"Sniping"

[PantsMan]

What would be a good policy to have if a series your group is translating suddenly gets popular and picked up by someone else who dumps a bulk of them ahead of you?

It's scanlator drama 101, but I never really like the stock answer of "just continue translating it and go for quality instead". If all I, hypothetical scanlator, want is for people to read a series I can keep up with through raws anyway, going for quality just seems time-consuming and far more effort for very little payoff or purpose. Should a group just drop the series and move onto something else, leaving a note to contact them if it gets dropped again and they might get back around to it?

 

[Myorn]

Imo it is quite simple: You cannot claim ownership over a series. It is not your brainchild; you should not make any money from it; you are not licensed or obligated to translate.

Let's go over the different scenarios:

If you are actively translating newly released raws, then it is just common courtesy that you should have, say, a month time to translate average 20-30 page chapters. If you frequently take longer or go on a hiatus, then it is free game.
In that scenario, if you get sniped out of spite (e.g. bad blood with a single SL or ex member), then the 'quality over fastest release' usually holds. If you get sniped by a different group that wants to take over, then tough luck. That's competition. If you do a better job, but are only slightly slower, then people will appreciate it and wait for your translations.

If you are picking a new project with plenty of raws and are incrementally releasing stuff and some dickhead translates a few pages 20 chapters ahead of you, then those chapters have a spoiler warning on MD. If your new project gets popular and a bigger group tries to muscle you out of it, then tough luck. If their scanlations and speed is better than yours, they have every right to. People will still appreciate that you translated the earlier chapters. If you are afraid of stuff like this happening, just release in larger batches yourself.

 

[SoaringPegasus]

If some big group takes over your project. There's really nothing you can do, even though that group is being an arse for not asking you about it. You don't own that series after all.
If I were to be sniped by a big group, I would either message them or just to drop it really.

 

[Teddy]

Find the other scanlator's house and snipe them... Obviously with just a foam gun, all you're doing is just sending a message

 

[flavorful]

The best policy in regards to sniping is:

A: As the reader - Just read the fucking Japanese cartoons.
and
B: As a scanlator - Don't be a bitch and scanlate it if you want. If not, don't.

I think if we follow through and enact these policies you'll find that MangaDex becomes a much happier, healthier community.

 

[jdexo1]

imagine thinking you have any sort of ownership over a manga in the first place. We all know this whole deal is copyright infringement anyway, it's just that asian publishers don't know or don't bother pursuing these things legally, perhaps because their own legislations aren't that favorable to them, unlike with English publishers who can just send you a cease and desist and take your ass to US court, especially because in this case, when there is an official english translation, there's more of a case to pursue it legally.

Obviously there's work put into the translations, but in the end it's still just a hobby m8. Let's be real, most of these people whining about getting sniped are not upset about the amount of work they lost nor genuinely care about the series in itself, they're upset because they're gonna lose on those 10 bucks that that one guy gives them on patreon. Get a real job if you care about money

 

[BestBoy]

If a group is satisfied with the new group's translation they ought to move on to a new project. Leave a note saying you'll come back if it ever gets dropped again.

 

[BzzBzz]

> someone else who dumps a bulk of them ahead of you?

This can happen in one case only - you are literally YEARS bahind. If your TL is ongoing and you release it in reasonable timeframe I don't see a reason any one would "snipe" you.

 

[Yatsuki]

I think first, honestly ask yourself what you scanlate for. For yourself, fan, or fame?

It's obvious but if you translate for yourself first, then doesn't matter how many other group jump in and translate the same series, is it? And you might even be able to learn good way to translate.

In my experience, the one making unnecessary big fuss over "snipers" and complain about "ungrateful readers" are usually groups who horde a bunch of series, have patreon, and/or need donation. Some even put the chapter behind paywall like "until we have x amount of donation, we won't release this chapter". Believe it or not, a lot of readers are loyal and prefer a stable/old group doing the translation, there are still gonna be people who read your version, thank, and support you. So if you're doing it for the fans, then I think you should continue anyway.

If you do it for the fame though. Well, are you doing some kind of excellent job? If not and the other groups do better than you (says better clean, edit, translation, faster releases too), then just drop the series since you won't get your fame from it anymore.

 

[gladiatorua]

My only problem when it comes to sniping is quality. If a sniper rushes out shit quality scans, they are 100% detrimental. Unless the timeframe of good quality scans is enormous.

 

[TrapCard113]

From a purely reader's perspective, I have no issues with "sniping", unless it's low effort (MTL without proofreading or Tappytoon) or 50 chapters ahead of the "current" chapter, the latter due to annoyance . I find the concept stupid since scanlator groups do not own the rights to translate series in the first place, and the only groups you see complain about it are often the same that claim a few hundred series, then sit on the translated chapters until someone has the audacity to touch one of "their" series, followed by angry emails for the "sniper" to cease and desist.

tl;dr: If I can keep reading, you have my blessing.

 

[Holo]

Like any free market, you have to do a better and/or faster job than the other group. If you can't, then you can still continue, but have to accept that you'd probably get less views.

Sniping sucks, but if a bigger group wants to be a dick about it, there's not much you can do (except license it, lol)