Mangadex to purge titles for legal reasons

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I wasn't going to comment here, but since there has been much framing of the outrage as the work of "new accounts", I'll throw my lot in as well and do my part to keep the thread alive and going. I've read through all the posts and I'll just put in my two-cents, which are hardly anything new.

I do not like or care about loli content itself, it doesn't appeal to me and I want nothing to do with it. But it is art, and it doesn't do harm just by existing. More importantly, I'm firmly against the engines of censorship that are clamping down on anything that is deemed "improper" or "unsavory", and all of the drive to protect people from themselves. If we don't draw a line here, it'll never stop later. It's abhorrent, and as has been oft repeated in this thread already, the idea of this site caving to legal pressure considering its content is pretty laughable.

More than that, though, is the lack of transparency and accountability around the staff's decisions and behaviour. Still nothing concrete has been put up, and at this rate it seems like the gameplan is just to wait til it blows over and pretend this controversy didn't happen. I don't believe it is right to let this happen.
 
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I am generally inclined to agree with this. I will say there are a couple of mods that do participate in the forums to some degree, and they're pretty easy to talk to and reasonably open about site dynamics if you have a question - that's the sort of community involvement that can provide a framework for dealing with these kinds of circumstances. There is nominally a PR member of staff (though exactly what that involves is something I've never looked into), but having a designated community PR contact (or three) for internal communications would seem like a good approach to this.
As the web expands to better platforms like X or Meta or Pixiv, they might be the only. 2. Employees of MD.
 
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Who? Because it's certainly not anyone on MD staff. Maybe you're thinking of WC or comick?

It's not MD's fault if uploaders lie, but it's still their responsibility to remove offending titles when legally requested to.

Also, who actually gives a shit about that check box? It's a CYOA so MD can deflect blame.

There is no identity crisis. You just don't like what MD has always been.
If one had the ability to look back into the forums with complete clarity,you'd find it.

It's is MDs' fault by saying they have permission as their big selling point,along with no adverts so there would be even less incentive,but that all failed to be upheld when an irate Korean company came along,the promise clearly didn't work.

That "deflecting blame" is the proof that they always stated that permission must be obtained,more so now then before.

MD has always tried to deflect themselves from being called a pirate site,with the massacre having occurred,there's no real value to that sentiment yet they keep enforcing it.

Yes,I do not like how MangaDex has always operated,it has ALWAYS operated under this identity crisis of "we're not pirates,everything we have was uploaded by scanlators with permission from the creator,we're not aggregators n' we don't have adverts",that didn't save them from the four way roughhousing caused by a Korean company that had nothing better to do.

Since we've reached this point,it's about time MD actually embraced the pirate aspect already and stop removing content for "legal reasons" if they're not copyright based,removing lolis and shota for laws that simply do not exist(unless MD is somehow exclusively hosted in Canada or the UK with no means of moving)is not helping anyone.
For users uploading chapters that there is a one time review for each language the site supports. This is mostly just to stop blatant bad actors from spamming uploads. After the one review subsequent uploads are just uploaded. (Unless a user has some sort of rules violation)

For users creating titles each title is reviewed for basic completeness and blatant bad data. Users with certain roles are not subject to this review (unless a user has some sort of rules violation)

But most of this was put into place for V5 and not prior versions of the site.

I does feel like there is an identity crisis going on but not for the same reasons. (My opinion) Mangadex was a community and still is a community to most users but Mangadex no longer "acts" like a community. The things that happen now are rigid, sneaky, and corporate feeling. This causes a disconnect from what users expect and what they end up getting.
A community is always the naive nice way of saying things when the simple reality is that everyone here,with no doubts at all,is here for the free comic reading.

Start removing things en masse when an irate Korean company drags three Japanese companies into a crapstorm?,fine,learn that the promises made were worthless,there's no more reason to play nice if they're gonna get removed anyway.

Remove content when a non-copyright aspect(that doesn't have applicable international basis)spreads through the influence of retarded normies who only hopped onto the animated entertainment bandwagon(after destroying the tradtional media bandwagon with badly done media that used woke aspects to try n' justify the badly done parts of said media)before shouting at users that there's othersite that specialise in stuff that has ALWAYS been allowed on MangaDex since its' inception by a loli scanlation group?,yeah,that's gonna fly.

We've already had issues with Steam,we've already had issues with official and piracy animated series sites,we've had issues with several indie sites of various media,and the staff think we will just here and get pounded in the arse by a useless tentacle of socities dumbest retards for days on end?

HELL NO.

I will say that yes,you're right.
More than that, though, is the lack of transparency and accountability around the staff's decisions and behaviour. Still nothing concrete has been put up, and at this rate it seems like the gameplan is just to wait til it blows over and pretend this controversy didn't happen. I don't believe it is right to let this happen.
This is 100% a corporate move here,let everything blow over.

Not on our watch.
 
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It's is MDs' fault by saying they have permission as their big selling point

MD has always tried to deflect themselves from being called a pirate site

I think I'm more mad myself about this whole situation than most, but just because we're mad doesn't mean we should start making shit up. We need to focus on calling them out on actual bullshit instead.

The whole part of the terms about saying that uploaders have permission to upload the chapters is a relatively new thing added around the time of the NamiComi merger. It was never part of MangaDex for the vast majority of the site's existence, and even now I've never seen MD make any kind of official statement claiming that it's not a pirate site. It has always been pretty open on the fact that scanlation of unlicensed works is a legal gray area.

we're not aggregators

The whole "MD isn't an aggregator" line of thought is because MD doesn't skim scanlator sites and steal the scanlator's work without permission. It has nothing to do with not being a pirate site.

Everything on MD is uploaded by people, usually (but not always) affiliated with the group that made the scanlation. Every chapter specifically credits the group that scanlated it, and group pages credit the members and provide link's to the scanlation group's website. MD also honors the wishes of scanlation groups by prohibiting uploading of chapters from groups that don't want their works posted here.

That's why MD isn't an "aggregator" like other sites.

didn't save them from the four way roughhousing caused by a Korean company that had nothing better to do.

MD has always removed content if they receive a legal complaint from the rights owner, as is their legal duty as a US based site. It was just never a problem before it got real popular and became an actual target, which is unfortunate but also unavoidable for a site this big.

Granted, they could always move operations to a country that doesn't give a shit, but that was never what MD intended to be.

it's about time MD actually embraced the pirate aspect already and stop removing content for "legal reasons" if they're not copyright based,removing lolis and shota for laws that simply do not exist

This is where I start to actually agree with you. Censoring content is not a legal requirement in the US, and the only reason to begin doing so is if they want to start doing business in other legal jurisdictions, which shouldn't ever be a concern for a community-driven non-profit project, and goes against the founding principles of the site.

Again, I'm not saying you shouldn't be mad. You absolutely should. But be mad because it seems MD is selling out for corporate interests instead of supporting the very community that built it.

Be mad because the MD of 2 years ago would never have made someone like @EtherealNeko a mod in the first place, and would have immediately gotten rid of any other mod who pulled that kind of shit. Be mad because the MD of 3 years ago was transparent about their policies and openly communicated with the user community about site policy changes and plans for the future.
 
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:pepehmm: problematics you say.....
https://mangadex.org/title/5553e16a-3ef9-490a-9b5b-912b07bb0931/trash
Just how bad were the 10 gates of hell that were deleted that did not include this one. Also it is carefully hidden from in-site search it seems. Had to search using "titles only" filter on forum, then locate thread then go to chapter. (Or I suck at using search function properly, but if I never had to do so before, I wonder why?)
Hi, my group was the one that finished translating that manga. MangaDex has the chance to do something super funny by not doing anything with that series
 
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:pepehmm: problematics you say.....
https://mangadex.org/title/5553e16a-3ef9-490a-9b5b-912b07bb0931/trash
Just how bad were the 10 gates of hell that were deleted that did not include this one. Also it is carefully hidden from in-site search it seems. Had to search using "titles only" filter on forum, then locate thread then go to chapter. (Or I suck at using search function properly, but if I never had to do so before, I wonder why?)
The period is very important. Searching for "trash" won't find the title. You have to type "trash." It's always been like this for a long, long time.

Hi, my group was the one that finished translating that manga. MangaDex has the chance to do something super funny by not doing anything with that series
Thanks for the translation, once again. It was trash all the way through, but if MD trashed that title, I'm honestly sad. The ending was already sad enough. I don't need more.

Staff note: Merged posts (requested by user)
 
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