Didn't think he was, but it would've been funny.

First of all, I made it clear that there are bad scanlators and bad fansubbers as well as good ones and the ones I am criticizing are the former groups. I didn't actually intend for this to be scanlators vs fansubbers, but you know what? It would be interesting to do a comparison of the two communities. After all, the translation processes are fairly similar even if the rest is different. What I can say for certain is that speedsubs (even ignoring the CR edits) do have a lower %error compared to speed scanlations, Maybe it's because there are more scanlation groups. Maybe it's bad luck on my part. But speed scanlations are very error prone. There's also a lot more complaining about fansub quality than scanlation quality. It seems like the fansubbers have grown used to it while scanlators seem to get a lot more butthurt over such a trifle. If you're doing a good job but is still so insecure that you believe I am hurling personal insults at you. Fine. I am not obligated to convince you otherwise. However, if you are doing a bad job, then you should probably look over your past work and see how you can improve (kudos to Red Hawk Scans for improving their old releases, although I know there are others who have done the same).

TL;DR Take criticisms in stride and don't bitch and moan about it. Even if you do, it's not like that improves your work.

I would argue there is a difference between fan translation and official ones, though. Not necessarily in quality, but as they are done for fans by fans, there are a lot of things you can pretty much assume about your readers and what they know, something the translator of an official translation can't.

For example, I'd argue most readers of online scanlations know the (basic) difference between -kun, -san, -sama and so on. A lot probably also know what a senpai and what a kouhai is. Depending on which genre you can probably assume other things are a given. So a fan translator can probably keep closer to the Japanese original than an "official" translator can.

And as for the honorifics - in my opinion they convey a lot of information about the relationships that's REALLY difficult to capture otherwise. In some of the official translations they're left as is and there is just a tiny note in the beginning of the book explaining their basic meaning, which is in my opinion the best solution. After all, in almost all German translations of English or American novels they leave the "Mr." or "Mrs." as is. (Now that I think about it, they don't do that in the translations of Japanese novels. But I still think it wouldn't hurt keeping them.)

I suppose it's a matter of "translation philosophy". I think that a translator should take care not to stray too far from the original. And when it comes to using the same phrases - I for one love the formulaic aspect of those, but I guess it's a matter of taste. What I think is important though is to translate idioms properly - I always wince a bit when I see the phrase "I saw a dream", but then again - I'm really nitpicky when it comes to official translations but when it comes to fan translations I'm pretty forgiving, especially since I started doing translations myself.

I'm not a trained translator, though, and few fan translators are. I agree it's important to take as much care with your translation as possible, but in the end it's really all done for fun and love.

Your erroneous substitution of terminology is leading your argument astray. When I say a translator isn't a co-author, it doesn't mean that a translator isn't a writer. You still write. But you *don't make up stuff that's not in the source*. If you're fine as long as the intent is conveyed, then why read the translated work in its entirety anyway? You might as well read the Cliffs notes version of it, it'll give you the gist just as well. Worded differently, but you'll still find out the plot and the story.

The right reason for reading translated works is always the same -- enjoyment. And like I mentioned, I enjoy the aspect of getting a glimpse of another culture the most. You're also completely misunderstanding what I wrote about learning Japanese. Nowhere did I say that you need Japanese in order to understand cultural references in fan translations. What I said is that those cultural and linguistic references left intact by fan translators made me fall in love with Japanese and gave me the desire to learn it. No professional translator has ever accomplished anything remotely similar. Considering how difficult it is to learn a foreign language, especially Japanese (more difficult than quantum mechanics ), the impact of a good fan translation is simply tremendous.

On the topic of target audience, once again, you're confusing fan translators with pro translators. First of all, our target audience is special. In the previous post, I provided a link that demonstrates that the vast majority of scanlation readers disagree with your view on localization. But even if that weren't the case, fan translators can afford to not be driven by the demands of their audience. Pro translators are different in that they know where their bread is buttered, and all their talk of "seamless experience" constitutes post-factum rationalization of the need to cater to the lowest common denominator in their audience. If they didn't have to face this pressure, they'd wouldn't localize nearly as much. Let the readers use their brains more intensively so that the translator doesn't have to sacrifice any shade of meaning he sees in the source (and that sacrifice is often quite painful). You can see the same phenomenon at work in Hollywood remakes of foreign masterpieces that results in production of nauseating garbage (well, I'll admit "The Ring" was good, but then the original wasn't much of a masterpiece). I think the reason this happens in commercial space is competition. People typically don't want to use their brains too much when trying to entertain themselves. So if there's a choice between a heavily localized translation and something with long-winded footnotes, or a choice between "Jersey Shore" and a documentary on class relations in fin de siecle Germany, they'll choose the former, and those who serve the latter options will go out of business. But if the former options weren't available at all, would people really moan about how they want less intellectually taxing entertainment? Nah, they'd be too embarrassed.

So, this isn't a defense of poorly worded translations and stilted dialogue where it doesn't have to be, but I hope you can understand why fan translators (i.e. translators who have freedom) don't like localization, why most of their readers don't like it, and why this situation is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.