Received profile messages from 2 different agencies although my profile says to email me directly
Thread poster: Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 07:43
English to Hungarian
+ ...
May 8, 2019

Recently I received 2 proz.com messages from 2 different translation agencies (Is this a new trend?).

I didn't answer the first one but I deleted it. Out of curiosity I answered today's message.
I asked the full name of the person (just wrote Anita) who wrote me, also asked about the project's subject (since this was not important for the agency with extremely many 5's on BB - so many maximum points are sometimes suspicious). I also asked the sender why did she send me a messa
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Recently I received 2 proz.com messages from 2 different translation agencies (Is this a new trend?).

I didn't answer the first one but I deleted it. Out of curiosity I answered today's message.
I asked the full name of the person (just wrote Anita) who wrote me, also asked about the project's subject (since this was not important for the agency with extremely many 5's on BB - so many maximum points are sometimes suspicious). I also asked the sender why did she send me a message when I clearly stated on my profile to contact me only via my email address ( katszi at protonmail dot com )?

I didn't receive an answer, but now I see that the message I sent via proz.com was deleted (I didn't delete my sent message this time).

Do we have a mimicking monkey on this site on our profiles?

[Edited at 2019-05-08 14:54 GMT]

[Edited at 2019-05-08 15:27 GMT]

[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2019-05-13 15:26 GMT]
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Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 06:43
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Maybe change your settings so you can't be contacted? May 8, 2019

Katalin Szilárd wrote:
I also asked the sender why did she send me a message when I clearly stated on my profile to contact me only via my email address ( katszi at protonmail dot com )?

I didn't receive an answer, but now I see that the message I sent via proz.com was deleted (I didn't delete my sent message this time).

If you can see a message on the ProZ.com site, I believe that means they sent you a ProZ.com message rather than a ProZ.com email. In that case, they wouldn't have received any information about what to do and not to do.

Maybe change your settings so you can't be contacted? I can't understand why you're so anxious not to have potential clients contact you, mind you. It certainly isn't new for them to send messages via our profiles. In fact, it's generally considered to be the best way to gain new clients of the "superior" kind.


Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 07:43
English to Hungarian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Clarifying 2 issues May 8, 2019

Sheila Wilson wrote:

Katalin Szilárd wrote:
I also asked the sender why did she send me a message when I clearly stated on my profile to contact me only via my email address ( katszi at protonmail dot com )?

I didn't receive an answer, but now I see that the message I sent via proz.com was deleted (I didn't delete my sent message this time).

If you can see a message on the ProZ.com site, I believe that means they sent you a ProZ.com message rather than a ProZ.com email. In that case, they wouldn't have received any information about what to do and not to do.

Maybe change your settings so you can't be contacted? I can't understand why you're so anxious not to have potential clients contact you, mind you. It certainly isn't new for them to send messages via our profiles. In fact, it's generally considered to be the best way to gain new clients of the "superior" kind.



Thank you for your reply, Sheila.
I think the message of my post didn't go through clearly.

A)

I wrote on my profile at least on 6 or 7 different parts PLEASE contact me only via my email address.
1) If someone writes me via proz.com this means she/he either does not see my email address for some reasons.
2) She/he is not a potential client, if she/he doesn't even read a message on my profile written with big bold letters at least 6 or 7 times.

B)
But in this case the MAIN issue was not even how a client contacts me, but as I mentioned
Someone deleted my sent message from my proz.com messages and it was NOT ME.


 
Khalid Sabili
Khalid Sabili  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 07:43
English to Dutch
+ ...
is the sender still active? May 9, 2019

Katalin Szilárd wrote:

Sheila Wilson wrote:

Katalin Szilárd wrote:
I also asked the sender why did she send me a message when I clearly stated on my profile to contact me only via my email address ( katszi at protonmail dot com )?

I didn't receive an answer, but now I see that the message I sent via proz.com was deleted (I didn't delete my sent message this time).

If you can see a message on the ProZ.com site, I believe that means they sent you a ProZ.com message rather than a ProZ.com email. In that case, they wouldn't have received any information about what to do and not to do.

Maybe change your settings so you can't be contacted? I can't understand why you're so anxious not to have potential clients contact you, mind you. It certainly isn't new for them to send messages via our profiles. In fact, it's generally considered to be the best way to gain new clients of the "superior" kind.



Thank you for your reply, Sheila.
I think the message of my post didn't go through clearly.

A)

I wrote on my profile at least on 6 or 7 different parts PLEASE contact me only via my email address.
1) If someone writes me via proz.com this means she/he either does not see my email address for some reasons.
2) She/he is not a potential client, if she/he doesn't even read a message on my profile written with big bold letters at least 6 or 7 times.

B)
But in this case the MAIN issue was not even how a client contacts me, but as I mentioned
Someone deleted my sent message from my proz.com messages and it was NOT ME.


I took the liberty to visit your profile, and your contact instructions are impossible to overlook.
I love your list of do's and dont's!

As for the deleted message, maybe it was deleted because the recipient's profile has been deleted?

edit: changed sender's to recipient's

[Edited at 2019-05-09 01:25 GMT]


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 07:43
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Katalin May 9, 2019

Katalin Szilárd wrote:
I also asked the sender why did she send me a message when I clearly stated on my profile to contact me only via my email address...


You can't expect people to read your entire profile page before deciding to contact you, nor blame them for contacting you via the methods that are provided on your profile page.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, have a look at your settings at:
https://www.proz.com/?sp=profile&eid_s=23021&sp_mode=settings&sp_submode=ef
to see if you have enabled ProZ.com messaging. If you have, then you can't reasonably blame anyone from using that method to contact you.

Do we have a mimicking monkey on this site on our profiles?


You're going to have to explain what you mean by "mimicking monkey".

Sheila Wilson wrote:
I believe that means they sent you a ProZ.com message rather than a ProZ.com email. In that case, they wouldn't have received any information about what to do and not to do.


It is possible to send a ProZ.com message directly from the profile page, in which case the sender would have seen the profile page, but I believe it is also possible to send ProZ.com messages from other parts of the site or from other sites, in which case these people would not have seen your profile page. You can disable this in your profile settings.



[Edited at 2019-05-09 07:32 GMT]


Natasha Ziada (X)
 
Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 07:43
English to Hungarian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Khalid May 9, 2019

Khalid Sabili wrote:


I took the liberty to visit your profile, and your contact instructions are impossible to overlook.
I love your list of do's and dont's!

As for the deleted message, maybe it was deleted because the recipient's profile has been deleted?

edit: changed sender's to recipient's

[Edited at 2019-05-09 01:25 GMT]


Thank you Khalid to confirm that it is impossible to overlook the contact instructions.

I wrote the Don't and Do's list because there was a time when I received more "we are very interested but without sending you jobs" emails after each other and I thought this way I save time both for myself and for the agencies.

About the deleted message: The recipient profile was not deleted. The message that was sent to me was sent from an employee profile of a translation agency. I don't bother about that (since the agency didn't even give the subject of the job), but the issue is that the message I wrote and sent disappeared without me deleting it.


Khalid Sabili
 
Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 07:43
English to Hungarian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Samuel May 9, 2019

Samuel Murray wrote:

Katalin Szilárd wrote:
I also asked the sender why did she send me a message when I clearly stated on my profile to contact me only via my email address...


You can't expect people to read your entire profile page before deciding to contact you, nor blame them for contacting you via the methods that are provided on your profile page.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, have a look at your settings at:
https://www.proz.com/?sp=profile&eid_s=23021&sp_mode=settings&sp_submode=ef
to see if you have enabled ProZ.com messaging. If you have, then you can't reasonably blame anyone from using that method to contact you.

Do we have a mimicking monkey on this site on our profiles?


You're going to have to explain what you mean by "mimicking monkey".

Sheila Wilson wrote:
I believe that means they sent you a ProZ.com message rather than a ProZ.com email. In that case, they wouldn't have received any information about what to do and not to do.


It is possible to send a ProZ.com message directly from the profile page, in which case the sender would have seen the profile page, but I believe it is also possible to send ProZ.com messages from other parts of the site or from other sites, in which case these people would not have seen your profile page. You can disable this in your profile settings.



[Edited at 2019-05-09 07:32 GMT]


Thank you Samuel for dealing with this.
Yes, I know I can set my profile not to receive messages. Although I don't know whether this setting is valid for emails via proz.com or messages as well. As Sheila said: it was a proz.com message and not an email.
These are called on-site messages:
" You have received an on-site message from another ProZ.com user."

The mimicking monkey.
I didn't have time to check whether this saying exists only in Hungarian or in English language as well.
In Hungarian when somebody is mimicking/imitating somebody else (doing the same things what the other person is doing) then we say he/she is a mimicking/imitating monkey.
The reason why I wrote this mimicking monkey in this thread:
2 days ago I received 1 on-site message. I didn't answer that one, but I immediately deleted that message.
Then yesterday I received another on-site message from a different translation agency. Out of curiosity I did answer this one. But I didn't delete neither the received nor my sent message. And later when I checked this on-site message tab I realized that my Sent message was deleted. But I didn't delete it.
That's why I wrote: do we have a mimicking monkey on here?

About contact availabilities:
Since more years now I experienced interesting periods in emails on this site. There are months when I receive emails and there are months when I don't receive any. Just like when you open a water tap and then close the tap and the water is not running any more.
I talked with another colleague who is also among the top translators in the directory and this colleague receives about only 5-10 emails via proz.com per year!!! Then I talked with more colleagues and they also experienced that they don't receive concrete job emails.

So I'm trying to figure out what those Business and Business Plus and Enterprise and logged-in and non-logged in clients can see from our profiles when they check our profiles on normal proz.com and on mobile app etc.

Are the bio part and all the rest of our profiles what we wrote by ourselves visible for everyone?


Edited for adding space between sentences.



[Edited at 2019-05-09 11:30 GMT]

[Edited at 2019-05-09 15:47 GMT]


 
Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 07:43
English to Hungarian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
1 question was answered May 9, 2019

I have just received a job board notification concerning a new Hungarian translation job (mysterious Anita).
Check the dialect and the budget!
I'm happy that at least this suspicion of mine was confirmed.

[Edited at 2019-05-09 14:42 GMT]


 


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Received profile messages from 2 different agencies although my profile says to email me directly






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