This is the same notice that was on our old site. I want to give everyone every opportunity to read it. If you read it there, you don't need to read it here.
Hello everyone! SHADE here.
Before moving on to our new site, please take a moment to read this page. It contains important info on where and why we are creating a new website.
Well here we go.
Farewell to the Ranma Hentai Gallery.
For seven years I have done my best (despite very poor web design skills) to maintain and improve the RHG, but it's time has come, we must move on.
So why a new website?
There are two main reasons, which I'll cover as quickly as possible so as not to be too boring.
Reason #1: Site Survival.
Reason #2: Book Piracy.
#1: Site Survival.
It may surprise many of you to discover, but I did not create the Ranma Hentai gallery. The RHG existed long before I got involved, and I am at least the third maintainer of it.
The current RHG was created and designed by Stang, and his basic site structure remains in place, even 7 years later, as I do not have the design know-how to change it.
Further, the site itself has been hosted all these years on a private server hosted by: THE GREAT MYSTERIOUS BENEFACTOR! A super fan who volunteered his help to host the site, and has kept it alive ever since.
The hitch about the mysterious benefactor is, I have no idea who he is. And I lost contact with him over a year ago. Our contact was always sporadic, and it has ceased completely for some time.
This is really a level of uncertainty that we can't live with. So we're moving to a new home that we have more control over. A new address and a brand new site that we have full control over, so for as long as we have Ranma hentai fans to support us, we can ensure that the site will survive in its new home. ^_^
Related to that, if the wonderful host who has supported us all these years ever reads this message, PLEASE EMAIL ME! We'd like to resume contact and make arrangements for the old domain address to survive for a long time to come, so new people can more easilly discover us.
Now we come to Reason #2, the far thornier, far more unpleasant subject. But we must discuss it directly, or it will destroy us.
#2: Book Piracy.
*sadness*
Yes, our books do get pirated. In fact, even our most conservative estimates are that ten times more people steal our books as buy them. And it could actually be a LOT worse than that.
Production costs are rising, sales are sliding. It's a downward spiral to destruction if we don't do something about it.
But what can be done? Use evil digital rights management software? Treat our good and loyal fans as the enemy?
But what CAN we do?
Maybe our books just cost too much?
So what else is there?
Well they've actually told us why. In forums and secret places where they do their piracy, they have said point blank why they don't respect us. They don't think we read these things, but we do.
And frankly, they have a point.
This is the toxic legacy of the RHG.
If we are to have a clean, positive future as original artists, for people, hopefully, to respect the hard work we do, we must in turn respect the hard work of those that came before us.
We cannot change what happened in the past, but we can change and do better for the future, and hope everyone will come with us into a better tomorrow.
Thus, we are leaving the RHG behind us, and forging a brand new site. ALL copyrighted material has been removed.
All postings of Ranma manga, anime, other people's dojinshi, and anything else that is now or ever was for sale by anyone else is being banished from the site, and will not return.
For the future, we will focus on our own original artwork.
We hope, as soon as possible, to bring back and continue The Hentai Zone.
And we still continue to welcome any artist who wishes to donate their fanart. But we can only accept original fanart and public, non-commercial artwork.
So that's why we're making a new site.
We need people to respect the integrity of our work. And we can’t justify that request until we respect the work of others on our own website. The new site will be a place where the rights of artists are respected first and foremost. And we ask that our fans and visitors reciprocate that trust and integrity by not sharing our works. Our future is in your hands.
We hope that as you reflect on all the wonderful comics we have brought you over the past years that you will support us to ensure that there are many more in the future. We still have so much great Ranma hentai we wish to create, but we need your help to make that happen. We simply can’t exist without your support.
Thanks for reading!
SHADE
If there was ever a problem with the site that I couldn't fix without the host's help, we'd be really screwed. I'd have no means to contact the host to get it fixed.
NEVER! :(
We'd quit before we did that.
We had two thoughts on it.
We considered that awhile back, and we tried a radical price cut. We cut the price of a comic in half to see if a huge influx of new people could offset the price cut. But cutting the price in half, we got maybe 15% more people, and we ended up losing thousands of dollars. Nearly shut us down.
Well the only other thought is, some people just don't respect our work. We work so hard on our books, and we ask nicely that people respect our work and not pirate it, but they don't respect it.
Why?
They have said clearly that for us to ask people not to pirate our work is hypocrisy. These people believe the RHG is itself a pirate site. After all, the Ranma manga and the commercial doujinshi works of other artists are posted there.
Remember, I didn't make the site, I just inherited it. And when I inherited it, along came the mandate of the site to post anything Ranma hentai. That's what Stang did, and I just continued it.
In retrospect, I made a great error in blindly continuing those bad policies. If ever we cost another artist a single sale because of our site, I can only apologize and make damn sure no such mistakes are made again.
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