Guide to Uploading Manga

So you want to upload manga to BakaBT? Well, this guide will help you get the basics of uploading manga all pat down. This guide was created exactly for the purpose of educating people like you. If you follow these steps, you probably won't have any mods chasing your tails.

Ordinary Manga

Step 1 - Checking BakaBT

If you think a certain manga title is not uploaded on BakaBT, first search the title name in BakaBT and also search its alternate names as sometimes manga may be uploaded on a different name.

Step 2 - Checking Details

Open Mangaupdates. Search to find out which groups have scanlated the manga. If several groups have scanlated the same chapters, compare the quality and pick the best one. If you have doubts, make a forum topic about it (in the Uploader's Forum) and post the links to the images for comparison. Mods/members will point out which is the best one.

If a single group scanlated it (or multiple groups did different chapters [e.g. Group A for chapters 1-x, Group B for chapters x-y, etc.]), you have no choice but to offer their releases.

Step 3 - Obtaining Official Files

This is probably the most crucial step.

One problem everyone faces is finding official files. This one thing discourages people from offering manga as official files are difficult (read: close to impossible) to find, especially if you are a newbie and/or the scanlating group isn't active anymore.

Only free sources will be mentioned in this guide. But if you know some sites/ftp which have official files, please use them (and please help us help you by giving us a link, either in the Talk page or PM Southrop or htears).

Where NOT to find Official Files

#[email protected] - This is the most popular download location for manga. However there is a catch. Sometimes, #lurk's bots/fserves don't contain official files. So you cannot completely depend on them for the official files. But if you can identify which are official files, feel free to download from here. However this is not recommended for newbie uploaders.

animeEDEN or Manga Traders - These definitely don't contain official files and are out of question.

Good places to find Official Files

The Scanlator's site/forum/XDCC bots - This is the best way to find official files. But if the group is dead, you have to find some other way to find the official files. Links to every group's website, irc channel, and/or forum can be located on their mangaupdates page.

"Laplacian" File Server (Fserv) in #lurk - This fserve is the most reliable one i have found till now. 99% of the times, it will have official files. The only changes laplacian makes are:

1) the file name is modified to fit with the convention "<manga title> <vol#> <ch#> [group].zip".

2) rar files are converted to zip files (unrared and then zipped).

So some files which were in rar format may not be the original files on laplacian (this happens rarely).

See these guides for help on using FServs

StopTazmo - Someone mentioned this one and I checked it out for some of the series. It does have official files (for most cases) but there are some drawbacks like it doesn't have too many titles on it, it definitely doesn't have official file names and the most important one is that for manga titles that have more than one group scanlating it, it doesn't have the correct choice of the groups. But, I would still recommend this to others.

If the group that scanlated it is dead, or all links to official files are dead [this could happen due to filehosts deleting the files or shutting down], then it is sometimes acceptable to upload an unofficial file from somewhere else like mangatraders. Before you go down this route, however, you must make absolutely certain that there are no official files out there left to find.

Step 4 - Uploading

Refer to the Wiki and kureshii's Description Guide (still under development) to learn how to make a description. Also refer to MangaUpdates, Mugimugi, and MyAnimeList (Manga section) for the information you need for making the description.

Some examples: Gamerz Hell, Fairy Tail, Random Walk, Emma and Plastic Girl.

Step 5 - Sample Pictures

These go at the end of your description. Possible image hosts include minus, Photobucket, and imgur.

With some imagehosts, a thumbnail will automatically be created. Using one of these hosts you can do your sample images in the following way;

[SCREENSHOT]
[IMG]http://link.to.your.first.image/[/IMG]
[IMG]http://link.to.your.second.image/[/IMG]
[/SCREENSHOT]

If, however, your image host does not automatically make thumbnails then make sure you use this code:

[SCREENSHOT]
[URL=http://link.to.your.first.image/][IMG]http://link.to.your.first.thumbnail/[/IMG][/URL]
[URL=http://link.to.your.second.image/][IMG]http://link.to.your.second.thumbnail/[/IMG][/URL]
[/SCREENSHOT]

Best practice:

Upload your images to an image host like Minus and include screenshots like you normally would.
After making sure everything is in order and offering your torrent open your sandbox again and press 'Upload images to image server' upon which all images should be detected and by pressing 'Replace selected images' your description will automagically be updated and all images will be transferred to BakaSHOTS.
Do note that even if your imagehost does not automatically create thumbnails, BakaSHOTS does. This means that even if your sample images hosted by minus appear fullsized and have no thumbnails before you press the 'Upload images to image server' button, they will after you do this and they are hosted on BakaSHOTS Note: Your old description containing your original links will remain cached in your sandbox, to avoid undoing the changes you will need to press 'Load original description' prior to making any other changes to the description.

Request to uploaders who uploaded manga before the new rules came into effect

Almost 80% of the manga uploaded before the new rules came into effect don't have official files (most torrents have #lurk's files, which definitely are not official). I urge those uploaders to refer to step 3 to find the official files and swap their current files with the official ones.

Hentai Manga

Step 1 - Introduction

When offering H-manga, it has pretty much same steps as the normal manga. It's rare to come across H-manga that cannot be offered because of being licensed by ADV or other critical Company.

Step 2 - Official Files

The new rules require you to have Official Files; this affects H-manga too. So basically you have to go to the Scanlators' website and try to find them. Alternatively, follow the steps above (in Step 3 of the Normal Manga guide).

Note #1: Sometimes its possible to find the download link on MangaUpdates. Usually (what I have downloaded from those links) they are official files. But remember to check the files names.

Note #2: If you find an H-manga that hasn't yet been uploaded and you find it on Tadanohito, despite the scanlation group being another group, DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT! Tadanohito is known to change the page name, making them unofficial files.

Step 3 - Checking the Upload Guidelines

Fan-made material (including doujinshi, artbooks and manga) are NOT allowed to be uploaded. Only published works are acceptable on BBT. The only exception to this rule is original non-parody doujinshi created by published mangakas.

There is a second rule that states "NO loli/shota material. Some H-manga that only contain one or two chapters of loli/shota material may be allowed, but if the whole book is based upon loli/shota material, then it is not allowed.

See the Torrent Content Upload Guidelines for other rules.

Step 4 - Keywords

Remember to read the book or some chapters so you know what kind of keywords you could add. Remember to check if the author/artist name or the scanlation group (full name or abbreviation) are already keywords.

IMPORTANT NOTE - If your manga contains loli/shota material, make a note of how many chapters/pages have it, and add a comment in the description stating it. Other users/mods will provide feedback regarding that.

Note #1: Some H-manga have short stories; In this kind of situation, check what the stories mostly contain (e.g. relationships between brothers and sisters should be tagged 'Incest', Girls with large breasts with 'Large breasts', girls with penises with 'Futanari', etc.).

Note #2: Most H-mangas are censored, either with small black lines, mosaic or through "natural means" (where the artist uses steam, light, shadows, objects, etc. to hide certain parts), but it is possible you may have the uncensored version. Make sure you check this and tag the offer appropriately.

Step 5 - Sample Pictures

These go at the end of your description. The main issue people face is finding a free image host that allows for pornographic material. Try ImageShack, minus or ImageFap.

Note: ImageFap's automatic thumbnails aren't detected by the BakaBT Screenshot system. Rather than using the usual code:

[SCREENSHOT]
[IMG]http://link.to.your.first.image/[/IMG]
[IMG]http://link.to.your.second.image/[/IMG]
[/SCREENSHOT]

Make sure you use this code:

[SCREENSHOT]
[URL=http://link.to.your.first.image/][IMG]http://link.to.your.first.thumbnail/[/IMG][/URL]
[URL=http://link.to.your.second.image/][IMG]http://link.to.your.second.thumbnail/[/IMG][/URL]
[/SCREENSHOT]

If you don't know what thumbnails are or don't know how to make them, don't worry! ImageFap automatically generates these thumbnails and provides direct links to them after you upload the image(s).

Best practice:

Upload your images to an image host like Minus and include screenshots like you normally would.
After making sure everything is in order and offering your torrent open your sandbox again and press 'Upload images to image server' upon which all images should be detected and by pressing 'Replace selected images' your description will automagically be updated and all images will be transferred to BakaSHOTS.
Do note that even if your imagehost does not automatically create thumbnails, BakaSHOTS does. This means that even if your sample images hosted by minus appear fullsized and have no thumbnails before you press the 'Upload images to image server' button, they will after you do this and they are hosted on BakaSHOTS Note: Your old description containing your original links will remain cached in your sandbox, to avoid undoing the changes you will need to press 'Load original description' prior to making any other changes to the description.