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How to handle contributors who submit low quality sentences

Admins can block bad contributors temporarily to slow down the amount of bad quality sentences submitted by a new contributor.

How to block a contributor

  • Go to the profile page of the contributor and click on "Edit".
  • Set the "Level" to "-1" and click on "Submit".
  • If you go back to the profile page, there should be a warning icon next to the status of the member.

This will prevent the contributor from creating new sentences/translations. They can still do everything else, such as editing or deleting their existing sentences.

Conditions to block a contributor

  1. The contributor has added enough sentences for us to have an idea of the overall quality of their contributions. This should be at the very least 10 sentences.
  2. A large proportion of their sentences is not in line with our quality standards. This could be ~20% but depending on the case, we can be more or less tolerant. It's okay to just follow gut feelings and to use common sense rather than rely on a strict number.
  3. Members have posted comments to point out what is wrong and how to correct the sentences.
  4. The contributor did not provide any good reason that explains why their sentences are in fact fine.
  5. The contributor kept adding more wrong sentences while leaving their previous sentences uncorrected.

If one of these conditions is not met, you may want to wait a bit before blocking the user.

Things to do after blocking a contributor

  • Some people may provide email addresses that they never check or just wrong email addresses. Do not assume that the contributor has received notifications for the comments on their sentences. Try and reach out to the contributor via private message.
  • If the comments on the sentences were written in a language in which the contributor is not fluent, it can be understandable that they ignored the comments. If you cannot write in the main language(s) of the contributor, try to find someone in the community who can do it and ask them to assist you in teaching the new contributor how Tatoeba works.

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