MangaDex Two Year Anniversary

[ComradDoge]

I don't mind the idea of ads as Mangadex is the safest place for manga imo as there no fake links to sketchy sites and I trust the site. Therefore, I would be happy as long as Mangadex continues to exist even if its accepting ads.

If you are to go the ads way (which is likely) would you be more transperant with how much you would be gaining from these ads and with which/what ads did you accept. Last thing I would like to see is sketchy ads.

Btw an idea (If infrastructure allows) is to perhaps allow NSFW ads if people have NSFW work on (as far as I know those companies pay well) and this way you wouldn't make the site unfriendly to a mainstream audience from the get go

 

[dlt111]

@iDeSmI An ad page is a really interesting idea. I would consider actually going to it when I wanted to support MD. Might be a viable option for integration, but I still don't feel quite right about MD having ads in general.

 

[Ambushments]

I am surprised this website didn't have ads already. As long as they aren't pop up ads ill turn off my adblock while reading here.

 

[InvisibleSymbol]

yoinking my own message from discord:
I suggest this:
[ul]All guests have ads (not annoying ones tho, all pages besides while reading the manga for example)
logged in users can disable/enable ads if they want to
You can pay with crypto to have a small role or something on managadex (if you know osu!, something like their supporter tag)
[ul]maybe even add some perks for supporters
you would be able to buy that tag in bulk, say for example 30€ would get you 6 months[/ul]
[/ul]

 

[J3b93]

Keeping the ads outside of the readers, I don't see a problem.

 

[MonsieurQuack]

1 - if there was a guide to show you how to go crypto, then I would more than happily go this route.

2 - that seems a little much to ask for a few people to donate such an amount. Fortunately, I'm a in a position where I can donate this much if needed but managing the load on only a few people seems too risky.

3 - if we only have a small affiateship then that seems risky in terms of securing long term funding.

4 - this site has done so well without ads, and I believe it's a demonstration that we can operate in an internet evironment without having to rely on advertising.

So option ONE it is from me!

 

[QA51_yuki]

First time I write in this forum and it's for a difficult matter. I'm completely against ads, I mean it's what makes the site different and well consider to most of us (perhaps I'm completely wrong and it's my echo chamber). If there's something like ethical hacking, this would be the piracy counterpart. If ads get in, MD loses its meaning. Even if it's for a month because you can make a year of support, I don't think it's the right thing to do.
I prefer the idea of using Brave's tokens. I mean, I installed Brave only for MD, or if worse come to worst, cryptocurrencies as such with a really good tutorial.

 

[KingGuppie]

Is there any chance Liberapay https://liberapay.com/ could be used for funding? Similar idea to Patreon but EU based, open source and doesn't take a cut. I know there's already been a few questions for other donation platforms, but just throwing another possibility out there.

 

[Necron99Scans]

Congratulations. With the (4chan) death of mangatraders and the failure of batoto, it was dark times for scanlation. You guys are doing well and I wish you the best.

 

[Necron99Scans]

Reading the comments after I posted, there seems to be financial problems? Perhaps there is a technical solution. One part TOR and one part SETI at home and one part bittorrent.

 

[Inverness]

I wanted to expand on my suggestion about ads earlier in two ways: how they are implemented and how to incentivize users.

At this early stage, I think ads should be made opt-in only, both for users and guests. Even if crypto donations turn out to be sufficient, opt-in ads could provide an additional level of safety.

If possible, allow both users and guests to chose between SFW or NSFW ads. By NSFW ads I mean topic-relevant things from Japan that manga-readers are likely to be interested in. Of course its implied that these would also need to be safe, unobtrusive ads just like the SFW ones. I think J-List is a popular website for this kind of thing maybe?

For users, since they have an actual account, they could get additional benefits. A simple one would be the supporter badge for having ads enabled.

Another way, but one I'm not sure I'm keen on, is to make it so custom avatars are only allowed if you're supporting the site through ads or donations. A stock gallery of avatars for everyone else. The reason I'm not keen on this is that I don't like the idea of taking away something people already have. On the other hand, I think everyone would be more concerned with funding the actual manga reading part of the site.

Another idea I had is to compute a power level for each user based on the length of time they have had ads enabled and the amount of activity they have. This power level would be shown with their name and avatar. Once a user reaches a certain power level they could be granted a benefit such as an animated avatar and/or additional text beneath their avatar. Directly donating money would also affect this power level. Also, uploading manga. Basically, anything that contributes to the website.

 

[yahooeny]

quite frankly i would leave the site and scanlation in general if ads were placed on this site.

 

[Necron99Scans]

@Inverness. The problem with ads is that only low quality ad networks can be used. These low quality ad networks are one of the reasons why kissmanga is filled with malware, for example.

 

[finer]

While I am not completely against ads, I would rather not see them.
If donations not be sufficient, however, I shall make do.
But do keep in mind that every significant functional change to a community-fueled website changes its social dynamics in kind.

 

[ixlone]

@yahooeny

If the other methods don't work out there won't be a site to leave

 

[outofprotocol]

My vote is for
Ads + option to disable them for a payment. Crypto will work IMO, % of paid users would be lower but that's mostly ok

 

[3ig3n6rau]

Before a begin i have to say Thanks for the hard work all you guys put, best site off its kind <3
For me the best options are crypto or mothly feed, but i think Patreon would be the best option because its more intuitive for the common user.
keep the good work and count me in.

 

[Necron99Scans]

@ixlone. Scanlation site. Mangatraders had 50 TB. Batoto 15 TB or so. Mangadex has 8 TB? The trend is clear. It's just like Napster. Sure you can find mp3's online, but it's not what is was long ago.

 

[Dysisa]

That plug for Shin Mazinger Zero, what a king.

 

[ixlone]

@Necron99Scans

Bato had 4.3TB. We know because we have a copy.

MD has 8.7TB and counting.