Discussion Translations updates

I believe that we should allow people to translate a novel which has been taken IF AND ONLY IF a translator or a group fails to deliver a chapter per week.
I know that it seems like i'm abusing since the translation are free and i'm like many just free loading.
Still i want you to remember that most novels on this site are chinese webnovels and they generally have over 1000 chapters.
Some groups translate a dozen chapters per year and their release are both erratic and small in number.
There's a novel i'm currently reading which has 234 chapters (small for a chinese novel) and the translation began in 2016. We are currently in october 2019 and only 42 chapters have been translated and it's been 3 years. At this rate i will be able to read the epilogue in 15 years. Right now i'm already struggling to remember the events of the novel and sometimes i'm even struggling to remember which characters are associated to which name.
If all translator were to release at the same rate i might never manage to outlive the translation of those books i'm reading.
I'm reading for free but at the same time i'm comitting my time to read. Therefore i believe that should the translator fail to deliver the translation at a steady rate, the novel should be up for grab.

Therefore, what i'm suggesting is to allow any translator or groups to takeover a novel if the actual translator fails to translate at a fixed rate. It doesn't mean that he should give up but others should be allowed the chance to translate the same novel without waiting for the actual 3 months period. This way at least we can prevent a novel to be taken hostage by a translator who will work on a whim and or only when he isn't lazy.

I know that it's quite arrogant and gutsy to talk about this subject when i'm mostly freeloading BUT I'd like you to know that i'm an avid reader, i read as a hobby and i like reading. I read many books since i was 10 and i've devoted a great part of my life to it. I'm quite selective with my reading and takes the time to do so. I'm reading because there are translator but at the same time don't people translate because they expect people to read it?
So i believe that as long as you begin to translate you should either do so at a steady pace or allow others to take your place.


I hope you will agree to this proposition or at least give it a thought.

AND PLEASE THIS TOPIC IS MEANT TO BE DISCUSSED.
NO INSULT.
BE CIVILIZED.

 

How about no.

 

https://www.novelupdates.com/nu-policy/

P.S. NU doesn't enforce these rules on the TL community. TLs CAN choose not to follow these guidelines; just that failure in complying results in your releases not being listed on NU (they'd still be available online, on the TL's site/platform, tho).

 

Uhh, what if other translator pick it up but they release with the same frequency? What if the current translator is just busy and they're delaying the release for a bit? And suddenly their project is already taken out of their hand? A week sounds harsh and most translators I know separate and then dedicate a few hours from their daily life to translate--often for free.
And do a translation group actually think along that line? "I've been aiming this series that other's group has been translating but at a slow pace! I just have to keep eyeing it and find a loopholes/ chance to take over!!!!" if not, are you going to be the one to promote it??? Like how??? Making a thread "hey guys this series update is so slow and they failed to deliver fixed chapter per week, so feel free to jump on it but make it faster"???
Does allowing other group to take on a translation guarantee release speed (or, for the project to be taken instantly)? They would likely take it up as side project with slower rate of update, no?

Y'know, fast release speed is nice and all, but, at what cost?
https://translationraven.wordpress....m-not-translating-tranxending-vision-anymore/​

 

the bigger problem is, even if such policy were to be put in pratice it does nothing to increase the actual number of translators, so most works that you want the translator to drop for a faster translator to pick would just be dead
APOLOGIZE to my dead reading list, APOLOGIZE!!!!

i hate and everything you stand for

 

Uh wdym?

 

Ah, my friend, I'm talking about the one week deadline.
On the other side, I also know about this translator that promise a one chapter per month release but then goes missing for 6 months (2 years, now) meanwhile their donation box STAYS open. Feel free to nuke that one.

 

But then, if there's a multiple translators translating a series, we'll have a same chapter coming in the same week.

I suggest we create translator union.

 

Other than that, to hell with you, bwee

 

No one is stopping translators from doing same series. They just need to do enough releases to be listed on NU by policy.

Though it would be best if they simply share it. Ive seen groups work out release rotations before.

 

i've always felt that the 3 months felt a bit long, but a week is definitely too short. it might work for some of the novels with shorter chapters, but for people doing light novels, that'd be a pain in the ass to keep up with. i think what bothers me are the ones that'll go completely silent for 2+ months, and then pop in like "oh hey, i totally forgot i was translating this. why're you guys still here? well, here's a new chapter. i'll try to be more regular" and then before they even get to the 2nd chapter, they poof off for a couple months again.

i've seen a few novels with stuff like that. not too many, maybe like 3 or 4, tops, but the one that stands out most for me was totally dropped, but they didn't bother connecting the next button, or providing a link, to their post about dropping it, so anyone reading it would go through a bunch of chapters, maybe see sponsored chapters go up from time to time, reach the end, hopefully they look through the hell that has become the comments section to see what's become of the novel, and realize there's no hope. site wasn't dead, last i saw. news feed read like an obituary of novels picked up and dropped, though.

 

I just revisited the site and it turns out that the translator has both life and health problem so he can't continue translating, but now, he said that he's planning to start again. Some translators who said that end up making empty promises, but we'll see, other than that, what can we say? Their lives, not ours.

 

Most of the translators translate for free. They use their own free time to translate the novels, which does take time if they want to put out a quality piece of work. If they have beta reader for their translation work, it takes time to be beta readed and corrected. Translating is not as easy as just putting the text to machine translator.

In my option, what I would like to see less, and find problem is MTL. (Can you actually call that translating?) Most of the machine translated novels are very hard to read with all the grammar mistakes, wrongly translated words and so on. It is specially when it comes to Chinese novels.

 

I suggested that too lol

But to this thread, I mean no offense but you are stupid
See what I did there? I might say no offense but it doesnt change the fact calling someone stupid is offensive.

Sadly, you like many readers seem to have this delusion that there are hundreds of translators waiting in line to translate your favorite novel.
That isnt true.
Personally, I believe that most of the good translators have retired or got better jobs at webnovel.com
Instead, they got replaced with MTL crap
Be careful what you wish for

 

I hate this.
I hate it because you're using black colored texts, while I'm using a dark theme.

Ugh.
You know how HARD it is to change the theme?

Yes, this is just me messing with you

------------------------------

On to the topic; let's just ignore on how the untranslated novels are being 'neglected'. Let's hop on the problem on how difficult it is to properly objectify on how should a group considered to failed their promised schedules without thinking on how IRL stuffs works and how messy it is to find a common ground on thousands of TL groups.

The current 3 months period is quite a long time. But it was adequate for the group that fails to deliver their TL in the timeframe to be considered as 'stopped releasing'.

Could it be shorter than 3 months? Yeah, totally. But one week?

A single skipped weekly release deadline is just pushing it too much. Especially when all of us knew that most of the TL groups are consisting of people who have their own job and RL problems, and that TLing novels is just their side projects/job. And no, donations/patreon is just an incentive, not a monthly pay, so no matter how huge the donation is, the RL is still holding their priorities.

 

It's 3 months now? I thought you still have to wait 6 months of no release to pick up a project.

 

...This really can only apply to novels with shit tons of chapters (which is mostly Chinese) plus as you said, although most novels on this site are Chinese, you can't enact it because it's mostly Chinese meaning there are some other languages aside from Chinese that have less than 100 chapters. I get what you're feeling about spending your time reading, but the thing is my dude, you chose to spend your time reading these just like we translators chose to translate for free. Just because you choose to spend your time here and it's not fast enough doesn't mean we have to cater to how fast you want us to translate. Time is limited, and just like how we choose to put aside some of our time to translate, you gotta learn how to manage your time if you're unhappy with it. Maybe MTL? Like there's always that option if you can handle the headaches it gives.

But as I said, this can really only apply to Chinese novels and I'm a JP translator. I can't say much about Chinese translators and how easy/fast they can translate on the translator side but if you did this for JP translators... not a good thing.

Edit: I think I also need to add (after reading your post more thoroughly) is that a lot of us here are readers in general as well. If you say you've read a lot of books by the time you're 10, I've read a lot of books as well and not even in my native language. It's the same with other people so that's not a good excuse at all. Heck, it's not even an excuse to expect people to translate faster for free just because you're an avid reader. A lot of us translate not because we expect people to read. Some of us start off not giving a shit if people read our stuff (I did and still do), but because we want to read these as well. I myself started translating things and posting them online years ago because I wanted to read them in English instead of constantly going back and forth between the novel and jisho. Having readers and other people to talk to is just a bonus. Another reason I translate (especially for fandom stuff) is because I want to give back to the community. If they don't take it, that's fine. If they do, that's fine as well. It doesn't kill me if I have no readers.

 

AFAIK, it's 3 months. Usually though. Got this conclusion from hearsay here and there and seeing it from the titles with quite a lot of TL group changes.

Dunno how it actually agreed upon in fan translation world. But again, the fastest I've seen is 3 months with no response at all from the original TLr.

 

I'm not a translator but I find this:

To be unrealistic. Actually, I find the whole 'tone' of your post to be a tad unfeeling. Sort of, 'coz I'm a reader I demand something of this quality...' which, honestly, they (translators) don't really owe you anything. Especially for translators who do it for free. I've seen a lot of novels here who have more than one group translating it and some don't even care that it happens. At the end of the day, whoever wants to translate a novel WILL translate it coz they want to. Unless, of course, they're paid. Or, is it different now?