[BLOG48] translators' thread

HI,
I'm one of the active translators, though I have been on vacation for 4 weeks since July 7th, so wasn't really active since I was on vacation.
I'm currently translating the blogs of Umeda Ayaka, Nito Moeno, Uchida Mayumi and Maeda Ami on Blog48.livejournal.com. Though I usually do Takajo Aki's as well, this task has been given to Llewella for the time being till I can catch up on the other blogs.
I don't mind posting on the new thing which will be set up, but if you are expecting me to keep to rules and stuff like that, that I might just stick to posting in LJ. or stop translating at all, especially with the mentioned like proficiency etc.

But anyhow, how's the setup going for the new translation thing, any news on that?
and do we transfer the old translations as well onto them?

 

No need to worry about that. I've looked through the blog posts before and your translations are usually perfectly fine.

The assessment of proficiency that Tomokazu mentioned was originally my idea. I spoke on Twitter about it and he picked it up. What I was thinking about was nothing as harsh as what he explained previously (and certainly not with all those regulations and rules).

But I do think that there has to be some form of selection. I trust most people to be aware of they're abilities, but if someone's translations frequently end up incomprehensible and false, someone needs to tell the person. That doesn't always have to be me or whoever is going to be in charge of it (I'd kind of like to give that member mod status), but we can all read over the translations and give feedback to each other.

Sometimes slight mistakes give birth to bigger misunderstandings and can be the reason for half the online fandom to lose their calm - that's why I'm not exactly in the "something is better than nothing" camp.
I remember Sasshi posting a blog entry shortly after her scandal and at the end of the entry she wrote 明日の握手おわりしだいまたお話しします！ ...which is simply her saying that she'd write another blog entry after next day's handshake event. Someone translated it to "I'll have something to tell you tommorow" on tumblr, it made the rounds and soon people were talking about whether or not Sasshi might announce graduation next day.

Spoiler

One stylistic change in translating that I would like to suggest is to not keep the spacing of the original Japanese. Many girls post in a still similar to this:

It doesn't add anything to the translated version if the spacing is kept intact. It's a rather unusual thing to see in English language text. Apply your own spacing and paragraphs where it seems logical.

As of now, we haven't really come to a conclusion. I guess I should make it my project for this week. It's been in mid-air too long already. I'll get back to you.

 

Oh, I was still waiting for word on whether you had contacted all the translators to start, haha. Did they ever talk to you about any of the points we talked about in the thread? I already took the url int48.blogspot.com, but right now obviously it's completely empty. If we want another name instead, I can claim that too. int48 (International 48) was all I could come up with since blog48.blogspot.com is already taken. Or if we really do want the blog48.com name, I'll see what I can do about buying the domain name.

Uh...other than that, afterwards I might need someone more familiar with graphics to change the banner/background, but people can start posting, I just need everyone's Gmail address to add people to the author list.

And about the proficiency check, I think what HRP said should be fine, since it's somewhat ensuring quality, but without rules and regulations to fuss over. I really hope if someone offered to translate their Japanese should be at an ok level, but definitely if they're posting something wrong it'd be great to have someone point out their mistakes so they can learn from it.

EDIT: Scratch the part about blog48.com, it's taken by a domain name sitter, godaddy.com, those people that take domains hoping to make money on it. And I don't think any of us want to pay $70 to take the domain name back. .net is ok, .org is ok, just not .com.

 

are people posting there already?
It be good to have everybody change to the new translating blog at the same time, otherwise it would just feel weird and confusing if both are active at the same time.
if you want my gmail you can have it, just ask and I'll send you a pm with my gmail.

 

Not yet, no. I've been fairly occupied myself with Tokyo Dome coming up and me getting stuff into place, but I was talking about it with HRP a week or so ago through PM, and I should follow up on that and this is a good reminder to do so. Mostly still stuff about domain names. Definitely, once it gets up and running, I'll send a PM to you.

 

I just stumbled on this conversation ... As you can see I do not often check threads in this part of the forum
Is this interesting idea (of reviving blog translations) dead ? It's kind of sad to see blog48 almost asleep.

 

^ It's not dead I'm on there almost every day posting >.<.

 

Oh, no. I wasn't saying blog48 is dead, I said it's almost asleep. I posted on it today too
But there's only a few translators actives, and the fact nobody can be added means it will probably die slowly.

I'm lucky I wasn't suppressed completely, and I can still post even if not appearing in the list of translators
But well, I'm only translating because you kindly let me temporarily take Aki's blog

So, I was talking about the discussion preceding my post. The one where people were talking about relaunching a blog48-like thing elsewhere .... the project died I suppose ...

 

true, there seem less people active as translators these days on blog48.
Think some of them gave up on the translating idea cause it was either too much for them or they can't handle it well together with their other activities.
But yeah I was wondering what's up with the restart of the project guess that died as well unfortunately.
as long as I'm actively translating I'll be interested in any restart, just not taking up more workload than I currently have.

 

The revival project is actually not dead at all, just biding it's time. I'm sorry for not updating here with more info. I've talked with HoneyRoastedPeanuts at length and we kind of decided that we have bigger plans for blog48 than just a simple move, so at the moment, those plans are progressing in the background. The bigger plan is HoneyRoastedPeanuts' idea so I'll let him talk about it when he's ready, but I support it 100%.

In the meantime before the big project actually goes live (because I think it'll take a while), I've been posting at int48.blogspot.com, the blog that I mentioned/created earlier. I'm active there translating both Milky's and Nanatan's blogs.

Milky's:
http://int48.blogspot.com/2012/10/milky-tokyo-dome.html
http://int48.blogspot.com/2012/10/milky.html
http://int48.blogspot.com/2012/10/milky_4.html
http://int48.blogspot.com/2012/10/milky ... hemia.html

Nana's:
http://int48.blogspot.com/2012/10/1830m ... -nana.html
http://int48.blogspot.com/2012/10/nana- ... -fans.html

If any of you want to post there also, I'm more than happy to add you as an author, send me a message via PM with your Gmail address in there. I'll just need someone to create a new header image for us I won't be able to use an NMB header if we have more girls than just NMB members there, haha. Actually, I have no idea how many people are active on blog48, but if there's not that many active as you said, we can just easily move everyone there while we wait. Though I kind of did wanted to catch up first before doing that, since I started from translating Milky's and Nana's old posts (from August 27th) but haven't found time to catch up to current day yet.

I can also help with any questions you have about this new platform. It took me quite a while to understand how Blogger works, but I think I've got the hand of it now and would be willing to answer any questions you may have.

So yeah, I'm still dedicated to leading this revival 100%

 

There are definitely a few active translators on blog48 like me and Gideon and some others I don't know their names cause I just get them in my feed.
I don't think there's more then 10 people translating on blog48.

 

I said this here before when people were talking about re-doing blog48 (which I find a great site, thanks guys for all the translations), but since she is the admin, has anyone contacted lovencoffee, about whatever the proposed changes are, yet?

 

I think when this conversation originally started, lovencoffee was unreachable. I know she left the online fan scene for a time and people didn't know how to reach her. However, she has come back and Kanki has successfully contacted her and requested a new tag for a member that she started translating.

So I know she can be reached. But I don't know if she'll deal with anyone from here.

 

You're entering dangerous territory. Yes, there is indeed a top-secret plan to create a new site that Blog48 might end up being part of, but nobody knows about it yet and I didn't say anything. Information is highly classified and even I don't have full security clearance. Ssssh... [tmi]

 

I always forget about the bureaucracy of volunteer blog-translating...

 

Hi guys,

I have been translating blogs since the middle of last year, and it has been a rewarding but time-consuming experience. My new job has some crazy hours, and I don't believe I can translate at a level of quality that I will be satisfied with. As such, I am going to stop my translations as of today. The following members are now open for others to pick up:

Chikano Rina
Matsui Sakiko
Kuramochi Asuka
Nakatsuka Tomomi
Iwasa Misaki

 

^ wish I could take some over but can't, noticed myself I have so little spare time and my translations also have dropped a bit in quality because i try and rush through em. But glad to see your at least tell us you're leaving us. Thanks for all your hard work Chainangled. hope you at least keep hanging out on this forum.

 

^^ Thank you for all your great work !

My days are full now, but I could be interested in Asuka's blog ... I may try to translate it if I can find some free time.
Tell me if somebody else wants it.

Edit after a few days of thinking : I wont translate Asuka's blog. Her posts are too lengthy. Reading them is OK, but putting all this in English and formating it on Livejournal will be too much of an hassle for me. I prefer not to start something I will probably stop after a few weeks.
Sorry.

 

What's happening with the new translation site? any updates or did it just die out?

 

You'll have to ask HRP for that. I'm certainly still just as interested in it as I was before, as posting separately on my sideblog that I created isn't working out that well in terms of how many people actually know it exists. But the new site plans are pretty involved, so I would expect that's what taking up time (as well as normal moderator duties around stage48). I'm certain at least that it didn't die out, as when I last talked to HRP about it via Skype I think both of us were quite passionate for it.