"Translation industry's leading workplace"

Recently, again for the x-th time, I got a mail from Proz.com asking me to renew my membership, which expired 1-2 years ago.
> *Thank you for using ProZ.com*.
>
> *During good times and bad, as a smart business person, it is important to keep your client flow going, and maintain a high-profile presence in the marketplace--* even if you are fully booked at the moment. As the translation industry's leading workplace, ProZ.com is the number one source of new clients for translators. As you know, the best way to market your services on the site is to be a full member (the site is designed to promote members before non-members).

Well, my personal view is, that based on the very nature of sites like Proz.com, they are basically slave markets, where outsourcers from around the world look for "best rates" = cheapest labor.

So, I answered the lady, who sent me that mail as follows. I can speak ONLY for myself, but believe, quite a number of translators may harbor similar feelings ...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thank you for your mail, but ...
I heard all this before. Yet, 10 years of experience with Proz.com has proven beyond any doubt that Proz.com is basically a slave market, where the outsourcers always are looking for "best rates" (= cheapest). And since the market includes the entire world, there are enough places, where people can make a living on rates considered elsewhere to be signficantly substandard.
As far as I can remember I got NEVER ANY job through Proz.com.
That includes the period of my paid membership (waste of money!).
The founder of Proz.com, with a little luck Henry remembers me, has lived and worked in the past in Japan.
I refuse to believe, that HE would ever work for what is offered on Proz.com.

ALL offers - no exceptions - coming through Proz.com have ALWAYS considered me to be too expensive.
Fine. But living in Japan I cannot afford to work for peanuts.
If I were to accept jobs through Proz.com at the offered rates, I would be working (maybe even overtime) and still starving with my family to death.
No thank you.

There has  been no satisfaction with my last membership.
It is highly unlikely that a renewed membership would suddenly produce any mirracles.
None of the funny calculation Henry offers, like if you get one big client in 10 years, even the membership for 10 years would pay off, do work.
I have never ever seen any glint of hope, that this may actually happen.

Dropping the bars ...

Today - again - Edisense in India is bombarding the net via multiple translator sites with its fabulous job offers. Today's offer:
Japanese-English translation; volume: 50,000 pages !!!!!!!
(let's say, they pay 25 USD/page --> 1,250,000 USD !!! WOA.. That would be almost 200 times of my annual income! Let's go get this job.)

AND, hold on to your hat, they publish DIFFERENT job offers in different fields of expertise, ALL OF WHICH have a volume of 50,000 pages (at least 3 -> that would make 150,000 pages, worth something in the neighborhood of FOUR MILLION dollars. Incredible! (exactly: you cannot believe this)

But the requirements have significantly decreased:
* Should have minimum 1 year experience in Academic Translation
-> only ONE year. This used to be at least 5 years. But I guess, they cannot find the required specialists

* Should be a native speaker of either Japanese or English with proven Japanese skills
-> Since this is a translation INTO English, I have difficulties understanding the necessity for being a native JAPANESE?
I guess, the logic in India works differently from the rest of the world ...

用語を統一する

時代の流れでしょうが「用語は全て統一する」のは人間を馬鹿にする一方だと私は信じる。
特許でもない、技術論文でもない文章などを読んでいる人は極めて単調の文章を「楽しんでいる」とはとても思えない！
しかし、もう既に人間は機会（コンピュータ、CATツール等）で左右（支配？）され、言葉/コミュニケーションの良さ/楽しさ失いつつであるようだ。
そのような単調の文章で作製されたアンケート（良く仕事として要求される）を答えながら「嫌だなこれ！」と思う人々から快適な答えが得られるチャンスは低下する一方であろう・・・
同じく所謂「取扱説明書」もそのような単調の文章で書かれていると該当する機械などの使用者は先ず「こんなの読みたくない」と思うであろう。


別にその類の文章を少し面白く、humorously などに書けば（翻訳すれば）損することは何もないし、読んでいる人が好評を受ける可能性はある：「あの会社の商品も良いし、説明書を読んでよく分かるし、面白い」。
得するのはメーカーの筈だ。

私は自分の商売の中でこのような人間をロボット化に企む時代の流れに抵抗し続けるつもりだ。