Power Uploader
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2018
- Messages
- 1,400
Yeah, I know many people aren't honest about declaring their versions as MTL.
But some are. And I think that could at least benefit readers like me who eschew MTL if we could filter those out.
I know that such a flagging system could be abused. Some translators are just bad, others are lazy, others are well-meaning rookies who got in above their necks, and some might be translating specifically to practise the source language they're learning. That's fine. That's what reporting is for. There are actually some instances where we can't decide whether it's MTL or just a poor command of the target language. I say, give the translator the benefit of the doubt: if a chapter is flagged MTL and the scanlator protests a human translated it, just accept their word over the person who added the flag.
I'm not proposing anything very aggressive, and I don't think it violates MDex's posture of neutrality. You wouldn't be removing chapters, just flagging them. Or rather, readers and uploaders would.
I know that tags are attached to series, not chapters, so I'm proposing something different. I think the only meaningful chapter-specific flag would be MTL, so it would be a matter of implementing that, and nothing else. I'm against purely subjective or aesthetic tags such as "bad translation", "bad edition" or "no redrawing", since readers shouldn't be so entitled as to be able to pass judgement on the fruits of human effort. Scanlation isn't a pageant contest. And machine-assisted translation can actually sometimes masquerade as purely human TL, if the person behind it manually curates the MTL very carefully, so in the end the flagging would incide on poorly worded or self-declared MTL.
I believe implementation would be key. I propose this:
i. For uploaders, introduce two optional, mutually exclusive checking circles: "this is MTL" and "this is not MTL".
- If the uploader checks MTL or not MTL, only they, or someone of the same group, can edit that, the same way as only they can edit chapters.
- If the uploader doesn't check anything, readers can have the option of flagging the chapter through the report system. Just add an option in the causes for reporting: "this chapter has the hallmarks of MTL", and then a mod can implement the flag later. This is to discourage flip-flopping: if you just add an insta-MTL button next to the chapter title, it would become a clicking and unclicking war of readers. The option would be unavailable if the uploader checked an option. Ideally, this would only serve to retrospectively flag old chapters from before the option was available, and uploaders would judiciously check one of the circles from the moment they were available. (Another option is to make checking a circle obligatory. Up to you.)
ii. For readers, you could introduce an option similar to group blocking. In each one's settings, a "don't show MTL chapters" would be added.
iii. Groups could have the option of self-describing as MTL-based in their profiles, causing all their chapters (except for joint ones) to be flagged.
I was told that some hentai novel or manga platform has a "bad grammar" tag, so as I said, this would be much less aggressive.
But some are. And I think that could at least benefit readers like me who eschew MTL if we could filter those out.
I know that such a flagging system could be abused. Some translators are just bad, others are lazy, others are well-meaning rookies who got in above their necks, and some might be translating specifically to practise the source language they're learning. That's fine. That's what reporting is for. There are actually some instances where we can't decide whether it's MTL or just a poor command of the target language. I say, give the translator the benefit of the doubt: if a chapter is flagged MTL and the scanlator protests a human translated it, just accept their word over the person who added the flag.
I'm not proposing anything very aggressive, and I don't think it violates MDex's posture of neutrality. You wouldn't be removing chapters, just flagging them. Or rather, readers and uploaders would.
I know that tags are attached to series, not chapters, so I'm proposing something different. I think the only meaningful chapter-specific flag would be MTL, so it would be a matter of implementing that, and nothing else. I'm against purely subjective or aesthetic tags such as "bad translation", "bad edition" or "no redrawing", since readers shouldn't be so entitled as to be able to pass judgement on the fruits of human effort. Scanlation isn't a pageant contest. And machine-assisted translation can actually sometimes masquerade as purely human TL, if the person behind it manually curates the MTL very carefully, so in the end the flagging would incide on poorly worded or self-declared MTL.
I believe implementation would be key. I propose this:
i. For uploaders, introduce two optional, mutually exclusive checking circles: "this is MTL" and "this is not MTL".
- If the uploader checks MTL or not MTL, only they, or someone of the same group, can edit that, the same way as only they can edit chapters.
- If the uploader doesn't check anything, readers can have the option of flagging the chapter through the report system. Just add an option in the causes for reporting: "this chapter has the hallmarks of MTL", and then a mod can implement the flag later. This is to discourage flip-flopping: if you just add an insta-MTL button next to the chapter title, it would become a clicking and unclicking war of readers. The option would be unavailable if the uploader checked an option. Ideally, this would only serve to retrospectively flag old chapters from before the option was available, and uploaders would judiciously check one of the circles from the moment they were available. (Another option is to make checking a circle obligatory. Up to you.)
ii. For readers, you could introduce an option similar to group blocking. In each one's settings, a "don't show MTL chapters" would be added.
iii. Groups could have the option of self-describing as MTL-based in their profiles, causing all their chapters (except for joint ones) to be flagged.
I was told that some hentai novel or manga platform has a "bad grammar" tag, so as I said, this would be much less aggressive.
