626916

[MangaDex]

 

[Mitsuboshi]

This is sad, hope they figure something out

 

[Yamibi]

Welp artist!

 

[halloween20]

another one bits the dust....

 

[MyMDAccout]

Sorry to see this go. Thanks for all the translations, I hope the artist gets a chance to continue!

 

[Suzukino]

oh no

 

[aberdeus]

i see it a lot but why are all translators concerned about affecting the sales in the native location? i'm sure at least a good 90% or readers would never even bother to look at it in the native language? until quidan jump in to translate this how are you actually competing?

just my ignorant opinion.

 

[DiabolicalHaterAnonx]

@aberdeus So, let's put it like this. Gu Daoist Master is locked in China behind a paywall from chapter, let's say 30 I'm not sure. We have provided free alternative in English to any Chinese who knows English and would rather not pay for those chapters in his native language. If our free alternative causes him not to purchase the chapters, that's a loss for both Tencent and the creators. And if we're providing free alternative few hours after Chinese release, they might (and do) read our version instead. This has affected Korean sales of Kakao Corp projects heavily enough for us to get noticed and get sent a cease and desist.

But like I said, I'm not sure how much this is affecting Chinese releases. As they have a large number of aggregates ripping off the officials. While Koreans, on the other hand, had a huge crackdown on theirs.

 

[imAnoob]

Thanks for translating.

i hope that they find a solution and thank you guys for trying to reach out to them and explaining things to us :[

 

[aberdeus]

@DiabolicalHaterAnonx ok, i get you let me counter with this tho.

theres an idea around for a while "piracy will happen no matter what. people that will pay will, those who don't want to pay will find it for free in some obscure place" an example i wanted to read the ghostly doctor WN but the first place listing it (novelupdate) has it cut off at a certain point and that group has it listed on a pay to read site. i was able to find it after a bit of diggin and can read it all free, here's the thing tho, i was considering paying to read it for a while but the obscure site using credits and what not really put me off even thought the actually payment was thru paypal. and i have gone from pirating stuff to buying it, another idea thats been around the "please support the official release"

of course people can disagree with these ideas but again in my view its just people that dont want to pay won't so why bother?

 

[Azsy]

If I need to pay for a manga I just won't read it.

 

[DiabolicalHaterAnonx]

@aberdeus I get where you are coming from. To an extent, I agree, but if we, pirates, in this case, make it extremely convenient, much more so than officials do, because we can, we don't have the same expenses as they do nor are we trying to run that type of business. People will naturally float towards it, not just those who wouldn't pay no matter what, but even those that alternatively would and the artist is the one who loses in this since he's struggling to begin with and then us (readers), if he's not drawing, we won't have anything to pirate. Let's not turn this thread into that type of argument though.

 

[aberdeus]

@DiabolicalHaterAnonx alright but last point, Azsy (person that commented prior to you) kinda backs my point to an extent

 

[Damn_SkippyF5]

Thank you for all your hard work

 

[Mitsuboshi]

@Azsy actual bum mentality

 

[yldDavid]

@aberdeus
@DiabolicalHaterAnonx

I honestly have no sympathy when it comes to these (mostly Asian) people "suffering" from piracy. They gave us no choice to begin with.
Some random low effort "patreon comic" can get thousands of dollars of support because they are open to the global audience.
I pay for a couple of these korean comics on certain sites that lock it behind a weekly payment ENGLISH TRANSLATED without the need for any tricks to set up an account, so does 2 of my friends who also enjoy consuming this type of media. Now I understand that if there is an official version out there, the piracy is unreasonable, but in this case and many others we were never considered a market to begin with.
I always have a smirk on my face when I see some "mangaka" crying because he can't sustain himself anymore and then realize that if not for some fan scanlators I wouldn't even have the option to buy a NON-TRANSLATED version of the manga... They could be richer than any patreon dude, but they CHOOSE not to.
They either get with the times and publish for a global audience on the global marketplace created by the internet or suffer because their own native reader base doesn't like them enough.
Sorry for rambling I really wish I could put it into better words.

TLDR: If you are actively unwilling to sell it to me, and I get it from someone else who will.
When merakiscan got F-d by kakao I was furious, all they had to do is give meraki a small cut or something and they would have had official English releases, but they didn't. They still don't sell an English version as far as I know. Hell I would have been more than happy to give kakao my $5-10 / week for it but no I'm not a customer in their eyes.

@Azsy
Wow, and here I am wishing I could actually buy them in one of the 3 languages I could read...

 

[DiabolicalHaterAnonx]

@aberdeus Yeah but now I'm itching to answer too :| Basically, I firmly believe that piracy is an issue of service, not price. Great examples of this are Steam for games and Netflix for TV-Shows and movies. However, creating something like that for Manga, manhua, and manhwa legally is next to impossible. Hell, even Netflix model is failing with so many license holders getting greedy and everybody keeps creating their own streaming platform which is already causing an increase in the piracy of tv shows and movies because who the hell wants to pay for Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, Disney and whatnot at the same time.

But see, now for earlier mentioned, manhua, manga, and manhwa we have Mangadex. I won't mention other aggregates with a far bigger library, I'll mention Mangadex because featurewise it's far ahead of anything else available on the internet. What they've created here is outstanding and I don't think anybody can disagree with it. If everybody uploaded on this website, it'd be a true one-stop shop. Far more convenient than any official. Now, we can't assume that your average consumer is really informed about this. So, why would anybody, even those that would support otherwise go to the official website, which is not as convenient plus it costs money? So, delaying those chapters would remove some of that convenience and hopefully get some people to actually purchase official ones.

The subject is complicated and it requires walls of text to go in-depth about it. Yes, there are people who wouldn't support no matter what, and they have their own use too, they might mention it to somebody who will, or might change their mind once they do in fact encounter something worth supporting. And yes, it's the duty of officials to do their best to match or even beat the service which mangadex offers. But, none of that will matter if the series we enjoy get canceled because they're lacking support. Hell, in this case, we don't really have a valid way of supporting them even hence why 100% of English audience will pirate. But, delaying for few days, just might get few chinese fans to buy, who otherwise wouldn't. (which we will not, I mentioned it as we talked about it, but at the end of the day like I said, there is timeless leaf also releasing and there is so many aggregates ripping them off already.)

All I'm saying is, there is a reason scanlators fret on it, it's not a simple question with a simple answer.

 

[yldDavid]

@DiabolicalHaterAnonx

Yeah but now I'm itching to answer too :| Basically, I firmly believe that piracy is an issue of service, not price.

Well said, totally agree.

 

[CrAziReader]

.

 

[Nisverah]

I'd gladly pay a subscription to mangadex if it meant official releases didn't remove translations from mangadex.