Kumaku physical vs online release chapter number and content deviation

[Valle_reading_manga]

Leaving this here so it doesn't get buried in the contributor channel while it hasn't really been resolved:
Kuma (x3) Bear's online release has (at least) one more chapter than the physical release, meaning the volume numbers don't line up. The physical release seems to stick with 10 chapters (x1 - x+10) with 16 pages each per volume, while at the very least the chapters collected into volume 7 deviate from that pattern.

Spoiler: In detail, the changes to chapters of volume 7 are as follows

Ch. 63 (on MD) gets split between 62 and now 63 (Ch. 64 on MD)
64 (currently 65) is fine
65 (currently 66) is fine
66 (currently 67) gets 3 pages of 67 (current 68)
67 (currently 68) would be fine after that change and
68,69,70 (currently 69,70,71) all have 16 pages

Thanks to @Shirobane for helping to find out which pages were moved
(Unrelated to this, we also noticed chapter 65 (66 on MD) missing a page (across all languages) and I'm not sure whether they reported it.)

Back to the matter at hand, with the chapter number difference between the digital and physical release, the chapters per volume on MD from volume 7 onwards don't follow the pattern stated above anymore. Due to the bumped chapter number any TL based on the physical release might end up with the wrong volume and/or chapter number. And anyone looking for a specific chapter might not end up finding what they expect.

Now as for how to resolve this (if it's worth doing so at all since I'm writing this, I think it is) I think there are several options:

• make it worse
  assign volume numbers based on the physical release's TOC ignoring the different chapter numbers
• "fix" the affected chapters to have MD match the physical release
  Not ideal for a number of reasons imo, mainly since every new release following the digital release's chapter numbers would most likely introduce bumped chapter numbers again, resulting in Sisyphean work for mods/those reporting it.
  Additionally, I didn't(/couldn't and would rather not) check whether any more chapters/volumes apart from volume 7 have pages moved between chapters. Even if that's not the case, the possibility of further differences between digital and physical versions in the future exists.
• adjust the chapters per volume on MD
  Adjust volume 7 to include chapters 61-71 and the following ones to be x2-x+11. Probably the easiest but at the same time potentially least transparent solution. Chapter/volume numbers beyond volume 7 might not be as expected coming from the physical version.
• create a new title (either for the physical or digital release)
  This would mean no changes to existing chapters would have to be done - apart from potentially moving chapters to the new title and identifying which chapters belong to the digital/physical release. It seems to be (primarily) the digital release going by the (wrong) chapter numbers though.
  That being said, the (book version) title pages I've seen so far were empty so I wouldn't expect a separate title page to stop someone from uploading their (incorrectly numbered) chapters to the wrong title - potentially even deliberately to increase the exposure of said chapters.
  In addition, this would lead to the question if the digital release's version should use volume numbers at all. And if so, those should probably reflect the content that's actually part of the chapter rather than following the physical release's TOC (similar to the previous "fix").
  My favourite solution, although there are downsides to it as well (mainly the poor visibility). Additionally, if volume 7 is the only outlier, this might be overshooting quite a bit, but I'd rather see it as future-proofing.

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I'd appreciate any feedback/suggestion/... and if you end up investigating any further, please do share the results (or lack thereof).

 

[OisE]

I would say, if the physical and online releases don't have the same content, it's better to create a new title. If it's the same content just follow the online release numbering.

 

[Valle_reading_manga]

I would say, if the physical and online releases don't have the same content, it's better to create a new title. If it's the same content just follow the online release numbering.

The content is the same, the chapter numbers aren't. While I agree adjusting volume numbers would be the most pragmatic solution, something inside me doesn't like the idea of "overruling" the TOC of the physical release