True, although the translation sites/Qidian could still legally demand for those MTLs to be taken down, as they would still be hosted on LNMTL. (Unless you're saying that the translations would go straight to the user and wouldn't be displayed or hosted there, in which case ignore this). For example apps on app stores are user-created content, but Google and Apple will still accept DMCA notices and take apps down from their stores if the copyright owner sends them.
They would only display translations if the user has submitted the proper raw. The technicalities of how those are created wouldn't really matter as long as on the surface they are no different from other machine translation sites. P.S. I was even playing around with an idea of actually distributing unauthorized human translations this way - since machine translations can produce the accurate translation for the texts they were trained on.
@Qidian I'm still kinda waiting for your acknowledgement of this issue. What's the official response from Qidian International regarding this? Will there be any actions to improve on the translation? My concern regarding this is, I've just checked the last set of translated chapters and like SinsI said, it gets much much WORSE from what I reported in the starting post. How can it get worse you say when there are missing chapters, non essential but "flavorful" paragraphs are left out, and things are paraphrased too much that it's no longer the author's voice we hear but the paraphraser / translator? Story points that are essential to future plot lines are NOT MENTIONED AT ALL, that's how it can get worse. Up till now there has been no mention in the official translation regarding the elimination / promotion exam that makes one eligible for advanced studies / elite training in the Divine Towers. Passing them is the only way for sorcerers to be given the role / title of what MTL calls "hunts for the evil spirit sorcerer", but which I'd like to personally shorten to Sorcerer Hunter. This exam is a huge motivator for Glenn, and his role as a Sorcerer Hunter is what defines his actions till way past chapter 500, and it has been mentioned in the RAWs since around the time of the initial apprentice test. I find it disturbing that such an important item is left out. At this point, you might as well paraphrase the title of the book (maybe to Adept's Travels), change the author to John Cui and just put a side note "loosely based on Sorcerer's Journey by Flying White Egret" since it's becoming almost a different story altogether.
Also ... changing the name of Victor to HalfRobot (just because he's a mechanical sorcerer), and black gal (the cat) to Garfield is incredibly unprofessional and shows poor naming sense.
I also wonder if it is possible for the NU to delist Qidian's releases - with such an amount of material completely removed from the novel, it really can't be called a "translation" - at best, it is a retelling, or even a fanfic.
Hello there, @Stark3. Could you get me a list of the chapters that have missing segments? That would be greatly appreciated. And I apologize on behalf of the team working on this novel. The problems will be rectified and the issue will be handled, ASAP. I hope you will give them another chance once they're back on track. Once again, sorry about the trouble and thanks for your patience.
@Stark3 hello again. Your issue has been noted and acknowledged. We are currently working on getting it resolved and hopefully, we'll be able to get back to you soon. I'd like to offer a sincere apology for not noticing the devolution of the translation and not responding to it sooner. And I sincerely thank you for bringing the issue to my notice. I'm not familiar with the raws or MTL so it took me a while to confirm the issue and to get the necessary process started to resolve it. We hope that we'll be able to get you better results soon. Thank you for your patience and your patronage.
Hi @absolutezerofricks! It's kind of hard for me to give a complete rundown of chapters that have missing segments... The examples with quotes that I provided were taken from chapters 27, 28, & 30. The completely missing chapters are ch 47 and 48 (the content of ch49 is presented as ch47 in OT, and the problem in chapter numbering just continues from there). Aside from those concrete examples tho, there are a lot more. If I may suggest: from ch 27 working your way to the start of the novel, try and figure out which chapter starts the "devolution of translation" as you so aptly put it, and rework everything completely from there. As a fan of the novel, I am still cautiously optimistic, and hope that the better results you promise becomes reality and everyone gets to enjoy this story.
@Stark3 Thanks for your fast response. I will ask the TL to check from c27 onwards then. I have already notified him about the missing content and chapters, so he will put his other work on hold and get this done as early as possible. I hope you'll be able to enjoy this as much as the original novel in the future.
Hmm ... I might was well take a yard when you've given me an inch. @absolutezerofricks, I have to say that it's not just the missing content and chapters... I believe that part of the job of being a translator is to be as transparent as possible with regards to the source and not provide your own color. That's something that's missing in what we have right now. Phrases like “To the hell with sorcery, let’s roll.” - ch30 "Over the days, Glenn had gotten his style." - ch29 (mentioned chapter numbers are based on the current QI translation) They might describe and give a distinct visual image to the reader of what's happening, but they feel so out of place in the general story context and are more what you'd expect with American street lingo. Also, some scenarios almost get re-imagined, with the translator putting words to a character's mouth that was never in the RAW. Aside from preserving the major plot lines, it's also important to preserve how the author portrays the characters.
This is from chapter 41 of your translation but in the chinese raw this is at the end of ch 40. And this is the MTL translation of ch 40. The first bold part is where ch 40 ended in the English version. Just compare the translations and see how different they are, even if MTL is garbage you can still see "" where people are talking, i've also gone and checked a few pirate raws to see if they were bad, but they are identical to the original chinese raws. Chapter 41 of the original chinese raws stars with Laffite sitting on a tree.
@Stark3 @ZiLi thanks for helping me in finding out the flaws. This will help us speed up the work. As for the mistakes and omissions, we'll try our best to make sure that they do not happen in the future chapters and that you're able to enjoy a great reading experience.
So I read the latest chapter translated and the MTL @Stark3 you wasnt kidding when you said he/she skips a lot of shit. Just cutting out a lot of shit and trying to summarize it.
The cat was also smart enough to immediately realize the reason for peeing on Glenn / Green and did not have to make unnecessary objections like in the translation. I don't know why he had to portray the cat as stupid. Anyway, I'm going to forestall on leaving any more comments on the current set of translations to give their team the benefit of the doubt that it'll be improved *Crossing fingers*
WOW! he made a big part of chapter 55 disappear. Improve? sigh, the only way to improve is to get another translator and redo the chapters, of course that's not going to happen and the translator is still going to be paid for these nonsense chapters from anothel novel other than A Sorcerer's Journey E. @Stark3 : Yeah, i deleted that part because i read your first post again.
@ZiLi : this was what I mentioned in the starting thread that there were 2 missing chapters. Hence, there is a 2 chapter difference in the numbering after ch 46. The rest of the discrepancy in your list is due to an entirely different chapter title being used in some cases (for some reason)
That's why I suggested that NU should delist it. Qidian gets majority of its readers from NU, so it would really hurt their view/reading count (and thus whatever monetization scheme they have in mind).
@Stark3 I don't think this is the only story that QI has skipped content one. I think Wizard World also has a few skips. I struggle to read even your cleaned up MTL, so I won't dig further into the blackwhole of MTL. I get a couple of nasty vibes from QI, like their website's chapters are all linked to scroll down on 1 page, so less ad revenue from visiting multiple pages. Also they have many poor stories just to pad their story stock... to look more impressive, like they have more content to offer in the future behind the pay wall.... etc
I've noticed this too in novels in QI (TL feels rushed/summarized). It was weird and the novel got boring to read and it sucked. I thought it was normal and probably the style of the author. But now I'm thinking this might be happening to others too. Forgot which novel though. I erase them from my mind after I drop them