Spoiler Things were better in the underground Days or my rant part 2

Note: I know this is a rant and not even my first one. I guess 1st rant wasn't enough so here we go again.

I remember when this whole thing started. I was reading Stellar Transformation's in SPCNET forums and I was finding new translation websites and stuff in those forums and in the comments of other translations and this was before the start of novelupdates. I have to say that those days those underground days were the good days. We had like the best novels translated: Great Dao Commander, Legend of the Cultivation God, Eternal Life, Demon's Diary, ... etc,etc. But now it has become stale with the only new translations coming from QI being shitty 3rd rate novels and novels for chicks. This is all because in my opinion the rush to legitimize this whole thing. Back in the underground days anyone could just translate anything. The translations didn't have to have any standard of quality and they could choose whatever terms or names they wanted and it was great. But this push to legitimization has essentially ruined this whole thing. QI was made aware of what was going on and its profitability and it was invited in. That ended the era of the underground as they threaten to sue anyone translating any one of their novels even if they aren't translating it themselves and they aren't. Having a monopoly they are mostly responsible for getting this novel translation thing into a standstill but it isn't only them. Wuxiaworld is also responsible. WW invited qidian in and it also set rules and standards down when before it was all unofficial and up to the people. Here is one example: Swallowing the Heavens. Its a great novel. Its not Qidian. but its not being translated. Why? Because no new up and coming translator wants to handle it. Why? because it has become an industry with official "proffesional" translators and "Quality" and "Legitimacy" with having a "licences" to the translations. Lets take another example: Dragon Talisman and Yang Kun. I am really excited about these novels and yet they have been shelved for months because of the desire for "legitimacy". In the old underground days the novels that I mentioned would have been picked up really fast. Now, I like RWX and Wuxiaworld, I am grateful to the translations as well. All I am saying is that it was a mistake to seek "legitimacy" and that things were better in the older days.

 

why tag this as a spoiler? It won't show up on the latest thread sections thus few people would see it.
Anyways the licensing issue would have happens either way sooner or later with the ever increasing popularity translated novels had started to gather. Qidian would have eventually dipped their hands in here anyways.

 

Lol, At least two of these didn't start translations until 2016, and I don't think they were ever on spcnet. Eternal Life TL started in 2015. So your good old days mostly go back 3 or 4 years except for Stellar Transformations

I can agree that it seems like WN almost always keeps picking ho-hum novels to translate. Shrug, the most interesting thing I've seen there in the last 6 months was The Great Storyteller and that's outside the norm for what most WN readers will like.

 

You do realize that once you get past the "good stuff", only the crappy stuff remains right? Not to mention everything gets stale as it gets repetitive, so some things that may have seemed fresh weren't really the case.

Also, what's wrong with novels for chicks? Chicks are people too (or birds whichever chicks you were referring to)

There is definitely more CN stuff being translated post QI than pre-QI. You simply became more picky and all the high rated stuff is already translated.

You are the first person on this forum to praise QI for having a quality standard. Cause most people around here don't feel that to be the case.

Pretty sure QI allows for translators to continue translating as long as it is on QI's website. They also haven't touched some of the lesser known novels. Though many lesser known decided to join QI anyways because they weren't getting enough donations.

Yes, that is true.

How is it a mistake to seek legitimacy? I also get pissed when novels disappear to try to get legitimacy, but end of the day I realize that translating novels without permission is copyright infringement. This can be acceptable as fan translations to some extent, but as translators need to make ends meet, they need donations and at that point it gets into a grey area.a

End of the day, a LOT more CN works are being translated than they used to. I don't think there is much room to complain.

 

I can understand where you're coming from, but that's a bit of a rose-tinted view of things.

Back at the start there weren't many translators around and release rates were low. The hundreds of translators here now and the 14/week+ release rates (since many translate full time) are primarily a result of money becoming involved, and continuing to earn money from it in the long run without getting the actual owners of the content involved would've been both immoral and self-destructive. Eventually Qidian and co would've noticed anyway due to the scene's growing size, and they instead would have forced people to stop and/or taken legal action against them. It makes no sense to claim things would've stayed the same if they hadn't been contacted. While it might not be ideal in your eyes, this is the only direction we could have gone in to achieve the current range of translations and high release frequencies.

 

I actually prefer the current age. There are more novels being translated at a faster pace than ever before. I still have some bookmarks of novels I started years ago that only released a update 1 time per week... Now most either dropped them or are still barely any further. Some of my favorite stories that started in the 'old' days were dropped midway through because the contributions were to low or the translator didn't feel like it any more. At least being on WW or QI there is a financial interest to continue translating instead of only translating as a hobby.

 

To answer the points being made:
1 - I am not saying QI has a translation standard. I am only saying that it is legitamate. WW has a translation standard and the standard of WW is the standard that has been set. Even QI has to try to follow suit.
2 - Yes more translation is being done now but translation of bad novels. No new good novels are being translated. Tell me once WW finishes with its current run what will it translate next? Having to get the liscence makes it hard for them to translate even the good novels that are not Qidian. So they too will have to translate "crappy" novels like talisman emporer and nine star body... You get the point. In the end even if this were not the case I still think that the days of slower rate of release but plenty of variaty and good novels was better.
3 - perhaps I did have some rose tinted glasses. I hadn' realized that most novels went bad back then but I still think my point is good. I would prefer 1 chapter a week of Great Dao Commander or Legend of the Cultivation God. To any translation that is currently happening.