Discussion Translation speed?

I was just curious on what your guys' opinion was on translation speed because I read a comment that said, "if they're slow, the 3 month pickup deadline should be ignored." Or something along those lines.

If you didn't know, NU pick up rules state that unless a TL drops their novel, people should wait 3 months for inactivity before it's safe to ask for someone else to pick it up.

For me personally, I don't think 3 months is unreasonable. Though slow translations can hurt, I feel like people take for granted that they're getting anything translated at all. Being able to read translations is a privilege, not a right. Unless translators are doing this for money, I don't think they should be imposed by a strict schedule, but maybe that's just me. Faster translations don't always equal better quality, and it takes a lot of time, effort and preparation to get the best of both worlds. I have mad respect for those people who are able to stick to a schedule and release things almost every day.

TL;DR

What are your opinions on translation speed? Do you prefer speed over quality? Quality over speed? Etc.

 

Its common courtesy. not NU rules.

I prefer quality. If I want speed, I use MTL.

 

I'd lean towards both. Daily (or multiple per day) chapters are quite nice, but not worth it if they are only marginally better than machine translations. Though monthly chapters make it hard to justify reading a series. Weekly chapters are in line with anime and manga, so not bad if the chapters are on the longer side. Multiple chapters per week seems like a happy medium between quality and speed.

Then again, being a leech my opinions are moot.

 

i prefer both speedy and quality translations. that's not to say i want a chapter every day regardless of if it's size is 3k or 30k. but i would like them in a timely manner. it doesn't matter if a translation is pro level or not if it takes months to get it out. by then i've already long forgotten the story existed.

 

Indeed. I prefer quality as well, "Engrish" ruins the immersion of any story I read.

 

both, but like... if i can understand it and i really want to read ahead i would read a trash translation, but im spoilt from ww so i do like a good translation.

 

If both were available or possible, then both. If I have to choose one or the other then quality. I am sure the phrase “lost in translation” has been heard. Without quality, the story loses its flavor and becomes bare bones and at that point, I would rather read MTLed stories .

 

I remember the times on baka-tsuki when you could count yourself lucky to get a chapter per two weeks, often longer and nobody complained, people were just happy to get anything at all as licensing would take years.
We've come a long way since then

 

I'm sorry for not being any of the above!
-raltzero
~runs away~

 

I hope you guys know that that "3-month rule" is something the readers imposed on translators. In the translating community, they understand that real life takes over and it's not always possible to go without long breaks. Other translators don't pressure other translators to update.

 

Prefer both, but would rather quality over speed. Translations take a long time anyway, so it's best to be patient

 

why not both? it's not as if you need to translate a 2.5k chapter for 50 hours for it to become quality. it helps to also have a good grasp of the English language too, if you're planning to TL from JP/CN to English.


@Tsaimath to be fair, its a lot easier to translate when you can actually copy paste the original text, AND light novel chapters are way longer than your average web novel chapter, like 2-4x as long.

 

I prefer Deathblade-tier, personally.

 

with some people releasing 2 chapters a day and someone like 2 a week, its hard not to be greedy for faster translations. Its like why people buy the latest versions of the iphone when they come out like a year after the previous version, even though there is no problem with the old(slow) you still want the new(fast).

 

It depends on the length of the series and how much quality is lost for speed. A story with several thousands of chapters imo its fine to have less polish in order to get more chapters out, but if the story has 70 chapters, take that extra week to make the translation as good as possible.

 

usually, i prefer speed, and can handle a certain level of mistakes or errors. i'm not expecting anything amazing when i'm barely interested in the first place and it isn't written by a published professional, much less is being translated by a person that likely doesn't have a professional team behind them. however, if they're taking a month per chapter and releasing stuff that's barely above MTL, then i'd start questioning things a bit. especially if it's the really short stuff that's full of repetitive fluff and follows the almighty word count to the most bare minimum possible.

however, most of the problem for slow releases doesn't actually seem to be because of effort put into translating and is usually the opposite; the TL goin on hiatus, losing interest, trying to take on 3+ novels by themselves for some unrealistic/masochistic reason, only TL'n a chapter because it's close to the 3 months and they want to keep the series to themselves, and/or just not feeling like they have any responsibility to tell people if something's come up. ('cause seriously, if the readers have a problem, they can just go fuck off, right?) *cough* the TL has their own life, and some things are unavoidable, but if they're open for donations, there really should be some sort of notice about what's up. that's the sort of thing that bugs me more than people that're serious about translating just being kind of slow or taking their time to put out a proper release.

 

listen fam as long as i can tell everything that's going on, an awkward sentence or two aint anything to me. Speed is best. For long novels. Shorter one? Not so important there, but of course just like a single chapter a week is bad m'kay, unless they got actual stuff to do irl you know? Then its all fine.

 

if translator doing his translating work because he just want to share their favorite novel, it doesn't matter if its slow at least 1 chapter/2 week.
but if translator doing his translating work just because to make us getting hooked with it, and he take pleasure to make us restless waiting 1 chapter for 2 week - 2/3 month they're sadist. so countermeasure for this type translator let it be for 1-2 years or until they release 100 chapter before reading it.
LoL~ just joking~

 

what people find unreasonable is when they post a chapter every 2 month......since they are so fucking slow and they have posted before 3 month, then they get triggered by that......

 

Not rule but edicat. I mean novel updates is at the end of the day a directory and not a regulator or administrator