Why are releases pushed back without notification?
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I have no issues with something being delayed or pushed back. PROVIDED that they actually acknowledge or mention that there's a delay, even after the fact.
What I do find annoying is silently changing the schedule without mention. To illustrate, here is what I did late last night.
Went onto JNC, noticed that AoaB P2V2P6 was scheduled to be available in an hour, took note that meaning 1AM my local time, decided that if I was still awake, I'd take a look at it. Then set a notification on my phone to warn me. Left and did other stuff until I received my notification.Then I used the JNC app. Saw that it only went to P2V2P5. Figured that some index somewhere wasn't updated.
Then I went to the web site and looked at the titles. Once again, saw that it only went to P2V2P5. Figured it used the same support system as the app.
Then looked at the release list, scrolled down. Saw bookworm and the available link. Clicked it and got the page not found.
Was annoyed.
Went away and did other stuff.
Came back much later, just in case it was a matter of updates being delayed.
Looked at the release list again. Saw bookworm. Then noticed the date was for Sunday. Paused, then scrolled upwards. Noticed that the date seen was Friday. Figured I somehow missed Saturday. Scrolled down until I saw the next date. Saw it was Sunday. WTF!?!? The release schedule had been quietly updated without any notice or mention as if Saturday never existed.That lack of notice is annoying.
Once again, delays happen. That's acceptable. But please make a notice or mention of the delay. Don't just quietly change the schedule and act as if nothing has happened.
Morning and Mourning sound alike for good and sufficient reasons.
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I do not mind if a release is delayed, because the product comes out better, but what I do care is that J-Novel does not post any kind of notification, whether that be on their page or on social media like Twitter.
If they were consistent in providing notification regarding delays I would happy and prepare accordingly for such delays.
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@jcochran No one's acting as if nothing happened, it was like midnight when I got pinged and I was about to go to bed, so I checked the status of the part, waited for a response, decided it wasn't coming, pushed it back, and went to sleep. I am sorry you were so unduly inconvenienced.
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@myskaros Take a look at the release schedule. Do you currently see anything mentioned for December 7th? Look elsewhere on the web site. Do you see anything outside of user comments in the forums about a delay? I know I haven't been able to find any such notice or acknowledgement. Hell, if the release page still had a December 7th entry for AoaB with a line saying "Delayed until Sunday December 8th", that would be more than sufficient. But quietly deleting the December 7th entry and making a new December 8th entry isn't what I would consider acceptable behavior.
Morning and Mourning sound alike for good and sufficient reasons.
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I think everyone should take a breathe here, this was and still is a suggestion topic and it has already been noted by J-Novel Club.
As for acknowledgment of the delay say what you will but Quof already made a general comment about it.
Sorry but J-Novel Club does not publicly comment on any potential licensing decision or acquisitions.
J-Novel Club, Future Volume Release Schedule
Manga FAQ
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@rahul-balaggan I completely agree. Life happens and things get in the way. Generally there is mention of a delay, but life isn't perfect and stuff happens that you just can't control. These releases are larger than most so a one day delay is no big thing. Same thing happened when "Smartphone" volumes were being translated in 6 releases or less. So, please try to understand that things don't always go according to plan and give the translators a break. It's not an easy job to translate this much content at this pace.
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@lighthawk96 I have no issues the translators getting behind schedule. I agree that things happen and delays occur. But on the other hand, I also doubt that the translators are the same personal who are managing and maintaining the web site. It is with those people that I have an issue with. Instead of silently editing the schedule whenever a delay happens, leaving no notice or acknowledgement, it would be far better to leave an official notice of the change.
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Notices are nice, but I don't really expect them right away unless the problem is known in advance (like with the last convention JNC attended). Like with bookworm, I wouldn't consider a notice by staff in the discussion thread 1-2 business days after the initial delay to be unreasonable (heck, if it only moves out a day, I don't even expect an explanation for that particular series) considering it's been discussed before that due to the aggressive release schedule they're trying to maintain for the series, any crimp in the plans tends to cause a delay.
If you have a burning need for up to the minute information, the discord is probably your best bet. Social media and web sites are constrained by the fact only select individuals can update them (generally speaking even in smaller companies like JNC, you aren't handing out the passwords to the company twitter account to everyone), and while I'm not sure if there's any etiquette guidelines for the forums, I would imagine that unless it's something crazy like someone was hospitalized, they're generally going to wait for the people working the project to post the reasons for any delays.
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I know how you feel, thinking of those days when I had nothing better to do than waiting hourly for certain manga releases and such to be available.
Though, life is life and I rather consider it a bliss, if schedules with novels/manga etc. are not postponed. Even if it is just a day.
For that I have seen worse situations where suddenly an author throws a tantrum, etc. whatever, boycotting the release or even died in the middle of a super interesting story arc because of a tsunami.
I can imagine some people prefer the "Scotty variant", where the item is scheduled for a later date but then released sooner...
That said, I appreciate seeing J-Novel Club releasing statements about important events which delays released understandably - like the change of editors.
In my opinion life is short - and it is shorter when getting yourself unnerved. Up to you if you feel it is worth it. A one day delay would not be much of a disaster to me. Probably sad since your weekend to read it is cut one day short, but still.
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@jcochran said in Why are releases pushed back without notification?:
@myskaros Take a look at the release schedule. Do you currently see anything mentioned for December 7th? Look elsewhere on the web site. Do you see anything outside of user comments in the forums about a delay? I know I haven't been able to find any such notice or acknowledgement. Hell, if the release page still had a December 7th entry for AoaB with a line saying "Delayed until Sunday December 8th", that would be more than sufficient. But quietly deleting the December 7th entry and making a new December 8th entry isn't what I would consider acceptable behavior.
He didn't delete the December 7th event and add a December 8th event, he just changed the release timestamp on the event. The J-Novel Club website does not support the sort of functionality you're asking for, and adding new features to the site's software isn't something that the guy responsible for uploading parts can do anything about.
J-Novel Club is working on a new website, but in the meantime, myskaros couldn't do what you're asking even if he wanted to.
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You know what? Unless a volume is 12 (or more) parts, JNC still translates a volume faster than YP, even if there's a day or two delay in a part getting released or a volume getting started. Frankly, as bad as my pre pub backlog is, I don't even notice.
Speaking of YP and delays, I'm just hoping I get SAO 18 before the anime catches up
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Isn't changing the schedule by definition a method of notifying us there was a delay? Yes, I acknowledge that you would prefer an additional notice of a delay by some other medium.
Maybe, the release schedule should have the word "Tenative" at the top of it to signify that the schedule is subject to change. This is why so many organizations don't want to give release or completion dates at all because people get frustrated and when an estimate is wrong.
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I don't mind much if a pre-pub portion is delayed a day or three
I know that it isn't necessarily for public consumption as to the why's and wherefores that a portion might be delayed
(folks doing the work are human, sometimes life happens and it isn't any of my business as to why something didn't make the foretasted posting date. People get sick, get struck by lightening, may have personal or professional reasons why stuff gets delayed- I don't want to know all the details)It might be a good idea the drop a caveat somewhere on the website/schedule that dates are estimated
what I would like to see is official announcements if there's going to be a significant (longer than 'usual') delay between volumes in a series, or a delay in a series being continued - folks tend to think the worst:
- is there a problem with this series?
- has it been dropped? cancelled? abandoned? (by JNC? by the author? by the Japanese publisher?)
- is there a problem with staff/folks working on this translation?
I'm spoiled rotten by JNC- generally we get lots of info, and installments /publications arrive on schedule (if only other publishers were so good!)
<edited to add> a quick note in a forum is sufficient in my opinion, for notice that a pre-pub installment is delayed - just like this :
myskaros 21 minutes ago
Hi folks, Seirei 8 part 7 will be coming tomorrow instead, sorry for the delay!perfect
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<edited to add> a quick note in a forum is sufficient in my opinion, for notice that a pre-pub installment is delayed - just like this :
myskaros 21 minutes ago
Hi folks, Seirei 8 part 7 will be coming tomorrow instead, sorry for the delay!perfect
For non-forum-users I would suggest implementing a (Twitter) feed on the front page. Yet when it happens on such a very short notice, it is hard to notice at all unless you are carving so much for the book that you research or you are part of the forum community...
Then there is much which could be implement for comfort - but as I can tell so far the priorities lies with the publishing of new titles - which is good - is it not?.
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J-Novel Club has an RSS feed for the schedule: https://api.j-novel.club/rss
There is probably RSS reader software out there that can notice changes and notify you when parts get delayed. The pubDate changes while the guid remains the same.
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@guspaz said in Why are releases pushed back without notification?:
J-Novel Club has an RSS feed for the schedule: https://api.j-novel.club/rss
There is probably RSS reader software out there that can notice changes and notify you when parts get delayed. The pubDate changes while the guid remains the same.
Oh, I didn't know there is an RSS feed. Added to my reader. This should be documented somewhere, like FAQ maybe?
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There's a bright orange RSS icon right at the top of the upcoming releases section on the front page, though.
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Aha, totally missed that. Me bad.
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@ALEXUSMAN @Khaos @HarmlessDave
If you don't have an interest in continuing the discussion, then that is fine. I just wanted to post here to move the discussion over as @Rahul-Balaggan suggested.
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my $.02
JNC is not a newspaper, or a periodical like TIME magazine
they don't have a contractual obligation to put out pre pubs at a particular time, nor to adhere to a fixed interval between parts or volumes. I pay my membership to get access to pre-pubs as they become available. I appreciate that delays are few and far between (and usually brief)in my line of work we have something called an "SLA", a "service level agreement" how long to respond to an inquiry, deliver goods, notify customers etc. JNC doesn't have a formal SLA but I've found them to be communicative as appropriate and generally to provide good "customer service" re delays/notifications etc.
"sorry we didn't notify you that Quof was struck by lightning, causing a delay to the prepub he was working on releasing on schedule. as we don't have an exact date he'll be ready to get back to work, we cannot update the schedule..."
the above is an example of what I don't expect, and believe is unreasonable to expect...
updating the calendar within a business day of scheduled events (i.e. things not being over a day past due without a rescheduling or announcement) I feel is more than reasonable (and JNC meets/exceeds this level of service)
