just a reminder in the rules). But don't ask them for "context" (let alone for a "description" of it!), for many don't know what it is, as was pointed out many times in this thread.
Instead, make it obligatory to paste the surrounding sentence(s) (or paragraph) in a new required field. In 80% of cases that provides enough context to enable us to answer the question without wasting time on second-guessing or asking for more of that elusive "context".
Surely even a newbie can understand what it means to paste a sentence in a box.
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Suggestion: perhaps you could raise it with the KudoZ Moderators in your pair, or open a thread in your language forum ...
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