Hello all new to the site.
This will be my greeting thread,
So this thread isn't a completely useless greeting thread i want to ask a few questions.
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Can this site benefit any artist's somehow?
Does this site have goals besides looking for some Otaku pics?
And does anyone here buy Manga/Anime to support the anime industry's?
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*Edit* Also i like this place better then Danbooru. So much more cleaner and fresh looking

1.Other than recognition, not really, though scanners buy the artbooks, so that counts to some extent.
2. WORLD DOMINATION
3. I do, and I'm sure there are other users who do as well.

Ponnkun said:
1.Other than recognition, not really, though scanners buy the artbooks, so that counts to some extent.

I've bought artbooks I've seen here.

Radioactive said:
I've bought artbooks I've seen here.

I wasn't discounting other users of course, since I buy a lot of artbooks myself.

Working on to introduce uncelebrated great artists to the world (・∀・)(and I intentionally unscan famous but dull anime paintings available at your local stores)

I only scans ones we have but need a resoultion upgrade or illustrations worth scanning.

1. Possibly
2. Otaku pics...
3 I don't know about the most of us but I buy mote than enough to have me scanning every month.

Well, I always thought this site also advertises featured artists, so it's probably beneficial to the artists indirectly.
Besides, we're not here for fat otaku pics. We're here for illustrations of 2D girls. ヾ（｀・∀・´）

Can this site benefit any artist's somehow?

Before I began visitting this site, I didn't even care about the artists. Now I became a fan of lots of them, and I'm also buying artbooks and other products.

Seeing all those amazing pictures here really makes me want to buy the books, so yes, this site can (albeit indirectly) benefit the artists...

BlackDragon2 said:
this site can (albeit indirectly) benefit the artists...

This is what they should notice and take advantage of, instead of asking to stop distributing their stuff.

Debbie said:
This is what they should notice and take advantage of, instead of asking to stop distributing their stuff.

They have their reasons.

Debbie said:
This is what they should notice and take advantage of, instead of asking to stop distributing their stuff.

But I can understand that the number of people, even though they like the artist's work, don't buy any of their books and just use digital scans found here is greater than the number of people who do actually buy them. Though I agree that they should find a way to use this to their advantage.

Debbie said:
This is what they should notice and take advantage of, instead of asking to stop distributing their stuff.

The thing is, not everyone agrees that having your work available for free leads to more recognition/sales/etc. And it's probably something that we'll never manage to prove one way or the other, so people will continue to have differences of opinion on it.

Personally I think that the people who download and don't buy would have just done without if the downloads weren't available. (I know for certain this is the case for myself, I simply can't afford to buy things like artbooks nowadays, although I have bought several in the past when I was able to afford them.) But at the same time, scans on moe.imouto have helped me become aware of specific artists I wouldn't have found out about any other way. Tinkle's a good example, I absolutely adore their work, but I'd never even heard of them until I saw them on the site. If I get to where I can afford artbooks again, Tinkle's will be at the very top of my list.
＼( ￣▽￣)／

I think the main problem with artbook scans is that for the most part artbooks from Japan are quite difficult to obtain for those outside the country. It's not just price, often there's issues of language (many artbooks are only available from Japanese-language sites) and shipping (not being able to get stuff shipped out of country, stuff off of Yahoo Japan Auctions is a good example of this). Hopefully someday there'll be a way to buy digital copies online.

For now we'll all just have to make do as best we can. ヽ(ー_ー )ノ

Manabi said:
For now we'll all just have to make do as best we can. ヽ(ー_ー )ノ

until I get sued or run out of money \o/

admin2 said:
until I get sued or run out of money \o/

And that would mean this site is done for.

admin2 said:
until I get sued or run out of money \o/

Followed by the rising of moe.ototo.

admin2 said:
until I get sued or run out of money \o/

I think it's safe to say none of us want to see either of those happen!
＼（〇_ｏ）／

main problem: most artbooks from Japan are quite difficult to obtain for those outside the country. not just price, often there's issues of language (many artbooks are only available from Japanese-language sites) and shipping (not being able to get stuff shipped out of country).

Took the words out of my mouth.

Hopefully someday there'll be a way to buy digital copies online.

I sure do.

Ok, can anyone that doesn't live on Japan mention a single artist that they discovered outside of an imageboard site? Because all the artists I know are thanks to other people's scans.
Now someone please tell me how would an artist get known without advertise on internet.

They themselves and the publishers makes everything harder to us, just as Manabi said.
They act ungrateful to imageboard sites. Most of their fame are due to their "piracy", which they accuse and complain about.

People who are meant to buy their expensive artbooks are honest fans, who even having high-quality scans on hands, will buy the artbooks to support the artist.
The factor "scans" doesn't minus any potential buyer, quite the opposite: it advertises the art and collect more buyers.

Now it's up to Japan stores and publishers how they want to deal with the lack of necessary conditions to sell many books.
Making artbook legal purchase easier to everyone, instead of simply blaming fans who scan to present the not-presentable to a lot of other fans.

Debbie said:
They act ungrateful to imageboard sites. Most of their fame are due to their "piracy", which they accuse and complain about.

People who are meant to buy their expensive artbooks are honest fans, who even having high-quality scans on hands, will buy the artbooks to support the artist.
The factor "scans" doesn't minus any potential buyer, quite the opposite: it advertises the art and collect more buyers.

Tell me that again after you've had to pay an arm and a leg to import something. I think you'll find the number of "honest fans" isn't so high.

Lol, and the eyes of the face too...
It isn't, unfortunately. Seeing so many obstacles to buying something, it's not hard to tell why not many people buy the originals. *sigh*
Don't you think this should be changed somehow? It's so wrong.

Either way I'll end up paying those horrid fees someday.
Well. It's not our fault...

Debbie said:
They act ungrateful to imageboard sites. Most of their fame are due to their "piracy", which they accuse and complain about.

I think it's more complex than that actually. It's not their being ungrateful necessarily, part of it could be they're not willing to change their business model (for reference see the music industry in the US which had to be drug kicking and screaming into the digital age). Some of it's cultural as well, sharing images of stuff seems to be largely taboo online on Japanese sites. I've spent enough time searching down album cover scans to attest to this, even Japan's Wikipedia site rarely has ANY image of the cover, no matter how small. And by and large I get the impression Japanese companies in particular are very set in their ways and it's difficult to get them to change their ways at all. The entire anime/manga industry's in the midst of a serious upheaval as digital is shaking the industry up, so it's in chaos at the moment as well. It's much easier for them to blame outsiders (foreign fansubs, imageboards, scanlations, etc.) than it is to change, so... we get blamed and nothing's done to change business models to accommodate this new digital era. Also with Japan's whole tendency to discuss things obliquely/indirectly, it's unlikely that many in the companies (or even Japanese fans) are going to point out bluntly what needs to change.

So it's not that they're ungrateful necessarily, it's a whole stew of issues and there's not much we (outside of Japan) can do about it. I'm not sure our expressing we'd like to have digital purchases available online even helps, since we're outsiders we're probably largely ignored (except when we're perceived as hurting their business).

Aurelia said:
Tell me that again after you've had to pay an arm and a leg to import something. I think you'll find the number of "honest fans" isn't so high.

I think it's higher than you think, many of those who download scans would never buy them in the first place, and if scans aren't available they'd do without. Basically, much of the downloading is done because it's there, not because they're serious collectors.

It's the same fallacy the RIAA and company use where they assume that every download equals a lost sale. It just doesn't work that way, people will download stuff just to have it because it's free, but they'd never buy it, even if it cost only a penny.

Manabi said:
even if it cost only a penny.

If they aren't willing to buy such for that price, then something is wrong with them.

Manabi said:
It's the same fallacy the RIAA and company use where they assume that every download equals a lost sale.

Oh, I know it's not, but I'm willing to bet that the number of people who have considered buying something and then decided to settle for what's here far outweighs the number of people who have been inspired to buy.

The former does include myself (most of the time). Lately I give money to midzki to buy and scan things for me, then process them myself--just cheaper that way.

What I was getting at earlier was that I don't think it's fair for Debbie to make statements like that when she's publicly admitted to not owning any artbooks (correct me if I'm wrong).

AZD-A9S said:
If they aren't willing to buy such for that price, then something is wrong with them.

I tend to agree for the most part. There's always going to be people who simply can't pay for technical reasons (such as not having credit cards or Paypal's not available from their country, and so on) of course, but there's also that group who just refuse to pay for stuff. Can't say as I understand that logic myself.

Aurelia said:
Oh, I know it's not, but I'm willing to bet that the number of people who have considered buying something and then decided to settle for what's here far outweighs the number of people who have been inspired to buy.

I think most of them probably aren't the real target audience for artbooks though. Real serious collectors want to own the book and settling for just scans isn't satisfying. I guess you could call that group dabblers, they dabble at being an art fan, but when it comes down to the wire (putting out money) they suddenly lose interest.

Now whether or not that group would make a noticeable difference in sales of artbooks if scans weren't available is an open question. I think most of them wouldn't, but there's no way to prove that either way.

Aurelia said:
What I was getting at earlier was that I don't think it's fair for Debbie to make statements like that when she's publicly admitted to not owning any artbooks (correct me if I'm wrong).

Ahh I see. Well everyone's entitled to an opinion, so it's fair of her to express it. But it's also fair of anyone to just ignore her opinion as well if they wish, so it balances out I think. （￣～￣）

I just said what I think it's correct. My opinion doesn't necessarily is the truth, and it keeps changing everytime I read different comments and discover different things. I am only a beginner on the matter. Even though I didn't have the chance of owning any artbooks, I still believe it's correct to buy them. And I still believe Japanese publishers are doing it all wrong. All wrong. And it needs to be changed, to reach a greater number of people. This is simply what I think, and this doesn't mean to offend or attack anyone who doesn't own artbooks. It's clear as water many people can't have them (as me), but I'll battle as long as I live to make my money and get as many artbooks as I can, and support the artists I adore.

I apologize if my pointless messages aren't of your liking.
I try to improve my thoughts based on yours, but unfortunately I don't have the same ability you have.

Debbie said:
I just said what I think it's correct. My opinion doesn't necessarily is the truth, and it keeps changing everytime I read different comments and discover different things. I am only a beginner on the matter. Even though I didn't have the chance of owning any artbooks, I still believe it's correct to buy them. And I still believe Japanese publishers are doing it all wrong. All wrong. And it needs to be changed, to reach a greater number of people. This is simply what I think, and this doesn't mean to offend or attack anyone who doesn't own artbooks. It's clear as water many people can't have them (as me), but I'll battle as long as I live to make my money and get as many artbooks as I can, and support the artists I adore.

Don't worry about it, your heart's in the right place, and very few of us started out buying artbooks before we saw some of the art by some method. (For me most of what I own are official artwork from series, plus a few doujin ones I was able to see a copy of in Mandarake's store when I got to go to Japan.) And someday you'll probably be able to afford some, even if it's not many. Every little bit helps! （⌒_⌒）

Thank you so much for your kind words, I will definitely try to help, even if it's only a little bit. You're a nice person, Manabi.

Alot of posts in my welcome/greeting thread. I feel so popular. =D

Lol haha, that's neat, I hope it helped you in some sort of way.

Seventyxxtimes7x said:
Alot of posts in my welcome/greeting thread. I feel so popular. =D

Though we kind of went on a tangent, this seems to happen a lot when we bring up buying artbooks.

1.no
2.no
3.no

I think I'll be buying stuff if I'm in Japan, everything is like 2x the price here.