RE: A Clarification On My Translation Project And - 如何处理生活中的不好的时候- 5个技巧，让你感觉更好 // How To Deal With Bad Times In Life - 5 Tips To Make You Feel Better (featuring @sirwinchester as author)
Thanks for the quote and reply. Just a note that i have been writing on #academiaspotlight and been giving 50% of the SBD to original authors and 50% to reviewers. The original authors are usually new steemians and did not receive a huge payout in their #academia and #science post, which is otherwise interesting for me enough to review it. I read up a lot on their expertise, reviewed their posts, and wrote the review it in a both engaging and informative way. Usually, i spent a day or 2.
Also would like to mention that in the real world, we see J. K. Rowling become the first author millionaire/billionaire in the world and no one mentions at all the translator.
Just a suggestion for you to perhaps re-think on your rewards mechanism for this project
Again, this is your blog and your choice.
Otherwise, still loving your posts as always. <3
I agree with @coinbitgold with regards to this reply as well as to his previous comment that you have referenced.
You have sought to quantify your time when you said that you need to “cover the costs of all the time it takes to coordinate and create this project and these posts".
In other words, you have some notion of what you deem is your time value with which you reasonably state that the financial rewards from this should cover.
However, I think it is a little short sighted and frankly a bit cheapskate to demand money from time spent on what is essentially a handout to you.
Why do I think that?
Because on the contrary to what you say is your intention, the counter argument is that you are simply doing this to fill your pockets from content that is already shown to be popular and or appealing to the chinese reader userbase.
Putting it nicely, your commission is far too high.
25% of proceedings in SBD equate to 12.5% overall.
eg.
$1000 author reward breaks down to
$500 in SBD
$500 in SP
25% of $ 500 = $125 in SBD
$125 / $1000 = 0.125 x 100 = 12.5%
Since you have no way to give out SP, you retain 100% of part of the reward, and yet you some how don't value this the same?
In my eyes, 25% of the total author reward is already quite low for what is essentially something you have chosen to do as a gesture to bring two communities together. Instead, you have created and given yourself a job, and then paid the original authors a measly amount that works out to be 12.5%
From an outsiders perspective, it doesn't look anything like what you suggest. You clearly are doing this to get a large reward, because the proportion that you pay yourself is massive compared to what the author gets.
Your calculations are a bit off. Pretty sure that for a $1,000 post author only gets $750. And half is in SBD($375). 25% of that is $93.75, so it's actually 9.375% instead of 12.5%.
Just here to do that maths :P I don't mind what I get paid, or ever whether I get paid or not. Other authors might think differently.
Your calculations are right, but i think I mis communicated my figures. I meant the $1000 was from a total value of $1333 the author receiving $1000
In any case, I just do not support the idea of someone taking other people's work, even with permission, and giving themselves a translation job under the pretence of serving community building interests. Let alone the fact that it's a straight up money grab and the scheme was designed so that the lions share of the reward goes to the translator.
@coinbitgold I really respect your thoughts and hear you. I also just checked out your project on academia spotlight and absolutely love it! I hope you continue despite your frustrations with Steemit laid out in your last post.
I just want to address a few more things in this post that you and @bateman have brought up.
I do have a notion of what I deem is my time value, and I could be writing other posts such as my travel posts or meditation posts. I currently am working about 50 hours a week at another job, so spending time on this project means not having as much time writing my own original content, which I would still love to do. Additionally, I am not doing this to get a large reward. I genuinely want to see the Steemit platform grow and become a more diverse community. We all benefit from an expanded user base. I want to create bridges between the English and Chinese speaking community, and as a Chinese American this has been a common theme in my life. I know that translating some posts into Chinese is not going to be the end-all answer in creating this bridge, but hopefully the project can inspire people to do their own translation projects as well.
Some authors that I have reached out to are interested in translating my posts as well in various languages. I have told them that they have full permission to translate and post any of my posts as long as they reference me and provide me with 25% of SBD, the same as I provide them.
Also, like I mentioned, this is a pilot project and I had no clue how successful it would be and it is still playing out. I am going to stick by my 25% pooled payout for now. I may change this in the future, in which case I will make an announcement.
Lastly, I am not translating posts that are on the "trending page" or that are getting payouts of thousands. To reiterate my last reply, I am choosing posts based on: 1) if it will appeal to the Chinese reader userbase (such as @jholdsworthy's wonderful post) - or- 2) if it is a wonderfully original piece on Steemit that could use some more spotlight. @bateman you wrote "you are simply doing this to fill your pockets from content that is already shown to be popular and or appealing to the chinese reader userbase." I am actually trying to pick posts in the hopes of providing authors spotlights who I believe have been doing a great job on Steemit and deserve more recognition, and believe that the post deserved more recognition (yes this is subjective). I could be translating my own past posts into Chinese, which would be a lot easier, but I want to connect to other users and spotlight their pieces.
I understand your difference in opinions, and thank you for challenging me to verbalize my own thoughts :-)