I'm kinda tripping over the sentence there, but I think you're trying to say that you feel that MangaDex does not have the right to arbitrarily delete entries and has a moral obligation to its users (in particular the ones who contribute content to the platform) to be accountable for whenever they delete entries. Did I get that right? Correct me if I'm wrong. 😅
I can definitely understand where you're coming from, since a lot of scanlators work hard in their free time for the express purpose of producing content for the site and to have it deleted unilaterally without any satisfying justification can feel like a punch in the gut.
However I also can't deny that this is just the nature of platforms in general. We users are given the privilege of uploading content to a platform, so that it can be consumed by a lot of other users. If MangaDex, Youtube, Facebook, whatever deletes your content for any reason or no reason at all, then they are allowed to do that. Just like how users are also allowed to delete their content from the platform and post it elsewhere. Platforms have the right to set their own rules, regardless of whether that will lead to growth or ruin. Having a good relationship with the users is in their best interest in order to positively affect growth, but it's not a duty nor an obligation. Just like how MangaDex doesn't have the duty nor obligation to keep the site up forever, in order to keep all submitted content available forever. You and I might not like it, but I do think that's the reality of the matter.
You're also stressing that transparency isn't enough, but I'm not sure what else you're looking for. You mention a couple of times that the relationship and trust between MangaDex and its users is being broken. Improving the transparency is a way to attempt to mend that relationship and trust, but outside of just saying "MangaDex should just never delete any entries ever," I'm not sure what else you could be advocating for...
No, you are correct. They do not have a
moral right to
arbitrarily delete content, even if they are hosting the site, because they are a platform that hosts content from other people, and so they have a responsibility to treat the people they depend on with respect. If they were
content creators themselves, then sure they can do whatever they want, but they are not. The fact is that they do not have a moral right to be
arbitrary because of the nature of the site. They can establish
clear guidelines for what they will and will not host on here, but they
do not get to just delete anything on a whim whenever they feel like and
not be the bad guy in so doing. They have a duty to be clear, impartial, and transparent, and by the semantic definition of what
arbitrary means, they cannot be arbitrary
and fulfill those criteria.
What I do mean, though, by transparency alone being insufficient, I mean that they are
changing quite rapidly the nature of the platform itself, and they are doing so unilaterally
while also completely lacking transparency in so doing. However,
just that is insufficient. I will give an example to illustrate;
It's more courteous for someone to give you a heads-up before gutpunching you than to do it without warning, but even so, it's hardly something you can be happy about now can you?
How this relates to the situation is simple: they seem to be trying to completely change the nature of the site itself from what everyone expects from it by going corpo and trying to clean it up to look "legit". The fact they seem to be doing this sneakily is quite bad, but even if they
were to do it openly, it would still be unacceptable because it's a complete u-turn on everything Mangadex has been up until now, of its userbase, and its content creators. This is something that would be completely unthinkable for the vast majority of all the site's community.
Can they do this? Sure, they own the site. But it's basically killing its nature and identity in so doing, and they'd lose a significant portion of their users in so doing, which is why they aren't being honest because they know it. So they boil the frog slowly instead.
It can't be said that this is a proper thing to do by any stretch. This is because, in practice, it would mean riding the wave of the efforts and labour of the scanlators to get big, and then throw them under the bus the moment they are no longer needed. It's betraying people's expectations and trust for your own gain.
All of what they've been doing for a long time now seems to indicate a pattern of intent towards going this direction, to "legitimizing" the site, and in practice, this is what it entails. It will start with deleting a few titles, and then more, until it's been repackaged into something it isn't, and wasn't ever meant to be.
No amount of transparency about this would make it okay. It would be much better that way than the skullduggery of the present, but that's like calling a compound fracture of the collarbone an improvement over a quadruple amputation. What they need to do is some real introspection and return the devotion and affection their community has given them in kind, and remember what got them here in the first place.
It's not about keeping 100% of the content up forever. The removal of material is more about what it shows about how things have changed and where it's heading. Especially nowadays, when all artistic media is under siege.
