Bunpro Validator Rank (idea)

Bunpro
#1

Hi all!

This is just a quick little post to see if there is any interest in participation in what would be a new rank on Bunpro that would be something like a validator of content. This would be aimed at high level users that don’t mind helping us increase the quality of various things on the site, but don’t want to have to go through the hassle of submitting full on feedback reports etc.

Basically someone who became a ‘validator’ would click ‘approved’ on sentences that they feel are accurate translations of the Japanese, or ‘report’ on ones that they think could use improvement. Clicking on report would allow that user to simply leave the sentence marked as ‘needs improvement’, or they could choose to offer an alternative translation themselves which the staff could then simply accept and have the change reflect on the site straight away.

Sentences that have been marked as ‘approved’ by validators would also possibly have some kind of small badge or symbol to indicate to the wider community of users that the translations have been confirmed as good quality, increasing the overall confidence in what we provide as translations.

This would be a system of trust that we would enable for users that show interest, and pass some kind of initial scan to check that there is no problem with their interpretations.

Obviously there is no pressure on anybody in the community to do this, it is just a potential idea that I had in order to get Bunpros vocab (and occasionally) grammar translations as accurate as possible in a way that us staff are not capable of doing just by ourselves due to time constraints/general peoplepower.

If you’d be interested, feel free to comment here with any of your accompanying ideas or thoughts. If you’re a lower level user and think that a ‘community mark of approval’ on sentences would increase your confidence, please also feel free to comment! :sunglasses:

Also feel free to blast me if you think this is a terrible idea! :sweat_smile:

12 Likes
#2

Hi!

Though I’m far from even thinking of becoming a ‘validator’ (‘invalidator’ would suit me better!), I think it is a wonderful idea. As in all systems of trust, the issue is how to ‘award’ the ‘validator’ status. That notwithstanding, I hope this idea becomes a new feature to Bunpro.

(In fact, loosely related to this idea and as I said elsewhere, I do miss this 先輩 - 後輩 dynamic where the skilled members of the community ‘validate’ the Japanese production of the learning ones. But that’s another story.)

7 Likes
#3

As I mentioned before, I’m completely down to be a Validator, if I’m found worthy of the title of course. I think this is a terrific idea! :+1::+1:

5 Likes
#4

I’m definitely farther on the 後輩 side of things.
I think having a little stamp of approval while I’m doing reviews would be very reassuring. I like to hide the English translation until after I’ve answered to check my understanding, so making sure I’m checking against something that has been verified as correct would be great.

3 Likes
#5

Would validator status be a “one and done”, or would it depend on whether you have mastered the grammar and vocabulary in any given sentence? You have the information about skill level, after all.

2 Likes
#6

Wonderful idea this. Putting translations to a panel based on majority approval/deny is superb. Good job BP on the ideas you’re putting forward recently.

2 Likes
#7

Why not formalize it haha.

1 Like
#8

In what respect?

#9

I just mean that it sounds like a good idea. Many have been doing a version of this in the past, why not make it a more formal system as you suggested.

2 Likes
#10

Validator status would be something that we could potentially offer to people as an ongoing thing, depending on where they are with their studies. They wouldn’t have to master the grammar specifically through Bunpro, they’d just have to show us through some kind of trial of example sentences and example translations what fixes they would suggest.

It would be a trust system more than anything else, as we don’t know what vocab/grammar users are 100% comfortable with, so we’d really only be offering the role to people that are quite active on the forum/website that we know have the best interest of learners in mind when approving/rejecting translations.

Really it wouldn’t be that difficult. Most of the time that translations are poor, it’s due to key nuances being missed in the Japanese when they should be separated. Here’s an example of what I personally would classify as a poor translation.

少しの敗北なんかで自尊心が傷つくものか！このくらい何ともない！

“Would my self-esteem be hurt by such a minor defeat! This is nothing at all!”

As you can see here, ChatGPT has basically completely ignored なんか, ものか, and このくらい. The translation is certainly ‘correct’, but a better translation would be -

“As if my self-esteem would be hurt by something like a small defeat! This much is nothing!”

This kind of translation correctly uses the grammar and the vocab in the same way that the Japanese does. Being a validator would just allow users who want to point out to us/fix these sub par translations a super easy way to do so. It would also allow them to approve the sentences that are already basically perfect so that they can be ignored in future quality checks.

Edit - This translation is only super borderline bad. There are ones that are much worse on first glance.

6 Likes