Blue Lock - Vol. 4 Ch. 31 - Awakening

[MangaDex]

 

[Virtyuu]

Thanks for the translation

 

[WillLi]

Thank you, and happy someone decided to try and catch up on this series.

 

[vkj3]

To point out what the chapter note at the end says, the release pace from our team used to be slower (irregular, and after a while every 10 days), then people joined to help us, then it became a weekly series. The releases can go faster with more help, and yet people decide to snipe for a third time (almost a snipe per volume rate). The series is by no means exclusively ours to scanlate, but you're making a lot of assumptions for a team you're not part of.

 

[jawsh]

Why does having a backlog change how fast something should be released? When you want to release with quality it takes time unless you're prepared to put in painful effort for speed AND quality. Stop whining because you can't wait a few days.

 

[WillLi]

@jawsh and @vkj3 either way their point still kinda stands, as of right now they have the ability to release the fastest. And at the pace the series is currently going, it'll never catch up. The current group doesn't ahve teh resources to do it faster, but this group does. And there are plenty of people who want to see it caught up. So there is nothing wrong with them catching up.

And @jawsh in particular, there are scan groups that can get things scanned within 2 days of release for weekly manga. And those are both quality and speed, sometimes it's even localization as well. So it's not like it's unheard of to expect a faster rate of work.

Also it's totally unfair to call it 'sniping' if you're not caught up to the raws of the series. If people want faster releases of the series they should be allowed to get or make those without any shame when there are dozzens of raws just sitting around because the current group who wanted to do it has too much on their plate.

 

[vkj3]

@WillLi

If there's a group with consistent releases and another group appears to pick up from the first group's last release, that's sniping, simple as. I already said in my comment the series is not exclusively ours to scanlate, but that doesn't make it any less of a snipe, specially with the reasons they've provided (taking over the project).

I understand people want us to go faster/catch up to current releases. So do we, but we need more help as you can surmise from the last few chapters' recruiting pages. We're not saying that it can't done faster by others, but that we could go faster and maintain our quality (while this group goes faster, but with lower quality, almost as if there's an equilibrium).

 

[Renan_Walheim]

based
thanks for the translation

 

[WillLi]

@vkj3 They didn't say they were 'taking over the project' they said they were catching up to the project. And maybe you can go faster, but there's no guarantee it'll go faster. More people in the chain means more chances for hangups as things change hands. The thing is you two groups are providing completely different products, one is 'speed' the other is 'quality'. That's why calling it a snipe is messed up. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, your group is not capable of matching their speed unless you drop quality, which it seems like you have no intention of doing. (Which there is nothing wrong with).

This is why I hate the idea of 'sniping' and how the scanlation community acts. If your product is what people want, then it's what people will stick with. If someone else thinks they can better serve people's needs then they have a right to try. They don't deserve to be hit with insulting terms like 'sniping' just because the group that happened to be 'first' couldn't give what everyone wanted. We as a community appreciate the work that scanlators do, but it's not the scanlator's position to decide who we as the audience want to support and what kind of product we want. You do what you want, and we read what we want. And you using the term 'sniping' is implying that they are wrong, and 'stealing' from you. When all they're doing is seeing a need and filling it.

 

[vkj3]

@WillLi

When they write "when we catch up the other team can just take the series back if they can", they mean they have "taken" the series and we'll get to "take it back" when they're done catching up. They're catching up by taking over, choosing to continue from our version (instead of releasing from scratch, or releasing the latest chapters, or releasing the chapters after volume, or any other method available). They can certainly do it, the series is not ours and they may go faster. But it's still sniping in that it's a direct continuation from our work and no intention to collaborate with our group. You're also assuming that we'll both keep updating two different versions when it's way more likely that one group may drop the project (because it's a wasted effort for one of the parties).

My point (and I think you missed it) is that I was primarily criticizing what they said about our pace by stating we can't go faster even with more hands, and I gave you the example of our varying pace from the beginning of the project up to now. If you want to follow their version, that is okay, if you want to read the raw scans directly, that is okay too. My original comment was about what they said about our group and I had something to say about it. That is all there is to it.

 

[Flabadyflue]

@WillLi

You realise they do this as a hobby right? Imagine your about to have sex with your wife and then some random bloke barges in pushed you out the way and tells you "Get out the way bud, I can do it better".

 

[TehSDragon]

@Flabadyflue I get what you're saying but that's a horrific analogy lmao

@vkj3 You do you, man. I made it to page 7 of this translation before I had to stop. I'll just wait for you guys to do it lol

 

[WillLi]

@Flabadyflue that is the dumbest analogy in the world. The fact that it's a hobby is exactly why sniping is such a stupid concept. There is absolutely nothing at stake here.

@vkj3 all you are doing talking from pride. And you aren't getting the point. First, it's not a wasted effort if you continue. It's only wasted if you believe no one else will read your work now. And if you believe everyone prefers the other work compared to your's then honestly you should be happy that someone capable of giving everyone what they want stepped up, unless you're letting your pride get in the way. Secondly "They picked up from where we left off." I don't see you redrawing the entire manga by hand to convey it to the English audience. And a less extreme one, are you going to japan and buying the mangas and cutting out the pages and scanning them yourself? The very foundation of scanlating relies on a community effort. Saying that someone should have to start over from chapter 1 and work their way up in order to not be 'sniping' is just dumb and once again pride talking.

Now as for their criticism of your pace, in all honesty what they said is true. Realistically it's kinda foolish to believe that your pace can speed up. Maybe it can, there are no certainties in this world. But you are 'set' at a weekly schedule as is. It's not a "Usually it's weekly but occasionally we get it faster." If you had more staff, you have more links in the chain, more times the project has to be sent to someone and then wait on them. And they're shooting for a chapter essentially between every 1 to 2 days. That is a daunting and nearly impossible task for a larger team to do unless they have little to do do IRL, and it's unrealistic to expect that. So them making the assumption that they can't get a chapter out every 2 days if they join you is a realistic assessment of the situation. They didn't say you can't go faster, they said you can't go as fast as they plan to.

Saying "Sniping is sniping" is a dumb justification, because I'm not saying the didn't do what they did. I'm saying you shouldn't treat what they're doing as some shameful or dishonorable act. It'd be different if you were caught up or had plans to catch up, and they were releasing the same product as you. But that's not the case. They are releasing something different from what you plan to do. Just like in the anime subbing community, there is a place for speed products and a place for high quality products. Some people want one, some people want the other.

If you're bothered by the fact that someone thinks that working with you wont get the result they want so they work separately from you, maybe you should rethink why it is you're doing this in the first place.

 

[RRR-gi]

@WillLi you seems pretty knowledged about scanlation. Are you an scanlator?

 

[Oured]

This guy sure speaks a lot of philosophy for someone who's wearing Crocs.

 

[WillLi]

@RRR-gi what I've demonstrated in my post isn't a 'knowledge of scanlation' it's a knowledge of operating withingcommunities with multiple contributors. Like 14 year old roleplay forums or stuff like that. You don't need knowledge of scanlating for this discussion, in fact having a lot of knowledge can spoil it because you start to focus on how much effort the translators put in, but while that's important, it doesn't 'matter' when it comes to justifying whether or not someone else should be allowed to work on the series..And that is because what it comes down to is scanlating is two things, a passion project, and contributing to a community. Yes it takes a lot of effort and time, but when it comes down to it, you're either doing it because you enjoy it, or because you want to provide the community with something. So having someone else as 'competition' shouldn't matter at all as long as they're not actually stealing your work. Because you're providing more for the community now.

I get people might be upset that someone shows up out of nowhere and starts translating a series that they've been working on, and feel like they're the reason it was popular with the community. But when you get down to it, scanlating is a legal grey area in the first place, and the popularity of the series comes from the hard work of the people actually producing the series. Scanlators work is much appreciated, but if they want to talk about 'sniping' what about all the potential revenue they're eating into from companies who officially license a series?

 

[LittleGreenGiant]

I get that y'all are trying to do speed, but there are so many grammatical errors as a result. At least take a few minutes to proofread or QC or something.

 

[kbalintz]

Thanks for the chapter.
Also, you sure you didnt misread the number? Dont misunderstand me, 5,77 on 50 is by any means, fast. But somehow, its too realisticly fast. I expected somehting over the top/almost real life world record speed. But 0.2 sec in a sprint is heaven or hell.
If he could dribble with this speed that would be something what i feel like would be fit in a manga where they handle skills like here

 

[radishbed]

I appreciate the incentive of this new team and understand where you guys are coming from in that this manga is incredibly under talked about (most likely owing a lot to the slow english release output) but I'll always value quality over speed (even if the original team in question is way behind the raws), so I'll probably continue to stick with their releases for this.

 

[KissMyAxe]

In 2015 Su Bingtian, currenty the fastest asian sprinter, ran the first 50 meters of his race in 5.78 sec. 3 years later at the age of 28, he ran his personal best time of 9.91 in the hundred meters.
Running a 5.77s 50 meter dash at 17 years old is ridiculous, especially when you consider that most sprinters run their personal bests in their 20s.