Discussion Petition: No More Splitting Chapters

Ultimately, if you dislike a practice done by certain translators, that is an issue you should be bringing up to those specific translators/sites. There is no point in bringing it up to NU, which is merely a directory that points people towards available resources. It is not NU's job or authority to moderate how each site wants to release their translations. If NU banned the sites that did these practices, it would be unfair to the many readers who do not care (ie. don't read raws), especially since most novels only have a single active translation. In other words, many readers who do not mind the split chapters would lose a convenient and easy source to locate the sole source of translations for the novel they would like to read.

Clearly, there are readers who do support these translators/sites that "number incorrectly". That is how these sites can continue carrying out these practices without risk of losing enough readers and/or profit. You do not need to support them if you dislike them. Personally, I dislike split chapters (incorrectly numbered or not), but they are extremely easy to avoid. As many have pointed out above, it's usually the same few translators/sites that do it, and honestly...if the first few chapters are ridiculously short, that should immediately give you a red flag if you dislike such practices (can even do a fast check with one chapter's raws), and you can quickly switch to reading the raws or an alternative translation (if available) without any wasted time and effort.

 

Sorry. What's the title of this post again?

But I agree with naming the split chapters.

Look, even if we all debate until our fingers snapped it still wont count.
If the readers or the patreon of those sites still go there to read, then it works fine for them and the translator. Simple as that.

 

Honestly as much as I relate to this problem I feel like complaining about this is kind of rude.
Like translators put in so much work, they do this for no money, they often buy chapters out of their own pockets but then readers turn around and still complain? Like, we are getting this service for free, let's calm down here.
Also it makes logical sense why translators will divide chapters. It makes the workload divided into manageable chunks, rather than a long chapter that will take longer to translate in one go (again keep in mind the people are doing this for free and probably have work or school to deal with) and it gives the readers more to read with short break in between. I am willing to bet money that if translators would not divide chapters reader would then complain about how it takes so long for chapters to be translated.
These people are doing us a great favour, let's not trample on their work and efforts by needlessly complaining.

 

First of all choose a better title for the thread, I was seriously about to go on a rant here.

Second, almost every single novel indicates chapter splits part wise already. Infact some of them go above and beyond with numbering and indicating ss, afterwords etc correctly. The ones who dont are rare and are the exception. Rather than introducing another rule for this, it makes more sense to just contact the translator and ask them to consider changing their numbering style.

Third, assuming this rule got added to nu, who is gonna enforce this rule? I really dont see the point of additional work required to enforce the rule and solving the incoming reports due to this.

So no, I do not support this petition.

 

I agree with you but that's not what OP is talking about. Probably due to bad title, but the OP is actually ranting about renaming the split chapters wrongly lol.

For example, the real total only have 100 chapters but the TL's numbering could go up to 300 chapters and still ongoing. OP is ranting why these people are doing this shit, which makes it hard for readers to check the raw themselves and also this practice could be used to cheat advanced chapters.

 

Thank you for this, it was my bad I didn't read op's post in its entirety and I was mislead by everyone else also making the same mistake i did.
Putting that aside I still feel like this is a non issue, as translators have started to either show how chapters are divided or they will explain in the comments or on threads how chapters are divided. I do get how that would be an issue or at the very least annoying.

 

It is not even about the revenue... with the way nu main page works, cn stuff is way more favoured due to how spammable their chapters are. Releasing 1k word chps is much easier every day and gets you on the main page once every day. Compare that to a ~10k chp - Not only is managing the tl difficult as the work chunks are bigger, but also you will get on the main page like once every 10 days only to get swamped to page 2 by daily spam or the big groups dumping 5-10 chapters a day at the same time every day.

Complaining about or disliking chapter splits is dumb. If anything it makes more sense to criticize nu's homepage - something I have done quite a bit.

Complain about chapter numbering, while a bit more valid than doing so about splits, is still making mountain out of a mole hill of a extremely rare thing and not something for nu to enforce. It is better to contact the tls of those select exceptions and suggest them to change their numbering style - again it is a suggestion, not an order.

 

Ok that is NOT what is happening, I don't even know where you are coming from here.
Seriously people are offering us FREE WORK and THEY are the greedy ones? Most translators don't even have donations, most translators don't even have advanced chapters behind a pay wall and even if they do splitting chapters is not some underground plot to get our money. People who read translations are for the most part people who don't speak the original language. Those people would not then buy the original novel on Korean or whatever so they can read ahead.
Like, its just easier to divide chapters, and people have been doing that even before asking readers for donations became a thing.
I have NEVER heard of a translator refusing to say how the original chapters were divided.
Also who are you calling customers? Customers? Tell me kind sir pray tell how is it that somehow we are customers when 80% of us don't give them any money? These people often have to ask for donations just so they can pay for their site or at least compensate all the work they put in, but they are still greedy according yo some people here. Seriously?
If you want to know how a chapter is divided just ask, people aren't after your money.

 

Have you even checked out the novels by these groups?

I've read novels from three of these groups- Fuyuneko, Fringe Capybara, and Fans Translations, and I can say with certainty that all of them use Patreon and have an advanced novel chapter system. I've even worked for Fans Translations before. The raw chapters were literally named correctly in the doc (i.e. "Novel Name Chapter #), and then after translating and editing the entire raw chapter all at once, the chapter is literally just split and renumbered and posted separately on their site for no good reason (except probably to make it seem like you get more for every Patreon tier than you actually get, if you choose to donate, and also since they're on separate pages, probably more ad rev as well).

No one here is complaining about chapters being split. Everyone understands that if there is a ginormous chapter, splitting makes sense. That is not the issue. The issue is naming the chapters wrongly.

If the translators didn't mind telling readers which chapter of the raws they were really on, as you are saying, then they should have no problem with renaming them properly.

 

I do know those sites and I do read those sites, you haven't really shown me something I don't know.
Again, it makes sense for translarion groups to divide chapters. I don't know why you are painting them to be some money hungry people who are just being cheap to us.
They are giving us a FREE service. It makes sense that they would divide chapters. People have been doing that before donations were even a thing. It's more time effective.
Again, you can just ask where the chapters have been divided. That isn't some trade secret or something.
I understand taht for people who want to mlt themselves or who understand the original that can be inconvenient, but there is literally nothing stopping you from just asking. To paint people as money hungry and trying to cut corners is incredibly unkind

 

Yes yes, and most other translators release chapters for "FREE" and divide chapters, but you don't see them renaming their chapters wrongly, now do you?

Doing it for free is not a good reason for renumbering chapters wrongly.

And FTR, I don't MTL novels myself. It's just irritating though, when I start a novel that is "about to be completed" according to the chapter names, and in actuality, it's not even at the darned halfway point because of chapter renumbering. Having to check the raws for progress or leave a message and wait for a response is an extra inconvenience that shouldn't even exist in the first place.

 

Yes they do. Honestly in recent memory I haven't seen novels where they don't rename the chapters. That's why I'm saying that people don't do this for money, even sites who don't ask for donations rename chapters.
I honestly understand the frustration, but we have to understand that for us it is nothing more than an inconvenience. Translators are just doing us a huge favour, I know that without them I would have access to none of the content that I have rn, and ,again, you can just ask how the chapters are divided, people will answer you.

 

Because the ones doing this are all MTL, not actual translations. And they most definitely are chapter splitting for the money. The raw chapters are also all free.

The problem here isn't about them splitting chapters in themselves, the problem is splitting AND renumbering chapters. Specifically renumbering. If they split a chapter people wouldn't really complain unless it is to the ridiculous level.

Historically, every time I have seen translators poll if people want parts or wait for full chapter, people overwhelming choose to wait for the full chapter.

I am not sure what you are talking about, most divide up chapters just fine. Looking at novelupdates list front page, there are currently 10 releases that use decimals or "part" in the name.

The only ones who generally do the splitting and renaming are those who MTL. and since they MTL you may see them release more often but the claim that no one splits parts anymore without renaming is nonsense. It is the same few offenders.

 

Hmm I don't know why I got a alert about this but it looks interesting. So I have a series called Evil Avalon its Chapter are twice and maybe thrice longer than my other series. So splitting is a option or slow releases?

 

I suggest asking your readers. But overall, the big issue is the renumbering, not just the splitting.

There is also the middle ground of simply hiding their releases unless someone explicitly wants to see them. So they would not show up on the front page, but still be in people's reading list. And be hidden under a "Warning: There are hidden releases of a translator who intentionally uses inaccurate chapter numbers, click here to show". Thus, NU would still be indexing them, but not giving them free promotion.

Of course it is a translator problem, but end of the day as the saying goes, ignoring the practice and letting it go is no different then endorsement. This renumbering thing wasn't a thing until recently, some groups started doing it and others followed.

It's like when browsers used to go up major versions rarely, and most updates were minor versions. But when one started to make every release a major release, everyone else eventually followed. Cause you know version 40 is obviously more mature than version 23.

As for removing the groups or not, that boils down to the question of. Are they MTL? If they are and their editing is barely passable, and they do this crap of renumbering, nothing wrong with moving the bar towards the "reject".

Overall though, the middle ground is the safest bet, and more than likely once they see some enforcement, even if it is minor. Hell, maybe even simply a warning email/message may be enough to stop the stupid practice.


Edit: Also another idea that can be done. If they are already using wrong numbers, then just divide their release number by 5. Cause if the numbers are already inaccurate, then what difference does it make if the part numbers are correct? So if they release chapter 100, it will be 100. Then 101 will be 100.1 and 102 would be 100.2 until 106 where it will be 101.

 

Just my two cents about the raws being paid, i am pretty sure that most novels, like 99% have raws easily available on the internet and you just need to search for it carefully. So the argument about translators paying from their pockets is quite invalid. There are like 1% of translators that buy chaps but that too only for Korean novels since they might not find the raws on the web. And chinese novels have basically no problem about finding raws. It's just a matter of how deep you wish to dig.
I am speaking this as a fellow MTL'er who has lost count of how many times he has dug into the web for finding raws.

 

Care to name some? Just out of curiosity~

Uh, I disagree with this~
I know quite a few translators for CN novels who purchase the raws themselves to support the author.
Just because there are aggros doesn't mean everyone uses them.