| Pages in topic: [1 2 3] > | TM Town... and what if you only work with clients' TM's? Thread poster: Arjan van den Berg
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Maybe it has come up earlier, but if, I don't think it got the attention it deserved.
Apart from issues about confidentiality and intrusive marketing, my main problem is that TM Town thinks that professional translators work with their own TM's all the time. For 50% of my clients I work with a TM on their server and for the other 50% I get TM's from my clients, which are composed of translated segments by a lot of other translators besides me. In the last case I would be able to cre... See more Maybe it has come up earlier, but if, I don't think it got the attention it deserved.
Apart from issues about confidentiality and intrusive marketing, my main problem is that TM Town thinks that professional translators work with their own TM's all the time. For 50% of my clients I work with a TM on their server and for the other 50% I get TM's from my clients, which are composed of translated segments by a lot of other translators besides me. In the last case I would be able to create my own private TM, but even then I would use the work of colleagues (when their translations are good).
It's a long time ago that I got a Word file from a client and translated it using my CAT tool. In my case I can say that as my business became more professional, working with better paying, more professional agency's and clients, I was asked to use their TM's more and more.
Of course it's out of the question that someone would use a client's TM's to score well in TM Town, so I guess translators like me will not show up in any searches in TM Town.
[Edited at 2016-07-11 06:11 GMT]
[Edited at 2016-07-11 07:23 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Exactly my point I am mostly concerned about | Jul 11, 2016 |
Arjan van den Berg wrote:
Maybe it has come up earlier, but if, I don't think it got the attention it deserved.
Apart from issues about confidentiality and intrusive marketing, my main problem is that TM Town thinks that professional translators work with their own TM's all the time. For 50% of my clients I work with a TM on their server and for the other 50% I get TM's from my clients, which are composed of translated segments by a lot of other translators besides me. In the last case I would be able to create my own private TM, but even then I would use the work of colleagues (when their translations are good).
It's a long time ago that I got a Word file from a client and translated it using my CAT tool. In my case I can say that as my business became more professional, working with better paying, more professional agency's and clients, I was asked to use their TM's more and more.
Of course it's out of the question that somone would use a client's TM's to score well in TM Town, so I guess translators like me will not show up in any searches in TM Town.
Thank you for starting this topic, Arjan. I think a lot of the "top ranking colleagues" in TM Town have already build up their "success" exactly on this weak point and I wonder what position I will take after uploading all of my TMs
[Edited at 2016-07-11 06:22 GMT]
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:38
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Arjan van den Berg wrote:
Maybe it has come up earlier, but if, I don't think it got the attention it deserved.
Apart from issues about confidentiality and intrusive marketing, my main problem is that TM Town thinks that professional translators work with their own TM's all the time. For 50% of my clients I work with a TM on their server and for the other 50% I get TM's from my clients, which are composed of translated segments by a lot of other translators besides me. In the last case I would be able to create my own private TM, but even then I would use the work of colleagues (when their translations are good).
It's a long time ago that I got a Word file from a client and translated it using my CAT tool. In my case I can say that as my business became more professional, working with better paying, more professional agency's and clients, I was asked to use their TM's more and more.
Of course it's out of the question that someone would use a client's TM's to score well in TM Town, so I guess translators like me will not show up in any searches in TM Town.
I don't work with TMs at all but occasionally a client sends me one in the hope that I'll use it. They're always full of mistakes, or contain terms I would not use.
Like you, Arjan and, I suspect, many others, I'll certainly not be appearing in any searches that use TM Town.
[Edited at 2016-07-11 08:05 GMT]
| | | | | It did come up earlier... | Jul 11, 2016 |
And actually, in addition to using others' TMs, one could quite easily create TMs from nothing (even through MT), using source texts of fields they're interested in and use those. It doesn't really matter if those TMs are just rubbish...
This and other aspects were discussed here, for instance.
As for conf... See more And actually, in addition to using others' TMs, one could quite easily create TMs from nothing (even through MT), using source texts of fields they're interested in and use those. It doesn't really matter if those TMs are just rubbish...
This and other aspects were discussed here, for instance.
As for confidentiality (since this is something that keeps popping up all over the place), if you have a TU where the source says something like, for instance: "This is a really confidential string about a very important trade secret", if you use TM-Town's offline tool, the resulting file will say something like "important, very, secret, trade, about, confidential, string, really, this", so I believe that the confidentiality of single words is at least debatable... ▲ Collapse
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| Miro, I don't care that other people can cheat, | Jul 11, 2016 |
I care that I won't be able to be visible in TM Town without cheating.
| | | | Jo Macdonald 
Spain
Local time: 11:38
Italian to English
+ ...
| Searching for translators on TM-Town | Jul 11, 2016 |
If you have none of your own TMs or don't want to upload them I think they have an alignment function called dehshi or something where you can match the original with the translation or something like that after deleting any parts you don't want to upload such as names or whatever.
I joined TM-Town to give it a try and uploaded some small TM's containing only my work, using the text matching system looked like it could be pretty time consuming but I haven't tried it so.....
... See more If you have none of your own TMs or don't want to upload them I think they have an alignment function called dehshi or something where you can match the original with the translation or something like that after deleting any parts you don't want to upload such as names or whatever.
I joined TM-Town to give it a try and uploaded some small TM's containing only my work, using the text matching system looked like it could be pretty time consuming but I haven't tried it so.....
As for visibility, it looks like there are now 2 ways to search for translators on TM-Town, Directory Search and Nakodo.
The directory search looks pretty much like a Proz search but I don't know what the ranking is based on. As far as I know the Nakodo search is supposed to match what the client has to translate with work you've done in the past and uploaded to TM-Town.
If I search for an ITA-ENG translator on TM Town I appear on the first page of the Directory Search. Most of the other translators on the first page are ITA-ENG translators I know to be reputable translators from Proz although there are also some who I don't know, are not English mother tongue, and are offering rates as low as $0,03/word.
If I post a pretty specialised automotive text (125 words) in the Nakodo search engine, it looks like the only word it uses to search for a translator is "aperta" (open), which is not exactly a word I'd call specific or specialised. I place fourth in the results for translating "open" despite being the only translator in those results with "automotive" as a specialisation, so imo although the search functions do work they definitely need tweaking a bit perhaps by including a "specialisation field" box in the Nakodo and Directory search fields.
[Edited at 2016-07-11 11:24 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | That was clear from the onset... | Jul 11, 2016 |
Arjan van den Berg wrote:
I care that I won't be able to be visible in TM Town without cheating.
It was clear from the onset that TM-Town would only benefit those able (and willing) to upload TMs (or TMs analyses), and I don't like that either, for a number of reasons.
| | | | | Number of segments | Jul 11, 2016 |
Jo Macdonald wrote:
The directory search looks pretty much like a Proz search but I don't know what the ranking is based on.
Number of uploaded translation units (total or per field), I believe...
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Mirko Mainardi wrote: Jo Macdonald wrote:
The directory search looks pretty much like a Proz search but I don't know what the ranking is based on. Number of uploaded translation units (total or per field), I believe...
It's based wholly on the number of units uploaded, nothing else as far as I can see. I did create a profile and upload my TM back when they were still in Beta; or just came out of it, I don't remember. To date, with the exception of having a really pretty profile, it has yet to bear any fruit. So it has not been of any real benefit - at least not to me.
I keep it active just in case however.
| | | | Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 12:38
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
| So I guessed right | Jul 11, 2016 |
When I had a look at TM Town I wondered why I was supposed to upload my TMs. I have no intention to do that and I'm not interested in other translators TMs. So I quit the TM Town page and have no intention to go back.
TMs are only useful if one does work with the same customer and source author for years. Texts of other origin are not covered by a TM, even if the subject is the same.
I wouldn't mind to share glossaries.
| | | | | Well I really can't | Jul 11, 2016 |
Heinrich Pesch wrote:
When I had a look at TM Town I wondered why I was supposed to upload my TMs. I have no intention to do that and I'm not interested in other translators TMs.
I checked but being a legal translator, I will certainly be suited by my main client, even if TMs are always mine, as they never send TMs, those are very very very sensitive data and of course submitted to strict NDAs.
I gave a try by upolading my only public translation which won the 2007 contest, but I can't upload nothing more.
For me it is really impossibile.
Edited for typos, sorry
[Edited at 2016-07-11 14:25 GMT]
| | | | Michael Beijer
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:38
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
| use "Deshi" desktop application instead of uploading TMs | Jul 11, 2016 |
Angie Garbarino wrote: Heinrich Pesch wrote:
When I had a look at TM Town I wondered why I was supposed to upload my TMs. I have no intention to do that and I'm not interested in other translators TMs.
I checked but being a legal translator, I will certainly be suited by my main client, even if TMs are always mine, as they never send TMs, those are very very very sensitive data and of course submitted to strict NDAs. I gave a try by upolading my only public translation which won the 2007 contest, but I can't upload nothing more. For me it is really impossibile. Edited for typos, sorry [Edited at 2016-07-11 14:25 GMT]
Hi Angie,
Sadly, this misconception about TM-Town is voiced at least once a day these days. There is no need to upload your TMs. You can also use the desktop application called "Deshi", which extracts terms from your TMs and sends only a .txt file (which you can open and review), with a short list of terms with zero context.
Michael
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Michael J.W. Beijer wrote:
Hi Angie,
Sadly, this misconception about TM-Town is voiced at least once a day these days. There is no need to upload your TMs. You can also use the desktop application called "Deshi", which extracts terms from your TMs and sends only a .txt file (which you can open and review), with a short list of terms with zero context.
Michael
I need their permssion, thanks anyway for explaining, I will think about it...
| | | | Michael Beijer
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:38
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
| it's all just isolated keywords | Jul 11, 2016 |
Angie Garbarino wrote: Michael J.W. Beijer wrote:
Hi Angie,
Sadly, this misconception about TM-Town is voiced at least once a day these days. There is no need to upload your TMs. You can also use the desktop application called "Deshi", which extracts terms from your TMs and sends only a .txt file (which you can open and review), with a short list of terms with zero context.
Michael I need their permssion, thanks anyway for explaining, I will think about it...
Whether or not you need to ask your client permission is of course your decision, but keep in mind that a standard legal document, embodied in a standard translation memory file (.tmx), after being run through the Deshi desktop application, would consist of little more than a pure text file (.txt) containing a list of extracted terms such as this:
1. terms and conditions
2. clause
3. the foregoing
4. parties
5. laws and legislation
6. contractor
7. client
That is, extremely general stuff, and impossible to link back to your actual document or client. All TM-Town's online system is really looking for is keywords, so it can help link you and potential clients.
The client provides examples of documents that it wishes to have translated, and TM-Town performs a similar extraction on these documents. The system then tries to find a match between your client's keywords and your own.
Michael
| | | | | 'Misconception' based on what TM Town itself says | Jul 11, 2016 |
Michael J.W. Beijer wrote:
Sadly, this misconception about TM-Town is voiced at least once a day these days. There is no need to upload your TMs. You can also use the desktop application called "Deshi", which extracts terms from your TMs and sends only a .txt file (which you can open and review), with a short list of terms with zero context.
Michael
Quotes from https://www.tm-town.com/about :
"Translators don't just say what they can do, they show it -- by uploading their previous work."
"To appear in the list of translators in a certain area of expertise, you register and upload a previous translation that you have performed in that area."
https://www.tm-town.com/getting-started :
"Apart from filling in the above information, the most important action you can take to improve your profile is to load work into TM-Town's system. On TM-Town, translators don't just say what they can do, they show it by loading in examples of translation work they have done."
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