It's not the Tumblr folks that translate them, but the scanlation groups on LJ. The Tumblr accounts only posted the work of the scanlation groups. And yes, the scanlation groups have been at work for decades, pretty much ever since the rise of the internet in the 90s. There were of course organised translations way before that time, but before the internet there wasn't really a platform for them to publish their work. It was the combination of the internet becoming popular (making the logistics of scanlation easier), scanner quality increasing and software (photoshop etc.) advancing that secured the breakthrough of scanlation groups.
With regards to Viewfinder, yes, it was scanlated from the start. The scanlation groups that did it back then are long gone now. Obviously, those translations deviate from when you buy the licensed English version of the respective volumes - just as they do nowadays. And let's just say the early chapters leave a lot to be desired in terms of translation quality. ;) But people were happy there even WAS a scanlation to begin with.
Very helpful information, thank you so much.
You're welcome. :)
Ah, I remember those days of visiting SHI-RAN's website. it's a very humble site and just had a few pages. and it only hosts a few latest chapters for download. I had to use MIRC to download older chapters of Viewfinder. Can't say I'm a tech-savvy person but since I really, really want to read Viewfinder, I taught myself to download them. got kicked out a few times when I messed up and made a pest of myself. But I managed to acquire all chapters that were released. LOL the good old times.
(I remember using MIRCX channel to download manga releases before it got attacked and died and then everything was transferred to IRCHighway channel ┗( T﹏T )┛*sobs*)
Was commenting further on J Unleashed's comment, not implying I'm J Unleashed. Sorry
Haha, yes, those where the days I was talking about (and even the ones prior to that). ;) And you know what's ironic? More and more scanlation groups are now going BACK to these old ways of communication and are distributing their scanlations solely through Usenet, IRC channels etc. After all the sh*t that's been happening, it is pretty much the only option left.
So, you know how when the raw gets released and then there are a few websites like tumblr that have translated them to english? Did that ever happen before in the earlier volumes? Because I don't remember that being a thing, unless I was just slow and didn't see .