I had a really hard time picking what to vote for this one.
I mean, it's not too big of a deal... the important thing is that stuff gets scanlated... but usually one group should be enough. If there does end up being more than one per series, they should probably either combine their efforts or every group except one should go do other series (since there are many many series out there worth scanlating that no one is working on). But, if one group is totally scanning for speed and does a really bad job, it may be worth having another do it over.
I ended up picking the last option--that's certainly not the wording I'd use, but I picked it because that is the goal, after all... to scanlate manga, as much as possible.

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Manga Cover Database

I've always found that only one group continues a title over any length of time - I can't think of more than a handful of cases which have had more than one group consistently scanlating. It's a kind of survival thing.

I've noticed a couple of things about this over the past few years.
Firstly, if a number of good teams start out on a title, then usually the best one remains and the others drop it. This is obviously good for the readers and hopefully the ones who drop the series go on to something else - everyone wins.
Secondly is the problem with so-called 'vampire groups'. The typical scenario are groups who pile in at chapter 70 or so because the original group is having a few problems and has slowed down. This can have a couple of outcomes: either the first group implodes (at least for this title) and the vampire group continues it, or the original group fights back and the vampire group eventually gives up. There are a number of problems with this: namely that the vampire groups have a lot of enthusiasm due to just starting out on a title, but often little skills and no real care for the manga they are scanlating because all too often they're only doing it for their e-peens. The original group which has usually been putting out a fairly high quality product is dismayed by the fact that a lot of leechers jump ship to the new group simply because they are faster although inferior, and this group which was already having troubles just gives up. This seems to be the most common outcome - I've only seen a very few successful fightbacks by the original group (such as ETC with Shin Angyo Onshi). Overall what is left is a scanlation which is often not as well-translated or edited as the original, although it may be released more frequently again.

Finally, the third type where a group abandons a title for months and shows no signs of life, which is then picked up by a new group simply because they want to see it completed. Again, everyone wins.

All in all, I think that unless a new series is out - which is a valid free-for-all, or an established group has really abandoned an ongoing title, I prefer to see only one group involved in a title, as it's usually a matter of speed over quality, and I prefer quality any day.

I thought that they should just combine their efforts.
Lol. my second option would've been 'I don't care, just give me manga' because that's their objective. =3

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"Beware How You Take Hope From Another Man."

Combine.

What I dislike most is when the chapter is already been scanlated and another group who's lagged behind just re-scanlate that chapter for their records. It makes the process slower. If you combine, theoretically, speed should increase due to more people on the job...no?

Just give me new chapters That's my second option XD

Sorry, my bad then. I guess I didn't really know what I was talking about, but at the same time my words also didn't hold any malice towards you or anybody else. So there was no need to get so worked up about it...

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Multiple groups on the same series just seems like a waste of effort to me.

Combining efforts should theoretically speed releases and possibly increase quality as well -- for series with lots of unreleased chapters. Of course this doesn't apply to series that are all caught up & have multiple groups releasing each new chapter as it comes out, which seem to be the majority of multi-group series. There are plenty of reasons why combining efforts ends up not working out (standards, schedules, personalities, etc.) but it's a nice idea.

Second preference: work on something else already!! It's not like there's any shortage of unscanlated manga.

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"[English] not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary."
-James Nicoll, can.general, March 21, 1992

Quoted for truth, relevance and structure.

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If the sea were made of Whiskey and I was a duck
I'd swim to the bottom and never come up

Well, this is a tough one to answer definitely because situations vary so greatly, but I think there're a lot of things the uninformed reader doesn't think about. (I don't mean to sound like the readers are foolish in any way; why should they know the trivial workings of the scanlation community? I didn't know before I started working on scanlation. Heh, I would almost say you are better off not knowing. Ah, how ignorance is bliss.)

Anyways, a lot of people, as far as I can tell, think that all scanlation groups are magically cohesive and can work together... but they just aren't. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of very different styles, standards, and personalities in the scanlation community that quite often can't efficiently (or willingly) work together.

(Not to say that it never works -- there are some great collaborative efforts out there.)

Very often, groups operate in a different ways. "How/when does [ something ] get done? How fast is [ something ] expected to be done? How does [ something ] get from person A to person B? Et cetera." It becomes even more of an issue when you are put on a constrictive time table (say, weekly serialization). Having to merge two or even more of those formats can cause such chaos that it's just too much of a pain and too much hassle to be worth it.

(Again, there are a lot of collaborations that do work and well.)

And even disregarding the standards of operating, quality is a whole other issue. Quality is hugely subjective in manga scanlation, be it cleaning, grammar, or typesetting. While I would say this is less of a direct issue, it's still an effective deterrent -- particularly for more formal groups, or when the division of work isn't well defined for whatever reason. And if one group considers themselves to be higher quality than another, they'll have a hard time agreeing to a joint (not to say that they aren't justified in trying to maintain their standards, either).

(Now you might argue that the previous two points could be remedied by merging into a super group which has standardization, but then it loses a lot of the personality that makes scanlation bearable. I personally don't want to work with some monster group, and I would wager a lot of people don't either.)

And of course, let's not forget that all groups are made up of people. Do you know of someone on the internet that you hate or strongly disagree with? Well, when you're dealing with something like scanlation -- where there's competition and pride at play -- people end up hating or strongly disagreeing with a lot of other people, just like with anything else. If you hate someone or even disagree, chances are you won't want to work with them. And given how easy it is for one group to feel pressured or cut off by another group, you generally end up with lots of groups that don't like each other.

Another important thing to note is that a huge number of groups have no internal translator. This is probably a surprise for the uninitiated, but a lot of groups simply have editors that use any translations they can get. They can only do series that have translation posted on mangahelpers (basically all the WSJ series, for example, fall under this). With no translator, they can't really branch into new series, as is often suggested.

Competition can also get messy. What's the difference between a group 'jacking' a series and a group bringing about better/faster scanlation? Some groups honestly get complacent when there is no one to challenge them, and they light up when some one does. By the same right, a series might be done faster by a random group thus making a more-steady group drop it, only to have it later abandoned or done in much lower quality. But who's to say who is reliable and not? How fast is fast enough? I think there's never really answer to that, but competition isn't always good and it isn't always bad. It can go to the extreme either way, of course. It just all depends.

And hey, it's not all bad here. People obviously differ in how much they value quality and speed. Some people really hate speed, but I think it has it's place (now that's given it isn't completely terrible... which, unfortunately, it sometimes is). And all those people doing the chapters of Naruto are learning more and more about scanlation and, one would hope, getting a little better each time. Some great groups have risen from doing some WSJ series. Not a lot, but then a lot are just overly enthusiastic fans. Who's to say they would even want to do another series? God knows some would butcher other series and potentially put the series in a bad place. At worst, I pity them, but I never think hating them is warranted, but I can understand why someone would particularly if scorned by it.

In the end, everyone need to remember this: anyone doing scanlations isn't getting paid. They're just doing it for their own satisfaction. How they derive that satisfaction isn't geared towards you (potentially derived by means of your praise, happiness, et cetera, but not directly for you), it's towards them and you really can't blame them for that.

--Devil's advocate

(All that said, I must add that even my own views are constantly evolving. I'm sure I didn't explain everything and I doubt I've thought of everything. Also, as said above, I'm a compulsive devil's advocate, so I might come off as a bit more on a given side than I actually am.)


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"Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
To rear was the task of power divine,
Supremest Wisdom, and primeval Love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon, ye who enter here."
- Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Hell, Canto III

DIABVLVS A NEFAS TIMOREQVE EXCITAT
ATRVM LVCEM LEGEMQVE ENIM NET
IVDEX VMBRARVM LIBERTATEM INNOCENTVM VBIQVE SVBRVIT

Naruto 451 (English Only): 2 tranlsations, 8 scanlations and counting
Source: http://mangahelpers.com/m/naruto/chapters/451/

Just to note, I don't think that releases of tankōbon volumes are a waste of time (like how Null releases tankōbon volumes of One Piece, I always wait for those for rereads ).

Edit: Interesting view "Dante Julius", I never thought of it from this POV.

Competition shouldn't be a factor, seeing as scanlating isn't a business.

Honestly, 1 or 2 scanlators on a series is great, in case one doesn't have great quality or speed, or ends up dropping out. But in no way, shape or form, is having 8+ scanlating groups (of questionable ability) on one, rather poor series a good thing.

I have the feeling I wasn't supposed to post this as a comment, but oh well, I'll C/P what I said there. >>;;

It's hard for me to choose just one. I guess you could say it's good for different speed or quality standards, but the speed scanlation will essentially be made obsolete as soon as the quality one comes out. Competition CAN be good to motivate both groups to work hard, but unfortunately it often leads to immature drama and attempted sabotages on the Internet. The next two feel sort of related. Combining efforts is a good idea in theory, but it can be very difficult to work out a lot of times if the two groups work differently or have different standards. For the last option, I do think the group that does it matters to some extent, because consistency can be nice.

So, in other words, I abstain from this poll due to inability to choose. bigrazz

combine efforts.

though - as dante correctly pointed out - that is easier said than done. a high quality group will most likely not appreciate the help of a low quality group. the idea of someone putting their fugly typesetting on top of my beautiful cleaning & redraws... noooo way.



Last edited by muzwany at 12:46 am, Jun 15 2009

They should just combine the efforts...ESPECIALLY in the shounen manga area. >__>
There's just way too many groups doing one project. I still don't understand WHY they would want to work on a manga that 5 other groups are already working on and releasing...
All I see is them saying "Blah blah, I can do better quality, etc." >_> And they end up being a crappy speed scan group.

Though for shoujo...jeez. -_- We're very protective. xD
And sometimes, joints don't work out the way you want. (Like their quality kind of...sucks..or you're having conflicts...)
One group I jointed with...ugh, we had so major problems, like the way they do their editing was very different from ours, so the quality ended up going down...and then having very serious problems with one of their members. =___= Yeah...right now, I don't even know if the joint is still on or not anymore.

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♪MONSTARR~ will eat all your cookies and steal your bishies~♪ Φ_Φ

I hate the competition.
Especially when it comes to Vampire Knight.
The rush to be the first group to put out the next chapter has left the translation and the quality of the scans to ruin. It has gotten so ridiculous that I now refuse to read those scanlations and only read it in Shoujo Beat now. Those scanlations led to too many confusing situations and it made me mad.

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Really? There are only 2 groups seriously scanlating VK right now, and I think both are very high quality... When was the last time you read it?

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