| MyAnimeList has always strived to build and grow a community-contributed and user-moderated site. In our latest efforts to improve MAL, we’re rebooting the much appreciated MAL Rewrite Club. The club’s goal is to rewrite all anime and manga synopses. You might think, “That’s a heck of a lot of synopses!” Yes, it is. But, we’re going to start with the most popular series and slowly work through our database. We’re in this for the long game. In order to efficiently tackle this huge task, we need volunteers! Specifically, we’re looking for:
If you've been wanting to get more involved with MAL, this is a great opportunity. As a writer, you're free to write as many synopses as your time allows—be that 2, 10, or 20+ synopses. Working as a team will help us accomplish all of this much faster. In an effort to reward our volunteers and recognize their efforts, we’re soon going to implement a new ‘Badges’ system in user profiles. Members that contribute synopses via MAL Rewrite (and contribute positively to other areas around MAL) will be able to acquire badges to showcase their hard work. We’re still planning the entire logistics of this new system, but synopsis contributors will be the first users to benefit from it! To join the MAL Rewrite project:
Thanks for your interest in MAL Rewrite everyone! I’ve always been impressed with MAL’s generous and skilled volunteers, and I can’t wait to see what you guys can accomplish with this new project! |
KinetaJun 16, 2015 4:41 AM
| And the reboot finally begins, as promised :) Looking forward to seeing the club active and lively again. |
| Good luck to anyone who's going to apply! ^^ |
| I'd give it a try, but english isn't my native language and I'd be so scared to make a typo in my application :| Good luck to those who give it a try~ |
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Sonatta said: Minor typos aren't a problem; that's what editors are for.I'd give it a try, but english isn't my native language and I'd be so scared to make a typo in my application :| Many of our club members have been non-native English speakers in the past, so I wouldn't worry about this. |
| Give it a try guys! You'll all improve as you go along. Good luck! :) |
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| Seems like an interesting and fun position to try out for. ^_^ |
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| Hooray for the Rewrite club! /o/ Good luck to everyone applying for the positions! |
 ‖ Submit News × Guidelines ✦ Part of U × Color Your Night × Limelight × Headline ‖ ˙⊹܀⁺☁︎˚˙⊹⁺.˙⁺ |
| This sounds quite interesting, gl to the applicants. |
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| No age limit? May apply |
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| A question: On the application, what does it mean by "Link to MAL entry"? |
   I envy your delusion; I wish I could live in it  |
Protaku94 said: A question: On the application, what does it mean by "Link to MAL entry"? "http://myanimelist.net/anime/5114/Fullmetal_Alchemist:_Brotherhood" |
julyan said: Protaku94 said: A question: On the application, what does it mean by "Link to MAL entry"? "http://myanimelist.net/anime/5114/Fullmetal_Alchemist:_Brotherhood" Ah I see. I didn't realize it referred to the synopsis we would be writing over, thanks. |
I envy your delusion; I wish I could live in it |
| About time, a lot of these synopsis are terribly written and have simple grammar errors. The character info is even worse. |
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| *synopses This sounds awesome. Also member badges? Sounds fun. |
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| So if one gets interested in helping writing synopsis (and that badge that sounds cool) does it means that it's necessary to be part of the club mentioned in the first post for them to count? I know that anyone can submit a synopsis for any entry .... or it's that for better communication between those involved it would be better to be part of the club? (also the shining badge)..... I'm just kinda confused. (I'm simply interested in that shinning badge xD.... well improving the site too, as I have done before. At least I like to believe that....) Rephrase the purpose of this so I understand and correct me if I'm wrong. I see this as promotion for the club. Inviting more members to join it so they, let's say as example, post their new synopsis via a topic there (?) and therefore be able to keep track of it for a reward? Meaning that those who help enough but aren't part of the club won't get the same reward? Did I explain myself properly? |
Roth said: *synopses thank mr skeltal |
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| Being an editor sounds like an interesting offer to me (my OCD has been killing me when I visit overlooked character pages which have rather... nonsensical descriptions), but do editors have to be writers too? I'd assumed that because of the supposedly compulsory Writer Application requirement for all participants. Or is that basically an additional test to further know of the applicant's credibility? |
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| I'm almost certain that this will be the lucky one! |
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| Now this is what I call awesome. Good luck to anyone participating, it should turn out interesting. ;) Manjuu said: Being an editor sounds like an interesting offer to me (my OCD has been killing me when I visit overlooked character pages which have rather... nonsensical descriptions), but do editors have to be writers too? I'd assumed that because of the supposedly compulsory Writer Application requirement for all participants. Or is that basically an additional test to further know of the applicant's credibility? Proofreaders are expected to write full messages if it comes down to them being available at that time and actual writers not. That's a general principle websites with such focus tend to keep to, but I wouldn't know if it applies to these new editors MAL is recruiting as well. I would assume so at least in the slightest, as the way it was put, you are bound to apply for the writer position first and only after you have the option to also tackle the editor/coordinator spot(s). But that's only as far as I can (and the way you did) read off the application system; confirmation would still be needed. |
| thats another successful suggestion - http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1351945 more suggestions to go but keep it up |
| sounds like a good idea! i might apply, too. |
| If only I have good English... |
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Yaoi-sensei said: Lol, I would like to join but......no time T^T I don't know how busy you are, but but the job description says that you can write as many synopses as you're able to. Seems like it's a flexible job. Don't give up just yet! |
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| I think I'll apply. I enjoy writing the episode synopses, so maybe I'll try my hand at series synopses. Sounds like a plan - I'm in! |
| I might give this a shot when I come from vacation, we'll see |
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SheyCroix said: MAL Rewrite isn't just a club where you write a synopsis and a DB mod approves/posts it. It is a synopsis writing team that includes an extensive vetting process of two individual proofreaders and a final approval by the coordinator. What this means is that every synopsis is triple-checked to ensure it is of the highest quality prior to it being posted.Rephrase the purpose of this so I understand and correct me if I'm wrong. I see this as promotion for the club. Inviting more members to join it so they, let's say as example, post their new synopsis via a topic there (?) and therefore be able to keep track of it for a reward? Meaning that those who help enough but aren't part of the club won't get the same reward? Did I explain myself properly? Now, I'm not saying that you aren't capable of writing a perfectly good synopsis on your own. But the club is not just about tracking original synopses you write for a reward, it is really about posting the best-quality content we can for all of our users to enjoy. And this is why MAL Rewrite synopses will trump all other synopses on DB entries - including text written by licensing companies, Wikipedia, and other users. So if you are interested in writing synopses for MAL, I would highly encourage you to be part of the club. The badges are just our way of saying "Thank You". Because everyone who takes time to contribute to the site helps MAL and I don't think we spend enough time saying it. Manjuu said: It may be that Editors will not have enough time to also write synopses (depending on the ratio we have), so writing is not a long-term requirement for an Editor. The purpose of you having to fill out both is that Editors should inherently also be able to write, even if they prefer to take on a proofreading role.Being an editor sounds like an interesting offer to me (my OCD has been killing me when I visit overlooked character pages which have rather... nonsensical descriptions), but do editors have to be writers too? I'd assumed that because of the supposedly compulsory Writer Application requirement for all participants. Or is that basically an additional test to further know of the applicant's credibility? -Turnip- said: I laughed into my coffee cup. We have similar life problems. Poke me on IRC and I'll tell you ;)I'm almost certain that this will be the lucky one! |
KinetaJun 16, 2015 5:20 AM
| No more stupid synopses,i cant hold back my tears... |
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LoneWizard said: No more stupid synopses,i cant hold back my tears... On this note, I believe it would be fair for the community to be able to directly express their concern (if they would have any) if they wouldn't be satisfied with how the MAL Rewrite team has formed some synopses. In other words, while the creation and reevaluation of the synopses would be done inside the MAL Rewrite prior to publishing, it would be the rest of the community that could openly share their feedback on them upon them being publicly displayed in their respective database entries. Putting up a MAL Rewrite Feedback thread might turn out nicely, perhaps? |
vodall said: I also wasn't hooked for the first 8 words, haha. Should've extended it to 11, since Flying Pussyfoot totally is the hook.Ironically, the Baccano synopsis has a grammatical error. Glad this is coming back, since I bugged Kineta about it on multiple occasions. I'll see what I can do. |
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| One question. Why force a minimum 150 words barrier if a significant number of previous MAL Rewrite's synopses does not reach that mark? (Edit) Another issue is that in some manga the main plot point isn't even mentioned in it's first chapter. How are we supposed to make a legitimate entry in that instance? |
SimploJun 16, 2015 10:41 AM
| ''Hayao Miyazaki was a mistake'' -Anime |
| How many submissions have you gotten so far? |
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Simplo said: One question. Why force a minimum 150 words barrier if a significant number of previous MAL Rewrite's synopses does not reach that mark? My guess is that is that synopsis is to capture the point and interest of a reader rather than summarizing a series. The 150 words barrier precisely allows a writer to put a series into their own words without spoiling the plot but also allows any potential viewers to see what the show will be about and at the same time inspire interest. Key words and phrases will be important to emphasize the point of a series as opposed to long run on or short phrased summaries. In other words, quality better than quantity and it's to communicate the message for a series. 150+ words is a fair amount for a synopsis especially if a writer can creatively formulate their synopsis. |
Stark700Jun 16, 2015 10:50 AM
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Stark700 said: I did my synopsis on a 24 minute anime (12 episodes, 2 minutes each), so I had to pad mine out a bit.Simplo said: One question. Why force a minimum 150 words barrier if a significant number of previous MAL Rewrite's synopses does not reach that mark? My guess is that is that synopsis is to capture the point and interest of a reader rather than summarizing a series. The 150 words barrier precisely allows a writer to put a series into their own words without spoiling the plot but also allows any potential viewers to see what the show will be about and at the same time inspire interest. Key words and phrases will be important to emphasize the point of a series as opposed to long run on or short phrased summaries. In other words, quality better than quantity and it's to communicate the message for a series. 150+ words is a fair amount for a synopsis especially if a writer can creatively formulate their synopsis. |
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| I am still waiting for some API love and mayor security improvements. |
[center] |
| Looks great, I'll start up an application! |
zombie_pegasus said: I did my synopsis on a 24 minute anime (12 episodes, 2 minutes each), so I had to pad mine out a bit. Exactly. Synopses should be viewed on entry-by-entry basis, because forcing a minimum amount of words in some cases takes away from the quality of the synopsis. At least that's how I see it. I mean, are shorter (not extremely) synopses automatically bad? As I said a lot of MAL Rewrite's own synopses are under 150 words or break other rules. Example: Synopsis of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu by MAL Rewrite. http://myanimelist.net/anime/849/Suzumiya_Haruhi_no_Yuuutsu 1. Number of words: 133 2. Contains spoilers beyond episode 1 As you can see, it breaks 2 out of 3 rules of this system. Yet, I believe that no one would argue that it is a great synopsis. Natural conclusion would be that the system is flawed. |
SimploJun 16, 2015 11:15 AM
| ''Hayao Miyazaki was a mistake'' -Anime |
zombie_pegasus said: How many submissions have you gotten so far? Good question. Well, I've sent mine in. Hope it gets accepted. *holding thumbs* |
Xinil said: In an effort to reward our volunteers and recognize their efforts, we’re soon going to implement a new ‘Badges’ system in user profiles. Members that contribute synopses via MAL Rewrite (and contribute positively to other areas around MAL) will be able to acquire badges to showcase their hard work. We’re still planning the entire logistics of this new system, but synopsis contributors will be the first users to benefit from it! I don't mind helping out the site if it needs it, but can we not have this? At least tell me users who don't want this in their profiles have the ability to disable it. I don't care for this, as other users have told you when you asked about updating the profiles. This type of system gets competitive with users submit just to earn the reward rather than submit something of quality. The only good thing I am hearing about this is that you earn the reward by helping the site out, but please let us users who don't want this feature be able to disable it. |
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Sonatta said: That sentence alone tells me your English skills are better than that of most of the people I graduated with from high-school. ;) You'll do fine.I'd give it a try, but english isn't my native language and I'd be so scared to make a typo in my application :| |
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Cratex said: Sonatta said: That sentence alone tells me your English skills are better than that of most of the people I graduated with from high-school. ;) You'll do fine.I'd give it a try, but english isn't my native language and I'd be so scared to make a typo in my application :| People are taking this way too strictly. If you're dedicated, would find it nice to contribute, as well as know how to put your thinking on paper, apply. English skill and knowledge comes short to determination and mindset. If you're that inappropriate, the application will show. That's the point of an app, to cut off those extremes and broadly categorize compatibility with preset factors. Surely both your will and skill are judged, but a good maintainer knows how to balance the two. |
Reverie_is_mE said: Writer applications go on indefinitely – or until there stops being a need for the club (which theoretically, is never).Is there a deadline for this or does it just go on until a certain number of writers/editors/coordinators have been accepted? zombie_pegasus said: So far, more writers than I expected (which is great news) and less Editors/Coordinators.How many submissions have you gotten so far? Simplo said: We're not intending to force anything. If you have a 145 word synopsis, we're not going to say you need to pad it with 5 useless words to make some minimum count.because forcing a minimum amount of words in some cases takes away from the quality of the synopsis As with any written content, the guidelines are that: guidelines. We placed a 150 word minimum because we're looking for content-rich synopses: ones that contain descriptions specific to the series you're describing. Not all the previous MAL Rewrite synopses fit this criteria. For example, Ichigo Mashimaro. Replacing the character names, this synopsis could be almost any CGDCT show. We are looking for more than that. And if we have a good amount of content to start off with, then it's easier for the editors to trim any excess. Simplo said: Ah, I probably should have put few chapters; some manga chapters are very short.Another issue is that in some manga the main plot point isn't even mentioned in it's first chapter. How are we supposed to make a legitimate entry in that instance? lovelyphantom said: That is not what this system will ever be. We want to encourage and reward quality contributions to the site, not throw a bunch of badges at people based on quantity. As far we've planned now, all badges will be given at moderator discretion. There will be none that are automated – precisely because we have the same concerns as you.This type of system gets competitive with users submit just to earn the reward rather than submit something of quality. We want the badges to be something users can feel proud of and a bit special about having. It is not a competition. Re: Criticism about Baccano! I included this as an example because it is a very content-rich synopsis that has a word-length near the minimum. It manages to give you a lot of information about the series in ~150 words, which makes it nice to include with the guidelines. Whether some of the sentences could have been edited a bit better is not really relevant to why I included it. |
| I'm a writer myself, but I have a damn hard enough time writing my own story summaries. Sorry MAL, it sounds like a ton of fun and I'd love to do it, but I'm just horrible with summaries. Which sucks in its entirety. I'd be much better as an editor, I'd think. I may send in an application. I mean, are shorter (not extremely) synopses automatically bad? No. Shorter does not mean bad. The longer it is, the worse it gets. There are only so many things you can summarize without spoiling it. Shorter makes it interesting. If you're like me, you groan at the sight of a long ass summary. Short is sweet, but not always. Wow, I feel like that Editors question was a trick one, LOL |
SnazzGaryJun 16, 2015 4:22 PM
| "Hey, assbutt!"—Castiel, Supernatural "Do you ever have a problem where you just don't know how to reply to an argument-- not because you don't know the answer, but you just don't where to begin? Like, the foundation of knowledge you'd need to impart to this person before you could even begin to drag them out of their sinkhole of ignorance would cost thousands of dollars, if it were coming from a University?" -MAL in a nutshell. |
| Is there an age requirement for this? I'm asking because I want to be an Editor, but I'm 15. |
| Kudos to revamp efforts! I'm looking forward to this update. Some of the synopses certainly need to be rewritten, especially for the more obsolete and obscure series. |
MirorinJun 17, 2015 12:00 AM
| I've signed up for writer. Was interested in editor, but that paragraph is painful to read. A synopsis like that is just a summary, and better scrapped. It'd probably be easier if I even knew what it was describing. |
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