Translators faced with the question of translation quality often find themselves in the same place as the late Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart when he was trying to come to grips with hard-core pornography: unable to formulate a definition but convinced that “I know it when I see it.” Even if you believe that translation quality, however it may manifest itself, is important, you have to admit that this is a really weak position from which to request higher fees or longer deadlines.

To make up for this lack of definition, all sorts of metrics have been developed in the big quest to find the unbeatable Q argument. Some assign numeric values to the translation – comparing numbers makes it look more scientific and objective. Others prescribe a certain process and award certifications to those who promise to follow the process – the idea being that the process guarantees a minimum of quality.

However, I believe that clients, with very few exceptions, really don’t care about this I-know-it-when-I-see-it quality enough to invest more money, effort, or time. I have heard too many times replies like “It’s just a maintenance manual, not Nobel Prize material” – meaning that they don’t want to pay what I ask or grant me the requested time frame. Even the quality certification or the quality metrics don’t translate to anything that they see as having a sufficient effect on the user experience to be meaningful within their cost-benefit universe.

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▲ GLD Website 1998
 


▲ GLD Website 2003
 


▲ GLD Website 2009

During the 2003 ATA conference in Phoenix I rolled out a new structure and layout for the website of the German Language Division, a make-over of the initial, 1998 website. It remained more or less unchanged until now.

Six years, however, is an eternity in Internet time, and the site started to show its age. It was attracting a constant (albeit small) stream of visitors, but it very much was a child of 2003. When I looked into possible improvements, I realized we needed more engaging and up-to-date content; we needed to acknowledge that most computer users these days have larger screens than six years ago; and we needed to get up to speed with the tools of the trade such as content management systems, blogs, etc.

So meet the new, 2009 model of the German Language Division website. It just went live and is based on WordPress, which allows updates through the division administration at any time. The new site also offers RSS feeds for subscription.