MangaDex Development Update - March 2026

[HaikenEdge]

I strongly dislike social media style comments, and if that leads to the death of forum discussion threads because it's no longer easily accessible because it's no longer directly linked and people are too lazy to look for chapter threads within the forums, then I'll probably just disengage from discussions entirely, and I don't think I'll be the only one to do so.

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

Would it be possible to show a screenshot on how the new comment system looks?

 

[yogurtman250]

Would it be possible to show a screenshot on how the new comment system looks?

Chances are, it'll probably look something like this:

Chapter comment UI in NamiComi

Series comment page is NamiComi

 

[yogurtman250]

Chances are, it'll probably look something like this:

Chapter comment UI in NamiComi

Series comment page is NamiComi

btw just so my pr is cleared i do NOT use namicomi 😭

 

[saitohd]

My main concern with the comments on the site replacing the forum posts is what happens if a chapter or series gets deleted?

The way it is now, the forum posts about a deleted chapter remain intact. Will the same happen on the comments-style?

It's important to keep all comments history both for information and preservation.

 

[goldencircle]

I hope we can still quote posts because limiting reply links to a "@Somebody" like in v3 made conversations very hard to follow. Or at the very least, we can have nested replies.

 

[Tscheddov]

That is the current plan. Quote:


I have no idea if that's even feasible so I'll let someone else comment on that.

Nope! The forums will remain open

Thanks for answering.
I have one follow up question

Will there still be a link to the forum posts from the chapters on the mainsite after the new comment system is implemented ?

 

[pip25]

I for one find the current system of both title and chapter discussion to be completely sufficient for my needs.

I may have missed the answer in one of the posts despite reading through it all, but exactly what problem does this solve? The forum software might be bad, but if I understand correctly you don't want to get rid of it either way. So what is the added value? That you can comment on the chapter/title page directly? That's it? If so, that is a lot of effort with many possible complications for very little payoff.

 

[AnonymousContributor]

Will the forum still exist even when shit is integrated into the new system since I'm a big fan of the forum in an age where forums are rare, and I fear the existence of the unwashed masses like Dweeb Central unless YOU want to see people calling anything they don't like racial slurs because they are 13 year olds who need to be dropkicked.

BTW the state of moderation on Dweeb Central.

Does being a Nazi or a chud get you banned? Nope.

Speaking of that chud category having Mechahitler as a username probably means you're a troll actively being a dick.

Does actively ruining others' experiences and harassing people get you banned? Nope.

However what does get you banned is whenever you tick off the site owner (no other mods btw cause that's for losers)

I won't quote the comment sections of their forum or on popular manga because my ass is going to get permabanned for saying it. Anyone spouting that drivel oughtta get a permaban on a sane site.

 

[AnonymousContributor]

As you said in the reply prior to this one, "social style" comments largely suck for deeper (or even lenghtier in terms of word count per message) discussions. I've always personally enjoyed forum style discussions for chapters and titles more for that exact reason, which is a large reason why I've always continued to prefer mangadex as a source to read manga (or at least, discuss and read discussions of it) as opposed to other ones (official or not).

Is there really no better way of handling adding a new system than switching the default way (and thus the main, or, for less popular manga, the only, since we both know 99% of people aren't gonna go out of their way to create or find forum pages for specific chapters if it isn't convenient to do so) people discuss manga chapters and titles? Like, having at least a direct and easy to access option in the UI that brings you directly to the forum of said chapter or title if you prefer it as a means of discussion, so that it doesn't effectively just kill forums for that use case? I feel this would just be a net downgrade to the experience, and I don't see this being a good direction to take.

If you wanna see what happens with social style comments, then go to Dweeb Central or Comick to find out.

My main concern with the comments on the site replacing the forum posts is what happens if a chapter or series gets deleted?

The way it is now, the forum posts about a deleted chapter remain intact. Will the same happen on the comments-style?

It's important to keep all comments history both for information and preservation.

This is the biggest one since at least the existence of a thread proves there was once something there.

Feels like going from Rome to the Dark Ages should we become like certain other sites which I despise for the sheer brain damage that occurs inside those comment style threads.

 

[Perchioz]

If you wanna see what happens with social style comments, then go to Dweeb Central or Comick to find out.

I have seen them, I know what you're talking about, which is exactly why (well, at least mostly why) I don't appreciate this change in its execution, since it's gonna essentially remove forums any relevancy they might have now in discussing manga.

By the way, not relevant to your reply, but just as a practical example of a feature of forums which I've found useful right now: this kind of quote reply, where I only quote part of a message, isn't possible in a practical way in any site containing social media style comment sections I've ever seen. Not that big of a deal on it's own, but of the two messages I've sent in this thread, I've already used a feature that is likely not going to be available in social style comment sections.

To clarify the position of 'social and comments': Social posts and post comments will be expanded to group 2. When we are confident, we can fight the betting/adult spam on posts and post comments; we will expand it to group 3. Then, and only then, will we switch title comments and chapter comments to the new system.

People dislike change; this is nothing new, but the forum-style commenting system doesn't work well when it's separated to this degree, which is why it's happening. Until the switch-over is complete, both systems will remain accessible and linked.

I really don't appreciate the response to mine and others concerns effectively being not much more than "people hate change, they'll accept it eventually", since it just comes off as purely dismissive of feedback and criticism. As much as I imagine working with this forum isn't exactly easy (at least, from what I've gathered in the rest of this thread, I don't know Xenforo myself.), and I'm not trying to ask for the impossible or anything, but I'd rather at the very least you guys were transparent about that being a major reason for the change.

Because otherwise, I still fail to understand what the upsides to this change would be, or what stops you from still providing easy and direct access to the forum from the UI even with the new system, I don't believe it would be too hard to have a simple button that redirects you or creates the forum page for the chapter that's cohesive with the new visual design you're aiming for.

Especially since, by your own announcement, forums are still going to exist and be usable by anyone for any title or chapter. I agree the above solution probably wouldn't be exactly elegant, since you'd end up with effectively two different comment sections, but unless the plan was to eventually remove forums all together (which, if that is the plan, it would be appreciated if it was made public and transparent, as your current stance is that, and I quote, "The forums aren't going away".), you'd still have to manage and moderate forums regardless, so again, I fail to see any positives in this approach.

Just so my position is clear, I would love to be proven wrong and for the new system to have all the features forum threads have, but I have my doubts that'll be the case, given how every other similar system I've ever seen works.

I'm not trying to make this a bigger deal than it is, and I'd appreciate it if this comment doesn't get labelled as baseless criticism or "people hating change", because clearly that isn't the case.

 

[EtherealNeko]

Thank you for the write-up. There's a lot to unpack there, and I will do my best to address your feedback. You’re right that "people hate change" is an oversimplification. I don't want to hide behind it, but I also don't want to offer thoughts that then fuel arguments rather than understanding, which is often the case at MangaDex. I am going to break this down into three points, even though I know you may not agree with the conclusions.

1. Engagement and sustainability
The old forum model, as much as some users love it, sees very limited participation relative to the size of the platform. The vast majority of users never engage with it at all, and that matters because an active, diverse user base is what keeps the platform alive and justifies the investment in resources from both supporters and data contributors. Moving comments into a more integrated experience isn’t about removing forums (as I have mentioned before), it’s about making sure the space for discussion actually gets used.

2. Platform security and maintainability
Forum software like XenForo introduces ongoing security and maintenance overhead that’s disproportionate to the value it provides for most of our users the more integrated we try to make it. Every additional integration we have to bend the forum code to accept or support is a potential vulnerability that adds complexity, slows down development, and increases risk.

3. Future features
There are cool features we simply cannot build on top of the forum software. The new system gives us a blank canvas on how users express their thoughts and feelings about the great stories from creators and mangaka they encounter, whether on MangaDex or elsewhere. It synergises better with the platform system, and this is also important for the apps. I understand that for those who primarily use the forums, those future features may not feel personally valuable, but they’re part of how we continue to grow and serve the broader community.

I understand none of this may change your view on the changes themselves, and I’m not trying to argue you into agreement, of course. What I am doing is being upfront about the fact that these decisions are driven by what I call "operational realities" (read: how users interact with the platform) and "long-term priorities" (read: what we want/think we can do to make MangaDex better), not by a desire to ignore feedback.

 

[pip25]

I understand none of this may change your view on the changes themselves, and I’m not trying to argue you into agreement, of course. What I am doing is being upfront about the fact that these decisions are driven by what I call "operational realities" (read: how users interact with the platform) and "long-term priorities" (read: what we want/think we can do to make MangaDex better), not by a desire to ignore feedback.

Fair enough. if you believe we're underestimating the impact of comments being available right there in the chapter viewer in terms of user engagement, then I can understand why you would prioritize such a feature.

I just hope you're ready for what you're getting yourselves into. You will have to make certain tools that come out of the box with the forum (like moderation) from scratch, not to mention that creating any such new subsystem also comes with its own security risks (which MangaDex users became intimately and painfully familiar with in the past).

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

Thank you for the write-up. There's a lot to unpack there, and I will do my best to address your feedback. You’re right that "people hate change" is an oversimplification. I don't want to hide behind it, but I also don't want to offer thoughts that then fuel arguments rather than understanding, which is often the case at MangaDex. I am going to break this down into three points, even though I know you may not agree with the conclusions.

1. Engagement and sustainability
The old forum model, as much as some users love it, sees very limited participation relative to the size of the platform. The vast majority of users never engage with it at all, and that matters because an active, diverse user base is what keeps the platform alive and justifies the investment in resources from both supporters and data contributors. Moving comments into a more integrated experience isn’t about removing forums (as I have mentioned before), it’s about making sure the space for discussion actually gets used.

2. Platform security and maintainability
Forum software like XenForo introduces ongoing security and maintenance overhead that’s disproportionate to the value it provides for most of our users the more integrated we try to make it. Every additional integration we have to bend the forum code to accept or support is a potential vulnerability that adds complexity, slows down development, and increases risk.

3. Future features
There are cool features we simply cannot build on top of the forum software. The new system gives us a blank canvas on how users express their thoughts and feelings about the great stories from creators and mangaka they encounter, whether on MangaDex or elsewhere. It synergises better with the platform system, and this is also important for the apps. I understand that for those who primarily use the forums, those future features may not feel personally valuable, but they’re part of how we continue to grow and serve the broader community.

I understand none of this may change your view on the changes themselves, and I’m not trying to argue you into agreement, of course. What I am doing is being upfront about the fact that these decisions are driven by what I call "operational realities" (read: how users interact with the platform) and "long-term priorities" (read: what we want/think we can do to make MangaDex better), not by a desire to ignore feedback.

Yeah, the problem is not the Forum as a concept, but Xenforo being a shit in particular.
I kinda hope as well that there is going to be an eventual migration from Xenforo to a much better forum software that's less of a nightmare to work with.

 

[HaikenEdge]

Moving comments into a more integrated experience isn’t about removing forums (as I have mentioned before), it’s about making sure the space for discussion actually gets used.

My only real issue with this assertion is that I think an influx of low effort posts—which I see on other translators' websites when they use social-style comment sections—isn't really much better. Yeah, you get a bunch of comments, but a bunch of it is people posting memes demanding the next chapter.

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

My only real issue with this assertion is that I think an influx of low effort posts—which I see on other translators' websites when they use social-style comment sections—isn't really much better. Yeah, you get a bunch of comments, but a bunch of it is people posting memes demanding the next chapter.

True, a bit of friction usually results in less garbage in the comment sections. Not everyone who can write a comment has anything of value to write about, heck, even the forum comments sometimes have pretty low-effort comments, but the friction of having to log in and participate in a slow form of communication does keep it in check a bit.

Not to mention that there isn't really that too many comments are also more of a disadvantage, given that it means that good convos might be hidden due to being in a flood of rubbish.

 

[KATCRX]

I just hope we can always edit comments without any time limit and delete our comments in the new system.

 

[kaloo]

You guys having the good comment section was one of the only reasons I use MangaDex over the competition.

 

[Tscheddov]

@Grogzilla @Bartolumiu @EtherealNeko

Will there still be a link to the forum posts from the chapters and titles on the mainsite after the new comment system is implemented ?

 

[EtherealNeko]

Unlikely. We're evaluating how to implement it without confusing users, but it does segregate/split discussions and increase moderation requirements. There's a trial period where both systems are functional. We will use this to see what's happening and what the usage is; maybe there is something we can do there, but assume there won't be forum integration in its current form for titles and chapter discussions within the platform.

As an aside, we can do more with more moderators, which we are looking at opening a slot for soon. More supporters also allow us to expand the scope of our features, and we are looking to re-enable the Dex-chan subscriptions shortly since our payment compliance work with the icons and business information is complete.