A random manga on the front page by default

[Kendama]

The random button is there, I know, but it requires deliberate action on the part of the visitor. I think putting a random manga at the top or side bar by default, like Kissmanga does, is a better option. All you'd have to do is make the randomiser respect users' hentai choices and genre bans.

This is not laziness on my part, though perhaps that also plays a role. It's just that sometimes I've entered KM thinking of something else and found a gem in the random box. If it's there by default, one need not be with a mindset of "I'm going to look for something new today". And you could make it so that readers who want to use the box as a random button just need to refresh the front page.

Personally, I'd prefer it at the top, spanning the width of the front page. That way there would be room to include the series synopsis, cover picture, genres and author. If you think some readers might object to its cluttering the front page, you could add the option of hiding the bar, toggling it on or off, or showing it at the side bar with just the picture and the title. (Though the latter would be of little use, since many titles are in Japanese and wouldn't be as effective in piquing readers' curiosity.)

I've checked the Megathread to make sure this hasn't been suggested before. Only the random button is listed there.

 

[Holo]

Actually we had that back in the v1 days. Can't remember why we removed it now, probably because it was quite taxing for the server to spit out a random title for every user that came along.
I guess we could put it back for cache it, so it would only generate a new random manga every minute or something.

 

[Kendama]

I see. I don't remember that v1 feature. Was it in the side bar, perhaps?

Now you talk about server processing, I think that asking the server to spit out a random manga respecting the individual user's specific genre and hentai bans would introduce quite the lag in loading the front page, no? I don't understand the first thing about how a computer operates, but I imagine the server would have to do either:

i. Once a user connects to the server, the server has to use their genre bans to compile a subset of the series database that excludes those genres, and then use that subset to generate the random title to appear in the first page.

ii. Or do it iteratively - pick a random title, check it against the user's bans and only load it in the front page if it passes muster. If not, pick a second random title and repeat the process until it finds a title that matches. In this case, more restrictive genre bans would introduce longer loading lags.

(Of course, that would cause impatient readers to simply toggle off the random option.)

Perhaps you could assign a separate, smaller server (if servers grow in trees) just to do this operation? It would need to only store series titles, authors, cover pics and genre tags.

Or maybe I'm worrying about nothing and the processing of this kind of operation is so quick that the lag would be imperceptible.

 

[ununseti]

For me, the 1 minute cache would be a plus, because if I spot something interesting but accidentally click the wrong link or accidentally close the tab or something, I'd actually have a chance of recovering the link.

 

[QSS]

Why not generate a global random manga every few seconds or so instead?

 

[Kendama]

@QSS You're right, genre-filtered random manga might be overkill. It would increase the interest on the part of the readers, but it probably adds too much of an implementation hurdle.

But I still think that the randomisation should at least follow the users' hentai options. That would mean generating two global manga per interval of time (one hentai and one non-hentai) and showing the one specified by the user's hentai toggle. That would prevent NSFW material popping up in the front page in public spaces.

 

[Kendama]

Bumping this up just because I checked the latest update of the megathread and it wasn't added to the list, so I was afraid it would be forgotten. Sorry if I missed the addition, though.

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

What about people who chose "View All"? Are they by default going towards the non-H randomization?

Also, the H section needs a randomizer. You know how people are picky about their kinks? Basically that, combined with a very constraint system that doesn't allow flexibility is what the H section is right now. I can only see as far back as a few days and done, no more hentai cause there isn't an option to see ancient H mangas (or there could be one and I'm just too dense to spot the button, idk).