Since there are already Group pages available why not add specific statistics for translation overall quality, grammar, spelling, and site quality (like too many ads or out of date chapter indexes). This can save a lot of stories from getting bad reviews and help people chose from which group to read from if there is multiple groups translating the same story. -Thor
More promising than rating translating the group on the novel page suggestion Still has inherent issues like for multiple translators within a group. I think it might be nice to have a place to leave suggestions / thank yous similar to a review at the most in the end.
Because it won't be helpful for anyone and will just harm the smaller groups that work on their free time to provide you something for fun... Like... 95% of the translation groups. Not happening.
As a reader, I agree with you. But, as a translator, I'd rather not. Say you have sacrificed your precious time for doing things for other people who don't even pay you for it, but they instead say you are bad and bash you. I don't know whether this saying expresses it enough, but; Don't make people nourish viper on their own bosoms.
If translators were employees of NU and the translations were products* it would make sense, but it’s simply not the way things are. We’re all just people. It might help people sort by quality in the short-term, but would degrade the overall quality and quantity in the long term. Negative feedback is going to drive translators into the ground. Period. It’s already a lot of work and largely done by volunteers who don’t earn much off of it. Recently, there has been an uptrend in people who do make good money from this, but that doesn’t hold true for everyone. Something that might be effective would be an uber like system for editors available at NU or a sister site. Volunteer editors or even available at a low fixed rate after they pass tests or even show experience. Anyways, the point is that negative feedback is a no go. That’s why I put something like suggestions or thank yous instead. Positive feedback or constructive advice can be good.
If there is a rating for groups, then I want to rate Yukkuri Free Time Literature Service with a 1 star. I mean the group translation is really slow, the main translator play Stellaris all day, the release date is inconsistent, the grammar is horrible, non-existent editors, and the worst part: You can just read the LN which is way ahead and higher relative quality than reading his shabby translation. Truly unreadable.
I do not want to bash translators. What concerns me most is that there are tons of editing tools out there that can help make a translation more readable. One of the inherent problems with this is that a lot of translators are not using English for their primary language so even if they had access to these tools they would not necessarily be able to use them effectively. On top of that English is very different depending on what region it originates from. I have even spent a lot of my time trying to educate a few translators on the ins and outs of our grammar packed language with mixed results. While I have issues with how some ads are done on the host sites it is something that is used to make a few dollars for the translator when it can make a huge difference in their lives. It is often these translators that make the most eye cancer. On the flip side a quality translator could have an active patreon, other donation systems, or paywalls. It is not a safe assumption that people just do this for fun. And yes, while I do think that feedback for a group can and should be constructive it should not be on a story page; maybe a single click button for 'Thanks' or 'Like' would be appropriate for both groups and stories. To be clear I would read other stories from translators that are highly rated, for the same reason I buy books. I would argue that the current rating systems on this site and others have affected the official translations of light novels and their sales.
Plz no... translators are gonna cry ;-; cough me but honestly though, it's just gonna end up with a whole bunch of quitting translators. Most translators don't get nearly as much money as you think, some even do it for free. Doesn't matter if the quality is poop, they're volunteering their free time and energy soo..... you can just leave them a comment and most of the time, they read it and improve. Otherwise if you don't like it, just don't go on the site. You can generally tell in the first chapter if quality sucks and that is what, 5 minutes of your time? Just my opinion~
Almost all do it for little to no money actually, it's still mostly a community of fantranslators with a handful of people that earn anything from it. The only affected people would be the ones that are doing this out of the goodwill of their hearts, it's a pretty horrible suggestion.
At least half of all translators do get paid though? Most groups pay ad revenue, even tiny ones but don't say it publically cause nobody wants translators that translate soley for money. Most of the people that translate do eventually move into getting paid via ad revenue though. However, they dont normally get paid a lot. Ad rev is pretty pitifully low, and it takes about an hour+ to translate a xianxia chapter (2.5k+ with weird wacky xianxia terms). Even if you release daily, getting a part time job at McDonald's and using that same hour to work will prob give you several times the amount you get from translating (unless ofc you've been doing it for a while and the chapters accumalate or you do patreon) so at that point, it's basically doing it for free. Eek I just realised how much I typed >.<. Didn't mean to go on and on about it lol. But TL;DR: most translators earn something, but it's so low that they'd be better off not doing so. Most people here translate cause they love the novel so reviews would just be kinda... Meh. Tho ofc unless you're working for Qidian cause their pay is actually pretty good. EDIT: whoops sorry! I just realised the LITTLE or for none part
Essentially what you said, ad rev barely pays server costs for most, if it does that is. So... This kind of suggestion would only hurt them~