Question Clarifications on 'Translations Projects' section.

[Entai2965]

This forum is currently not very friendly towards translators, so I am requesting clarification that the current state of affairs is as intended.

I found this old post by admin 'corocoro' directly answering where to post translation related materials, but I am not sure if it is still valid or not since this forum now has a 'dedicated' section for 'Translations Projects'.

https://www.anime-sharing.com/threads/translations-where-would-one-post-them.709465/post-3093625

Hm, I thought this was answered already, but here goes:

Translation files without the original game go in the modding section: http://www.anime-sharing.com/forum/requests-releases-tools-other-mods-123/
A complete, translated game goes into the hentai games section: http://www.anime-sharing.com/forum/hentai-games-38/
A status/feedback thread goes into the eroge corner: http://www.anime-sharing.com/forum/eroge-corner-102/

It is not clear that the 'Translations Projects' section existed when the admin issued their guidance hence asking for clarifications that their guidance still applies 7 years later.

Taking what the admin said at face value, that means translations are not allowed to be posted in the "Translations Projects" section. Is that correct? Or are translations allowed to be posted in the "Translations Projects" section? Does it depend on whether it includes the main game or not?

Reading the description for the 'Translations Projects' section and the other sections, it seems to imply that only 'translation projects' are allowed there, not translation requests or finished translations.
- Are game, manga, vn, ln, translation requests allowed in the 'Translations Projects' section? Which of those categories are allowed? Which are not?
- Are finished translations, without the game, allowed in the 'Translations Projects' section?
- Are finished translations, with the game pre-bundled and distributed together, allowed in the 'Translations Projects' section?
- Are finished translations, with the game not-bundled but provided as a seperate link, allowed in the 'Translations Projects' section?
Example: A user provides a link to a translation and the game as two different links.

There are a lot of translation related threads, including projects, that are not in the 'Translations Projects' section.
Random example: https://www.anime-sharing.com/threads/sonicomi-motto-sonicomi-translation-project.235726/
- Are these threads not in the 'Translations Projects' section miscategoried or is dual/multiple-categorization allowed without any bias for which section they are in? 'Should' they be in the 'Translations Projects' section?
- If the thread owner requests they be moved to the 'Translations Projects' section, will they be moved?
- If I, not the read owner, flag them and request they be moved to the 'Translations Projects' section for organizational purposes, will they be moved?
- If I obtain permission from the thread owner to request to flag their thread to get it moved to the 'Translations Projects' section, will it be moved?
- If I am not able to obtain permission from the tread owner to move their thread because the thread owner is no longer active on this forum in the last 30 days, and I flag a thread to move it to the 'Translations Projects' section, will it be moved?

I keep putting 'Translations Projects' in quotes because it is incorrect grammar in English to put two plurals next to each other like that. 'Translations' and 'Translation Projects' are both correct, but 'Translations Projects' is not. Is that grammar error intentional? What is it meant to imply? If it is not intentional, can it be renamed easily to a grammatically correct form?

 

[Checkmate]

Thank you for asking.

The Translation Projects forum originally served as a space for Anime-Translation Sponsored Translation Projects.

In the past, we funded a few translation endeavors, some of which were fully translated and released, while others were lost over time. This forum aimed to archive our work, whether it involved manga or games.

Eventually, we decided to move away from most translation projects as more companies began localizing their titles, although sometimes with (woke) changes that didn't always align with our preferences.

However, we believe the forum still holds value for individuals interested in fan/small-scale translation projects or those looking to announce their own work. Consequently, it was renamed to the Translation Projects forum to better suit this purpose.

The Modding Forum, on the other hand, was initially created to accommodate mods for Illusion Games, focusing on anything related to Illusion and similar genres like Kiss's CM3D.

Now, to address your specific questions:

• Translations are allowed to be posted in the Translation Projects section. This section is now the designated place for posting translation patches. The translation patch should be something you created, and while you can include the main game, the patch itself should be standalone.
  
  
• Furthermore, this section is not limited to translation patches—other categories like restoration patches, decensorship projects, and modifications of existing translations are welcome.
  
  
• Regarding translation requests, the Translation Projects section does not permit requests. Instead, it's intended for authors or representatives of translation groups to share their work.
  
  
• Finished translations without the game are required to be posted in the Translation Projects section. If you're bundling the translation with the game, that's allowed too, provided the main patches are available for standalone use unless technical constraints, such as DRM, make this unfeasible.

As for threads that exist outside the Translation Projects section, they may remain there unless there's a specific request or reason to reorganize them. If a thread owner requests to move their thread to the Translation Projects section, or if you have the owner's permission, we can accommodate such requests.

Threads can also be moved without the owner's consent if they have been inactive for a significant period, particularly if they were originally posted in an unrelated category.

Lastly, concerning the grammatical error in "Translations Projects," it is unintentional. It will be fixed soon.

 

[Checkmate]

This forum is currently not very friendly towards translators, so I am requesting clarification that the current state of affairs is as intended.

Curiously though, which part that made us "not very friendly" toward translators?

We sponsored lots of manga works, several hundreds of anime episodes subtitle (including BDs) and some games in the past.

 

[Entai2965]

Curiously though, which part that made us "not very friendly" toward translators?

Regarding translation requests, the Translation Projects section does not permit requests. Instead, it's intended for authors or representatives of translation groups to share their work.

That question is answered by that reply. Basically, it is the ongoing lack of centralization of translation related materials on this forum.

If I am understanding your response correctly, translation related materials not allowed in the translation section include user requests, user questions, and translation tools. While such materials are allowed in other places on this forum, the lack of centralization for all translation resources prevents anime-sharing from being a welcoming place for translations compared to other forums that centralize such resources under one heading.

That old admin post was the same way in that it decentralized most translation materials. Decentralization makes it difficult for people interested in asking translation related questions, requesting translations, fulfilling translation requests, and posting information about tools related to translation to congregate all in one place. That means anime-sharing is treating translations as a second-rate citizen compared to other types of content.

It is good and a step forward that non-group/official forum related projects can go there now and also that including the game in that section is not a rules violation. That was one of my major concerns. Thank you for taking the time to respond and the history lesson about that section.

 

[Checkmate]

Oh, I see. We actually host the largest SDK database on the internet, though that fact isn't widely known.

It's roughly 40-60 GB of tools. Many translation groups (and even official localization company) have been accessing it from our FTP storage system for many years without knowing it was sponsored by ASF. I plan to deprecate the FTP storage and move everything into the Anime-Sharing forum. Access will still be free, but it'll be more visible.

Additionally, we have a group of experts skilled in decrypt and unpacking files, although they only contribute occasionally since we don't receive many related questions.

Perhaps we could consider transforming the Translation Projects section into a category of its own?

Alternatively, we could create prefixes to help centralize resources and questions into a single forum, while still making it easy to search for information.

Which approach do you think would be more effective?

 

[Entai2965]

SDK = Software Development Kit? Where exactly is this ftp server and how can I access it? Or just ftp + the domain? Does the ftp server also happen to be available over irc/xdcc?

I am not really sure what the differences are between category and prefixes.

As long as there is a single place where requests, questions, tools, and discussions of tools related to translations were allowed, then that would help clarify that such content is welcome here.

Some forums just put everything under a single section and let chaos ensue. Others have categories that try to anticipate the type of content in some way, like separating translation requests/questions/discussions, translation tools, and translation releases into separate sections but all under a single "Translations" banner. It might be appropriate for translations of different media to be in different sections, like manga/read only content and games/interactive content. I like the subdivision approach, but I am not sure what categories would be appropriate. The chaos approach might work well for the short term to try to figure out what sorts of categories would be appropriate.

It would also be interesting to hear different opinions on that from the community.

 

[Checkmate]

SDK = Software Development Kit? Where exactly is this ftp server and how can I access it? Or just ftp + the domain? Does the ftp server also happen to be available over irc/xdcc?

Yes, it stands for Software Development Kit, but it wasn't originally intended for public access (although it was leaked and accessed). I can't disclose access details right now, so please bear with us until we move it to ASF. We've had to deal with traffic levels that exceed what a single server can manage.

I am not really sure what the differences are between category and prefixes.

As long as there is a single place where requests, questions, tools, and discussions of tools related to translations were allowed, then that would help clarify that such content is welcome here.

Regarding categories and prefixes:

When we categorize, it means creating different forums within a single category. For example, "Pure and Innocent" is a category, which can contain forums like News & Review, Otome Forum, Eroge Corner, etc.

On the other hand, prefixes are used within a forum to indicate the content type, such as [Tools], [Requests], or [Releases]. Users must select the appropriate prefix when creating a thread, depending on its purpose. For example:
[Releases] Translation Patch for One Awesome Game
[Tools] Decrypt and Packing tools for new file format.

(This is very similar to reddit's flair)

Users can filter threads by prefix to find exactly what they're looking for (either by clicking on the prefix or using the Filter tool).

We can also use thread tags to further categorize content if we decide to keep everything in a single forum.

 

[Entai2965]

So it seems there is 'category', 'forum', and 'prefix' with category > forum > prefix.

Here are the sorts of content typical for the Translations category:
- Translation requests
- Finished translation releases
- Ongoing translation projects
- Language related questions
- Translation tool releases
- Translation tool one-off questions
- Translation tool longform discussions
- Misc translation discussions
- Example: A user creates a thread about a title commenting on the official localization.
- Example: A user creates a guide on how to translate a specific game or game engine.
- User or group specific compilation release threads (Wrong category maybe? This type of content might be better off in a different category in a different forum.)

It was mentioned earlier that decensorship projects would be welcome in Translation Projects, but that seems more like a mod to me unless there is also something getting translated too.

The patterns I see are, excluding the compilation threads, are that most of the content can be split into either a release or discussions. People are usually either providing something, a release, or not providing a release but want to discuss related topics.

How about something like this?
Category: 'Translations:'
- Forum: 'Translated Content and Tools'. Suggested content: Ongoing translation projects, released translations, translation tools.
- Forum: 'Translation Discussions'. Suggested content: Translation requests, one-off questions about tools or languages, longform discussions about possible translations or tools.

Forum: 'Translated Content and Tools' could have required prefixes of [Game Patch], [Tool], [Other].

Translations for Light Novels, Manga, and Anime are not usually distributed as such. Usually they are bundled with the content they are translating and there are already dedicated sections for those materials, so banning those three prefixes from the Translation section makes sense. Translating games and software, including VNs, is different in that regard in that it is far more common to distribute only the translation patches and related instructions to apply them instead of the entire bundled contents.

That does raise the question of encouraging/allowing translations of subtitles for Anime into various languages. Such material is uncommon in terms of distributing it independently from the content, so the [Other] prefix should not become overly bloated with them if anyone posts there. The Anime section is still a better place for Anime subtitles, including translated ones, since having subtitles for multiple languages in an Anime release is already very common.

There are obscure materials like translations for game manuals and non-game translation patches for general software, like patches for translation tools, that would benefit from the [Other] prefix without it being too broad.

Forum: 'Translations Discussions' could have prefixes of [Question] [Completed] [Guide] [Tool Discussion] [Other Discussion] or just none at all and let users tag their own content.

How should translation requests be handled? Should every user be expected to make a thread possibly based upon a thread request template, or should there be a designated thread for posting requests posted outside of that thread disallowed?
For the centralized approach, moderation would be needed to enforce that approach. The individual threads approach is better for searching. Linking to the fulfillment of requests allows the request threads to get labeled as [Completed] which also helps people searching quickly see if a translation request was fulfilled or not. With the individual threads approach, the following prefix makes sense: [Request].

For user tags, the destination language would be helpful while searching in both forums of the Translations category, but this is probably better off as part of a template suggested to users than as a required prefix.

Uncategorized content:
- User or group specific compilation threads for released translation patches. I am not sure where these would go.

 

[Shisaye]

I think I should add some context to Entai's texts. (We work together sometimes and he is asking on behalf of me, too.)

I'm the developer of SLR Translator (A heavily modified fork of Translator++), I maintain the uncensored releases of Two Horns, and I'm the current record holder for translation projects finished on F95Zone.

My idea was to mirror the content from F95 here to an extend (Not spam every bad MTL, just the manually edited translations.), and in general to have another place to distribute SLR Translator and my Two Horns releases.

This forum seems to have a suitable rule set, but it doesn't seem obvious how one would actually distribute content here in an orderly fashion concerning fan localization.

I'm not a massive fan of making a new thread for every single thing. I would prefer if I could for example also have a general index or request thread.
I think that a manual translation project should have it's own thread, but I do not think that a partial that will not be finished, or a pure MTL should have it's own thread. Instead I think that would be more suitable for an overall discussion thread about a Japanese game.

I also think that it would be a good idea to allow collection/request threads for specific engines or translators.
For example to have a thread dedicated to sharing ChatGPT MTLs for RPGM MV games. (Like Dazedanon's content.)
Or for requesting and sharing basic AI Translations for RPG Maker games in general.

In general I doubt you would want me to suddenly start spamming 400 threads, but instead have a more focused approach on the matter. (If you think that this forum is suitable for my content to begin with.)

 

[Checkmate]

Since we are discussing the creation of new forums, let me provide some details for consideration. Take your time to think about it.

Category: 'Translations:'
- Forum: 'Translated Content and Tools'. Suggested content: Ongoing translation projects, released translations, translation tools.
- Forum: 'Translation Discussions'. Suggested content: Translation requests, one-off questions about tools or languages, longform discussions about possible translations or tools.

Would you prefer to nest the category and forum under the Special Groups and Projects? The nested format should look exactly like the Modding Club.

Translation Projects could become Translations, with no threads directly in it, and subforums nested inside similar to the Modding Club. The entire translation area would be under the Special Groups and Projects category. I do not think a new category is required. However, if having separate forums is better and more visible, then Special Groups & Projects can be renamed to Special Groups & Translation Projects, with Translation forums added accordingly.

- Forum: 'Translated Content and Tools'. Suggested content: Ongoing translation projects, released translations, translation tools.
- Forum: 'Translation Discussions'. Suggested content: Translation requests, one-off questions about tools or languages, longform discussions about possible translations or tools.

Our forum comes with four types: General Format, Articles, Questions, and Suggestions. The General format is similar to the current format you're interacting with here. The Articles format is similar to News and Reviews, while the Questions format is akin to Site Support, and Suggestions follow the Suggestions format.

A forum can be made to support multiple types, so which one(s) do you prefer for which forum?

Forum: 'Translated Content and Tools' could have required prefixes of [Game Patch], [Tool], [Other].

Agreeing on prefixes like [Game Patch], [Tool], [Other] is a good start, and we can add more as needed. However, I'd like to keep it simple to prevent confusion and ambiguity.

Thread tagging can be added by creators for detailed filtering if desired. Multiple prefixes are possible, though they might cause confusion.

Forums can be toggled to display a "Thumbnail" next to them. This is helpful for game releases but not as helpful for thread discussions, in my view.

Additionally, a thread cover can be added to all threads. The design doctrine of Anime-Sharing v2 was that it can be customized by members in their own spaces, particularly threads and user info pages.

We will most likely toggle Thread Thumbnail for Translated Content and Tools.

Translations for Light Novels, Manga, and Anime are not usually distributed as such. Usually they are bundled with the content they are translating and there are already dedicated sections for those materials, so banning those three prefixes from the Translation section makes sense. Translating games and software, including VNs, is different in that regard in that it is far more common to distribute only the translation patches and related instructions to apply them instead of the entire bundled contents.

That does raise the question of encouraging/allowing translations of subtitles for Anime into various languages. Such material is uncommon in terms of distributing it independently from the content, so the [Other] prefix should not become overly bloated with them if anyone posts there. The Anime section is still a better place for Anime subtitles, including translated ones, since having subtitles for multiple languages in an Anime release is already very common.

There are obscure materials like translations for game manuals and non-game translation patches for general software, like patches for translation tools, that would benefit from the [Other] prefix without it being too broad.

We don't have to worry about anime subtitles and manga yet, but we can adapt to community needs when they arise. Thread tagging is useful when used in conjunction with the [Other] prefix.

Forum: 'Translations Discussions' could have prefixes of [Question] [Completed] [Guide] [Tool Discussion] [Other Discussion] or just none at all and let users tag their own content.

Prefixes can be set as required or not required. If users append their own prefix, it won't be filterable by the system, but it can still be searched. Thread tagging remains useful.

Since Guides and Tutorials are allowed here, an Article post type would be appropriate for this area. Article forums have user info bars at the bottom instead of on the left side.

How should translation requests be handled? Should every user be expected to make a thread possibly based upon a thread request template, or should there be a designated thread for posting requests posted outside of that thread disallowed?

If desired, we could create a Suggestion forum type for the Request forum, separating it from the Translation Discussions. Suggestion types allow users to vote for their favorite requests, which can be sorted by "most requested".

For the centralized approach, moderation would be needed to enforce that approach. The individual threads approach is better for searching. Linking to the fulfillment of requests allows the request threads to get labeled as [Completed] which also helps people searching quickly see if a translation request was fulfilled or not. With the individual threads approach, the following prefix makes sense: [Request].

Suggestion threads can be marked as "Completed" once a link to the release thread is posted. A set of prefixes for separate Request forums may or may not be necessary.

For [Completed] labels, this is user-maintained.

For user tags, the destination language would be helpful while searching in both forums of the Translations category, but this is probably better off as part of a template suggested to users than as a required prefix.

Uncategorized content:
- User or group specific compilation threads for released translation patches. I am not sure where these would go.

For user tags (thread tags), this is certainly up to users' preferences. This largely involves self-tagging by the thread creator.

For uncategorized content, there are too many factors to specify now. I'd need more examples and input if it's important to clarify at this time, as I'm unclear what this might entail.

I'm the developer of SLR Translator (A heavily modified fork of Translator++), I maintain the uncensored releases of Two Horns, and I'm the current record holder for translation projects finished on F95Zone.

My idea was to mirror the content from F95 here to an extend (Not spam every bad MTL, just the manually edited translations.), and in general to have another place to distribute SLR Translator and my Two Horns releases.

Hello there, we always try to accommodate developers in the past. I think the Textractor developer made a thread somewhere on the forum.

I'm not a massive fan of making a new thread for every single thing. I would prefer if I could for example also have a general index or request thread.
I think that a manual translation project should have it's own thread, but I do not think that a partial that will not be finished, or a pure MTL should have it's own thread. Instead I think that would be more suitable for an overall discussion thread about a Japanese game.

Here at Anime-Sharing, we often let the community decide whether they want a megathread or separate threads, along with volunteer moderators to keep things organized in the section.

It's important to note that I have nothing against MTL releases; they can form a megathread to prevent cluttering if done at a fast pace, but it should be clear such releases are MTL.

On a side note, LLMs have made MTL much better than before, and prices have come down significantly. Thus, I expect to see more of them soon, especially on open models that can run on consumer RT 3090 24GB VRAM.

I also think that it would be a good idea to allow collection/request threads for specific engines or translators.
For example to have a thread dedicated to sharing ChatGPT MTLs for RPGM MV games. (Like Dazedanon's content.)
Or for requesting and sharing basic AI Translations for RPG Maker games in general.

Actually, we don't really restrict anyone from creating any thread as long as they post it in the correct section.

For engine-specific content, it might be a bit too granular, but we can certainly add more as we finalize and set up the skeleton forum first.

In general I doubt you would want me to suddenly start spamming 400 threads, but instead have a more focused approach on the matter. (If you think that this forum is suitable for my content to begin with.)

Most adult content is welcomed at Anime-Sharing, as long as it is appropriately marked (for example, scat, guro content or furry etc) so that people don't see what they don't want to see.

I don't see a problem with creating 400 threads, unless you think a mega thread is better. I've taken a few look at your content and I don't see anything we could have a problem with. At Anime-Sharing, we are very relaxed in terms of content although we also run https://yande.re, which is a bit more restrictive.

---

As a final concern, I would like to add this:

Originally, when I developed Anime-Sharing v2, there was a milestone set for a "hosting system" of some sort for things like game patches.

My concern was ending up with a forum full of dead links in the next 5-10 years when we all move on with life. So, at least I can directly host some of these with a healthy set of backup links like how F95 does it now via less restrictive cloud drives.

Unfortunately, the code for such a "hosting system" was never finished, and I had to remove it from the final release of AS v2. It is still stuck in development because of some technical implementation and scaling issues that I have yet to work out.

Nevertheless, I will continue to work on it, but we will have to make do with multiple cloud drive links for now.

 

[Shisaye]

It's important to note that I have nothing against MTL releases; they can form a megathread to prevent cluttering if done at a fast pace, but it should be clear such releases are MTL.

On a side note, LLMs have made MTL much better than before, and prices have come down significantly.

The majority of my work is based around my SLR system, which is essentially a hybrid of a large dictionary of common pre-defined translations together with translations of the latest SugoiV4 offline model.
From general feedback it seems to be slightly better than GPT3.5, but slightly worse than GPT4.

I don't see a problem with creating 400 threads, unless you think a mega thread is better. I've taken a few look at your content and I don't see anything we could have a problem with. At Anime-Sharing, we are very relaxed in terms of content although we also run https://yande.re, which is a bit more restrictive.

I'm not familiar with the community on here, I've just noticed a general level of hostility to everything AI lately, and I want to be careful before potentially causing some kind of uproar, because I spam someones timeline with "AI garbage".
If you really see no issue at all, I would also be fine making a thread for every single translation I've ever made, including my terrible early work, but my current catalogue is 386 translations. So that would be a lot of thread clutter "just" for small patches.

In general do you have any specific guidelines how you would want those threads to be tagged and formatted? I didn't find any thread template or tag list in the Forum Rules & Guidelines.

For thread titles for translations my suggestion would have been:
[{game-engine}] [Translation] [{translation-type}] [{language}] [{status}] {name-of-game} [{dlsitecode}]

Translation type being "Manual", "Edited MTL", or the type of MTL used. (GPT, Sugoi, SLR, Google, DeepL, Bing, Yandex, etc.)

Also which section would actually be the correct one to post the SLR Translator program itself? Maybe I'm blind, but I don't see a general "Tool" section anywhere.

---

Edit: Somewhat unrelated, but I'd also like to mention that the link in the "Signature and Avatar guidelines" meant to show allowed file size and dimensions of an Avatar gives a "403 Forbidden" error.

 

[Checkmate]

The majority of my work is based around my SLR system, which is essentially a hybrid of a large dictionary of common pre-defined translations together with translations of the latest SugoiV4 offline model.

I'm well familiar with the Sugoi Toolkit and its model, as I contributed to the Sugoi project years ago.

I used to be a cuDNN developer as well, but that was many years ago. Most of my work involved image classification neural networking. Nowadays, I do some fine-tuning in generative A.I. (both image and text) as long as I can experiment within my small RTX 3090 farm.

I'm familiar with many popular models on HuggingFace, as well as all the commercial ones.

I'm not familiar with the community on here, I've just noticed a general level of hostility to everything AI lately, and I want to be careful before potentially causing some kind of uproar, because I spam someones timeline with "AI garbage".

If I may express some of my opinion here, I have nothing against MTL. In fact, I think MTL has its advantages. While it may not be as accurate, it is always neutral—no censorship, no weird modifications, and e0verything remains as it is. If I didn't understand Japanese, I'd prefer MTL over official localizations, which often involve certain degree of censorship, odd adjustments to appease gatekeepers, content moderation, or even translator pushing his/her personal agenda.

So, let me be clear on the MTL stance: We have no issue with MTL translations and patches as long as they are clearly labeled as such. I understand there are many variants of MTL, edited MTL, GPT (related or unrelated to OpenAI's ChatGPT). The specifics can be worked out in the future.

If you really see no issue at all, I would also be fine making a thread for every single translation I've ever made, including my terrible early work, but my current catalogue is 386 translations. So that would be a lot of thread clutter "just" for small patches.

No issue, but I would like @Entai2965's input.

In general do you have any specific guidelines how you would want those threads to be tagged and formatted? I didn't find any thread template or tag list in the Forum Rules & Guidelines.

For thread titles for translations my suggestion would have been:
[{game-engine}] [Translation] [{translation-type}] [{language}] [{status}] {name-of-game} [{dlsitecode}]

Not yet, that's what I'm working on with you and @Entai2965 right now.

For game patch release formats, I'd like to keep it simple; not all elements are required. The minimum base would be for game translations:

Prefix (Patches) + Language + Translation Type if MTL + Name (with DLSite, if available) + Status

Example: [Patches] [English] [GPT4o+Edit] Awesome RPG RJ0123456 [Ongoing]

• [Patches] = default prefix
  
  
• [English] = Language, implying translation patch (understand that missing a language tag may indicate a decensorship , restoration, or general improvement patch.
  
  
• [GPT4om + Edit] = implies MTL, with GPT4o mini model + actual human editing. If [GPT4om] is listed alone, it may or may not have been edited by GPT4o itself, but without extensive human editing.

The rest is self-explanatory.

What do you think?

Also which section would actually be the correct one to post the SLR Translator program itself? Maybe I'm blind, but I don't see a general "Tool" section anywhere.

Not yet, but per @Entai2965's suggestion, the tool should be posted in the same release forum with an appropriate prefix [Tool]. Please hold off while we work on it.

Edit: Somewhat unrelated, but I'd also like to mention that the link in the "Signature and Avatar guidelines" meant to show allowed file size and dimensions of an Avatar gives a "403 Forbidden" error.

This was a residue from ASF v1. I don't know if you were here prior to our transition (since August 2023). Unfortunately, it is gone for good; it should be linked to an actual guidelines article.

Where did you see it?

 

[Shisaye]

Not yet, but per @Entai2965's suggestion, the tool should be posted in the same release forum with an appropriate prefix [Tools]. Please hold off while we work on it.

Alright, I'm in no rush, this whole deal was his idea anyways.

This was a residue from ASF v1. I don't know if you were here prior to our transition (since August 2023). Unfortunately, it is gone for good; it should be linked to an actual guidelines article.

Where did you see it?

In this post https://www.anime-sharing.com/threads/avatar-and-signature-guidelines.613/

The link in "3.".

Goes here:

 

[Checkmate]

Alright, I'm in no rush, this whole deal was his idea anyways.

In this post https://www.anime-sharing.com/threads/avatar-and-signature-guidelines.613/

Fixed. It will be visible from the signature editor

 

[Shisaye]

Fixed. It will be visible from the signature editor

Erm...

Edit: Nvm, now it works.

 

[Checkmate]

Forgot to mention that regular members don't have the ability to edit signatures to discourage spam bots, as we receive hundreds of them every day. However, in recognition of what you've done for the worldwide weeb community, I'll grant you Elite Member status.

Just kidding, it's nothing big, please don't worry about it.

 

[Entai2965]

Would you prefer to nest the category and forum under the Special Groups and Projects? The nested format should look exactly like the Modding Club.

Translation Projects could become Translations, with no threads directly in it, and subforums nested inside similar to the Modding Club. The entire translation area would be under the Special Groups and Projects category. I do not think a new category is required. However, if having separate forums is better and more visible, then Special Groups & Projects can be renamed to Special Groups & Translation Projects, with Translation forums added accordingly.

This sounds perfect. Having the "Translation" category nested under the "Special Groups and Projects" category that has at least two forums for projects, tools, and discussions is what I was trying to describe. The current layout of having the translation section next to Modding Club also makes sense since game modding and game translations are related concepts.

I was only thinking of exactly two sub-forums both in the "General" forum format with one forum focused on releases and the other for discussions.

I did not know there were other formatting options available besides General. Is it possible to easily change the forum format later? If it is, then just leaving them both as General for now would present the user interface that most people expect from forums.

For release-focused threads, the "Articles" approach might be a very appealing way to display available translations and encourage people who want to post their translations as separate threads to also include a picture and a summary of the game when creating those threads. However, in the Articles format, displaying translation Tools there might be problematic since then people are mostly looking at visual data and translation tools, by their nature as computer software, often lack that. That creates a clash in the type of data being visually displayed.

If creating more than two forums for the "Translation" category is an option, then splitting off "Tools" from the translation releases forum would be ideal because, while they are similar in the sense that they are both releases, the people looking for one of these types of content is unlikely to be interested in the other. Or at least not at the same time. In addition, threads for tools are very likely to get lost if someone happens to post 300+ individual release threads for translations if both tools and translation releases are part of the same forum.

That means the forums would look like this so far:

• Special Groups and Projects:
  • Translations
    • Translation Projects and Releases (name not final)
    • Translation Tools
    • Translation Discussions
  • Modding Club
    • Modding Discussions
    • Request and Releases - Honey Select Mods
    • Requests and Releases - [...]

Does the above formatting make sense to you @Checkmate ?

Earlier, I listed different types of content relevant to the Translations category. If it makes sense to you, then the above formatting for the different forums is a good starting point for figuring out if that formatting is sufficient for all of that type of content or if the forums should expanded or contracted.

Projects, releases, tools, and misc discussions all have a designated place, but there is also the question of how to treat translation requests and guides related to translating specific games, specific game engines, or using specific translation tools. Unless there are people interested in fulfilling requests or there are special forum rewards for fulfilling translation requests, bundling requests into the Translation Discussions keeps them from having special status.

For guides, those are more tricky. It could be argued that translation tools and guides both have the same purpose of enabling people to translate content and so are very closely related. People who are interested in translation tools are likely also interested in guides for how to use those tools or examples of how to translate specific games or game engines. That means the suggested "Translation Tools" section should probably be "Translation Tools and Guides".

That means the forums would look like this so far:

• Special Groups and Projects
  • Translations
    • Translation Projects and Releases (name not final)
    • Translation Tools and Guides
    • Translation Discussions

The last content that I was not sure about categorizing before and that @Shisaye asked about was compilation threads. If anime-sharing is fine with letting users format their own releases, then anyone should be be able to create their own compilation threads in either the "Translation Projects and Releases (name not final)" forum or the "Translation Discussions" forum. I am not sure which makes more sense. Where should compilation threads go?

My suggestions for prefixes were under the assumption that if prefixes were available, then they would be always required. If they can be made optional, unlike what I was thinking, then there is no need for an [Other] prefix at all since that is already implied by not using any of the existing prefixes.

If prefixes can be added later, then I think getting the base organization correct should be the focus now, not prefixes.

Edit: Thank you for the status bump!

 

[Checkmate]

Ok, I don't think I've explained carefully enough regarding forum types, so let me elaborate.

There are two things: Forum Types and Thread Types.

Forum Types generally change how the forum is displayed:

1. Article display large, masory layout thread
2. Suggestion
3. Questions
4. General The most popular forum type, displaying threads as we see here.

Thread Types change how the thread looks:

1. Article Thread: Uses maximum width for a wide presentation, with all information displayed like an article.
2. Suggestion, Questions: Each has its own format.
3. General Discussion: Similar to what we're seeing now.

General forums can accommodate all thread types, but specific forums can only handle their respective thread types.

Example: A Suggestion Forum only allows Suggestion Thread Types to be posted. A General Forum allows all types of threads if configured so, but it presents them with a general layout.

One forum type can be changed to another, but not always vice versa.

Example: A General Discussion thread can be changed to a Question thread. However, if a Question thread with an answer marked as accepted is changed to a General Discussion, the accepted answer will be lost, and all answers will be presented as general replies.

With that explanation let go into details.

First, we need to decide whether to split into multiple forums or keep it minimal to prevent an empty appearance.

We'll keep all Forum Types as General type.

Depending on what the forum will host, we can decide whether to allow some custom thread types.

Example:

• Translation Tools and Guides Forum: Thread Types can be set as Article and General Discussion. Articles are suitable for tutorials and guides, while General Discussions are suitable for patch releases.
• Translation Projects and Releases: Thread Type can be set as just General Discussion. However, we can enable Thread Thumbnails for a more attractive display (similar to the Download Zone).

For Discussions, which might include Requests and Questions, we might create a new forum type like "Suggestions" or "Questions," allowing those thread types. If you prefer all types, then the Forum Type can be set to General, accepting both Suggestions and Questions Thread Types.

Regardless, I think one forum for Discussion, Requests, and Questions should suffice, and for simplicty's sake, we can just leave it as General Discussion Thread Type only

To Recap:

• Special Groups and Projects
  • Translations
    • Translation Projects and Releases: General Discussions Forum Type + Thread Thumbnail Enabled
    • Translation Tools and Guides: General Discussion Forum Type + Article Threads Allowed
    • Translation Discussions: General Discussion Forum Type
      

The last content that I was not sure about categorizing before and that @Shisaye asked about was compilation threads. If anime-sharing is fine with letting users format their own releases, then anyone should be be able to create their own compilation threads in either the "Translation Projects and Releases (name not final)" forum or the "Translation Discussions" forum. I am not sure which makes more sense. Where should compilation threads go?

I'm unfamiliar with compilation threads. Could you give me some examples?

If it's a thread where a user compiles all their releases, we can decide whether they should create a single thread for all releases or separate threads for each. Each scenario has pros and cons. In my experience, a megathread (compilation thread) tends to lack sufficient indexing, making it hard to search, while separate threads make searching easier.

My suggestions for prefixes were under the assumption that if prefixes were available, then they would be always required. If they can be made optional, unlike what I was thinking, then there is no need for an [Other] prefix at all since that is already implied by not using any of the existing prefixes.

Prefixes can be required or not. Default prefixes can be set or left empty. Essentially, the default prefix can be set to "Other" and required all the time, or not required, with the prefix left empty by default at thread creation.

If prefixes can be added later, then I think getting the base organization correct should be the focus now, not prefixes.

Prefixes can be easily modified, but to avoid a mess, having some minimum guidelines at the start is advisable.


Right now, the structure could look like this:

Translation Projects and Releases: [Translations] [Restoration] [Other] Default to Translations, Required.
Translation Tools and Guides: [Tutorials] [Tools] [Other] Default to Other, Required
Translation Discussions and Request: [Request] [Discussion] [Question] Default to Empty, Not Required.

 

[Checkmate]

TL;DR:

Forum Structure Format

• Special Groups and Projects
  • Translations
    • Translation Projects and Releases: General Discussions Forum Type + Thread Thumbnail Enabled
    • Translation Tools and Guides: General Discussion Forum Type + Article Threads Allowed
    • Translation Discussions: General Discussion Forum Type

Prefixes

• Translation Projects and Releases: [Translations] [Restoration] [Other] Default to Translations, Required.
  
  
• Translation Tools and Guides: [Tutorials] [Tools] [Other] Default to Other, Required
  
  
• Translation Discussions and Request: [Request] [Discussion] [Question] Default to Empty, Not Required.

And yes, prefix can have a color code.

Clarification Required:

What is Complication (thread)?

 

[Entai2965]

I'm unfamiliar with compilation threads. Could you give me some examples?

If it's a thread where a user compiles all their releases, we can decide whether they should create a single thread for all releases or separate threads for each. Each scenario has pros and cons. In my experience, a megathread (compilation thread) tends to lack sufficient indexing, making it hard to search, while separate threads make searching easier.

Some people tend to do both where there is a thread for each title and then the user keeps their own compilation thread of everything they released. The exact format tends to depend on the user.

Here is @Shisaye 's thread. And Leb's thread.

I am still reading the rest.

 

[Entai2965]

For compilation threads, if a user formats it to have all of their releases all in one place without any individual threads, then "Translation Projects and Releases" would be a good place for that compilation since that thread is trying to release content.

For compilation threads where a user has individual threads for each release but also makes an index-style thread with pointers to their releases in "Translation Projects and Releases", then putting that index-style compilation thread in either "Translation Projects and Releases" or "Translation Discussions" both make sense, especially if the user wants constant feedback of some sort, like if they are taking requests.

• Translation Projects and Releases: [Translations] [Restoration] [Other] Default to Translations, Required.
  
  
• Translation Tools and Guides: [Tutorials] [Tools] [Other] Default to Other, Required
  
  
• Translation Discussions and Request: [Request] [Discussion] [Question] Default to Empty, Not Required.

This looks very well thought out. I also agree to bundle requests, discussions, and questions for simplicity's sake. This would be great as-is.

 

[Checkmate]

Apologies for the delayed response. I had to urgently address a sudden problem with the network upstream.

Rest assured, the new forums will be created soon and prefixes will be assigned.

 

[Entai2965]

Thanks for the update! There is no need to hurry on this issue, so please take your time.

I do plan to post a few threads, at least one in each category to serve as a template based upon the guidance above. Let me know if you would like them formatting any particular way.

 

[Shisaye]

Apologies for the delayed response. I had to urgently address a sudden problem with the network upstream.

Rest assured, the new forums will be created soon and prefixes will be assigned.

Since that seems to be settled now, I would still need clarification on how you want the threads themselves to look like.
Currently I'm used to making threads like this:

Is this what you had in mind?
What, if any, modifications would I have to make to suit your forum?

Edit: I've censored the screenshot, in case you don't want nsfw stuff in this section.

 

[Checkmate]

Since that seems to be settled now, I would still need clarification on how you want the threads themselves to look like.
Currently I'm used to making threads like this:
View attachment 50520
Is this what you had in mind?
What, if any, modifications would I have to make to suit your forum?

I would prefer to change as little as possible to make migration easier and faster.

We don't have any specific formats, so thread creators are free to design any layout they prefer, but we do have minimum required elements.

Since we never dealt specifically with translation patches before, I'll take the minimum requirements from posting eroge in the Hentai Games forum as a guideline, of no particular order.

Minimum Required Elements

• Appropriate Prefix
• Official Title, Romaji: The transliteration or translation of the title.
• Studio, Groups: The producers or publishers of the game.
• A relevant link to the Product URL and/or VNDB.
• Release Date
• Must have a main box art or product artwork.
• Must include some screen captures or images that depict CG or gameplay. These can be sourced from the official product page or captured by users.
• Patch Installation Notes, if any
• Language and Translation Method (e.g., MTL type)
  

Optional Information:

• Description or a small synopsis of the game
• Genre / Lenght / Doujin Circle or Official
• Mosaic Censorship: Indicate if any content is censored. (Any content missing from the original product must be clearly stated.)
• Version and Change logs
• Anything else beneficial to the users

Above all, ensure that your thread is visually appealing and attractive to draw interest.



Please let me know if you think this is alright.

Additionally, I'd like to have one or two moderators to help out with the section. Are you both willing to volunteer? Moderators will define and shape the future of the section.