Hi all,

finally I have a complete list of all emails sent out to translators since we started our service.
By this I am able to recheck cases of translator, saying that they never ever got any job offers (as different to those that got offer but were not able to pick it up).
I have several emails and names from the comments of cases to check, anyone that would like his/her case to be checked too - drop me an email.
Furthermore the new list I got will keep me busy in finding new ways to make the sending of email notification more satisfying. I will update you after my weekend.

Thanks also for all the nice remarks on the last post.
Best -
Ursula

Dear colleagues,

thank you for stopping by to get the important news.

Those of you who joined us from the very beginning might still remember moving from a subdomain on www.LingoZ.com to the main domain. Now another, certainly more important move is on its way. In these very moments we started transferring the traffic and functionality of LingoZ to our final domain: translator.babylon.com.

This is more than only a very challenging technical step: This is the end of our beta phase and a strong sign of trust from the Babylon management into your abilities. It is a trust you earned by a an outstanding performance during the last months. Congratulation to all of you!

So what are the changes:
• LingoZ as a brand name for our enterprise belongs to the past (I am still busy to adapt the website texts…)
• Our new name is: Babylon Professional Translation Services
• You will find the new name in the emails sent out to you … so don’t feel fooled, it is still the old team.

I kindly ask you to bookmark our new URL: http://translator.babylon.com/
All your personal information, including username and password have been automatically transferred to the new page.
In case you experience any difficulties on the new URL we recommend deleting the cookies in your web browser.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you need assistance of any kind. (As always: Ursula [at] Babylon.com )

Accidently these changes are made on the International Translation Day, but I couldn’t have had asked for a better date.
May I use this opportunity to wish you all success in and satisfaction from your profession.

With best regards,
Ursula

Hi all,

first of all thanks again for your kind help and the fantastic feedback.

I received several angry emails from translators, saying how can I dare to ask for a translation without paying for it. Just to make clear: my call for help wasn’t about saving LingoZ some dollars.I am regularly using LingoZ (and paying the translators) for translations of e.g. LingoZ banners and materials. Also many Babylon departments are using LingoZ, paying you just as they would do using other services.

I really like to see us a team. And this specific task/slogan is very important to the team, so I wanted you to have a word in the decision and not only relying one translators’ personal view.

I am sure, looking at your comments, that most of you understood me in the right way. It was fantastic to see the interaction going on. By reading the translations I also learned a lot about how you see LingoZ. And I am very pleased that together we take pride in doing our work professionally.

I hope I will have the golden touch when choosing from your suggestions.

With love,
Ursula

Hi all,

Source and target language of a translation job are specified by our customers. So here it can and does happen that a customer is entering wrong information. Latest example, from last Friday: The customer specified the source language as Dutch, while in fact it was Danish (a language we still do not cover in our service).

Thanks to Peter and Shakhnoza from our Dutch team for pointing this out to us. We eventually would have notice (as every job that doesn’t get translated is investigated by us) but it is extremely helpful to get this additional “alerts” by the team members.

So in general:
If you have to decline a job because the source language doesn’t actually represent the language of the text, please inform us (best would be an email to support [at] lingoz.com).
Thank you in advance!

With best regards,
Ursula

Dear colleagues,

please note that with the experiences we made during the first month we amended the payment procedures in the following:

Hi again,

Back from my holidays I am trying to share with you as many issues as possible that are raised in your emails and comments.

Dorothea asked me about the times during the day we expect our translators to be available for LingoZ:
• We would like to see LingoZ as a service that smoothly fits into your work and daily routine.
• LingoZ is a global service and works 24/7, so we are sending out the job offers as soon as the texts are submitted by our customers.
• If jobs enter your Inbox while you are away from your PC or you are busy with a work – that’s fine. We are not “forcing” our team members to pick up a job. But if you are at your PC and happen to be available, please check your Inbox for open jobs.

Just to make clear: This sounds like a very “loose connection”, but we are asking and are relying on your devotion, during times you see yourself available. At the same time do not want to impose ourselves.

All the best,
Ursula

Hi all,

thanks to Walter Landesman I was able to detect a wrong behavior of the hierarchy by which emails / job offers are send out. The bug results in the fact that some translators were automatically skipped. I informed the developers right away and hope that the fix will be done still today.

It is my prior aim to have LingoZ based on a fair system. Everything that is in our ability to do so, will be done. Please note that are elements in the process that are not controlled by us, mainly the time and speed you receive the job offers. This mainly depends on your email server you are using.

Please, despite my truly late answers in many cases, do not stop to inform me about problems, either in the system or to adress me with any personal questions you might have.

With best regards,
Ursula

Dear colleagues,

Returning from my vacation I see that several Arabic to English translations had to be canceled because no translator was able or ready to pick the offered job.

I therefore decided to contact you to help and to see if there are any problems. In the last few minutes you should have received a new job offer (207 words; Arabic to English).

Please share any thoughts and comments you might have. Whether or not you actually received a job offer to your Inbox; if you experience any problems with the system. Simply anything that could help us to improve the current situation.

With kindest regards,
Ursula

Dear colleagues,

Lately I received inquiries concerning the right way of informing LingoZ about planned vacations.

I requested to add a “Vacation Flag” to the translator profile some time ago, but honestly I believe that this will be ready, let’s say, in time for the Christmas holidays

Now sarcasm aside:
1.) for holidays shorter than two weeks do not bother yourself to inform us.
2.) Colleagues taking a longer break: simply send my an email (ursula[at]babylon.com ) and I will manually freeze these accounts for the time of their holidays.

From the bottom of my heart: enjoy your holidays, refresh your mind and body, just add some more moments to your life, you like to remember over and over again.

Best,
Ursula

By now each one of you should have gotten several job offers through LingoZ. This is what I can see in my stats and the email lists. Still I receive letters by team members that say that they haven’t gotten any job offers by emails. First of all I encourage everyone in this situation to shortly inform me and I will see if there are any problems with the profile of the specific translator.

In general I would advise you to:
• Check your Spam/Junk folders
• Please add noreply@lingoz.com to your “Approved Sender List”. (How to do…)

With best regards,
Ursula