Maxi,

This is the last time I will attempt to communicate my idea. I am a stakeholder. Being a stakeholder has nothing to do with being in business per se.

And I do have a stake in this site. I want the site to be successful, attract a lot of good translators and good agencies. That is my stake here. All that rubs off on one, so to speak. The more successful the site, its translators and agencies, the more Everybody's Boats rise.

I respectfully suggest you look into what that means, before telling me what I am and what I am not. Stakeholding is a wonderful concept and if more people knew about it, the better the world would be.

Secondly, I am not complaining about you.  And I wish you moderators would loosen up a bit. I am merely saying that I have a right to say what I feel I need to say without being "rapped on the knuckles" like a child. I think I have a right to discuss what I think works and what I think doesn't work here. Now, if you don't have time, that's fine. Don't discuss it with me. But I don't accept that only moderators have a voice in thing. I just don't.

Frankly, I think there are others who contribute a lot too, and it would be nice to hear them as well. I don't think for one minute that this site depends only on what moderators think or do. They are also stakeholders. We all have an interest is seeing this site be successful.

Peace.

PS...Virtual Communities + Stakeholders provides lots of reading material. Just one example:

Gatekeeping in Virtual Communities: On Politics of Power in Cyberspace
Barzilai-Nahon, K.
System Sciences, 2006. HICSS apos;06. Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on
Volume 6, Issue , 04-07 Jan. 2006 Page(s): 135c - 135c
Digital Object Identifier   10.1109/HICSS.2006.193
Summary: Gatekeeping/Information Control is exercised frequently and daily in virtual communities. Gatekeeping exists in four different levels: Regulators, service providers, communities’ managers and members of communities. **The article analyzes the sensitive balance of relationships among these stakeholders. ** Additionally, it examines how information control is being exercised in forums and more specifically constructs explanatory models which explain different reasons for deleting messages in forums. The empirical examination combined qualitative and quantitative methods, integrating content analysis along aside data mining, over data of three years on 715 virtual communities. The results suggest behavior patterns of users in virtual communities that can be identified and addressed. Three levels that impact gatekeeping nature are analyzed — the gatekeepers, the community and the gated while addressing: first, the duality of gatekeepers as protectors or manipulators; second, the politics of power of marginalized groups in cyberspace and finally, the meaning of anonymity to information control through looking at history of users’ activities and gender.

Just an example of available literature on the idea of virtual community and stakeholders.

On the contrary, Christen, words of wisdom like yours are always appreciated. I don't know how the point system works on Wikipedia or other collective international efforts, but here it definitely does not work.

Jacek

I agree that the point system doesn't work here and that it "makes an easy scapegoat" when so many users behave like small children fighting over a few cookie crumbs.

Whenever I venture into TCTerms again, people whose native languages have nothing to do with English try to help, which would be appreciated, but for the fact that their answers often float in outer space.

Why help when you don't have the language expertise to do so? And the answer is...?

Nanna

Does anyone know whether the same happens on the numerous wikipages? That is, whenever there is a stub article accompanied by an invitation to develop it, scores of volunteers from all over the world flock in, regardless of their language or expertise, and try to "help" by writing articles on subjects they have no clue about?

I do not care if you speak, read and write Polish, French, Greek, Russian or Latin, what I care about is the right answer to my TCTerms question.

Last, I used TCTerms, I was in a dreadful hurry and needed help. Instead, I had to write four or five polite and pleasant replies to answers that I could not use. I could easily have hammered down a DISAGREE, but I have never used it and I don't see any reason to start now.

I found the answer in a few very helpful comments.

Nanna

A year or so ago, a client alerted me to the Wikipedia page for my home town. "Would I please correct the information and also edit the English?" Since I work for the local tourist board, I checked the page and found several factual mistakes that I corrected. I also did a fast edit. However, the more information is added to the page, the worse it gets and I have stopped editing.

So, yes, I think the lack of expertise is problematic in wiki-pages as well.

Nanna