Goodness, what an idea! Do tell, how did they take your elitist, holier-than-thou suggestion?
I'm not defending the quality of this scan or translation (they are not worth reading, IMO), but laissez-fair is the better framework for regulating quality than promoting outright censorship.
Having a minimum standard of quality is not censorship. At least, not in the Orwellian sense of the term. More in the vein of books that have been rightfully banned due to misleading information. (No, not that I think that the translation here is "dangerous" as books with misleading info are, but saying that this was an "accurate" translation... that is very, very debatable.)
What, you think I'm full of shit? How about you ask the experts what Censorship REALLY entails.
https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/censorship/faq
But in case you want to be contrary and tell me to fuck-off because you don't feel like reading a valid source of information that I provided? Lemme go ahead and break it down, point-by-point.
What are Examples of Censorship?
ā¦at an academic library?
- Collections not reflecting the wide range of research and pedagogical needs of their campus community.
- There is no need for research or pedagogical needs on MD.
- Removing exhibits and unique collections (such as archives, special collections, and digital repositories) without following established reconsideration policy/procedure.
- There SHOULD be an established policy and procedure.
- Faculty being restricted from teaching and researching potentially controversial topics.
- There would be no barring of education - if anything, we are LACKING in this department.
ā¦at a public library?
- Deciding not to purchase a popular title because they personally object to the content or author.
- Not applicable - shoddy translation work does not qualify as a "popular title". And, if anything, a poor translation can be its own form of censorship in that it may alter the original content of a manga.
- Requiring a user to ask for access to regularly circulating materials (e.g., reshelving, behind a desk).
- Not applicable - we're not dealing with something that is "popular". In fact, this translation in particular is so bad that it doesn't even qualify as being "So bad it's good". Also, IIRC, MD does have tools at hand to determine whether or not a translation is "popular".
- Library boards require library staff to pull materials without following established reconsideration policy/procedure.
- Again, there SHOULD be a set of policies and procedures.
ā¦ at a school library?
- Requiring a parent/guardianās signature to check out material within the studentās regular school library.
- Creating guidelines to restrict materials based on the age, reading level, or grade of the student.
- School administration or community members removing materials from the library without following established reconsideration policy/procedure.
- AGAIN, there SHOULD be a set of policies and procedures.
ā¦at a business?
- A company may choose to not sell certain materials. Censorship by the government is unconstitutional. Private companies are allowed to set their own rules and regulations about what they will or wonāt carry or allow on their platform.
- This is pretty much where MD sits at - though publicly accessible, it is still operated by a set of individuals who, in turn, select their own staff based on what they determine to be their desired merits. In short, it is a private organization that operates on its own rules. This can include a set of standards for acceptable quality of hosted translations.
And really, it should not be out of place in a website like MD. Because as far as I know, MD is supposed to be a place where people can
enjoy reading manga. Instead, it's acting more like an archive without billing itself as such. At which point, I have to ask, "Well, which is it gonna be?" Because, if "Archive", then MD would just be another aggregator, hosting scans despite the wishes of scanslation groups. Obviously, they don't, because they allow groups to nuke their own content from the site whenever they want to. Archives do not permit this kind of removal of materials.
And yet, we have... This.
As things are right now? I could go ahead and put up a scanslation done all in crayon with the most nonsensical translation imaginable, and all to be as absolutely trollish as possible. So long as there's no political diatribe or hate speech, it would still be deemed "acceptable" under MD's rules.
And if laissez-fair is what you want? There's
already plenty of other venues for that - aggregators that will happily deliver on that front are abundant. Acting like as if MD is the only act in town is it's own kind of self-destructive thinking. I know because I've used that argument myself before and got seriously burned because of it.
Also, for a website that seems to have issues with server capacity and bandwidth - enough that they frequently have to press the user base for donations in order to support their operational costs - having that set standard would be helpful in freeing up some of that capacity and cutting the cost of operation.
I'd be willing to accept a trade-off, though.
At the absolute bare-minimum, I feel that we should at least have tags that pertains to the translation work itself. Things like, "MTL", "Poor Translation", "Gag/Troll Translation", "Poor CL/RD/TS", "No SFX TL", "No SFX RD", and even "New/Practicing Scanslator". Any one of these would be something that some may accept while rejecting the others, and would provide a means for people to pre-emptively avoid the stuff they don't want to bother with.
And just to be safe, there can be a placeholder that goes something like "Chapter blocked based on translation tags" so you know there's something there, but it's not to your tastes.
Conversely, we can also have tags of a positive bent, such as, "Native
* Editor" (where * = language, such as ENG, IDN, SPN, etc.), "JLPT ** TLer" (N1, N2, N3, etc.), "Excellent CL/RD/TS", "MD Exclusive" (does not post to any other website), "No Donations" (Group does not ask for donations or ransoms chapters), and "No Squatting" (does not delay release of chapters).
Lastly, there are plenty of experts that the Staff of MD can turn to. People who are very well regarded in the scanslation community who know what an acceptable level of quality entails, can give reasonable advise for achieving that level of quality., and are more than happy to share that knowledge with others. People like Rosmocat (an excellent cleaner, redrawer, and typesetter), The Gibber (a great translator and provider of raws), and Squiggles JP (a widely recognized connoisseur of hentai).
It would not be too hard to have a set of guides written up that everyone must read before being allowed to upload that covers all aspects of scanslation, as well as what scanslation tags they should use.
While this all may be controversial, I do not feel that this is in any way unreasonable. A minimum set of standards by a private organization is in no way a form of censorship.