Power Uploader
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2018
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Lacked a better name for it, so I'll just randomly write whatever's in my head. Just some insight thoughts from an ex-member of the group that got involved and handled it rather in a not-so-pleasant way
The Anjou-san snipe
The response
MD's involvement
The loophole
The aftermath
What could have been done?
The conclusion
What do we learn?
The Anjou-san snipe
Anjou-san was handed over to Hatigarm via internal discussion, and it was released reasonably fast - however, because the series is off the "popular" one, the team's current speed is not fast enough to please general readers. Doesn't help that Hatigarm actually lacks skilled cleaners to deal with the rather bad quality raw scan, and TL is a paid one who piggyback almost all of the J series (TL,DR: They don't have enough manpower to keep up with the scope of this series, which theoretically they don't have to, but because reason, you know). The snipe then occurred out of nowhere by a random group and they left a mocking credit page toward the general scanlation scene, calling out all groups taking donation "scammers"
The response
Needless to say Hatigarm is determined to fire back and the team quickly speed up the process to release 2 new chapters. However, due to the rushing, Hati (the QC+uploader) made a critical mistake of NOT CHECKING THE SCANS before uploading - mass-export JPG, zip, upload - because 4 am logic. This lead to some pages corrupted and missing certain bubbles, and thus the other group called him out for it on their next release, because they can. I won't comment on how they also missed bubbles, not going to assume they rushed too because it's innocent until proven guilty.
MD's involvement
To my knowledge, this conflict sparked when the chapter's discussion turned into a flame war over the credit page, which goes against the discussion rule (off-topic discussion). MD stated in their official statement that they've reached out to Hati asking him to bring this matter to discuss privately with other group and/or using their own credit page to respond, but this was ignored by Hati. Meraki got dragged into this somehow and apparently the argument lead to them getting punished by the mods - because rule is there.
The loophole
This is what everyone's been arguing about and it can be considered the first time this was brought up. Naturally the comment and forum sections have rules that everyone knows and understands, such as "no derailing discussion". But before this incident there was NO rule regarding the credit page, in fact uploaders not from the original group are not allowed to modify the images at all (to prevent stealing scans). Obviously because MD didn't expect groups to get salty over a mocking credit like this, they didn't prepare for the possibility of a flame on the comment which has to be stopped due to forum rule, but at the same time it hurts the group getting attacked because they can't fight back directly there (I said "directly", because MD has suggested said group to contact the sniper, leave comment on their group page, or response with their own credit, but sadly Hatigarm's not fond of that idea.
The aftermath
Hati and Meraki decided to respond by nuking release, at first with Anjou on Hati's side, to show their displeasure toward MD's decision. What was discussed among MD staff is unknown to me, but eventually they've come to agree that the policy need to be updated to combat the loophole, so they did update discussion rule, namely "everything related to the chapter can be discussed, including credit page and the likes". You may ask why didn't they just outright ban offensive credit page - IMO, there are 2 reasons: 1: It would lead to chapter content being moderated which would cost staff endless time and 2: More fake reports to deal with as anyone can find a credit page offensive for the slightest reason, unless a SUPER LONG, DETAILED guideline is provided, and even then it still can't possibly cover everything due to cultural / religion difference. MD's solution is to simply allow such discussion to carry on without having to moderate the comment section for all sort of trivial matters
What could have been done?
As someone who's heavily involved with the Anjou-san, I've provided lots of advice for Hati but sadly I wasn't able to prevent this whole trainwreck. When the snipe first occurred, I know that while this was a dick move, the sniper isn't actually doing a bad job since they also bought the physical raw instead of kindle version - the best course we should've taken is up our level and claim it back, so this is exactly what I told Hati to do. However I could not defend Hati for the slip on the fast release because it was entirely our fault - his 4 am reason I can understand but that's by no mean justified to release a chapter without a last minute check as QC. Then come the second mocking credit page which obviously pushed him over the edge - I tried my best to calm him down and reminded him that this was HIS fault to begin with so he shouldn't get too mad, and just either ignore it or apologize to readers. Instead, he went through the length of battling with the troll and ended up nuking Anjou-san when things got out of hand. I don't know if Hati's aware of the policy change, but internally the staff working on Anjou-san are none too pleased with the nuke - he said he'd restore it, but later on the decision was overturned because toxic community, or something like that. And now the group's left MD completely
The conclusion
In the end, both sides are neither fully right nor wrong, however as a scanlator I can never agree with ANY action that harms readers from a particular platform no matter how you hate it, because ultimately you're going to hurt innocent bystanders who wants nothing but reading your scan in peace and appreciate your efforts. I've been told countlessly about MD's bad practice, and I'll refrain from commenting on it because personally I have NOT seen any problem with that - no one's been deleting my comment for no reason, my chapters haven't been edited without my permission, etc... Some people even suggest me that batoto (yes, it still exists, and still allow you to upload) is even better than MD, but I'll have to disagree with that in term of functions and performance
What do we learn?
Mind our own business and don't let the trolls get you - seriously, the time Hati spent fighting this I could scanlate a few chapters on my side and I'd rather do that instead of defending my "honor" when I don't need to. If someone snipe me and they do a better job, I'm ok with that. If others curse me for sniping them after they don't release for six years, I don't care because I like the series and want to bring release to others to enjoy it. In the end, isn't that our goal?
Ironically Hatigarm started the group by taking ToDG to ensure faster, better quality release, and to this day I still respect him for that. Which makes me wonder why he didn't think calmly when the snipe occurred, instead jumping into action too quick which caused the whole trainwreck.
Ironically Hatigarm started the group by taking ToDG to ensure faster, better quality release, and to this day I still respect him for that. Which makes me wonder why he didn't think calmly when the snipe occurred, instead jumping into action too quick which caused the whole trainwreck.
