Watermarks/NOEZ

[Koro]

Since we've been asked the same questions over and over and over... we're just going to pool the answers here.
fyi, MangaFox and MangaHere are used as the primary examples here, but we are referring to any online aggregates that
profit from the work of others. eg. ecchi-manga.net, mangareader.net, etc.

Why do we watermark?
It is not to spite leechers. We watermark to raise awareness about sites like MangaHere and MangaFox,
ie. NOEZ-owned sites that leech from scanlators in order to make money (3K+ daily for MF through adsense, let alone their
"otaku store", selling fake merchandise).
In case you haven't caught on, we release clean versions of watermarked chapters alongside the next release.
eg. the clean version of ch32 will be released alongside the watermarked version of 33.

Why go to Batoto instead?
1. Batoto features manga in the best possible quality. They display the manga as we upload it, not adding their own
watermarks, resizing/converting pages or removing credits pages. fyi, MH add their own watermarks, MF/MH resize often
to around 1000px, ALWAYS convert to LQ JPGs (notable quality loss) and remove credits pages whimsically.
2. Batoto respect scanlators' wishes. We had a simple 24 hour policy that was apparently too difficult for MF/MH to
follow. If they can't even wait one day in accordance to our wishes, on top of removing the "scanlators' policies" section
on MF, it's obvious they can't be bothered even pretending to care anymore. They bite the hands that feed them, we bite
back.
3. To support scanlators. If you want to support scanlators but DON'T want to give up either time or money, you don't
have to. You can support scanlators by simply downloading from their websites or reading on Batoto, since groups can
link their adsense to Batoto and receive whatever their ads provide.
4. To read manga (duh). Since many scanlators favor Batoto, you will often see your favorite series updated on Batoto
before anywhere else, ours included.

You're just watermarking to profit off something that doesn't belong to you, so how are you any different?Does watermarking actually do anything?
3 things off the top of my head.

1. Takes people away from MF/MH. We've had many readers tell us that they were reading on such sites before seeing
the watermarks, blissfully unaware of why scanlators hate NOEZ. Raising awareness is the best thing we can do in order
to get people to read elsewhere; while many readers just say things like "fucking scanlators, whining about nothing", others
understand why we're doing what we do and are willing to do something as simple as reading on a different website in order
to support those giving them something for free.

2. Lets people know about Batoto. For reasons listed earlier in this post and others it's obvious that we'd rather people read
on Batoto, but if you ask 90% of the people reading on NOEZ sites what Batoto is, they couldn't give you an answer.
Even if many are disappointed to see the watermarks are still present on Batoto, the fact that they complain about it
means they've actually gone to read on Batoto in order to find out. After hearing why they should continue to do so, some
readers will do just that. Many won't, of course, taking for granted what NOEZ-sama rips for them, but you know what they
say: you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
If you decide to read on sites like MF/MH, we can't stop you, but know that you're only hurting yourself in the long run.
Scanlators give up working because they don't want to pay money out of their own pockets to help strangers, translators
feel demotivated, potential new staff members are busy asking aggregates to update, suddenly your favorite series have
been dropped.

3. They help readers get in touch with scanlators. Face it, trolls or not, many people wouldn't break their habit to actually
visit a scanlator's site if they didn't have a reason. If you're one of said MF/MH readers, case in point.
You can praise NOEZ for ripping, compressing and resizing content all you want, but if you want full quality releases
as soon as scanlators release them, if you want to know for sure whether a series has been picked up, dropped, gone on
hiatus, etc, check out the scanlator's site.
We recently had someone ask if Mayo Chiki had been dropped after someone from MangaHere announced that Japanzai/Simhauu had
dropped it. Needless to say we didn't (and won't) drop the project, and thanks to that there are plenty of ignorant
readers who cbf going elsewhere that think Mayo Chiki has been dropped.

Who or what are NOEZ?
NOEZ are a company, in a word. An actual company with paid employees who profit from doing nothing but using bots to
automatically rip content from Batoto and scanlator sites.
Need more info?
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=28000
http://www.batoto.net/forums/topic/2091-mangafox-how-noez-does-business/
NOEZ own many manga and anime sites, making a living IRL from the work of others and the ignorance of readers/viewers.
If that wasn't enough, they've been known to DDoS sites that they see tarnishing their "good name". eg. foolrulez

Some known NOEZ sites:
mangafox.com/
mangahere.com/
mangarush.com/
tenmanga.com/
mangayes.com/
mangable.com/
otakushop.com
Anime-eden.com
Wallpaperfox.com
Wallpaperhere.com
Otakuzone.com
Animeonline.net
game321.com

A screencap taken of NOEZ's site before they made it inaccessible: http://i.imgur.com/WHVF8.jpg

How can I support scanlators effortlessly?
We don't expect you to give up your time and money or to go to great efforts (oh the irony), so we'll make it simple.
1. If you're going to read online, go to Batoto.
2. When going on Batoto or scanlator websites, turn off your ad blocker and/or flashblock.
3. If you for some reason MUST go to MF/MH, use ABP and flashblock so they won't make a cent from you.
Ad block plus: http://adblockplus.org/en/
Flash Block for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cdngiadmnkhgemkimkhiilgffbjijcie
Flash Block for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock/
4. As corny as it may sound, go to the scanlator's website and give thanks. Just a comment now and then will suffice.
When a scanlator puts in hours of hard work and doesn't see even a single comment on the release, they begin to wonder
why they bother. Some of us do it for ourselves (ie. those of us who can't read Japanese), some do it for their e-penises,
some do it simply to give back after leeching. No matter the reason, thanking those who bring you something for nothing
can't hurt.


A few things worth mentioning...
1. The reason we tell people to read on Batoto instead of promoting our own online reader is that most readers want a single
place to read all of their manga. We only host series that we work on, so for those who desire the convenience of having everything
in one place, Batoto is the answer.
2. We do not claim any ownership of the manga we work on. Each series is owned by their respective author, not us.
We do, however, put a lot of work into each chapter that we release, and seeing our hard work compressed, resized and credited
to an aggregate that simply uses a bot to rip our content is more than a little demotivating.

*More arguments/info will be added to this thread as time goes on. The purpose of having this thread is so that we won't have to
repeat ourselves time and time again. It's a waste of time, and quite frankly everyone (readers and staff alike) would prefer that we
use that time to work on our series.