• The site has now migrated to Xenforo 2. If you see any issues with the forum operation, please post them in the feedback thread.
  • An addendum to Rule 3 regarding fan-translated works of things such as Web Novels has been made. Please see here for details.
  • Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
  • For prospective new members, a word of warning: don't use common names like Dennis, Simon, or Kenny if you decide to create an account. Spammers have used them all before you and gotten those names flagged in the anti-spam databases. Your account registration will be rejected because of it.
  • Since it has happened MULTIPLE times now, I want to be very clear about this. You do not get to abandon an account and create a new one. You do not get to pass an account to someone else and create a new one. If you do so anyway, you will be banned for creating sockpuppets.
  • Due to the actions of particularly persistent spammers and trolls, we will be banning disposable email addresses from today onward.
  • The rules regarding NSFW links have been updated. See here for details.

Rule 3 Addendum - Translations of Others' Works

Hopless-Curiousity said:
I am deeply upset about the implementation of this add-on to the rules. This doesn't come off as a "in the works" change, but as a targeted, gut reaction to cover the site's ass. I just noticed the notification banner today, did the people most affected by this given a heads up months in advance? You know, because it can take months to hear back from someone, especially in less developed areas.

(The following rant is greatly exaggerated to express how upset I am.)
It's like a gathering of people left their community because their overlords started meddling with their infrastructure (websites). These people share interesting stories in another place (QQ) because they don't have many other places to go.
For some of them who are less fortunate, these stories are essential parts of their lives because the donations they receive can be the difference between stability and homelessness, especially when they have sick family members to care for.
And then they have their metaphorical tongues cut out for sharing too much. (Rant over)

I'm not disagreeing about the morality of it, the Mods are right to act in a way to stifle plagiarism.

I'm angry about the humanitarian side of it. Where was the grace period!? There are translators who depend on the income they get from unofficial translations to care for their families. This is an especially uncertain time for overseas Asian translators right now.

Mods, morally, you are in the right. But are you okay with being the reason some unfortunate person suddenly couldn't afford medicine/food/water anymore? Give several weeks for those who can't comply some breathing room to move on to other sites before shutting them down. That's my complaint.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

There are a lot of other places witha bigger population than QQ. QQ might seem big but its a relatively smaller community than many other sites.

Plus it's a forum, meant for discussions, and I honestly disliked from the start the fact that translations are posted but you can't interact with the author at all. QQ is low-key people (18+) debating about porn and porn accessories lmao
 
Why?

Why do fanfiction translations need permissions from the authors when the authors themselves didn't even asked any permission from the holders of the IPs that they based their work from?

If this is the case, shouldn't fanfics also need permissions in order to get written too?

🤨
 
Last edited:
This forum recognizes author ownership over fanfiction with how people can't just post someone elses fic without explicit permission. Applying that restriction to translations seems like an expansion of that and is a fair compromise IMO. And even if you can't get permission there are probably a dozen other sites where you can upload it anyway.
 
Aureus said:
This forum recognizes author ownership over fanfiction with how people can't just post someone elses fic without explicit permission. Applying that restriction to translations seems like an expansion of that and is a fair compromise IMO. And even if you can't get permission there are probably a dozen other sites where you can upload it anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is also an incredibly good point
 
Aureus said:
This forum recognizes author ownership over fanfiction with how people can't just post someone elses fic without explicit permission. Applying that restriction to translations seems like an expansion of that and is a fair compromise IMO. And even if you can't get permission there are probably a dozen other sites where you can upload it anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

What's preventing bad actors from just not disclosing whether what they posted is actually a translation or not?

Do the mods have a way to determine that?

I'm pretty sure such thing is going to happen as a consequence of this rule.

🤨
 
seeing_octarine said:
Suggesting people should go learn a whole different language just to read some shitty badly written fanfics is, uh, it's certainly something, that's for sure.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Considering that the translation quality of novels I've seen on QQ is effectively just Google Translate, you are not losing out on anything by going to the raw's and running the google translate add on.
 
Last edited:
Renko said:
What's preventing bad actors from just not disclosing whether what they posted is actually a translation or not?

Do the mods have a way to determine that?

I'm pretty sure such thing is going to happen as a consequence of this rule.

🤨
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's very easy to see which fic is translated or not.
 
then just make a fanfiction of that chinese fanfiction change some patriotism, some racism and the mcs name to english and call it your own fanfiction because why not?
 
Renko said:
What's preventing bad actors from just not disclosing whether what they posted is actually a translation or not?

Do the mods have a way to determine that?

I'm pretty sure such thing is going to happen as a consequence of this rule.

🤨
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Same way you deal with people uploading someone elses story while claiming it as their own, hope someone notices the problem and pushes it through reports. They won't catch all of the cases but that's just how mafia works.
 
Last edited:
kinofthehunt said:
Honestly I was expecting this to be a thing within 24 hours of the first one to be posted but hey it's still getting delt with so that clears up the feed for the section I go to
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ikr, I was so shocked the first time I realised one of these translations wasn't just an author with bad English, but a straight up copy/paste of someone else's work in a different language.
 
One can just find an obscure fanfic from some obscure foreign fanfiction site, translate it (via MTL, AI, or otherwise), post it here without any disclosures that it's actually a TL fanfic, and VOILA!

fire-writing.gif


One's very own fanfic here at QQ! Amazing!

☝️😎
 
Last edited:
BlueBerryExtreme11Zero said:
It's a fact that majority of Chinese fanfiction novels sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

My brother in christ.

A majorty of *all* fanfiction novels suck. It's *fanfiction*

Please don't act like you're some highbrow connoisseur of high art and declare how most foreign works are trash unlike our glorious enlightened western works.

We're all trash eaters here. Please stop pretending otherwise. Have even the slightest, smallest degree of self awareness, man. Nobody likes the guy at the slop eating table pretending that his slop is better than everyone else's.

UrsaTempest said:
If you translate a foreign language work to English, then post them here while claiming they're yours, I think that's pretty obviously plagiarism.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I mean, most outright state they're translations. I'd agree anyone saying it's "their story" should be hit for plagiarism, but if they're saying it's "their translation of [link to original story]", then no foul imo.

Original works I get, some of them can pivot to monetising themselves, but I still think translated fanfics should be a-ok.
 
If we are talking about original works, I completely agree with this rule change. However, I cannot agree with applying these rules to fanfiction. Take ASOIAF, for example—George Martin has repeatedly expressed his disapproval of fanfiction based on his works. And yet, I see a mountain of ASOIAF fanfiction on QQ. According to the current rules, shouldn't all these fanfics be banned then? If permission is required to translate a fanfic, wouldn't the fanfic author also need permission to write the fanfic in the first place?
 
Vanbers said:
I mean, most outright state they're translations. I'd agree anyone saying it's "their story" should be hit for plagiarism, but if they're saying it's "their translation of [link to original story]", then no foul imo.

Original works I get, some of them can pivot to monetising themselves, but I still think translated fanfics should be a-ok.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I haven't seen a lot of them linking to the original but even if they do, some 'translators' still pay wall their content behind a subscription service or a one time deal. Do you think its OK for them to do so when 90%+ don't do anything besides run the OG works through Google translate and then an AI?

There might be an argument to be made for those that don't profit from the translation but there's certainly none to be had, in my opinion, when they pay wall it
 
Khalderas said:
I haven't seen a lot of them linking to the original but even if they do, some 'translators' still pay wall their content behind a subscription service or a one time deal.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

They "paywall" their content the same way fanfic writers "paywall" theirs on patreon.

Is it fair for fanfic writers to profit off of the worlds and settings other people make, just by adding some moron SI/OC and rewriting canon with an extra line about how SI/OC-kun was there too?

If there's someone straight-up making translations and locking them behind patreon forever, then yeah, that's fucked up, same as someone locking a fanfic behind patreon forever.

Khalderas said:
Do you think its OK for them to do so when 90%+ don't do anything besides run the OG works through Google translate and then an AI?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Most don't, though? Like, I keep seeing people saying this, over and over and fucking over again, but if it was that simple to get a decent translation, more people would do it, or someone would make something that just automatically does that shit for people.

It's real easy to just lambast every translator ever as just being some useless hack doing machine translations of shit, but as an experienced fan of hentai doujins, I gotta tell you fam, machine translations ain't there yet, not even for purely textual translations.

I'm not saying machine translations don't happen, but like, most translations aren't that.

Khalderas said:
There might be an argument to be made for those that don't profit from the translation but there's certainly none to be had, in my opinion, when they pay wall it
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

...Are you claiming that advance-posting chapters on patreon is paywalling content?

Because if so, fanfic writers must be in quite a bit of trouble because paywalling fanfics using copyrighted material is one of the biggest NO-NO's of fanfic writing. They're pretty insistent that advance-posting on patreon is VERY MUCH NOT paywalling.

Arsinis said:
If we are talking about original works, I completely agree with this rule change. However, I cannot agree with applying these rules to fanfiction. Take ASOIAF, for example—George Martin has repeatedly expressed his disapproval of fanfiction based on his works. And yet, I see a mountain of ASOIAF fanfiction on QQ. According to the current rules, shouldn't all these fanfics be banned then? If permission is required to translate a fanfic, wouldn't the fanfic author also need permission to write the fanfic in the first place?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is largely my opinion too.

Like, the ban on originals is annoying, but fair. Totally get that. I'm annoyed by it, but I'll stand by it and not complain any more than normal.

But outright fanfics really kind of shouldn't merit the same treatment tbh.
 
Vanbers said:
Novelupdates doesn't even seem to link to sites hosting the works anymore, or give any actual links to translator sites. Or at least they changed their layout slightly from when I used it years ago because it's fucking worthless now.

I found out when I tried to look on Novelupdates for links to a story I read ages ago, and found that while it lists the translation group, and the number of chapters translated, it doesn't have links to jack shit anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You have to have an account to see the links now. idk why, but the links ARE there once you log in.
 
Vanbers said:
They "paywall" their content the same way fanfic writers "paywall" theirs on patreon.

Is it fair for fanfic writers to profit off of the worlds and settings other people make, just by adding some moron SI/OC and rewriting canon with an extra line about how SI/OC-kun was there too?

If there's someone straight-up making translations and locking them behind patreon forever, then yeah, that's fucked up, same as someone locking a fanfic behind patreon forever.



Most don't, though? Like, I keep seeing people saying this, over and over and fucking over again, but if it was that simple to get a decent translation, more people would do it, or someone would make something that just automatically does that shit for people.

It's real easy to just lambast every translator ever as just being some useless hack doing machine translations of shit, but as an experienced fan of hentai doujins, I gotta tell you fam, machine translations ain't there yet, not even for purely textual translations.

I'm not saying machine translations don't happen, but like, most translations aren't that.



...Are you claiming that advance-posting chapters on patreon is paywalling content?

Because if so, fanfic writers must be in quite a bit of trouble because paywalling fanfics using copyrighted material is one of the biggest NO-NO's of fanfic writing. They're pretty insistent that advance-posting on patreon is VERY MUCH NOT paywalling.



This is largely my opinion too.

Like, the ban on originals is annoying, but fair. Totally get that. I'm annoyed by it, but I'll stand by it and not complain any more than normal.

But outright fanfics really kind of shouldn't merit the same treatment tbh.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

When talking about a fanfic, you'd be fine if someone, without your consent, took yours and translated it into Russian, Indian etc, irrelevant if that was a properly edited translation or not, and posted it somewhere while paywalling an advanced 25 chapters.

You made the whole fanfic for free and someone is definitely making a profit of your work, without notifying you. Heck, the translator might be making MORE money than you depending on their audience. You'd honestly be fine with that?

I've seen the situation of translators aggregating a dozen fics and putting up hundreds of chapters behind a temporary pay wall when the OG writer/s just posted their fics, some monetized some not

Edit: if the original writer agrees to all stipulations, including the existence of a subscription service and all that it implies, I would not have any problems with it
 
Last edited:
Vanbers said:
Like, the ban on originals is annoying, but fair. Totally get that. I'm annoyed by it, but I'll stand by it and not complain any more than normal.

But outright fanfics really kind of shouldn't merit the same treatment tbh.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's easier for the mods to enforce all translated works are banned without explicit permission provided by the original author instead of having to check every time that a translated work is posted whether it gets the special fanfic exemption or not.
 
Khalderas said:
Heck, the translator might be making MORE money than you depending on their audience. You'd honestly be fine with that?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Hold on! Isn't profiteering with copyrighted IPs downright illegal?

Why would someone do that by writing fanfiction in the first place? Why is the author going to worry whether someone was making money off of their work when making money of said work is illegal anyway?

😵‍💫
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

  • ... and 38 more.
    • Total: 90 (members: 85, guests: 5)
    Back
    Top