Dear forum members,
I have not really been actively taking part in much things other than Yaoi Anime (as you all know, I started this forum with yaoi anime fansubs and sharing only), and it seems that some sections and issues have been ignored or simply gets outdated. So here are what some of the things I've decided to do, and a lot are related to scanlation sharing and scanlation groups:
Change #1 (Scanlation sharing):
Old: For the manga sharing/download section, we have a rule stating that all posts must contain download links directly to download the title only, even for scanlation groups. Now this has changed!
New: (GENERAL RULES for Manga Upload Section)
<< UPDATED RULE # 4 (April 2014) >>
4. All posts/replies in the Manga Download sections must contain at least one download link and/or a link back to a scanlator's release page.
- Anything else will be considered SPAM.
- If you're reuploading releases then upload the original files downloaded from the Scanlation Group site, please don't remove the credits page.
- You can post without a download link if the scanlator's group policy prefers that you don't reupload their projects but they allow to link back to their sites.
* It must be the direct release page and not the general page of the site.
* It must be accessible to everyone, so no locked entries or the likes apply to this rule.
* You must include in your post nonetheless all the information required such as cover pic, title, author/artist (circle), publisher, genre, rating, etc. depending on the section.
- If you post or link back to a password protected file, state clearly the password on your post. Archives/Links that fail to do this will be removed without prior warning.
Reason: This is to allow people to go directly to scanlation group's website to download it and more exposure to the scanlation group.
Also, as of April 2014 the list of Allowed & Forbidden material for uploading has been revised and updated with the following changes:
- All releases from disbanded/defunct scanlation groups
are allowed to be shared on the forum. The list of Forbidden groups has been revised, if you're unsure whether or not you can post certain archives, just make sure that they don't belong to a group included in the Forbidden list and of course that they're not licensed in the USA.
- Chinese to English scanlations
are allowed to be distributed in this forum as long as the English scanlation group allows free distribution of their releases and of course, that they're not licensed in the USA. Also, it's ok to share English scanlations even if they have watermarks from a Chinese group.
by anyone are allowed once someone have posted anything in this forum. If you see a notice like "Do not reupload or repost" please respect it if the links still work, otherwise you're free to post mirror links.
Reason: Now we are allowing to post releases from disbanded or/and defunct groups that were previously in the forbidden list. We respect scanlator's rules but once they're gone, we should also try to mantain their releases available for this community. Same goes for mirror links. We undestand that the original poster most of times is the scanlator but as the time goes by the links die and as a sharing community we want to provide the opportunity to every member to download all those archives.
We are also allowing Chinese to English scanlations despite the old rule stating to remove everything including Chinese to English scanlation that has a disallowed Chinese group watermark on it. The Chinese scanlation team policy appears to have rules stating it is not allowed to share their Chinese translated version only and nothing about raw or English translated ones.
~~~
Change #2 (Closed community discussion):
Old: Some years back, I personally closed the threads that talked about scanlation groups or community that have their door closed for registration or closed community where a lot of members have been kicked out for unknown reasons. This has left many stranded, frustrated and all sorts of questions raised. The leaders of these community used to be active in AarinFantasy forum too and I thought that they surely have their own personal reason to do so, and I didn't wanna have people talk bad about them here because it could lead to flame war, so I closed the threads that talked about this topic before it gets worse.
New: What I plan to do is allow discussions about such issues provided they are civil (though that applies to all discussions). People on both sides can choose to voice their opinions unless it gets ugly, then AarinFantasy staff will have to interfere.
Reason: I think I was misunderstood about protecting these groups . All I know is they asked for removal of some of their shared stuff and they are the leaders or staff. No reasons were given to me even in PM when I asked them why they have closed their registrations and kicked out members. Since no answers were given to me, I just assumed they really have their own personal reasons and I didn't wanna pry too much. So I think my mistake was to hurriedly closed down threads that let their members (especially those that got kicked out) to voice out their opinions. For that, I really apologized, as I should be aware that this forum is a place to voice out opinions or gets messages across, all done on neutral grounds.
~~~
Change #3 (Fair sharing of scanlation teams):
Old: We banned certain scanlation teams (due to fights in this forum) that posted on their own sites of other scanlation teams' work without that team's permission.
New: So now, these banned scanlation teams are allowed back into the forum provided that they agree to the following: Unless the scanlation team break's AarinFantasy's forum rules, then there's no real reason to ban them from AarinFantasy. If some members of a group cause trouble by purposefully uploading things to AarinFantasy they know they're not allowed to, then it's a different issue. Scanlation groups should only post their own released work. They may post other scanlation group's work if they are permitted to do so or as per that group's policy.
Reason: This forum has many different scanlation groups that come together and may not agree with each other that may lead to fighting. I hope they keep these fights between themselves if they want to and keep AarinFantasy out of it. We are not responsible for what they do on their own sites, and they should not expect us to be. As always, AarinFantasy only tries to abide/respect each scan-group policies and that's why we even give exclusivity to the scan-members themselves to post their releases within the forum (if someone else post the scans before the team members, their post is deleted).
~~~
Major update and re-upload to BL Movies and Drama:
As some of you may have noticed, recently I've updated the entire section to provide forum members a place to download all your real life BL movies and drama needs. I took some very intensive days just to find and download and then upload them all. Dug hard to find subbed ones too. However, I still have some missing titles and will need your help in it. Do help to share existing files too if you can. If you are curious about which is good, I didn't have the time yet to watch most of them, so I can't help you much on that... the summaries should help a bit or search online for reviews for that if you can. I 'might' try on fansubbing some BL movies in future too.
~~~
Points for your contributions:
We have a new system to give points to members that contribute to the forum with BL uploads. This rule was implemented since 27th Jan 2014 (clicky).
The only differences are we will give you points more than before and we will not write how much you gained in your post. You will know how much points you get via auto PM or check it in the Bank tab at the top of the forum.
So no more actual points list to follow and you get a lot more than before! Just let the staff send you the points within 1 month.
Should you have any questions at all, feel free to ask me and the staff here. Thanks for reading.
~