Simple translations

Question

I think questions like "How do I say window in Spanish" should be simply deleted. It takes more time and effort to formulate the question and get the answer than to go to the dictionary and looking it up. People who volunteer to help others who take it more seriously are wasting their time with this kind of questions.

IMHO.

• Ok. Venga, no te enfades. - cogumela Oct 9, 2010
• ...que enfadarse, también es pérdida de tiempo. - cogumela Oct 9, 2010

Answer 1

Honestly, I think such a policy would come across as extremely rude and off-putting. I think some newbies who potentially might have become long-time, contributing members might decide not to use this forum at all. Also, I see some benefits. Often newbies answer such questions and may themselves have to look up the word or, at the very least, get to practice a word they already know.

I just ignore questions I don't feel like answering.

• Lorenzo9's response is the most appropriate in this whole thread. I wish I could vote it up to the top. - webdunce Oct 9, 2010

Answer 2

The "ask a question" box at the bottom the page when you look up a word in the dictionary should be replaced with a link to the forum.

And the forum rules thread should be made a "sticky" so it is always the first thread a new user sees.

• Something real similar to that pops up when using the translator tool here. I think these two "ask a question" boxes are causing the bulk of the "problem"...vote! - webdunce Oct 9, 2010
• Yes, yes, yes! - webdunce Oct 9, 2010
• Great :) voting ! - lovely_lovel Oct 9, 2010
• I like the "sticky" so I'll stick my vote on you!! :) - Jason7R Oct 9, 2010
• I do think that this might help, so I'll vote.... - IndianaChris Oct 9, 2010
View 3 more commments >>

Answer 3

I think the end goal here by allowing those sort of posts is to become a community and help each other out. By providing someone an answer to their question, you improve your own understanding. To teach something to someone means you have a grasp of it and can only reinforce your knowledge. I admit it is frustrating, but we all know the answer is easy to come by with the tools on this site so maybe they are looking for the interaction. Who knows? It doesn't hurt anyone for them to post and it's easy enough for us to just ignore them.

Just my two cents.

Ciao!!

Answer 4

I am wondering why you are posting this thread instead of submitting your suggestion to administration if you are serious about this.

• Well, it is in the "Website questions and feedback" section. Posting it here first is a good idea because it gives the admins an idea of how many people agree with a suggestion and feel the same way, and gives pepole a chance to offer other suggestions. - MacFadden Oct 9, 2010
• A similar post was made only a few days ago regarding the same issue.! - Brynleigh Oct 9, 2010
• pepole who? - Brynleigh Oct 9, 2010
• Oh, you must mean "people" - Brynleigh Oct 9, 2010
• Sorry. By 'people' I meant 'frequent SD users who have an opinion on the issue'. I agree, the system is far from perfect; there are indeed often many repeated feedback threads. I still think it's a good idea for people to discuss criticisms and... - MacFadden Oct 9, 2010
View 1 more commments >>

Answer 5

Jason,

Thank you for replying, and you are right I do not advocate spoonfeeding , that is

not the way to teach, or for the other person to learn. I remember when I first

tried to post a picture and asked the question, how do you do it? I got

dozens of great answers all explaining in great detail how to post a picture.

But there was no way I could do it, untill Marianne realised that I did not know

how to use the computer , I had only recently started using a computer in

conjunction with joining SD, so without the patience and understanding of the

members I would still be unable to post a photo. But I think a line must be

drawn as to the type of question allowed before we say ,"no answer, look up this

link, or go to Translation " But in a well mannered way.

Incidentally I have noticed in the last two weeks there have been an avalanche

of these small "how do you say questions" Why is that so?

• LoL, I remember that...you are definitely more computer literate now, eh?!! :) Absolutely hear what you are saying...voting up this one!! - Jason7R Oct 9, 2010
• Ray, this is a lesson. To me, you're the best answer. - cogumela Oct 9, 2010

Answer 6

I've said it before - I think people should have X number of learning points, rep points, or whatever in order to be able to start new threads.

If this could be implemented, then I am sure that a lot of these threads would never even show up on the forum.

If a person with not enough points tries to ask a question, they will get a message:

"Sorry, you do not have enough Learning points to ask a question on this forum. However, if you would like to translate something, please click the link below for the dictionary."

I think this would be a great improvement to the site.

• I like this suggestion. Most of the questions we're talking about are posted by members who have hardly started any of the online courses. - pesta Oct 9, 2010
• Exactly - I have been a member of Spanishdict since last November, but only recently became an 'active' member. Before that, when I needed to look up a word, or a translation, I used the resources on Spanishdict to look words up, which is extremely easy. - IndianaChris Oct 9, 2010
• Just a thought - if you give a man a fish, he can eat for a day. If you teach him to fish, he can eat for a lifetime... - IndianaChris Oct 9, 2010

Answer 7

I've been wondering about this for a few days now. I think possibly what's happening is that newbies think that this site is a search engine or "translation engine". For example - he/she might (quite innocently) type "how many countries speak Spanish" - they think this forum is like Google - blissfully unaware that real people like me and you are actually reading their "stupid questions". After all, who bothers to use proper punctuation, capital letters, please and thank you in a search engine? Maybe after reading the replies like "Why don't you do some research first? ..... This has been asked before ..... Try learning English before attempting a foreign language etc" they realize, to their embarrassment, that they have made a mistake and don't return. Would you?

I also refuse to believe that so many people are rude and ignorant. Even the most ill-mannered slob in my city says something like "Excuse me mate ....." before asking a question (even a rude and ignorant question).

I agree that there should be a way to filter-out these problems - maybe using software (but I'm no expert). A website update would help immensely but, as we all know, that ain't gonna happen.

Saludos.

Answer 8

I agree with you , when I find any question like this I usually spend too much time writing the translation and telling the person to look it up in the dictionary and also providing the link for it !

But if we deleted those questions , than we'll probably need to put a new rule that tells the new members here to avoid those questions and to look up in the dictionary :

= Please avoid asking questions about the meaning of one word ( or more ).

If you need to translate one word ( or more ) please visit the Dictionary sectionhere at SD , and if the word doesn't exist there than you can ask about the translation on SD forum .

This may seem a little bit hard to understand because I am not a native English speaker but I am sure if anyone corrected the mistakes in it , it can be a good solution for everyone .

• It should be "to look it up in the dictionary" not "to look up in the dictionary". Your English is very good though. - 0097f7e0 Oct 9, 2010
• Thank you kitty :) - lovely_lovel Oct 9, 2010

Answer 9

Normaly I always try to take the middle ground, but at the moment I have noticed that

there have been far too many of these type of "questions" and not enough

testing questions which take us to the limit of our understanding. How to tackle

this problem is difficult , we do not want to stifle members before they get a

chance to dive in and swim with the school , perhaps it may help if "dictionary"

and "Translation " was highlighted to the left of the green "ask a question " box.

In the meantimeI I guess we must answer the sometimes annoying questions which

we have all asked at one time or another , but keep reinforcing the dictum to

please look up your own questions first.

• Great, Ray. - cogumela Oct 9, 2010

Answer 10

Cogumela,
Not a bad job at all!!

Well, I understand to Lazarus. First, I appreciate his opinion and generally he has my support. Now what I'm wondering is if this thread was released:

I would have said, "I understand what Lazarus is saying and I appreciate his opinion. Normally he has my support. I am wondering if he posted this thread:

because he really thinks that these posts are annoying for anyone because he believes it does not help to who asks or because he believes it does not help to who answers

because he really thinks that these posts are annoying for everybody, they do not help the people asking the question or they do not help the person that responds to the question.
These are some minor corrections for you. I did not give them all to you but if you change these that will be a great start and I will check back later.

• You are a good understanding man Jason, you would make a good teacher. - ray76 Oct 9, 2010
• Gracias!! - cogumela Oct 9, 2010
• No hay de que, cogumela and Ray, gracias amigo. :) - Jason7R Oct 9, 2010

Answer 11

Asking basic vocabulary questions can be annoying to some members I´m sure but we were all there at one stage in our learning - and don´t forget when all is said and done - there is a box that say´s "Ask the experts"! It does not say what not to ask them.

• Excellent point - mountaingirl Oct 9, 2010

Answer 12

Well, I understand to Lazarus. First, I appreciate his opinion and generally he has my support. Now what I'm wondering is if this thread was released:

because he really thinks that these posts are annoying for anyone because he believes it does not help to who asks or because he believes it does not help to who answers

Actually, I think these threads are a form as valid as any to learn vocabulary, speaking about beginners. If we assume this forum is opened to all levels, I think that this kind of post should not bother, you just have to ignore them.

But it happens that there are people who know a lot here, and I understand that these issues are not too stimulating to them. This requires patience, and thinking about it. And if majority finally believes that this questions are detrimental to the forum, rules must be adjusted by the admins.

I'm sorry for my English!

Well, I understand where Lazarus is coming from. I appreciate his opinion and I generally agree, but I'm wondering if he made this thread because he thinks these posts are annoying to everyone, because it doesn't help the person asking the question, or because it doesn't help the person answering.

Actually, I think these threads are a way as valid as any to learn vocabulary for beginners. Since this forum is open to all levels, these kinds of posts should not bother you, and if they do you should just ignore them.

However, there are people here who know a lot and I understand that these issues are not too stimulating for them. This issue deserves more consideration, but if the majority feels that these questions are detrimental to the forum then the rules should be adjusted accordingly by the admins.

• Thanks a lot! Lorenzo - cogumela Oct 9, 2010
• A little typo: "helpe" should be "help" - Janice Oct 9, 2010

Answer 13

should be simply deleted.

No, not until you change the invitation! You (SD) can't keep advertising Free Translations and then just pitch the requests!

[link text][1]

[1]: Is there a competition for the most absurd question today?

• This is why is posted as I did. I think this thread is redundant. It is the same issue yet again! - Brynleigh Oct 10, 2010
• "I posted" - Brynleigh Oct 10, 2010

Answer 14

Come now LatetoDinner, Free Translation doesn't mean there is somebody waiting for the next person to ask what the word for "door" is and then proceeds to translate it. There are too many features on this site that can teach you things like this. I'm sure SD wasn't proposing this to the public. It's all about directing, guiding, and if an attempt is made gently correcting the person that needs help.

• Please note this Jason's advice, "gently correcting". - Eddy Oct 9, 2010
• Bravo Jason, that hits the nub of the question perfectly. - ray76 Oct 9, 2010
• :) - Jason7R Oct 9, 2010

Answer 15

I am wondering why you are posting this thread instead of submitting your suggestion to administration if you are serious about this.

I understand what your saying Brynleigh but knowing Lazarus, I'm sure he has said something to admin as well. There have been some great points made here already but as I have done in many, M A N Y posts, jejeje, I guide and direct the person to the answer and I can safely say 99% of the time I don't give an answer. If somebody understands how to learn, find, etc. their answer, or at least have the knowledge of how to use the dictionary or conjugation tools, or even make an attempt to answer the question, then I feel we should help. Giving the answer to them is not teaching them how to learn, in regards to these basic questions (what is the word for window, door, etc.).