Hey so I've been wondering about this for awhile, and since there are a lot of scanlators and readers on this site, what your opinion about working on a manga that another group is working on when their releases are slow(not dropped but slow)? Should another group be "allowed" to pick up the project or is it bad "etiquette" do so? And of course why? I just want to know the general opinion of this community on this topic.

It's all a matter of asking or just doing stuff. if there is a group that is respected and gives HQ releases (think mangastream or egscans) I don't like people ripping their stuff or releasing faster in LQ.
It just makes them look cheap.

a good example is something like Yumekui Merry where releases take more time but DKThias started to do joint releases with renzokusei scans because translations were missing.

as long as it stays HQ and groups ask for help i.e. for joint releases I don't think it is that big of a deal, sure there are goups that work best solo, but there also is a number that needs certain positions, so joint projects are a good alternative.

the main prroblem is that groups (those that take other groups' projects) all want the popular ones because they give more traffic. I also have some projects that I'd gladly see in the hands of another group, either because releases are very slow or they don't always live up to the task but that's a difficult matter...

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Define what slow is to you. 1 month per release of a title?

I know back in the early 2000's there was a unspoken courtesy of not picking up a title unless there hasn't been a release in a year. I think now it's 6 months? I don't know but I keep to the 1 year deal.

Times have changed and I honestly don't mind if another group picks up titles I work on but only if their quality rivals mine in terms of cleaning, translation, and grammar. If they don't then I would keep working on the titles, regardless of how fast the other group goes. The titles I pick are ones I am attached to and if another groups starts working on it then they need to give it as much effort as I give it.

I also limit myself on titles. I think some groups have a habit of picking up everything they really like and then they have so many titles that releases for one title gets delayed for so long because of lack of staff or a member disappears. (I have a lot of titles I secretly wish to work on right now but restrain myself... which is really hard...)

Then there's groups who have a few titles and release by popularity. My more popular titles I will release more regularly vs ones that have a few fans but I try and release within a reasonable time. Gou seems to get the back burner often.

I'm also willing to do joints. So long as the other group does the translations... I only have my husband who translates for me...

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Hmm..let's assume that identical or better quality....



and unpopular...well not unpopular just not popular that traffic becomes a thing.



Does this mean after the RAW has been released? If so, I guess so? Unless a lot of work needs to be done to the RAW



So does this mean that when a group picks up a project, it's theirs? And other people/groups need to ask for permission to work on it? Isn't that kind of strange? Informing, I somewhat understand but permission I really don't?

As in the group needs to release their stuff as soon as it's out in Japan or a title gets released every few months? You also need to understand that most mangaka's release one chapter a month unless they're crazy and can pop out 30-40 pages a week.




I meant as in I only pick up titles that I can only handle regardless of how much I want to do another title. I refuse to pick up more than I can handle and neglect the titles I'm already working on.

A group can not claim it's theirs even though some do. It's a silly idea to claim a title. We're already illegally translating titles and in no way have permission from the mangaka's or publishers. Why should another group claim a title that they didn't pay for? And heck if a group goes so far as to buy the actual manga then let them work on it too. But joints are always best.

A lot of groups wont bother with titles that are already being worked on because there's plenty of other titles to work on. Like Lorska said, some groups who speed release for a title mostly do it on popular titles or because they want/like the title and feel that the other group is not giving it any justice.

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Owner of Antisense Scanslation.

Ohhh~ I remember when common courtesy was waiting past the 400 day mark. I guess that has really changed now. I am not surprised, many groups have been hunted down and others have just disappeared.

I don't think a group should stake a claim to a project, but at the same time I think you should at least ask about the status of a project before picking it up. Usually groups have limited sources and few people on the clock so of course that puts a damp on things. I've been part of a few groups in the past and there were few times we wanted to pick up a project that we deemed had "slow" releases, once we contacted the group they offered a joint, which works just as well.

Of course there is no need to even communicate with the group about picking up their project, like I said no one owns anything. There was a time where my group picked up a project because nothing had been released for a while (and I believe our admin really liked the project), so we released some chapters and I guess that ignited something within the other group because they released a whole volume right after. We seriously embarked on a release war soon after. It was fun. >:

It can get messy sometimes. : D

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o_O Really when was that? I know when I was a part of Shoujo Magic we did 365 days back in 2005 or that's what I remember. Haha I also remember that a few of the staff were pretty upset that some other group picked up Love Monster. I still don't know why SM dropped the title since the other groups release were really badly done.

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Owner of Antisense Scanslation.

Ooh, loaded question, indeed!
I would say let others work on the same series I'm working on, but at the same time,I'm like "I spend so much time working on this chapter already and it's already out".

Granted, it is frustrating to wait, and if someone can/does release before the "official" group, cool, but at the same time there's that nagging feeling of "But I was doing it..."

I just encountered that this past week, where I found a series I am currently working on already online, in English, but I decided that I still want to work on said series, even though I have slowed down considerably from when I began scanlating.

Ohh, it was around that time actually! So maybe it was just 300 days. I know some BL groups did follow a 400 day policy because of how scarce raws were back then. Omg, SM and LM, I think I heard about that drama. :'D

That's another thing, if a group with LQ releases picks up a project that someone else is working on and already producing HQ releases for it... that's just annoying. You can tell those are the groups that just want the popularity fast. It's a good way to start up a group but then you end up taking more than you can handle.

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Monkeys, always at your service.

I'm... ancient, I haven't done any scanlation since the 90's. We were so scarce back then that there weren't really any fights save for the really, really popular series. Manga aggregators weren't a thing yet, but it's common courtesy not to take another group's series unless the quality and speed is superior to the first group and can be sustained. What some people don't recognize is that some groups tend to make a "buffer" for the series they are doing when it's a long/completed series so that they can have a fixed release schedule (ie. releasing once a week, even though they did two chapters) and to allow for burnout and time off. This isn't the case for the uptodate weekly series of course. So by taking a project that another group's doing can serious dampen their morale and the group lose motivation and might even drop the series all together. Working as a joint is better than the alternative (unless there are egos involved or the groups just simply can't work together)