You read my meanings wrong. I dont mind real proper critics. However, perceiving complaints like "Hey your translation is bad" as a critic is like saying farting is a critic. Point out the mistakes instead of giving the attitude "Man im just pirating free manga but i have the right to get the best translations for free". The attitude is going to kill the motivation of the one translating and causing lesser free manga dammit. This is free manga so dont treat it like some gourmet food in a 3 michelin star restaurant and be a karen about it. Give the translator just a tiny bit of respect and then tell them the problems or better yet, tell them to allow you to proof read their translation because you all deserve a better translation for free.
i dont even remember whats the manga and chapter about since it was fucking last year. I never really care about people complaining about translation but seeing that the majority of the comments was just complaints was just not good looking and got me sour at those shallow complaints.
"Point out the mistakes" a number of the comments did exactly that, and called out specific issues. Also, at a certain point, doing that becomes increasingly difficult as the issues become more widespread and the contents of the translation become more and more confusing. There's a certain point at which it becomes difficult to point to a specific error and say "yes, here, this is a mistake" because it's so jank that you can no longer tell what is and isn't meant to be there (outside of basic spelling errors). I don't remember if this chapter reached that point, but it's still something worth keeping in mind. Sometimes, and translation is rough enough that the main impression one is left with after reading the chapter is "wow, that was hard to read" or "wow, that was a really rough translation", as opposed to anything having to do with the chapter contents. Common human behavior at that point in this kind of setting is to go into the conveniently provided comment section and discuss said impression with other readers and/or with the scanlators.
"Give the translator just a tiny bit of respect" as I mentioned previously, a decent amount of the comments talking about the poor translation prefaced their remarks with things like "This group usually does good work". That is, inherently, giving respect to the translators. By saying that this bad translation is the exception to an existing pattern, they are saying that the translators are usually good at what they do.
That said, it's also worth noting that respect is a two-way street. Yes, the scanlators are providing us with a service without forcing us to pay for it, which is something to be thankful for. However, if the scan groups themselves do not display basic respect for the work they're doing, or for the people reading what they put out, then it's difficult to view them as being worthy of respect.
There are groups out there that churn out shit quality translations en masse, drowning out other groups who actually put effort in, all in order to try and drum up support for their websites, patreons, etc. There are other groups (Galaxy Degen and Orbital Scans are two that come to mind) that lay claim to
numerous different titles, produce mediocre to somewhat decent chapters for them for a while, and then abandon them on MangaDex (all while getting a number of chapters ahead on their personal, ad-filled websites, or on their paid patreons). Then, when another group eventually comes along to try and pick up (or, as the original groups see it, "snipe") what seems to be a dropped manga, these groups suddenly pick the title back up again and release several chapters in fairly rapid succession, often muscling out the new group. They keep these releases up for a while to secure their position, and then abandon the manga again (while still keeping ahead on their personal sites, where they can actually earn money from it), thus starting the cycle over.
There's also one particular group that has gone out of their way to censor the art (I'm talking about erasing cleavage lines to create what has been described as a "monoboob" and covering up bare thighs, not just censoring genitals or nipples or anything like that) in manga that they translate.
This kind of behavior doesn't exactly scream "worthy of respect" to me, even if they have provided us with free-to-read translations of several manga. Instead, it generally feels like a lack of respect (and sometimes even active contempt) for the people who read what they put out.
KS Group, who did this chapter, has not engaged in this kind of nonsense, fortunately. Their only real sin is pretty consistently producing middle to low-quality translations (and, as evidenced by the other comments here, a number of people don't even see that as something they do consistently). Producing low-quality translations does not, in-and-of-itself, mean an absence of respect for the work they're doing, or for the people reading. There have been several times where I've seen someone do a shitty, poorly done MTL scan for a series specifically because they got tired of waiting for someone more skilled to come pick something up. I'm not always a
fan of that when it happens, but I can at the very least respect the drive involved in it. There's also some cases where someone is making their first foray into the world of translating. Taking that first step is
always worthy of respect. I'm getting a bit off topic with this, but I can think of one manga, Isekai Walking, where the first dozen or so chapters became something of a relay, with each one being done by a different translator making their first ever scanlation before passing it off to someone new. The quality was low, but the general response from the MangaDex community was largely positive because of the passion and growth involved.
In fact, I've seen a lot of situations where someone produces a somewhat poorly translated chapter and receives a (largely) positive reaction from the comment section. In pretty much ever single one of those situations, the ones doing the translation are either doing it out of passion and a desire to see the manga continued, display an earnest desire to improve their skills (and an openess to feedback of any kind, often participating actively in the comments), or some combination of both.
It's a bit different, however, when you're dealing with an established group like KS. At that point, a poorly done translation stops being a sign of inexperience, and starts being a notable deviation from an existing norm (or a sign of an ongoing pattern). People see this, compare it to what they
already know the group can do, and find it lacking. It takes an existing reserve of built-up and previously earned respect, and diminishes it by betraying expectations. It winds up feeling like they got lazy, or that they phoned it in without putting in the usual effort.
(Of course, since I've come to expect mid-quality scanlations from this group, it instead turns into a feeling of "how is it that you've been doing this for so long but haven't improved? Are you only putting in the minimum effort?". That's not really fair to KS, since I specifically said "mid-quality" since they actually produce some decent stuff, but it still feels that way sometimes when I look at what other, smaller groups can do, and
especially when there's a notable drop in quality like this)
Also, you keep pointing out that this is something the scan groups provide for free. Technically, this is true. We, as readers, are not forced to pay in order to read these translations. However, many scan groups (including this one, as seen in their credit pages)
do take donations, which means there is a certain subset of the readers here that
do pay to read these. Many groups also have their own websites where they post the translations in addition to sharing on MangaDex, and they run ads on these websites, for which they receive payment. Furthermore, in many of the more established groups, the translators themselves are actually
paid to do the translations, while other roles such as cleaners, quality checkers, etc. are filled by volunteers. I don't know if that's the case for this group in particular, I know it's not an uncommon practice.
Anyway, I've rambled on enough about this (it honestly got away from me and turned out
way longer than I originally meant), so I'm gonna go make dinner and get back to catching up on my reading list.
