Discussion History of Baka-Tsuki (overview) by u/tptrishula

Hello, before you start wondering whether i am looking for info or not, than you are wrong, i found a post on reddit by tptrishula giving an overview of different periods of Baka-tsuki from beginning to DMCA issues to the current dying Baka-tsuki... also the reason i am posting it here even though it is on reddit and 1month old is because i am not one to visit reddit often and its likely that some nuf users might be like me and didnt know of it so why not just post it here; link; https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/5r03hg/the_history_of_bakatsuki_a_brief_overview/ - because i am stealing everything the above mentioned user said!!

and when i looked at it, i do have to say that it is quite a history;

So what do you guys/gals think? quite something isnt it!! To me this decade of Baka-tsuki is something!!

also searched NUF before making this post, and it didnt look like anyone posted it before, but in case there was such a case then Sorry!!

EDIT: also found these 2 dmca letters on that post on reddit; http://pastebin.com/3ui5ZUz0
https://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12017#p257126

 

BAKA IS DYING?

 

Ah I missed the days before we switched to WNs

 

No its not dying. It's slowly losing traction but not "dying"

 

As someone who had his starting point at reading novels on Baka tsuki im glad those loyalist people still exist. It is sad that a good site is losing people due to DMCA's and Licensing but everything that has a beginning must have an end eventually ;-; I do hope, however, that this is not the beginning of the end but rather the end of the beginning, to instead make Baka Tsuki expand past its current status just like in the instance a forum became a light novel site.

 

Baaaaka

 

in some ways losing traction is just the beginning of slowly dying, new translators would rather create their own websites and host them themselves, all it takes to finish off baka-tsuki is just one more DMCA letter and it could mean the end of it all...

 

This is interesting, but I think the MTL Age needs to be added before The Third Age. Even after the DMCA wave, baka-tsuki was still my go-to site, but one day I realized outside sites preserved higher quality translations with notable exceptions. Throw in all the English illiterate editors sneaking past good translators, and baka-tsuki fell out of my bookmarks bar. Baka-tsuki used to mean quality, but it's been overrun: Japanese illiterate MTLs brought poorer and poorer editors (I can't bring myself to refer to MTLers as plain translators).

On a side note, this is so nostalgic. I found baka-tsuki when Mahouka was still new (DenYuuDen brought me to the site), and I followed it all the way from there. Seeing just how many years ago that was is surprising.

 

Baka was where I first learned about the novel translation scene. Then dmcas started hitting all the novels. Now probably 95% of what I read is web novel translations.

 

sure i remember BT i think i read mushoku tensei ( half way before i fed up of MC type of chara at all ) + chrome shelled regios and gundam unicorn ??
oh yeah almost forgot BT is the place i know LMS and start searching other novel from other website

 

Most of good stuff I used to readon BT got DMCA-d. And no official translation in sight either (or have to wait like 5 years for yenpress or alternative to catch up).

 

I remember the days of Mushoku Tensei and Campione! fondly such great series wiped away by a DMCA takedown to this day I'm still salty baka-tsuki capitulated instead of moving the bulk of the translations elsewhere or put em off as pdfs.

I also think it was one of the few sites that ever had the Bakemonogatari TLs.

 

I only hope BT recovers from its state and gets back to the way it was before the DMCA sweep. On the other hand, the group probably needs to improve on the quality now, and lets not forget about the lessening quantity too. The good series were removed from the site (which killed off most of all the viewers and TL+Editors motivation) so all they would have to do is pick up another series to make another comeback (if they feel like it now...)

 

Only oldfags to the translation world remember baka-tsuki and it's lessons, just like the even older forum that was spcnet D=

 

probably XD, i myself only got into reading novels around 2013, and did get a few good ones there, but i was still mainly in manga and anime at the time, but i am an often seen user nowadays at baka as they still have some pretty good novels there!! truth be told spcnet is a foreign nation to me that i was in once...

 

Seems like everyone went through a similar evolution to gt to web novels, lol. All in the search of the source material.

Anime -----> Manga ------> Light Novel -----> Web Novel

 

... This makes me sad. I found BT when I started college, so that its perceived as dead already is just so unfortunate.

BT won't die for a while yet, fortunately. For the people claiming it's already doomed, remember that no one publisher has all the rights to the 100+ series it translates and that so many of the authors have expressed little to no interest in takedowns of any sort. Some are even dead (ZnT and Kaze no Stigma) so for a while yet BT will have some flagships to rely on. It will never control the translation scene as it did at the beginning, but it is extremely doubtful to leave it completely. Not as long as js06 and the other translators like them remain to translate, anyway.

 

That Damn DMCA "bomb" from Kadokawa left an Everlasting damage on Baka-tsuki.......Even now I still can't forget it....
Poor those guys that got attack from Yenpress and a Sudden Move from Kadokawa.....

 

I'm just waiting for the translation TT_TT
after the rise of CN, WN and DMCA there was less translator for the light novels.....i'm still waiting for a nice series begin translated.....

 

They had every single novel as a .pdf, they were available off site though via mediafire.
I posted the link to it a couple years ago on reddit...