A bit of wank.
You know what I really hate? I really hate scanlation sites that have forum-based downloading and require potential downloaders to jump through innumerable hoops before anyone can even touch their downloads section.
Of course, I always try their mIRC channels first, but on today's particular scanlator's channel, they didn't have any of their own releases available. THAT MAKES NO SENSE. So I trudged over to their forum thinking, "Oh Lord, what trials must I go through to obtain this manga?" Luckily, this particular forum operated under a password system that only required you to ask before you could receive. Which I suppose is fair enough. Except that on the downloading threads there was all this stuff about "DO NOT SHARE WITH OTHERS OUTSIDE THIS FORUM OR WE WILL STOP SCANLATING THIS MANGA AND REMOVE ALL DOWNLOADS," as well as "COMMON COURTESY REQUIRES THAT YOU LAVISH PRAISE UPON YOUR DOWNLOAD AND SCANLATION PROVIDERS." I was perfectly ready to adhere to the first rule and I dunno, felt decent enough today to actually leave brief thank yous once the downloads started. But then the first chapter finished downloading.
CHRIST CHILD IN THE MANGER, WHAT UTTER CRAP. I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE THE ONLY SCANLATOR PROVIDING THIS LICENSED MANGA, YOU DO NOT GET TO LEAD ME THROUGH ALL MANNER OF INCONVENIENCE AND GUILT-TRIPPING ONLY TO LEAVE ME WITH THIS UTTERLY BELOW PAR PRODUCT.
The overall scan quality of the pages are bad. There are dark spine shadows. The text is blocky and pixelated. The translations are hardly proper English and frequently incomprehensible. There are even multiple cases of using white to edit out the original text in the nearly black spine label shadows, showing how little effort the editors must have put into maintaining consistency in their own work, putting aside completely what little regard they're showing toward maintaining the quality of this objectively very pretty and cute manga. I would not be surprised if the editors were working in MS Paint.
Normally, I really have no problem with a sub-par scanlation. Hell, I'm hosting a sub-par scanlation of Time Stranger Kyoko (although what I downloaded makes TSK's kind of sub-par look like high-resolution professional editing). The thing about that scanlation though is that its scanlator isn't COMPLETELY PRETENTIOUS ABOUT AND ZEALOUSLY PROTECTIVE OF WHAT THEY ADMIT IS THE PRODUCT OF AMATEURS. I easily obtained TSK and am free to distribute it so long as I leave in the credit pages, which I am perfectly willing to do.
I don't really have a point, other than, you know, WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET OVER OURSELVES? I just needed to rant a little.
Of course, I always try their mIRC channels first, but on today's particular scanlator's channel, they didn't have any of their own releases available. THAT MAKES NO SENSE. So I trudged over to their forum thinking, "Oh Lord, what trials must I go through to obtain this manga?" Luckily, this particular forum operated under a password system that only required you to ask before you could receive. Which I suppose is fair enough. Except that on the downloading threads there was all this stuff about "DO NOT SHARE WITH OTHERS OUTSIDE THIS FORUM OR WE WILL STOP SCANLATING THIS MANGA AND REMOVE ALL DOWNLOADS," as well as "COMMON COURTESY REQUIRES THAT YOU LAVISH PRAISE UPON YOUR DOWNLOAD AND SCANLATION PROVIDERS." I was perfectly ready to adhere to the first rule and I dunno, felt decent enough today to actually leave brief thank yous once the downloads started. But then the first chapter finished downloading.
CHRIST CHILD IN THE MANGER, WHAT UTTER CRAP. I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE THE ONLY SCANLATOR PROVIDING THIS LICENSED MANGA, YOU DO NOT GET TO LEAD ME THROUGH ALL MANNER OF INCONVENIENCE AND GUILT-TRIPPING ONLY TO LEAVE ME WITH THIS UTTERLY BELOW PAR PRODUCT.
The overall scan quality of the pages are bad. There are dark spine shadows. The text is blocky and pixelated. The translations are hardly proper English and frequently incomprehensible. There are even multiple cases of using white to edit out the original text in the nearly black spine label shadows, showing how little effort the editors must have put into maintaining consistency in their own work, putting aside completely what little regard they're showing toward maintaining the quality of this objectively very pretty and cute manga. I would not be surprised if the editors were working in MS Paint.
Normally, I really have no problem with a sub-par scanlation. Hell, I'm hosting a sub-par scanlation of Time Stranger Kyoko (although what I downloaded makes TSK's kind of sub-par look like high-resolution professional editing). The thing about that scanlation though is that its scanlator isn't COMPLETELY PRETENTIOUS ABOUT AND ZEALOUSLY PROTECTIVE OF WHAT THEY ADMIT IS THE PRODUCT OF AMATEURS. I easily obtained TSK and am free to distribute it so long as I leave in the credit pages, which I am perfectly willing to do.
I don't really have a point, other than, you know, WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET OVER OURSELVES? I just needed to rant a little.