After I finish translating this novel, there is going to be a fairly large wait until the next one, so I think I’ll start translating some non-Saiunkoku stuff. I’ve pretty much translated most of what I wanted to in Saiunkoku, and I won’t deny that the Saiunkoku fandom is pretty moribund as far as discussion goes, so that also saps my motivation, because the reason I started translating Saiunkoku specifically (as opposed to some other book) was that I hoped that it would spark some meaty discussion in the fandom. Ah well. Basically there’s one or two people who DO discuss what I translate, and that keeps me going on. XD

Anyway, I’ll probably translate the next novel of Saiunkoku when it comes out (which I suppose might be over a year? who knows?), so don’t worry about that, and definitely, please do not write me emails or comments pestering me about when I will be done with (fill in the blank here).

I’m thinking for what I translate, I might try a mostly futile ‘back-translation’ of the Japanese version of Ravages of Time (which should be interesting to compare to the Chinese->English version) or translate some shounen military manga. Either that, or really stretch and translate some Japanese Sengoku-era historical novels, although that will truly be challenging.

In order to make making comments easier, I’ve implemented the Intense Debate commenting system. This should allow people to both comment as usual, and also to comment via Facebook connect, OpenID, or Twitter login, should they so wish.

Since OpenID is allowed, you can also comment using your Livejournal account.

To comment using your LJ account, in the space for the OpenID URL type in: http://YOURUSERNAME.livejournal.com

No offense, but could folks who comment please make some effort at using standard English spelling, grammar, punctuation, and especially capitalization? I realize that English is not the first language of some of you, but while English grammar and spelling might be complex, the rules of English capitalization are not, and everyone appreciates seeing well-formatted comments. Also, please refrain from using chatspeak (it’s “you,” not “u”) and ALL CAPS. There really is no need to SHOUT or use excessive punctuation. Plus, the ellipsis (…) is not supposed to be used the same way as a period (.).

Also, while I have no problem with people asking questions, often the answer is in earlier summaries or translations. Please try to read the earlier summaries or translations to see if the answer to your question might be there before asking.

Another thing: please try to make your comments somewhat on-topic to the post.

And, no requesting translations.

Do not ask “when” I will translate something either. I realize that many of you come from other countries, but within the English fandom, these kinds of questions are considered rude, and besides, why does the exact date matter? If it matters to you that much, you could try paying me market rates. XD Basically, I’m doing something time-consuming for free, and it happens when it happens.

I upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1, but I had to do it manually for some reason. This is one of the reasons that people prefer things like LJ or social networking sites, because they don’t have to mess around with this kind of thing, and go poking at it when it spits out some error. Of course, unlike WP, LJ doesn’t really seem to update or add new features very frequently.

Was talking to a friend about Dreamwidth and new potential features which would make Dreamwidth more useful to people. She mentioned two.

The first was metadata. Say someone is publishing an online literary journal. On LJ, they would have to tag the post as something like “author: charmian” a it to include the name of the author and the illustrator. But then this would make the list of tags unwieldy, if you have a lot of authors. So what would be better, she suggests if there were a field, like the music or mood field, where you could enter in the name of the author. This would be separate from tags.

The second was a thorough revamping of the tags feature to merge it with the memories feature and allow for post discovery. The memories system as it currently exists, sucks. The tags system isn’t much better. With the memories system, you can categorize posts and save them in your memories.

The potential new system would be like delicious: You can memory posts with multiple tags. What is more, if you should choose to publicize them, others may see them. Well, now they can see your memories, but what I mean is, if they look at the post, they can click a link or something, and see who else has memoried it, and using which tags. Then, they can click on that tag in order to see either which posts the user has also memoried using that tag, or which posts all users have memoried using that tag. (I’m not sure which the default would be).

So, if I have a post about pumpkin pie, other users could label it as “pie” or “pumpkin pie” or “thanksgiving food.” They could use this to search for all tags across the site which are tagged as “pie” or “pumpkin pie.”

The only problem I can foresee is that users may be offended by others labeling posts like “this sucks” or “grade: D.”

Anyway, the people doing the project are really, really busy, so I don’t think this is the best time to suggest the thing. I may write it up later in a post to the ML, or if it is appropriate, post it to the wiki.

Am on the Dreamwidth ML, and the topic of the day seems to be the idea of introducing a setting where posts can be locked to only DW users.

I was against this idea because a) it creates a false sense of security (people are continually using LJ features to solve problems they were not intended to solve, people are definitely not going to think things through and use it as a security measure), and b) DW is going to be an invite-code system, which IMHO means they should err on the side of friendliness to non-DW users, and c) if OpenID users can see the posts anyway, what is the point anyhow?

Since potentially people who want to join DW may NOT be able to join, because of invite code availability issues, this isn’t fair to them.

Also, the problem that some people describe ‘I want my relatives to be able to see my posts on innocuous topics but keep other topics secret’ is one which IMHO, it is extremely risky to solve in this manner. All mom and dad need to do is be all like ‘oooh, if we register we can leave comments easily’ (or your cousin is all like ‘hey, auntie, you can comment more easily if you join the service, let me help you with that’…), and then whoops, big embarrassing situation. I can’t help but think that this is a form of privacy/security, and I agree with what someone said that if something is sold as a ‘privacy/security’ measure, then it really needs to be private.

However, as a robust method of preventing indexing by unscrupulous bots, it does seem to be effective.

I suppose some of the related problems of wanting to restrict access to a post, yet not wanting to, or being unable to grant the other person access could be solved by implementing a ‘password this post’ feature, similar to WordPress’s.

I blogged last time about why people might not use WP vs. LJ on technical grounds, namely that it doesn’t have some of the most important privacy features of LJ. (There is also the icon commenting versatility thing, but so far I haven’t seen anyone really talk that up as a problem, and I’m not sure how important it is to the average LJ user. Before anyone comments, yes, I know you can have as many icons you want when posting on your WP blog thanks to various plugins, but Gravatars and other similar services only allow you one icon when commenting.)

Thing is, the “push” factor (LJ’s various missteps) has obviously not been strong enough. Similarly, there is a lack of a “pull factor,” something to convince people to leave LJ. In other words, it’s the “all my friends are on LJ and so there is no reason for me to leave.” Basically then, until LJ falls down, or someone invents something that is an improvement, technically, based on the existing needs and wants of the LJ users then LJ users have a compelling reason to switch. WP is much more powerful as a blogging software, but much less powerful as a social networking software.

I think that Dreamwidth may be one such alternative, because it is a fork of LJ, which is attempting to preserve the benefits of LJ, and build on them, while fixing LJ’s defects. I’m on the discussion ML for the project, and they seem to be full of ideas of how to better improve the features and interface, both in terms of blogging and social networking.

Re: this post on blogs v WordPress.

I actually agree with many of the points, and I did respond in comments. However, I wanted to get in my two cents here instead.

Point one is that you get more bang for the buck by making a blog. Agreed, if you have a paid LJ. However, most LJ users DO NOT have a paid LJ. Therefore, they cannot save any money by making a blog. I should also note that with LJ, a paid user has extra features. With WP, for a self-hosted installation, you need to have money in the first place to even have the basic features. Of course, with WP.com and other WP free sites, you can have a free WP blog, BUT then of course you can’t install your own plugins.

Point 2 is correct, but on LJ you can also choose not to have ads, currently. Also, while many fandom blogs do not have ads, there are also quite a few that do. In any event, neither LJ or the blogosphere is an ad-free place.

Point 3 is correct, although I should not it’s not like most people were willing to leave LJ over these issues anyhow.

Point 4: The author overestimates how much skill the average LJ user has. Many people don’t know FTP from a whole in the ground. Editing a few lines of a script is scary.

Plus, while I love WP, it honestly takes TIME to maintain an up to date WP install if you use plugins and like changing your theme. It can be super easy to maintain WP, IF you do not want to run it like an LJ and use certain features.

Also, while there is documentation, that means you have to do it yourself, vs. LJ, where maintenance matters are handled by the staff.

Point 5: Granted, but this does not address the issue of how to make friends-locked posts and use filters. While there are plugins out there that do handle this, the fact is that this is not an out of the box feature supported by WP core.

Point 6: LJ’s interoperability does suck ass, but I think for a lot of LJ users, this is not a huge concern anyway.

People keep using LJ because of the lock-in feature, and because there are certain features there which are difficult to find in other places. I’m hoping nowadays that Dreamwidth does have some effect on LJ fanfic fandom, and that some of the big communities and more influential users do move there.

BTW, for everyone following on feeds, I’ve changed the layout to something white and minimalistic, but compatible with WordPress 2.7. It also has a nifty alert box feature where you can write a little note that floats above your entries.

I’ve also updated the FAQ on Saiunkoku (not really a very informative FAQ, though. Most of it consists on what we don’t know.)

Anyway, one of the negative points about WordPress is that you do need to change themes or edit your theme if you want to take advantage of new features when they update. But on the other hand, it is very, very customizable, and you can have it your way, as opposed to Livejournal, where editing your theme is a paid feature, and you can only have a limited number of themes. Personally, I much prefer the WP user experience. The interface is a lot more usable, and there are many appealing features. I am still frustrated by how LJ shows no interest in either creating a stats function with referrer, or in allowing us to use an external service, such as Google Analytics. Now that they’ve laid off the US staff, I wonder what’s going to happen with the development situation there?

So, I was looking around for some manga (nowadays I don’t watch too much anime) blogs, but I find a lot of them focus on

a) the US DVD anime industry and release schedule
b) the US manga industry, release schedule, and related gossip
c) conventions

All of which, while worthy topics, are not really of much interest to me personally.

I’m more interested in hearing about

a) the Japanese manga (or anime) industry
b) untranslated manga

Does anyone have any recommendations for non-LJ interesting blogs focused on things that I’m interested in? (all/any of them) I’m not that interested in blogs that are purely recapping or commenting on the latest anime, because in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t spend much time watching anime anymore.

I decided to take a one-week vacation from LJ just for the hell of it. Not reading it, not making comments. Why? Not because I have any illusion that my absence will influence LJ in any way. Some people are planning a one day boycott, which to my mind is a rather ineffective solution. People have complained about LJ a lot, and LJ has corrected some of the inadvertent errors they’ve made, but very rarely rescinded policy decisions. In any event, in the future, it is clear, there will be more of the same. People should just ask themselves whether they can deal with more of that or not.

What it comes down to, is that most of the things that really annoy people about LJ are not about the most vital things. If LJ fucks up in certain areas, people will not have to organize a boycott or denounce LJ with cat macros or whatever: people will just leave immediately because the terms are no longer acceptable to them. The fact that people are complaining while not leaving shows that they have simply not gotten uncomfortable enough. LJ knows this full well. In fact, it would make much more sense if the people complaining stopped protesting to LJ (because LJ doesn’t listen) and started to lobby their friends to at least read them on other sites. If one’s friends leave LJ, it doesn’t matter what LJ does, because you’re not there anymore, in other words. Also, it is more effective to lobby one’s friends because there is much more of a chance that one will persuade them, really.

My reason is more personal; I want to just be without LJ a week, and see what it’s like. I doubt my absence will be really noted by the people on my flist, because it’s not exactly unusual for someone to go a week without posting if they’re busy.

In other news, I did finish doing most of the translation of Otogibanashi no Hajimari, but I need to revise those parts that I had trouble with by finding people online who can help me. If by any chance there is someone who is well-versed in the Japanese language out there reading this blog, I’d welcome any help.

Otherwise, I’ve been watching more anime, Code Geass, and Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Of the two, I think I’d recommend Higurashi, because while CG has its moments, I still am dubious about whether they will pull through in the end and resolve everything. I think there are too many characters and too many subplots, and it would work better if they reduced things and focused on a few main themes.

Higurashi, on the other hand, I strongly endorse if you like horror. It looks like generic moe, but that’s just a trap. It’s some awesome mindbending horror/action/mystery/supernatural/conspiracy stuff. XD It’s like every arc they decide to start on a new genre. I’m just about to start on the last arc, and am looking forward to it.

Have also been reading Pluto, a Naoki Urasawa (who is awesome, same guy who did Monster and 20th Century Boys) manga, which I also highly recommend, especially if you love talking robots.

Am also plotting a reread of Ravages of Time, and perhaps even finally getting a page on it together! We in the English RoT fandom are so few… I feel a need to publicize it more. Indeed, if you’re interested in checking it out, look here. It’s a manhua (Chinese comic) based on the story of the Three Kingdoms, but puts a decidedly different twist on the story from the famous novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The art is extremely awesome, as are the action scenes, and even better, it’s filled with plotting and strategy.

Right now I have about seven scenes of Saiunkoku that I need to edit before I can put on the blog, and I have two translations in progress. >_>

There are a few more scenes I want to translate, but I’ve gotten most of the ones I want to do out of the way.

The next Saiunkoku novel is coming out in May, so there’s a long time to wait.

I think after this I’ll translate some scenes from Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and maybe try my hand at some manga. LoGH would be mostly a self-indulgent project for me, because so few people watch the anime these days. I should try reading something more substantial than light novels or space opera, but oh well. I’m also thinking of reading the Irresponsible Captain Taylor novels, or maybe Crest of the Stars, speaking of space opera.

I just wish I knew more about Japanese fantasy novels other than Twelve Kingdoms.

I originally started this blog because I was dissatisfied with the features at LJ: I was tired of not having access to statistics, and of the insularity of Livejournal in general. In general, in terms of features, this blog more than meets my expectations. I have all of the features I desire. Unfortunately, everyone I know still mostly uses LJ or a clone, so I miss blogging as conversation. So, I think if I update more frequently, I’ll get more hits.

So my new plan is to start importing old content from my livejournal, namely my old book blogs. Since most people didn’t really comment on them, not much is lost by only importing the body of the review, and not the comments. I need to go seek out a blogosphere, really; actually, all the hype about strikethrough or fans leaving in a huff aside, LJ really is losing traffic, probably because of Myspace et al, so I am kind of wondering about the future of the English-speaking portion of the site.

I actually really like wordpress. I like the interface, I like the themes, and I love the customizability. I’m just not really sure, though, how to promote my blog, because currently it seems more like a collection of random things. I can’t really remember how I used to do it in the old days; when I joined, people had extensive blogrolls and such. So there was a visible audience.

Also, someone was suggesting that some people perhaps get together a group blog and post  their greatest hits, but why not instead just post excerpts and link back to their respective blogs? That seems to be a much more efficient way to build a hub of readership.