Q:Who's in charge? A: Arigatomina. Me, myself, and I. There is no one else running this website.
Q: Direct download link broken / Zip file won't unzip? A: All of the direct scanlation download links should work. I test them as soon as I upload them. This is a problem with Yahoo, where my site is hosted, cutting your download off before you get the entire file. All you can do is redownload the file until you get the entire thing. If, after numerous retries, a particular link is still not opening, you can report it here and I will test it. If you've just finished downloading (or reading) a lot of scanlations, then yahoo may be cutting you off to preserve bandwidth. I'm supposed to have unlimited bandwidth, but I suspect that is a bold-faced lie.
Q: Error message / Pictures won't load? A: This is a problem with Yahoo, where my site is hosted. Close the page, go do something else for ten to thirty minutes, and then come back and everything should work fine. Refreshing won't work. If you think it's my site (a bad link) and not yahoo, try this: Right-click the picture, choose properties, highlight and copy the url of the picture, paste that url into your browser and hit enter/go. If you get the generic error 999 (where Yahoo tries to convince you it's on your end even though it's them), then you know it's yahoo. If you get something else, please email me with the details.
Q: Why is the site so crappy looking? A: Because I don't know anything about web design or writing scripts. I make the site using Yahoo (formerly geocities) PageBuilder - a drag and drop program. There's not a lot you can do with the program. Nothing fancy that I know of. But I know how to use it, so it's good enough for my needs. I'm not interested in having someone fancy up my site because then I wouldn't know how to update it myself.
Q: Can I link to your site? A: Sure. But please don't direct link images or files uploaded on my site. Do not link to pages located in the restricted section.
Q: Why are there so many broken links? A: Usually because no one's told me about them. Broken links will be fixed if you post them here (you don't need a livejournal account to post there) and let me know which ones are broken.
DOUJINSHI-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
Q: How do I access the hard doujinshi? A: If you have a livejournal account, join my livejournal community, Ari_scanlations, and read the very first post there. If you'd like access and don't have an lj account, email me at arigatomina@arigatomina.com and copy and paste this text into the email: "I'd like to see your private collection. I promise to actually read the bold red warnings in each section and to follow them. If it shows up on a google search, I promise it's not because of me." Put "password" into the title of the email and it won't hit my spam box. By pasting this into an email, you are promising not to share anything in the restricted section in places that are visible to google. That means you promised not to share the password or the hard projects protected by that password. Deviantart posts are visible to google. Youtube vids are visible to google. Tumblr is visible to google. Facebook is visible to google. Twitter links are visible to google. Livejournal posts that are not friends-locked are visible to google. Websites that do not "hide" pages behind a password are visible to google. Just because a specific site isn't listed here doesn't mean it's okay to post there - if I can see it on google, it's not allowed. To see if your new favorite sharing site is visible to google, just do a google search for it. If you find it on google, it's visible to google. Forums that are not members-only are visible to google. Mediafire, Megaupload, Rapidshare, Sendspace, and their ilk are all visible to google. If you don't want to bother with the password, you can still find many of my old raws and scanlations on the Aarinfantasy forum. Their download section is not visible to google.
Q: Can I post your password anywhere on the internet? A: Um, no. If someone wants the password, they can join my lj group or email me for it just like you and everyone else did. If I find out someone shared the password I will be forced to change it and then you and everyone else will have to contact me for the new one. That would suck, right? Please don't make me do that.
Q: Will you get rid of that inconvenient-for-me password? A: No. I'm sorry it's inconvenient for you, but it's staying. Go buy your own djs and then you can do whatever you want with them at your own convenience. Make and pay for your own website and you can have it as password-free as you like. Just don't put my projects on it. I worked hard scanlating the projects hidden behind my password.
Q: Why doesn't the password work? A: It does work. I use it myself. Try again. Copy and paste, remember it's case sensitive, don't add extra spaces. If you get an error message, email me telling exactly what it said. Note that the password changed on 10/07/12 so any passwords received before that date no longer work. Thank the person who posted the old password where google could see. You'll have to check my lj group or contact me again to get the new one.
Q: Can I post your scans/scanlations on livejournal/website? A: You may share my solo soft projects wherever you like as long as you keep the credit pages intact. Solo projects are projects where I am the only person credited - Arigatomina. If it's a doujinshi located in the restricted section, do not share it anywhere visible to google (you promised not to do this when you got the password in the first place). If it's a joint project, a collaboration, then you need permission of whoever else worked on that project. Check the "credits" page or "info.txt" page for the contact information of anyone I collaborated with on that particular project. If there is no contact information, email me and I will give you the person's email address.
Q: Why did you lock the hard books? A: Because I don't trust downloaders to share responsibly. Hard books are for adults, not children. They shouldn't be shared on portions of the net populated by children. Children search google and youtube as often as we do. I don't want to be responsible for them finding a hardcore yaoi doujinshi when they're looking for a manga chapter, hardcore scans when they're looking for anime screencaps, hardcore "djvids" when they're looking for anime episodes. The fact is that anime is a popular search subject for children. If we want to keep our anime-related 'content for adults' then we need to keep it separate from the anime-related 'content for children.' By making it harder for people to access these adult books, I'm making it harder for them to share these adult books in child-friendly portions of the net.
Q: Can I scanlate/translate one of your raw books? A: Yes, if I can host a copy of your scanlation on my site. Contact me at arigatomina@arigatomina.com and I'll send you a high quality copy of the book. If you don't want anyone else linking to or distributing your scanlations, email me and I'll tell you where I bought my copy of the book. Note that just because I gave you permission to scanlate my raws doesn't mean I won't scanlate those raws myself later if I choose to do so.
Q: Can I re-do one of your scanlations? A: Yes, if I can replace my version with your version. I will not supply raws for a dj I've already scanlated unless I can replace my scanlation with the new (and better) one.
Q: Can I translate your scanlations into a different language? A: With my solo projects, yes, absolutely. Please send me a link to your site and let me know if you need high quality raws to work with. Solo projects are projects where I am the only person credited - Arigatomina. If it's a joint project, a collaboration, then you need permission of whoever provided the raws for that particular book. Check the "credits" page or "info.txt" page for the contact information of anyone I collaborated with on that particular project. If there is no contact information, email me and I will give you the person's email address. For Team Fairy Rose projects, please contact Kain for permission.
Q: Why are your scans/scanlations so crappy compared to scanlation groups? A: Because I'm not a scanlation group. I'm teaching myself to read Japanese - it's very slow and difficult. The only foreign language I took in school was Spanish. The quality of my scanlations increases over time - the older the release date, the worse the scanlation and translation. If it has no release date, it's one of my very first scanlations, done back before I started adding dates. Stick to the newer projects if you can't handle my early attempts.
Q: Which djs are you (not) planning to scanlate? A: It depends on the pairing. I own books for pairings I dislike. They were purchased blindly, by mistake, or because the price was ridiculously cheap. I host them so fans of those pairings can enjoy them. I won't scanlate them because I get nothing out of that - no enjoyment, no reward. You can find a list of my preferred pairings and the djs I'd like to scanlate here.
Q: Will you scanlate this dj of mine? A: Maybe. If you scanned it yourself and the scans are large enough for me to read and clean. If you downloaded it somewhere, then I'll need permission of the person who scanned it. It also depends on the pairing. You can find a list of my preferred pairings and the djs I'd like to scanlate here. If you have djs for a series/pairing not on that list, please email me. Please note that I take a lot of scanlation requests, so you may end up waiting a year before your book is scanlated. If you're in a hurry, it's better to ask someone else. Think of me as a "scanlator of last resort" for projects that actual scanlation groups turn down.
GENERAL NOTES
For those unfamiliar with my personal livejournal rantings, some things you should know:
*I'm one person. I can't stress that enough. There is no "Arigatomina" scanlation group. There is only me. It takes time to scan, clean, translate, and scanlate a doujinshi. It takes time to post scanlations, maintain my site and lj community, and answer password requests. I'm one person - my time is limited. Please take that into consideration when making complaints.
*I'm not needy. If you don't like my site, the things I host, my manner, go somewhere else. I won't miss you. You'll be happier, and I'll save bandwidth.