had an annual re-examination taken place

00:09 Apr 20, 2016 

And that's the issue: the application of the procedure; that is, if a question is 'easy' only for the highly qualified, then it's probably NOT a non-PRO question. And having everyone follow their own criteria is not a very good (or even fair) approach. To put it in terms of college accreditation, an institution's would be pulled if it published (on its website) policies it did not actually practice. Maybe it's time for a site-wide consultation on the wording of the question. Can this (single-question) criterion not be improved upon? Or is this a case where, no matter what it says, people will always vote according to their own criteria? It would be interesting to see what some other prozians think (including one by the username AbeL). Thanks again, John, and cheers :-)

22:50 Apr 19, 2016 

straight forward. Sometimes there are questions (too many times, I think) that are labeled as "non-pro", when as a matter of fact require not only a seasoned translator to figure it out, but also a full specialist in the field. By the way, how do you call a soldier who has endured through attacks with pepper spray and mustard gas and has been able to survive? --He is now a seasoned veteran! ;-)

12:24 Apr 19, 2016 

I think it's a matter of procedure. Who asks a question and whether it's easy for a particular translator are not part of the (sole) criterion. Even if we don't agree, it is what it is (until it's not). :-) Thanks, Neil. And cheers!

11:16 Apr 19, 2016 

Who is asking and how also has something to do with it - when askers abuse the system and use it to do their jobs for them the Kudoz community self-polices and marks them as non-Pro because of the asker's overall conduct.
Not that I'm suggesting that is what has happened here, merely a general observation.

11:13 Apr 19, 2016 

But which part of the expression is difficult?
You originally deemed that it was so obvious and straighforward that no explanation was required for your suggestion. I agree, no explanation is required because it's so easy.

08:56 Apr 19, 2016 

Over the years, I've wondered if, "Are you sure that this question could not be answered by any bilingual person without the aid of a dictionary"? didn't need a tiny bit of revising or perhaps just a friendly reminder e.g., "The word 'bilingual' includes people with different levels of proficiency." Abilities vary greatly from one 'bilingual' to the next.

Could any random 'bilingual'----with a beginning level of proficiency in his source- (or target-) language----render 'effectively' a question such as this, and do so without a dictionary?

I think our 'bilingual person' question should probably be tweaked a bit, but until then, this is the proficiency-related question we have (worts and all). ;-)