Experienced scanlator? can i get an interview?

[Lower Deck]

hi,
im new to the FH forums, but more importantly is why i am here. Last week i was charged with the task of profiling a place or activity for my college english class. Instead of profiling something "boring" like a coffee shop, i opted to write about scanlating. I, myself am a huge manga fan (especially the adventures of Luffy), am wondering about how FH works uniquely as a scanlating group. Compared to other groups, lately, i 've felt that Franky House has been taking over most large series, so i figured that this was a group i should go to first.
So, i was wondering if i can get some interviews from staff and contributers of FH?
ill post the questions here, feel free to fill them out.
1. How long have you been working on scanlations?

2. What's your position and what does it require you to do?

3. How many hours a week do you work on scanlating?

4. How do you work among members among your project?

5. Compared to other scanlating groups (if you have worked with more than just FH), what is special about Franky House (such as: cooperation, quality, resources, etc...)?

6. How many people work on each project?

7. How does FH usually go about gathering raw manga?

8. Lastly, how has scanlating affected your life?


Have any other random comments? i dont mind jokes but please take the questions seriously.

im not sure where to put this, but i figured that this forum board would be a good place to start. I'll also post this in the thriller bark forum board as well.

[rengwei]

moved this thread
sorry i'm tired now will answer your questions tomorrow
cheers mate

[B-One]

Yaaar so, you're asking questions on how we work so you'll start your own scanlating team and copy us?;)

Well, I'll start:p

1. How long have you been working on scanlations?

I worked in the staff here for 5 months, but only 4 months as a editor. I only was a moderator before that.

2. What's your position and what does it require you to do?

I'm currently a forum admin: I lurk around the whole forum, check the staff and members. I try to solve problems and I have a small deciding power along with the other forum admins.

I'm also FH's unnoficial spokesman: I contact other scanlating teams about affiliations, joint projects and such.

3. How many hours a week do you work on scanlating?

Manga editing: 2-3 hours/week
Lurking around: 15+ hours/week...T_T

4. How do you work among members among your project?

I love teamwork and so I work rather well in teams but I also like to work alone on my things (my pages are my pages, and those who take them will suffer mouhahahha!!!)

5. Compared to other scanlating groups (if you have worked with more than just FH), what is special about Franky House (such as: cooperation, quality, resources, etc...)?

I worked for one other group and I'd say that the biggest difference between FH and them is that we work like a family. I mean, exactly like the Franky-Family from OP. We cooperate a lot more than anybody else. Surprisingly we have a lot less staff than a lot of groups (we are about 15 steady-staff while other groups have up to 40...) and we still release a lot more than them because we truly are manga freaks.

Another big difference is that we do not give task to our members. We announce what's the work that needs to be done and our staff actualy pick the amount of work that they are willing to do or have time to. When they are done, they have the choice to pick another load from the same manga or just go to another serie (but we do give priorities to every projects, like "this is to be done before this one"). So it's basically like a manga editing market where you pick what you want to use your teeth on.^^

6. How many people work on each project?

Like I said in the previous post, it depends on the number of available staff members. If more staff members are available and each pick a smaller load of work, we get the work done faster.

It also depends on the amount of time that our staff is willing to give. If someone is available for 1 hour, he'll do less work but his help is still appreciated. But if someone is willing to work for 5 hours in a row, it's sure to speed up the scanlating process.

7. How does FH usually go about gathering raw manga?

This is confidential, sorry. But I can say that we have raw providers who provide raws to us. And some raws are made public later and we also use them.

8. Lastly, how has scanlating affected your life?

I met some amazing people here. It helped me to organize my life more. I had to separate the time I come hare and the time I study. I got to learn how to use photoshop and things like that... A lot of different things^^.

[Lower Deck]

ahahahaha no definitely not, i really am writing an essay about scanlating. next semester i might, i have a pretty good feeling that ill be taking japanese. i might translate later on to help study.

thanks alot, i really appreciate the time you took to fill my questions out.

[rengwei]

1. How long have you been working on scanlations?
4 months or so...

2. What's your position and what does it require you to do?
me, a scanlator...well going around finding raw, translation, cleaning, typesetting etc
in the forums, a cipher pol...more or less like a forum police...
merging double posts...merging/ moving threads to make forums more organized...and simple things like that

3. How many hours a week do you work on scanlating?
in the past 2 months, i'd say bout 40 hours a week...(i was so into scanlating that i missed lots of manga--but i did slack off a few days and catch up to them all :D)
but now, maybe bout 10-15 hours a week...(uni's started again and things're getting busy)

4. How do you work among members among your project?



5. Compared to other scanlating groups (if you have worked with more than just FH), what is special about Franky House (such as: cooperation, quality, resources, etc...)?
never work for other group before, but like B said, FH doesnt assign task to its staff...its staff choose to do whatever pages/ projects they like...
the only project that FH prioritize above all others is One Piece since FH exists because of this manga...

Another thing is that FH does not aim to be just a scanlation group...
we wana build a manga community here...a site that fans can discuss their manga, scanlators and translators can share their resources, opinions etc...
and FH looks forward to working with as many affiliates as possible in many projects to give the fans (leechers :p) what they want...
in short, our job is to deliver...

6. How many people work on each project?
depending on how many people that's online and have an interest in that project...if we have lack of help, maybe 1-3 people per project and if we have much help then maybe some 6-8 people per project

7. How does FH usually go about gathering raw manga?


8. Lastly, how has scanlating affected your life?
well i met some funny and cool people round here...learnt how to use PS...and i'm no longer whining/ thinking "when will they release XYZ? they're so slow bla bla bla" because i know now that scanlating is not easy and takes time...
but most important, scanlating sure is a fun experience


err...no comments for Q4 & 7...hope that helps ;)

[Lower Deck]

nah no worries, every bit helps. i might post the essay here for anybody to read when its done. i dont know, depends if i decide to put more effort into it or not

[Ashnagzar]

hehe god writes his comment:

1. How long have you been working on scanlations?
a few days(except you call pro spamming as work then one month)
2. What's your position and what does it require you to do?
I'm a ****ing slave- You have to be nice and you have to want to help and then after some boring tests you become a ****ing slave were you do hard work, but only get criticism xD
3. How many hours a week do you work on scanlating?
TOO many, In fact the whole rest of the day after I come back form school
4. How do you work among members among your project?
hm, as I said I'm a ****ing slave- so I have to work hard and the other members of the project are bothering me(except the oother slaves^^)
5. Compared to other scanlating groups (if you have worked with more than just FH), what is special about Franky House (such as: cooperation, quality, resources, etc...)?
It'S the only real scanlation group and the most important thing:it ROCKS-so if someone is going too write an other opinion than mine I'm going to kick his ass^^( of course there is no freedom of opinion in FH^^)
6. How many people work on each project?
hm, too less^^
7. How does FH usually go about gathering raw manga?
How the **** should I know that_ I'm only a slave xD
8. Lastly, how has scanlating affected your life?
hm, to summarize it - because of FH:
-I have no free time more
-I don't do anthing for school either
-I have to work hard and don't get any praise
-My familie is starting to be afraid of me because I spend my whole time in front of my lapop
-and I have no time to find my dreamwoman

All in all: Since I have joined FH my life has started
powered by :franky-house:

[Annita]

1. How long have you been working on scanlations?
I've been working on scanlations field about 5 years now but not specific in editing. Im pretty much into editing manga/manhwa now so let's say it's about over 3 months abit since i 1st joined FH and start to learn as an editor (Dec -> Mar) till now.

2. What's your position and what does it require you to do?
Hm, my position is editor. Obviously its editing manga. More specific, its cleaning and typesetting. So cleaning: make a page looks nicer than the raw, and typesetting is basically replace original texts with other language texts (english in this case).
and im also a cipher pol, which, mm, keep track of staff.

3. How many hours a week do you work on scanlating?
Depends. But i think i spend about 2-3hours/day to work on scanlating. Those amount times are because i'm not only work for FH but other groups as well, so yeah. But its not really accurate since on weekend or when raw comes out, i tend to work straight about 7-10 hours to get the job done, and after that take 1-2 days off from it.

4. How do you work among members among your project?

5. Compared to other scanlating groups (if you have worked with more than just FH), what is special about Franky House (such as: cooperation, quality, resources, etc...)?
Mm, what is special? i think FH is because they accept everyone with much more friendly-er attitude than other groups. Fh accept zero skill people, and train them very nicely. Other group dont do that. They dont train people but let you surf by yourself, and come back again when you are enough skill. That's the 1st reason why i join and still here. Besides, active staffs are always friendly, easy-going and easy to contact. You can reach them very fast and they respond to your request fast too. It feels no different at all between member and staff. So i love to be here.

6. How many people work on each project?
it's hard to say. But currently, we are lacking of staff so probably 1->4 people in a project.

7. How does FH usually go about gathering raw manga?

8. Lastly, how has scanlating affected your life?
affect? mm, i dont think it affects my real life much. I give out my time on playing game online to do scanlations so its probably still the same for my real life. (lolz, you can consider this a joke but its true in a way too - instead of playing game online for 3 hours, i work on scanlations. Not that i stop my habbit but it's to fill the time because i happen to got bored of game so its a good way to spend time).
In other way, i got some photoshop skills. It can be useful in the future, who knows. Maybe i'll work on a scanlating group in real life. Who knows.
And i got friends online. Lots of friends. I found some of them to be my "trust friends" that i can trust, can tell them everything. They are like my best friends, give me advices, give me lessons to practise on my homework, teach me lots of things.
So as for now, it brings me such wonderful things.
But there are hard times too. There are lots of times i get tired of practise to increase my skills, there are lots of time i get discourage and wanna quit. But people around me dont. They just keep continuing. And thats one way of them that give me courage and feelings that i shouldnt quit. And i take that courage into my real life as well. I get stand up from my lost. FH gave me a new start when i was really down from my life. And so, im happy that im here. :)

Question 4: B-chan (b-one) answered you nicely, i think i have no more comment.
Question 7: as b-chan said too, this cant be provide outside group so im sorry, no comment as well. :)

@ashnagzar: your answers ... ha hah hahahaha.... amazing. Great job on that XD. Truly a FH member XD

[makhan]

Well, since everyone is answering, I might do that as well XD

1. How long have you been working on scanlations?
~8 months

2. What's your position and what does it require you to do?
as FH Scanlator
cleaner&typesetter
as FH Staff
administrator - that means a lot XD
as FH Member
I'm slave driver :D getting people to do what I want them to do (buahaahahaha) - it connects somehow with administrator's position, but it only gives me a bit more of authority, doesn't really affect my sadist's nature XD

3. How many hours a week do you work on scanlating?
it's hard to say, at least few hours; when I started scanlating, I was releasing 3 chapters/week by myself, but now there are weeks when I clean only 3 pages

4. How do you work among members among your project?
depends on the projects - sometimes I just come, see what pages are free, clean some and go away leaving the rest of work to others, sometimes I'm nagging others to help with some projects, sometimes I give pages to recruits, when they scanlate them, I'm correcting their mistakes and releasingl but everything is based on a teamwork, I'm not scanlating anything alone anymore

5. Compared to other scanlating groups (if you have worked with more than just FH), what is special about Franky House (such as: cooperation, quality, resources, etc...)?
- great system of assigning the work - we have a workstation for every chapter we scanlate, everyone state there what pages he takes, if he wants to typeset or clean or both, etc.; when he is done he posts, when he doesn't have time to finish his load, he say it, so someone else can take his pages... it's a lot better than one person mailing others with the assignments and waiting for their response
- really great team, everyone in FH is soooo funny to talk with XD
- we accept everybody - no matter what their skills are

6. How many people work on each project?
it varies, but usually 2-5 (there were times when there was more though ;))

7. How does FH usually go about gathering raw manga?
we usually get raws available for everyone, sometimes get sth from our affiliates, although we're looking for our own raw providers all the time XD

8. Lastly, how has scanlating affected your life?
it ruins it XD I have no time for anything, spend all my time by the computer, I should seriously drop it :p but I can't help it, since FH is so fun XD

[mab]

1. How long have you been working on scanlations?
hmm well like 6 months or so

2. What's your position and what does it require you to do?
cleaner editor mod

3. How many hours a week do you work on scanlating?
before 40 hours or more

4. How do you work among members among your project?
work together he page a pic another one and so on

5. Compared to other scanlating groups (if you have worked with more than just FH), what is special about Franky House (such as: cooperation, quality, resources, etc...)?
well i worked with two other and i drop them because they were not organize like FH and not fun to work with them but with FH laughing as i clean XD
well our quality have drop lately because most of our good cleaner are gone or unacitve but know we have got nice new ppl who will the same :D

6. How many people work on each project?
1-10 :D

7. How does FH usually go about gathering raw manga?
steal it from MH and chinese raw :D and sometime access someone email

8. Lastly, how has scanlating affected your life?
well pretty much take my time but i gain from it fun and nice friends

[rengwei]

8. Lastly, how has scanlating affected your life?
it ruins it XD I have no time for anything, spend all my time by the computer, I should seriously drop it :p but I can't help it, since FH is so fun XD

wahahahah quoted for truth!!
since so many people are answering u have no choice but to show us your essay now Lower Deck :p

[B-One]

B-One has agreed with this statement...(TT __ TT)"

[michiyohayashi]

1. How long have you been working on scanlations?
Since december 22 or 23, 2007...

2. What's your position and what does it require you to do?
I'm a translator who also does proofreading. I translate the manga that you enjoy from either Chinese or Japanese, to English. I also have a good grasp of the English language, so when the proofreaders are MIA, I'll step in and do their job. A proofreader checks the translation script for English grammar mistakes and tweaks the sentences to make the story flow better.

3. How many hours a week do you work on scanlating?
It varies. When I had loads of free time, I was working on translations for like... 40 hours a week or something. Now that I've got lectures and tutorials to attend, I only work on translating for about 5(at most) hours a week.

4. How do you work among members among your project?
We chat on mIRC, MSN or PM each other on the forums.

5. Compared to other scanlating groups (if you have worked with more than just FH), what is special about Franky House (such as: cooperation, quality, resources, etc...)?
We work at our own pace. There is no deadline.

6. How many people work on each project?
The number of people who work on a project varies. Whoever interested will participate.

7. How does FH usually go about gathering raw manga?
Top secret, of course.

8. Lastly, how has scanlating affected your life?
I've found a caring community online... I love you guys! They give me encouragement and advice, and joke around with me too. You know who you are. =)

[Lower Deck]

guh, ill have it finished within a couple hours, ive been putting it off
wow thanks, it went from 3 posts in a week to twelve, which always helps.

[Hana-Chan]

Oooh, I want to answer too (even though I'm only a trainee) even if you're done ^^

1. How long have you been working on scanlations?
About a month for FH. I did some chapter here and there before but nothing like FH ^^

2. What's your position and what does it require you to do?
I'm a trainee, it means I mostly spam, bother admins, and train a lot to become a better cleaner, I help out with some projects, and we recruits get special assignments to improve our skills.

3. How many hours a week do you work on scanlating?
Uhm. 8 maybe? I have no concept of time.

4. How do you work among members among your project?
I like working with the others here, allthough it can be confusing if you don't read the other posts about what page's been taken and all that, but apart from that it's really fun, and if someone needs help someone will surely help.

5. Compared to other scanlating groups (if you have worked with more than just FH), what is special about Franky House (such as: cooperation, quality, resources, etc...)?
FH is much more fun! The conversations are not the same. Even though we're all at different levels it feels like you can talk to anyone, and (to be a bit cheesy) the people who've been here longer than me set a good example.

6. How many people work on each project?
When, I come around - one more ^^

7. How does FH usually go about gathering raw manga?
Don't know.

8. Lastly, how has scanlating affected your life?
Before I felt like it was an obligation to learn Photoshop if I wanted to edit photos or any drawings or something, but by starting cleaning manga it got funnier, and you also learn a lot that you can aply on other things, not just cleaning. It also gave me a bigger understanding for manga, and also for editing. (Even though cleaning can be a bit tricky ^^)