ばか！バカ！　馬鹿ー月！

Hi everyone, my name is Ben and I am kind of putting feelers out there to see if starting a project is something that I might want to do.

I have lived in Japan for almost 4 years and I passed JLPT N1 about a year and a half ago. I studied really hard leading up to that test but once I passed I kind of shifted my studying time to other things. My girlfriends mom keeps nagging me to polish up my Japanese a little bit more so I can use it more fully in a future job, which she does have a good point. I did fan subs for a 13 episode series a few years ago but I really did not like the idea that I had to rush to get my translation out before some other group got their translation out (how many version of the same thing did we need?)

I kind of searched around the wiki and the forum but I am not completely sure on everything. Since it is a wiki, will people read over what I wrote and fix up typos or what not? I have book stores minutes from my house, do I just go and pick something up or is there more of a method to it? (I know you have to avoid licensed series)

Also are there deadlines and schedules that need to be kept? My only real hesitation right now is the time management with everything else going on in my life.

Sorry if I am asking the same questions that always get asked.

thanks

Just go for it sarge. This place is a volunteer community. Though I am in no place to say this lol since I am new here.

cramped wrote:Just go for it sarge. This place is a volunteer community. Though I am in no place to say this lol since I am new here.

But you're right. Nobody gets paid, since that would put us on shaky legal grounds, and translators who will do things for free are hard to find. So we try to be nice to them. There's a sign posted somewhere around here:

Do Not Harass the Translators

Be nice to them. They're your friends...

neocarbunkle wrote:I have book stores minutes from my house, do I just go and pick something up or is there more of a method to it? (I know you have to avoid licensed series)

You can choose any unlicensed series, the method is up to you

neocarbunkle wrote:Also are there deadlines and schedules that need to be kept?

No.

As cramped correctly pointed out, B-T is a platform for volunteer translators, where everyone can put their translations, as opposed to a translation group. That means that deadlines don't de facto exist, and you're pretty much free of responsibilities.

If you want to go about translating something, you have basically two ways:
A) Join an existing translation of your interest. For that, just put your name next to the chapter you want to translate on the registration page, which you can find on every project page.

B) Kick up a shiny new project. This will require you to translate at least one chapter and glue together a project page that complies with the template, but that's pretty much it. Once you've done that, you can ask an admin (you'll have to be lucky to catch one, though) to approve the project and put it into the navigation.

For Japanese sources, just grab whatever you can get. :D I envy you for living near a bookstore. :P

As for editors: people are free to edit your translations, and will probably correct minor typos, but don't expect someone to take the time to carefully read through and correct them. If the series you're translating is popular enough, dedicated editors will appear in due time, but otherwise you'll have to find one yourself. E.g. in my case of translating Hakomari, I had no editors while translating the first two volumes.

If you don't like the idea of others' fiddling with your stuff, there's also the possibility of joining the Nanodesu crew for a closed translation, based on blogs.

BT's main advantage is that you work at your own pace, so that you aren't forced to comply to a schedule or deadlines. That's even more true since you can't always respect them, obviously.

And well, this system works without huge problems, you don't have to worry about them.

You can start any project that you find interesting, it's all up to you.

OK cool, thanks everyone. I'll give this some thought and get back to you if I end up wanting to do anything.

Hm, it seems in the end it didnt work out...

Yea, seems like it. Locking the thread since it has been months since last post of the OP.

You should be savvy when it comes to making new topics...

Oh well, doesn't anyone know that B-T is a voluntary community... Sigh