You can read the first entry about this here.

Google deleted the thread asking them to contact me for more information. Admittedly, it had turned into a shitstorm of abuse. They have not contacted me, despite the fact that several Google employees have been active in that forum over the period that it was posted.

So, I take this to be a sign that we should accept that our block is not going to be overturned, nor are they willing to communicate why.

So be it, that’s their right. They’re a company, and can do whatever they feel is best for them. I find it to be a slightly impolite way to treat someone, but whatever.

As for where we go from here, I think fighting this in a traditional sense is going to be futile. I don’t even know who or what we’re up against. WordPress seems to have declared support for us in that they haven’t deleted us yet. They’ve surely received a load of complaints over the last few days, but we’re still here. For that I thank them, and urge you to support them if you can.

You can read the full story from its source. There’s even a neat quote from Charlton Heston about civil disobedience. And again, link page is safe, but the rest is mostly not safe for work or school.

Google has also reported them to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, even though the site contains none that relates to them. The poster of this announcement lives in Japan and is fairly safe from legal actions, but those who work with him are not. They’re brave enough to continue from this loss and they’ll surely do fine with how wide spread their torrents and fans are. I may not be a fan of lolicon of any sort, but I wish them the best of luck and I’m heavily considering dropping anything Google related. Microsoft’s Bing search engine isn’t too bad, I can easily switch back to Safari from Google Chrome, and I have already found myself using Nico Nico Douga more than Youtube. Such content is purely subjective.

Manga news and information site for scanlations and summaries has had their Google Adsense account disabled without being given a specific reason.

In case you haven’t noticed recently, we’ve removed all of the ads supporting this site. We recently received an email from Google stating our account was disabled. Upon appeal, we were rejected. No particular reason was provided, so we are quite surprised as we have funded the site using Adsense for the past 5 years with no issues. If anything, I suppose I feel quite liberated. It was quite daunting living in the environment of fear Google has created with their Publisher system.

As far as funding issues go, we’re not sure where we stand at the moment. Over the next few weeks, I will be experimenting with different ad networks. We’re not in the red yet, but this is something we will try to work out over the next few months. If we cannot find a suitable replacement, we will be forced to ask for donations as it comes time to pay our server bills. I had hoped it would never come to this, but we cannot control everything. I have enjoyed the free ride that Adsense has given us over the years, and only hope that any new network we join is not more intrusive to your experience than Adsense was.

The full announcement can be found here. Interesting timing soon after the lolicon situation with another site no longer showing on Google’s search engine, perhaps. Surely there’ll be an update to how they’re going to manage the costs of such a will visited site. They may see the site’s content as copyright infringement and Google Adsense does not allow linking or hosting of pornography, regardless if it’s legal or in this case hentai.

There is a lolicon scanation site set up like a blog named Little White Butterflies that has been removed from Google’s search engine. It was from an anonymous person with a Google link to ChillingEffects.org explains the request when you search for the site. From my knowledge this has never happened before and this contradicts all of Google’s past behavior. Google is in conflict with China over censorship and so far did a lot to help find middle ground. Because the request came from an activist likely, they surely had good intentions. The site that this involves does know the laws that relate to this and even pointed pointed out that Chilling Effects hasn’t fully kept up to date to how the laws for this are set up. “This definition does not apply to depictions that are drawings, cartoons, sculptures, or paintings depicting minors or adults” which can be seen here. The link is to the current version of Title 18 of the US Code passed by Congress in January 5, 09. Even if you don’t support such content or media, this is still censorship and it is subjective.

One problem which was stated by co-blogger EhNani is fighting back will only draw more attention to the issue. With more attention you’ll have more coverage from average people who won’t understand the whole scoop of things, its culture of origin, and context. The best a site can do is privately discuss reconsideration with Google. Perhaps this entry itself isn’t helping matters.

Edit: The sites content could still be considered illegal for being obscene, see Raiga’s comment bellow.
Edit: Decided to include the link. The linked page is fine, but the rest is not safe for work or school.

We have this site in it’s newbie unprofessional and stripped down form here where you can even view the forum index and gallery. The forum doesn’t show its past layouts as bots that crawl sites only saw the basic one.

If you kinda want to see past versions of other sites:
Tiamat’s Manga Reviews
JanimeS – This site dates back from forever ago and it shows. JanimeS has come a lot way in many countless ways and remains modern.
Baka-Raptor – Great 2006 navigation bar there, sir.
Nico Nico Douga – Streaming video site with user comments on the video.

The Wayback Machine site is a bit buggy, slow, and often times unable to work. You also have a lot of Java-script, Flash, and similar missing. Just enter a URL in the URL address box and you’re set. Neat stuff.

Speak for yourself
Linking to sources is fine, but most visitors came to visit your blog or site to know what your take is on something, not to read what Wikipedia or Anime News Network thinks.

Take a step back to have a better look
After writing your blog entry, don’t publish it yet. Take a step away for a few hours or even a few days. When you return the post will seem fresh and you’ll be better able to see mistakes, grammar errors, and areas that can be expanded on better.

Easy reading for tl;dr posts
Large detailed and informative posts can be amazing, but many times they aren’t easy to read. Perhaps try to have a summary of what is said at the start or end for readers to better know what the wall of text is about. Maybe bold key points or experiment with separating the different aspects of the post better.

Be easy to find…and easy to find again
Show off that you have RSS feeds, add a feature that allows people who comment to know there are new comments for entries they commented on, or have a Twitter to interact with readers and other anime and manga bloggers.

Know who you’re attracting
Most blog software, hosts, and such have ways of finding out which sites linked to you and what search engine terms people used to find your site. Knowing who your readers are can help you fulfill the needs ‘n wants of your current readership. If you’re an anime fan from Thailand, you can include bits or whole posts that effect your area. Having a post about a new manga scanlation group on a blog that mainly discusses licensed manga will be a turn off for many.

Be appreciative
Reply to comments, add a latest comment widget to a sidebar, comment on reader’s blogs, or contact them. To add to this, don’t make it difficult to leave comments with registrations or heavy duty spam prevention. You’re showing appreciation because you do appreciate what they say.

Be an epic win
Spice up your adjectives, be current, tap into nostalgia, decide to write casual or professional, give personal experiences, know when to add images, have contests, give things, and most importantly be an interesting writer. Feel free to take up designing graphics, using a digital camera, or take a trip to some interesting places like conventions and events.

Art not made officially by staff of a manga or animation would be the best way to describe fan art. That’s much different than saying art made by people or fans since staff or authors also make their own not so official art. What would you consider that since not all of their illustrations and works may be from series they worked on? They are more than a simple fan and some images they share may also be official ones.

The fact is many people believe it’s fine to take an image off of another blog that was taken from Anime News Network that got it from an official site or announcement to post on a discussion forum. It takes money and effort to get a digital camera and scanner to produce images from real life objects not previously added to the net. This brings me to a good supporting point of how the Internet is. If you make anything creative and share it publicly on the net, what do you expect everyone to do? Not saying it’s okay to be a jerk, but not everyone using fan art has a malicious intent and the uploader should know the possibility of others using their work without permission.

Human beings like recognition and linking to their image account or site shows you support them, however, don’t assume all artists are upset when they see their work used without permission. They may simply enjoy knowing someone liked their art enough to use. This being said, not all sites have field or detail areas when uploading a image and other sites may not be focused on comments and image details. Then what?

The best the artist can do is add a watermark or sign their name and put a notice where images are displayed that you wish to be linked to or asked before having an image used. The best blogger, graphic creator, or web disigner can do is link back, ask, or ask around for the source if unknown. One thing you can learn to do is add the artist or source name when saving an image so you can remember and so that some image hosts may keep that file name in the url or details page. Or just don’t upload at all…any of you.

Besides, people like to be able to find more. On a semi-related note, this community does have a link directory for anime and manga illustration and our gallery does have a copyright area.