Request How Would You Fix The Translation Scene?

This is like the constant cause for drama for some groups. Learned from the drama (actually, it applies to real-world publishing) that the only one who has the authority to complain and put down everything is the publisher or the author. groups can translate and scan but they don't have legal rights per se. I have a popcorn ready when fans of a group attack or send hate ot a third party or another translator. I mean, those groups don't really own anything. at all.

[/QUOTE] God, leechers these days thinking they deserve free stuff quickly and regularly. This isn't our bread and butter. We do this for free because e we want to share from the goodness of our hearts. Freeloaders have no right to demand anything. Learn the language if you want it to go faster.[/QUOTE]

Or learn the virtue of patience. If they want a title so badly, learn the language and get yourself a foreign currency in your Paypal. I have some titles I really want and would go as far as to support the author if possible. It shows that some fans are really entitled and in reality, that attitude is shit. They aren't helping anyone. They don't buy and support the author, nor they extend help other fans to translate or do extra stuff. Many people enjoy demanding and sometimes, it's interesting to see and discontinue the title just to see the meltdown.

To add, those stupid people who reupload the scans in their social media. Seriously, these people are shooting everyone just to get their fix of followers. I hope their accounts get reported and people who actually care could really be vigilant for these attention whores.

 

1. On the completion rate sites with multiple translators may get shot in the foot or people such as Chamber where he had to go off on military service and so he let all the series at the time go and anyone could pick them up. (I believe at the time he had 4 ongoing series.) Which would mean it would have to have user input which sadly will always have problems.
2. It does not account for how long they picked up the series for, if they translate one or two chapters then drop it cause no traction or some such it's pretty reasonable period and people shouldn't be to interested/invested so they definitely shouldn't be penalised for it and which would be another reason for user input to be necessary.
3. Next ongoing series would require to be exempted from this especially for things like Martial God Asura which really should show the dedication of the translation group.
4. Finally on the rate thing some novels are 10 to 20 times longer then others and some groups only publish the full light novels rather then chapter bits so this really praises those whom do short chapters and web novels and punishes those that do full novel releases hence again you would likely have to have user input.

All in all this would require a highly dedicated group to run to judge that users aren't editing it for stupid reasons such as not liking the group *Cough* Qidian *Cough* as well as to make sure that a group doesn't edit them to reflect better on themselves.

 

And that is a big issue. We know this is illegal. Even the for-profits understand it's illegal. The majority of the translations listed on NU are illegal. But there are legal ones, and imposing a takeover rule on these legal ones are outright illegal.

Let me break it up to you, sweety. The translators ARE doing YOU a favour. They are NOT getting ANYTHING from you by GIVING you, free stuff. You can take it or you can leave it. The majority of the translators from past years have already left the translation scene because of disgust towards people like you dictating how often you should get your fix without caring that they are doing this as a favour to you.

Now, having the readers say, "Please, can you release the next chapter sooner?" or "I want to read the next chapter faster!" is fine. It even make the translators feel good that their work is well received. But having people say "Release one chapter a month or stop translating" is really offputting and having to conform to someone on the net dictating their schedule and harassing them for not releasing faster will kill anyone's motivation.

Absolutely agree. So wait for your turn and stop making people conform to your schedule for getting your fix. If they're not releasing the chapter you want when you want it, then go do something else until they do.

Nobody's asking you to kneel and kiss the translator's feet. Nobody's asking you to be quiet. What you, like any decent people should not do is forcing translators to conform to your schedule. You want it released faster? Hire someone to translate it for you. SaHA used to take commissions to translate an entire chapter of hentai manga for $100, go find someone similar.

Oh you want someone else to do it? Great! I absolutely agree. Why don't you go find a translator then?

I'll tell you the REALITY of the situation, sweety. The real reason why titles are not picked up, is that THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH TRANSLATORS! And you pressuring existing translators to release beyond their means is pushing existing translators to ragequit. Fan translators have a life beyond bending over backwards to please you, and that is the reality that you should accept unless you live in the manga universe where the power of nakama makes everything possible.

Oh, another thing. Get good? Right back at you. GET GOOD AND LEARN FOREIGN LANGUAGE.

p/s: I do not consider people who rely entirely on machine translations are translator. So these people are being taken completely out of the equation in the proses of composing this post. So please don't argue back using machine translators as point of argument. Because you know they suck and their translations are sometimes completely wrong.

 

There is no such thing as a three month rule though. You want to pick up something? If the original translator didn't explicitly say he dropped it, then just go back from the start. Other issue you're not considering, I'm currently translating a novel that's rarely updated, this often happens to translators once they catch up to the author. For that specific novel, I only post one chapter a month, sometimes one every two or three months, but really, the author is the one posting once every two or three months. Yet leechers don't understand these things, so on leechersupdate.com, I would stop existing.
Either way, what you're suggesting is to regulate our work like we're working for a company or something, but forcing schedules and regulations on independent translators is just going to push us to stop translating novels and start translating for actual companies, which pays much better. Don't forget that the main thing pushing us all to translate is passion, we all started it for fun, if you take the fun off, most of us will just stop. I know many people think we're making billions, but really, we're making peanuts that don't justify working as much as we do.
You're asking for suggestions, well my suggestion as a translator is to please not impose things on us, it's not going to work properly, it's just going to create new problems. I mean, MTLers would probably just keep going, but the rest would go work professionally.
Most translators pick up novels that no one wanted to pick up in the first place anyway.

 

I can see all those as valid points.

 

It’s not regulation as much as increased visibility for the reader. Some do it as a passionate hobby. Some do it to see if they can make extra money. Then you have whole companies devoted to it like wuxiaworld. Again, translator have their circumstances. Issues with original slow updates and other things are a factor. But it’s not about regulation. Everyone is free to do as they see fit. Personally, I don’t think the translation scene is broken to begin with. Like many things it is what it is, positive and improvement opportunities. Just like you translate for passion, others read for passion. Offering additional info and stats to readers doesn’t take away from translators, it would just further incentivize those who are consistent. And if you do a chapter once every 3 months, that’s fine. Readers would just know that’s the rate. Also, if you choose to start translating 10 novels but drop each one, that’s fine. Readers would just know the habit based on the stat. However, suffice it to say you don’t agree with those options. And that’s also fine.

 

Well, you naturally won't get as much visibility if you post less, so that's already kinda dealt with. The dropping part? Well, there can be many legitimate reasons to drop a novel, too many to count, really.

 

It would be nice to see some licensed Korean BL.

 

You wrote voice instead of choice.
And to correct you again, normal people are worse off than you think.
I have had someone launch into an essay insult because I have a Patreon.
I was denying the young master his fix. Regardless of the fact that I kept to the promised schedule.
And also, you seem to be under the impression that they are translators lined up to pick up novels. No they are not.
90% of the translators here are MTL crap but some are so good that you end up reading fan fiction. It is flawess English but you read something the author didn't write.
The name calling is taking it too far.
That's why I started my website because some translators have a chip on their shoulders but some readers can be way worse.
Doxxing attempts, hate mail and a host of others.
I have dealt with my fair share.

But screw those punks. I am doing what I want to do.
Lastly, you underestimate the importance of books
I have had those with depression contact me amongst other comments on how a book helped them positively.
But this played a role
in why I started a translation website even though me speak only Engrish

I saw the forum post first :
https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2...chinese-web-novels-curing-his-addiction-drugs
https://forum.wuxiaworld.com/discussion/545/wuxiaworld-has-probably-saved-my-life


Humans can be vile but you can't help but love us humans since it takes one good egg

 

Instead of stats what about blog articles promoting fast translators?
I would pay you to write such flattery articles.
Pay you Nuffies of course.
Seriously though, I can pay you in chapter(s)

 

O_O This would be bribery of a nufferment official!

 

Yup. Nobody will die if the translator drops the title. There will just an unreasonable meltdown by fans like the translator killed their family or something. Unreasonable because the 'fans' will probably send threats to the point that maybe, the translator should have not picked it in the first place.

It's very easy to do. Drop the novel. I'm just not sure if you're expecting fans to accept that as easy and as readily as you think.

I have seen 'fans' hating the author cos they didn't get the ending they like. or people with ships and their love team didn't push thru. or blame a character, a fictional character, cos in the middle of the story (which will have a happy ending).

How can you be sure that if a title drops these things won't happen? Will the reasonable fans beat those who do stuff I mentioned? Do fans even think their actions are bordering into beind horrible people? I don't think so. But give them their manga/novel fix and they act like they are the best fans ever! pinky swear!

And I won't be surprised if somehow the author got threats as well even though they don't have a single speck of idea of what's going on.

 

I get attacked on every thread for dropping novels by "wonderful people" like @Das
It is very common
@zanari It is a classic case of talking when you have no facts to back what you are saying.
You have idiots who think they are entitled to tell people how to spend their time or money( I pay translators and dont translate myself)
And this happened less than an hour ago

https://forum.novelupdates.com/posts/5231859/

 

Legit translators can turn MTL as well. Even I wanted to match these MTL'ers speed, I could just dump the doc into google translate and post 100 times a day. Why bother trying to make things nice? Why bother to give justice to the author's use of language?

If not pure MTL, I could go with super short-hand translations. I could just write what the sentence means rather than be as descriptive as the author wrote.
For example: I could write:
"He ate the food."
vs.
"His hand was shaking as he lifted the glob of steaming purple liquid(?), but the chef's excited gaze won over his fear and he stuffed the spoon into his mouth."

Those who just want the story can handle the 1st one, right? You just want your quick fix, right?

Sorry for the irritated tone. I'm just peeved whenever these types of threads pop up.

 

What's there to fix really? The current system isn't necessarily broken, really.

+-+ There are a few perks on NuF, for translators and groups. such as the Translator's Badge. Think of it like Youtube's or Twitter's verified checkmark. It helps when addressing, some issues, like if the translator's site is down/ doing maintenance. Or if they have to put out fires or clarify things to a disgruntled entity.

We have a dedicated Translator Forum. "Translator Corner" Right now its the catch all for assistance and help to fledgling/ learning translators, by more knowledgeable translators.

=+= The 3 month rule, is a courtesy rule from the Baka-Tsuki Era. The intention was that the Project is a free-for-all if no dialogue or contact was made with the current translator/group working on the project.

Spoiler: I digress

The rule was based on common moral ethics for the community. Because at the time all those translators worked out of passion, I'm pretty sure moderators (Baka-Tsuki), removed any translator or group that profited of their translations from their directory.

It's nice that people may be interested on working on the same project, but how about conversing first, declaring your intentions. It may lead to a lot less drama, or maybe people can pick up another project instead.

 

Sustainability has always been an ongoing thing within this community. A part of me feels, life will find a way. Heck, I was just a reader about a year ago. But I decided to pick up translating, for a project which had been dead for a while (Or had the irregular updates/ multiple drops) There may be a point where, many translators have an exodus again. But at the same time, we will see a wave of new translators (hopefully with editors too)

Okay that's enough of my reflection on that. As for improvements for our lull in people translating. I mentioned it in a few threads a while back, that the readers need to provide constructive feedback.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=​

Rather than calling the work a shit translation and berating the translator. Just inform them (if they have comments section) what does not make sense, what doesn't flow right. Think about all the translations as school projects, and help that person with their homework.

In this community, we like to refer to our works as "Projects", because that's what they are. Think about it this way, for lone wolf translators or One-man army types, they work on this project all by themselves and put in a lot of effort (or think that they do). And when they are done, they post it for the public community.

The community is like a teacher, grading every detail of the work. So when its good, everyone gives it a passing grade and sometimes positive comments. But when the work is not so good, the teacher (public) just gives a bad grade and berates them. This is an instant de-motivator for any fledgling translator.

+=+ So my suggestion again is for the reader, to provide constructive feedback, assist the translator on improving their craft. Helping a translator, will also motivate them to keep on going. Because why would one keep translating if there are people who don't appreciate your work.

 

Less ads, better websites.
Less tags, better recommendation system.

 

We need to lock up translators in dungeons and make them translate faster

Joking! (though we all know its what we all leechers really think)

Is there anything really lacking? I mean sure, there are some things we can all quibble with, but even with all the flaws I think things are going fine as-is.

 

I think suggestions for improvement does not mean we are disparaging current efforts.
There is a difference between saying it is completely broken vs fixing tiny problems and seeking improvements

 

Why is that?