h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Babelfish, the - A3930815
Author: GenghisAckroyd - U1508660

My first attempt at an entry and seemed like a good idea at the time. Yes, I gleaned a lot of the info from other sites, but isn't that classed as Research rather than Plagarism.

Actually, it is plagarism the way you've done it. I'm sorry, but you can't just copy and paste direct quotes from other websites.

Good start, though... try again.

I cannot help but wonder what it was about this entry that seemed like a good idea to you. To begin with, the majority of the entry's content is concerned with a fictional creature of no practical use to anyone. To make matters worse, you put this section first. Since the online Babelfish is the one that people might actually get some use from, that should be first. You go into great detail as to the workings of the fictional Babelfish as described by Douglas Adams, but you completely failed to provide any information as to the workings of the ACTUAL Bablefish that can be used online.

Ordinarily, I suggest that people do more research on a subject and try again. In this case, I'm going to make an exception. Abandon this project completely and write an entry on a subject that is original, based in reality, and don't steal the work of others when you do it. Repeating the exact words of others isn't research. Proper research needs muliple sources, and preferable some personal experience as well if possible.

GenghisAckroyd,

Although your mention of the Altavista Babelfish was a bit too dismissive, at least it was there. And Altvista's Babelfish raises a few questions.

How come D ouglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are not acknowledged anywhere in the translation engine's site?

Did whoever decided to name the translation engine "babelfish" consider the import or omen of "Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."?

But to come back to your:

"Babelfish and similar services tend to offer such a low quality that people find their results funny. They can therefore be used as toys, for example translating a text to another language and back; some people try cycles of several languages or iterate to a fixed point or a limit cycle.
It can be a useful translation aid but not if you don't understand the language, so is a bit of an oxymoron."

Actually, you can use Babelfish to translate from a language you don't know into one you know. What's needed is a vague inkling of how translation programs work, some commonsense - and a good dose of distrust of commonsense.

Claude