2393 replies to this topic

[cinerius]

I'm grateful for all the manga, this site was the best. Have a nice life!

[Xhristyx100]

Farawell! Take care and thank you for let me read more.

[Fraze]

Thanks for everything you've done so far, I'm gonna miss this site for sure but everything has it end. Hopefully you'll do well in real life after this...

[XswordcraftX]

Sayonara.... Thanks for all these years of hard work!

[blue-y]

 

Hello everyone.

 

Batoto will be closing down permanently.

 

I just don't have the will to run this site anymore. This is not a sudden decision for me or something I make lightly, it has been on my mind for a couple years now. And I've finally made my mind to put it into action.

 

I started Batoto along with the crew from The Company back in January of 2011 and it's been a very meaningful part of my life. I don't regret taking on this hobby called Batoto and I cherish the role that I've played as well as the countless hours everyone else here has put in as well as the great community that we've built. I've come to see this like my baby. At 7 years, I suppose it's not even a baby anymore. But it is at a point where I need to move on with my life. I'm tired and I just can't do this anymore.

 

Batoto is proving to be ever more time consuming to maintain despite the fact that we have fewer real visitors. Our bot visitors are always growing as we're the only source that still gives true quality. I've made some serious and controversial changes to counter that like adding membership requirements. While that helped a ton at that time, it always creeps back and we're almost back to square one at this point when I look at the statistics. They currently make up roughly 35% of the traffic which are much more troublesome than real users. And I don't want to make more serious change to this site that'll inconvenience the readers even further. We've already lost enough.

 

It's not just the bots that adds to the technical issues. It's a big site with huge number of page views. It's just expected part of running the site. Whether it be a DDoS attack, scraper bots gone haywire, servers/hosting company being annoying, ad company being annoying, there's just so many stuff that I constantly have to deal with. Over the last 7 years, I haven't had a single day when I could just freely take a day off. If the site goes down, I had to be there, on my computer, ready to take action. I obviously don't do something every single day, but just making myself available is taxing on my life. The fact that I'm unable to take a vacation have often been a point of argument with others in my life. Anytime someone says, let's go somewhere, I could only say no. I have to be here. Sound sleeping is also a thing of the past. I have alarms that go off when the site goes down. I'd wake up in the middle of the sleep to take care of it. False alarm, while irritating, is one of the best things to see when I'm interrupted from my sleep. How else would I have always responded to issues immediately?

 

I've simply run out of will and I feel this is the best choice for me. I beg that the community understands this difficult decision I've made.

 

 

Services will be severely affected starting January 18th as servers expire, though content may still be accessible for you. By January 25th, critical number of servers will have expired that the site will no longer function. But you should consider 18th to be the last day.

 

 

I have stopped accepting donations for a several months now and I'll check to see if anyone sent anything directly and I'll be sure to refund them if they did.

 

Going forward, some of the staff members have and still are in the process of backing up the entire Batoto comic content as they have been notified of this decision well in advanced. They may choose to create a new Batoto or something simpler. That will be up to them, but I will no longer be part of running it.

 

I understand that our forum is a valuable form of communication for many. Because of that, I will be keeping the forums running for an extended period of time, date of which is not yet decided. I will also be making an export for your follows list so that your list isn't lost. Additionally, this list will be available as long as the forum is up and running. Other information that may be useful to the community may be filtered and backed up then made available for the community, but I will, under no circumstances, give anyone a full backup of the site or database. Many have used our system in confidence and it will stay that way.

 

I would like to thank everyone here for your patronage all these years. It has been a good run. Really, thank you. Wouldn't have made it this far without you.

 

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Looks like a lot of people are in a scramble to save what they can, and as a result, site is lot slower. I'm turning on the cloudflare anti-ddos protection to put the site back to a manageable speed. Will likely need to keep it on until the end.

- 2018/1/7

 

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The export feature has been added. Go to my follows and check the side bar. Realized there isn't much data to save when our IDs and such are all gone. But it's there anyway for the fuller version.

If domain is no longer up, forums will be available at the alternate address of vatoto.com (not used right now)

- 2018/1/13

 

 

Wow. - definitely did not expect to see this news since it has been awhile since I last logged in here.

 

It has been 7 years, it feels a while back and yet so long ago..how much have things changed in terms of access to manga as well as my frequency in reading manga. It can't be helped, as the years go by, priorities change, lifestyles change, indeed perhaps I have taken for granted this site will always be here whenever I have time and/or feel like reading manga in the midst of my busy work life. 

 

I have been here since 2011, back then I was still a student, I have so much time for anime & manga.. It's sad now that I have less time to do this as work takes a lot of time, as well as other life priorities... I remember back then I first heard of this site because I heard the quality of the scans were not corrupted unlike other sites, and I came here to read this series "Bride of the Water God", which used to be one of my faves then.

 

I'm not active in forums, and nor do I access Batoto as frequently these last few years, but Batoto feels like a home that I could always return to when I would like to read some manga with quality scans - perhaps I have taken this for granted, not aware how hard the people running & maintaining this site have worked. I am sad to see this site go, but now there are better access to some quality (though are any as good as batoto? real question) and official manga, so it won't be the end of manga for me. I am extremely grateful to @RawR and all of the admins for creating, running and maintaing Batoto. It saddens me to think that all these years the pressure of running this site has affected the admins so, at the same time it makes me feel all the more thankful that Batoto has existed.

 

Every time I told others (non-regular manga readers) how many online manga came about (back then before there are many official sites), they would always be shocked that a lot are done by fans for fans - for free! I have spent many many years reading thousands of manga series, and I can say most of it is thanks to fellow fans' contributions. I am very grateful (this being an understatement) for fans who have contributed in any way - from the cleaners,translators,editors in scan groups to those who run sites such as batoto.

 

Thank you admins, thank you Batoto for a rocking 7 years of maintaining the site where fans can share the best quality of scans with fellow manga fans. You will be sorely missed.

Edited by blue-y, 15 January 2018 - 05:14 PM.

[LetRoll]

Just came back from new year trip.....and found out that the site is going to end....

A little sad......but thank you for give me the enjoyment for the pass 2 year.....I very have a good time here....

Farewell sir......thank you for everything until now....     

[luptik]

Thanks for everything.

[SaVi]

Thanks for doing this for so long, and good luck with your next endeavours.

A quick question, is it possible to list all the groups that have scanlated a series in the full exports? If it isn't too much work to do, that is.

 

On a related topic, I already do my animes legally, and would like it very much to see an even better model for manga, manwha, etc, as a result of bato.to closing down. Maybe LINE could pick up a few popular licenses.

Best would be to have as big of a library like here though. I'd pay about 20 Euro per month without batting an eye if I'd get all the series that I am reading now.

[velvetbuns]

Thank you for all your hard work up to this moment! and many other things that members above have already said.

Like many of the members here, I always felt that Batoto was a sort of home for me although I have not been explicitly active. Wish you and everyone the best moving forward! 

             

[fishiiie]

Omg. Just seeing this news now for the first time.

 

While I'm extremely sad about this, I must also express my gratitude to Grumpy and all admins for their hard work over the past 7 years. 

 

You will be missed!!! Batoto was great!

[Fizanko]

I discovered Batoto in 2012 and registered on it as this concept of groups from various language uploading their scanlation work was just great.

 

Since then, i checked Batoto nearly daily, discovering lots of manga i never heard about thanks to it.

It's hard to imagine something like Batoto, that has been part of a near daily routine is coming to an end.

 

Thank you for all your work and maintenance, it's been a great ride.

 

[Adrian_V]

This is probably not the right place to ask but does the domain being on sale mean if its bought batoto won't stop working? or at least a new version will emerge?

[Sana]

Thank you for your time, your sacrifices and your hard work. Batoto will be sorely missed.

 

 

[Wul]

Thanks, it's been a great ride.

Good luck with your future endeavours.

[KojiroMasa30]

Thanks for the hard work and take care

[Kreanga]

Thank you for everything Dude ! It was a pleasure this past 3 years with your site. You did a great job. And i enjoyed to read all thoses stories as much as i enjoyed to see so much people from so many countries sharing this together with no other limit than the respect and pleasure of others.

I can't even be sad. I never asked for this but you made it. And i spend years passing by on a daily basis, enjoying few minutes of pure freedom for my mind in tens of imaginary worlds.

Dunno if you will read all of those message, and i guess most of them are strangers for you, but i hope you can feel that my most sincere words lost among others (page 94 at the time xD) can make you feel that those worries/alarms/and far worst unamed trouble that you encoutered and all that you sacrified was worth it.

 

Merci pour tout !!!

Bon voyage !!

A+

 

PS : sorry for the pitiful writing, english is not my native language

[OMGWTFBBQPONIES]

This is probably not the right place to ask but does the domain being on sale mean if its bought batoto won't stop working? or at least a new version will emerge?

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name
it's like selling company's logo or mailing address (and just that). or just a piece of land with the previous owner taking all the buildings and grass with them.

[Mikeso]

Grumpy, Thanks for all you did for us this many years, dude.
Words aren't enough to than you.
Wish you the very best, and hope you succeed in your next project.

Cheer mate!

[DonkeyWan]

Ah well, it was great while it lasted. So long and thanks for all the fish!

[Adrian_V]

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name
it's like selling company's logo or mailing address (and just that). or just a piece of land with the previous owner taking all the buildings and grass with them.

 

So there is a chance it will continue to work as long as the buyer wants it to, i just hope is not someone like say the owners of mangafox who buy it xD