Mangadex to purge titles for legal reasons

[Nekomizus]

There will always be a risk staying here. Even if they reverse the decision, can you trust that it won’t happen again?

The only safe option at this point is DDL/BT because if it can be taken down without your input, it's best to assume it will be.

 

[Owyoushotme]

Over the past two decades, I’ve been through so many sites that I eventually started keeping track of everything I read in a huge, well-organized Excel spreadsheet. Yeah, I’m old, but this bad boy has never failed me once.

I hate looking at excel, decades of EVE flashbacks and warehouse inventory management have poisoned it ffor me, but it may be the way to go.

 

[sorawild]

Lolisho is illegal in most countries whereas the rest of your list is considered artistic

There are 11 countries where lolisho content is illegal (and only 2 of them actually enforce it). Meanwhile, there are 64 countries where homosexuality is illegal (all of them enforce it) and the amount is actually increasing.

 

[Z3RYX]

mangadex is a scanlation hub...

personally i believe they have the right to remove any manga title they want, especially when it threatens them legally.

i don't see why removing loli pron is so bad, especially since there are sote dedicated to that. As far as i know, they title metadata isn't deleted, so maybe they are working on something.

If you actually know a site that is as organized as MD, is a scanlation hub (not aggregator), and specializes in lolisho, then please let me know.

I know some places that tolerate loli, but none that actually categorize their entries as well as MD does.

 

[deleted-user-dd180786b5]

There are 11 countries where lolisho content is illegal (and only 2 of them actually enforce it). Meanwhile, there are 64 countries where homosexuality is illegal (all of them enforce it) and the amount is actually increasing.

180 countries consider piracy illegal, didn’t stop them.

 

[VladTheImpaler]

If you actually know a site that is as organized as MD, is a scanlation hub (not aggregator), and specializes in lolisho, then please let me know.

I know some places that tolerate loli, but none that actually categorize their entries as well as MD does.

Exactly that! I've only used mangadex since 2020 for the most part and I had forgotten how disorganized it was before. Looked for a few different ones today and I just don't have the patience anymore to sift through chinese/korean slop (not saying its all bad but god damn do they ever pump out content like crazy) Not only that, a bunch of the sites I used to use are no longer with us

 

[Mazaky]

mangadex is a scanlation hub...

personally i believe they have the right to remove any manga title they want, especially when it threatens them legally.

i don't see why removing loli pron is so bad, especially since there are sote dedicated to that. As far as i know, they title metadata isn't deleted, so maybe they are working on something.

The problem is how broad the supposed rule is and the fact that the removals were done stealthy. If this thread hadn’t blown up after a staff member called users “pedos” for reading loli content, most people wouldn’t even have known about it.

Mangadex is a scanlation hub, so taking such a questionable approach while enforcing a rule broad enough to cover some of its most popular manga, like Kaguya-sama, Horimiya, Berserk, and many others, makes the situation worse. Applying the rule selectively, based on whether a title is “too popular to remove” despite technically falling under it, only undermines the credibility of both the policy and its enforcement which makes this entire argument more convoluted and stupid, even more if you take into account that this site is based on illegal copyrighted content which would go at it again to why they are making such attempt to be "legal" while hosting illegal content themselves.

The legal argument is also debatable. As far as we users were aware, and according to the site’s own Terms of Service, the platform operates under U.S. law, to which there is no clear legal basis against loli content and the removing of said content could even raise First Amendment concerns. We also have to take into account that If the site shifted its headquarters to the UK amid the current climate there, it’s understandable why some would see that as a deliberate move that would lead to these changes and make even less sense why they would make the move in the first place without communicating anything or changing their TOS. From that perspective, it can come across as an intentional decision by internal staff that ultimately makes the site worse in the eyes of everyone involved.

Again, even if you dislike Loli content this opens the breach to either a move to be a "legal" manga site, as Crunchyroll and Fakku did and how Mangadex has been trying to do for many years now, and the removal of many more content and cersorship of the entire site, maybe for new users, new manga readers or even younger people this seems like a blow out of proportion issue but for anyone that has been in this for many times over the years is clear as day what is happening and what they are leading on.

 

[deackychu]

The only safe option at this point is DDL/BT because if it can be taken down without your input, it's best to assume it will be.

When was uploading any title to this site "safe" in the first place? Have people really been lulled into that false sense of security over the years? Yeah, the great purge last year came as a huge shock, but was it really all that surprising in the end? All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.

What I really don't get about this thread (or the threads in general) is how people are acting like the sniping/removal of titles is somehow a personal attack on them. Rules/guidelines on sites/apps are in place for a reason. Sure, all of it could probably have been handled way better than how it came off, and it seems like there was a rogue mod involved, but I think people take for granted uploading whatever the heck they want on here. There has never been a guarantee that titles uploaded here will remain available. While the new rule wasn't dialed in as finely as it could have been/should have been (which is why random scenes from titles could fall under that category), but again, so what? This is a pirate site. People should be used to titles vanishing on a whim. Maybe it's doing this stuff for 20+ years that I've seen people hopping all over the place to access stuff, but Jeez Louise, people have this weird sense of entitlement.

 

[LordofLeechers]

maybe for new users, new manga readers or even younger people this seems like a blow out of proportion issue but for anyone that has been in this for many times over the years is clear as day what is happening and what they are leading on.

It's all so tiresome. But, such is the fate of we who sail the seven seas.

 

[Mazaky]

When was uploading any title to this site "safe" in the first place? Have people really been lulled into that false sense of security over the years? Yeah, the great purge last year came as a huge shock, but was it really all that surprising in the end? All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.

What I really don't get about this thread (or the threads in general) is how people are acting like the sniping/removal of titles is somehow a personal attack on them. Rules/guidelines on sites/apps are in place for a reason. Sure, all of it could probably have been handled way better than how it came off, and it seems like there was a rogue mod involved, but I think people take for granted uploading whatever the heck they want on here. There has never been a guarantee that titles uploaded here will remain available. While the new rule wasn't dialed in as finely as it could have been/should have been (which is why random scenes from titles could fall under that category), but again, so what? This is a pirate site. People should be used to titles vanishing on a whim. Maybe it's doing this stuff for 20+ years that I've seen people hopping all over the place to access stuff, but Jeez Louise, people have this weird sense of entitlement.

People began taking it as a personal attack the moment a staff member justified the removal by reducing the argument to “loli content is bad” and calling those who consume it pedophiles. This isn’t a “rogue mod” with minimal power, but an admin who, as even another moderator mentioned, is higher in the hierarchy and has more authority over what does or does not happen on the site.

The main justification for enforcing the rule in the first place is supposedly “legal reasons.” However, as you yourself mentioned, this is a pirate site. A far more significant legal issue would be the illegal copyrighted content that is spread all over the site, yet that does not seem to be treated with the same level of concern.

Let’s also not forget that this entire site is built on the community. Translations are not done by staff, revenue depends on supporters, and scan groups bring readers to the site. The staff are not solely responsible for its existence; without the community’s involvement, the site would not exist in the first place.

If the staff were handling all the translations themselves and self-funding the site, your point might make more sense. But they are not. As I mentioned before, and I’ll keep this brief to avoid repeating myself, the broad “legal reasons” given to justify these rules and guidelines do not make sense as currently applied. They are too vague and inconsistent, especially when some of the most popular manga would technically fall under the same criteria, yet the enforcement appears to target specific, less popular titles instead.

 

[yogurtman250]

People began taking it as a personal attack the moment a staff member justified the removal by reducing the argument to “loli content is bad” and calling those who consume it pedophiles. This isn’t a “rogue mod” with minimal power, but an admin who, as even another moderator mentioned, is higher in the hierarchy and has more authority over what does or does not happen on the site.

The main justification for enforcing the rule in the first place is supposedly “legal reasons.” However, as you yourself mentioned, this is a pirate site. A far more significant legal issue would be the illegal copyrighted content that is spread all over the site, yet that does not seem to be treated with the same level of concern.

Let’s also not forget that this entire site is built on the community. Translations are not done by staff, revenue depends on supporters, and scan groups bring readers to the site. The staff are not solely responsible for its existence; without the community’s involvement, the site would not exist in the first place.

If the staff were handling all the translations themselves and self-funding the site, your point might make more sense. But they are not. As I mentioned before, and I’ll keep this brief to avoid repeating myself, the broad “legal reasons” given to justify these rules and guidelines do not make sense as currently applied. They are too vague and inconsistent, especially when some of the most popular manga would technically fall under the same criteria, yet the enforcement appears to target specific, less popular titles instead.

Yeah what the admin did was completely stupid. I even wrote an scuffed "analysis" about the message today.

 

[Pauan]

While irl what you mean about self-defense might be applied, on a forum this only turns into neverending wars.
Our jobs isn't to play judge and jury on who started it or who's "morally correct", since that's completely pointless by now.
If we let everyone swing back just because they felt attacked first, we'll just be here forever going on and on about the same thing, isntead of just doing whatever else we want to do (which for most people it's certainly not being stuck here).
So, in short, what we're asking for is for everyone involved to dial it back a bit so we can move forward and maybe reach a common solution, regardless of who threw the first punch.

Nope, it applies everywhere.

There's a simple way to stop the neverending war: timeout / ban the person who started it.

I will be crystal clear here: this entire situation is 100% MangaDex's fault.

• MangaDex chose to betray their original founding principles.
• MangaDex chose to completely delete series without any prior warning or notice.
• MangaDex chose to delete all of the metadata for those series, instead of only the chapters, which is different from how MangaDex handles DMCA claims.
• MangaDex called everybody who disagreed with this action pedophiles.
• MangaDex still has not apologized for this, or taken any sort of corrective action.
• MangaDex then lied repeatedly, claiming that this problem cannot be fixed, and that the only way for MangaDex to survive is to censor things, which has been proven wrong.
• MangaDex has still refused to address the numerous legitimate questions which have been asked in this thread.

This has completely destroyed any trust that people have in MangaDex. This behavior is completely and utterly unacceptable.

The longer that MangaDex refuses to fix the problem, the worse it will escalate.

You exist because of the community, you exist because of the fans, because of the supporters, because of the donations, because of the scanlators, because of the readers.

That community only exists because of trust, which has now been repeatedly violated.

And instead of attempting to restore that trust, you keep insinuating that the community is at fault for being angry at being mistreated.

The community is correct in being angry. This is NOT a "both sides are bad" situation.

The community are not the ones who need to calm down. MangaDex is 100% at fault, MangaDex is the one that must take responsibility, admit fault, and correct the bad behavior.

 

[yogurtman250]

Honestly sometimes I wonder who the person who accepted the AI idea was, and why they did it

 

[Pauan]

I don't, but we just have a consistent policy of not airing staff disciplinary details in public threads.
I know it's probably not the answer some of you are looking for, but it's how we operate.
As I mentioned arleady a couple of times, the feedback has been noted, and the internal review is happening. Beyond that, there isn't much more we can say on the matter here.

And that's the wrong way of handling things.

When a user misbehaves, there is a very public message that they have broken the rules.

Admins should be held to an even higher standard than users, because they have far more power than users. They must use that power responsibly.

If admins are allowed to get a slap on the wrist behind closed doors, that just makes it easy for admins to abuse their power and get away with it. How can the community trust MangaDex in that situation?

 

[yogurtman250]

If admins are allowed to get a slap on the wrist behind closed doors, that just makes it easy for admins to abuse their power and get away with it. How can the community trust MangaDex in that situation?

They won't probably. I personally think this person is unfit to be an admin, due to... you know. Unless she proves she's capable, she should get demoted to a forum moderator at the very least. But everyone but the admins think that, so we can't do much

 

[RogueKitsune]

@RogueKitsune please put this on the first post or whatever its called

If Barto (or another mod) wants me to add additional information to the opening post they can ask me.

Believe it or not I am on friendly terms with most of the mods and we tend to have open and civilized discourse.

 

[yogurtman250]

If Barto (or another mod) wants me to add additional information to the opening post they can ask me.

Believe it or not I am on friendly terms with most of the mods and we tend to have open and civilized discourse.

Ah okay. Are you able to ask anyone about anything at the moment?

 

[yogurtman250]

I hope so...

 

[RogueKitsune]

Ah okay. Are you able to ask anyone about anything at the moment?

Any information that can be shared to the "public" has been shared to the best of my knowledge.

 

[yogurtman250]

Any information that can be shared to the "public" has been shared to the best of my knowledge.

Okay! I just hope they'll give a detailed explanation about all of this soon.
I wonder if we'll see Neko in the forums again...