Animated watermarks

[Koro]

Some of this information will overlap with the previous FAQs about watermarks, but we felt the need to address this matter separately.
In case you haven't noticed, recently we've started using animated gifs for the initial releases of new chapters.
If you're wondering why we're doing so, what the results have been or are simply curious, read on.

*Below I will use MangaFox and MangaHere (MF & MH) as examples, but other online reader sites such as ecchi-manga and mangareader fall under the same category. The only online readers exempt as far as we're concerned are www.Batoto.net and readers available on scanlator websites.


Why animated watermarks?

This allows us to add temporary watermarks, so to speak. 0.2 seconds after a page loads, the watermarks disappear.
This only works, however, for websites that keep our images in their original format.

Sites such as MangaFox and MangaHere resize, compress and convert whatever files are uploaded. This means that the often high quality work available on a scanlator's site is tampered with and made low quality by the time it is displayed.
MangaFox take images from Batoto or scanlator sites, reduce the size of pages from 1400px, 1600px, whichever size they are, down to approx 1000-1100px. They then save the already compromised files as LQ JPG files, resulting in smaller files with a significant amount of detail and quality lost.

Animated gifs, however, have more than one layer. The first layer to appear is the watermarked layer, the one which MF end up with after saving to JPG format.
The choice is then made easier. Watermarked LQ images on MangaFox, or images in their original quality with watermarks that disappear after 0.2 seconds on Batoto.

The goal of these animated watermarks is to drag people away from MangaFox and other sites that tamper with and reduce the quality of our work.
Many of the other reasons for watermarking are covered here: http://japanzai.com/index.php?topic=1619.0



Are they making a difference?

If you've seen any of the threads started on MF regarding the animated watermarks, or noticed the followers increasing for the affected series on Batoto, then you should already know the answer.

Threads about the watermarks are being removed from MangaFox and they're already losing readers. A majority prefer to sit and wait for NOEZ-sama to make the big bad watermarks go away, of course, but our aim is to show those set in their ways that they will get a clean product in much higher quality available faster by going to Batoto (or visiting this site, of course).
If they can't be bothered visiting another website in order to read without watermarks, so be it.
If they have the patience to wait for it to be converted and resized instead of trying out a different website, that's their decision.

We can only give them the facts;
1. Their favorite series are available on Batoto before MF. We usually UL there before making a post here, so Batoto is often the first place our series are available.
2. On Batoto our watermarks disappear. Put up with the watermarks on MF if you want, but they disappear on Batoto and here, so the call is yours.
3. Questions about the watermarks, series status, etc. will be answered on Batoto far more quickly. Threads disappear from MF hours after their inception, and our staff members keep getting banned (myself included lol). The word "Japanzai" is even censored on MF.
People on MH and MF think we've dropped a series because there's no news there, even if we've made an announcement here or on Batoto.
*Do NOT ask about or believe news on the status of a series on MF, MH, etc. If you want to know, ask here.



What's the point?

Put simply, we don't want NOEZ to make money from the hobbies of others.
You can bitch and moan about scanlators being no better, but know this: we don't profit from doing this. Any money we make is used to buy raws, pay a scanner or to continue renting this server.
NOEZ is an actual company that makes a ridiculous amount of money without doing a thing. They use bots to rip content and make money through advertising, selling fake merchandise, etc.
No point doubling up on a bullet point about NOEZ. If you want the rest of this argument, go here: http://japanzai.com/index.php?topic=1619.0

In case you're wondering whether or not using gifs has been successful, just take a look.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/857/j8img0000371.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/403/vimg001.jpg/

*The examples shown above are, as the name suggests, nothing but examples. We've moved onto less offensive and more informative watermarks, as we believe that giving people the facts is more effective than simply gaining attention with such a watermark. Whilst the watermark used above did succeed in gaining attention, as is the point of watermarking, we believe that there may have been undesired misconceptions.
The watermark shown above was meant as a "Fuck you" to aggregates such as MangaFox, not to those reading our releases.

I've got the clean layer! I am 1337!

Bravo   I hope you feel special.
We're responsible for saving in the format you're given, obviously we know how easy it is to undo.
The point of this isn't to stop readers from getting the clean chapter, it's to fuck with sites like MangaFox. See the two images posted above and you'll see what I mean.

fyi, since we started doing this we've been releasing the clean versions for DL faster than usual.
If you can't wait <24 hours for the clean version in HQ to be made available for DL, that's your decision. Posting ripped layers on public threads in the hopes that people will use your paid host, however, is pathetic.



*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.

*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.