Suggesting for Extended Submission phase Thread poster: Samuel Murray
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Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 16:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
G'day Lucia
I wonder how many translators who do not participate in a contest might look at the contest results and think to themselves, "I could have done much better than that". I think we should accommodate such translators in the contest. Here's how.
If I understand correctly, the Extended Submission phase is an optional phase for languages with very few entries to give more people an opportunity to submit translations. It is an attempt to get more people involve... See more G'day Lucia
I wonder how many translators who do not participate in a contest might look at the contest results and think to themselves, "I could have done much better than that". I think we should accommodate such translators in the contest. Here's how.
If I understand correctly, the Extended Submission phase is an optional phase for languages with very few entries to give more people an opportunity to submit translations. It is an attempt to get more people involved in the contests.
My suggestion is that the Extended Submission is changed to work as follows:
* By the time the Extended Submission phase is entered, the entries that were submitted during the Submission phase become visible.
* If a submission in the Extended Submission phase is shown or suspected to be close plagiarism or merely an edited version of an existing entry (eg complaints or objections from translators, or by automated means), the entry is removed.
* Entries from both phases qualify for voting.
* During the voting phase, it is indicated on the voting page which entries are "late entries".
* If an entry that was submitted during the Extended Submission phase is a winner, the translator doesn't get the winner icon on his profile (or in directory searches), and the text "(late entry)" or similar is added to the contest text in his profile (with a tooltip that explains that the translator had seen other entries before submitting his own).
* Optionally, if a late entry is a winner, the "early entries" with the most points get a note on their profile pages eg "(voted highest among early entrants)" or "(voted among the best entries)" or similar.
What do you think?
Samuel
[Edited at 2009-10-05 09:48 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | What would this accomplish? | Oct 5, 2009 |
Could you explain in the context of a contest?
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 16:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | The purpose of it | Oct 5, 2009 |
Katalin Horvath McClure wrote:
Could you explain in the context of a contest?
I'll try.
The purpose of the Extended Submission phase is to coax translators from smaller languages (or languages with very few submissions) who had previously decided not to participate in the contest. The assumption is not, however, that translators in those languages typically need more time to do a translation. The reason why translators who did not submit translations is not because they need more time, but because they decided (for some or other reason) that it is not worth participating. At present, the Extended Submission phase is simply more time -- there are no additional incentives to participate. I think the Extended Submission phase will be more successful (in garnering more translations from small languages) if it addresses some of the assumed reasons why translators did not participate in the Submission phase.
One of the reasons I think why few translators participate may be that the translator thinks that the text is too difficult and thinks that other translators will create a much better translation than he (or she) ever can, so he assumes that he doesn't really stand a chance to win. If he can see the other translations, be might change his mind about his chances of winning. Translators who submitted their translations without the benefit of seeing other translations should not be inconvenienced by any arrangement in the Extended Submission phase, however.
Does this answer your question?
| | | | | Samuel, this is supposed to be a translation contest | Oct 5, 2009 |
Samuel,
While I understand where you coming from, I think what you describe is more fit for a mentoring type of activity, not a contest.
I don't think it is prohibited for anybody to try and create a better translation AFTER the contest is over, and let's say post it in his/her profile as a sample translation. After all, he/she would not get anything else out of it anyway.
As to getting feedback from colleagues, if that is desired in a public manner, I don't think the rules pre... See more Samuel,
While I understand where you coming from, I think what you describe is more fit for a mentoring type of activity, not a contest.
I don't think it is prohibited for anybody to try and create a better translation AFTER the contest is over, and let's say post it in his/her profile as a sample translation. After all, he/she would not get anything else out of it anyway.
As to getting feedback from colleagues, if that is desired in a public manner, I don't think the rules prevent discussing possible ways of translating the contest texts - again, AFTER the contest is over. It is prohibited during the contest, and IMHO for a good reason.
If there are not enough contestants in certain language pairs, that may be a sad fact, but hey, that is fact of life. I don't see why should any artificial stimulants be used - the incentives are plenty already, I think. If somebody wants to use it as a learning experience, he/she can submit anonymously, get all the feedback from colleagues, and if he/she desires more, there is a chance to win as well.
I don't think there is a point in introducing a double standard: people submitting translations without seeing others' work and people submitting translations after reading the translations of others - I don't see the point of "unleveling" the field.
In your proposal, if the winner is a "late submission", it would not be treated as a winner. At the same time, the winner of the "early submissions" would not be treated as a winner either. Do you think your proposal would really encourage participation in general?
Besides, this part of your proposal:
* If a submission in the Extended Submission phase is shown or suspected to be close plagiarism or merely an edited version of an existing entry
is totally impractical and it would open up a whole new can of worms - if you think about it, I hope you will see how impractical this is. Who decides what is close plagiarism, etc?
I don't think any more incentives are necessary to enter the contest, and I don't think it would be fair to have any more just for the extended phase. More time should be enough.
If a language pair goes into extended submission that is a signal that there were not enough submissions, so the "shy" candidates would know they have a better chance of winning, if they submit, compared to those pairs that got let's say 75 submissions during the initial phase.
What I could imagine is perhaps an editing contest - take the winning translation, and let's see who can improve it the most. But that would be a separate contest, an editing contest.
Katalin ▲ Collapse
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