Picture Perfect Paranoia

There was a recent brouhaha over at Dynasty, and it’s about scanlations. Again. It’s an issue ad nauseum.

I’m not certain about the details, but in a frontpage post (dated 2/12/09), a translator who apparently felt as if the weight of the world of scanlation was on his shoulders, expressed his rage at those people who are supposedly supporters of the scanlation group badmouthing their release frequency. Here’s an excerpt of the post:

Despite popular belief, asking or whining about releases almost never delays the actual release. The truth is, whenever I say that something will be delayed, that’s because it wasn’t ready in the first place. Asking or whining didn’t stop it in the slightest. Not that I’m saying I enjoy the asking or whining, I really don’t.

…

Fuck you yet again. I have every right to be pissed that you fuckers went out of your way to insult me and the group when we work as hard as we do for free. I’m not a prision bitch, I’m not going to lie down and take it when people throw shit at me.

…

FUCK YOU. You want to talk about being professional? How about doing a fast shitty version of a release with the sole purpose of causing drama and rage. Provoking others is TOTALLY FUCKING PROFESSIONAL RIGHT? Fuck you.

I seem to remember a blog post by a fellow aniblogger about the relationship between distributor/industry and consumer. Here’s a snippet:

…
SUPPORT US - OR DIE. It’s catchy, and sends out a message to all them evil Internet pirates. Break the law and they lose their lives. Heck, let’s ignore the fact that this will eventually lead to you shooting otherwise innocent people who are unrelated to the situation and thus indict you, the CEO, for multiple counts of conspiracy to murder and hiring assassins!

Because it’s all about the profits, right? Right? Or deep down, are you just a bunch of bullies and cowards, refusing to take this obvious line of action?

The relation between these two posts seemed to intersect towards a common issue. Mutual respect is a key ingredient among the people in a group and between groups of people. In this case, it’s between the scanlation group and the digital consumers of the projects undertaken by the former, with no financial compensation needed. If this link were to be broken, there would be a disruption in this mutual balance, and chaos would probably ensue.

I would suggest that both sides agree on a mutually decided decision, and to reconsider their gut reactions when something within the distribution system goes wrong.

That’s what I think. Since this is the case, what would you suggest from your POV?