I never thought I'd go back here.

Why hello there, blogspot, I haven't written in you for so long. XD

Just some quick updates, I guess, before I get to the main topic of this post.

Nora Manga collection: Finished! Yay~! I've finally finished collecting all nine volumes. Wow. Now, if only I would ever get around to unbinding them and scanning them, that would be even better. But seeing as I'm such a lazy person, and that I've got zero (try negative) motivation to continue the Nora scanlation project, then I guess this venture is a bust. It's not that I've lost love for the series. It's just that I've lost reason to continue with scanlating Nora, since there's already another group doing it. :3 Head on over to MangaFox to see that.

Vassalord collection: I'm stuck at volume three, haha. But there seems to be news about volume four coming late this year... anyway, I'll still be collecting the Vassalord manga. Don't know about scanlating, though... I'd probably do it, since there's no one else doing it. : |

Switch collection: Haha, I've gotten into the Switch fandom after rewatching the two OVAs. I have volumes 1-11, still looking for 12. I've seen 13 in Comic Odyssey, but I haven't bought it yet, since I didn't want to spoil myself. Volume 14's coming out this year too, I heard.  Haha, and MiranoSand is an awesome band. :3 

Now the meat of the discussion: On banning of scanlations, scanlators and manga hosts.

MangaHelpers is dead. The US-Japan Manga distributors alliance made it commit suicide. They're thinking of putting up OpenManga as a replacement, but it's still in its infancy. You can read more about it here and here. 

And OneManga's following suit. It's already said its goodbyes to the manga community, and it's really annoying to see it go. Not because there would no longer be any more scanlated manga, but because it just made it a little bit harder for fans to get the scanlations. It's not like the disappearance of a few manga readers and hosts will spell apocalypse for scanlations. Really. Scanlations existed even before these manga readers, and they will continue to exist without them. Fans will just have to be diligent again. Oh, and polite towards scanlators, of course. Read more here, if you want.

God, I hope people, specially the ones from manga-distributing/publishing companies, realize how the banning of scanlations will not solve its proliferation in the internet. This is not the way to get rid of them, corporate! Banning them does not solve the core issues, does not address the real reasons why they exist in the first place. And I think that in banning scanlations, in going about this like you have, you are alienating and discriminating against your target audience... and I don't think you can afford to do that. There are other ways to solve this crisis. 

That said, I wish fans would take this opportunity to finally let corporate know what we feel about their actions. We shouldn't just sit still and wait for them to decide for us. We are the consumers, and we should have a say on how things are done, since we are ultimately the ones who are affected. Fans, let's go online, find other fans and talk about these issues. This is the only way we can let corporate know that we are being affected, and not in a good way. If we continue making a fuss about it, sooner or later, they will be forced to listen to us.

I know a lot of people are worried about scanlations being banned, but not a lot talk. The thing is, we should talk. Talking about it is the only thing we can do, and it's the thing that will get us heard by corporate. And they will have to listen, they will be forced to listen, if all we do is talk about this. We are the consumers. We are as important to their business as the source of the manga they sell. It sounds strange, but it's true. It's not all about the corporate, guys. Rather, it's all about us, and how they should consider what we have to say.