421 replies to this topic

[Horseshoe Crab]

It was implied on a FB post on their page that they're also letting people proofread english translations.

 

They didn't really explain the *how* though.

I want to proofread their FB posts. I think they may be under the delusion that their English is pretty good.

[Sogno-]

i'm confused what exactly are they asking for  

 

reading that notice i almost thought they were asking for translations ... cuz they asked for number of translation sentences? idk . it wasn't clear, at least to me, what they wanted.

[themantarays]

They are asking for translations into languages they don't have translators for, I think things like Indonesian, Russian, etc. Someone asked on Facebook if they could proofread English instead and they said yes.

 

I think there's also a sort of lottery/competition, where they give a gift basket of some sort to those translators who were especially productive and/or lucky. That's what I read into it, anyway.

The LINE TRANSLATE seems to be an application of some sort, where anyone can translate? And the Beta members will have a say as to how it will be improved before it goes public I guess. I think Naver is trying to organize a webtoon scanlation model around them and their app.

 

I think this is good news for the long term! If it's successful, other free publishers might take notice. I still don't understand how they're going to monetize it though; data collection only seems like a bit of a stretch....

[smthFishy]

i'm confused what exactly are they asking for

 

reading that notice i almost thought they were asking for translations ... cuz they asked for number of translation sentences? idk . it wasn't clear, at least to me, what they wanted.

I think you pretty much got it... they're trying to recruit volunteers by giving away some prizes. Actually it's not surprising, considering that they did the same thing for their Q&A forums, something like korean version of Yahoo! Answers, to build popularity for their search engine.

 

The languages that they picked are very telling about Naver LINE's corporate strategy:

 

Many of you wanted to read webtoons in your native languages that is not yet provided such as Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian and French etc.

 

Thailand, Vietnamese, Indonesia, and southeast Asia represent the biggest potential growth in mobile market. Increasingly Naver is relying on LINE to expand its revenue, which is possibly one of th reason of postponing LINE's IPO until next year. Facebook and Tencent are already looking into those markets. Naver is in my opinion late into the game and trying to win back some market by promoting their LINE webtoons. The competition is fierce. Facebook has whatsapp and Tencent has weechat. In addition, Tencent also purchased 10% stake in Kakao, with makes KakaoTalk and owns Daum, Naver's arch-rival. Tencent and Facebook are much, much bigger than Naver, with deeper pockets, but luckily Softibank of Japan might be looking to acquire a stake in LINE's IPO, so they can wage some awesome mobile app wars. Awesome to watch, not to play in.

 

France is the biggest consumer of Japanese manga outside of Japan, more so than even the US. France accounts for 50% of Japan's oversea manga comic, so the inclusion of French here is not surprising. Russia on the other hand is a bit of an enigma. According to the wikipedia article that I read, Russians regard comics as children's literature, and they don't have much regard for comics.

Edited by smthFishy, 12 December 2014 - 04:30 AM.

[Mizura]

I just realize that they don't have Spanish on there. Is that included in their 'etc.'? o,o

 

Pity Hindi isn't up there. Kubera could prove a hit with Indians. xD (though it might also get a bunch of flames...)

[isiana]

It would be kind of pointless to translate into Hindi. English is widely spoken among young/educated people in India. Anyone who would actually try reading Kubera would know English. Hindi is also a second/third language for most Indians. So Hindi content on the internet is almost nothing - it doesn't even make top 36 among languages.

Edited by isiana, 12 December 2014 - 05:08 AM.

[Mizura]

Good point. xD

 

Oh well. It'd have been cool though!

[rojo]

It is a bit bizarre that they don't have Spanish as an option, considering it's the second most spoken language in the world... Then again, I'm not sure how big the market is for foreign comics (or even comics in general) is in Latin America.

[Random-Webtoon-Fan]

Naver LINE's corporate strategy:
 
.

Adding to that, Naver(Korea) vs LINE corporation(Japan) who were under same company but now seperated.

They all used to be under NHN, but in 2013 it kinda disbanded(?). I don't know the techincal term.


Naver Japan have changed its name into LINE them developed LINE messanger app which got real popular in Japan and now is serviced by Naver in Korea.

Meanwhile Japanese translation for Webtoons are largely abandoned with some chapters left cut halfway, and Comico, a webcomic service almost identical to Webtoons have been made by LINE.


It makes curious why Naver decided to use the name LINE without supporting Japanese version as official English translation..

Who knows what went inside the company deals. :/

[themantarays]

Well I got access to Translate Beta today, but right now there's no Kubera or ToG, and it doesn't seem like proofreading official or others' translations is built in. We'll see if they update it. 

 

BTW I am not fluent in any other languages, I just signed up for curiosity. So if someone else who didn't get the access wants to hijack my account, ask me.

[Mizura]

What. There isn't even ToG in there? What Do they have? D:

[themantarays]

Spoiler

Language = number of languages currently translated/being translated by someone.

• unTouchable
  11 Language
• 
  
  Tales of the Unusual
  9 Language
• 
  
  Noblesse
  8 Language
• 
  
  The Stories of Those around Me
  5 Language
• 
  
  Salty Studio
  5 Language
• 
  
  Girls of the Wild's
  5 Language
• 
  
  The Gamer
  4 Language
• 
  
  Trump
  4 Language
• 
  
  DEAD DAYS
  4 Language
• 
  
  The God of High School
  2 Language
• 
  
  Denma
  2 Language
• 
  
  Hellper
  2 Language

​

I actually have two accounts, because I wasn't sure if my other email worked the first time. I'm willing to upload on behalf of others, or give an account to someone dedicated.

Edited by themantarays, 17 December 2014 - 10:51 AM.

[Random-Webtoon-Fan]

WTH are they doing, leaving out the most read webtoon among their lineups?

[themantarays]

Perhaps they're anticipating official translations into more languages for ToG?

The default font is comic sans. XD

 

It actually lets you choose English as the target language, so you can "translate" from English to English. I'm going to try submitting some corrections for something this way, and see if I get any feedback. (I've already asked them questions about missing comics and proofreading availability via the "feedback".)

[themantarays]

Spoiler

Hello, this is Webtoon TRANSLATE.

As Webtoon TRANSLATE mentioned, it is the closed beta version of Webtoon

TRANSLATE; therefore, please wait around for more and more webtoon

episodes to be added to the service.

 

Of course, you can proof read the webtoons that are already uploaded on LINE

Webtoon and translate into better words or frames/sentences; however,

you cannot translate webtoons that are not uploaded yet.

 

For further question, please let us to know.

 

Sincerely,

Webtoon TRANSLATE

 

Well, I'll just keep waiting for ToG and Kubera, and maybe passive aggressively point out some other errors in the meantime.

[Horseshoe Crab]

If it turns out that they allow proofreading in English. I would totally want to use your account!

[Mizura]

Well, this is the beta version. If they allow proofreading in English, then it should still be possible to sign up once they are outside beta.

 

I should have signed up too, but I was too lazy and too busy these days. Well, since they have neither ToG or Kubera right now, it's not like there's much I'd bother to do. xP

[themantarays]

Ah, they added ToG, Kubera, CITT, and some more while I wasn't looking.

 

Anyone who didn't get an account wanna help me make proofreads/submit other languages?

 

(I get to keep the gift basket if they select my account. XD)

Edited by themantarays, 21 December 2014 - 03:17 PM.

[Mizura]

Oooh! Can you proofread their English version yet? *__*

[Tierra]

Gods. I only did one Kubera Chapter and am already best German there XD

 

The typesetting there sucks.

You can't make multiple styles in one line,

you can't add new lines (text fields),

you can't regulate opacity,

you can't make a glow,

if you make the text with an outline, the outline eats away from your text

sometimes the italic-function doesnt work

some text fields are set right in the translation tool, but off in the actual version

you have like 10 fonts (most shitty and almost the same and definitely not the ones you need for kubera)

you can't regulate the space between two text lines

 

*tableflip*