Lets work on blog!project! - ARCHIVED - SEE FIRST POST FOR IMPORTANT INFO AND LINKS

[eri]

[quote name='strawberryjam' timestamp='1303245825' post='97631']

Someone think of the question and the poll options please. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... hahaha.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':hahaha:' />

[/quote]



[edit] I added a few stuff:



Blog project is BETA and we're still building a site that can be useful for H!P fans. After we opened blog!project in February 2011, we've rapidly expanded our translations to (how many now?) blogs and have been visited by tens of thousands of unique visitors from all around the world! We want to make sure the site is user-friendly for every fan.



Currently, we organize the front page by showing the newest translations uploaded, regardless of the postdate of the original blog or the idol. You can skim through the translations by order of completion using the page numbers at the bottom of the main page. Or, you can click an idol's name and see her specific blog translations only.



We'd like your thoughts on this layout:

1. Leave the current layout as it is!

2. Switch to an idol-centered front page that shows the most recent translation for each individual blog and not the most recent translations for everyone.

3. Other? Please let us know in the comments...



Something like that?



[quote name='strawberryjam' timestamp='1303246719' post='97633']

I'm the only one that's backtracking you know! I can't translate anything else. Jun Jun hardly posts anymore.. And I don't know Japanese!

[/quote]



I think some people backtrack too -- just not that far back. Like, it seems people do week old posts usually if they are doing translations all in one go.

[momoirosaya]

Oh my gosh! I just checked the stats, and I never knew we had so many readers <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... >/ohmy.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':o' />



And I like eri's idea!

[rob]

I'm really ill with the flu at the moment, will catch up on kanon's blog when I get better.

[tsukinobyouin]

Hope you feel better soon Rob!



I also had no idea we had so many viewers! Yay! <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... nceman.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':danceman:' /> We don't get nearly that many comments, but then again I'm not sure what people would have to say. It's good to know that a lot of people click on the girls' individual pages. That makes me feel less like things are getting missed.



I like eri's questions, but I think they're a little confusing. Or rather, its just long. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> Unfortunately on the internet no one takes the time to read anything, so it helps to keep things short. If we put up a long intro, people might not even see that there's a poll hidden in the post. Maybe something like this?

Blog project is still BETA and we want to make sure the site is user-friendly for every fan. Please let us know what you think about the layout.



1. Leave the current layout as it is!

2. Show only the most recent translation for each individual blog on the main page.

3. Other? Please let us know in the comments...

[strawberryjam]

I added a plugin that puts a dropdown in the sidebar that lets you sort the posts by translation date or girl date, asc/desc. But I can only get it to work on the homepage. If it worked on categories, maybe this would help solve everything?



I'm going to PM Zaeleus and ask if he can take a look at it. Only going to enable it on the homepage for now since that's the only place it works.

[aine]

I don't think there's a solution that would please everyone and as an advocate of having a choice I would simply give people a choice of how they want to view the blogs rather than force an arbitrary solution. The new sorting by ASC/DESC dates option is a step in the right direction.



Ideally the blog front-end would be modular so each user could customise it to their liking, select which content they want to follow and how to arrange it - but that's the amount of work to implement it would be rather unrealistic at this moment for this fan project.



The problem with the home page is that we're aggregating a huge number of blogs, several of them pretty high-traffic. It's those few that consequently set the pace at which the home page is moving. I think ultimately the best solution for the home page would be to serve as an overview of the content posted in individual blogs, including the comments and so on - but only in a one-line list form. Then it could have a few "featured posts" stickied and displayed they way they are now. Think the Wordpress front page. But that again would require a lot of code rewrites AND a person dedicated to managing and editing the front page content.



However, I doubt this is something within our scope, at least at this moment, so we probably just need to learn to love the Blog the way it is and make the best use out of the available browse and sort functions. And yes, it would be a big shame if all the back-tracked translations would get overlooked or had even less chance to stand out than they have now.

[eri]

Di

Posted April 22, 2011 at 10:25 | Permalink

Thank you so, so much for publishing Risa’s blog posts! She’s one of my two favorite members, and I was a bit distraught for a while because of the lack of Risa blog translations, but am so happy to see that they’re picking up again and hope they continue in the future. Truly, thank you!

Caught this comment tonight. Isn't that nice?

[momoirosaya]

Di

Posted April 22, 2011 at 10:25 | Permalink

Thank you so, so much for publishing Risa’s blog posts! She’s one of my two favorite members, and I was a bit distraught for a while because of the lack of Risa blog translations, but am so happy to see that they’re picking up again and hope they continue in the future. Truly, thank you!

Caught this comment tonight. Isn't that nice?

[rob]

Help...



"ＧＷのスマフェス、みんなきてくださいね"



Everyone please come to GW's smile face...



wut..

[al kusanagi]

George Washington gets all the bitches.

[al kusanagi]

Whose post is it? GW is the Golden Week holidays.



If it's a S/mileage member, they might be doing a S/mileage Festival event.



edit: I think they're collectively calling all the promotion events/appearances/ustreams/etc. for this week "SmileFest."

[rob]

ah sorry, I do Kanon's blog



<img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... cepalm.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':facepalm:' /> right I get that GW is golden week... jeez :\ I must still be a bit ill.



cheers Al.

[eri]

Anyone have a clue on "bikkura"?



http://ameblo.jp/wadaayaka/entry-10869516765.html



今日、【魁!音楽番付Eight】に出させていただきました！





そこで！



ビックラすることありました！

[momoirosaya]

[quote name='donut' timestamp='1303528141' post='97869']

Anyone have a clue on "bikkura"?



http://ameblo.jp/wadaayaka/entry-10869516765.html



今日、【魁!音楽番付Eight】に出させていただきました！





そこで！



ビックラすることありました！

[/quote]

Same as　ビックリ (surprised).

[eri]

[quote name='Saya' timestamp='1303528686' post='97870']

[quote name='donut' timestamp='1303528141' post='97869']

Anyone have a clue on "bikkura"?



http://ameblo.jp/wadaayaka/entry-10869516765.html



今日、【魁!音楽番付Eight】に出させていただきました！





そこで！



ビックラすることありました！

[/quote]

Same as　ビックリ (surprised).

[/quote]

Thanks Saya. Weird - I've NEVER heard it as "bikkura" unless it was attached to something -- ie bikkurapon.

[Haru]

Could it maybe be some form of Japanese shorthand; in a similar way we have shorthand for words (u = you, ur = your and so on)?

[momoirosaya]

[quote name='Haru' timestamp='1303532293' post='97874']

Could it maybe be some form of Japanese shorthand; in a similar way we have shorthand for words (u = you, ur = your and so on)?

[/quote]

Nah it's just a different way of saying it. Plus it's not shorter, it's ビックリ Bikkuri vs ビックラ Bikkura, same amount of characters in both.

[eri]

Quick thing I noticed:

The blog defaults to translation post date descending so I switch it to original post date descending. However, when I hit the "back" button after reading a blog, the front page goes back to that default. I assumed that I could set it since I was logged in, but I guess not?

[momoirosaya]

I'm back in school now and I am seriously sleep deprived, I have a 3000+ word research paper due Friday, and 2 AP Tests coming up within the next 2 weeks so, I will only be updating blogs on the weekends :D Just so you know I haven't stopped.

[tsukinobyouin]

Good luck Saya! Let us know if you need any help.



Can we add some of the gree icons? If I paste them from Sayu's blog they show up, but end up aligned way above the sentence they're next to. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... nfused.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> If it's not too much of a pain, here are some she's using lately:



























I don't mind adding them myself, if someone can give me a quick tutorial on how.

[eri]

[quote name='Saya' timestamp='1303877401' post='98096']

I'm back in school now and I am seriously sleep deprived, I have a 3000+ word research paper due Friday, and 2 AP Tests coming up within the next 2 weeks so, I will only be updating blogs on the weekends :D Just so you know I haven't stopped.

[/quote]





Do you need any help? I can cover an extra blog if you are really busy.



Also good luck on exams!! You are only a few weeks away from summer break <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... umbsup.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[strawberryjam]

[quote name='donut' timestamp='1303859742' post='98073']

Quick thing I noticed:

The blog defaults to translation post date descending so I switch it to original post date descending. However, when I hit the "back" button after reading a blog, the front page goes back to that default. I assumed that I could set it since I was logged in, but I guess not?

[/quote]

Plugin is pretty shotty. I guess I will post that thing we were going to. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... hahaha.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':hahaha:' /> However, I just want to update that Zaeleus responded to me a couple of days ago and he said he would take a look at the plugin. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... umbsup.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />





[quote name='TnB' timestamp='1303908472' post='98105']

Good luck Saya! Let us know if you need any help.



Can we add some of the gree icons? If I paste them from Sayu's blog they show up, but end up aligned way above the sentence they're next to. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... nfused.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> If it's not too much of a pain, here are some she's using lately:



























I don't mind adding them myself, if someone can give me a quick tutorial on how.

[/quote]

I'd be happy to add them for you for now. I'll look into enabling this plugin for authors.

For now, do you mind telling me what you want the shortcode for the icons to be? I can do it for you, but you're gonna be the one typing them up the most.





Also, good look with the end of the year Saya! Only a little more! <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... umbsup.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[tsukinobyouin]

Sure! Here:



[quote name='TnB' timestamp='1303908472' post='98105']

:haato:

:sparkleheart:

:redribbon:

:excite:



:point:

:age:

:onpu:

:shades:

:momiji:



[/quote]



I tried to make sure these weren't already used, sorry if I missed any.

[momoirosaya]

Thanks everyone!

I think I'll be okay though~

Saki doesn't blog everyday, and Risa has a lot of short easy to translate ones!

[rokun]

Hey! I'm sorry I was out for a few days. Was busy at Sakuracon... What a time that was. I'm sure you guys have your own reports about it though.



Working for a while now on these has helped me learn some things, and so I felt pretty comfortable going away even though I didn't mention it here... I know nobody else does Berryz blogs, and as for C-ute, well, I know of a couple other sites that keep them up, so I was happy to just leave them to those for the past few days.



I'm sorry that it seems like these posts are being spammed sometimes... but there are just a lot of girls. >_< It amuses me a little looking at the stats (which I like to about every day since I'm kind of a stats geek >_<), and seeing that like this weekend there was a big dropoff in viewers. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> It seems to work really well that I post on some forums, since they really do bring in the traffic - for example H!O like someone mentioned. I know it's not really realistic, but it's nice to see Captain's or Airi's blog leading the stats some days. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />



Anyway, I certainly did spam quite a few Saki posts upon coming back since I was catching up over the weekend, but it should go back to regular today or tomorrow. I'd meant to start C-ute's again today, but I'm not sure if that's gonna happen...



Oh, and I wanted to say, another thing I got reinforced at Sakuracon is that what we do here is really not for nothing. I was thanked by many other fans - some very assiduously as well - for what we do here, and I'm sure there are those who feel that way for every girl one of us takes the time and effort to translate for. I even read about an interview where the comment was posed to the girls about how fans translated their blog posts into English (the interviewer must have been aware of here, because I don't really know of anyone else who, regularly at least, translates Berryz blogs), and he wrote that looks of astonishment just spread across their faces...



I really enjoy what I do here, but those kind of things really lend an extra bit of satisfaction. :)



Also thank you to strawberry for all the work you've put in to making this such an easy-to-use site. And I promise I'll get back to you on names for those emoticons one of these days!! I'm just not good at that kind of thing. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> Glad to see TnB taking up some of the slack <3

[rob]

That's great to hear Rokun!!



I also think you're idea of posting the links on fan forums like H!O is a great idea, keep up the good work!



I can't imagine translating as much as you do, all I do is Fukuda Kanon and she posts like once a day and sometimes I can't keep up with that! damn work lol.



Let's work hard together guys!

[rob]

Just thinking out loud on some possible "improvements"



- Rather than the front page listed by "last update" make it per member per group.



For example -



Morning Musume - Berryz Koubou - C-ute

Takahashi-------------Shimizu-----------Yajima



You can add photos, for each member etc, maybe even add a "Updated on...." next to each name.



I have a good image in my head of how it would look, but it's difficult to try and type that out.



- A weekly/monthly recap



Either weekly or monthly each blog has a recap, so there would be a section for January and you could read it in order of January 1st - 31st





- A section explaining commonly used Japanese expressions that don't really have a correct English translation / nuance



for example "Otsukaresama desu" You "could" translate it but because it isn't used in every day English, the feeling when the words are used are hard to express in English.





-------------------



Maybe off topic, but would anyone be interested in making a punk rock! project type group... I don't know if anyone has heard of the "Me first and the gimme gimmes" but they do cover versions of old classic songs in a punk rock style, I've always thought that would be such an awesome thing to do for H!P too, I can't sing but I can play the guitar.

We'd have to figure out a way of recording separate pieces and mixing them together somehow.. anyway just an idea I had if anyone is interested!



Sorry for the mega post.

[strawberryjam]

[quote name='TnB' timestamp='1303926824' post='98117']

:momiji:

[/quote]

This is the only one that didn't go through. Could you think of something else?

[tsukinobyouin]

- A section explaining commonly used Japanese expressions that don't really have a correct English translation / nuance



for example "Otsukaresama desu" You "could" translate it but because it isn't used in every day English, the feeling when the words are used are hard to express in English.

I'm actually really against this. I really dislike leaving in original Japanese in translations, because it's just...lazy. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> Professional translators find a way around it, so it's not impossible. There's always a way to translate things, it's just not a standard "set phrase" translation. For example, "Otsukaresama desu" would be "Good work today!" or "Thanks for your hard work!" or "I worked hard today!"



If there's something really difficult to translate (such as puns or play-on-words that don't come out in English) I think a simple footnote on the actual entry would be easier for the readers, rather than having to click back and forth.

Maybe off topic, but would anyone be interested in making a punk rock! project type group... I don't know if anyone has heard of the "Me first and the gimme gimmes" but they do cover versions of old classic songs in a punk rock style, I've always thought that would be such an awesome thing to do for H!P too, I can't sing but I can play the guitar.

We'd have to figure out a way of recording separate pieces and mixing them together somehow.. anyway just an idea I had if anyone is interested!

Try this section of the board. That's where cover groups and fanmixes are posted and organized.

:momiji:

This is the only one that didn't go through. Could you think of something else?

How about :maple: ? If that doesn't work, maybe :leaf: ?

[eri]

[quote name='rob' timestamp='1303971263' post='98151']

- A weekly/monthly recap

[/quote]



Just to comment on these 2....

A recap...



Pro: There are so many blogs and so many posts that it might be fun to get a few "highlighted" for me to read. After all, I do NOT read all of the posts and we do like a hundred a day or something unreal.



Con: This would be really hard for some of us who are busy. Given the high volume of posts and blogs we cover....would readers really want to see the front page full of 20 or so "recaps"? I am also wary of putting too much of ourselves on the page -- its a translation site, not our blog, and I don't think the people who read blog!project even care what we think <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />



[quote name='rob' timestamp='1303971263' post='98151']

- A section explaining commonly used Japanese expressions that don't really have a correct English translation / nuance

[/quote]



Personally, I gave up on translating "yoroshiku onegaishimasu." Everything else gets some kind of English spin though. I think this should be left up to the translator's discretion.