Allow site members/users to rate each job posting

Jared wrote:

Hello all,

Sorry for the delay. The ranking or rating of publicly posted jobs is not a feature which is currently being considered. Note that 1) public job postings are only a fraction of the jobs which pass through the site, 2) those jobs may, and may not, include a specified rate offering, 3) if you are in doubt about the rate offered on a job, you can consult the "Community rates" to get a better idea of currently charged rates in your language pair(s) (this is now under the "Tools" tab in the new site menus), and 4) if you consider a particular job's rate offering to be below your minimum (as some have pointed out, this may differ according to many factors) the best feedback may be to not quote on or take the job.

Outsourcers who pay well,on time and are in general good to work with will have this reflected on their Blue Board records, provided the translators who have worked with them give feedback.

Best regards,

Jared

Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote:

But why am I not surprised by this?

The ranking or rating of publicly posted jobs is not a feature which is currently being considered.

Milos Prudek wrote:

Would proz.com consider something else, then?

Milos Prudek wrote:

Example: Outsourcer A pays an average 0.03 EUR per word for English-French. Outsourcer B pays an average 0.10 EUR per word for English-French.

Paola Dentifrigi wrote:
I guess the problem affects also quality agencies, which will find it harder and harder to outsource through Proz.

Sorry for the delay.

The ranking or rating of publicly posted jobs is not a feature which is currently being considered.

Note that 1) public job postings are only a fraction of the jobs which pass through the site,

3) if you are in doubt about the rate offered on a job, you can consult the "Community rates" to get a better idea of currently charged rates in your language pair(s) (this is now under the "Tools" tab in the new site menus),

Outsourcers who pay well,on time and are in general good to work with will have this reflected on their Blue Board records, provided the translators who have worked with them give feedback.

Ralf Lemster wrote:
Quite right - I have practically given up outsourcing through ProZ.com, with very few exceptions.

Ralf Lemster wrote:
Quite right - I have practically given up outsourcing through ProZ.com, with very few exceptions.

Ralf

Ralf, what was your experience?

Peter Moor wrote:

It took me quite a while to read through this post, but it was well worth my time. It should concern all of us since most of us are doing this on a full-time basis. While many (most?) points have already been addressed, here is my two-cents worth.

1. ProZ is a "middleman", established to bring translators and outsourcers together. It is silly for us translators to think that just because we are either not getting the rates we want or that we are fed up seeing rates come down (for whatever reason) that this should change the way ProZ does business. That in some way we could DEMAND them to change. If ProZ wants to increase its translator membership it will do so for business reasons, not necessarily to "keep our profession respected and/or well paid." It has to weigh things off. How will a change in those policies affect their ability to retain or attract (also paying) outsourcers.

2. I've read several times in this post that this is a WORLDWIDE website. Yes indeed! Albeit a difficult reality for some of us to accept, this is a global medium and a global economy; it is, and it will continue to grow in that direction. Likely result? Lower average rates. And yes, some of us members and non-members actually will take jobs at those lower rates, because we are...

3. Independent contractors. Now, bury that job mentality where everyone -rightly or wrongly- complains about pay. We are in business for ourselves, ladies and gentlemen. Get used to competing and to being outbid. Bummer. So, how do we end up being able to make a living in the economy we live in?

4. For one, do good work and put your name out there for outsourcers to notice. Use marketing, advertising, various ways of communications, etc. This is business, for p... sake! Many of us will, after (finally) having received work that we bid on through ProZ, get DIRECT WORK, from those clients without having to compete again. We complete work on time, we communicate well with the client, we double/triple check our work, we are RELIABLE. Result? After a while we will only have to compete for some side work -if at all- to fill up our schedule. But...it takes a concerted effort which, frankly, some of us "professional" translators are not willing to commit to.

There, my two cents. If, and I say, IF, we can come up with a way to make our case, which is to attempt to raise our rates and weed out those pesky companies that try to get something for nothing...AND do so in a way that would increase the usage of this website [and revenue to ProZ] from both us and the outtsourcers, believe me, ProZ would do so in a minute. Let's think more creatively and focus our efforts in that direction. In the mean time let's stop feeling sorry for ourselves and our profession and think competition.

Peter Moor wrote:

It took me quite a while to read through this post, but it was well worth my time. It should concern all of us since most of us are doing this on a full-time basis. While many (most?) points have already been addressed, here is my two-cents worth.

1. ProZ is a "middleman", established to bring translators and outsourcers together. It is silly for us translators to think that just because we are either not getting the rates we want or that we are fed up seeing rates come down (for whatever reason) that this should change the way ProZ does business. That in some way we could DEMAND them to change. If ProZ wants to increase its translator membership it will do so for business reasons, not necessarily to "keep our profession respected and/or well paid." It has to weigh things off. How will a change in those policies affect their ability to retain or attract (also paying) outsourcers.

2. I've read several times in this post that this is a WORLDWIDE website. Yes indeed! Albeit a difficult reality for some of us to accept, this is a global medium and a global economy; it is, and it will continue to grow in that direction. Likely result? Lower average rates. And yes, some of us members and non-members actually will take jobs at those lower rates, because we are...

3. Independent contractors. Now, bury that job mentality where everyone -rightly or wrongly- complains about pay. We are in business for ourselves, ladies and gentlemen. Get used to competing and to being outbid. Bummer. So, how do we end up being able to make a living in the economy we live in?

4. For one, do good work and put your name out there for outsourcers to notice. Use marketing, advertising, various ways of communications, etc. This is business, for p... sake! Many of us will, after (finally) having received work that we bid on through ProZ, get DIRECT WORK, from those clients without having to compete again. We complete work on time, we communicate well with the client, we double/triple check our work, we are RELIABLE. Result? After a while we will only have to compete for some side work -if at all- to fill up our schedule. But...it takes a concerted effort which, frankly, some of us "professional" translators are not willing to commit to.

There, my two cents. If, and I say, IF, we can come up with a way to make our case, which is to attempt to raise our rates and weed out those pesky companies that try to get something for nothing...AND do so in a way that would increase the usage of this website [and revenue to ProZ] from both us and the outtsourcers, believe me, ProZ would do so in a minute. Let's think more creatively and focus our efforts in that direction. In the mean time let's stop feeling sorry for ourselves and our profession and think competition.

If, and I say, IF, we can come up with a way to make our case, which is to attempt to raise our rates and weed out those pesky companies that try to get something for nothing...AND do so in a way that would increase the usage of this website [and revenue to ProZ] from both us and the outtsourcers, believe me, ProZ would do so in a minute. Let's think more creatively and focus our efforts in that direction.