Charles Davis Jun 23, 2013:

@ Phil As I have said before, the fact that a question has been asked already and an answer has been chosen and included in the glossary is sometimes but not always a good argument for not asking it again. It depends on the nature of the term and the context. In this case, the answer chosen for the question you have cited, "equipment", seems to me unsuitable, and none of the other suggestions made there looks suitable either. I would say that Rich's own suggestion of "supplies" looks promising, but I think it's quite reasonable for him to seek the views of colleagues more experienced in the medical field than I am on the best way to handle this term in context. No serious linguist would use a dictionary with one translation for each word, except for terms which have one and only one correct equivalent. The same sort of argument surely applies to the KudoZ glossary.

This is quite apart from the innumerable cases in which the glossary entry for a given term is patently wrong even in the context of the question which elicited it, something to which Bill has referred.

Billh Jun 23, 2013:

Au contraire, Phil Plenty of mine are likely wrong, or at least misleading, but so are a huge number of others and frankly I don't accord any value to Proz answers beyond giving me an idea for further research. There are a few answerers I would give much more credence to than others but in general I have seen so many either downright wrong or at the least highly misleading answers that I would never venture to cite a proz answer as authority for anything unless I personally considered it correct and said so after giving it due personal consideration.

I think part of the problem lies in that the answers are chosen by the people who by definition have least idea what they mean and also people who add a load of supporting waffle tend, I think, to be chosen above those who don't bother to provide lengthy explanations.

These remarks do not apply to areas I don't look at - medical for example - where there seem to be lots of experts around but then I have absolutely no way of assessing these.....

philgoddard Jun 23, 2013:

Bill So your answers are correct and everyone else's are wrong?

Billh Jun 23, 2013:

I think 'supplies' covers it and I never look at proz entries. All I know is that in my field so many are just wrong that they have no value beyond perhaps giving you a suggestion which will require additional corroboration. It annoys me when people treat them as some sort of gospel.

Jennifer Jones Jun 22, 2013:

http://www.proexport.com.co/en/node/1294 (which seems to be a translation of the website you've posted) uses "Articles and supplies"

DLyons Jun 22, 2013:

Or "provisioning"?