Question No Mirror's Allowed?

[pu_rplecow]

Quite surprised at the way we're getting manga here. It used to be that mirrors were very very much appreciated and encouraged In particular, DDLs. Due to lowered cost in hosting, people hosting for free not nothing in return actually happened and I pioneered it in a way giving about 10-20 GB a month away (out of 25.. which I did'nt need anyway). After which many others followed. After a while I decided to add some ads to keep the hosting going.

I understand the issue with allowing mirrors to be as such

1) Cannot keep track of number of downloads
2) Cannot control the file version in case of changes after manga is released
3) Loss of income due to the hope that user mis-clicks on links <a href="http://www.mangafresh.com/">sandwiched in ads<a> and making their users play merry go round with the links. (c'mon.. nobody is interested in those ads! they are only there to collect clicks by mistake which by my stats in the past, occur to about 10% of the users who click. Multiply by 3 levels you have to click to get to a site where he doesn't even host and leads to 4 filesharing sites?? give us a little bandwidth man! haha.. and that still leaves the problem of those who cannot download from every single one of these sites which is almost everyone in my country)

Now, I concede that all these reasons are sometimes quite valid. but

1) For manga like naruto and bleach, readership is very great and most(not all) don't mind who scans it, just who gets it out first. Numbers depend on how fast you get your scan out.

2) Thats the price people pay for not going to the original Manga Editor's site to get it. Also, isn't bandwidth a problem for these sites? Mirrors help! ALso, as I said.. most only want the story. Those who are seriously fans of a scanslator's work would definitely not mind going the extra mile to get it but for the undiscerning reader/scanner like me, the story is all I need, I don't archive the manga and I suspect most don't as well (just a guess here)

3) I think this is quite sneaky but I've done this in the past but once I covered my 2 year hosting fee, I stopped because I felt I was frustrating the user and earning off another's work but I feel it wasn't totally wrong because I did not pass off the work as mine at all. Also, I myself did quite alot of work just to obtain the manga so others could have it. This included waiting around for it (3-6am!!) and using ridiculous means to obtain it like proxies, many many download attempts. Also, many others were giving away gigs (mine was about 6 gb each week) of bandwidth so people who can't access SS, RS, GS and whatever filesharing sites could download it without any fuss. shouldn't we allow the likes of google to pay for it? I mean.. the user doesn't even pay for it! Hence the ads were there until I covered my hosting cost. I'm just a student btw, no income.

I strongly appeal that mirrors be allowed.. if not, some kind of sticky which the big red "no mirrors allowed" links to so we can understand why scanslators would like their work to be restricted in such a manner? I'm sure they have better reasons than the 3 above and I don't want to look like some leech who's whining about how hard it is to get manga. Honestly, its really tough for people in small countries cos every IP is shared! goodness..

I hope not to tread on people's toes here. so keep the posts light and informative? I always thought that arguing never got anything done. Its not a demand to allow mirrors, but rather trying to let everyone understand my (and many others) situation.

 

[bax]

Yes, first of all.. mirrors are allowed and encouraged. That's the basic rules.

However, we are not putting "No mirrors allowed" there just like that. It is because we receive requests from the Manga Editors themselves. We are just honoring their requests. If you want to request to be able to supply mirrors again, the only way is to ask directly from the Manga Editors themselves

 

[pu_rplecow]

Oh.. okay. I understand. Honestly, this just makes getting manga so difficult. I'm sure everyone enjoyed the days where you could just click on the DDL link and get manga. Its like.. everybodys policy not to allow mirrors now. Haha.. Certainly a big climate change from just 2 years ago where you had to beg people to host manga for DDL. I can't even get the manga to upload it anyway.. its too time consuming and all. By the time I can get it up, its usually because of another DDL I got it from. Crunch time for getting the manga would be over so it kinda defeats the purpose.

Anyway, thanks Bax, my just-across-the-causeway friend. Haha.. its interesting knowing you're just up north

EDIT: I was thinking if it were possible to set up a request for scanners not to disallow mirrors but then it'll just attract those "why are you complaining! its free!" kinda things so nvm. It'll be cool if someone felt the same and commented here though but those people probably don't read the forums alot.

 

[zidane]

2 simple reasons why i don't like mirrors for my scans:

1) I do correct my scans...if i find mistakes...if it's nothing big and i don't have
many dl's till this very moment of reuping - then i don't even mark it as version2

2) Well, like wrote above - this way i CAN see how many dl's i get...

- the "special service"^^ i offer is, that everyone can request another mirror from me per PM or just
writing a note in the release's thread... since i upload my stuff on RS only... -

and also it's a perfect way to keep my premiumacc on RS alive...and so all the scans which are upped there...but that's not that important...the most important thing is 1)...

btw - don't expect me to answer anything else since i'm only here because of my lack of a sense of orientation xD...looked for the "idea for improvement"-place and landed here instead^^

Edit: ~~wherever "here" is...~~~ *so scary* ^^

 

[fxu]

It has come to our attention that one of the main reasons people re-upload -even to the same hosts previously posted- is to get premium-points.

Either for points to get free extra months or to exchange later for cash.

We don't like people who are profiting from what we do, in any way. That's why Binktopia isn't allowing mirrors. It's up to the uploader if he wants to provide anything else besides DDL and OV.


Take our actions as however you want, but it's our decision and desire that our releases.


If you have a manga tracker and want to post our releases -as long as it's DDL [not any user-upload site (rs, ss, df, etc etc etc)]-, we allow that, same goes for online viewers, AND must be free to the public.