Mr Poltroon

That guy made mine too!

I'm sorry, but at this point I'll just go ahead and call tl;dr (I usually don't post if I haven't read the OP). Please, reflect on this article's point #5. And no, I don't think the Christmas exception really works out at this point...

Sure, let's give it a whirl. You might want to start prepping a new list of Mods however because this will probably be what happens to most of us.
 

What of it? It may be pointless, but SHINY THINGS!

Mr. Poltroon Leaves the Basement

Hey there everyone. I'm solidbatman, author of how to become Fuwa Famous. Today I am proud to introduce my second guide in helping you become an active member of the Fuwanovel Community. By following this guide you will learn a few things such as, what a report button does, how to report, and what should be reported. Lets begin shall we?
 
 
1) What is a Report
 
I'm glad you asked. A report is a tool for all members of this wonderful community. It is a button that sends a message to all of the global moderators regarding a specific post or thread. You can find the report button at the bottom of every post on Fuwanovel as shown in image A

Image A
 
2) How Do I Report Something?
 
Now that we know what a report button is, its time to learn how to use it. For some people, this is like second nature to them. For others with thicker skin or higher tolerance for silliness, they may have no clue what to do. Luckily for them, it's very simple! All you have to do is click the button. Once you click the Report button, you will be taken to a dialog box to type the reason you reported the thread. From there, all you have to do is click "Send Report" and your report will make its way to the super secret Report Inbox for Fuwanovel Global Staff. It is then up to them to decide what to do about your report.  Refer to image B for reference. 
 
Image B
3) What Should I Report?

This is the simplest part of the guide. What is supposed to be reported? The answer is simple. Report anything that is fun, or that you disagree with. If someone makes a giveaway thread in General Discussion, report it. If they make a podcast thread in the Community Hub, report it. If they ask for input on a system they want to implement, report it. Report anything good that might require visibility. The only things that should remain unreported are to be strictly moderated Visual Novel threads. Anything else, should be reported and deleted. To avoid confusion, I will provide visual examples for you all. 
 
 
 
And there you have it! A step by step guide on how to report threads on Fuwanovel.I know some people will use this thread to practice, but those people need no practice do they? I hope I have been a help to some of you, and if you have any questions about anything I've covered in this guide, please feel free to ask. 

Mr. Poltroon Leaves the Basement

You spelt "Pulltop" incorrectly...
 
Also...thank you.

Hi

Excuse me, but would you happen to be a vagabonding transgressor?

Mind blown. I used to watch it as a kid, never thought it was Japanese.

This refers to any Japanese animation you've watched which doesn't 'feel' or 'look' like anime. Then again, this is highly subjective, but personally, I think we should all have a good idea of what most anime looks like.
 
A few days ago, I found out that "Maya the Bee" cartoons were actually anime. 
I'll list all the ones we find on the OP, and each of us will be able to determine whether we agree or not ourselves.
 
List so far:

That was an effective way to distract me for 30 seconds.

Is there a reason why fevers and colds are such a big deal in japanese fiction? I recon most anime characters never had to work 12 hours a day, while coughing out various organs.

Hopefully, a title without any lines to translate.

Speak for yourself. I'm, for one, outraged and incensed by this negligent, discourteous use of forum space.
 

Not sure how many people here watch the youtube show Extra Credits, but has anyone here been checking out their spinoff show Extra History? If not, I recommend taking a look at it, especially since they're currently focusing on the Sengoku Jidai (they previously did the set up to World War 1 and before that the Punic Wars):
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDsdkoln59A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2yT2nitGDk

Project completed.
 
I thank you for your silent support
 
Patch released on TLWiki & Beast's Lair, enjoy!

The Oxford comma.

I apologize for the less than in depth questions above, but there's a limit to the questions I can make, so further questions will be answered with proper replies.
 
A Translation Team has various parts. It's a team because of it.
Translator - Translates the Japanese into English. That's all they need to do, but they can do more, depending on how fluent they are.
Translation Checker - Checks to see if the translation the translator made is accurate. Another way is for there to be two translators who compare notes, and see where different interpretations and fluency takes them.
Editor - Picks up the translation and makes it fluent in English, makes it consistent with the rest of the visual novel and makes it fit the context.  
Quality Checker/Proofreader - Among other things, their main function is checking whether the translation has a good level of English, whether it makes sense, and to find and remove typos.
 
Together, these heroes translate Visual Novels. For free. Yet, people still complain about translations. Here are some of the main points.
 
Faithfulness
A translation stops being a translation if it doesn't translate anything and just makes things up. But is that so bad?
No 2 languages are the same (wait no, you know what I meant).
I've tried translating to my native language, and it's not easy. Whether be it words you can find a synonym for, or expressions to which there are no equivalents, this tends to mean you cannot translate things easily. To add insult to injury, Japanese is a language with a completely different structure to English, so even translating literally will always get you ungrammatical or nonsensical sentences.
To maintain faithfulness, the main involved parties are the Translators and the Editors.
Translators can decide to just alter the meaning of a certain sentence, these are some possible reasons:
They cannot translate it fluently (implies being fluent at English, doesn't affect literal translators who leave everything to the editors); Lack of Japanese knowledge; Lack of existing translation; Cultural differences; Humor and references. I'll address some of these.
Cultural differences - This is up for much debate. Some people assume that since they are reading a VN, they must obviously already know all about Japanese culture.
Translator notes are one way too side-step these, but use them too often and people will start complaining too...
Otherwise, you can choose to keep purely Japanese things Japanese, or to change them slightly to a Western correspondent.
Humor - Some jokes, be them references or puns, are lost in translation. There is no readily available solution to this problem. You'll need to adapt these jokes to a western audience or keep the original and plague it with translation notes. Neither of these is very effective. 
Lack of existing translation - Because some things just don't exist on a western world. These are either kept with translation notes (yet again) or... removed? Ignored? Not many alternatives here.
 
Editors can decide to just alter a certain sentence, for similar reasons:
Cultural differences; Doesn't make sense; Consistency with rest of translation; Humor and references. Consistency - This is one of the least important issues, me thinks. Because you can't really notice it unless it's bad. Fixing this does not affect a translation negatively, except if a character's tone is altered because the translator failed to convey it properly.
 
TL;DR; This only affects people who know Japanese. I could tell you a certain sentence said "I think bananas are pornographic" when it actually said "Puppies are cute".
You wouldn't know. The only thing you can base yourself on is what other people say, and that's hardly trustworthy, is it?
Don't make a fuss about faithfulness, if you care about the original work so much, learn Japanese. Translations cannot faithfully adapt all things, know this as a rule of thumb.
 
Proofreading
It's actually really simple. Either it's well proof read, or it isn't. 
Proofreaders take care of the typos, grammar mistakes, and nonsensical lines which slip through. That is all, they don't ruin translations, and they don't make them any worse, although it gives off a feeling of unprofessionalism and lack of care. 
And it's all the fault of a sloppy proofreader, degrading a TL's rep.
 
Readability
This means, "can I read and understand the story like this?" 
If you do, then the translation did its most elementary job. You now know the story. 
Unfortunately, this isn't all a translation has to do to be "good". Being readable doesn't mean it's as emotional, funny or witty as the original. 
Striving to keep these factors is the editors' job. Just because it makes sense, it doesn't mean it's good. 
The flavour, the wittiness, the tone, the consistency. These all matter for a good translation. 
A good editor is required for these. "Being a native" doesn't make a good editor.
I'm a native in my language, but that doesn't mean I can edit books. I don't know enough vocabulary, or I can't make the connection between such vocabulary and another sentence. The fact that you understand complicated books, expressions and words doesn't mean you can write or make them yourself.
----
But that's what I think. What do you think?
   

Hopefully, a title without any lines to translate.

I apologize for the less than in depth questions above, but there's a limit to the questions I can make, so further questions will be answered with proper replies.
 
A Translation Team has various parts. It's a team because of it.
Translator - Translates the Japanese into English. That's all they need to do, but they can do more, depending on how fluent they are.
Translation Checker - Checks to see if the translation the translator made is accurate. Another way is for there to be two translators who compare notes, and see where different interpretations and fluency takes them.
Editor - Picks up the translation and makes it fluent in English, makes it consistent with the rest of the visual novel and makes it fit the context.  
Quality Checker/Proofreader - Among other things, their main function is checking whether the translation has a good level of English, whether it makes sense, and to find and remove typos.
 
Together, these heroes translate Visual Novels. For free. Yet, people still complain about translations. Here are some of the main points.
 
Faithfulness
A translation stops being a translation if it doesn't translate anything and just makes things up. But is that so bad?
No 2 languages are the same (wait no, you know what I meant).
I've tried translating to my native language, and it's not easy. Whether be it words you can find a synonym for, or expressions to which there are no equivalents, this tends to mean you cannot translate things easily. To add insult to injury, Japanese is a language with a completely different structure to English, so even translating literally will always get you ungrammatical or nonsensical sentences.
To maintain faithfulness, the main involved parties are the Translators and the Editors.
Translators can decide to just alter the meaning of a certain sentence, these are some possible reasons:
They cannot translate it fluently (implies being fluent at English, doesn't affect literal translators who leave everything to the editors); Lack of Japanese knowledge; Lack of existing translation; Cultural differences; Humor and references. I'll address some of these.
Cultural differences - This is up for much debate. Some people assume that since they are reading a VN, they must obviously already know all about Japanese culture.
Translator notes are one way too side-step these, but use them too often and people will start complaining too...
Otherwise, you can choose to keep purely Japanese things Japanese, or to change them slightly to a Western correspondent.
Humor - Some jokes, be them references or puns, are lost in translation. There is no readily available solution to this problem. You'll need to adapt these jokes to a western audience or keep the original and plague it with translation notes. Neither of these is very effective. 
Lack of existing translation - Because some things just don't exist on a western world. These are either kept with translation notes (yet again) or... removed? Ignored? Not many alternatives here.
 
Editors can decide to just alter a certain sentence, for similar reasons:
Cultural differences; Doesn't make sense; Consistency with rest of translation; Humor and references. Consistency - This is one of the least important issues, me thinks. Because you can't really notice it unless it's bad. Fixing this does not affect a translation negatively, except if a character's tone is altered because the translator failed to convey it properly.
 
TL;DR; This only affects people who know Japanese. I could tell you a certain sentence said "I think bananas are pornographic" when it actually said "Puppies are cute".
You wouldn't know. The only thing you can base yourself on is what other people say, and that's hardly trustworthy, is it?
Don't make a fuss about faithfulness, if you care about the original work so much, learn Japanese. Translations cannot faithfully adapt all things, know this as a rule of thumb.
 
Proofreading
It's actually really simple. Either it's well proof read, or it isn't. 
Proofreaders take care of the typos, grammar mistakes, and nonsensical lines which slip through. That is all, they don't ruin translations, and they don't make them any worse, although it gives off a feeling of unprofessionalism and lack of care. 
And it's all the fault of a sloppy proofreader, degrading a TL's rep.
 
Readability
This means, "can I read and understand the story like this?" 
If you do, then the translation did its most elementary job. You now know the story. 
Unfortunately, this isn't all a translation has to do to be "good". Being readable doesn't mean it's as emotional, funny or witty as the original. 
Striving to keep these factors is the editors' job. Just because it makes sense, it doesn't mean it's good. 
The flavour, the wittiness, the tone, the consistency. These all matter for a good translation. 
A good editor is required for these. "Being a native" doesn't make a good editor.
I'm a native in my language, but that doesn't mean I can edit books. I don't know enough vocabulary, or I can't make the connection between such vocabulary and another sentence. The fact that you understand complicated books, expressions and words doesn't mean you can write or make them yourself.
----
But that's what I think. What do you think?