They are aware of course of the price difference for basically the same work. However they chose to work for me in SL because inside the SL economy, the fees I pay make sense. A translator might earn for example 2500 L$ on a translation – that is two weeks rent on a parcel, or a new skin, or a new outfit and new hair. And again, this is the reason why I refuse without exception all pure RL jobs. They would indeed erode the pricing structure.

@Prad, I wonder what other work could be outsourced to SL at all? I mean in RL nobody needs LSL scripters or escorts or hosts…

And all the time I wonder if I know the guy who prompted your post. I am not exactly difficult to find, and I have usually once per quarter someone asking for RL jobs…

That said, it still raises a lot of questions regarding ethics of businesses, and how open to being exploited the residents of Second Life are.

However I don’t see how that relates to what Prad talks about here.

Second Life average user isn’t poor and she’s not looking for a work that let her and her family survive.

SL users are not necessarily rich – but they have enough money to own a decent computer and a broadband internet connection.
Maybe some of them just use internet cafés, but I don’t think that’s the average use case for SL workers.

I say that accepting a modest, low, or incredibly-low wage for a SL work is a CHOICE.

Not the same than HAVING TO WORK in a sweatshop under unacceptable conditions because you and your family are hungry.

After all, you can enjoy SL to almost its full potential without spending a single Linden Dollar. Nobody gets forced to leave SL because he doesn’t have enough Linden Dollars.

more thoughts on translators-

I’m pretty sure that Peter’s Babel agency provides great services. That said, remember that quality in translations HUGELY depends on many factors.
I find appropriate that wages depend on which quality is being provided.
As an end-user of translated works, I suggest that translating SL products descriptions or instructions may be slightly easier than other RL translations. As a products buyer, I’m willing to happily accept a notecard with product instructions even if they include a few errors. Not the same with RL products. I guess this is going to change in the future.

A dear friend of mine works in RL as a translator. Because he has such high quality standards, sometimes he needs half an hour to translate just a single phrase. Sometimes he has to go to the local library to do research for his translations. Sometimes he has such short deadlines that he stays up late at night.
Is this the behaviour of the average SL translator?

(I’m not English mother tongue so please deal with me. Maybe I’m getting too literally what Prad wrote?)

This so called “entrepreneur” as you call it is actually a greedy capitalist from hell. I read his blogpost and if I could I’d bitchslap this guy straight across the face. This is not being smart, this is being gross and his practice is disgusting. I wonder if this is being legal at all, who knows if some of the residents were not actually underage? This is worse than using third world kids and slaves for work.. This guy’s laughing at people and making tons of money on their backs. And then he goes and proudly announce to the web how he went and abused people, how sick is that?

While it’s true designers of consumer items spend much more time than they are paid for for each individual item sold, ultimately one would hope the rewards (however they appear to said creator) are worth the opportunity costs.

For custom work, I think it’s important for contractors to understand they are not necessarily helping the industry by constantly undercutting it.

Being professional and efficient for the cost quoted is far more important to my clients.

A virtual house, car, clothing or jewelry have nearly zero marginal cost; once created, additional copies cost almost nothing. And there’s no raw materials cost.

But information work, like translating, tech writing or programming (yes, that includes scripting) require real effort by real people over real time.

The idea that “you did it on the grid, therefore it’s worth 1/277 of what it would be in real life” is a misguided notion of value. Enterprises that do not take that into account are doomed to fail, either though labor shortages or poor product quality.

Of course, if you’re actually just exploiting geographic economic disparities, then you could do that without the grid, it’s just a convenient recruiting, communications and reimbursement tool.

I quote from my service offerings notecard:

“As an SL-only company, Babel does not accept commissions for documents to be used in “real life”. As such, our rates are reflective of the SL economy and general pricing of goods and services within SL.”

Is that fair?