'Translation Dropped' tag (or status) ? [Rejected]

[Ayazel]

Imagine you're reading a wonderful manga. Lovable characters, nice plot, all the good stuff! Until the chapter you're reading ends on a cliffhanger. "Man, I can't wait to read the rest of this 'Completed' story", you might say! Well good luck, because the last translated chapter was posted 5 years ago.

Many projects are dropped, for various reasons: sometimes the group ceased to exist, sometimes the story's so bad that people won't even bother translating... but most of the times, it is because those mangas are forgotten.

It is why I suggest this new indicator: 'Translation Dropped'. Whether it should be a tag, or a status, or whatever else, is up to the devs. It should apply to stories that haven't been fully translated in English even though the story itself is complete. Thanks to this indicator, maybe some aspiring translation groups will be able to help us readers enjoy those lost stories!... It may also help us readers to filter out unfinished mangas, so that we won't yearn for more once we're done...

I don't know if this had been already suggested in the past, but I think it is quite a feature we need! What do you think? Thanks for reading my suggestion.

 

[Roler]

https://forums.mangadex.org/threads/publication-status-vs-translation-status.1174830/post-16911615

 

[Ayazel]

https://forums.mangadex.org/threads/publication-status-vs-translation-status.1174830/post-16911615

Damn. Even though it still is a good idea in my opinion...

 

[BraveDude8]

It should apply to stories that haven't been fully translated in English even though the story itself is complete.

Ignoring all the other issues, we are not an English-only scanlation website. We'd have to track potentially dozens of languages per title. MangaUpdates is a great source for this, and they only cover English because it's already a herculean effort to cover a single language.

"Completed" and so on are labelled as publication status, not scanlation status, for a reason.

 

[Ayazel]

Ignoring all the other issues, we are not an English-only scanlation website. We'd have to track potentially dozens of languages per title. MangaUpdates is a great source for this, and they only cover English because it's already a herculean effort to cover a single language.

"Completed" and so on are labelled as publication status, not scanlation status, for a reason.

Just think outside the box! Once a manga is completed, the last volume/chapter is often written down on its MD webpage.

I guess the program could compare the latest translated chapter's number, and the aforementioned final chapter's number. If both are different, the program would check the latest TL chapter's release date: if it has been a while already (say, a year for instance), then the program would put on the 'Translation Dropped' feature!

As for the multi-language nature of MD... Well, I am no web developer, but I believe it would be feasible to adjust this setting according to the user's set language. Or, maybe a drop-down menu which shows each language's progress! Here is an illustration.

At any rate, I do think it is possible. It would be another quality-of-life update to the website! As a long-time user on MD, I do think it won't cause any wrongs. Thanks for reading my answer, once again.

 

[Ndtm]

Just think outside the box! Once a manga is completed, the last volume/chapter is often written down on its MD webpage.

I guess the program could compare the latest translated chapter's number, and the aforementioned final chapter's number. If both are different, the program would check the latest TL chapter's release date: if it has been a while already (say, a year for instance), then the program would put on the 'Translation Dropped' feature!

As for the multi-language nature of MD... Well, I am no web developer, but I believe it would be feasible to adjust this setting according to the user's set language. Or, maybe a drop-down menu which shows each language's progress! Here is an illustration.

At any rate, I do think it is possible. It would be another quality-of-life update to the website! As a long-time user on MD, I do think it won't cause any wrongs. Thanks for reading my answer, once again.

While technically not impossible it's not trivial to try and make it efficient.
Might want to have a read through https://forums.mangadex.org/threads...guage-to-make-the-sort-more-accurate.1199758/

 

[BzzBzz]

If more than one group translating (same language of course) and then one of groups dropping series, should it be marked as dropped?

 

[Ayazel]

@Ndtm : I see. In any case, it's not an emergency. Maybe some talented developer will figure it out in the future!

@BzzBzz : No it shouldn't!. One of the purposes of this new feature, is to indicate to the readers whether they will be able to read it in its entirety, in their own language. There is already a bunch of tags for the publication status (Complete, Hiatus, Ongoing, etc...), so it feels odd that there aren't any for the translation status.
I'm sure you have another question in mind: "If a manga that was completely translated by a very bad group (low quality pictures, poor grammar, machine-translation, etc...) is getting re-translated by a better group aiming for higher quality, what if this very group gives up?", am I right ? In that case, I suppose we can add some sort of 'Bad translation' indicator alongside the suggested feature. Or perhaps, we can do nothing and let the community itself ask for help to the translators.

I hope that made sense, english is not my main language btw.

 

[Teasday]

In that case, I suppose we can add some sort of 'Bad translation' indicator alongside the suggested feature.

Absolutely not

As you can see, after just a bit of thinking this suggestion keeps growing in scope to try to cover edge cases, getting more and more convoluted to implement, and based more and more on subjective opinions than anything actually tangible.

We've had five years to consider this feature request. It remains rejected.

 

[Ayazel]

@Teasday : There is no need to be so resolute! It's not a necessity, as I said right after the quote. A feature such as this one can be absolutely added without implementing other seemingly fitting features at the same time. You don't have to plant a forest just because you planted a tree in your garden.

If the IT team is so set against the implementation of this feature, then it's a real shame. But I do think it is a good idea!!! Anyways, thank you once again for reading my messages.

 

[Teasday]

There is no need to be so resolute!

I mean, after five years of various people making this suggestion in different ways, I'm sure you understand why we've come to a pretty firm conclusion on its viability. It's not for lack of trying or consideration. Complexity/difficulty on "IT"side isn't the problem either, it's a matter of it being pretty much impossible to define and design in a fair, objective and functional manner.

 

[BzzBzz]

I'm sure you have another question in mind: "If a manga that was completely translated by a very bad group (low quality pictures, poor grammar, machine-translation, etc...) is getting re-translated by a better group aiming for higher quality, what if this very group gives up?", am I right ?

No. I asked exactly what i meant.
Not sure if there's any current series but back in time (pre 2-year downtime) I remember some series translated by 4-5 groups simultaneously.