Back in the stool of repentance

Censorship on ProZ continues in its usual pointless manner, carried out by individuals of sometimes dubious perception and judgment who seem to roll dice to come up with a silly rule to quote in justification. A recent KudoZ question (English to German) on "intimate knowledge" is a good example. (See the screenshot at the bottom of this post - click on it for an enlarged view.) A number of linguistically relevant comments were deleted by moderators, while an insulting comment from one translator directed toward another remained. (It characterized the answerer's proposal as "Komplett daneben. - Eigentlich eine Stilblüte, oder einfach ein Witz" - rather funny, actually, because it was the best solution; in this way, people reveal their lack of understanding of the source language among other things.) Comments on these deletions were also deleted, because it is also forbidden to comment on the regime. There are days when I wonder if moderation on ProZ hasn't been subcontracted to the government of Iran. Certainly Ahmadinejad & Co. would approve of many of the narrow-minded actions taken.

Amazingly, I've managed to stay out of trouble there for a while, perhaps because My Favorite Moderator has been preoccupied with apparently futile attempts to break the 12-cent price barrier. But all good things must come to an end, and this morning I received the following rebuke:

Dear Kevin Lossner,

This message is to inform you that your post http://www.proz.com/post/1290767 has been removed from public view but made editable and visible to you because it was not in line with site rule http://www.proz.com/siterules/forum/1#1

Please note that ProZ.com is a "translation workplace". Topics which are not directly related to translation or the translation industry, or to ProZ.com and the ProZ.com community, are not permitted.

As a moderator, I have pledged to enforce ProZ.com's limited scope by removing, or not vetting, postings that are not appropriate for the translation workplace, without regard to my personal opinion on views expressed.

For more info, see:
ProZ.com scope: http://www.proz.com/scope Forum rules: http://www.proz.com/forumrules FAQ's on no politics: http://www.proz.com/?sp=faq&#forum_no_politics

You are kindly requested to edit your post in line with this rule, so it can be made visible again.

Please note that political allusions are not permitted in the forums. Please remove the reference to "Arbeit macht frei", as it has been found offensive by Jewish site users.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and future cooperation.

Regards,
Astrid Elke Johnson 

ProZ.com moderator.

The context of this is my somewhat provocative response to a thread complaining about crowdsourcing and urging translators to sign an online petition against it. The original poster is a charming young law student  who translates on the side; she often has good ideas and interesting things to say, but our opinions differ in this case on the effectiveness of the action proposed. Silly calls for solidarity to achieve Justice in Rates or some other thing are common enough on ProZ or elsewhere from those with no understanding of a market economy and their role in it as independent, responsible business people. The funniest of these seem to come from French translators, though I'm at a loss to explain why. Maybe they are getting tired of burning down fast food restaurants and blocking traffic there and need some new entertainment. 

The content of my wicked post was as follows:

David Russi wrote:

Terrible practice [referring to working 'on spec'], must really be hurting the design industry... which BTW is also grappling with crowdsourcing.

http://www.no-spec.com/

I found that site ages ago and was thinking about it when I wrote the last post. I could not remember the URL. Like heck they'll make more off the job IF it sells....

I still think the whole "ethics" argument here is pointless. In one way or another, people will be taken to the cleaners by their governments, their churches, their spouses and children, their business partners... why should it be any different with companies? In fact, it might be argued that exploitation is one of the most ethical acts one could practice with respect to fellow humans, because it may bring them closer to real enlightenment on how society works and how they can engage productively with it. Arbeit macht frei and all that you know. Especially when it's unpaid.

This ethical problem will not be solved by signing online petitions and probably not even by a lot of Neo-Communist babble or whack job proposals to have the UN ensure that we all get paid a "fair" rate. If it ain't enough to get me that Maybach I want next year, it's just not fair, I tell you! I don't care if you are satisfied with a rusty bicycle as long as it has snow tires.

I'm not about to start dictating to you when, where and how much you should be compensated for your work. If you aren't sitting in a prison camp somewhere being forced to prostitute your linguistic skills without remuneration for some Axis of Evil candidate, then I presume you are an adult with some degree of free choice in your actions. Whether you or anyone else chooses wisely is seldom my concern. If you think that translating 2000 words free as a translation test is a good idea, that's your problem. I would think you are nuts, because I refuse to do any of that. Except when I did indeed translate that much or more and bagged a great direct client. It was a lucky call based on mature judgment, but it could have just as well been a bad call. As adults and business people, we have to learn to live with risk and respond appropriately to whatever challenges may face us, not whimper helplessly for a collective action that would be harder to work out than herding cats. (I find the latter generally works well with a bowl of milk or some tasty chicken. Maybe there is a lesson here.)

My comment is, of course, no longer visible in that thread and will remain hidden. As usual, I have no interest in accommodating a silly regime of censorship by overzealous members of the kirk or any others. I suspect the offended Jewish users, if indeed there really are any, have a rather poor understanding of English and are not able to understand irony in that language. For that matter, I don't care if they are Oxford English majors; that phrase belongs to history and the world, and its use in a discussion of oppressive practices is just as appropriate as many others we encounter in daily conversation. But I do enjoy the particular punch that Arbeit macht frei has in certain circumstances. In one case, its subtle incorporation in a conversation with a bureaucrat at the foreigner's registration office (Ausländerbehörde) was the only way to make clear the injustice of certain visa policies in Germany where family ties and responsibilities count for nothing and a work contract is the only means available to live near one's child, despite the documented ability to generate a reasonable income by other means. Mein Kampf of three years to regain the right to live and work independently in an environment where foreigners, particularly foreigners from outside the EU, suffer many disadvantages, is a chapter of my life I will not forget, and sometimes a provocative phrase is necessary to shake a discussion partner out of complacency and clichéd responses and consider objectively the matter at hand. This is a time-honored rhetorical technique which also belongs in the toolbox of today's translators.

Intimate tips for intimate knowledge on ProZ. Many rightly question the
prostitution of professionalism in search of the Google AdSense dollar.