Donation / Patreon Button

[P3n6m4t1x]

In light of the recent drama on MangaDex in which a few groups decided to leave the platform I began to wonder why this feature isn't already implemented in the first place. A big argument from the groups involved in the drama was reduced ad revenue from a lack of traffic to their sites. Now fundamentally, community scanning and translation isn't really legally "legit". I have always been under the impression its a bit of a grey area, so is there some legal issues around MangaDex adding links to donate to groups? Or are there other issues at play that have stopped this kind of feature from being implemented, such as the intentions for MangaDex to become an official manga distributor, etc?

 

[RonBWL]

As far as I'm concerned, MangaDex is a portal for groups to release and they make it convenience for readers to find said group, NOT to give them money (no matter how you put it). Also, groups can freely add a donation/patreon link on their group description, so there's no point in making an extra button.

 

[EnRyuu_surf]

I do not believe that MD is actively trying to go legit, so that being a reason for not having a donate button is pretty much without foundation.

 

[P3n6m4t1x]

Yet again, I am not arguing that the things I wrote in this post are true, I was simply brainstorming ideas as to why this does not exist and giving a suggestion on a possible solution to the issue, given the recent event in which multiple groups decided to leave MangaDex surrounding the issues of site traffic and money

In the forum post made by the groups leaving MangaDex stating their problems with this site they noted that they felt MangaDex was forcing them into using its reader, and intentionally making their sites obsolete. It is fairly obvious, regardless of what anyone thinks that MangaDex WILL REDUCE TRAFFIC TO THEIR SITES for better or for worse and this will definitely have an effect on donations and ad revenue for these groups. And while I am aware that groups can put a donation/patreon link on the group pages, I would not expect a casual reader of manga to frequently search for and encounter that page. I barely look at the group pages myself, as I would consider myself a part of that more casual group of readers.

I implied the idea of a donation button for groups in a more obvious place of the site (such as in the manga reader itself) as a way for MangaDex to show to these groups, whose perspective is that they have been unfairly treated by MangaDex and its staff that the sites purpose is not to drive them and their sites into irrelevancy or otherwise making them obsolete.

Fundamentally MangaDex, as a site that not only acts a a platform for discussing about manga but also hosts said manga and a variety of other content does strip away a degree of these groups independence, and I can see why this would be scary for them. I suggested this idea not just for the groups to help maintain what is effectively a hobby but also as a way for MangaDex to show that it does listen to groups and does not want to make them obsolete, but rather to make a site in which manga can be read, shared, and discussed about freely by those interested in it.

 

[Holo]

To be fair, lots of users already say that they visit the group site as a direct result of the delay feature. Prior to using us, these users had no idea about the group sites. As a result, some groups ended up donating to said groups.

We already do a lot to support groups with the delay feature, blog hosting, simply providing a platform with a monthly audience of 8 million users.

We believe that money should take a back seat in scanlation - while it is needed to pay raws and servers, it should not be a motivation. It's the same for us too, we are very low key in asking for financial support. Putting links to patreon all over MD goes against this.

 

[LowSanity]

I'm finally getting angry with all "recent drama ideas" threads. Hope you are doing better and best of luck @Holo

 

[Teasday]

As far as I'm aware, groups are free to ask for donations and plug their patreons on their group descriptions and even credits pages right in the manga. Outright integrating patreon links straight into the reader reeks a bit too much of built-in ads to my personal liking though, I have to admit.

 

[Istvan90623]

I don't think that the recent drama warrants any change that is related for groups having an easier time to get donations and such, because that would basically legitimize the purpose of said groups that created that shitstorm in the first place.

 

[P3n6m4t1x]

While I do agree with Holo's philosophy that money should take a backseat when it comes to scanlation, I do think it is important to recognize that money is a huge motivational factor. This probably affects larger groups more who will have to spend lots of money maintaining their sites, buying raws, and other miscellaneous activities rather than smaller groups who just translate the occasional series that they get raws for and stick it on reddit or here. Money will always have a presence in scanlation and there will always be groups who will place importance on it, regardless of MangaDex's policy.

I also do agree with Teasday's assessment of my suggestion of an obvious built in donation button into the reader. While I did make the suggestion of a dedicated donation button for groups to help incentivize people to do so, I strongly doubted that I would come up with the perfect solution right from the get-go. Perhaps MangaDex's possible future in going legit and actively hiring groups to officially translate manga is a better solution than what I suggested.

 

[seekermoc]

To be fair, lots of users already say that they visit the group site as a direct result of the delay feature. Prior to using us, these users had no idea about the group sites. As a result, some groups ended up donating to said groups.

This. I used to visit the websites of many of the groups that recently left, particularly Meraki, JB, and Champion, because of their chapter delays. I didn't even mind the delays, because I could still follow the groups' releases here on mangadex, and then click the link to their website when I saw that a new chapter was posted. You could keep track of your progress by manually marking chapters as read, even if they aren't yet open to viewing on mangadex directly. That's one of the big reasons why I just can't understand their reason for leaving, as posting delayed chapters here can be a big draw to their websites, with no real drawback (except perhaps the complaints from a minority of the community here). Now that they're gone, I don't think many users will go and constantly check dozens of group's individual sites for updates of the one series they follow from that group.