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Poll: For how long do you keep copies of projects you have completed?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Dec 9, 2016

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "For how long do you keep copies of projects you have completed?".

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Michael Harris
Michael Harris  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 09:21
Member (2006)
German to English
Forever Dec 9, 2016

I am slowly getting irritated with these anonymous polls. Seriously, why is this anonymous?

Doesn´t ProZ have enough members to post their polls?


 
Gianluca Marras
Gianluca Marras  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 09:21
English to Italian
forever Dec 9, 2016

I have all my projects in my computer.

 
Julian Holmes
Julian Holmes  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 17:21
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
It depends Dec 9, 2016

On my customers. Most require me to delete within a certain period after delivery, for example, 1 week or 1 month. If they don't, the jobs stay on my hard disk forever until I feel that they are no longer needed or 'fall off the desk' - a form of natural selection I call 'chaotic reorganization.'

Echoing Michael's sentiment...Come on, Anyonymous. Own up. Who exactly are you know?


 
Ikram Mahyuddin
Ikram Mahyuddin  Identity Verified
Indonesia
Local time: 15:21
English to Indonesian
+ ...
Forever Dec 9, 2016

I don't have any reason to delete my projects. So I keep them forever in my computer.
As far as I know, this poll is anonymous because the poster may ask so.


 
Annamaria Amik
Annamaria Amik  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:21
Romanian to English
+ ...
For the statutory retention period Dec 9, 2016

It's really very simple. I keep every business-related record for the statutory period of retention. That is 5 to 10 years for accounting documents. Technically, only invoices, receipts and bank account statements are "accounting documents", but I keep the purchase orders, as well.

Some clients want me to delete them after completion, but I invoke the accounting regulations. Even if I weren't obliged by law to keep the records, I would only accept deleting any work on the condition
... See more
It's really very simple. I keep every business-related record for the statutory period of retention. That is 5 to 10 years for accounting documents. Technically, only invoices, receipts and bank account statements are "accounting documents", but I keep the purchase orders, as well.

Some clients want me to delete them after completion, but I invoke the accounting regulations. Even if I weren't obliged by law to keep the records, I would only accept deleting any work on the condition that my entire liability ceases when I no longer have a copy of what I actually translated.
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EvaVer (X)
EvaVer (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 09:21
Czech to French
+ ...
Not forever Dec 9, 2016

because the media are no longer compatible. My older archives (up to 2006) were on floppy discs, I recently threw them away. And my oldest archives (beginning of the 90s) were on paper - discarded long ago.

 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 08:21
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Forever Dec 9, 2016

Forever! That’s one of the reasons it took me so long to prepare my move from Brussels to Lisbon last year: I had accumulated lots and lots of translation projects on paper, floppy disks (remember those?), CDs, memory pens and external drives. In over 30 years and if my memory doesn’t fail me I believe I’ve only been asked once to delete the original and the translation after completion: I have never worked for 007 or OSS 117…

 
Albert Stufkens
Albert Stufkens  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 09:21
Member (2008)
Dutch to English
+ ...
Digitized Dec 9, 2016

I had accumulated a cabinetful of paper archives since 1979. 3 years ago I decided to digitize the lot. It was a long-term project.


Teresa Borges wrote:

Forever! That’s one of the reasons it took me so long to prepare my move from Brussels to Lisbon last year: I had accumulated lots and lots of translation projects on paper, floppy disks (remember those?), CDs, memory pens and external drives. In over 30 years and if my memory doesn’t fail me I believe I’ve only been asked once to delete the original and the translation after completion: I have never worked for 007 or OSS 117…


 
Vera Wilson
Vera Wilson  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 09:21
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
Nothing lasts forever Dec 9, 2016

but so far, I did not delete any files.

 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 09:21
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
A long time Dec 9, 2016

I can see from my big Trados TM that there are segments in it going back to when I finally got Trados to work reliably and started using it, around 2005 - 2006. But those are not copies of projects and not easily accessible.

I used to keep paper copies for two years, and save the files I delivered on floppy disks, about one a month, then make a CD or two at the end of the year. I still have the CDs, but I don't know whether they are readable. Otherwise most of my work is archived on
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I can see from my big Trados TM that there are segments in it going back to when I finally got Trados to work reliably and started using it, around 2005 - 2006. But those are not copies of projects and not easily accessible.

I used to keep paper copies for two years, and save the files I delivered on floppy disks, about one a month, then make a CD or two at the end of the year. I still have the CDs, but I don't know whether they are readable. Otherwise most of my work is archived on my last computer or my current one, which I started to use in 2014. A lot of the older backups have gone, but the final versions are still there, and I have backups for the last two years as well as final versions.

I do occasionally refer to earlier work, but not very often, apart from the concordance in Trados, which I use all the time. I will probably ditch the old CDs and maybe even the XP computer next year, when I cut down and partially retire... but let's see!
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neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 09:21
Spanish to English
+ ...
Depends Dec 9, 2016

I don't usually bother deleting all files unless they are inordinately large or annoying in some way, for example a weird format, or suspected virus content.

Sometimes I'll dump files which are over five years old, if I think they are taking up space that would be better used for something else. If the thrust of the poll query is whether or not I actively keep a record of everything, the answer would be not really.


 
Odile Breuvart
Odile Breuvart  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:21
Member
English to French
+ ...
Never Dec 9, 2016

If needed, I can access them from my mail box.

 
Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Yetta Jensen Bogarde  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 09:21
Member (2012)
English to Danish
+ ...
Other Dec 9, 2016

If nothing else agreed, I keep them up to 10 years.

But I change my main pc about every 4 years and I leave older than 4 years records on the old computers, that function as backups.

As for the complaints about anonymous questions: I did not submit this poll question, but I understand why people choose to be anonymous, as the ProZ staff mostly edit so heavily that you cannot recognize your own question, and you might not agree with the re-wording.


 
Ventnai
Ventnai  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 09:21
German to English
+ ...
For posterity Dec 9, 2016

I think I have virtually every translation on file that I have ever done but I now ask myself if that's really necessary. I certainly no longer work with any agencies that I did at the start of my translating career. The world has also changed a great deal since then, so I am not sure that such masterpieces would have any value.

 
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Poll: For how long do you keep copies of projects you have completed?






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