1) I am getting rather annoyed by what I call "quick-on-the-trigger" moderating. I just answered a rather difficult question. Before it, I wrote.../Oh Boy, name of the asker, and a smiley/.

For those, who might not understand this US idiom, it means: wow, that's a difficult question! [FOR M E< FOR ME]. And I see no reason to remove niceties, and friendly comments, especially when it is short and sweet in nature.

Furthermore, as the question was pretty hard, I did some research in English to find out what the terms meant. The Asker had it billed as an English-English question, which I did not at first realize. As this particular Asker often asks French questions, I put my answer in French too.

It was summarily deleted with no explanation. Come on, are we here to help people or what? OK, the answer in French may have been irrelevant Glossary Wise, however, I would have copied and pasted it into the Comment Box, HAD I BEEN GIVEN A CHANCE.

2) Oh, and by the way, I find the new feature, where answers cannot be edited to be pretty silly. You can't edit it, but you can erase it. So, now, I just erase the whole thing. And put it a new answer. I think people have to stop thinking of translation as an Event; it is very often a process. And, what should be done, is that a Small-Type Version could be left, and then the New Answer can appear as an edited answer. Since the whole point was to be able to see the Comments from other Translators. I don't think the current solution is very effective. If you erase an answer, it takes the whole discussion away.

3) Finally, I have been insulted directly [ I have the proof] not once, not twice but three times, this time around by someone who is constantly doing that. I disagree with the answers of this person whenever the answers are wrong. Which they often are. I am asking the moderators here, what is being done about this? This has happened a lot in past. If I had said myself anything near what this guy has said to me, everyone would have jumped down my throat. Frankly, this person is not professional and demonstrates that over and over again. He even insulted me in German, in an English-to-Portuguese question!

Now, this same person created another hullaboo last weekend over a term in French to English. There thereupon ensued some 75 comments from a series of translators. They were erased by the moderator as they should have been. The moderator had to work very hard for that. It's interesting that I did not participate in that discussion. It would be interesting, as I said before here, to provide a link from the TC terms to another forum so questions like that may be discussed. The main issue of the discussion centered around "creativity" and "nuance" in translation. Which is of course an interesting discussion. Unfortunately, it degenerated...in any case, had the discussion been linked to an outside forum, the discussion could have remained and other readers would have BENEFITTED from some very interesting comments about translation. Such as when nuance and creativity make sense and when they don't.

4) Finally, about this issue of personal comments. I firmly believe a distinction needs to be made between Personal Comments that are Insults directed at another person AND personal comments by oneself that are by oneself and preceded by I feel. For instance, I often have feelings about answers [not talking about the PERSON], and I would like to be able to express them. That is very different from saying to someone: You + Are + Insult. After all, translation and feelings are intimately connected....and at times, I think an expression of feelings is appropriate. Like saying Oh Boy...which is basically the same as Whew....

Sorry about being long-winded, but I had a lot to say.

First of all, Jonathan, I am used to that Asker asking English to French. No need to chide me. I am not the pope (infallible).

Secondly, I completely disagree with you. When askers/answerers have established a relationship already, or want to express niceties there is nothing wrong with that. And, yes, I would say that saying Oh Boy, expresses the idea of difficulty. It is also lends a tone of introduction to a Long, Laborious Answer.

Is there some "rule" against being nice, polite and expressing that? Well, I dunno....but afaik, you can make up so many rules that it is becomes stifling.

I feel STIFLED, by that. PERIOD. And as far as removing the French, you might have handled it more diplomatically, which would have provided More Information to the Asker. You could have done it by Pasting It Under Comments.

Do you know what I think? I think you are splitting rule hairs. And I don't see how that contributes to the a nice tone.

Everybody criticizes me, nobody points out that I am also friendly and nice. And fyi, I don't need the "reason" for the deletion. I need the content.  

I would like the content of that deleted answer because, as I explained, it was a difficult term, and that asker usually translates Into French, and My answer was to help him. So as I already stated, and now say again, I want the content of that answer into French either posted here, or emailed to me or posted under the Question's Comments, area. Because it is more important to Help the Asker, than adhere blindly to some rule. It's fine that you deleted it.....but it also Fine, for me to Ask for It, either in an email or under the Comments section.

And again, I see it was a mistake. Fine. It is still might help the asker. Which is the whole point anyway.

Ok, Thank You. Jonathan. I appreciate it.

However, I do not appreciate the slew of deletions of my comments. I do not make personal comments, and you just sent me an email saying I was "disrespecting you". That is Untrue. I was Lamenting Something. Lamenting Something. There is no disrespect in lamenting something. Why don't you post what I said so everyone can see it?

You have been picking through everything I do and "going after" all my comments. As someone who has helped others on this site more than anyone else, I find that the lack of respect is that of you to me. With so much assistance provided by me to so many, I would have thought that extraneous thought, funny or nice comments would be OK. They are NOT personal in nature and have never been. I am sometimes a bit sarcastic about answers but never about people. That is when the answers by someone are systematically wrong, and show complete unprofessionalism.

Now, I ask you: what are you doing about the individual who has insulted me repeatedly and even in German (which I don't speak). The number of times and level of insult to me, and to others as well, has been outrageous. The person is not a professional translator. I wonder when the moderators are going to do something about it.

Again, I repeat I had no disrespect. I merely disagreed with the action. And I think there needs to be a Forum for discussing this. I don't think that people like me who contribute so much should be treated summarily.

Good day.

In regards to insults - as you know, anything which does not pertain to terminology in some way gets deleted where I moderate.  Insults get admonishment.  That is how I run my language pair.  I believe my fellow mods have similar devices in place. The "German language" thing I understand happened in an unmoderated forum where we literally could not intervene.  It is now moderated, and I understand this particular problem has been dealt with.  Has nobody made you aware of the changes to that language section?

No time for the other things.

Whether or not somebody is considered a translator is outside our jurisdiction for TCTerms.  Either an answer is valid, or it isn't.  This profession is barely regulated and we cannot start trying to check people's credentials.  It is impracticable.  (Is that a word?)  Content is key.

Maxi

Jonathan,

Interpret my comments as you wish. I just think that if you are applying some letter of the law, re niceties, it's just too bad. Moderator's pet? Please....I'm talking about letting people be themselves by displaying personality. That does not mean "infringing the rules", of course. After all, displaying positive commentary is not a crime. Some leeway should be allowed for people to express themselves.

Maxi:

The Portuguese-English moderator is somewhere you cannot intervene? It said: if there is no moderator, choose one from the list. I did that. The comment was finally removed by someone. I don't know who. But the extreme nature of that comment, and other comments merits, in my view, a personal communication by moderator(s) to me about what is being done. After all, the comments were outrageous. We're not talking about a little jibe. We are talking about someone saying things like disregard this crazy woman.....And this is not just one more instance. This person's comments are removed, and nothing else happens?

I would bet  you that if I had made similar comments, removal of my comments would be the just the least of what you moderators would do. Really....Anyway, I won't go on and on about this. Just want to say that I am fed up with these comments.