Sniping

[waldo220]

Hello. As someone who isn't too familiar with the concept of sniping and the environment of scanlation, I have a few questions I'd like to ask.

1.) What is sniping?
2.) Is it good or bad? (For different perspectives. E.g. Scanlator, Sniper, Reader, etc.)
3.) What are the main causes for sniping?
4.) What is Mangadex's opinion on this? (Do they prohibit it? Do they just let it happen? Do they have plans on stopping it? Etc)
5.) If you have anything you want to add to the discussion, please do.


I apologize in advance if these are controversial or sensitive topics. I just want to understand. Thanks 😀

 

[DrElise]

for the first scan group that working on certain manga.. their view on sniping most of them was bad for them.. (especially group that solely purpose earn money by scanlating stuff) depend on translation quality too but it's good for reader whenever they competing each other, they will release much faster.. MD staf did mention they not going prohibit it or stopping it (based on their view on this grey area)

 

[waldo220]

Thanks! So if I read a sniped chapter, I shouldn't feel too bad then?

 

[Plykiya]

@waldo220 You're free to enjoy it without feeling guilty. I wait for the other group if I don't like the quality of the faster one. Some people aren't picky about quality and are just happy knowing what happens in the chapter. Showing group names lets users make their own educated choice

 

[Teddy]

But it does demotivate some scanlators so readers potentially miss out on future series. Then again some groups do have too much on their plates. TBH the best thing is communication so the community remains friendly.

 

[Crimzonkat]

From my perspective as a 'leecher' (someone who just reads manga on aggregate sites such as MangaDex), I get that things can get a bit blurry.

If money is involved, people can get really aggressive or defensive about things, but at the end of the day, technically, it's all illegal.

My personal distinction has always been that if a group who uses scanlation/translation to make money starts translating something currently being translated by a non-profit group it's a snipe.

I don't really view non-profit groups translating the same series as a for-profit group as sniping.

Honestly, I don't mind having different groups translate concurrently as different translators can give different nuances depending on the person and familiarity with both languages. Like the distinction between "Aishiteru" and "daisukidesu", a lot of people translate them both as "I love you", but the former is the more intimate forms of saying it while the latter translates literally to 'big like' and in my opinion would be better translated as "really like", since in English you rarely hear someone say "I love you" in a confession.

But I digress.

To me, it seems to be an issue of pride ("I was here first"), and how the translation/scanlation culture has evolved since its inception. I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing, just that it is how people act here on the internet.

 

[Exmover]

My only problem for those snipers is whether they agree to continue their scanlations.

I've seen one case on potion loli girl manga while the original scanlation group has awful translation (I'm not picky reader tho, as long as english is not in some form of alien language), another scanlation appear and while they have better quality, they stopped midway simply because its for them plot is absurd. Good thing original group still being faithful to this manga after what the other had done.

Recent case in tensura, now shurim has stopped scanlating it, but the RAW of next chapter already on internet. I'll be really sad if those snipers also stop.

 

[SteamedBunInvasion]

the only problem is that scanlators act like they "own" the manga when in fact, we're all just providing free stuff to the public.
though some scanlators do it to make money.

 

[waldo220]

Good stuff guys. I'm really understanding a lot with these different views. Thanks

 

[BzzBzz]

There's another positive side of sniping. Usually it turns into butthurt drama. It's especially funny when one of involved parties is group that's dozens chapter behind and their pace is slower than official serialization (for whatever reason)

 

[SoLei]

Sometimes scanlators can be upset if a series is sniped if they were in the middle of working on it, because then it feels like their hard work has all gone to waste.
I'm personally against sniping unless the second group think the current scanlators are doing a bad job. If you want to scanlate a series that's currently being scanlated, that's fine, but the first person there may sometimes take it personally, seeing it as kind of a sabotage?
lol
Especially for popular series, as then it is seen as leeching off a popular series for views rather than "I'm doing it because I enjoy this manga". Snipes tend to be a worse quality from what I've seen, but sniping isn't inherently bad.

Scanlators don't own the manga though. MD has no rules against sniping, only rules against troll chapters and such.
Oh, a thing people say that "the reader will pick whichever group they like the quality of better". In my opinion, this is true to some extent, but so long as the quality is "readable", most will just read the chapter done by whoever releases it first, so despite that kind of thing, it becomes a time race between the two groups.

 

[Raycu]

I'm usually ambivalent about sniping, unless the group currently sniping is clearly of sub-par or lower quality/ is attempting to profit off a series already be done by a nonprofit scanlation group. I don't want people trying to undercut good releases by providing low quality google translate scans an hour or two faster, and I don't appreciate people attempting to leach money off the community. Aside from that do what you want I guess.

 

[PantsMan]

I don't particularly mind it, as a reader. I'd much rather prefer translators brought a series up to date at the risk of upsetting a slower, original group than seeing manga series sit in scanlation limbo for months, since nobody dares taking over because of "etiquette".

That being said, my opinion on the matter changes considerably when you have two/three groups fighting over the newest popular Weekly Shounen Jump series, with releases being barely a day apart. It just feels like wasting time and effort covering the same chapters over and over again when there's so many other equally good series abandoned by the wayside over the years, all for the dubious "glory" (and possibly donations) for covering something popular.