About this forum

[mkellogg]

Hi everybody,

We have always had dictionary error reports go somewhere private. With this forum, we will be testing the handling of some error reports and suggestions here in public. We are starting with Spanish to English.

People reporting errors should be able to return here and see the status of their reports. Note that unregistered users will be able to post threads here, but they must register to respond to any thread.

Forum users: You all are welcome to state your thoughts on the current and proposed translations. I actually want to encourage it. It would be helpful to get more input about proposed changes and if you enjoy it, all the better.

Our dictionary editors have to make decisions on how to change the dictionary (or not). You will probably disagree with their decisions at times, but they are doing their best. Please be respectful.

Once updated in our system, it can take usually 1-3 months for the dictionaries that you see to be updated. It is a manual process that takes time and we only do it once there are a significant number of changes.

This is something new for us, so we will be learning and adapting as we go. Wish us luck!

 

[TheCrociato91]

Hi Mike.

I was wondering if unregistered users that post here get some sort of notification when someone answers their post. I feel that, if they are not informed of people answering their question, they are not likely to come back to the site to check the post they started. Plus, I don't think that registered members are much inclined to participate knowing that their contributions won't receive any feedback from the poster.

 

[mkellogg]

Hi,

I was wondering if unregistered users that post here get some sort of notification when someone answers their post.
...
I don't think that registered members are much inclined to participate knowing that their contributions won't receive any feedback from the poster.

Well, we need to preserve the ability of non-registered members to report errors. Before it was all hidden, but we are trying to do it in the open now. They will not get an emailed updates, so they need to remember to come back. (Many other forums work this way without email updates.) Complicating this is that unregistered members can only create threads. They cannot reply, though I might change that.

In general, I knew that there wouldn't be the interactivity here like there is in the normal forums, and that we would get much less participation. I am still hoping for some participation, though, especially when we start showing this forum to everybody. But you make a very good point. If I can get people registered before posting here, we will probably get much more participation here by regular foreros, which would be great.

 

[TheCrociato91]

Thanks for your answer. Now it's much clearer.

 

[swift]

People reporting errors should be able to return here and see the status of their reports. Note that unregistered users will be able to post threads here, but they must register to respond to any thread.

Hey, @mkellogg!

Just wondering how an unregistered user could be notified of any comments on their feedback if they opt not to sign up to the forums. See e.g. the most recent report in the Spanish base: impunidad. Should an editor reply to Mr Castañeda's input, would the OP be notified in any way? Same thing here: aventura. I'm guessing @fenixpollo's comment will not prompt that person to come back and clarify their report, since they still appear to be a Guest.

If the requirement to respond to these threads is to be a registered user, is there a way to make that more obvious in the Report form? Right now, we're telling people they won't get any responses unless they register. I see that as a drawback, given the nature of this "forum," which is to provide greater visibility and transparency on the way WR deals with users' feedback. Looks like there is no other incentive to joining WR apart from being e-mailed some responses? I'd try to phrase it from a different point of view: you will be able to interact with our editors if you do! ~ or something along those lines.

Just a thought!

 

[mkellogg]

Hi Swift,

I don't want to add any barriers to getting people to post suggested changes. Overall, it shouldn't be too bad. I've commented in forums where there are no notifications and had to think to go back to see if there were responses. This will be no different and anybody who wants to find their old suggestion shouldn't have too much trouble finding the forum and searching for their word.

I do like your wording, though. I'm going to change the message some.

 

[swift]

Glad I could contribute an idea! Thanks, Mike!

 

[Kelly B]

This comment is WAAAAY overdue, but...

I LOVE this. It was a little discouraging to send comments off into the void, never knowing what, if anything, happened to them. My memory wasn't/isn't good enough to keep track of what I sent, so I couldn't check back a month or a year or a decade later to see whether anything changed.

And I also enjoy the opportunity to comment on other people's suggestions. It's fun.

Thanks!

 

[swift]

And we appreciate all your contributions, @Kelly B.

 

[DearPrudence]

Glad you like it, Kelly
Of course, all your comments were read with the previous system, but now, as you say, you can see the actual impacts of your contributions I also like the fact that forum members can pitch in and give us a hand this way

 

[erbp]

Hi Mike!
I read your opening message in this thread.
Https://word.reference is very useful to humanity and you can count on my best wishes

 

[Víctor Pérez]

Can we comment on those threads with the label "closed" from the Dictionary error reports and suggestions?

 

[swift]

Yes.

 

[Pablo José Salgado]

Hi everybody,

We have always had dictionary error reports go somewhere private. With this forum, we will be testing the handling of some error reports and suggestions here in public. We are starting with Spanish to English.

People reporting errors should be able to return here and see the status of their reports. Note that unregistered users will be able to post threads here, but they must register to respond to any thread.

Forum users: You all are welcome to state your thoughts on the current and proposed translations. I actually want to encourage it. It would be helpful to get more input about proposed changes and if you enjoy it, all the better.

Our dictionary editors have to make decisions on how to change the dictionary (or not). You will probably disagree with their decisions at times, but they are doing their best. Please be respectful.

Once updated in our system, it can take usually 1-3 months for the dictionaries that you see to be updated. It is a manual process that takes time and we only do it once there are a significant number of changes.

This is something new for us, so we will be learning and adapting as we go. Wish us luck!

I have some questions: is this forum an appropriate place to suggest terms (and their translations) that don't appear in WordReference, in order to make them appear (with their translations) in the website?

If so, can terms that come from works of fiction (like TV shows and movies) (or at least the more well-known works in popular culture) be suggested and added to WordReference, with the respective clarification of the movie/TV show/book/etc the terms come from?

Also, can Internet slang terms be suggested and added to the WordReference dictionary, with translations?

 

[mkellogg]

is this forum an appropriate place to suggest terms (and their translations)

can Internet slang terms be suggested

We generally are not looking for new terms to add. It doesn't take much for me to create a list of terms missing from the dictionaries that people actually search for. Having said that, we will read what you write and possibly add a term or two if we feel we should make an exception. This can happen with many new terms and internet slang. Often a suggestion can lead me to search for similar terms that are missing and I add that one and a few hundred others. I recently did this for Italian expressions.

can terms that come from works of fiction (like TV shows and movies) (or at least the more well-known works in popular culture) be suggested

Invented terms are not good for including in the dictionaries. I would suggest simply asking in the appropriate forum. Then that "term" will show up in dictionary searches as a forum thread.

 

[Nanon]

Hi Mike,
Should we maintain the recommendation to "Write in your native language"?
I, for one, don't always do, especially when none of the languages of the pair is my native language but I still consider that the error should be reported.

 

[mkellogg]

Hello, Nanon!

I think we are just trying to say that there is no need to struggle to write in English when you can express yourself much better in another language. We could change it to "Write in your native language or a language in which you feel comfortable expressing yourself," but I like the concise wording we have right now. You know what we are trying to say!

 

[Nanon]

Thank you, Mike!

Actually, I was triggered to write this by this FREN post: French to English - intenter
Maybe the user took the recommendation literally and decided to write in Slovenian?

 

[mkellogg]

Hmm. I think somebody is trying to have some fun with us. The three suggestions there are prefaced by "For best results". I'm sure if he thought it through a little, he would have written in French or English.

If people really are confused, we can change the wording, sure.

 

[Nanon]

The post content is serious (error in PoS for a verb - should be changed from vi to vt). I reacted to show that it was accurate.

 

[elroy]

How about
Write in your native language if you need to
?