If a translator has left us readers hanging for months end without any updates or intimation as to what is going on, how do we readers reach out to the admin or whoever is in charge of checking on translation status? Jun jiuling has remained unupdated for 3 months now and as much as I love the translator, I love the novel too. And I really would like to know what is going on. I’m sure all the other readers of the novel echo my sentiments.
Translator not updating anymore?
Unfortunately, it seems too few people care about this for WN to pay attention, and this is not the only abandoned translation out there. Sigh. 
ace_cap I thought the novel had a lot of fans though. Although I can understand if younger readers may not like it. They appear to like fast novels more. But I only read this one along with doomsday wonderland and it's not easy to be a man. So it bugs me that the novel isn't being translated any longer.
melonbread
You cant do anything about it cuase its all handled by WN
And we all know they dont care about their readers or what they think
Theres tons of dropped novels on this site but qidian has yet to comment aboutthe situation
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Gothic_Temptation Not true. See Adorable Food Goddess for instance. It has been resumed. There are books that are in the midst of resuming, it's just slow because finding a translator is difficult.
Reason: It has to do with few translators wanting to take up something that was dropped by another translator. This is the same even for non-Webnovel sites. If they continue, and make a mistake with a term, they get flamed, so who in the right mind would take up 'spoiled' goods? They might as well start a book from scratch and be able to call it their own. Furthermore, these books usually have a very small readerbase, so translators naturally want to do something that will be popular, and not read by only a handful of people. It's just human nature. And if it's so unpopular, there's no reason for Webnovel to offer a higher price for translators to pick it up only to lose money.
CKtalon
Actually qidian has a bunch of popular novels
I'm pretty sure lots of people would love to pick then up just that qidians bad rep repeals them from trying
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melonbread I thought so too, but after seeing a few posts about Jun Jiuling, it seems it's not as popular as I thought. Said posts got just a handful of reactions. It's pretty sad, coz it's a pretty good story, and not as cliche as the others. I'm still hoping, though, so it will stay in my library.
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Gothic_Temptation They can always choose to join Qidian. It's been more than a year. The only ones that left is because they were greedy for more money or they were incompetent.
Also, you have a warped sense of what's really popular. It's the cliche ones that people like, not the ones that are 'different'.
Gothic_Temptation you don't get what he said. Picking up dropped novels means breaking down the previous word glossary and index and incorporate it on your own. Hence, it would be at least twice the effort and the risk of the new translator being flamed is very high, for what? The same pay! That's explains why novel pick up request were usually ignored while the what's next section had an endless supply of new translations.
melonbread i suddenly have a craving for melon breads.
Gothic_Temptation I will continue to hope for a translator picking it up regardless.
bachingchung so it was you that raided the melon bread village and reduced my cousins to crumbs!
melonbread no! It wasn't me! I'm only holding them for a friend.
bachingchung says the person who hasn’t wiped the crumbs off his face and hands! You’re digesting them.
Whats going on with the otherworldly eil monarch?? Was it dropped or were the translators fired
CKtalon Does webnovel even hire editors? From the looks of things, the editors are part of the translation team and not paid in-house employees.
That's why it's not surprising that no one is able to helm the story when a translator/team drops out. In long serials like this, it's pretty necessary.
But hey, that's webnovel for you.
MaryFord That's why Webnovel is transiting to translator groups, where the group comprises of translators and editors, and the group is able to pick up if a translator were to quit.
If you look at the bigger groups out there, their release rates are fairly consistent (EFT, Nyoi-boi) The rest will slowly be removed too due to their poor work ethic and quality.
melonbread We have the same thought about this issue, I hope the admin would take an action to this.
CKtalon Translators can just drop the novels they are working on and no penalty or something? Why is that the case? If translators becomes afraid of criticism if ever they picked up dropped novels by a previous translator, how would they even improve in their line of work? If they just want convenience then that's not a job well done at all. And commonly they won't even give any warning that they will drop the novel they are translating. They just leave like having a one night stand. That's rude for me.
Spirit stones are expensive you know, and if a reader spent a lot of spirit stones already just to follow a story that interested him/her, then, suddenly, the update stops, wouldn't that make him mad?
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bachingchung
About breaking down the previous world glossary, though it would add more work to the translator, in exchange, he would get an established novel in the rankings. It's work and no work is easy.
Can't they just translate what's needed to be translated? They can just change the novels information like.....
"Dawn of Dragons"
Author: Babychick112 Translator: Spaceworm(chap.176-present) and Rottenegg (chap. 1 - 175)
Can't they do just like that? Why complicate things?
Kritiko There are penalties, but Webnovel doesn't pursue them, since it's not worth the effort suing them for just a few hundred dollars?
It's simply freelance work for most translators. This is common in the freelance industry, where clients are left helpless when the work that was promised was not done. Of course, there's no money lost, but time lost on the client's (Webnovel) side and a loss of reputation for the freelancer (the translator). But in this case, the translator is unlikely to continue anyway.
It is a problem with having spent SS, which is why Webnovel still will try to resume books, but resuming them is difficult. Most translators don't see this as a career, so they don't really need to 'improve' by picking up the works of another translator when they can simply start a new book afresh.
That's what they do with novels with picked up translators. See Swallowed Star. The first few hundred chapters were done by Translation Nations, while the latter chapters are done by Nyoi-boi Studios. The point about picking up another translation is the consistency of terms, which Nyoi-boi got flamed for not being consistent with the other translator's terms. It is after all a novel. If it's just a independent article, anyone can pick up dropped translations.
CKtalon wait what
Didnt the Tl for swallowed star leave(or gor fired) becuase qidian wasnt paying enough or got a patreon and qidian didnt like that so they fired him
Im pretty sure i read this on the Novel updates forum
And Translators won't get really flamed unless they massively change the terms
A few changes is fine as long as they point out what they changed and not leave it to the guess of the reader. I get the terms and all but that problem is extremely simple to fix tho, just point out what you changed
Its not that hard. I really havent seen people
Overly complaining about change of terms unless they did a massige change
Gothic_Temptation If you need another example, Adorable Food Goddess is another one which recently was resumed. It has been happening for months now, just that you might not have realized it.
They did get flamed. You just aren't aware. Go read the comments of the chapters. If the translators knew what the terms were, they would have kept the original terms. The problem is that they have no idea what the terms are which resulted in the difference, so how are they to tell the readers what was changed?
CKtalon
They are translators, its its their job to translate
You telling me they can translate Chinese to English but can't do the same vice versa
The readers can see the difference but they cant
Seriously??
It would litrally just take more effort o.O
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Gothic_Temptation You expect the translator to read all the hundreds of chapters before that? And this will have to be a careful read and not a cursory read like what most readers do. That can take months. And as a translator, why don't I just start translating a new book from Chapter 1. I determine my own terms, I don't have to waste time 'reading,' I can just start translating and earning money right away.
It's their job to translate, and also their right to quit and say nope, I'm not doing the job. And if no one wants to do it, you get situations where you can't find translators to do it. Simple as that.
CKtalon
Wont they following along the story
What?!
They could literally ask the readers what changed
Your making the situation seem like a huge problem but it really isnt
And i literally went a checked the comments
What flamming ?!?!
You made it sound like everyone was complaining about changing of the terms
When i saw no comments about that
This is the first time ive heard about this
Why does it seem like this is a problem that only special to qidian and not other novels cuase ive read novels where tl have changed the terms but no one flamed the Tl, they where grateful someone was willing to pick the novel up
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Gothic_Temptation They did, still a big endeavor. You have translated 50 chapters ahead of time so that you can maintain a consistent release pace. Suddenly, you realize that terms were translated wrongly. You have to go back to all the 50 chapters, edit them one by one. This is additional work that a new book does not have. Unless the translator loves the book so much that he's willing to put in the effort, all you get are mercenaries who will translate, but not put too much effort into consistency.
I'll give you an example. Doing a search and replace in whatever document format you have, replacing it on Inkstone; all this takes about 1 minute per chapter, considering browser loading speeds, etc. Now, there's 50 chapters (or more). Just doing one search and replace for ONE term takes you 50 minutes. Then when you realize there's ANOTHER term you made a mistake, you have to do the same thing. This time, there might be a 100 chapters for you to go back and check. You can see how as the number of chapters increase, the amount of time taken to maintain is crazy. And this time can be put to translating one chapter already, earning them money; instead of going back to maintain the consistency.
You have to understand that those novels that were picked up again were popular ones. The ones that are unpopular just die, coz why would anyone pick up something unpopular (especially if they are earning ad revenue from it).
It's a problem that translators have. They simply do not want to pick up 'spoiled goods'. Even RWX from WW says this with respect to HJC's translation:
Translating is like raising a baby, while taking over someone else's translation is like raising a stepchild; you are locked into using previous terms, and many other things you might not like. There are many translators who are disinterested in taking on another person's translation, especially this close to the end.
P.S. Even WW had problems maintaining consistency of terms.
CKtalon
I mean by reading that its pretty clear the TL was a disaster
But i dont think that comparing it to WW is good thing as at least WW completes their TL and provides notices and communicates with their readers
I mean the TL just came out of no where and changed everything near the end with no explanations and left it to the readers to find
I get that its pretty hard to pick up where another TL left off unless you are willing to start the whole novel over but that 50 chapter rule is the Novels updates TL rule where they wont put your website link on thier site unless you show dedication by TLing 50 chapters first
plus popular novels always have tl competition going on as people want the popular novels not the unpopular ones
This still seems like a WN only problem
Gothic_Temptation You sir has a point.
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Gothic_Temptation You do know that there was zero communication about HJC for weeks?
It's a problem for WN because it took a risk trying 'different' kinds of books, but they aren't popular with readers, simply because they prefer the cookie-cutter ones. They are not 'ready' for the different books. And translators being human will also lose interest, have real life matters. They can quit just like a real job.
My number of 50 is just a random number. Webnovel really doesn't care too much about NU.
CKtalon
HJC came back for a while a explained his situation
You are litrally trying to make it seem like WW and WN are the same and have the same problems
Like seriously what TL group hasnt tried experimenting
The are so many dropped unpopular novels, all you have to do is just check NU and you will see them
They dont care about NU or anybody else in the TL community even the readers
Gothic_Temptation I'm saying that these problems are commonplace because of the way translators behave, nothing to do with whose better.
It is amplified for WN because WN has about 8 times the number of books and translators involved. If you consider statistics, it is just common to have a percentage of books having these problems. WN seems to have it worse simply because it has more books.
CKtalon
By that logic then this problem should be common place and be common sense cause there a hundred of books out there being translated. WN aint special just cuase it has more books. Hell man NU is the biggest community, even bigger than qidian and this problem has litrally not come up them, it doesnt TL but it is a collection of books, translators and readers so why does this problem that is a huge deal over not even come up over there
Gothic_Temptation You yourself mentioned that there are many books dropped, and they remained drop. If you are trying to make a statistic, you will need to include those. And if you do, you will see that a mass majority of translators DO NOT want to pick up dropped novels. There are some that are picked up, but they are usually popular novels, but even so, they are really rare.
It happens all the time in the NU pickup request forums, years ago even before Webnovel came onto the scene.
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@Gothic_Temptation and @CKtalon, IMO, the two of you are each other's side of the coin.
If we talk about professionalism, integrity, and respectability, @Gothic_Temptation is respectably right. webnovel should care, and take actions to address the readers concerns about the problems regarding translators behavior and the number of discarded novels situation. For it is only right and just that they do so. Don't you agree?
But, if we look at it in a business perspective, @CKtalon is right too. It's all about "PROFIT" you know what I mean. And, just like what @CKtalon says, translating is just like any other job. Translators can quit anytime. (Lucky they just get away without any consequences(Right?)) And, it is an added work for webnovel to address these reader's concerns and issues at the same time that they are working in studying and contracting newer novels.
At the end of the day, There is no "STRICT LAW" pertaining to:
- Online 1.Companies, 2.Authors, 3.Translators and 4.Reader's Limitations, Rights, and Privileges.
(Correct me if I'm wrong) (Inform me if there is a LAW)
So the term "exploitation" takes place. All of the above(1-4) mentioned included.
(If I exaggerated, then I'm sorry)