XenForo (the forum software we're using now) is apparently terrible on the back end for a lot of things including moderation, at least for how MD has it implemented. From what I've seen (and bear in mind this is just my take, though I don't think I'm way off base here):
We had to rewrite major parts of the stack just to be able to have "linked" accounts between the mainsite and the forums, as well as to be able to create chapter and title entry threads, so you can already start to see one of the reasons why we hate using it...
- The staff are aware the embedded comments need some work to be 'finished'/fully featured (note the 'reply' button that doesn't do anything under comments), and various design decisions may be subject to revision along the way.
Yep, we're doing constant changes and updates to the system.
- The staff are also aware there are limits to what the embedded comment system can be used for - it's not well suited to longer posts like some people make for deeper discussion. There will continue to be some role for the forum chapter/title threads, at least for the foreseeable future, and there has been zero discussion of phasing out any of the other sections. (In fact, bug reports and some other essential functions rely on the forums, so they really can't go anywhere for the time being.)
This first iteration of the new comment system will only affect chapter and title discussions (aka.
this and
this). Everything else will be handled via the current system for now.
And yes, as you mentioned, subforums like bugs and suggestions will be kept as-is, with no plans to remove or alter them.
- Despite the prior point, there's no reason the vast majority of what now happens in the forum chapter/title threads couldn't be done on the embedded comments once they're more fully featured. For now, the goal seems to be to encourage the use of the embedded comments for a lot of the shorter remarks.
Exactly. As people tries the new embedded comments, we'll be able to both discover hidden bugs as well as to create features that can't be developed with the current system, but we have yet to achieve some kind of feature parity (we're still in eary development, after all).
- Feedback is being read and considered.
As long as it's constructive and in good faith, that is... (if in bad faith, that person will receive mean stares and will be poked with the pointy stick in a non-friendly way)
- There appears to be a conscious effort to avoid rushing this. Some (much) of this may be limited man-hour resources, but I would be surprised if some wasn't an attempt to make sure that, as they move on to adding more features and building out, they don't have to backtrack because something ends up being an impediment a couple iterations down the line.
Yeah... and we've recently seen what rushing stuff does...
(ahem ahem the fetch issues that got solved today ahem ahem)
- The comment limitations (restricting chapter/title activity to a smaller group of privileged users) in place now are to allow for a limited pool of real world use as a beta, in order to work out any existing bugs and to get a feel for moderation and other administrative functions. That period will end at some point, and everyone will be able to use the new system.
Well, that's how early access works anywhere
The idea that the staff would be actively sabotaging the existing forums is someplace between absurd and brain-damaged, and claims that MD is somehow 'gOiNg CoRpO' have repeatedly been addressed and denied by staff.
Can we "go corpo" so I get paid?
Yes, MD needs money to keep the servers up, and no, they're not getting enough via support to be able to do away with ads right now, but that's a separate issue from the site updates (like the new comment system) that have been in the works for some time.
Servers are expensive af, see 2021 devlog:
https://mangadex.dev/mangadex-v5-infrastructure-overview/#some-limits (our current needs are more than 5 times that)
I do think it's fair to say that communication from the staff would benefit from being more frequent and clear as to their goals, and the lack of those characteristics are contributing to a lot of rumors and fear-mongering.
Ideally everything would be public, but we all know it's sadly not possible...
I also don't want to be too hard on them for falling down on this point, since a lot of the staff are volunteering their time and energy to contribute to keeping the site up and running
(and have generally done an excellent job, especially in light of the average life-span of a scanlation site in the modern environment).
ehe
