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MAL Rewrite: Calling all grammar gurus and proofreading pros!

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Oct 12, 2022 1:22 PM
#1
Lead Admin
Faerie Queen

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Aug 2007
6391



Rewriting one crummy synopsis at a time.

5,440+ synopses uploaded, and counting!


What is MAL Rewrite?
MAL Rewrite is a project tasked with the goal of rewriting all anime and manga synopses in our databases. Yes, all. We think that trustworthy, well-written synopses by the community for the community is one important factor when deciding what to watch/read. Towards this goal, we hold two recruitment drives per year to recruit users who are also passionate about synopses, and want to give a little of their time to MAL in a productive way.

How do I get involved?
Interested in volunteering? MAL Rewrite is currently looking for:
  • Writers: Users who have an aptitude and passion for writing and producing superior content. English does not have to be your native language. It's preferable that you've watched/read the series you're writing about.

  • Editors: Users who possess excellent grammar skills and are proofreading ninjas with a keen eye for detail and accuracy. English does not have to be your native language. All editors must be good writers (and you can still write synopsis as an editor, too!).

Ready to participate?
Submit the MAL Rewrite Application Form. We will evaluate your writing and/or editing skills, and if we find that you meet our requirements, you will be invited to join the club. Please note that MAL Rewrite is always recruiting. There is no deadline.

We look forward to your submissions :)
Oct 12, 2022 1:34 PM
#2
Anime Moderator
Ace Pilot

Offline
Dec 2015
27
The application is pretty straightforward, but please reach out to either @stinghy or I with any questions about the application process.

We look forward to hearing from you! :D
Red-CometOct 12, 2022 1:38 PM
Oct 12, 2022 6:05 PM
#3
No.1 Rias Lover

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Feb 2021
352
Guess I should maybe try it one more time. They say third time's the charm.
Oct 13, 2022 2:33 AM
#4

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Jul 2020
197
Join us ^^
no
Oct 13, 2022 3:03 AM
#5

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Jan 2021
456
I wonder why did you delete my "forum message"? Was it including some bad words?
Roxy

Oct 13, 2022 3:31 AM
#6

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Sep 2010
4740
I would do it but the way you treat your mods or staff in general is just ridiculous. One must be stupid to work for free for a company like this. If you want quality content you should pay for it.
Oct 13, 2022 6:14 AM
#7
Review Moderator
Onii Chan

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Mar 2018
1832
Join us, your synopsis could end up being read by 10000s of people.
Oct 13, 2022 6:24 AM
#8

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Jan 2020
7303
Coolest1234D said:
Guess I should maybe try it one more time. They say third time's the charm.

You should. Would be glad to have you as a "colleague" :)
Oct 13, 2022 9:08 AM
#9
No.1 Rias Lover

Offline
Feb 2021
352
IrrelevantGuy said:
Coolest1234D said:
Guess I should maybe try it one more time. They say third time's the charm.

You should. Would be glad to have you as a "colleague" :)
Either way ya dont need to act as if we strangers lol
Oct 13, 2022 4:43 PM

Offline
Jan 2020
10
As a relatively new member of Rewrite, I can vouch. It's been amazing so far: I've learned a lot about writing (considering pursuing it in some capacity in the future) and the community is very supportive and friendly! Highly encourage giving it a shot!
Writer of MAL Rewrite! | kodeti#6274
Oct 14, 2022 12:30 AM
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Feb 2021
15
ateks said:
I would do it but the way you treat your mods or staff in general is just ridiculous. One must be stupid to work for free for a company like this. If you want quality content you should pay for it.


Exactly! Anonymous volunteering and being tasked with such quality assurance work is like exploiting free labour. Those who want to do it, all the best to them but I won't recommend investing one's time for free.
Oct 14, 2022 3:16 AM

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May 2015
605
I wish they didn't have a policy of inverting Japanese names, reading them that way can sometimes sound weird or break puns (e.g. Saiki Kusuo = Psychics-o).
Oct 14, 2022 4:33 AM

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Sep 2010
4740
ceeveeyou said:
ateks said:
I would do it but the way you treat your mods or staff in general is just ridiculous. One must be stupid to work for free for a company like this. If you want quality content you should pay for it.

Exactly! Anonymous volunteering and being tasked with such quality assurance work is like exploiting free labour. Those who want to do it, all the best to them but I won't recommend investing one's time for free.

Yup and it's not even the good kind of volunteering where you do something for people in need. All you do is make profit for some investors for free, the same investors that gave a shit about the MAL userbase for the past few years.
Oct 14, 2022 7:59 PM
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Jan 2020
22
ceeveeyou said:
ateks said:
I would do it but the way you treat your mods or staff in general is just ridiculous. One must be stupid to work for free for a company like this. If you want quality content you should pay for it.


Exactly! Anonymous volunteering and being tasked with such quality assurance work is like exploiting free labour. Those who want to do it, all the best to them but I won't recommend investing one's time for free.


yeah I noped out of the application once it asked me to write an entirely original synopsis despite applying for editor. I'm happy to add my grammatical eye to others' work, and I like this site so it seemed like an easy way to lend a hand, but I'm not trying to write a book report for fun...
Oct 14, 2022 10:23 PM
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Feb 2021
15
sleepy__waifu said:
ceeveeyou said:


Exactly! Anonymous volunteering and being tasked with such quality assurance work is like exploiting free labour. Those who want to do it, all the best to them but I won't recommend investing one's time for free.


yeah I noped out of the application once it asked me to write an entirely original synopsis despite applying for editor. I'm happy to add my grammatical eye to others' work, and I like this site so it seemed like an easy way to lend a hand, but I'm not trying to write a book report for fun...


And I know you know it but I'm still saying this that you did the right thing because genuinely speaking it's not worth it. Rather I would recommend people to apply for content writing/editing positions in other small time firms that actually pay their employees for effort or even certify their volunteers/interns. This is actually so unprofessional from the MAL team to not acknowledge the position applied for but rather pointlessly make the applicants labor away by writing lengthy a$$ reports
Oct 15, 2022 7:37 AM

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Jan 2020
7303
Coolest1234D said:
IrrelevantGuy said:

You should. Would be glad to have you as a "colleague" :)
Either way ya dont need to act as if we strangers lol

I did? 🙂
Oct 15, 2022 3:07 PM

Offline
Apr 2014
13384
ceeveeyou said:
sleepy__waifu said:


yeah I noped out of the application once it asked me to write an entirely original synopsis despite applying for editor. I'm happy to add my grammatical eye to others' work, and I like this site so it seemed like an easy way to lend a hand, but I'm not trying to write a book report for fun...


And I know you know it but I'm still saying this that you did the right thing because genuinely speaking it's not worth it. Rather I would recommend people to apply for content writing/editing positions in other small time firms that actually pay their employees for effort or even certify their volunteers/interns. This is actually so unprofessional from the MAL team to not acknowledge the position applied for but rather pointlessly make the applicants labor away by writing lengthy a$$ reports

To be fair, at one point one of the leads in the program said they'd be willing to be a reference for relevant jobs I'd want to apply for, though who knows if that person is still around since lots of leaders have retired over the years.
But yeah, it's a bit irksome if we not only don't get paid but also don't get public credit for a synopsis. The main reason for no credit is because it's a team effort, though the writer does ~80% of the work themselves from creating the document, the listing on the tracker, the hyperlinks, any applicable research, the synopsis itself, and then hoping editors don't take months to substitute in a few synonyms.
I mean I got in early and wrote synopses for my favorite anime so that was nice, but now that pretty much every noteworthy anime has been claimed already, the luster of the program has since waned. Seasonal anime still give me a reason to maintain my position there, but it's a bloodbath to get the anime you wanna write for.
Overall yeah, the program has been suffering from the same issues for years now, but the fact we're not forced to write on quotas is nice. Though the program did sort of break their 2014 promise of giving every member complementary badges or banners in the future -- instead only giving them to the most active members, ignoring those with dozens of synopses to their name or who have been with the program for almost a decade. It is what it is.
Oct 15, 2022 9:33 PM

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Jul 2021
6296
will this application be viewed or just ignored like the mod application?

The end of an era. Thank you Wit, Mappa and Isayama.
Feeling half happy, half sad.
  

Kawaii waifus
and precious
  best girls <3333
                                             


Oct 15, 2022 10:11 PM

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Feb 2010
12304
Protaku said:
But yeah, it's a bit irksome if we not only don't get paid but also don't get public credit for a synopsis.


They don't credit!??! WTF!!! Crediting is extremely important as it keeps everyone motivated. How do they not know this?

We do team efforts all the time in my design circle, and we always credit ppl fairly even for small efforts. It's easy to do- whoever does the main chunk of effort, probably one person, gets the headline credit (this was done by X and Y) and anyone who helped gets secondary credit (with help from Z). Keeps everyone happy. I'm also reminded how the worst community leaders on MAL do not or did not credit ppl for their work. Of course their communities are also dying or dead, plus they can't maintain volunteers. There's other reasons communities die (Discord) but that's a big part of it- management that could be improved.

Protaku said:
Though the program did sort of break their 2014 promise of giving every member complementary badges or banners in the future -- instead only giving them to the most active members, ignoring those with dozens of synopses to their name or who have been with the program for almost a decade. It is what it is.


Oct 16, 2022 1:30 AM

Offline
Apr 2014
13384
Shishio-kun said:
Protaku said:
But yeah, it's a bit irksome if we not only don't get paid but also don't get public credit for a synopsis.


They don't credit!??! WTF!!! Crediting is extremely important as it keeps everyone motivated. How do they not know this?

We do team efforts all the time in my design circle, and we always credit ppl fairly even for small efforts. It's easy to do- whoever does the main chunk of effort, probably one person, gets the headline credit (this was done by X and Y) and anyone who helped gets secondary credit (with help from Z). Keeps everyone happy. I'm also reminded how the worst community leaders on MAL do not or did not credit ppl for their work. Of course their communities are also dying or dead, plus they can't maintain volunteers. There's other reasons communities die (Discord) but that's a big part of it- management that could be improved.

Protaku said:
Though the program did sort of break their 2014 promise of giving every member complementary badges or banners in the future -- instead only giving them to the most active members, ignoring those with dozens of synopses to their name or who have been with the program for almost a decade. It is what it is.


Yeah man, why do you think MAL Rewrite is always recruiting -- because unmotivated members are always going inactive or getting booted in the ~bi-yearly member purge (which is when they force a synopsis quota on us which they also promised they'd never do.)
I don't see why it's so hard to just give simple credit like "Written by: X, Edited by: X and X." That would help so much especially considering the fact people who write articles for this website do get credit, while us synopsis writers don't.
Now I pretty much just write synopses when the quota comes around, or an oddball, niche seasonal anime I enjoyed emerges and I don't need to fight to claim it. No real motivation anymore to just give free labor outside of for my favorites, which have mostly been done long ago already. Eight years of work and the only acknowledgement I get is from myself in my About Me ffs

At least things were more fun back in the early days, I still look back at them fondly.
ProtakuOct 16, 2022 1:35 AM
Oct 16, 2022 4:21 AM

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Sep 2010
4740
TsutanaiFuun said:
will this application be viewed or just ignored like the mod application?

MAL is just your average employer, "nobody wants to work anymore" but then offering zero compensation or credit and ignoring every application. Yeah I really wonder why they're looking for new people..
Oct 16, 2022 5:45 AM

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Jun 2015
3265
My grammar is so bad no way I can even pretend to get in. But I wish everyone luck who applies. Not to mention that dude writing about quota's. Eeeek, I wish you luck recruits!!
To have you, Id give a billion lives A-Chan best girl
Oct 16, 2022 6:15 AM
TsutanaiFuun said:
will this application be viewed or just ignored like the mod application?

Applications are processed in a few days at most.
Oct 16, 2022 6:25 AM

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Jul 2021
6296
Mythologically said:
TsutanaiFuun said:
will this application be viewed or just ignored like the mod application?

Applications are processed in a few days at most.
oh. i sent the mod application through kinabot on october 1st. don't you think it's been enough time? i spent like an hour writing that message and it had over 1000 words. i wasn't hoping for a positive response but at least some response would have been nice. just to show some decency :D

The end of an era. Thank you Wit, Mappa and Isayama.
Feeling half happy, half sad.
  

Kawaii waifus
and precious
  best girls <3333
                                             


Oct 16, 2022 6:29 AM
TsutanaiFuun said:
Mythologically said:

Applications are processed in a few days at most.
oh. i sent the mod application through kinabot on october 1st. don't you think it's been enough time? i spent like an hour writing that message and it had over 1000 words. i wasn't hoping for a positive response but at least some response would have been nice. just to show some decency :D

My response was about the Rewrite applications :)
Oct 16, 2022 6:37 AM

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Jul 2021
6296
Mythologically said:
TsutanaiFuun said:
oh. i sent the mod application through kinabot on october 1st. don't you think it's been enough time? i spent like an hour writing that message and it had over 1000 words. i wasn't hoping for a positive response but at least some response would have been nice. just to show some decency :D

My response was about the Rewrite applications :)
same thing man both are applications. or are you trying to say rewrite applications are viewed and responded to in a few days and mod applications are not?

The end of an era. Thank you Wit, Mappa and Isayama.
Feeling half happy, half sad.
  

Kawaii waifus
and precious
  best girls <3333
                                             


Oct 16, 2022 7:05 AM

Offline
Oct 2022
37
TsutanaiFuun said:
i sent the mod application through kinabot on october 1st. don't you think it's been enough time?


Forum Moderator (High)

'Forum Moderators must:
... Possess a high level of patience...'



'You are not prepared.'

Oct 16, 2022 7:16 AM

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Jul 2021
6296
berserkenjoyer92 said:
TsutanaiFuun said:
i sent the mod application through kinabot on october 1st. don't you think it's been enough time?


Forum Moderator (High)

'Forum Moderators must:
... Possess a high level of patience...'



'You are not prepared.'

yeah no shit. since when did "feeling ignored" was the same as "patiently waiting for response"?

The end of an era. Thank you Wit, Mappa and Isayama.
Feeling half happy, half sad.
  

Kawaii waifus
and precious
  best girls <3333
                                             


Oct 16, 2022 8:03 AM
Review Moderator
Onii Chan

Offline
Mar 2018
1832
TsutanaiFuun said:
Mythologically said:

My response was about the Rewrite applications :)
same thing man both are applications. or are you trying to say rewrite applications are viewed and responded to in a few days and mod applications are not?


Rewrite recruits year round essentially, moderation team doesn't and only looks at applications during specific recruitment drives, it also depends on how much we need certain types of moderators as well since if we have a surplus of a certain type of mod we will not look at any applications.
Oct 16, 2022 8:41 AM

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Jul 2021
6296
ACasualViewer said:
TsutanaiFuun said:
same thing man both are applications. or are you trying to say rewrite applications are viewed and responded to in a few days and mod applications are not?


Rewrite recruits year round essentially, moderation team doesn't and only looks at applications during specific recruitment drives, it also depends on how much we need certain types of moderators as well since if we have a surplus of a certain type of mod we will not look at any applications.
ah then maybe mal already found enough forum moderators it seems. because when i submitted the application, there was a need mods thread in mal announcements section on the home page and if i'm recalling correctly it said need forum moderators urgent and stuff.

if mal has found new moderators then it's all good but i just feel like they could have at least let other applicants known that they weren't selected.

The end of an era. Thank you Wit, Mappa and Isayama.
Feeling half happy, half sad.
  

Kawaii waifus
and precious
  best girls <3333
                                             


Oct 17, 2022 3:17 AM

Offline
Sep 2010
4740
TsutanaiFuun said:
ACasualViewer said:


Rewrite recruits year round essentially, moderation team doesn't and only looks at applications during specific recruitment drives, it also depends on how much we need certain types of moderators as well since if we have a surplus of a certain type of mod we will not look at any applications.
ah then maybe mal already found enough forum moderators it seems. because when i submitted the application, there was a need mods thread in mal announcements section on the home page and if i'm recalling correctly it said need forum moderators urgent and stuff.

if mal has found new moderators then it's all good but i just feel like they could have at least let other applicants known that they weren't selected.

They took some 2 months old, 0 forum posts account as new forum mod. As much as I dislike you I would have preferred you to get it, at least you are actually using the forum and have some experience. The last time I applied there it took them 5 months to respond so apparently they don't need people despite the massive amount of spam and trolls here.
Oct 17, 2022 2:08 PM

Offline
Feb 2015
13862
TsutanaiFuun said:
berserkenjoyer92 said:




'You are not prepared.'

yeah no shit. since when did "feeling ignored" was the same as "patiently waiting for response"?


>applies being a forum mod
>shitposts in AD/forum

boi, that's insta throw in the garbage if you dont get the memo already.

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