[X] My Assistant

Hi folks,

I'm Twentyfoursnakes, and I'm learning Japanese. Learning to read and write is hard, so I'm using my favorite doujins to learn how. I'd like some pointers on translating, as well as some do's and dont's before I start investing lots of time and energy into this project. Any pointers?

I read that not disclosing machine learning translations can result in a ban, but what I do isn't "machine learning." At best, it's machine assisted, if only because I'm learning stuff through the machine.

I've read through the wiki, but I wouldn't mind a few pointers before I invest lots of time into this project. I wouldn't want to spend 10 hours translating just for my project to get removed, right?

I also want to run the doujins through a de-censorship program, but I noticed that lots of media on this site is censored. Is de-censoring a problem, or should I keep my translations censored?

I look forward to your input, folks.

-Twentyfoursnakes in a trench coat

I read that not disclosing machine learning translations can result in a ban, but what I do isn't "machine learning." At best, it's machine assisted, if only because I'm learning stuff through the machine.

It's not an account ban, what you are thinking of is to do with a checkbox you can tick when you upload a translation. You can tick a box to confirm you are a competent (and human) translator when translated is also selected, if you don't tick it, the rough translation tag is automatically added to the gallery. If you tick it, but then the gallery is tagged as rough translation anyway enough times, you may get the ability to check that box removed, so all your galleries get tagged with rough translation until a whitelisted or veto member removes it manually, should they take the time to check.

I've read through the wiki, but I wouldn't mind a few pointers before I invest lots of time into this project. I wouldn't want to spend 10 hours translating just for my project to get removed, right?

They won't get removed for being rough translation. If they do get removed, it would be for another reason, i.e. forbidden content, etc.

I also want to run the doujins through a de-censorship program, but I noticed that lots of media on this site is censored. Is de-censoring a problem, or should I keep my translations censored?

It's allowed, though they should be uploaded separately, as in, if you have a translation on a censored work, you wouldn't replace that gallery with a decensored one, you would have two separate galleries. Machine decensoring tends to be shit though.

Thanks for the quick reply, Shank!

I agree, de-censorship programs aren't great, but it's better (if only slightly) than censored works imo. I won't replace works that I translate and decensor, though. By no means am I an authority on a language I'm learning, nor should I be an authority on art. I've learned enough about my faults in both spaces as it is. Although any translation I do might be a bit 'rough,' I hope to at least beat Google translate.

I'm already a few pages into my current project, let me know if there's anything else I should know before getting too far into it. As I said, this is a fun side project for me, but I appreciate the input from those who know more than me on this subject! (Thanks again Shank)

As with learning other languages, as long as you immerse in the language and enjoy the process you should be fine.

Doujin is probably not the most ideal starting point, as being fanwork it'll likely have all kind of references and slangs, not to mention all the slurred speech if we're talking R18. Those and the occasional handwritten text are stuff tools like OCR/DeepL/ChatGPT/whathaveyou can't quite handle well yet. For basic dialogue and exposition DeepL is actually pretty decent.

But in the end it's all about learning retention, and there's nothing better than working on things you actually like. If you're stuck on something the Translation Requests have a 'Random translation help' thread where you can ask things.

This post has been edited by jatrans: Sep 30 2024, 06:42