Patreon Survey 2021 Results - Part 2: Your Opinions

In this part I'll combine the questions about various aspects of the blog/patreon/discord with your opinions at the end.

Right after your interests, the survey headed into ratings of the general aspects. I'll list the results here in one block.

Accessibility of new Chapters/Chapter Parts (Releases)

Communication of new releases

Format of new releases

Language quality of new releases

You'll agree that the general tenor is positive. What made me especially happy is the overall positive assessment of the language quality. Some may not know, but my native language isn't English, so seeing many of you being mostly happy with the readability is a huge encouragement for me that my current path of improving my English by reading lots of English literature isn't wrong. :-)

Are you happy with the current way new chapters/chaper parts are released?

I'd say a huge majority is happy with how I do things, but part of the show is to also look at the critical opinions since they often hide some interesting aspects some may accept as inevitable, but should still be looked at.

The comments of the people having voted no above.

Comment 1 and 2 are similar in nature with 1 being directed at Hachinan. Sorry, but a vote is not feasible. Not because I don't want to do it, but because it'd alienate 5 out of 6 series indefinitely.

Comment 3 is something I feel myself, but there's a reason for how things developed like this. In the first place, many might not know this, but this translation group is actually running for almost 7 years now. 

Originally I started out with Hachinan, Nidome, and some other series. And then I started this Patreon over 5 years ago.  Even back then I was running 5+ series at almost all times, and I have always promised to keep series going which are popular (while at the same time cancelling series that are unpopular). If you ask why I didn't start with just one series instead of five, it's simply because I want variation. Translating one long series all days long would have likely burned me out quickly like so many other TLs. 

Also, back then I wanted to experience many JP writing styles. Hachinan is written by a junior-grade schooler, Spearmaster by a mad genius, D-Genesis by a working adult 30+, Dunbat by a gamer, and so on. Every author got their own quirks and styles, heavily influencing their novels. Even a publisher's editor can't erase that, like for example Main's (Nidome) writing style still makes me feel like I'm reading the story of someone who loves to flaunt his sophisticated way of phrasing.

So, if you tell me that I'm picking up too many novels, I'll admit guilty as charged. I'm well aware of it myself. If you ask me whether I'm going to change that, I'll probably tell you that I'll try to narrow down the amount as far as I can, but I'll never focus on just 1 or 2 novels.

Comment 4 I honestly don't understand. Comment 5 I'm going to address by adding extra downloads at the last part of each chapter (as I started doing with Hachinan on Sunday). 

And as for comment 6: Many authors (esp. Chinese ones but JP ones do it as well) tend to write short chapters nowadays to get a lot of exposition on the publishing platforms. A lot of novels use chapters with a length of 1.5k - 2.5k moji. Spearmaster chapters are almost always 10k+ moji. If you get 2 Spearmaster chapters per week, you have 20k+ moji which sums up to 10 shorter chapters per week. I know that being confronted with almost 900 chapters in the raw while the translation hasn't reached 400 yet can be vexing, But I beg your understanding on my limits on this one. :-)

Now then, the next section was about the comments you added at the end. Many of you thanked me for my work which makes me very happy. I hope I can shed a bit of light and entertainment with all the stories I translate into your life.  As long as many people support my effort, I'll keep going. I truly love what I do, and if I can make some of you happy, that's all I could ask for.

Some of them contained questions or need a reply, so I'll address them here. :-)

1.) Soda Sis: I took a look at it. It's an abandoned series. Sorry, but chances that the author will ever finish it are close to zero.

2.) I answered that one above. Voting for novels will lead to always the same result, thus alienating all other series. 

3.) The email notification system is actually a Patreon-based issue I have no influence on. Your best choice, if the emails bug you, is to deactivate them since I release the novels always on the same weekday anyway.

4.) Sorry, that was my bad. I'll try to inform you on time.

5.) I don't speak Spanish. So I'd need to hire someone who does. Hiring someone costs money, and I'm already paying another JP TL (Vermillion) and my editors, so I don't plan to pay for translators for other languages like Spanish, Italian, French etc. 

6.) I'll work on it. Not promising anything, but when I find time I'll add pdfs/epubs for the LN volumes I translated.

7.) Using such system runs counter to how this Patreon grew. I implemented a similar system on my LN Patreon one, but I won't do the same here.

8.) This corresponds with 3.)

9.) Not sure what is meant here since all my chapter releases (except for the recent Patreon -only chapter/chapter parts previews) are available on my blog.

10.) I didn't miss any chapters. I simply started where others left off. If it's a request for a re-translation, it's something on my agenda but on a rather low priority.

11.) I'm going to implement a separate "full" chapter for the last part of a splitted chapter. I hope this should resolve the issue.

And some more:

1.) I don't do manga. :-)

2.) I'll put up Hakai no Miko as time permits. I'll contact everyone, who took part in the Hakai no Miko survey, per mail once I have set up the tiers. :-)

3.) Nidome ends at a good point. Besides, I know there are many other series out there, but as long people read Nidome, I'll continue it. If not, I'll cancel it.

4.) I won't include a suggestion option. Why? Because I've got already too many series on my hands anyway. I'm currently translating 10 series. Currently I'm rather pondering how to lower that number again. xD

5.) I suppose this refers to Spearmaster? Yes, I censor cat porn there, and I also cut out some recap a while back. I'll keep doing so. The author is awfully wordy, and repeating a hundred times how much he loves the fur of his cat doesn't add anything to the story. Sorry.

This one got long, but I think it covers all open questions. Should I have missed anything, and if there's something you'd like to comment on. Feel free to do it here, on Discord or sent me a mail to contact@infinitenoveltranslations.net if you want to keep it private.

Now on to the next part. Part 3: Paid Content