Phrasebook Logistical Issues

Question

I think that the Phrasebook is a Great Idea! And the three moderators are clearly pouring themselves into the task of reviewing, revising and publishing the thousands of entries. But...

There are some aspects that either, need to be worked out, or that I don't understand yet. I've done a search through the forum and I don't believe these have been addressed yet. (If I'm wrong on that, please point me in the right direction. ) I broached this topic here and then again here in Heidita's thread looking for volunteers, but that probably wasn't the right venue.

So here are my two questions:

1. Is there a way to see phrases that have been submitted along with a translation (not simply 'suggested'), before they are approved?

As far as I can tell right now, such submissions are invisible. Shouldn't they still be visible and designated as 'pending approval' or something?

2. Is there a way to correct entries, either after they are submitted or after they are approved?

This second question has come up because in my very first attempt to provide a translation I made an error. I saw it as I was clicking 'Guardar' (Insert slow-motion No-o-o-o-o-o sound effect here.) It was too late. I immediately tried to find it but, as already stated, it was gone. I've been checking for it nearly every day for over a week, and, well today it showed up as approved, along with my error. (Its a little embarrassing, but I'll share it. Look here.) I'd like to correct it, but there doesn't seem to be an official way to make a correction or even suggest a correction. Maybe this will be the only one needing correction, or... maybe not.

Help? Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Question # 1. Yes, but only if it was your contribution. EDIT Yes, we can now! Probably thanks to your question! Is Admin on the ball or what!!!

Question # 2:

Right now might be a bad time, the crunch, you know.

Normally, a PM to MountainGirl can get an error in an approved phrase corrected. Important that you give her good clues to finding the entry and the error.

Right now, the only entries the general populace can see are:

Approved (already in the phrasebook) and all of the "Suggested."

Individuals can see all of their submissions under the tab "My contributions" regardless of the status.

If you see duplicates in already approved, save them for now and PM them later. That is an easy fix.

If you see duplicates in 'Suggested', click on "add translation" and put an X in the translation box and a note where it says "English Note". That will remove it from 'suggested' and forward to the approval committee for disposal. You will also need to click the copyright box for it to take.

I have also encoutered a great many "phrases" that only need one word translated. Those I treat the same as duplicate and state "already in Dictionary" if they pop up.

It would be great if everyone that has submissions pending would take a moment to review their own suggestions and check them against "Translate" or see if they are already in the phrase book.

SpanishDict has given out over 295,000 member numbers. Over a quarter of a million. There are less than 4000 suggestions still waiting ... somebody didn't tackle one yet! And sincere kudos to those going above and beyond.

• This is THE answer lateto, great I wish everybody would try do their own sentences....somebody said the other day, I thought you had a team to translate them:( - Heidita Aug 6, 2010

Answer 2

I think it is amazing how far the Phrase Book has come in just a short time. Our moderators are doing an excellent job.

But as you pointed out, there are bound to be logistical problems and bugs to be worked out.

I was wondering if the phrases could further be separated into categories so that they can be edited and found with greater ease. For instance, I have added quite a few phrases pertaining to music and medicine. If there were a "Music" or "Medical" category then anyone here in the forum who has knowledge of these topics could work on editing and completing them so they can be published.

In addition, once they are published, someone looking for a particular phrase pertaining to one of these topics might be able to find it easier. Also, if someone wanted to just peruse a certain section of interest, they could just click on a tab (for example) and be able to read through all of the phrases that are listed in that category.

I know the big priority is to get the phrases published, but this is just an idea for the future.

• Good point. There is already a field for indicating the 'category' or 'Context' as it shows on the entry screen. Perhaps that field could be used to narrow a person's search in the Phrasebook. - chaparrito Aug 6, 2010
• Hi Nicole, nice suggestion. For phrases that have a context, if you click on the context, you can see all the phrases in that category. Here is an example: http://www.spanishdict.com/phrasebook/category/context/mathematics - Christopher Aug 7, 2010

Answer 3

Thanks for the post Chaparrito.

For clarification, after the phrases are submitted, they go into a section "Needs Approval", which only the moderators were able to see. This is where the moderators can review the submission, edit it, and make sure that it is suitable to publish. This tab was only visible to Moderators, but I went ahead and made it visible to everyone. Now you can take a look at the phrases that the moderators are working on.

As for editing a post, a little background might be helpful. The goal with the phrasebook is to build a reference guide of phrases that has been thoroughly vetted. The phrases appear on the dictionary page of the website, and we want to ensure the accuracy of what appears there so that people can use the site with confidence. With that in mind, only phrases that have received the approval of two separate moderators are published on the site. If one moderator edits a post, a second moderator must review and proof the edit before it goes back on the site. So currently, the only way to edit a post is to ask a moderator.

Hope this helps and thanks for working on the phrasebook!

Chris

• Thank you for adding that tab. I've looked the list over so many times, I don't know which I've seen where! - LateToDinner Aug 7, 2010

Answer 4

I've wished for those as well. I'd also like the ability to delete duplicates, but that's probably more within an admin's purview. It's just frustrating to see the same phrase listed multiple times within the "suggested" phrases. Especially if it's already in the phrasebook.

• I think I can answer this one. If you see an suggested entry that is a duplicate of an approved phrase, then 'add a translation' and type 'Duplicate'. This will help the moderators to weed these out more easily. :) - chaparrito Aug 5, 2010
• Yes, and often by the same person. - fontanero Aug 5, 2010
• Thank you! :) - Anadrien Aug 5, 2010
• Another thing I'd like to know how to/be able to do: sort the phrasebook. - Anadrien Aug 5, 2010
• yes, duplicates are deleted as soon as we see them, I mean as they see them, I am not in charge of the phrasebook - Heidita Aug 5, 2010
View 1 more commments >>

Answer 5

Chaparri, I have just checked the link, unless you point the mistake out to me....where is it????? lol

1. Is there a way to correct entries, either after they are submitted or after they are approved?

Only admins can correct or edit entries. This was discussed before, I think everybody should be able to edit their own entries, but this can't be done.

1. Is there a way to see phrases that have been submitted along with a translation (not simply 'suggested'), before they are approved?

As far as I can tell right now, such submissions are invisible. Shouldn't they still be visible and designated as 'pending approval' or something?

I don't know about you, but as an admin, I can see a tab: needs approving. so yes, this exists, but can probably only seen by us. You can see your own sentences though.

Answer 6

A huge thanks to Chaparrito for posting this and to all of you for putting in your thoughts!

Chaparrito, I edited the "pérdida" in your phrase. If this isn't the mistake, you'll have to help me out...

Regarding errors...Yes, I am sure there are some and I feel very sorry about that. I am sure that Guillermo and I have missed some editing errors. Also, there may be entries that you believe have grammatical errors. If you think you have found one, please let me know.

Sometimes regionalisms are viewed as incorrect in standard Spanish (forgive me for saying "standard" Spanish...) If you type in an entry that you know is specific to a certain country, it is helpful if you indicate the country. This alerts Guillermo and me that we shouldn't automatically do a grammatical correction. An example is "Qué gustas", which is commonly used in some areas of Mexico when asking someone to indicate a preference.

Duplicates? Probably more than I dare to imagine! A big thanks! to those of you who have gone through and indicated "duplicate" or "this is already in". It saves much, much time. Now that we have reached around 3000 phrases, I have all sorts of happy little phrases flying through my brain and I am sure that more duplicates than I would care to imagine have crept in!

Meanwhile, you are all wonderful! I thank you for your patience and your kind words to Guillermo and to me. Truly, it is a pleasure to be part of the Spanishdict community.

Answer 7

mountaingirl wrote:

I edited the "pérdida" in your phrase. If this isn't the mistake, you'll have to help me out...

Ooops. That was a mistake I didn't see.

Heidita wrote:

point the mistake out to me....where is it?

Its funny that something can stand out like a sore thumb when you know it is there, but can go unnoticed when you don't. For the phrase in question, I put this as a definition:

This implies that the person doing so is guilty, but want to accept it.

It should be:

This implies that the person doing so is guilty, but will not accept it.

Thank you in advance, mountaingirl for fixing my mistake. I'll be more careful next time.

Answer 8

Thats a bit worrying. I attempted a few translations, hopefully accurately, and assumed that it would be corrected if I was wrong. Oh well.

It must be a logistical nightmare at the moment, so a few errors are bound to creep in.

I just hope they're not my ones!

• Fontanero - we do a lot of correcting...hopefully we catch almost everything... - mountaingirl Aug 5, 2010
• And I'm sure you do catch almost everything, Patti. :) - chaparrito Aug 6, 2010
• I hope I didn't give you even more work ! - fontanero Aug 6, 2010

Answer 9

In the past, when I found I had made a typo, I emailed "feedback" on the bottom bar. You could also try emailing the administrators, but there are so many entries, now, I don't think that would help. There are still mistakes in the reference section that haven't been fixed. As for duplicates, some definitions in the phrasebook may be better, or a little different, and they will have to be culled by the administrators. That kind of mistake happens, chaparrito. We just have to remember to proofread very carefully.link text

• which is the mistake sandy??? - Heidita Aug 5, 2010
• Fixed it. :) - chaparrito Aug 6, 2010

Answer 10

(Hmmm... That's really strange. Somehow only 1/2 of my comment that I had prepared earlier posted. I just came back to look and it's missing the second half. Here's pretty much what I had said, after thanking mountain girl...)

Regarding my question #1, many of you stated what LateToDinner also said:

Individuals can see all of their submissions under the tab "My contributions" regardless of the status.

To some extent that is true. However the 'My Contributions' tab only contains phrases that I have 'suggested'. What I'm referring to is when we pick a phrase that has already been suggested by someone else, translate it, provide a definition and an example, and then submit it. In my view, at that point also we have made a contribution. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not looking for credit, glory, points, etc. What I would like is to see what I have done after I have done it. (When we post an answer in the forum to someone's question, we can always go back to our profile and find that question, and every other question we have answered.)

So is there a 'simple fix' that would allow translation submissions to show up under the tab "My Contributions"? Or, could the tab that Heidita sees "Needs Approving" be visible to all?

Regarding my question #2, it seems that the only recourse at the moment is to PM mountaingirl or Guillermo when errors are noticed. And I think that is an acceptable way to deal with the relatively few that will inevitably slip through the rigorous approval process.

I was hoping to have some feature to 'Suggest a Correction' to an approved (or pending) phrase. This would take some of the load off of the moderators from having to make the correction themselves. However it seems that as long as the PM we send contains both the error we found and then a suggested correction, it would save time from having to decide how to fix it. Does that sound reasonable?

Answer 11

If you see duplicates in 'Suggested', click on "add translation" and put an X in the translation box and a note where it says "English Note". That will remove it from 'suggested' and forward to the approval committee for disposal. You will also need to click the copyright box for it to take.

This is actually being the most helpful thing at the moment, Marianne has been going through a lot of posts, I am sure many of you have, which are already in the phrasebook.

Please do what lateto suggests, go to edit and instead of translating the sentence, just write :delete or duplicate or X , so we can delete these suggestions. I have deleted like 20 suggested phrases a moment ago.

I have also encoutered a great many "phrases" that only need one word translated. Those I treat the same as duplicate and state "already in Dictionary" if they pop up.

Exactly, these are not necessary in the phrasebook, as the name says, we are talking about phrases and idioms etc here, not a single word translation.

Thanks, Lateto, that was a very helpful post

Answer 12

So is there a 'simple fix' that would allow translation submissions to show up under the tab "My Contributions"? Or, could the tab that Heidita sees "Needs Approving" be visible to all?

I cannot answer this as I am not in charge, many of the suggestions mentioned were sent to Paralee, who is in charge of the phrasebook, but I don't know about the answers. I know Carlos sent a letter with good ideas.

Regarding my question #2, it seems that the only recourse at the moment is to PM mountaingirl or Guillermo when errors are noticed. And I think that is an acceptable way to deal with the relatively few that will inevitably slip through the rigorous approval process.

Yes, this is the only way. We did address the issue of self-editing at least your own entries, but that does not seem to be possible. I think one should insist, as this would be an important achievement, I can see many simple typos. I am sure the member noticed, but cannot correct his own submission, I do not agree with this at all.

And if there is a mistake, please point the mistake out to the admins, don't just make us guess, chaparri, funny, it is true, your mistake is very visible, jeje, but as you can see, nobody actually saw it.

Answer 13

Christopher wrote:

"Needs Approval" ... was only visible to Moderators, but I went ahead and made it visible to everyone.

This is great! At least during this 'crunch' time I think this will help tremendously. (If only there was a way to include entries on this tab in the search results for the Phrasebook...) Once the Phrasebook has been established, then it may not be necessary/helpful. Thank you Chris!

currently, the only way to edit a post is to ask a moderator.

Very well then. Thanks for the direction. My concern was that perhaps the moderators would be overwhelmed with PMs mentioning suggested corrections to published phrases. However I may be over-thinking this. I'm sure it will all come out in the wash. This will be a great resource!