As an experienced professional translator, I have had to embrace the arrival of AI. It’s here to stay, and in many ways, it’s not a bad thing. TBH, it translates basic stuff really well.
What does worry me is the total reliance people have on machine translations. For example, 30% of machine-translated legal texts contain serious errors… I don’t know about you, but if I’m about to sign an important document, I wouldn’t want to take that risk. Ditto for deciphering extremely wordy formal French if you find yourself behind with your taxes or in the middle of a dispute with a landlord or neighbour. The list is endless.
So, if you have a French text that needs translating or a French-to-English machine translation that you’d like me to check, let’s talk.
Ultimately, despite occasionally half discussing it and half agreeing it would be a good idea to allow one post advertising services, we haven’t pinned it down, the fact it was here is why I did not delete the post but it’s still probably best run past Cat
Though I have to say I would prefer it if the title here had simply been
“Translation services offered”, you can’t tell this from the oblique title about ChatGPT
Sarah, people are very unsettled at the moment and it’s not really helping their attitudes. I’m sure Cat will sort things but don’t take this slightly frosty reception to heart.
This is one of the issues with people calling themselves things other than their real names. As it is, I recall @Sarah_Crosby from back in the day - hi Sarah! And thus, I know that for starters this is NOT spam and that I’m also happy for her to promote her services. And, as all us self employed know, you need a hook to hang anything on these days if you want anyone to read it!
I can’t find it either @Sarah_Crosby so feel free to start another business listing (if the system lets you?!) and going forward I suggest the following:
We allow self-promotion from existing users in a particular thread if it is appropriate. Eg translation services in a thread about applying for nationality and getting documents together but no offers of dog boarding services in that thread.
I’ll also start a regular Monday morning - promote what you do -thread. Anyone’s free to post in that.
Any new users who have clearly only joined to promote their businesses and post randomly get their posts deleted.
You’ll have to forgive me, if I’m looking for translation services I want a heading that says “translation services”. I already know the limitations of ChatGPT
The system usually flags them - any system-flagged, obvious spam, gets the trigger pulled automatically.
Yes, that was clear.
Brilliant.
Sounds good- as you know I’ve been in favour of something to allow legitimate services in France to include contact details and a brief description but I think it needs managing a little so that the info is easy to find and doesn’t get burried in long abandoned threads.
I meant more people who are not spammers per se but only here to take kind of thing.
I
We will have to see and probably tweak but I’ll open the thread on Monday and close it on Friday and start a new one the following Monday. We will see….!
