🐈
» Forums » Coffee Break » Re: Big Brother
Page options
richardsmith94
Community Member

Big Brother

Looking through a post this evening, I saw a reply to a subject from a proofreader and translator. They had incorrectly used the words losing and loosing. This sort of thing drives me nuts. I made a response pointing this out (annoying, but this is what proofreaders do), especially given that the FL's hourly rate is twice that of mine.

 

30 minutes later and the original post has been edited and my response to it deleted.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
abinadab-agbo
Community Member

Do you know I've caught English presenters on the BBC quite a few times in errors.

But did that make me like and respect them any less? No.

Did I brand them as incompetent? No.

In fact, I continue to follow those podcasts quite faithfully.

If anything, I love the fact the fact that

- they are humans, and

- that I can catch them in errors (albeit subtle, albeit rare and far in between).

 

Am I, the one detecting the errors, capable of them? Absolutely, in fact I do make a tonne of them.

 

There is absolutely no need to brand a proofreader even if it's an English proofreader as incompetent because of an error that occured on the Upwork community, the home of professional banter.

Don't also expect the mods to support you when you do that. Allow the freelancer's clients and the JSS algorithm to do their respective jobs.

 

Obsess not over this.

View solution in original post

16 REPLIES 16
abinadab-agbo
Community Member

Yes please.

There was a time when the Community Guidelines did not require that members not make fun of other members' English.

It now does.

So, your post indeed deserved deletion.

 

In the Upwork community, Typos and human errors are allowed.

Proofreaders are also known to make errors in their own writings while doing an excellent job on others'.

Nothing in that error speaks about the proofreader's actual competence in the projects they do for clients.

Yes please.

There was a time when the Community Guidelines did not require that members not make fun of other members' English.

It now does.

So, your post indeed deserved deletion.

 

In the Upwork community, Typos and human errors are allowed.

Proofreaders are also known to make errors in their own writings while doing an excellent job on others'.

Nothing in that error speaks about the proofreader's actual competence in the projects they do for clients.

 

Hi Abinadab.

 

I did not make fun of anyone and, of course, we are all human. What I did unashamedly do, was point out that a professional proofreader - someone that makes their living from ensuring that writing is correctly written, had been incapable of applying those basic skills to their own writing.

 

You would know, if a proofreader, that it is simply something you do not do and personally, I would have been incredibly embarrassed if I had done the same.

 

Nothing in that error speaks about the proofreader's actual competence in the projects they do for clients.

 

Possibly not, but it certainly doesn't suggest that they will do a great job for you, if they can't even take the time or effort to apply that apparent competence to their own writing.

 

 


Abinadab A wrote:

Yes please.

There was a time when the Community Guidelines did not require that members not make fun of other members' English.

It now does.

So, your post indeed deserved deletion.

 

In the Upwork community, Typos and human errors are allowed.

Proofreaders are also known to make errors in their own writings while doing an excellent job on others'.

Nothing in that error speaks about the proofreader's actual competence in the projects they do for clients.


Disagree. Proofreader are not known to make errors in their own writing while doing an excellent job for clients. It is virtually impossible to dumb yourself down in certain areas of life, or behave differently. Would you think that an accountant is unable to do math in their head in their time off? 

It is perfectly possible for a proofreader to make mistakes in their own writing. In fact it is almost impossible not to make some errors, especially in a longer work. And in this case it is always advisable to bring another proofreader on board. When I complete a long translation, I always hire a proofreader to go through it. 

 

Anyone who thinks that their (longer) writings are so perfect as to not need a proofreader (or sometimes an editor), is arrogant indeed. 


Martina P wrote:

Abinadab A wrote:

Yes please.

There was a time when the Community Guidelines did not require that members not make fun of other members' English.

It now does.

So, your post indeed deserved deletion.

 

In the Upwork community, Typos and human errors are allowed.

Proofreaders are also known to make errors in their own writings while doing an excellent job on others'.

Nothing in that error speaks about the proofreader's actual competence in the projects they do for clients.


Disagree. Proofreader are not known to make errors in their own writing while doing an excellent job for clients. It is virtually impossible to dumb yourself down in certain areas of life, or behave differently. Would you think that an accountant is unable to do math in their head in their time off? 


Of course, no one said anything about "unable." Are you suggesting that a proofreader typically does and should take no greater care in the act of proofreading than he or she might in skimming a forum post or dashing off a quick comment? 

 

My father is a skilled carpenter and can certainly create perfectly seamless continuity when crafting a $50,000 staircase. Sometimes, he sets a stack of books on the kitchen table and doesn't take the time to perfectly align them as he would at work. 

tlsanders
Community Member


Richard S wrote:

Looking through a post this evening, I saw a reply to a subject from a proofreader and translator. They had incorrectly used the words losing and loosing. This sort of thing drives me nuts. I made a response pointing this out (annoying, but this is what proofreaders do), especially given that the FL's hourly rate is twice that of mine.

 

30 minutes later and the original post has been edited and my response to it deleted.


Possibly you noticed that she was mirroring back the language used in the outrageous claim she was responding to?

Hi Tiffany, would that not be making fun of another poster, which has been pointed out to me is against the site's Guidelines? And if even if that was the case, why could the poster simply not be able to point out to me my misunderstanding, as opposed to the post being edited, which implies that I had a valid point?

An editor or a proofreader who makes typos or grammar mistakes, that's always embarrassing. Editors and proofreaders, however, work in different languages. Upwork forums are English only, an editor working in another language may not have a full command of English.

 

 

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

An editor or a proofreader who makes typos or grammar mistakes, that's always embarrassing. Editors and proofreaders, however, work in different languages. Upwork forums are English only, an editor working in another language may not have a full command of English.

 

That's just the kind of 'Professional Translator (Eng) and Proofreader' I would want to hire....


Richard S wrote:

An editor or a proofreader who makes typos or grammar mistakes, that's always embarrassing. Editors and proofreaders, however, work in different languages. Upwork forums are English only, an editor working in another language may not have a full command of English.

 

That's just the kind of 'Professional Translator (Eng) and Proofreader' I would want to hire....


You need to learn how to quote message properly on this forum, because the way you do this makes you look **Edited for Community Guidelines** for answering to yourself.

 

 

 

 

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless


Richard S wrote:

Hi Tiffany, would that not be making fun of another poster, which has been pointed out to me is against the site's Guidelines? And if even if that was the case, why could the poster simply not be able to point out to me my misunderstanding, as opposed to the post being edited, which implies that I had a valid point?


Quoting someone? I think we'll all be in a lot of trouble if verbatim stating back what someone claimed is considered making fun of them. 

 

Obviously, I can't read minds. However, it's worth noting that the poster in question had nothing to do with removing your post--that was the independent judgment of a moderator who noticed that you were derailing the direction of the thread with irrelevant personal criticism.

I thought reopening a discussion on a deleted post, was against the community guidelines? 

abinadab-agbo
Community Member

Do you know I've caught English presenters on the BBC quite a few times in errors.

But did that make me like and respect them any less? No.

Did I brand them as incompetent? No.

In fact, I continue to follow those podcasts quite faithfully.

If anything, I love the fact the fact that

- they are humans, and

- that I can catch them in errors (albeit subtle, albeit rare and far in between).

 

Am I, the one detecting the errors, capable of them? Absolutely, in fact I do make a tonne of them.

 

There is absolutely no need to brand a proofreader even if it's an English proofreader as incompetent because of an error that occured on the Upwork community, the home of professional banter.

Don't also expect the mods to support you when you do that. Allow the freelancer's clients and the JSS algorithm to do their respective jobs.

 

Obsess not over this.

I promise to never, ever do this again.

sandrawalker
Community Member

I feel your pain. On a non-professional note, I belong to a slimming site and every second entry is about "loosing weight", "how much should I loose?" etc. Aagh! I want to correct them every time but fear I'll be thrown off the site, lol.

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Richard and others,

 

I'd like to note that personal attacks based on a user's English, accusations of incompetence as well as discussing or reposting deleted posts are against the Community Guidelines. 

 

Please, refer to this link to find out more about what content may be edited or removed. This thread will be closed from further replies.

 

~ Valeria
Upwork
Latest Articles
Learning Paths