I’m back for this week’s Translation Necessary Thursday with my thoughts on a rather touchy subject. It’s all about Aggregator Sites!
Aggregator Sites?: Here’s the definition you can google, Aggregator refers to a web site or computer software that aggregates a specific type of information from multiple online sources. These websites use internet tools to host other people’s work from various locations all in one site. It’s both convenient and highly controversial in the translation community. Some people are fine with it, some are fine with it in certain circumstances, and others absolutely aren’t okay with no matter what.
Controversy? Really?: Yeah, in fact one of the biggest reasons there’s a huge dispute going on between Qidian International and Wuxiaworld and the rest of the translation community is the fact that they are illegally hosting stuff from Wuxiaworld when Wuxiaworld holds the exclusive rights to host those works. It’s not even the simple fact that they are hosting another translator’s effort, although that would still be in violation of the agreement that was posted publicly a few months back. They are flat out taking works of translators and putting on their website. That’s why the novel translation subreddit has banned QI from posting anything on the subreddit. They fall under the aggregator site rules that the subreddit enforces. The fact that NovelUpdates doesn’t do this is another point of contention and frankly I’m in full agreement with the reddit side of the community. QI has done nothing but lie and bully the translation community since it’s arrived on the scene over a year ago. But that’s another topic for another day.
Do you use them?: No I don’t, mostly because they often have unedited versions of works that get regular updates after their initial posting which can completely change the tone of a chapter.
Not even for QI titles?: Look I’ve got no love of QI, I’ve made that clear multiple times in these columns and in the translation community in general. So I just don’t read their work unless it’s hosted off their websites, webnovel.com and gravitytales.com.
GT isn’t Qidian: Except they are, the founder GoodGuy Person sold 90% of his shares in the company to Qidian and therefore it’s a Qidian website to me, and most of the translation community. It’s a pity since there were some decent original web novels, but the fact that the authors have chosen to go to a place that is proven to be deceitful is just too big of a mark against them for me to even bother with their works.
That’s it for this week’s Translation Necessary Thursday. Do you approve of Aggregator Sites? Do you use them? Leave a comment below.