A few weeks ago I asked Shoujo Manga Maniac (SMM) if they would mind scanlating Chiro Star Project again, and I found out today that I was blocked from their website. The scanlations had stopped when Udon licensed it, but then Udon discontinued the series. SMM was the only group I could find that had a) had previous experience with the series and b) was still active. Since they listed Chiro Star Project as "licensed" on their list of dropped mangas, I thought they would be willing to start again now that it was unlicensed. I also thought that they could have missed its unlicensed-ment (Erm. I know that's not a word. Sorry.) because they had so many other projects.

I checked again today and found that I was blocked from their site. Can someone tell me why they are so angry? I didn't mean to be rude. I just wanted to let them know this series was open and to ask if they would start scanlating it again.

I don't remember the exact wording I used, but this is probably a close approximation:
"Would you be willing to pick up Chiro Star Project again? It was licensed by Udon, but they've discontinued it." It sounds a bit rude in retrospect, but I try to make my posts brief to avoid tl;dr. This one ran a little long, unfortunately... Sorry!

i've checked their tagboard.

13 Jul 13, 01:37
admin: No, nali.

nali: I hope I'm not being rude, but would it be possible to pick up Chiro Star Project again? Udon did license it, but then they dropped it after 4 volumes.

SMM FAQs

WHEN WILL YOU RELEASE THE NEXT CHAPTER OF [TITLE]?
By asking about the status of a particular title, you are almost guaranteeing a delay in work on that title. The staff of this site does not appreciate even the slightest hint of ingratitude from readers.

YOU HAVEN’T RELEASED [TITLE] IN A LONG TIME. IS IT DROPPED?
Only if it’s in the “dropped” section of our site.

DO YOU SCANLATE LICENSED MANGA?
We do not scanlate licensed manga. Once a manga is licensed, our job is finished, so please support the authors by purchasing licensed copies of their manga.

MAY I SUGGEST YOU SCANLATE [TITLE]?
We do not take suggestions at the moment.

HOW CAN I HELP OR JOIN YOUR STAFF?
There are a variety of positions free, and we are always recruiting. If you wish to help us with scanlations, please refer to the Recruitment page.

CAN I HOST YOUR RELEASES ON MY WEBSITE?
Any site may host our *.zip files, provided they do not alter the contents in any way.

Only the following online manga viewing sites may host our releases:

• Dynasty Reader
  Other online manga viewing sites hosting our releases are doing so without our approval and against our wishes.

Please do not host our releases of projects that have been licensed in the United States. Preferably, don’t even keep them for personal reading; support the authors by buying a legitimate copy of their manga.

CAN I RETRANSLATE YOUR SCANLATIONS TO ANOTHER LANGUAGE?
No. You may not use any part of our releases (neither the scans nor the translations) for your own scanlations.

I’VE READ YOUR FAQ AND KNOW YOU DON’T ACCEPT RE-SCANLATION REQUESTS, BUT WILL YOU MAKE AN EXCEPTION FOR ME?
No. No exceptions.

SMM's eadd

shoujomangamaniac[at]yahoo.com

I've included the FAQs because it might answer some of your questions.

I hope I was able to help 🙂

If you've checked the Releases page, it looks like Evil Flowers have already picked up this series and started releasing it.

Thanks! I did look at their FAQ's, but I thought that Chiro Star Project didn't really fall into one of the above categories, since they had already scanlated it before... oh well. And I guess it doesn't matter now that Evil Flowers has taken it up.

Thank you for reading! (And replying in a calm, coherent manner.) 🙂

Most scan groups are dicks. I don't mean to offend, but they are. Shoujo scan groups are the most dickish of them. That's just my opinion as an outsider. 🙂

Hope that helps answer your question. 😎

Sarcasm just doesn't work over the internet.

Yes, we're working on Chiro, but right now because we lack staff for it is not one of our main projects. Hope to release more frequent from it in the future. 🙂
Also, I don't think shoujo groups are particularly more mean than other groups. There are all sorts of groups out there, no need to generalize. wink

JOIN EVIL FLOWERS!!!~ ♥