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Experts and administrators of cucumis.org

Experts and administrators of cucumis.org

Duties and responsibilities of the cucumis.org expert


1 The expert has special status for one language (and sometimes, more than one). The expert can only rate the translations done in this language.

2 The expert visits cucumis.org regularly to check the translations done by the members.

3 When the translation is very good, the translation is accepted without editing with a very good rating. See below for more details on ratings.

4 When the translation is good but containing some minor mistakes, it's edited first and then accepted. See below for more details on ratings.

5 When the translation is not good enough, it's rejected (see below for more details on rejected translation ratings). It's very important to post a message above the rejected translation (or directly into the user's inbox if necessary), in order he or she doesn't make the same mistake twice.

6 I know that most of us are translating out of love and don't care about the earned points but you should know that when accepting or rejecting translations you earn a small percent of the translation cost.

7 Read and remember these very important guidelines about how to translate on cucumis.

8 There is a RSS feed (updated everyday) that you can use to be informed of any new translations to be evaluated for the languages you are expert in. You can find this stream on the page showing the lists of translations to be evaluated (select the target languages you are expert in), by clicking on the icon RSS. Don't hesitate to use this stream in your favorite RSS reader (netvibes, google reader and many others).

9 Keep cool ! Adopt a rythm that you can maintain for a long time. The experience has shown that new experts who translate and evaluate hundreds of translation during their first days, don't last very long on cucumis. So, keep cool...

10 While evaluating translations, pay attention to talented translators that could become an expert like you. Drop a message to an administrator about it. Working in a team is always more enjoyable and more efficient. Moreover, they can replace you when your life make it less easy to spend some time on cucumis.

11- Experts visit the site regularly not only to check the translations done into their languages of expertise and that are to be evaluated, but also to check the requests in their languages that may need some corrections before being translated (mainly misspellings) when submitted by a non-native speaker.
Any request which is out of frame according to these submission rules must be notified to the admins and put in standby.



Ratings


1 The rating you give to a translation only concerns the translator's ability to write in the target language.

2 For example, if I'm a French native speaker, I can do a very bad translation from English to French (wrong meaning) but written in a perfect French. In this case you could reject the translation with a high rating (or no rating at all, see below).

3 When rejecting a translation, you can choose the option "No rating" which will have no effect on the global user rating for the target language.

4 For example, in the case of a translation rejected because it is not the right language, you should reject the translation without any rating.



What little things do I have to check before accepting/approving a translation?


1 When you accept a translation that is not "meaning only", it's automatically integrated in these statistics. They are very important as they are used to calculate the cost of each translation request. Check that there aren't any comments in the translation, or any double translation otherwise the statistics will be distorted.

2 Check the structure of the sentences and the punctuation, which must be correct in the target language even if the original is faulty.
Although not recommended, notice that some users introduce a request written completely in capital letters. Unless it is expressly required by the poster in the remark field, the translation must read correctly using caps only where the script in the target language requires.

3 Check that the title is in the right language. The title does not have to be a translation of the original title.



Translations to check


1 On the left menu of the translation home page, there are several items of the side menu that will appear in red when you have to check them.

2 "Rejected translations to be confirmed". This item corresponds to done translations but that has been rejected by the user who requested it. It means the translation seems bad to him/her. The translation is not yet rejected, you can definitely reject it or accept it if it's good. It's must be checked in priority.

3 "Pages to check". This page corresponds to pages that have been "red-flaged" by users. One you corrected the translation, don't forget to remove the "red-flag" by clicking on the [Delete] button.

4 "Translations in standby". Only available for administrators. You can put a requested translation in standby when you think it must not be shown to the translators without a correction. It's an alternative for not having to remove the request when we detect a problem in it.


What to do if I don't understand the source language?


1 First, look at the profile of the translator (age, native language, former translations, languages that can be read) and try to evaluate the care that has been put into the translation.

2 Most of the careless translations are done by new users who are testing the service.

3 Try to find help from other members and experts who understand the source language. By clicking on the "I can't understand the source text" button, the translation will be submitted to the votes of all members who can understand the both languages. After a few days, you just have to look at the results to make up your mind.

4 Finally, if you are not statisfied with the members votes, you can still ask the translator directly for a confirmation. If the member replies to you, it's already a very good sign.

5 Don't evaluate translations if you are still not sure after all of your research.

6 There is another option. When posting a message below a translation, you can choose to alert an expert about this message. The experts you notify, will receive a message in their inbox that invites them to check the translation.



Meaning only


1 "Meaning only" translations correspond to requests focused on the meaning and not on the form. You can accept the translation even if the form is approximative (only if the meaning is right of course). You must ask yourself this question : If I was the user who requested the translation, would I understand the meaning of the source text reading this translation? If the answer is "Yes", you can accept it. Of course you can use the poll to help you to evaluate these translations.

2 Sometimes, a request is not "meaning only", whereas it should be. Edit the translation to make it "meaning only". Source texts with an approximative form, or in an unknown language or mixed languages, or sms language, etc... should be changed into "meaning only".



Our private forum


1 Our private forum (in English assuming that all of us can write and understand English adequately) is only accessible by experts and administrators of cucumis.org. Use it to submit your questions and suggestions.

2 The administrators of cucumis.org are experts with additional rights. They are usually experienced users of cucumis.org and you can trust their answers.



Administrators


1 Administrators' user names are written in red.

2 Administrators may have several rights and privileges. They can:
- level 1 : Build and manage (edit/delete messages) one forum for one language.
- level 2 : Accept/reject/edit/change language/delete target languages for all translations/all languages. They can do almost everything on cucumis, thus you can ask them to do the things you can't do. Administrators of level 2 and more are highlighted with this sign Administrator level 2. Even if they can technically evaluate all languages, they usually still only evaluate the languages they are expert in. Even if a positive poll is shown about the translation meaning, don't evaluate translations if you are not an expert of the target language.
- level 3 : Remove source languages (completely).
- level 4 : Ban members, edit member profiles, give privileges, etc...


Ujumbe wa hivi karibuni

Mwandishi
Ujumbe

11 Aprili 2007 16:11

Una Smith
Idadi ya ujumbe: 429
In the instructions about rating the translation by the grammar and style of the target text, please include how to rate the translation when poor grammar or style reflect poor grammar or style of the source text.

16 Aprili 2007 17:00

cucumis
Idadi ya ujumbe: 3785
Yes, actually, maybe I should create a new article with case studies, because this one is becoming too heavy. Will add this in the todo list and discuss this on the fourm.

1 Mei 2007 18:16

nava91
Idadi ya ujumbe: 1268
The "s" on "experts"?

12 Mei 2007 03:13

jreyest
Idadi ya ujumbe: 55
"nitify" or notify?

11 Februari 2008 13:03

anna-geo
Idadi ya ujumbe: 22
"The title does not have to be a translation of the original title."
can somebody explain me this sentence please.
thanks

11 Februari 2008 13:08

goncin
Idadi ya ujumbe: 3706
anna-geo,

This sentence means that the translation title doesn't need to match with a hypothetical translation of the source text title. Very often the title is in a language other than the source text (generally in the target language, or any language the requester can deal with).

Hope it helps,

11 Februari 2008 15:30

anna-geo
Idadi ya ujumbe: 22
Thanks a lot.
Greetings!

20 Aprili 2008 03:13

nokorr
Idadi ya ujumbe: 5
I want to be expert of kurdish language. What can i do to be expert