Batoto: An Online Reader FOR Scanlators BY Scanlators z224
14 years ago
Posts: 1705
Quote from blakraven66 62u3o
From what I feel, compared to other online manga reader sites, Batoto tries to uphold all scanlator's policies (since it is run by scanlators too) so I think you could ask to remove your titles if you're want.
Even if they remove them, the fact that they already ed them without asking pretty much left a bad first impression.
I think those might've been ed by random contributors and not necessarily associated with the site, since the system seems to be based on self-ing...
14 years ago
Posts: 161
Yes, it's an anybody- system just like any other online reader. So, as long as known scanlator policies are upheld, we will host them.
Also, I DID ask a whole bunch of scanlators. But, after about a 50 or so... I got tried and found it to be pretty petty effort. 1000s of groups, it's just impossible to go around asking each one.
edit: So, we decided to bootstrap our denied/delay list from neighbors. lol Honestly, I think that's the best I can do in a reasonable method. (Asking 1000 groups is not reasonable)
14 years ago
Posts: 13
In my opinion, no monetary gains should ever be earn from scanlating. None. I'm not even comfortable with the issue of donations (but to each his own). Scanlating can be done without ever spending a cent nowadays, and just utilizing what you already have, time, language skills, an editing program, and ion. Raws and free hosting/blogs/online storage/etc are readily available online. If you truly enjoy what you are doing, without feeling the need to be compensated, spending a little out of your own pocket shouldn't be a problem.
I really think this just adds another negative light to the scanlation community especially since the groups themselves will directly be getting the money, no matter how minimal the amount may be. The blame can't be shifted to third party aggregators now 🤣 .
I noticed some inactive groups on your site, who is/will be getting their share of the revenue? I don't see the point of scan teams needing money since they're inactive 😕
Also, I'm quite surprised to see some groups that I never would have guessed would participate in something like this, well... participating.
That is unless both of those are ed without their permission.
14 years ago
Posts: 161
Quote from PetGrief
In my opinion, no monetary gains should ever be earn from scanlating. None. I'm not even comfortable with the issue of donations (but to each his own). Scanlating can be done without ever spending a cent nowadays, and just utilizing what you already have, time, language skills, an editing program, and ion. Raws and free hosting/blogs/online storage/etc are readily available online. If you truly enjoy what you are doing, without feeling the need to be compensated, spending a little out of your own pocket shouldn't be a problem.
I really think this just adds another negative light to the scanlation community especially since the groups themselves will directly be getting the money, no matter how minimal the amount may be. The blame can't be shifted to third party aggregators now 🤣 .
I noticed some inactive groups on your site, who is/will be getting their share of the revenue? I don't see the point of scan teams needing money since they're inactive 😕
Also, I'm quite surprised to see some groups that I never would have guessed would participate in something like this, well... participating.
That is unless both of those are ed without their permission.
Several points... some already answered... But I'll go over anyway.
First, yes, scanlation can be done without spending a cent. But not always. Raws are not always available, especially for less popular titles. And many of them contain simply poor quality. Also, when dealing with manhwas on the other hand, you will rarely ever find quality raws online if at all. There are groups out there that spend as much as $200 on raws alone. It's no small amount and it has to come out of somewhere. I myself am a raw source for few groups. It all comes out of my pocket.
Webhosting and can be done for free, to a point. However, there's a difference when you want to ramp up the quality with volume. Take mangatraders for example, their cost in servers alone is roughly $900/month according to MT. And frankly, MT isn't that popular compared to online readers. And I really think they need more servers b/c it's rather slow imo.
Scanlation is a fairly large community, and with such quantity comes an inevitable exchange of money. This very site too needs to run.
As to the question of who gets money.
If the scanlator ad is not available, default ad will be shown which will be used to pay the expenses of the site, which is roughly 5x per view on average compared to mangafox as the images are not compressed for non-webtoons.
If the group is not participating or the group is inactive, default ads are shown (ours).
And to prevent misunderstanding about webtoons in quote above... I meant that the stat of 5x applies to non-webtoons. Not that webtoons are compressed; nothing is compressed.
14 years ago
Posts: 545
I'm not comfortable with this either. Certainly it's better than MangaFox or the like where it's just the site owner leeching off other people's work, but it still has the whiff of commercial piracy about it. I'm absolutely fine with donations towards bandwidth and raws - but taking advertising revenue is different.
14 years ago
Posts: 243
After poking around the site more, I'm going to throw in a few extra things. I still do not agree with the money thing, but compared to just about every other reader I've come across. Batoto is very very nice. They keep quality and at least try to honor the scanlators. I'm going to have to take back a couple of my earlier comments. I rather like the place. =X
14 years ago
Posts: 58
A genius idea. I think any surplus that the scanlators recieve after paying for their operations should be donated directly to the mangaka, but in the end what they do with it will ultimately be their choice.
I think I'll talk with my old group and see if we can batoto in our releases, it might help divert traffic from other online readers.
14 years ago
Posts: 6
Minus the money, I think it'll be good.
14 years ago
Posts: 70
Oh this is interesting, haha, you know since everyone's uncomfortable with where the money should go, and if not to the mangaka's themselves (is that possible?) then why not have 100% of the site's profit go to charity? I think would be the second best thing since it'd be a nice thing to do, I mean who would complain about profits going to charity? >:-(
Like some others said, I don't think people should profit off of other people's work. Someone also mentioned that many scanlators aren't active anymore and many of them don't know about this site, but mangas are still ed so, wouldn't there would be some uned for money? And many people do this as a hobby but they could be helping others too. Plus, most scanlator sites I've seen ask for donations, and they usually meet their goals without any revenues from manga aggregator sites for years, or even without any donations.
Uh, and sorry! I know this is like 5 months later lol. I wonder how I found this thread?
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Quote from CLouDFaeRie
Oh this is interesting, haha, you know since everyone's uncomfortable with where the money should go, and if not to the mangaka's themselves (is that possible?) then why not have 100% of the site's profit go to charity? I think would be the second best thing since it'd be a nice thing to do, I mean who would complain about profits going to charity? >:-(
Like some others said, I don't think people should profit off of other people's work. Someone also mentioned that many scanlators aren't active anymore and many of them don't know about this site, but mangas are still ed so, wouldn't there would be some uned for money? And many people do this as a hobby but they could be helping others too. Plus, most scanlator sites I've seen ask for donations, and they usually meet their goals without any revenues from manga aggregator sites for years, or even without any donations.
Uh, and sorry! I know this is like 5 months later lol. I wonder how I found this thread?
😕
It is not like all mangaka have an easily accessible bank that money can be deposited to, and even if you go through the trouble of ing one, I doubt Kishimoto, for instance, would be happy to see Naruto being released for free to the masses. The ads are nothing compared to normal trade.
About the charity thing and scanlators usually receiving enough donations, that is simply not true. A lot of groups lack funding and staff, and despite asking for money, the response is minimal. Current examples include Dame!Translations as well as MangaCurse.
No money -> Groups close down -> Projects are dropped -> We do not get to read manga.
14 years ago
Posts: 3888
I currently use Batoto for my own group. And yes, we get ad revenue (do not be misled into thinking that the revenue is anything like how much MF gets). But we do not use that revenue on ourselves or for any personal gain. ALL of the money is spent on buying raws (so in the end, the money is going to the publishers and mangaka). We buy raws for almost every project of ours, if we can't find high quality raws online (which is hard to find...). Raws are $10+ per volume, plus shipping. High quality scanlation is not cheap. For all the years I've put into scanlation, I've probably spent over $400 (and this isn't including the amount that my other has spent, which is more than that) in raws and this little extra money helps incredibly considering I'm a student with no real job, like a lot of scanlators.
♪MONSTARR~ will eat all your cookies and steal your bishies~♪ Φ_Φ
14 years ago
Posts: 3
Now don't get me wrong I do like Batoto as it is a very easy site to navigate and loads fairly quickly which is always a good thing. But, the one thing I found most disturbing as of late is that there are series which have been allowed to post in the recent past that are no longer being accepted even though they are have no overt nudity. I have always been of the thought that all manga that is translated should be shared regardless of genre or subject content.
14 years ago
Posts: 10
Quote from Terrabane
all manga that is translated should be shared regardless of genre or subject content.
I really want to applause you.
That's a very good point you've mentioned.
But then again, there are online readers like mangareader that don't even host adult/borderline h manga. At least sites like mangafox host them, even if they refrain from hosting real h-stuff, too.
But yes! A manga is a manga regardless of its genre.
So each one of them should be shared with the manga readers.
