Update: January 2010

posted in: Updates | 27

WHEW! Four updates, a contest and a site revamp is not my idea of a relaxed weekend, but what the heck. Since it’s the new year, we’ll spoil you readers for a change. It’s also almost time for spring-cleaning (Chinese New Year is just around the corner), so I figured we might as well spring-clean this place too.

Because there are a lot of changes to our site, I’ll just explain and list out the changes for you guys to keep track of.

Projects

Tentatively, we’ve picked up The Legend of Sun Knight. I think the responses to the series should be pretty good – it is currently Yu Wo’s most popular series by far, and though it starts a bit slowly, things heat up by the third or fourth chapter. It’s still an ongoing series, and though it is largely a comedy like ½ Prince, I think the plot and the characters reflect a more mature side of Yu Wo at points. Stick with the series and you will understand what is so endearing about the Sun Knight and Co.!

I’ve emailed Yu Wo asking for permission to translate this series as well, and hopefully she’ll follow the link I gave her  to this site. The reason why the prologue and C1 were translated before receiving authorial permission was so that a) if the great master drops by, she can see for herself the quality of our translation, and b) see how well-loved her books are by you all. (In case you don’t know, the great master does understand English, so you can actually email her your fan letters. So hurry up and comment!) If we don’t get her permission, we’ll just cease working on Sun Knight.

We will continue working on ½ Prince at full throttle, so no worries about slower updates for our main project.

Contests

From now on, we’ll be organizing contests – mostly fanfiction contests, but we’ll try and see if we can come up with a wider variety of stuff. For the months of January and February, we have the Great ½ Prince Valentine’s Day Fanfic Contest (please see the post for more information), and we hope as many of you will participate as possible. There isn’t a “grand prize” since we’re all broke, but think of it this way: this is the perfect opportunity for those of you who can’t translate, are too busy to proof-read or do PDF designing to help liven things up around here!

There are a couple of rules for this contest, but we’ve tried to not kill you guys by adding stipulations that are too difficult. And for those of you who aren’t too keen on writing a fanfic, why not drop by the forum to read them instead? We’ve set up two threads, one for posting your fanfics for the competition, and the other for discussion on the fanfics. We hope you guys have lots of fun with it!

Recruitment

Recruitment is once again open for all positions. We are now actively recruiting the following in particular: proof-readers and C/E proof-readers to work on editing the compilation of V2 chapters. We need about two-three proof-readers of each kind.

IMPT: We also have two new positions – the PDF designer position and general contributor position. The second position is not really a position per se but a title of sorts for someone whose article or fanfic has been selected to be featured on our site and in our PDF file. Articles can be anything from a general discussion on the problems with shoujo comics to whether Wicked or Gui is the better man for Xiao Lan. (I seem to recall having read a really well-written forum post on this topic on baka-updates. Hoseki, if you see this, know that you’re wanted.)

If any of you intend to apply for a position, please remember to follow all the instructions on the recruitment page – in particular, remember to download the file we’ve linked you to (except gen. contributors). This will make things a lot easier for us, who have to sort through lots of applications every week.

The Notice

Every now and then, while “patrolling” (i.e. surfing the net and making sure that our translations have not mysteriously appeared elsewhere), we would come across stuff that would make us wonder if someone was about to openly flout our rules because they didn’t know that we have rules about our translations. So to ensure that everyone knows our rules (or at least that we have rules), we’ve stuck our “notice” on three pages – the front, and the list of translated chapters for each project.

Aside from that, we would like all readers to help us out like this – if you see someone intending to repost our translations somewhere, help us remind them that it’s not allowed. If you see someone reposting our translations elsewhere, let us know, and help us remind him or her to take the translations down from their site.

It’s okay if you can’t translate, proof-read, design a PDF, or contribute articles or fanfics. You just have to help us make sure that credit is given where credit is due, and to respect our rules. We have these rules not for our sakes alone, but for the readers’ sakes as well. I’ll explain why. If these rules are followed, then we won’t have to worry about people doing heaven knows what with our translations. We won’t have to bother with creating forums, putting minimum forum posts before you can read our translations, and so on, and neither would you have to bother with writing forum posts when all you want to do is read. So stick with our rules, and we will be able to channel all our efforts into translating instead.

I should also mention that Yu Wo also publishes some of her novels as blog posts just as we do, and that there have been people who have attempted to steal her work and either claim it for their own or put it on their own sites against her rules. I can still remember Yu Wo’s own blog post on how angry she was upon hearing about those sites. I won’t say anymore, but I think you guys can catch my drift.

Site Navigation

Because the site’s been restructured somewhat, I’ll explain how the site is arranged.

The old “Introduction” and “Credits” pages have been deleted and replaced by the new “About PR!” page, which is basically an updated version of our old credits page. A lot of our translators have either gone MIA or bowed out, so the credits page is much, much shorter than it was before.

The old “Status” page has been replaced by the heavily simplified “Update Log”, which basically tells you what chapter has been released this month and what will be released next month. Note that all updates will now take place on a monthly schedule, on the second week of every month.

The new “½ Prince” and “The Legend of Sun Knight” pages contain a brief synopses of each project as well as some details about the series. Under each page you will find the relevant links to the list of translated chapters, synopses (not yet available for Sun Knight), and the most recent chapter uploaded. The comment system has been switched on for the main page of each project, so that readers can leave their reviews in the form of comments. We will edit your comments for grammar and spoilers.

In short…

I hope readers will enjoy the new project and updates, and do participate in the fanfic contest and/or submit articles as a general contributor!

27 Responses

  1. gloomie

    Well, i was surprised when I checked my feeds this morning, and I found out there were, like, 7 more posts? Though not all new chapters, all the new stuff is nice too.

    And Our Great and Mighty Goddess Yu Wo who donated us the story of Prince, we’ll be forever in your debt!

  2. gloomie

    P.S.: i see a “diary” entry in the volume2, but when I click on it it gives me an error message- should I assume you didn’t translate it yet and the link there is an error?

  3. quastar

    New year, with new site arrangement. Bravo I would say, but this does mean that my life will be sapped by a new series translated here? Oh noes…. *runs under bed* :P

    But congrats, and keep up the good work. I do hope, as a fan, that there’s somewhat a priority in translating 1/2 Prince before the new series, since it’s the pillar of the site… but you guys know best. ;)

  4. ConfuzzledGirl29

    I was surprised to see so many updates, just was checking the site today at school cuz I was so bored… THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY, IT’S BETTER THAN GETTING A BAG OF CANDY AND CANDY IS MY LIFE!

  5. Ann

    YAY!!! Thank you, thank you. We really appreciate this busy weekeand you put in for us. This makes my day-to-day checking of this site worth it.
    (seriously: I check this web site every single day. Literally.)

  6. Aethlin

    couldn’t have wished for a better birthday present than this ^^ thank you so much for the new chapters!

  7. Pearl_DA

    Thank you for the constant, uhm not-so-constant updates of the situation :D Well, at least we know that you guys are all well, didn’t get into freaky accidents and are still merciful enough to give us new releases *smile* Thank you for the spoiling :x

    *rooting for you guys by doing a yippee dance in the air* :D

  8. Chrissi

    Yay! I just got my computer back, since it broke, and there’s loads of half prince goodness to read <3
    Thanks guys!

    Sun knight sounds intresting, I'm looking forward to reading another of Yu Wo's novels.

  9. aqualens

    Woohoo! I read up to volume 5 of Legend of Sun Knight in chinese but I am really glad to see translations of this since my english is SIGNIFICANTLY better than my chinese =D.

    BTW, there is another series that I would like to highly recommend for translating as well if you ever think about taking on a third project. It’s humor is similar to Half Prince in some ways, and some of the scenes in this series is so funny that it actually made me cry, literally! (Which is extremely rare for me…) I liked this series enough that I reread it about as many times as Half Prince. The literal translation of it from chinese is ‘Substitute Princess’, and it’s story is about… well, if you take a look you’ll see. Address is: http://paradise.ezla.com.tw/files/article/html/73/73654/index.html

    • erialis

      We’ll keep it in mind, but two projects is about all we can handle for now. (: I’ll read through it and note it somewhere.

  10. cloud

    I just would lke to know if I’m clear on this:
    when you say “there’s no grand prize” you maen no prize what so ever, right?

    (It does not matter if ther is a prize of not, it’s prize enough to be able to compeat with other peoples fan fics)

  11. Daywalker

    Looks great, but what may be missing is when you’re reading a chapter, a link at the bottom of each chapter and/or at the start, to switch to the previous or next chapter. That would help, so that you don’t have to go back to the previous page, to click on the next chapter.

    best regards
    Daywalker

    • erialis

      I was already planning on adding that, but now you’ve prodded me out of my procrastinating. It’ll be fixed by the next update.

    • Daywalker

      yyeeeeehhhh!!!!

      *gg* thx a lot :) (i’m too used to the manga websites ;) )

      best regards

  12. Li

    Wow! Good job on improving the site.
    But where did those character descriptions go? I liked those.

    • erialis

      They went on long-term vacation, and won’t be back any day soon, I’m afraid.

    • Li

      That’s too bad.
      One more thing I noticed: when you use the [jump to…] links under the tabs ‘1/2 Prince’ and ‘The legend of the Sun Knight’, it feels rather wierd when you can’t see the [jump to…] links on the page you are directed to. At least for the ‘List of Translated Chapters’ and ‘List of Novels and Novel Synopses’ pages. Might it be an idea to place them? It would be best somewhere at the top, so you don’t have to go down.
      If it isn’t possible because of whatever the reason, I am sorry for bothering you guys.

  13. Rampachs

    yay, I went on a holiday and came back to 2 new chapters. I was a bit surprised when I first opened the page but haha.

  14. Daywalker

    So, what happened to the mail to Yu Wo asking permission, to also translate The Sun Knight?

    best regards
    Day

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