Integration of forums and manga pages

[Kendama]

I think MDex got it mostly right with comment sections for chapters and for the series as a whole.

However, one feature I miss from the defunct Batoto was the list of forum threads related to a given series on its own page.

For example, right now, people who want to discuss raws/spoilers, or specific themes (shipping, theories about the plot, spoilers), don't have a place to do it in the manga page. They could go to the forums, open a thread and discuss it there, but because the thread isn't linked to the manga page, readers of the series won't know the thread exists unless they decide to browse the forums, which I imagine few people do.

Batoto had a list of the three or five threads related to a manga that had received posts more recently, and if the reader clicked one of them, they were taken to the section of the forum that concerned that series, and there they could find older threads of interest. It's a way of not cluttering the manga page with lots of threads, but still linking them to readers who want to have an in-depth discussion.

 

[Holo]

I'll think about this.

 

[FireFish5000]

That feature was certainly used a lot, although the main use for it was posting spoilers (bato.to never did implement a spoiler button, despite the strict enforcement of spoiler tags).
I remember every series had 1 thread named something along the lines of "Latest chapter discussion". However, unlike our per chapter threads, it was rarely ever used. Well, it wasn't really made for comments. The normal forum style posts did not work well for a thread intended for comments(sort order was the main issue).

If this does get considered, it is worth discussing now if it should be sorted newest first or oldest first. Since we have chapter level comments(unlike bato.to), I honestly do not think we need another comment thread option. I doubt these would be used much (just for the few that want more in depth discussions as stated). As such, I believe oldest first/forum style would work best. Not to mention that it would allow rules for said thread to be stated at the beginning(eg. reminders not to spoil from ln, reminders that this is a ln thread and spoilers may follow) .

Next question would be the rules for spoilers in these threads. By default, I would expect spoilers to be allowed in such threads for translated chapters. For spoilers outside of the manga, we should explicitly require a tag that tells us to expect this. For example, (LN Discussion). (I doubt we would have problems getting users to create threads appropriately named, but a reminder somewhere during thread creation wouldn't hurt)

And finally, where would these forms be placed? My vote would be for a new Thread tab, giving us a title page with the following tabs:
[Chapters][Comments][Threads][Covers]

We would also need a way to address bad threads. For instance, one containing a bunch of spoilers (due to bad wording of op, or failure to add spoiler tag). And ones with bad names. (eg. "What did you think when the MC DIED in the final chapter?"). This shouldn't be any bigger of an issue than it already comment threads though, so guess there would be no need to address it until it becomes a big enough problem that the current method of handling it is no longer practical (perhaps never. making it easier to flag them could just yield more falsely flagged posts/threads impede moderation rather than helping it).

 

[Kendama]

That's certainly an issue. Adding series-themed threads may require more moderation for bad threads, as you say.

I think nobody would bother making a latest chapter discussion thread with the chapter comments in place. So my guess is that readers would naturally gravitate towards in-depth discussion and spoilers. I think having threads for spoilers/raws discussion makes sense for users who can read the originals. It's more effective at shunting spoilers away from the comment section than spoiler buttons, I think. Heck, they could even make a button like "create raws/spoilers" thread, with an auto-title and all. And as you say, in that case oldest first may make more sense. Or as I said, sort them by which threads had the latest comments, meaning that they are consistently drawing interest to them, or have been posted recently.

If it were done well, moderators would have just to prune bad threads and those made by noobs (for example, latest chapter threads by someone who didn't realise there are comments by chapter).

 

[FireFish5000]

Hmm, an auto raw thread.... Just like the chapter thread, all you need to do is click it and then push start comment thread.
Some series wouldn't benefit from it much (popular ones with same day translation), but newly picked up ones with lots of chapters could benefit from it.
A similar one for the LN, which is only possible to create after someone adds an LN link to the manga page.

Main benefit with your suggestion is standardization of threads. We will all know what to expect from these threads. Also, raw/ln/adaptions are the only things I can think of where users would want comment style (latest post at top) sorting, so these could be adapted to use such views (on implementation or in the future).

That said, if we do what I just said above, raws/ln discussions may become a separate topic (no longer form like threads, but a new comment style one). Though, I would expect it to appear in the same place. Perhaps pinned to the top for ease of access?

If we have a LN and raw comment thread, plus forums in that tab.... discussions for manga would be a lot easier to find. It would be so easy to create a thread in the right spot I doubt anyone would ever misplace it (ie. put in general). Not to mention it would encourage in depth discussions (although, only a minority of commenters will probably use it)! And who knows, perhaps it will reduce the number of LN readers spoiling (doubtful since in my experience, they usually spoil in reply to other reader's questions, but at least they will have a spot to discuss).

Some cons: people looking for recommendations will likely create the thread there. While having all replies be from those who have read the series may be a good thing, I believe you can get great recommendations from those who just read the few traits your looking for and perhaps the synopsis of the title you read.

Completely off topic, but is there something like MangaDex for LN translations? I always end up on the translator groups page, or an archive if they are defunct(not a big ln reader though).