I'm venting here sorry, but it has been bothering me for a while now.

Harudaki was a public group more than 10 years ago, then they fired all the members (readers and helpers) and decided to be a super private elite group of barely 10 members (or so I heard). They translate lots of BL manga but nothing is shared with readers outside of their group and no one is able to join their group either.

That's perfectly fine with me, anyone can create their team, scanlate manga and keep them for themselves. There is literally no obligation to share with the rest of the world your translation.
Where it bothers me is when this super private elite group decide to translate PRIVATELY a manga that NOBODY except the 10 or so members have access to, but still want to claim PUBLICLY the manga.
When you go on the page of a manga, under the "Groups Scanlating" section you see their group name, under the "Latest Release(s)" you see all their chapter release and then they even have the nerve to check the box YES for the "Completely Scanlated?". Yet, us readers can't find the manga anywhere !


What the hell ! If you don't post anything publicly, then you shouldn't update your wherabouts on baka-updates or any other website (cause this issue is not just on BU). All it does is make a manga appear to be scanlated or completed and so preventing other teams to work on them and us readers unable to read those manga. They have been doing this for years, gatekeeping more than 30 BL manga for themselves. That's pure selfishness.

And the worst part is Harudaki group works on BL manga by the most popular and finest BL mangaka like Scarlet Beriko, Yuitsu, Nishimoto Rou or Billy Balibally. That means we can forget about the newest Scarlet Beriko, two of Yuitsu' manga and Wolf Pack by Billy Balibally (I'm lucky here because this one was published in my country (France) months ago so I'm going to buy this one soon) 😢

I was an ex translator. Was translating during 2021 for almost a whole year. I got in by messaging the owner. They only accept people who helps translating, which is what it used to be like back when scanlation first started. I’ve stopped because I got busy. Idk where you got info, even Idk how many members in there. I truly support them being private, I hate hate aggregator site. They keep stealing and profit from volunteers scanlation and we profiting of author. I support any action that protects author. And I think Harudaki can put completed here because readers from Harudaki also use this site. Just because you can’t access it doesn’t mean they can’t put it here. If you can’t get it then don’t feel entitled the thing must be given to you. I am one of the person who follows their update here.
Also, scanlators are free to pickup what they want. I’ve seen scanlators did other manga that Harudaki has done. They weren’t force not to pick it up. No one tell them no.

Last edited by YanaLiana at 7:41 am, Jul 20 2022

Hmm... I don't know what do you mean by "protecting the authors", but scanlation is basically stealing though 'cause they (scanlators) didn't ask for the author's permission (just a few asked for it).

And some scan groups don't want to pick up someone else's project, and lot of people of course who don't have an access want to read the project(s) but can't read it anywhere.

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Cross The Oceans: Discord

What you just said doesn't really make sense about them being able to claim a manga as completed. If only people who help with Harudaki's scanlation get to read their releases and you claim that those "readers" use MU as a resource to get updates on the work they helped scanlate, why should they need to use a public website? It's only a teeny amount people out of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people who access MU. Plus, they know what they've worked on, why even use MU? It's ridiculous, frankly, that any of their releases are on here besides the oldest stuff that is still available publicly.

At this point, Harudaki is simply using MU as their own personal excel sheet and blog. If they wanted to keep their "readers"/staff updated, I'm sure they could easily make a private site and post updates on there, instead of faking people out on here by listing their "phantom" releases.

Sadly for everyone, according to one of the admins, Harudaki is a "special case", i.e. typically a group that doesn't have an accessible site/Discord isn't allowed to have their releases on here. I've had trouble before adding a group's releases on here just because they had a Discord invite link that expires really fast, even though all their stuff is publicly posted. (Luckily that's fixed.). For all the forum posts about them, no one has really explained why they are special. Maybe there wouldn't be such animus towards them if answers were given.

Aggregators come with the territory of scanlation, but I think it's perfectly fine if Harudaki wants to protect their work. However, surely you can be fair and admit that it's a more than a bit ironic (and hypocritical) for Harudaki to claim aggregator hatred and yet make it known publicly that they are still actively violating copyright repeatedly by doing unauthorized translations. Because scanlation=piracy. It would be a whole lot less hypocritical if no one knew about it. Hence, they should stop putting their releases on here.

If you could try to put yourself in the shoes, even for a second, of the other people who read BL and use MU as a resource to look up works to read and potentially buy, you could see how frustrating this issue is. I've hid Harudaki as a group, but they still show up on the individual page for a manga and count toward the "completely scanlated=Yes" section. It's a fake out and it shouldn't be allowed. Although you are right: Harudaki picking up a manga doesn't prevent another group from picking up something, because most know that the group is private, unless they are new to scanlation. So the rule of only one group per manga is null and void.

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떡대수 supremacy

years and years ago, scanlation was made by friend for friend. who can't read manga due to language barrier. Back then any upload to aggregator site was condemn. We don't want to get money from it. It's bad enough scanlation stealing from the sensei. It's like damage control, but I believe nowadays since raw are easily attainable, more reason to buy the manga raw. But aggregator site is just blatantly stealing translator's translation. I hate to see my translation got up there. I want to translate and share with same-minded people. One of the reason I stop translating now.

I think if you can't access it then pick up other manga to read. You are getting free stuff, why be so mad and not able to get it. It wasn't mean to be out there in the beginning.

I think they're special since they've existed for a long time now.
I know that when I started reading they were already here and I've been reading for more than 10 years. Probably that's why.

I'm tired to write a lot. I'll just stand by my point they don't need to be removed.

Never understood the hate toward aggregator sites. They helped make manga mainstream in the west by making it accessible. In the end, that has driven a huge increase in manga and associated merchandise sales in the west. It's largely a symbiotic relationship.

You could easily argue that aggregator sites are better for the industry than these tiny little exclusive scanlation communities.

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"We can not resort to simplistic or extreme solutions which substitute myths for common sense." ― Jimmy Carter

Y'all can argue all you want about spreading their works in aggregator sites, and readers being disrespectful by not keeping stuff private, yadda yadda yadda. That's not what this is about. The previous commenters were correct, this is a public website meant for public information. Saying something is completely scanlated just confuses users who go to look for that scanlation. If it's NOT available for rent, purchase, or free then it SHOULDN'T BE LISTED. At all. Period.

It prevents other groups from knowing what works are still unscanlated for the public. It prevents people from seeing accurate updates on the new chapters list. It is honestly a hassle, has been for many years, and so many people have complained without the moderators doing anything about it despite the number of threads about them.

As the previous commenters said, why should they be treating this website like it's their own personal spreadsheet?! They should instead have their own spreadsheet on Google and include manga links to MU if their readers want to know more, but not list ANY of their scanlations if they are a closed group.

Last edited by TehShush at 9:30 pm, Aug 26 2022

updates from mod on the main thread:
they’re an exception apparently
there will be no changes

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if i stop posting here i’ve been banned ^^