[Locked] FAKKU State of the Union 2016

0
I have a queston, if i buy subscription, after this i must pay always each month or you have option to cancel it ? I don't have money to pay each month, but sometimes for one month i'm possible to support you. That's why i like paypal and you don't have it
0
luinthoron High Priest of Loli
Berkel wrote...
I have a queston, if i buy subscription, after this i must pay always each month or you have option to cancel it ? I don't have money to pay each month, but sometimes for one month i'm possible to support you. That's why i like paypal and you don't have it


You can cancel at any time you want, and you will, of course, keep the subscription for the rest of the time you've already paid for.
1
Kisuka wrote...
Read through every post on here, gonna reply to a few things I saw that I think I can answer.

Just a small brief blurb about who I am (cuz I tend to get "who the fuck is this guy?"):
I'm a web developer at FAKKU who has been working at FAKKU for a year now. Before FAKKU, I worked at Digital Manga Inc for a year. Before Digital Manga, I worked for Anime Expo for almost 5 years. I have extremely close ties to a large number of Japanese companies within the anime and manga industry.

Why can't you offer PayPal / Circumvent their rules by doing donations / points?
PayPal allows merchants to sell physical adult products, but once you start doing digital products that are of adult nature, that is where they draw the line. For them it's seen as a high risk. There have been waaaaay too many instances over the years of people buying porn and then doing a chargeback. Or using stolen PayPal accounts to pay for porn. On top of this, the banks and credit card companies PayPal works with also don't really like it. So they allow put pressure on the situation.

In regards to trying to go around their system by doing "donations" or points. It's still the same situation. We are still as a result of that "donation" or point purchase allowing you access to digital 18+ content. PayPal does have a group of people that monitor things like this. It's not worth the risk of possibly losing PayPal all together.

Why did you have to remove parody doujinshi? They aren't licensed anyways.
There are a few reasons.

1) We have had a few instances now where Japanese companies we've wanted to work with have straight up told us: "not until you remove parody doujinshi". Why would they say this? Well, a number of these companies work with the companies that produce those series being parodied. They do not want to risk ruining their relationship with them in Japan by associating themselves with a company freely distributing that content.

2) Doujinshi are only allowed to exist in Japan due to the fact of how they are released. Doujinshi are released in limited numbers and only during a specific period of time (typically only at an event). This is the absolute reason why it's allowed in Japan. Once you start allowing unlimited quantities of parody doujinshi to be sold, that's when you have a problem.

Bye Fakku
Cya :) hope you will give us a chance one day. Happy new year.

It's too expensive / more expensive than netflix
When netflix first came out with their streaming service, it was pretty terrible you know? You were given one hour of streaming per dollar spent on the monthly subscription. The smallest plan was $16.99 which gave you 17 hours of streaming a month. Keep in mind by this point, netflix had already been operating as a highly successful subscription service for physical discs. By the time they went full digital they had enough subscriptions, and no longer having the cost of physical disc operations, to allow them to reduce the price to $8.99/mo, Which then increased in Oct 2015 to $9.99/mo.

* But it's not the same price as Japan's version.
We are still new. Our team is still small. We have to translate, re-draw sound effects, typeset, prepare for digital distribution, have meetings with the artists to make sure it has their approval, and in some cases having to go back and change things if it doesn't.

All of this takes time. These things are done by our small team of only 10~15 employees.

I only support things that aren't censored or changed for US release.
All our content is uncensored (no black bars, no glowing dicks) and are not changed from their original source material in Japan. We do not change relationships of characters, we do not remove chapters. We strive to make sure our content is on par with Japan.

You are going to lose traffic.
We are aware of this. We knew this since day 1. It's still a necessary step to allowing us to support the artists by providing a legitimate method of consuming their works.

The artists don't really make money.
I can assure you they do and are really shocked that their works are selling outside of Japan. Most artists in Japan are pretty humble and learning that they're popular overseas has a huge impact on them.

Can you allow us to pay with another currency?
I can look into it, but off the top of my head I want to say it's not possible since our bank is based in the US. So a conversation still has to take place. We will have other methods like Bitcoin though, which don't have to worry about such things :)

I want to try before I buy.
We have some ideas about this, but we have to figure it out both logistically and technically.

Guest Passes
I'll bring up the idea during our weekly web team meeting.

I only support artists through scanlations.
I don't know if there's some kind of confusion about scanlations or what but just purely reading scanlations online does not support the artist in Japan financially. Scanlations are produced when someone buys the doujinshi, scans it into a computer, removes the japanese text / cleans the pages, translates the text, and adds english text. Then they zip it and upload it online. The only point in this process where the artist is supported is the initial person (1 person) buying the doujinshi. Even then, most the time this doujinshi was purchased from a third party store who bought it 2nd hand from someone else. Having a digital platform for allowing us overseas to legally support their works allows us to have a constant method of supporting the artist.

FAKKU doesn't read any of our posts / feedback
How am I replying to that post then? ;p we read everything you post on the forums. We take your feedback very very VERY seriously. But when your feedback is "keep scanlations / parody works" we honestly just can't. I'm sorry. I love parody doujinshi as much as the next person but we HAVE to do this to move the industry forward and allow a legitimate method for fans to support the artists in Japan and allow us to work with more companies.

I can't remember my favorites
We have had an export function for favorites for a few months now. We also put out an announcement saying to export before we made the switch. I know some of you may not have seen it though. We will talk about this during our meeting to see if we can maybe come up with a solution. In the meantime, try throwing your favorites url into Wayback Machine on Archive.org.

FAKKU is dead
Actually, it's the beginning of something beautiful. When you buy a book or subscription on FAKKU. A percentage of that cost goes back to the original artists. This allows you, as the fan, to support your favorite artists.

On top of this, we now have the ability to show a lot of artists in Japan that their works are popular and will sell overseas. For the most part, doujinshi artists currently view the rest of the world as a bunch of pirates, who don't want to support them (supporting financially is way different than just saying you like their work). Word is already spreading between artists in Japan that FAKKU gives them the ability to sell their works to the english speaking world. This is great because it gives us the ability to provide you, the fans, with more content.

This is just the beginning. We have a ton of awesome things coming soon :) I can't really go into detail on them right now but major things are happening.


I read several few pages in hope I found something like this. Thank you for clearing some stuff.

I do admit I hate losing my favorites parody doujins, but if it's the case then it can't be helped. I will try to track them all with archive.org
1
boltsandguns Electroshock TheRapist
Essa wrote...


I read several few pages in hope I found something like this. Thank you for clearing some stuff.

I do admit I hate losing my favorites parody doujins, but if it's the case then it can't be helped. I will try to track them all with archive.org


The favorites export tool was updated to show removed materials. the link to get the exported file in in the upper right hand corner of the favorites page.
0
Essa wrote...

I do admit I hate losing my favorites parody doujins, but if it's the case then it can't be helped. I will try to track them all with archive.org


Your favorite tab has an export link which will give list of your favorites and a kind anon has a fakku doujin and manga torrent on sukebei nyaa. You can check and uncheck the stuff you want.
-1
I don't support this decision.

Not because I don't want to support artists, but because the people at Fakku aren't doing this for them. The artists make as much money as they ever were with or without this intervention. They draw porn, it's not like they were ever going to become millionaires,and the money going to them is likely less than 10% of subscription fees.

The reason this is happening is because the people at fakku finally realized that there was some money to be had out of this gig, and decided to make themselves look like mirror-polished white-knight cockheads while they did it.

This is not a business enterprise, it's a porn site. You don't see Redtube or Pornhub dicking over their userbase under the false pretense of "Boo hoo we met some people and they said we were taking monies away from them". They do unlicensed porn on a much, much larger scale, and yet they still manage to support themselves by offering subscription access to their best content, as Fakku used to do. I believe that Fakku tried this, and noticed that not many people were actually buying into the subscriptions, so they made them mandatory. I guess a few subscribers is better than none, even if you kill the sites traffic to do it.

You're not humanitarian aid guys, you run a fucking porn site, stop acting like hentai jesus and pull your heads out of your asses.
4
TofuBites wrote...
I don't support this decision.

Not because I don't want to support artists, but because the people at Fakku aren't doing this for them. The artists make as much money as they ever were with or without this intervention. They draw porn, it's not like they were ever going to become millionaires,and the money going to them is likely less than 10% of subscription fees.

The reason this is happening is because the people at fakku finally realized that there was some money to be had out of this gig, and decided to make themselves look like mirror-polished white-knight cockheads while they did it.

This is not a business enterprise, it's a porn site. You don't see Redtube or Pornhub dicking over their userbase under the false pretense of "Boo hoo we met some people and they said we were taking monies away from them". They do unlicensed porn on a much, much larger scale, and yet they still manage to support themselves by offering subscription access to their best content, as Fakku used to do. I believe that Fakku tried this, and noticed that not many people were actually buying into the subscriptions, so they made them mandatory. I guess a few subscribers is better than none, even if you kill the sites traffic to do it.

You're not humanitarian aid guys, you run a fucking porn site, stop acting like hentai jesus and pull your heads out of your asses.


Just so you are aware, many artists that draw R18+ art are doing this work on the side as their personal work. Some of the major 18+ artists out there are actually secretly behind some of the characters designs for major anime / manga series. They use different pen names for their 18+ work.

Being an artist is not a multi-million dollar job by any means.

This decision was not made out of some greed from FAKKU to bath in golden bathtubs despite what many of the people against this decision have claimed. This decision was made to be able to support the artists in Japan who we have been fans of for years. Before we made this decision, there was no legitimate method to support these artists while being an overseas fan. We wanted to bridge that gap and bring 18+ manga to a level of appreciation that both normal anime and manga have. This is an art form too. Just geared toward adults only with stories that deal with things like sex or affairs or emotional issues between partners.

To compare us to PornHub is a little silly. One is a adult streaming service where users are able to upload content (some of quick is illegal and gets removed within 24 hours) and others which are clips by other porn studios. We are a localization publisher which is working with another publisher in Japan who is working with artists who spend months working on a single work. PornHub provides a service to host and stream content. On our end we are the ones producing the content by doing the translation, design, print and shipping work.
1
Well no more fakku for me
1
Kisuka wrote...
TofuBites wrote...
I don't support this decision.

Not because I don't want to support artists, but because the people at Fakku aren't doing this for them. The artists make as much money as they ever were with or without this intervention. They draw porn, it's not like they were ever going to become millionaires,and the money going to them is likely less than 10% of subscription fees.

The reason this is happening is because the people at fakku finally realized that there was some money to be had out of this gig, and decided to make themselves look like mirror-polished white-knight cockheads while they did it.

This is not a business enterprise, it's a porn site. You don't see Redtube or Pornhub dicking over their userbase under the false pretense of "Boo hoo we met some people and they said we were taking monies away from them". They do unlicensed porn on a much, much larger scale, and yet they still manage to support themselves by offering subscription access to their best content, as Fakku used to do. I believe that Fakku tried this, and noticed that not many people were actually buying into the subscriptions, so they made them mandatory. I guess a few subscribers is better than none, even if you kill the sites traffic to do it.

You're not humanitarian aid guys, you run a fucking porn site, stop acting like hentai jesus and pull your heads out of your asses.


Just so you are aware, many artists that draw R18+ art are doing this work on the side as their personal work. Some of the major 18+ artists out there are actually secretly behind some of the characters designs for major anime / manga series. They use different pen names for their 18+ work.

Being an artist is not a multi-million dollar job by any means.

This decision was not made out of some greed from FAKKU to bath in golden bathtubs despite what many of the people against this decision have claimed. This decision was made to be able to support the artists in Japan who we have been fans of for years. Before we made this decision, there was no legitimate method to support these artists while being an overseas fan. We wanted to bridge that gap and bring 18+ manga to a level of appreciation that both normal anime and manga have. This is an art form too. Just geared toward adults only with stories that deal with things like sex or affairs or emotional issues between partners.

To compare us to PornHub is a little silly. One is a adult streaming service where users are able to upload content (some of quick is illegal and gets removed within 24 hours) and others which are clips by other porn studios. We are a localization publisher which is working with another publisher in Japan who is working with artists who spend months working on a single work.


Riiiight, then tell me, what percentage of the subscription fee is actually going to the artist? Or did you assume, because you were the first, that any small amount would do?
4
TofuBites wrote...
Kisuka wrote...
TofuBites wrote...
I don't support this decision.

Not because I don't want to support artists, but because the people at Fakku aren't doing this for them. The artists make as much money as they ever were with or without this intervention. They draw porn, it's not like they were ever going to become millionaires,and the money going to them is likely less than 10% of subscription fees.

The reason this is happening is because the people at fakku finally realized that there was some money to be had out of this gig, and decided to make themselves look like mirror-polished white-knight cockheads while they did it.

This is not a business enterprise, it's a porn site. You don't see Redtube or Pornhub dicking over their userbase under the false pretense of "Boo hoo we met some people and they said we were taking monies away from them". They do unlicensed porn on a much, much larger scale, and yet they still manage to support themselves by offering subscription access to their best content, as Fakku used to do. I believe that Fakku tried this, and noticed that not many people were actually buying into the subscriptions, so they made them mandatory. I guess a few subscribers is better than none, even if you kill the sites traffic to do it.

You're not humanitarian aid guys, you run a fucking porn site, stop acting like hentai jesus and pull your heads out of your asses.


Just so you are aware, many artists that draw R18+ art are doing this work on the side as their personal work. Some of the major 18+ artists out there are actually secretly behind some of the characters designs for major anime / manga series. They use different pen names for their 18+ work.

Being an artist is not a multi-million dollar job by any means.

This decision was not made out of some greed from FAKKU to bath in golden bathtubs despite what many of the people against this decision have claimed. This decision was made to be able to support the artists in Japan who we have been fans of for years. Before we made this decision, there was no legitimate method to support these artists while being an overseas fan. We wanted to bridge that gap and bring 18+ manga to a level of appreciation that both normal anime and manga have. This is an art form too. Just geared toward adults only with stories that deal with things like sex or affairs or emotional issues between partners.

To compare us to PornHub is a little silly. One is a adult streaming service where users are able to upload content (some of quick is illegal and gets removed within 24 hours) and others which are clips by other porn studios. We are a localization publisher which is working with another publisher in Japan who is working with artists who spend months working on a single work.


Riiiight, then tell me, what percentage of the subscription fee is actually going to the artist? Or did you assume, because you were the first, that any small amount would do?


We can't share actual percentages with the public due to contractual obligations with our partners in Japan (this is normal business practices, you rarely will see these kind of numbers shared publicly in any industry). All I can say is that it's a VERY GOOD percentage for the artist.

Now, you can choose to believe me or not. But my words aren't just coming from someone who works here at FAKKU. I've been in this industry for a long time and been collecting doujinshi since before FAKKU was even released.

You can choose to assume whatever you want, but these are the facts from someone who knows some of these artists personally, and as someone who has been a fan of doujinshi for over 10 years.
2
TofuBites wrote...
Kisuka wrote...
TofuBites wrote...
I don't support this decision.

Not because I don't want to support artists, but because the people at Fakku aren't doing this for them. The artists make as much money as they ever were with or without this intervention. They draw porn, it's not like they were ever going to become millionaires,and the money going to them is likely less than 10% of subscription fees.

The reason this is happening is because the people at fakku finally realized that there was some money to be had out of this gig, and decided to make themselves look like mirror-polished white-knight cockheads while they did it.

This is not a business enterprise, it's a porn site. You don't see Redtube or Pornhub dicking over their userbase under the false pretense of "Boo hoo we met some people and they said we were taking monies away from them". They do unlicensed porn on a much, much larger scale, and yet they still manage to support themselves by offering subscription access to their best content, as Fakku used to do. I believe that Fakku tried this, and noticed that not many people were actually buying into the subscriptions, so they made them mandatory. I guess a few subscribers is better than none, even if you kill the sites traffic to do it.

You're not humanitarian aid guys, you run a fucking porn site, stop acting like hentai jesus and pull your heads out of your asses.


Just so you are aware, many artists that draw R18+ art are doing this work on the side as their personal work. Some of the major 18+ artists out there are actually secretly behind some of the characters designs for major anime / manga series. They use different pen names for their 18+ work.

Being an artist is not a multi-million dollar job by any means.

This decision was not made out of some greed from FAKKU to bath in golden bathtubs despite what many of the people against this decision have claimed. This decision was made to be able to support the artists in Japan who we have been fans of for years. Before we made this decision, there was no legitimate method to support these artists while being an overseas fan. We wanted to bridge that gap and bring 18+ manga to a level of appreciation that both normal anime and manga have. This is an art form too. Just geared toward adults only with stories that deal with things like sex or affairs or emotional issues between partners.

To compare us to PornHub is a little silly. One is a adult streaming service where users are able to upload content (some of quick is illegal and gets removed within 24 hours) and others which are clips by other porn studios. We are a localization publisher which is working with another publisher in Japan who is working with artists who spend months working on a single work.


Riiiight, then tell me, what percentage of the subscription fee is actually going to the artist? Or did you assume, because you were the first, that any small amount would do?


What would it matter if the percentage the artist gets is very low or not anyhow? That'd be the rate that their publisher negotiated on their behalf and is in the contract, Fakku isn't pocketing all the money and throwing them whatever change they deem fit. Obviously Fakku will make some profits because they're a business now. Don't make it sound like they're leeching off the artists, that's just how licensing works.
4
Kisuka wrote...
We can't share actual percentages with the public due to contractual obligations with our partners in Japan (this is normal business practices, you rarely will see these kind of numbers shared publicly in any industry). All I can say is that it's a VERY GOOD percentage for the artist.

Now, you can choose to believe me or not. But my words aren't just coming from someone who works here at FAKKU. I've been in this industry for a long time and been collecting doujinshi since before FAKKU was even released.

You can choose to assume whatever you want, but these are the facts from someone who knows some of these artists personally, and as someone who has been a fan of doujinshi for over 10 years.


This doesn't necessarily say anything but @Kisuka has a pretty big collection. I definitely consider him a legitimate fan and I'm sure he's passionate about what he does. More on topic, what does he really have to gain from lying about this? Since when has FAKKU's marketing strategy been: "We are the saints of the hentai industry, buy from us because it's the right thing to do"? Never. Their strategy from the beginning was to provide legal access to a product worth selling. That's why they stress the fact that it's uncensored work, that's why they make sure all the releases are of the highest quality.

TofuBites wrote...
They do unlicensed porn on a much, much larger scale, and yet they still manage to support themselves by offering subscription access to their best content, as Fakku used to do. I believe that Fakku tried this, and noticed that not many people were actually buying into the subscriptions, so they made them mandatory. I guess a few subscribers is better than none, even if you kill the sites traffic to do it.


What kind of logic is this even? You're twisting this as far back as you can to fit your expectations. Whatever you think is going on may overlap with reality, but how could this be even remotely close to true? Do you really think anyone in their right mind would use this kind of logic? No, you've made the assumption that FAKKU has lost their minds. You've deliberately ignored everything they've tried to communicate because it doesn't fit your model of reality. Why are you even here? What did you hope to accomplish? This is just silly.

I hate to break this to you but despite having its problems, this site is not run by monkeys. What they've accomplished so far should be proof enough. It takes a lot of care, effort, and research to do what FAKKU has done, and they did it from scratch. Their books are very well made, most people who purchase them are quite satisfied with their work, and the premium manga reader is a very slick piece of software. It's not a coincidence, they know exactly what they're doing and it's hilarious to believe that FAKKU is shooting themselves in the foot with no supporting evidence other than you think they are.
1
Who cares, you guys are just reading porn.
0
I've been a silent Fakku stalker for a while, but I wanted to say as an art lover and hobby artist I support this decision. To imagine others spreading and profiting off your property (intellectual or otherwise) can be heart breaking and frustrating.

Beyond just supporting artists, I choose Fakku for quality of material, the regular updates, and not gonna lie the website UI. Hang in there, Fakku!

On a side note, in regards to content for free users I do have an idea. With all the recent updates and changes, I'm not sure how feasible this is or if it's a path Fakku wants to take: User generated material. The idea would be to hold a contest, where people can submit one shots or w/e and Fakku users (paying and free) can read and vote on their favorite story. Winner can get a free subscription of "whatever" months or potentially broker a deal as a fakku original artist. Hope that helped.
6
hgatedc wrote...
"Vast over simplification" is just an easy escape line of the truth.


It really isn't. Ignoring all the complexities of reality doesn't lead to any meaningful truths.

hgatedc wrote...
Yeah, piracy probably wont stop because people tolerate piracy. But that only shows how fucked up everything is. If people actually understand what DRM is for in the first place, then they should surely agree. If people stopped pirating in the first place, DRM wont be needed. Its a solution made because there are people stupid enough to make time ripping other people off than actually making use of the time to earn more. So people who actually dont support piracy should actually be pro DRM. It should be just that simple.


Unfortunately it isn't that simple. It's very generous to call DRM a "solution" since it does not "solve" the problem it's designed for. At it's best DRM protects content for a few weeks when the sales are at the highest, but that's irrelevant in the case of manga anyway since it's quite literally impossible for today's DRM to protect them. DRM also severely limits legitimate uses, sometimes to the point where a customer cannot even view the content they've purchased. Most importantly, DRM also harms sales which hurts the very people you're wanting to help. If DRM really could prevent all piracy without the many downsides then I'm sure more people would support it, but that's as much a fantasy story as Alice in Wonderland.
1
I haven't read ALL the posts in this thread as it's a pretty big thread, so I apologize if some of these ideas aren't novel...

As someone who appreciates great artwork, I wholeheartedly support this move towards improving relations with the original artists and supporting them.

As an extremely casual user of this site, I can't see myself ever subscribing unfortunately. I wonder if it would be possible to lower the subscription amount to make it more accessible? Also a subscription tier could help - which I believe Jacob has mentioned they are working on implementing.

As for providing FREE content... a few ideas:

-Limit the freebies to like the first 1-3 chapters of a series
-Watermark heavily across all the pages as well as include mandatory ads throughout the pages
0
Can 1 month subscription be cheaper? I think it's too expensive for someone who wants to read but doesn't have much money
P.S. sorry for my english tho
1
Thankfully i have a girlfriend now, bye fakku (the old and awesome one) lololol
0
TofuBites wrote...
I don't support this decision.

Not because I don't want to support artists, but because the people at Fakku aren't doing this for them. The artists make as much money as they ever were with or without this intervention. They draw porn, it's not like they were ever going to become millionaires,and the money going to them is likely less than 10% of subscription fees.

The reason this is happening is because the people at fakku finally realized that there was some money to be had out of this gig, and decided to make themselves look like mirror-polished white-knight cockheads while they did it.

This is not a business enterprise, it's a porn site. You don't see Redtube or Pornhub dicking over their userbase under the false pretense of "Boo hoo we met some people and they said we were taking monies away from them". They do unlicensed porn on a much, much larger scale, and yet they still manage to support themselves by offering subscription access to their best content, as Fakku used to do. I believe that Fakku tried this, and noticed that not many people were actually buying into the subscriptions, so they made them mandatory. I guess a few subscribers is better than none, even if you kill the sites traffic to do it.

You're not humanitarian aid guys, you run a fucking porn site, stop acting like hentai jesus and pull your heads out of your asses.


And you also dont still have any right to use and benefit from the artist's work without their consent. Thats also fact.

Just because you never paid for porn doesnt mean its free. And unless the artist gives it to you, it isnt free. Fakku is mandatory to make it a business because the japs make it a business. If fakku want to officially support the artist, this was inevitable. Since we dont know any idea of price, just look at what the actual price of the original magazine in japan.

You want to remain a pirate and not give people due to them? Fine, but dont tell others doing the right thing to do wrong. Your opinion is as flawed as your way in life. Dont tell others to stoop as low as you are when they are doing something right. Tagging something as greed when the previous model was illegal is stupid.
1
it just makes me sad that the once dozens of pages of yuri is not even a full page... i know if i want i can go to other sites to get it but fakku has been my main for such a long time i dont want to abandon you for going legit. in fact i completely support this! all i ask for is one yuri a week. well month if you have to, i need my fix guys.

now if you guys start publishing uncensored yuri instead of the uncensored i'll be ecstatic!