Feature Request Official Community News

Discussion in 'Suggestions & Bug Reports' started by LordCorwin, Mar 15, 2017.

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Any interest in a forum dedicated to major news in the translation community run by staff?

Poll closed Apr 14, 2017.
  1. yes

    4 vote(s)
    80.0%
  2. no

    1 vote(s)
    20.0%
  1. LordCorwin

    LordCorwin Supreme Book Lord; Leader of the Fiction Faction

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    First off let me say, I realize that in some ways this is not a feature at all and probably belongs more in Novel Updates Site Discussion, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt it belonged here first and foremost.

    Please bear with me if I ramble, I do have a point. I will first list what I want/think we need and then my explanation/reasoning.


    Feature: New Sub-Forum: Official Community News
    Write Access: Staff Only
    Read Access: Public


    Now I'm sure many people, staff especially are thinking two things first and foremost.
    1. No, we aren't going to make any more forums or sub-forums.
    2. Why are you wasting our time with this.

    Well, here's why. Over the course of my stay at NUF I have seen a great many threads depicting or heralding changes in the translation community. Some are as simple as this or that site has been shut down, usually by DMCA but occasionally for other reasons. Others suffer from a bit more vitriol as projects are 'stolen' or change hands. These are actually not the primary reasons I would like this feature. In fact, my primary goal behind this feature is to deal with events such as the rise of Qidian International or even when WuxiaWorld began acquiring licenses for its translators.

    Simply put, major if not monumental changes in the translation community occur and the only source of information about them on NUF is usually from the same group group of overzealous, biased, ill-informed users posting dozens of threads on the topic without any documented rationale, logical conclusions, or citations why they believe this or that.

    I'm not trying to turn NUF into a news agency. I don't expect you to produce your sources. But, in regards to major news, for example, the above mentioned appearance and operation of Qidian International or the license acquisition of WuxiaWorld, I would like to see a well prepared 'news' post. Something that I, or anyone else can look at and get facts as they are known at the time(updates would be appreciated) without having to wade through 40 posts about the new site that just showed up and how it's going to DMCA all the translation groups without a shred of evidence to that line of reasoning. And I figure if the staff are the only ones allowed to post in it, it will keep the 'news' to a minimum, the articles coherent, well reasoned when conclusions are drawn if needed, concise, and easily understood by the masses.

    I realize this won't stop those pointless threads altogether and speculation will always run rampant. But for those of us who would prefer a few more facts regarding what's going on in the community rather than ranting about non-existent paywalls and conspiracy theories, I think this could really benefit us. Novels being licensed as it affects the community would be an important piece of news as well. While not as major, this could also be used to cover slightly less major events such as series changing from GT to WW, although I think anything beyond that such as the changing of hands from one translator to the next, or the arrival or departure of translators could probably still be handled in the user sub-forums as is currently.


    TL;DR - go back to the top and read it, I didn't take all that time writing it so you could comment without understanding.
     
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  2. Ral

    Ral Not a Well-Known Member ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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    Cool. I didn't know NU was such an authoritative figure that everybody in the Novel Community went out of their way to inform its moderators about changes to their teams, projects and enclosed the details of their business dealings (licenses, etc)...
    Because, if that's not the case, I don't see how our dear mods would have the ability to write those 100% verified "Official Community News" you so desire.
    Or do you expect them to contact every team involved in some change before posting the news? In which case it'd waste even more of their time, and we'd still see those threads you mentioned in the meanwhile.
    Actually, they'd pop out even if there was an "official news". People are lazy, then don't search forums before asking. Plus, they're greedy for nuffies that new threads grant.
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2017
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  3. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    Too much work for little to no benefit.

    Staff don't know what happens in the whole of the translation community, they end up discovering the things in the same way most users do.

    If they had to make announcements on things like that, it would be too easy for some trolls to call them biased because they didn't mention some random events... Probably because they didn't know about it.

    Seems like a bad idea overall.
     
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  4. Deleted member 41274

    Deleted member 41274 Guest

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    Sounds good, but who is going to do the work?

    I mean it's interesting to know more about Madsnail and Deathblade and Er Gen!
     
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  5. Devshard

    Devshard Well-Known Member

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    The Group News part of the frontpage sort of does this. It doesn't really cover everything about what's going on in the translation scene, but there are a few groups that provide their take on what's happening.

    (http://www.novelupdates.com/groupnews/ if you didn't know it was there)

    It'd be pretty cool to have a place where you could read editorial versions of what's currently happening behind the scenes and get news about what's going on from a more reliable source than random rumors and hysterical posts. I'd definitely read it. No idea who would actually make the posts or newsletter.
     
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  6. remy911

    remy911 ┗|`o′|┛ Staff Member

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    I like the idea and I think Tony liked it the last time I mentioned something this.

    That said, something like this would require more staff and possibly development time that could be used elsewhere. So if such a thing were to be implemented on Novel Updates, if at all, it would likely be in the far future.

    Someone could always start their own new blog of course, but they'd have to be credible and a relatively decent writer.
     
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  7. Devshard

    Devshard Well-Known Member

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    Would accepting submissions be a good alternative to having dedicated staff? There's plenty of ways that could go south, but there wouldn't be any need to go looking for news or spend time writing short articles.

    The same bit of news will obviously show up over and over, and I don't know how much time and energy it'll take to skim through all of that to approve or disapprove submissions, but it could cut down on the staff requirement.
     
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  8. LordCorwin

    LordCorwin Supreme Book Lord; Leader of the Fiction Faction

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    Oh, I realize it's a lot of work, and while I was sure someone had mentioned something like this at some point, I didn't see anything listed in the pinned post or within the first few pages. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm just getting frustrated with news about stuff like Qidian International being more people spouting rumors they are creating on the spot and in a way fear-mongering than actually providing relevant information.

    @Ral @brasca123 I'm not saying they should report on every little happening. But you have to admit, someone like WuxiaWorld acquiring a new license which may or may not cause many translations to switch to their site from another, or Qidian International enforcing a license on something taking it away from a current translator for example, this is not only major news for the community, but with the contacts I'm assuming the staff has at least at WW, they could report with some authority on these things. Yes, while this current period is somewhat tempestuous for the community, most of the time I suspect posts in that area would be far and few between, much like in the Site Updates/Site News sections. I'm not asking for reports on translator x picking up a new series, our users point that out and point us a verifiable link just fine on their own. But if you're like me, you've a dozen or threads about Qidian International where someone mentions how they heard there was going to be a paywall/paygate, but no actual proof. All a NUF staffer would really need to do is post the QI press release, along with any other verifiable information they found and that would be it. If they can manage to draw some unbiased conclusions backed by the evidence, I see nothing wrong with posting that as well. I'm just a little tired of misinformation, rabble-rousing, and in some cases, outright trolling.
     
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  9. Devshard

    Devshard Well-Known Member

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    I'm a bit confused now.

    From your original post, my understanding was that you wanted to create a forum that reported stories of interest to everyone on a wide range of topics. Based on your second post, its starting to sound like what you want is an official statement on Qidian International and licensing. My apologies if I've misunderstood.

    I don't think its a terrible idea to have a comprehensive, neutral post that reports everything going on with Qidian International and licensing. It might cut down on the number of posts trying to peddle rumors as facts. That said, it seems wasteful and unnecessary to dedicate an entire forum to one post. It'd work just as well as a pinned thread in 'Novel General'.
     
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  10. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    Eh? Why should we care about WW getting a new license or Qidian taking down a translation for the sake of them translating it themselves?

    Most of those things matter for quite a small amount of people, most people only care about having something to read, in that case, just visiting NU would do, no need to have those information come from NUF staff or anything of the sort.
    Seems like a much better idea IMO.
     
  11. LordCorwin

    LordCorwin Supreme Book Lord; Leader of the Fiction Faction

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    Yes, no and yes. Yes I felt there was a need for a new forum. No, I didn't want it to be wide ranging. Yes to official statements on things like Qidian International. Basically anything that affects the translation community as whole. Specifically in the way you mentioned, to cut down on the number of posts trying to peddle rumors as facts. Sure creating a sub forum for it might be wasteful, but at the same time, it means that information is easily recognizable, with each new post only being made by a staffer, and not having to waste time checking for edits. Maybe your version would be better.

    @brasca123 The better idea that you quoted with the exception of not having its own sub-forum is the same idea I've been talking about, I just did it in a much more verbose manner.
     
  12. Jarrow

    Jarrow Well-Known Member

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    @LordCorwin @brasca123 @Devshard @L4
    Give authority to write blog articles as a bonus to anyone who has over 5000 posts, and a like-to-post ratio of something over 1.0 (more likes than posts). Adjust levels as necessary. : )
     
  13. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    Just write a blog yourself...
     
  14. Devshard

    Devshard Well-Known Member

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    I'm not entirely sure why I've been summoned here, but I'm not so sure if this is the best idea anymore. Personally, I don't see the need to have any more information or "news updates" about a novel's status available to everyone. All we really need to know is if a novel is being picked up or dropped, and where it's being published. Also, if a novel is moving from one site to another.

    I don't really see a need for anyone to inform the readers why something happened, because it changes absolutely nothing. Finding out why a novel was dropped does not prevent the dropping. The same thing applies for a novel moving from one site to another. The reason behind it has no connection to a person's enjoyment of the novel, and knowing changes nothing. Things are annoying enough as it is with a bunch of people running around the forums pretending to be PR representatives. I don't think we should do anything that encourages that particular trend along further.

    Perhaps its time to finally tell people what should have been said (bluntly and clearly) from the very beginning:
    "Stop being so god-damned nosy. You won't find anything of value digging around in someone else's asshole."
     
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  15. remy911

    remy911 ┗|`o′|┛ Staff Member

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  16. Jarrow

    Jarrow Well-Known Member

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    Sorry - I had been linked to this as a side discussion - I had been referring to the suggestion of a general, crowdsourced NU Blog - not about any specific topic. No PR or anything, just an interesting extension of the existing Forum for people who Write Much More. : )
    Given the forum and polls already exist as a 'short form', I thought it sounded like an interesting idea for 'confirmed positive contributors' to have the option to contribute essays, stories, or deeper thoughts; blogs, basically, as an adjunct to NUF and NUN. : )
    No clue how difficult it would be to plug in a NovelUpdatesBlog platform, though. As with most ignorance, I assumed it would be easy. : D
    Frankly, I'd be fascinated if things like RWX's Chinese Translation Notes and Volare's Creative Corner could be centralized and expanded - It's a lot of fun, and some real information on translations and editing - and random other things of course. .
     
  17. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    Uhn...

    1) Having likes doesn't mean your contributions are of any value. It just means you're funny.
    2) Having a high message count just means you are active, doesn't mean you're active on the novels subforum.
    3) There is already a blog function on NUF, it's quite easy to find as well.
     
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  18. asriu

    asriu fu~ fu~ fu~

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    if there reward for it, along the time you will get something like online newspaper~ not bad but not good either~
     
  19. NZPIEFACE

    NZPIEFACE Leecher

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    From what I know of mods, they really don't like wasting their time with this stuff.

    Edit: Announcements are a good thing already?
     
  20. Devshard

    Devshard Well-Known Member

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    Oh! I misunderstood then. Yeah, something like that would be fun. I like RWX's "Translator Thoughts" series a lot. Most of the translators seem to have their own approach to how they translate, and its always interesting to see how someone interprets something. I don't really know about having an "Editor Thoughts" series, though. That just seems to go against the fundamental nature of being an editor. You don't really see editors running around here talking about all the stuff that they've fixed or discussing their work, yeah? There's a solid set of principles behind that. The translator/writer is the star and the one that should be in the spotlight. We exist in the background to make sure that happens. We want you(the reader) to believe that the amazing, perfect chapter that you're reading popped out from the genius mind of a translator in an hour and be in awe of that fact. You're not really supposed to know about the hours of work that goes into making it that way because it ruins the wonder and joy of it all.

    It also ruins the trust that exists between a translator/writer and their editor. We see the mistakes and every part that a translation/writer agonizes over and feels particularly shitty about. It doesn't really matter what you call it, all writing is a deeply personal and intimate experience. Everyone gets insecure about their writing, even if they are "only translating what someone else wrote". The most important part of our job is essentially the placebo effect. Just the idea that they have a good editor that looked over the chapter and "fixed" it is enough to give most people the confidence to publish something they don't feel particularly great about. I don't really know of any translator/writer that would trust an editor that broadcasts all of the stuff in their writing that they feel the worst about. Some people thrive on pain and hurt, but something like that is a lot even for those kinds of people.

    It's not really possible to talk about and demonstrate the specifics of an editor's process without actually using examples, which we absolutely cannot do. Discretion is important, especially when you're an editor. It would absolutely be helpful to anyone that wants to help edit on some of these novels, but I don't really see a way to actually pull it off. I believe that's why a lot of the editing tutorials/posts available here really only detail minor fixes and vaguely skim around the process.
     
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