Ivy

Manga actually does not always accurately depict real life.

 

You also have no understanding of BDSM. Sure, it's kinky, but consent is at the foundation of it. It's pretty harsh to group it with rape and pedophilia, no?

 

I'm frustrated by how you seem to consider behavior and personality to be almost inseparable from gender. How a person acts has little to do with their gender, and much much more to do with societal expectations of that gender.

Algis your caricature of (American) feminism seems more drawn from right-wing ideology than any serious analysis. Also your claims about two-income families and women in the workforce are more appropriate to North America and parts of Europe than they are to Japan. It's hard to credibly claim that Japanese authors are serving American capitalist masters, especially in promoting a group of social trends, such as workforce participation by women, where Japan is lagging rather than leading the western industrial democracies.

 

It's kind of funny to see manga that many of us find degrading or trivializing of human relationships, attacked using Fox News/Tea Party arguments about feminism. It's sort of reminiscent of the a-historical conflation of fascism and socialism that Fox News propagandists have been spouting. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's causally related to this other thing you also don't like.

 

A perhaps more tractable question is whether 'fap manga' (either bishounen or bust-line focused) is contributing to social withdrawal in Japan. I don't think that's a settled question, but as I don't read Japanese I'm excluded from most of the scholarly discussion of the topic. If it were a settled question in Japan, then it would be worthwhile to study whether translations of such manga were contributing to similar social trends in other cultures. Without appropriate data and careful analysis, we're left piling speculation on top of more speculation.

I don't think I can add to this discussion as much as the previous posters have, but I'll reply.

 

@ Kpt Kactus

 

I'm not complaining about manga characters having super powers and I'm not complaining about the fact that female characters being strong. I'm not even complaining about showing boobs and panties for male audience manga. But I am wondering why female characters are SYSTEMATICCALY portreyed as super powerful characters and male characters are SYSTEMATICALLY portrayed as pussies.

If it was one or two mangas of this genre from time to time, I wouldn't ask. I wouldn't even have noticed. But why has it become so massive that it has become almost the rule ?

 

I wonder exactly what it is that you mean by "systematic". Even if series do have what you call super powerful female characters, there usually are still male characters who are at par with them. Maybe they're not the protagonist, but they're still there.

 

And I don't think it's appropriate to call it a rule. A popular trope, if you must, but calling it a rule is going too far.

I don't really understand your sudden shift to the topic of feminism, but I guess that hating feminism is all the rage in the internet these days.

 

Firstly, you are simplifying the ideologies of feminism, and the complexities of living in today's societal and economic conditions, to an absurd degree. You are treating everyone, both genders, like they cannot make decisions for themselves. In addition, you are portraying capitalism almost as a sentient entity, rather than an economic system. I think you should do some more reading, and find a stronger base to argue your opinions from.

 

Now, I would like to address the notion that the "dominant girls" in manga are promoting feminism. If anything, they're doing the opposite. These strong girls are very often little more than a pair of boobs. They are very flat characters, with little depth to their personalities. They're caricatures. They are not promoting the image of strong women, because they're barely women. They're in the manga to look sexy while fighting.

 

And who says a man can't be dominated by a woman? There are many happy couples who could prove otherwise. The mantra that "guys shouldn't be pussies" is also forcing men into a singular, flat role. It's no better for men than the portrayal of women that I discussed above. Women do not have to be weak. Men do not have to be strong. They should be people free of the need to adhere to a vague (at best) notion of how their gender should act. They should be free to pursue whatever makes them happy, even if that is being dominated by a woman or looking sexy while fighting. What sort of authority do we have to tell them that they can't?

 

Anyhow, you really should go read some scholarly discussion of these subjects you clearly feel strongly about. If you want people to take you seriously, then you should try to construct an argument that is more objective, less offensive, and less fallacious.

Well, some may have wondered why bunch of chapters / titles have been disappearing recently. Some might not have noticed at all... As part of METI thing happening, we're getting quite a few dmca requests. As our policy, we are complying with the requests and they have been removed. I do expect to get more notices in the future.

 

Please do not ask me or any other staff where to get them or if you can download them. The answer is no.

Okay. I did a bit more reverse engineering.

 

The javascript code was injected from PHP.

It appears it does target all commonly used browser. I'm not sure why my previous test with chrome/firefox kept on resulting in no data.

It also avoids certain sets of ip ranges, including google crawler. I'm guessing it's a list of well known scanner IPs as to avoid detection from scans.

It only loads the javascript when you come from a search engine. So, if you visited via bookmark, typed address, or even non-search engines like reddit, you wouldn't have been affected.

 

The code that I reverse engineered really showed no interest other than hoarding IPs and ... (below)

 

Ultimately, the end goal (from what is put on our site) is to load their javascript hosted on their site. The contents of which is still mystery to me since the combos I tried get 404s. But it's quite clear to me now that it will actually lead to a malware. According to Google's report however, it does seem to lead to some sort of execution in the end (in which form is unspecified). Lots of it too. Said 17 processes on average.

 

=================================

 

I've also talked to IPB. They (technically he, talked to one person) think it's a result of an administrator account being breached with a remote script. Reason being similar cases were made before back in 2012 and that was the source of the cause. But...

- I changed passwords twice since the last security announcement. And used no where else.

- I know treb also has a unique pass to this site only... generated.

- mhh, I don't know the strength of password, but know he changed now and during last security announcement.

- Last admin account is actually one used by ip board support guy long long ago... (this account has been demoted now)

 

=================================

 

If the hole really is the breached admin account which is solved by changing password AND all it did was put in JS script damage seems fairly minimal for amount of access that was made. I suppose I should start firewalling the admin stuff...

Well... don't panic... but it appears Batoto has been hacked.

 

 

Google scanner reported that there is malware present on this site about half a day ago from this post date which caused the malware warning being displayed to anyone trying to visit the site which started the investigation.

 

An encrypted javascript injection (simply malware/virus) was found in Batoto's skin code, namely Deluxe. This is highly concerning since the admins are the only ones supposed to be the only one who should be able to access that. I cleaned out the infection, but later decided to nuke the entire skin as there may be more lingering pieces. Deluxe skin has been deleted and will not be restored. In place, our old skin, Sylo is back to default and Blood is still there as an option.

 

At this time, I am unable to be certain of the scope of the damage or the point of vulnerability. I am going to further investigate as to since when this virus was present later.

 

I'm not sure what the injected javascript does, because whenever I tried to access it, I either got an already suspended account it led to or a file not found page (404). But it is possible the not-found page is a disguise since it's possible to make the URL time gated and/or referrer gated to prevent accessing the same URL again later. At the same time, it's entirely possible the URL the virus tried to load really didn't exist and resulted in no action.

 

The virus itself seems to often hide itself, thus making detection difficult. On top of that, it seems very new (or recently altered) and does not exist in many anti-malware's database. That's why there were even notices by Google saying there's malware but found 0 pages with it. Almost no scanner I tried had detected it and almost gave up using scanners. It seems to have targeted IE users. I could not make the injected code appear using using firefox/chrome browser headers. It targeted users that came from a search engine. It was also invisible to standard googlebot.

 

During investigation, I also found out that the same kind of virus was previously present at another IPB site, completely independent of ours. And similarly, it is running version 3.4.6 (latest). So it seems most likely that this virus targets IPB sites and may be a zero-day exploit (an exploit that a patch does not exist for). I've sent little, but much info as I can to IPB as well in case it really is a zero-day attack vs IPB systems.

 

The biggest concern right now is that I still don't know exactly how the system was breached. If this really is an attack vs current version IPB system, I can't guarantee the virus won't return. If it was an exploit caused by the Deluxe skin, I have rid of it, but that's just a guess. I've been scouring the logs for last few hours... and besides the typical dozens attempts that failed (this is nothing specific to us, just life of sys admin), I really don't see anything special right now.

 

 

AS OF NOW

no unknown 3rd party items are being pulled during loading of Batoto pages. So google is no longer flagging us as suspicious.

 

If you see anything suspicious from this moment on, please report them immediately! If you don't have an account, you can email me: [email protected]

 

 

Security tips & Profiling

These kind of malware (javascript injected into sites) are typically are after putting their ads / redirecting you to somewhere else / installing virus on your computer. From the reports I've gotten, it doesn't seem like that's happening. But just as a tip... If this site, heck any site or anything, anywhere EVER tells you to install something, don't. Only time you want to install something is if you initiated it. If you went out to search and install that thing.

 

Also, if you'd like, Batoto is designed to be able to run without JS or flash. You can run this site with pure html & css only which has zero risk. But certain features will be inaccessible.

 

 

tl;dr

It looks like we're okay. But we might not be.

 

 

p.s. This incident is not related to the ads.

(This is probably overdue... but better late than never)

Dear readers, fans, contributors, authors and friends,

Through this small letter of mine to you, I hope to let everyone understand what Batoto is all about -- why we exist, what we wish to exist for and why we must exist. Batoto at a glance is just another online comic reader, an aggregate of comics. But we exist for a goal much different than the others. We exist so that the community, the ecology, and the value, the economy, of comics have a place to exist.

I'm sure almost all of you have found your way here to read a scanlation -- a derivative work created by fans for the fans of an original comic. Scanlations exist because there is no other way. Without scanlations much of the world populous would be unable to read your favorite comics, whether it be a manga (Japanese), manhwa (Korean), manhua (Chinese) or any other origin, due to barriers of language and barriers of finances. Ordering a comic that you cannot read from a country far away where shipping will easily out price the comic 3 to 1 is just not possible for many of us. I'm sure you've had moments where you laughed and cried (or you didn't read enough!) as you read them. But the joy that it brought to you is a moment that everyone deserves and a moment that we hope to share. And that is why scanlation exist. As much as many of us wish that all of this can be done for free of charge, free of hassle, that is not possible. There are expenses; you need to pay for your comics, you need to buy equipments to make the process possible, you need to pay for hosting your content, and etc. Then there are those who earn through this process; your hosting company earned, even your electric power company earned, and etc. You see, everything in the world has an intricate active economy no matter what. Sometimes you need to spend more, sometimes less. And when the costs end up being too high, you may have to just stop. And that is why Batoto exists. Batoto hosts not only your comics but also the groups' own ads with them for participating groups. This gives them the chance to recoup their costs through their own advertiser(s) for who need it. This may not be a lot, but through their earnings, it secures their ability to continue and motivate to do more. (While this crossed out statement is still within Batoto's ideals, we are currently unable to do so due to changes in ad networks' function. We will re-enable this feature if/when we can.)

Now that is why we exist today, but we want be and do so much more. Primarily we want to be a place where you can publish your own. Next, we also want to truly be part of the economy of comics. Today, there is no place where you can publish your own comics without heavy restrictions or retain your rights to your work except through self publication. But if you were to publish your own web comics on your own website, vast majority will struggle to even get hundreds of views. Numbers like these will not be able to financially help the author. So, just like we make the impact for scanlation, we want to do the same for self published work. A place where they'll retain full rights and immediately be introduced to potentially millions of viewers. Then, perhaps, they can spend their energy in creativity of their work rather than worrying about their next meal. Another wish for Batoto is to be able to be in a position to buy licenses to increase our reaches to more comics in more languages than ever before. This way, our existence benefits the ecology and the economy of the comic world.

Lastly, Batoto must exist. Today, there is a growing trend in the comic world that's quite frightening and making me grumpy. That is: loss of respect. Some of our competitors are doing things that are just wrong. Some are doing things against the wishes of their scanlators, publishers and/or authors. Hosting the content even when requested not to. Frequently even ignoring DMCA notices as the reaches of the law are often powerless in the Internet. Some are even going as far as claiming that the works are their own. What can we do when even the law can't? We can show people that there is a better way. We can educate people to do things the right way. And we want to show that doing right way doesn't even require more effort or cost. Though we may not be able to eliminate those who disrespect others, we hope to diminish their effects and their powers by simply being the better alternative.

Batoto is a publisher that just wants to make things right.

Sincerely,
Founder of Batoto, the one who is grumpy about what's wrong.

To Spuds Everywhere,

 

We here at Batoto Institute of Science and the Arts (BISA) are pleased to announce a slight change to our tater-based curriculum. With the goal of providing quality education and excellent service, we have decided to go back to our roots; henceforth the name of this proud institution will be changed to "Potato High School". We've been eyeing this change for some time now to fulfill the vision set by our dear leader, the great spud Grumpy (Ezonoo Principal). We believe this change reflects our long-standing position as a premier, tuber-based educational institution, and a world leader for educating potatoes everywhere. The following changes will take effect immediately:

• The name of the institution will be changed to "Potato High School".
• The staff will be reshuffled and given new teaching roles. Their new teaching loads and assignments will be reflected in their designations, titles and wherever it is possible to be displayed.
• Potatoes will now be classified according to their grade level; from freshman to alumni spuds.
• The official mascot for Batoto will be changed from OMGWTFBBQPONIES to The Fighting Irish Potato.
• Numerous tuber-related fixes.

We sincerely believe that these changes will be beneficial to all parties involved. Thank you, remember to not eat your spuds (cannibalism is bad!), get plenty of sunlight and nutrients, and as always, have fun reading!

GO FIGHTING TATERS!

Naver has released their official translation of Webtoons!!!!!

Support Naver and the respective author/artists of each series by reading them there!

 

 

Series include:

• Ability
• About Death
• Aisopos
• Annarasumanara
• A World Without You
• Cheese in the Trap
• Class Without a Smile
• Denma
• Dice
• Dr. Frost
• Gepetto
• Girls of the Wild's
• Hana
• Hellper
• Killer Snack Bar
• Knight Run
• Lessa
• Noblesse
• Nonamed
• Ok-Su Station Ghost
• Pied Piper
• Story of Someone we Know
• Survivors
• Tales of the Herbs
• Tower of God
• The God of High School
• The Sound of Your Heart
• Tidal Territory
• Trump

 

 

http://comic.naver.com/en/index.html

 

Enjoy!

Ability

For me the best is curently Tower Of God, for second place I would choose Yureka.
About manhwa beeing better than manga, it's probably that almost all manga gets translated (even lousy ones)
while with manhwa its only the best that gets translated.

You realize this is the most biased possible location to post such a poll? I mean, you'll get the answer you want, but I see such little point in it.

English is not a fun language to learn especially for non-English speakers and writers trying to learn it. One of the my pet peeves is native English users purposely mangeling the language online and non-English speakers think that mess they see is proper English. There is about a thousand or more nuances in English that can make or break the most simple of sentences.

One of hardest things for a translator is contractions(can't, you're, they're, etc.) and when to use them. I don't mean the placement in the sentence or word confusion like 'your/you're'. What I mean is would a character actually use a contraction or not. A character, usually a one who is rich and from a wealthy family, more times than not won't use contractions. The more 'proper' a character is the more they will see the use of contractions as either gouche or something the 'lesser people use'.

Another thing about contractions is to try not to use them in a story's narration.

The ninja couldn't belive the size of the wall he had to climb. The other ninjas weren't joking when they said it's next to impossible to climb it.
OR
The ninja could not believe the size of the wall he had to climb. The other ninjas were not joking when they said it is next to impossible to climb.

Which line looks better?

When it comes to translating Japanese or Korean to English, the rules for the English langauge must be followed. The most important issue for a translator is of course getting the most accurate translation as possible while conveying the original intent of the story-teller. This can be done without sacrificing proper English. It may seem impossible to do it with lines that just don't seem compatable with English. To be honest I don't believe that. It just takes a good grasp of English. The dreaded Engrish is not the result of a bad mish mash of Japanese words trying to be translated into English. It is a poor understanding of English or an act of outright laziness on both the part of the translator and proof reader.

Actually some do. I distinctly remember a certain shoujo manga group (a few other groups too though) that had at least a dozen "active" projects at once. Some of their projects were on hiatus for months if not a year. When another group decided to take up the project for the fans, they started bitching and raising a fuss on their website and IRC cause they were the first ones to work on it so they owned the "rights" to it. You need to ask for their permission to do it and of course they refused since they "own" it.

well see here is the difference.
I admit what that shoujo group did was wrong, and as I said the majority of the scanlators aren´t like that. everywhere there are people who think that they have the right to do things their way.
but, to take the work from people and make money of it and don´t even try to respect the policy of the group is just wrong.