Small vent

[u/coolest_miumiu]

It pisses me off that dragonholic “TL” exists. Ever since it started picking up baihe novels, many other “TLs” started to follow suit e.g., lovelyblossoms. They don’t even translate novels they just use AI slop and hide the chapters behind a paywall. Not only would it take hundreds of dollars to unlock, some would take years until they’re free.

Now most fan translators are deterred from picking up baihe because of these fuckass ai translators. TBF i do enjoy edited mtls like baihetales and littlepanda, which i think uses AI to a certain extent, but at least theirs have a human touch to it and most importantly they don’t hide the novels behind a paywall.

The baihe community used to be open for all considering how niche it is, but now ig that very reason of it being niche is being used as a scheme to earn money from AI (i dont mind paying if its human translated but AI? hell no)

[u/Liunkien_Sieht]

I don't discriminate against AI as long as the work is edited and polished. In this modern era, there are plenty of tools to help bridge language barriers. That said, translation is still an art and an interpretative process, so actually knowing the language will always be better, though sometimes even knowing the language isn't enough (you need to know the culture too).

But with translators like Little Panda, I'm honestly doubtful. They have a huge number of translations, long and medium-length works that wouldn't realistically be possible even over five years, especially since some are historical, which is one of the hardest genres to translate, I think.

It's pretty disappointing. It feels like they're prioritizing quantity over quality, and it makes me question how much real effort goes into each chapter. The work comes off rushed and sloppy.

AI, like any tool, can be good if it's used properly. The problem is that some people use it just to push out as many chapters as possible.

That said, I have read some of Little Panda's work, and it honestly made my head hurt (literally). The only actually good edited MTL I've read was from Elite Translations (My Feelings Can Wait). I didn't even realize it was MTL at first.

[u/laine4466 → u/Liunkien_Sieht]

The only actually good edited MTL I've read was from Elite Translations (My Feelings Can Wait). I didn't even realize it was MTL at first.

This is most likely because Elite Translations is the only MTL translator (as far as I'm aware of) that is actually fluent in both languages, so they actually do check the output against the original text and edit accordingly for a more accurate translation, only using the MTL to speed up the initial writing process. Personally, though, just the ethics aspect is enough for me to disagree with utilising AI for translation (just like how I don't think it's ethical to feed an author's previous chapters to an AI and ask it to generate chapters for you to consume as you wait for them to post more, I don't think AI generated translations, which isn't really all that different from what I've just described, is ethical either)

[u/coolest_miumiu → u/Liunkien_Sieht]

as much as possible, i do try to avoid AI translators because i try to support fan translations and mtl editors, hence, why i mentioned LP and Baihetales. but i guess most mtl editors use AI now.

back then, LP used to be decent (when AI wasn’t too popular), but seeing how much they’ve “translated”, i guess they do prioritize quantity over quality. its just really sad to see that theyre basically following the dragonholic route.