Feedback MangaHelpers Development Suggestion Thread

[blai]

Hi, and welcome to MangaHelpers Development Suggestion Thread.
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MangaHelpers is a community that values their members above all and we have reached a point where we want to make the members more involved in the future of this site. MangaHelpers was created as a tool to help Translators and Edited Manga-groups grow - both in numbers and experience. And by time we've realised just how valuable your ideas are because we exist and work, after all, because of you.

We made this thread to create a dialogue with you, the members, to let you share your thoughts with us about the future of this site and to ask you about what else you would like to see. Basically, tips on how to make this site a better place for everyone. This includes section development, further implementations, suggestions about how to appeal more to MangaHelpers current members, as well as suggestions about how to increase the staff-member and MangaHelpers-manga community communication.

Of course we would very much like it if you only drop by to say that you're happy with how things are, if that is the case.


While we can't promise to implement (or agree with) every suggestion, we would at least like to hear what everyone has to say. So please let us know what you think and how we can improve. Also, before we start the discussion there's one thing that has to be made clear.

• This is not a place to discuss Forum Rules and Guidelines – This is supposed to be a thread where we come can come together and try to improve this site in general... Like always, if you ever feel that one of your posts were unfairly deleted or that the rules & guidelines hasn't been thoroughly followed from other members, or staff, you are more than welcome to PM a mod and politely discuss it with them. If you still feel that it was unjust, you are free to contact one of our Admins.

Thank you in advance.
MangaHelpers Staff

 

[mikkih]

Thank you Blai for making this thread. I would like to hear what everyone would like to see in the Translation section. Regardless if you are a non-Japanese speaker or an advanced JP-ENG translator, please post your suggestions.

 

[cmertb]

Perhaps this is asking for too much, but it would be nice to have a searchable database with all the translation questions that have been asked over the years, and a detailed explanation of how to parse each particular sentence. I mean, people usually ask questions about difficult sentences. They're good study material.

 

[blai]

You mean like the Manga Database we have now but instead of translations we have Q&A's?

 

[saladesu]

Thanks for the suggestion, cmertb! I think it's an excellent suggestion and as a translator myself I can really see how that would be really useful Meanwhile, don't forget that it is possible to search the forums so until we work something out, you can use that to help you

Can you tell us a little bit more about what you would want in such a database? Is something like JGram what you had in mind? If so, how can we improve from what JGram is doing?

Thanks again for your invaluable input

 

[mikkih]

Perhaps this is asking for too much, but it would be nice to have a searchable database with all the translation questions that have been asked over the years, and a detailed explanation of how to parse each particular sentence. I mean, people usually ask questions about difficult sentences. They're good study material.

Hi, cmertb. Glad to see your post. I may not understand what you have in mind fully, but a few possible solutions to your suggestions could be .... (I may be totally off from what you have in mind, but)

(1) Add a search engine that works only within the Translation forum. Reader types a word, and they can pull out the questions with a particular word.

(2) When members submit a question, they can add category labels/tags with the post.

Let's take an example from some of your older posts. You had questions about sports related manga (eg. baseball and soccer). The main questions in your posts were related to (a) sports terminologies (b) colloquialism (3) dialects. ---> your label "sports" "spoken words/colloquialism" and "dialects." When readers try to look up other members questions, they can click on those pre-determined labels and get a list of related questions.

---> Tags are currently not available yet.

(3) Name of the manga title must be/is recommended to be added in each post.

I may be misunderstanding what and how you want to search other members' questions. Let us hear more about it.

 

[c_k]

@ cmertb: Although it doesn't exactly address your suggestion, if you transcribe your chapter and include it with your translation, you can actually use the search function on the DB (Translation Search) to look up a particular phrase you may have had trouble translating or to keep your TL consistent or to see if anyone else translated that phrase.

 

[mikkih]

you can actually use the search function on the DB (Translation Search) to look up a particular phrase you may have had trouble translating or to keep your TL consistent or to see if anyone else translated that phrase.

Yes, it worked
I typed "おおきに" (ookini), which means Thank you in Kansai dialect, and I got 2 results (2 chapters).

 

[cmertb]

OK, so I'm still thinking about what I want exactly. I'm aware of the forum or translation db search function. Well, if it comes to just translating sentences, then we can't beat http://www.alc.co.jp/ anyway. We just don't have enough content here.

But we do have something valuable, which are detailed explanations of various tricky sentences, colloquialisms, or expressions that translators encounter. If we put it all in a searchable database, I doubt it will be useful to a typical tl because there just aren't that many sample sentences. However, they would be useful as a study tool to level up your translating ability.

So maybe try the following: Organize the questions in a database, including manga pages if any, and all the relevant context, and then create something like a quiz. You click a button and it gives you a random question, and you see if you can translate it. Then you can check the answer with the detailed explanation of what it was. The value in this is that the vast majority of questions asked here are far from trivial (at least I have problems answering them XD ), and also come from real life, so they're not artificial. This would be a lot of work, but at least all the answers contained in these forums can also train future generations of translators, as well as give them an idea of how good they're actually are. The alternative is to just read through the translation help forum from the beginning, which I doubt many people would be willing to do.

EDIT: Forgot to add that very few tlers transcribe jp text with their tl. I used to do it, but then I quit. It's just... too much effort.

 

[Imperium]

I have a suggestion although its not specifically about the translation section. From my understanding the forums and subforums regularly undergo a clean-up in which all general obsolete threads are deleted I was wondering if it would be possible to somehow retain some of the more memorable threads that - while no longer of particular use - had interesting discussion in a separate "archive" like forum .

To give an example, the sports subforum use to have threads on the previous World cups and European championship. While discussing in those threads now is pointless, there was a lot of good discussion in them and they had some really good memories. It would be interesting maybe for posterity's sake and good old nostalgia to have the chance to go back and read some of the great discussions that have took place on the forums.

 

[Kaiten]

Double check the sports forum, threads for the 2006 and 2010 World Cup are there. As policy we do not delete out of date threads or move them anywhere members can not see them. We think that everyone should have the opportunity to read old convo's, no matter how out of date. Sometimes redundant threads will be merged; had someone started a thread for "World Cup 2014" and another started a "2014 FIFA World Cup" thread they would be merged. Otherwise we prefer leaving threads undisturbed.

 

[Imperium]

In that case, I think I have a problem. =/

 

[Nuno]

In that case, I think I have a problem. =/

You have filter options on. Almost at the top of your screenshot there's a box that says "last 100 days". Change it to "beginning" and press "show threads" and you should be able to see every thread

 

[Kaiten]

Speaking of threads, I have noticed that members have been starting fewer and fewer new threads over the years. It doesn't seem to matter what forum either, it seems to be a site wide problem. It's become so noticeable that I give new mods instructions to start threads themselves, to keep forums fresh. A development I would like is to see more members starting more new threads. I'm not sure how we came to this point, but I would love to see it change. Hopefully everyone feels comfortable starting new conversations. If there is some reason anyone is not, please contact an admin. If there is something we can do to help, we will. I'd love to see more new threads, more convos, more variety, and more new discussions!

 

[DLord.Van.Buuren]

As someone said before( can't remember if its 3c or someone else) the chapters and the manga can have that effect on people starting topics, let's take for expample bleach. I have noticed that not only there are less topics but also fewer posts even though the chapter just came out.

So, I think its a matter of time, when the manga gets heated up there will be more topics and more things to discuss.

 

[Kaiten]

I'd agree, but it's not just series manga discussion that's effected. Most recent threads in Otaku Cafe were started by destiny, Asarii, or me. It's rare to see new threads started on the demographic main boards too. Not that I am complaining or mad or anything. I'm hoping to encourage anyone who is interested, and a little worried that members might feel discouraged.

 

[cmertb]

It looks like there are simply less people here without the Edited Mangas. Conversations drift to where scans are posted.

 

[Charlie]

Suggestion: How bout allowing larger avatar and and sig sizes? Doesn't have to be a massive update or change but other forums of this kind have members with larger signatures or avatars including the over all kb limit.

 

[DLord.Van.Buuren]

huge ava and sigs look ugly.

sorry to disagree.

 

[Charlie]

huge ava and sigs look ugly.

sorry to disagree.

no no thats fine dark lord if you don't like to see huge signatures. I wouldn't either. I did not mean having something that huge or ugly
but comparing to other places, generally members like more room for their ava's and sigs to be displayed. It gives the members more room to express themselves through their signatures and avatars / work.