@Carnage There seems to be confusion about this rule. So this is our attempt at clarifying it:
2.4 If a group has had no releases on MangaDex or any websites affiliated with that group for a period of 6 months, the group will be considered inactive.
2.4.1 It is possible to request a removal of inactive groups' upload restrictions.
This means that a group is considered
inactive by the community standard - MangaUpdates - of 6 months of no releases. No action is automatically taken at this point. However, a member of the community may petition to have an "inactive" locked group unlocked after the 6 months should there be outstanding
chapters not yet uploaded by a group.
Should this be the case we will confirm manually that the group is indeed inactive. We do this by checking their group page, Mangaupdates and by visiting their own website to look for releases. We check all three to confirm they are indeed inactive and not that they simply do not post their content to MangaDex or that Mangaupdates is out of date.
Upon receiving a valid unlock request we will post a 7 day notice on the group's page on MangaDex and send a PM to the group leader or other still active group members. An example of the notice sent: https://mangadex.org/thread/4470/1/#post_113253 . There are plans in place to add the ability to receive an email when you have an outstanding PM on the site. Which we hope will make this process even more visible in the future. If a group contacts us and let's us know they are active, but waiting on a volume release for some new raws, are busy with personal circumstances, etc, we will reject the unlock request for the time being. A group can re-claim their group at any future time. It will always be available to them.
After the 7 days notice expires we will unlock the group, remove upload restrictions and remove the members from the members section and move them to a "Former members" Hall of Fame in the group's description. This is done to prevent the re-locking of a group, deleting chapters, or even sabotaging already uploaded chapters. There are also plans to change how we handle removing members. Instead of removing members we hope to add a feature to toggle the activity of a group to inactive. This would leave the members in place, but lock access to group controls - should a group become active again they would simply have to nudge us to change the status back to active.
We are completely open to exemptions being made for content. For example, if a group absolutely does not want a series to be hosted due to it being licensed we will honour that request. Simply let us know.
Regarding the example at hand, in the case of One Snowshoe, we still haven't been contacted by any of their members about removing any particular chapters that they don't want on MangaDex, nor have we received a reply to the notification PM we sent.
As for why rule 2.4 exists: We believe there needs to be a balance between the needs of the readers and the needs of the scanlators. MangaDex relies on not only the goodwill of active scanlation groups allowing their chapters to be uploaded, but also on an active, growing reader-base making MangaDex the best alternative for groups to reach their audiences. One of our main concerns is that if the chapters are only available on an ad-infested, malware hosting service like Kissmanga then we are forcing readers to access a site that is not beneficial to scanlators in any way, shape or form. Hosting them on MangaDex will make sure that the original group is always remembered.
The backlash against this rule was unfortunate but not wholly unexpected. Nevertheless, a compromise had to be found, and our rules reflect our best attempts at attaining one. Catering to only the needs of one side or the other would lead to the end of this site.
As soon as the site supports the full implementation of the previously described inactivity feature, rule 2.4 will be updated to reflect it.
2.4 A group that has had no new releases on MangaDex or any websites affiliated with that group for a period of 6 months is eligible by the request of any user to become marked as inactive.
2.4.1 Upon receiving an inactivation request, MangaDex staff will attempt to contact and notify the group.
2.4.1.1 It is possible for the notified group to request becoming exempt from being marked as inactive [for a period of up to 2 months].
2.4.1.2 If the group is not exempted, it will be marked as inactive after 2 weeks from the initial notification.
2.4.2 An inactive group will have all of its upload restrictions lifted and its leader and members will no longer have automatic editing and deleting permissions to the chapters associated with the group.
2.4.3 Should the group resume releasing new content, it will no longer be considered inactive and the normal permissions will be restored.
