OM Shutdown Update

posted by zabi - Jul 31 (last edited 2 days ago)

The day has finally come! It has been a great run and we thank you all for your kind words and support. We couldn't answer all the email we got (because we got a ton!), but know that all of your messages were read and heartfelt. Some were especially touching, and we can be proud of the fact that OM made a difference in some people's lives. Better than 'peanut butter and jelly' indeed!!

Because a lot of you have questions, here are some answers to frequently asked questions we have been receiving:

Why is OM shutting down its manga viewer?
- The publishers recently have strengthened their stance against scanlations, especially online viewers such as OM. Therefore to abide by their requests we have shut down the online viewer.

Is OM shutting down completely?
- No. We are just removing the online reading component of the site.

When is the manga coming down?
- The plan was to remove all the manga on July 31st. But seeing how Aug 1st is a Sunday, we decided to leave the manga up for an extra day for people to finish their weekend reading. The removal time has now been set to Aug 1st, 11:59PM PST.

Why not partner with publishers and change OM to a paid subscription model?
- It certainly makes sense, and we did consider it. But we don't have the resources nor the contacts to reach out to the publishers directly. At least not the people who make these kinds of decisions, most of whom are in Japan. If you are a publisher reading this and are interested in working with OM, feel free to contact us!

Why remove the unlicensed manga too?
- We debated this for a while. It is not clear at this point whether or not publishers have a problem with unlicensed manga scanlations. We have decided to remove the content until we have a better sense of what their stance on this is.

Are you going to leave the manga list and series information up?
- Yes. Now that we don't have to worry about the online reading part, we may even beef up our list which has always been somewhat lacking.

Any future plans for OM?
- We had some features planned for OM even before we decided to shutdown the online reader. Some of them were being rolled out on the beta site. We will finish rolling out these features as some of them are pretty close to done. We are also open to any ideas you might have, so do write to us with your suggestions!

What will happen to the beta?
- We'll try and maintain it for those that want to keep using it. It will require some changes though, so in the interim it may be buggy.

How can you help OM?
- Contact the publishers and tell them you love us! :). Send us feedback and suggestions on what you would like to see on the site. Join our Facebook group (400k+ and counting!). Other than that, your words of support is all that we need. We have made peace with the fact that the site is ending, and are just glad we had a chance to provide a service that brought smiles to many people's faces.

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