Thank you, Jim (now I finally know how to address you), and other boys, brothers or uncles :icon_cool:
Neil, after my former replies, I felt something lingering on my mind still unexpressed and finally I caught it and would like to explain it further here. In my first reply to you I used the word "danger" without going into details. Yet what compells me to make that reply is exactly that "danger". It's dangerous in two aspects.
Although a little exaggerating, I would like to borrow David's metaphor use of lion's den here. We already know the lion is hungry and greedy. So what will happen if in certain situation we throw him some more easy feed which he does not expect, and by doing so we guarantee the shrewd and tricky lion that with some tricks to let future situations appear alike he will get similar feed again. Probably more tricks will be played, won't they?
It is more dangerous because by trying so, we are composing and setting hidden rules which might bring seemingly benefit to ourselves temporarily but harm a whole community including ourselves in the long run. The connivence of scam letters itself is already a notoriously undermining hidden rule enough, which starts with unharmful motives; at least my boss claimed so, as giving more chances to more potential couples.
Jim, I very much appreciate and enjoy reading your insights about the reality of chnlove. You vividly describe how some innocent lambs finally find their maids or, more probably, get abused with or even without their realisation. We feel apathy for them, we want to help them and by trying to do so, we meet the dilemma. This dilemma is almost about psychology.
By roughly divide the ladies' profile by success stories chnlove published in one same year, I got a answer of 4%. A very meager success rate it is. So a conclusion that scam letters and other misconducts of translators cause this low success rate is easy to reach. Surely it is. But what if the corrupted situation does not changes but people's minds change by information from this site. I dare to predict that, the success rate will be even lower. The only rational, although reluctant, advice I can give to any new member who has not started their chnlove search but are reading these words, is STOP and try elsewhere, rather than start with caution and carefulness.
To go again to my humble personal experience, say, 10 EMFs per day for a year, I've read some EMFs conveying restrained caution and subtle doubt but still trying to be polite and positive. None of them finally lead to any stories anywhere near success. With the meager 4% success rate, it proves little, since in any case, 96% EMFs are to no avail in the end. But in the 96%, those carrying caution or doubt are the first to be given up either by translators or ladies. Although this combination (yes, not only translators) dose not possess high standard of honesty, ironically, their anticipation for trust is very high. So unless you are as a fine actor as Robert De Niro, you are not very likely to seem giving your whole heart yet with essential reservation.
To be candid and self-searching, I admit my point view is strongly influenced by my character and values. I firmly believe love is an "all or nothing" thing. And I personally won't describe most translators as greedy or corrupt. After all, they are my countrymen (probably women in most cases). From my association with my former colleagues, I find they are mostly common people as I am. But are their work helpful or harmful to be calculated in all, I cannot say. What is corrupted is the generally accepted morality of this trade, which comes from indifference of the chnlove mechanism.
Buy saying that many agencies are shortsighted and a restored virtue of honesty throughout chnlove will make their business thrive, you have a comrade of opinion, Michael the China Shark whom I miss a lot. But I am not that optimistic. The barrier, in my opinion, lies in the scarcity of resource, or more plainly, the relationship between price and demand.
Since the only revenue chnlove generates is from credits, they have every reason to expect agencies to produce as many credits as possible, and meanwhile obey their rules. The public announcement of three agencies deprived authorization due to poor performance, which I think we could justifiably explain as low credits input; and the absence of any public punishment or even criticism on scam letters or other conducts, may have well suggested chnlove's emphasis. Surely it should be noted that chnlove is taking measues gradually to eliminate dishonesty in EMFs (such as the text message system).
So the ideal agency a chnlove administrator would envision is one like this, an agency that has plenty of employees to translator each letter between gentlemen and ladies, send ladies every cupid notes to respond and help them send out admiral letters. While from the aspect of revenue of an agency boss, these duties are much less important than recruiting new ladies, making phone call to them periodically reporting progress, meeting them when they come to agencies for information or merely gossip. After all, ladies are their immediate clients.
If an agency were to fulfill all the duties mentioned above ideally to satisfy both chnlove and its boss, its employees, I dare to predict again, would at least need to be doubled. And who's going to pay for the extra expense of labour? Agency bosses. I have no knowledge of financial condition of any chnlove agency, but I suspect a doubled pay bill will render most agencies into nearly no profit if not bankruptcy.
Since the extra need of employees cannot be afforded, the burden passes on. One translator is expected to do double amount of work if she's going to be a dutiful translator according to chnlove rules. But the problem is, very unfortunately, most translators do not happen to possess double amount of talent or energy or skills to fulfill the expected duty, such as the one who is writing now. So the choice is laid in front of one, it is a simple choice. Since one's scarce ability permits only fulfilling either duty levied by her boss or by chnlove, any since her pay come from her boss's pocket, I believe every one can predict her rational although pathetic decision.
So I don't want to appear kind to chnlove and say we are making effort to help them in a fiscal scale. I am quite sure our ideas will make their revenue drop, either by reducing total amount of EMFs with eliminating scam ones, or by promoting their qualification of new agency entering, which will bar some agencies out and meanwhile some ladies, their resource of credits, out. It's somewhat a war between us and chnlove. They are making money by dirty hands. This is what we want to change.
Many jobs died away or drastically shrank with history developing. Copiers laid of by Xerox is a good example. Perhaps one day, same fortune will happen to translators alike if a miraculous invention made the Babel dream come true. I don't believe chnlove will thrive in the long run. I don't even hope it. I hope it will diminish and disappear with no ill will. When some day China is as rich, civilised, and open-minded as most of your countries, when transportation development makes traveling to a country like to a city in your own country, when Chinese is as popular as English in the world or some miracle in the technique of machine translation happens, when different colours, tongues, cultures and religions are mutually blended and accepted, to meet and date a Chinese won't involve so much hardship and complication as there is today. If I were a chnlove runner then, I would gladly retire and wish every one find their true love by their own hands. All might change, but I hope the power of live remains. :icon_cool:
