Here’s the thing about The Open Mic: we’re always cooking something new for you.

Even though it’s not evident at the moment, but there’s actually a lot of work going on in the background.

Sometimes we add new features or test something new.

Sometimes we remove features and functionality that no one is using.

And don’t even get me started on the countless number of bugs and issues that we troubleshoot almost on a daily basis (for example, today we had some major performance issues).

With all this work sometimes I forget to actually make announcements and introduce new functionality.

So let me fix that with this post 🙂

New map of translators and interpreters

I don’t know about you, but when I’m looking for something or someone on the Internet the way the information is presented plays a very important role.

Maybe I’m a visual kind of guys or maybe the old ways of presenting information in the form of boring lists don’t work anymore.

That’s why we decided to spice things up in our Translators Directory to add one big map of our members.

Here’s what it looks like:

New map of translators and interpreters in action

It should be noted that the map is dynamic and responds to changes in search parameters.

By default it shows all members who added their profiles to the map, but when a client selects specific search parameters (language pair, average translation rate, fields of expertise, etc.) it will only show those members who match the search criteria.

For example:

In this example I was looking for an English-Russian translator specializing in video games

So make sure you complete your profile and provide as much detail as possible since this will make it easy for other people to find you!

How to add your profile to the map

1. Go to your profile and click the little cogwheel to edit your profile.
2. Scroll all the way down to Step 11.
3. Follow the instructions and update your profile.

That’s it! Great job!

Your profile should show up on our awesome map now, making it even easier for other people to find and contact you. 🙂

How to add your TM-Town badge to The Open Mic profile

I know that many of our members are also members of TM-Town, a new cool community that allows you to upload your translation memories and term bases that will be used in a super smart match-making algorithm.

Even though they received a fair bit of criticism on some online fora, we find their technology quite fascinating.

Plus having talked to the developers behind TM-Town I’m certain that the project is coming from a good place.

If you’re a TM-Town member you can now add your TM-Town badge when you’re editing your profile on The Open Mic.

Here’s what it looks like:

This is how TM-Town badge looks like in my profile

To add your TM-Town badge:

1. Go to https://www.tm-town.com
2. Login to your account and click Edit Profile (a cogwheel in the top right corner)
3. Scroll down a little bit until you see a section called Your TM-Town Embeddable Badge
4. Choose the color of your badge (purple works best on The Open Mic) and copy the code
5. Go back to your profile on The Open Mic and click Edit
6. Scroll down to Step 3
7. And the Proz section you’ll see a text that says Add your TM-Town badge
8. Paste your code in the Tab that says Text (not visual) and update your profile

Jeez, Dmitry! 8 steps? Really? That’s a bit too much, don’t you think?

You know what?

Maybe you’re right!

So to make it a bit easier for your I made this short little video that explains how to do this:

Now that wasn’t very complicated was it? 😉

What does the future hold for The Open Mic?

Excited about these new features?

Well, this is just a start.

In the upcoming weeks/months I’ll be working on some other cool things, like:

• Profiles for clients/project manager/agencies so they could find and hire you;
• A weekly curated newsletter with top stories (instead of sending a gazillion of emails every day);
• An ability for readers to subscribe to individual authors and for authors to grow their mailing list;

I’m also talking to a developer I know on the possibility of improving the way posts are displayed on the home page and helping you choose between freshly published stories, trending stories or your favorite authors.

Here are some early drafts:

Super early drafts of our new recommendation system

The cost of that new system is around 400 USD and I think I’m going to go ahead with it because we really need a smarter way to filter stories.

Let me know what you guys think about all these new features in the comments bellow.

You can also make suggestions in feature requests too 🙂

Oh, and please spread the word so that more people could learn about these new features!

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