I'm a utopian but quite pragmatic one: I just use what is currently available...

NK

I suggested some time ago to take a closer look at our members' profiles and the rates they advertize. Those are often <$.05 and such members can still be contacted by customers directly. For the purge to be consistent, either such rates in profiles should be blocked or such members banned.

Hear hear! Seldom have more sensible words been written about this situation. If we want outsourcers to live up to a certain minimum rate standard worldwide (which we do), we should expect and demand the same of their suppliers (which we don't). As long as every wannabe translator can offer their services for an appel and an egg, one shouldn't be surprised that wannabe entrepreneurs try their hand at running a translation agency: from the outside, it seems rather easy to find translators who are willing to slave themselves away for that apple and an egg, so even wit a 100% mark-up it appears to be rather easy to undercut established translation agencies by 50% and still make a hefty profit, so we can't really blame them too hard for trying. Breaking that vicious circle of low cost supply and low cost demand by weeding out the apple and egg supply would be the fastest way to perhaps not cut out these kitchen table top agencies, but it would make life that bit more difficult for them...

To comment on Jacek's post, if that's going to be done, I believe it should e obligatory to put a rate, and a minimum one at that, on job postings.

To comment on Theo's post, I hate to sound pessimistic, as I'm usually an optimist, however, if we put a minimum on their profiles (and the same goes for job postings, as discussed the other day), people will still try to undercut and offer low rates. A lot of translators seem desperate to get work, it's a higly competitive market. The problem is, wer cannot tell someone to not work for a specific rate, only they can decide. It's up to agencies/outsourcers to then make the correct decisio and pay fairly. Don't gwet me wrong, it is tempting to make a 1000% mark-up on a translation, but if people have morals, they will pay a translator fairly.

...Which would be absurd.

That's what I've been saying for years...

I assume that Jacek's suggestion was supposed to be a joke, as in heavy irony.  There are no plans that I know of to implement a policy of banning members because of how much they choose to charge their customers.  Banning is reserved for very serious behaviour, and I think that in the history of this site less than a handful of people have ever been banned.

Whew! I am so relieved.

So, I take it that high rates won't be a good reason for banning anyone?

Weeeel, Maxi, that was before the idea of banning a member for posting low rates entered the job board equation. 

Nanna 

Going back to how people shall do it whether they post jobs or not, I received this e-mail, sent via TC, little over half an hour ago:

Bonjour,

Je me permets de vous contacter suite à une demande de traduction.

Nous recherchons un traducteur Français - Anglais pour traduire
des articles / contenus sur notre site d'horoscope
[URL removed by forum admin]

Nous rémunérons environ 400 euros pour 48.000 mots.

Concernant le site, il y aurait environ au moins une dizaine de
Commande pour le moment – voir + en fonction du lancement.

Pour le moment, nous recherchons pour des traductions français-anglais mais nous pourrions être amené à avoir
d'autres demandes pour d'autres langues.

Je voudrais savoir si c'est un projet qui pourrait vous intéresser, ou si vous connaissez des traducteurs qui pourraient
être intéressés par notre demande.

Merci de votre retour.
Cordialement,

I won't translate it all because the most important parts are highlighted:

400 euros pour 48.000 mots.    meaning less than 0.01€ per word, equates to around 0.008€ per word

Je voudrais savoir si c'est un projet qui pourrait vous intéresser, ou si vous connaissez des traducteurs qui pourraient
être intéressés par notre demande.   Asking me if I would be interested or if I knew anyone who would be interested as they stipulated in the paragrah above that they are looking for FR > EN for the moment, but could be looking for other languages...

And this appeared in my mail box:

150 sentences are expected to be logged per participant and we estimate the work to be a 2 hour task. Variety in age group and gender is a plus, we are looking especially at users under 20 years old or in the 20-30 range. Standard English is to be used, minimal slang (no offensive language). Translation background is not a must-have, however excellent command of US English and a creative approach are both necessary. In that regard, you are welcome to bring personnel on-board that would not necessarily be translators.

We believe the first scenario to take the longest for you to perform, but each subsequent one shouldn't take more than a few minutes.  We can offer $10 per hour for this task.  If you would be interested in participating, please let me know and I can add you on to the project.

And guess what? The agency is located in the US!

Jonathan