Improve clarification for removed manga/chapters

[kn1000a]

The recent drama brought up another point for casual readers: How do we know which manga was removed by the scanlators, which can still be read on their site, or which is localized officially?

I want to suggest improving clarification on these fronts.

1) A tag
I propose adding a "Removed manga" tag. This is kinda similar to the removal tag on Danbooru where certain artists are blacklisted because they themselves request their content to not be uploaded. This tag can be added just like every other tags (Award Winning, etc) but to avoid abuse, maybe only make it useable by moderators. This tag will identify every manga removed on Mangadex (including those from official localization) and will be searchable from the Advanced Search page or by clicking on the tag directly. This will help readers to recognize which manga is actually removed and which manga isn't being scanlated. Using MU is a valid option, but I do not think casual readers actually know about it providing such info. Plus, a tag would make it more efficient to recognize what's not on MD by a click of the tag, and future searches of manga will instantly show which is removed or not.

2) Scanlators' request and official localization
I believe these can both be clarified a lot more. Perhaps something like adding a line to the bottom of the summary page: "Chapter # to # removed under request of xyz Scanlation". I have seen footnote being added to the summary all the time to clarify information such as if the manga is a Twitter oneshot, etc. so I don't see why a clarification like this would be troublesome. Same thing can be done for all manga removed from MD but have English localization, just a line like "This manga is available in official English at the links below" should be quick to remind people this series is officially scanlated and MD doesn't host them.

Why should these changes matter? A lot of people still ask and wait for these manga to be updated when they themselves don't know about it being removed or why it was removed. These changes are not necessarily crucial, but they are nice QoL changes MD can get to better inform the readers.

 

[Bainhardt]

MangaDex has actually addressed before (although you don't have to take my word for it) that their hope is, by including links to external information sources like MangaUpdates, they can cut down on the amount of archiving they have to do firsthand. It makes sense to me, at least. Readers may not know about MU, but it is there, so maybe greater visibility would be helpful? And I can attest that MU seems a good source for this information, because all their information about when my own releases happened is more or less accurate within a day.

That being said, I feel that utilizing the "Missing Chapters" tab that shows up on manga entries actually lacking chapters to a greater effect could be helpful. Perhaps include some general information about how someone looking at the Missing Chapters tab could search off-site for more information about why the chapters are missing, without it needing to be tailored individually to each manga.

 

[Teasday]

Someone else might want to elaborate (since I'm going to bed) but in short solutions are being worked on.

_{@kn1000a posted:}

Same thing can be done for all manga removed from MD but have English localization, just a line like "This manga is available in official English at the links below" should be quick to remind people this series is officially scanlated and MD doesn't host them.

This part seemed a bit weird to me, though. Well, for one, an official localization is not really a scanlation since that definitionally refers to the fanmade works, but that aside I don't see why a separate alert is necessary since we add official links, English or otherwise, in every applicable manga regardless of whether there are scanlations, they've been removed or were never there in the first place.

 

[kn1000a]

@Teasday I do mean official translation, not scanlation. My bad.

Perhaps, it does seems a bit redundant now that you spelled it out. I guess I was a bit too hasty and assume my idea also cover that area.