Two days ago I received a most curious e-mail from a Mr. Guillermo Chiosso, associated with a bulk market bogster, Manta/Orbe, known for its bottom-tier rates and reported history of complaints from those who have worked with them. In this e-mail, which appears to have been sent to hundreds of translators and interpreters in IAPTI and possibly others, Mr. Chiosso writes of an upcoming defamation suit against the current president of that organization, Aurora Humarán because of an article at
http://translatorleaks.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/orbe-manta-quacks-scam-proz/
which was linked in a "news" page curated by Ms. Humaran using the Scoop.it keyword service. In the rambling, defamatory letter distributed to so many translators and interpreters, Mr. Chiosso claims that Ms. Humarán authored the piece in question, which is clearly not the case. My blog posts and those of others are featured all the time in such collections, where curators are presented with the results of a web search according to criteria of their interest and then choose interesting bits to share. But offering a link to an article is not quite the same as authoring, and if it were, I shudder to think how long some bylines would be.
What is going on here? Lately, I have noticed what seems to be a trend of aggressive escalation by representatives of the bulk market bog of language services, who are constantly innovating in the efforts to drive the sector toward demonetization. The excessive spin-doctoring responses to my recent post on Translators Without Compensation (TransWC) aka TWB and the many public and private threats I personally received in association with that article before the organization's founder and president resigned are further examples of the intimidation tactics which now seem popular among driving forces in the lower strata of Linguistic Sausage Production. The timing of Mr. Chiosso's missive is, of course, coincidental, but it is interest to note how careless he and in particular another individual are about reading the sources subject to their complaints; one can only hope that they are not or no longer involved in content review activities for documents of importance, because I am not sure I would trust the results.
The tactics employed here remind me a bit of the logo and motto of the Sherwin-William's paint company: "Cover the Earth". But unlike the pleasant colors and tones offered by that manufacturer, here the cover is falsehood intended to direct the attention away from unsavory practices such as spamming, exploitative rates and questionable ethical practices. In issuing their threats, both Mr. Chiosso and the blowhard who misdirected his mistaken outrage against me both claim to have consulted counsel, but when the basic facts of the text in question are examined, it is hard not to call the competence of counsel - or the information provided to counsel - into question.
I hope that Mr. Chiosso will issue the apology due soon and that some of us at least can return to what we do best.
I had never heard about them... until 10 days ago when I received a mass email via ProZ. They were looking for EN>FR "collaborators" for a "very huge" project of 200,000 words. They said a 1000-word test would be required... and it would be paid! - which suggests that they may not be as greedy as translatorleaks claims? Of course, if their rates are miserable, a paid test doesn't change much... Anyway, what's for sure is that this genius of Mr. Chiosso didn't manage to specify the subject matter of the project in this ad. Maybe this piece of information is not very important to them? =)
ReplyDeleteDear Ms. Humaran, if you truly posses legal evidence of what you have published about Manta/Orbe, we suggest you do as we have done; we've gathered all the required proof and referred the case to the Argentine justice to file a suit for defamation against you.
ReplyDeleteGuillermo Chiosso Manta/Orbe Translations
Guillermo.chiosso@manta-translations.com
Guillermo, I see that you are still gripped by hallucinations from whatever substances you ingested, imagining that Ms. Humaran was in any way involved in the publication of this post or any other opublic information regarding the bottom-feeding practices of your discredited organization. And you continue to libel her with your poisonous letter campaign. Since you both appear to reside in the same country, I hope that she finds appropriate relief through the Argentine legal system and you lot are placed in the appropriate bin.
DeleteAn update: http://translatorleaks.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/protest-too-much/
Mr. Chiosso,
ReplyDeleteAs an attorney and Professor of Law in Argentina (**not representing IAPTI or Aurora, just expressing my personal opinion**), based on your sad little email and online rambling, you really don't seem to have much of a case. Also, why are supposedly filing a "defamation" suit when what you're actually claiming is libel? Did your alleged attorney explain the differences and implications to you? Has no one advised you on how you are supposed to conduct yourself as a party in such suits? Have you measured the harm you are doing to yourself and your own case with your mass e-mails? Has your attorney not explained to you your duty of good faith when you are in involved in a suit of this nature?
Seeing how you've been handling yourself, I can't help but wonder, are you using a real lawyer at real lawyer rates? Or do you go about picking counsel the same way you go about picking translators?
Best of luck to you. If you really are going to court with this (which I seriously doubt), you're going to need it!
Paula
I think this mentally disturbed bottom-feeder has been eating too much of the spoiled linguistic sausage that his "company" churns out, which would explain his sad inability to express himself in the English language. The image that his incoherent, incompetent communication presents for a company pretending to provide language services is not a good one. A few hours ago, I received his latest libels against Ms. Humaran and others, which included threats against IAPTI members. I hope that suitable psychiatric treatment can be found to treat what appears to be a chronic problem with Dearest Guillermo.
ReplyDeleteI miss Miguel Llorens so much at times like this. Just imagine him receiving this guy's spam, the lightsaber spontaneously activating in his hand, and the subsequent relentless dissection...
ReplyDeleteToday, I also received an invitation from this company (e-mail from guillermo chiosso) to turn in my offer for 350 000 words English to German. After having checked the Internet about the reputation of this company and knowing that there are also other companies who also require from their future collaborators "thousand words free-of-charge tests" from their future "collaborators" which they invoice to their clients, I politely declined his inviation. Such companies appear to thrive on the naivity of those being "desparate" to find a translation job. Working for less than EUR 0.04 per word? I wonder how much Jean Malaplate got for his marvellous French translation of Goethe's Faust I & II (ISBN 2-08-07030-6. But working for Mr. Chiosso seems eally to be "Love's Labours Lost."
ReplyDeleteLast I heard this troglodyte is continuing his threats against individuals and IAPTI, libeling and spamming. I expect that in due course he will be dealt with through the Argentine legal system and other means.
DeleteThey´re baaaack! got one in 2015 and now again- May 2017- same name different project
ReplyDeleteSent: Sunday, May 14, 2017 4:36 PM
To: Guillermo Chiosso
Subject: RV: Project of around 75k words English > Spanish
Dear colleague,
We are in touch with you because we have received your CV. We are now looking for new translators for a new Project of around 75k words, technical and automotive.
Pair: English into Spanish
Experience of Trados is mandatory.
They are back again. Just got an email:
ReplyDeleteEstimad colega
debido al incremento de trabajos hacia el portugués de Portugal es que estamos buscando una persona interesada a trabajar de modo estable de lunes a viernes entre 4-5 horas diarias de modo on-line, en tareas de traducción y de proof-reading.
En el caso de que Ud. estuviere interesado le pedido que nos responda por este medio a la brevedad para acordar condiciones de trabajo, modalidad de pago y monto mensual.
Desde ya muchas gracias.
Guillermo Chiosso
Manta Translations Network
guillermo.chiosso@manta-translations.com