| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Country flag option Thread poster: Yaotl Altan
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Yaotl Altan 
Mexico
Local time: 00:24
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Samuel Murray wrote: Peter Motte wrote:
Target langauge country and source language country are both valuable and interesting places to live. The first one to have good handling of the target language, and the second one to understand the source language. But the story doesn't end there. What about people with more than two langauges? If you have a problem with the fact that the translator's country of residence is indicated in the search results, then that would be a separate discussion. The fact is that the country of residence is already indicated in the search results (it is not optional, AFAIK), so the proposal of a flag is not a proposal to make the country of residence known.
Right! The country of residence is already known. With this optional flag, we would only improve the way that country of residence is displayed.
It's funny...we are in the XXI century, we use larger bandwidths, but we keep loving the text-based pages....
| | | | Thomas Pfann
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:24
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
| Would lead to confusion | Sep 14, 2010 |
Replacing the actual country name with a flag would just complicate things and create a completely unnecessary potential for confusion.
Flags of smaller countries tend to be less well known. In Yaotl's sample screenshot above, for example, I even hesitated when I saw the Paraguayan flag. And I suppose non-Europeans (or actually even Europeans) might hesitate when faced with the flags of Liechtenstein or Slovenia.
Also, bear in mind that there are flags which are nearly... See more Replacing the actual country name with a flag would just complicate things and create a completely unnecessary potential for confusion.
Flags of smaller countries tend to be less well known. In Yaotl's sample screenshot above, for example, I even hesitated when I saw the Paraguayan flag. And I suppose non-Europeans (or actually even Europeans) might hesitate when faced with the flags of Liechtenstein or Slovenia.
Also, bear in mind that there are flags which are nearly identical or at least easy to confuse (eg. Luxembourg/Netherlands or Romania/Chad).
So why replace something as unambiguous as a country name with a symbol which many people might not be able to identify? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Flags for Kudoz | Sep 14, 2010 |
I remembered a similar suggestion from a few years ago, did a search, and whaddyaknow, it was you, Yaotl!
http://www.proz.com/forum/kudoz/87550-suggestion_for_kudoz:_show_a_flag_instead_of_a_users_country.html
To save you wading through the whole thread, I'll just post a quote of what summed up the majority opinion:
mediamatrix wrote:
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Flags don't necessarily tell the right story. Words - our bread and butter - most often do. And they do is efficiently (in terms of screen space), effectively (in terms of information transfer) and they do it harmoniously (in terms of politics and all that stuff).
Please leave flag-waving to true patriots (something many of us here are not - otherwise we'd not be living in far-away lands...), and stick with what we know best: WORDS.
MediaMatrix
[Edited at 2010-09-14 15:34 GMT]
| | | | Yaotl Altan
Mexico
Local time: 00:24
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thomas Pfann wrote:
Replacing the actual country name with a flag would just complicate things and create a completely unnecessary potential for confusion.
..
We could use 2 letters or the whole name of the country if you like it when focusing over the flag to avoid that confusion. Everything should be optional.
If we have the tools to make a better site, much more graphical, we should do it.
Just look at those tiny buttons here in Proz: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook. They help us to link articles to those social networks. There are three more buttons in each post (Link, Quote and Edit). All of them use a graphic and a text string. Proz didn't crash for it:)
[Edited at 2010-09-14 19:40 GMT]
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| I see disadvantages | Sep 14, 2010 |
Flags have an associated emotional value.
Members born in one country and living in another may feel unhappy showing the flag of the country of residence instead of the one from their native land.
In some areas a national and a regional flag coexist in a way that can generate passion.
Country names are simpler to understand (unless you got lot of points playing GeoChallenge)
Reg... See more Flags have an associated emotional value.
Members born in one country and living in another may feel unhappy showing the flag of the country of residence instead of the one from their native land.
In some areas a national and a regional flag coexist in a way that can generate passion.
Country names are simpler to understand (unless you got lot of points playing GeoChallenge)
Regards,
Enrique ▲ Collapse
| | | | Yaotl Altan
Mexico
Local time: 00:24
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
...there are several thousands of Trados users who don't see those disadvantages when they choose 2 flags before starting their Trados project.
An emotional value?? mmmmm Not always. When I walk through th city, I use to find out dogs. To me, they are nice images linked to tenderness, loyalty, but some people could detonate a panic show if they remember how they were bitten at 2 years old...
[Edited at 2010-... See more ...there are several thousands of Trados users who don't see those disadvantages when they choose 2 flags before starting their Trados project.
An emotional value?? mmmmm Not always. When I walk through th city, I use to find out dogs. To me, they are nice images linked to tenderness, loyalty, but some people could detonate a panic show if they remember how they were bitten at 2 years old...
[Edited at 2010-09-15 01:00 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Enrique wrote: Members born in one country and living in another may feel unhappy showing the flag of the country of residence instead of the one from their native land. In some areas a national and a regional flag coexist in a way that can generate passion. Country names are simpler to understand (unless you got lot of points playing GeoChallenge)
Completely agree with everything!
| | | | | Little flags in Trados | Sep 15, 2010 |
Yaotl Altan wrote: ...there are several thousands of Trados users who don't see those disadvantages when they choose 2 flags before starting their Trados project.
Hi Yaotl,
There flags are use to symbolize language variants, not countries of origin or residence.
Besides, I guess there is no way to know if the thousands of Trados users see this as a disadvantage or not.
Kind regards,
Enrique
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