This fun poll was suggested by MewMan and inspired by Gantz. Apocalyptic in nature... By the way, I haven't watched it yet, but I heard that the movie 2012 was horrible.

You can discuss this poll on our forums here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=20969

You can submit poll ideas here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: What do you think of manga translations (in general)?
Choices:
They're good - votes: 7986 (55.9%)
Minor errors, but who cares? The pictures count - votes: 5415 (37.9%)
They're horrible - votes: 223 (1.6%)
I only read raws - votes: 114 (0.8%)
Don't know - votes: 550 (3.8%)
There were 14288 total votes.
The poll ended: September 11th 2010

So few honest people (or unknowledgeable people)

Edit: Fine, I'll just add that us readers have our manga at the mercy at the translators, so if they screw things up, who of us lowly people would know? What if a translator abuses that trust we put on him/her?

Edit: Mmm, don't you just love controversial comments to see if people read the front page?

Last Edit:
To explain the first comment, that was more offhand than anything else. I should've worded it better to fit my intent, but it's too late, and I'll leave it up there to show my mistake to the world (even though I can easily erase all my words and delete every single comment). The intent of the original poll was to judge the public opinion on translations (whether it be translated into English or another language and whether it meant scanlations or official publisher releases was left to the reader's interpretation). It is not possible to control how a person will read a poll, as most of the 12,000+ (conservatively) entities that vote do not read the front page. So with the data given, there are several interpretations to make. If the voter was being subjective (which I believe most would be), then a vote for the top choice of "They're good" means that they genuinely and honestly believe that most translations are good (whatever "good" means to that person is up for debate though). However, if you look at it objectively, the really low count of votes for "Don't know" is absurd because most people using this site do not have the competent level of the original language of the raw to comprehend an entire chapter of a series. Now, this generalization is backed up by several facts. Foremost of these is that the main release page has the most page views (more than 2x more than the next page) for this site. You can delve deeper into it, but the simple interpretation is that most people want to read English scanlations (whatever the reason, ranging from they have no knowledge of the raw language to that they know tons of languages but just prefer English for everyday use). Thus, the comment I made reflected my latter stated observation, which is to be interpreted that most people read the poll as subjective instead of objective. I should mention that there was no original intent of subjective vs. objective when the original poll was made. I have stated this before in the past, but these polls are meant to be as questions of interest, not scientific data.

My first edit was on the side topic about translators specifically. First, I am not demeaning the art of translating. It is a tough and unpaid job in the scanlation world. It is also vital. They are the lifeblood of operations. "Lowly people" is used to refer to non-translators, which would be most of the population (including me). You may take offense to the word choice, but it is just a word chosen to describe the opposite of someone of higher status (a translator). The comment itself has 2 sentences. The first deals with all cases of translator mistakes (whether they be intentional or unintentional). The first sentence is just stating that if there is a translation mistake, most of us would not know of its existence. Very few people do a side-by-side comparison with a raw or another group's translation. (Now that previous sentence was made without any statistical backup, but I warrant that it wouldn't be wrong to say it). The 2nd sentence deals with only the case of intentional harm, of which I have heard of some (not many though) confirmed cases. It is not a statement that all or even most translators will abuse their powers and intentionally mislead others. In fact, I hope and believe that most mistakes are by accident (or at least with the intention of humor). By abuse, I mean to betray the trust between a reader and a translator that the translated script is as accurate as possible in view of the translator's skill and experience.

As for the 2nd edit, that was written more out of pride than anything else, and so I apologize for that. But I always do wonder how many people truly read what I write...

Many groups seldom have as many translators as they would wish. There is not always enough time/resources to get a 2nd translator of a script to double-check the first guy. I also do realize that mistakes can enter because of an editor or proofreader. It could be an English mistake.

Now flame away at me (and only me, mind you. Don't go flaming the ones in the comments of this news post). (And you're not gonna get THAT much writing from me in a long time.)

________________
A just ruler amongst tyrants

"So few honest people (or unknowledgeable people)"
i take that a little offensive.
the polls question was "in general"
and despite the few bad translatiors and editors in a few groups. fan translations in general are quite good.
offcial translations arent, ok , but most manga arent officially translated, so the majority is fan trans.

and from all the manga i've read/am reading (about 500) there are only a very few scanlations i would consider bad or medicrite.

so please dont just assume that the ones voting for good are hypocrites or dont have much expericane in manga reading.

its also a little offensicve towards all the good groups that put so much effort in translation very day, so the community can have quality.

just my 2 cents.
~feroz

It's sad, but I agree.That was a little bit of an offensive comment. It seems like somebody is a little sour because they disagree...

Yeah, that was rude. lambchopsil just called over 7000 visitors (counting for any double votes) stupid liars. Maybe we should all should just stop reading manga, since manga translations in general are supposedly bad?

Of course there will be. Humans won't be around forever, and we're not the wonderful, all powerful species some people would like to think. Eventually a stronger being will come around, we'll destroy ourselves, or some cosmic disaster will happen. It's just the natural order of things.

The majority are going with their gut feeling.

________________
"to the world you may be one person,
but to one person you may be the world."
-unknown

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" (from Hamlet, Wm. Shakespeare; Act II, scene ii)

(Even though the quote above is from Hamlet, I first saw it in a Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer on YouTube ^o^)

I agree with you, not only offending readers but the hard working translators also. I mean they aren't perfect and there is no perfect translation of any languages for that matter.

________________

"Edit: Fine, I'll just add that us readers have our manga at the mercy at the translators, so if they screw things up, who of us lowly people would know? What if a translator abuses that trust we put on him/her?"

How often do you REALLY think that would happen? i place trust in the translators because most groups scanlating a manga a fans of that manga and want to convey the message the author made as best as possible to their ability.
as a poster allready said perfection is surely impossible but translators try their best and put effort into it.

you are right, we wont notice much if they screw up or in the very unlikely case that they do it on purpose, but i would never automatically assume that enough of them do that so we can generalize "translations in general are bad" without proof.

i'm really glad we have so many groups translating all kinds of manga, and they deserve respect and thanks for that.
and not accusations. or questions that imply accusations to put it correctly.

it seems to me you had some really bad experiences lampchopsil.

Stop ragging on him for giving his honest opinion. I'd rather that than have him to say what you people want him to say.


Besides, most people on this site don't know Japanese/Korean/Chinese to compare the translated product to the raws; therefore, the poll basically got answers from what people feel/think about the translations' quality rather than what they know about the translations. (focusing on ethos and pathos rather than logos)

Then, there is the added problem with the fact that we don't all read the same scanlations... there's no way to determine what's the general translation quality without figuring out what is the general reading material/group(s). So, the poll's results don't matter; therefore, no need to get offended about a comment on it.



Now, the most interesting thing about this news post is that fact that Gantz is a group.

________________
"Officially, this machine doesn't exist, you didn't get it from me,
and I don't know you. Make sure it doesn't leave the building."

i'm not posting because of his opinion.
if he thinks manga translations are bad. that's his opinion. maybe he understands japanese so well that he can actually say so, and a majority of the groups really are bad. i can't really be a 100% certain of that.
But virtually saying 7000 people are stupid liars is a little offending.
i'm not saying he deeply insulted anyone with that. and i'm not "ragging on him" if i get the meaning of ragging right.

I think the only time I've ever had an issue with translations from a publisher is that some decide to censor the book. It not only affects dialogue but also the art, thus hitting it with a two punch knock out for ruining a potentially good book.

Outside of that I hardly notice discrepancies since I don't speak the language. I have always wondered about Claymore though, the scanlations seem incredibly different from the published book.

In regards to translations from scan groups that donate their own time so people can read manga that is otherwise unavailable to them, you'll have to forgive the cliche but "don't bite the hand that feeds you". Even a terrible translation is better than no translation at all. You should thank them for their time and effort.

"Edit: Fine, I'll just add that us readers have our manga at the mercy at the translators, so if they screw things up, who of us lowly people would know? What if a translator abuses that trust we put on him/her?"

That's a pretty insulting way to describe the mangaupdate users - "lowly people".

A translator can abuse their trust with his/her readers. Processes are in place for this for many scanlation groups, such as running things by multiple translators, native Japanese speakers, etc. They can still do a poor job, but that's where the trust really comes into play. Unless you can translate it better yourself, the options are to trust the translator(s), get the raws and use a different translator, or don't read it.

Most people are likely very unqualified to know if the translations are "bad" (which is still subjective). The question was "What do you think of manga translations (in general)?" - note the word "think". I don't "know" if a translation is good or bad, but I do "think" many are "good". I define a "good" translation as one that properly conveys, either in original meaning or via cultural relation, the meaning of original work. In that sense, I think most groups do a good job.

I know enough to check out a group's past works and what more knowledgeable people say about their works. I don't blindly trust a scanlation group. For some series, I read multiple group's versions to get a comparison of their interpretations.

Thank you for calling me dishonest and/or unknowledgeable. I'm very proud of this.

Do you "trust" somebody to fix your computer? Do you "trust" a contractor to renovate your house? Some people should not be allowed a computer and others should not be allowed near a house except maybe their own. A smart consumer can take steps to find a good technician, or a good contractor. Sometimes you still get burnt, but that's life - the majority of these people are still good people that do decent work.

Very well said. Something is *usually* better than nothing when it comes to scanlations.

On average, I would much rather a scanlation group's translation over a publisher's translation. Both could be "good" - their goals are usually different. Some translators goals are to keep it as close to the original as possible. Other translators want to convey the same meaning in a way that may better relate to their region's audience. However, a number of publishers want to change the story not to relate it to their region's audience but to censor it or tell an alternate story.

He did not say that translations are bad. He just commented on how few people voted for the "Don't know" option. Either they don't understand what they are voting for... OR that they actually know how good the actual translations are... in other words, he was surprised at how knowledgeable that people are about translation by stating "So few unknowledgeable people".

As for his knowledge on the translations, he doesn't even know any of the original languages (that's why he voted "Don't know").




Next time read what he exactly said, and not insinuate what you think he means... nor place words in his mouth that he never said, such as calling those that voted "stupid". Hell, I'm pretty sure he has never used that word on this site (even in the forums) at all.

________________
"Officially, this machine doesn't exist, you didn't get it from me,
and I don't know you. Make sure it doesn't leave the building."

He's not calling MU members lowly.
He's not calling those that lack translation ability lowly.
He's saying that translators have a power/knowledge/ability that we (those that don't translate) have...
And raising them up above the rest for this knowledge alone.


The rest: TL;DR.

________________
"Officially, this machine doesn't exist, you didn't get it from me,
and I don't know you. Make sure it doesn't leave the building."