MangaDex Two Year Anniversary

[JohnSmith13345]

Please don’t allow autoplay ads, though.

 

[BlindWatcher]

How to invite a lawsuit 101:
Allow advertising on a site that hosts content without the original publisher's permission.

 

[vidopnir]

Mangadex's main advertising point for the longest time was no ads. Ads bad, aggregates bad, Mangadex good as the propaganda goes. Once you compromise the ONE value you heavily sold to people to attract them to your service, trust flies out the window. If you're willing to compromise on that then there is no telling what else you will compromise on. Another huge thing is you making money off the ads to stay afloat, the same thing you slammed scan groups for last year.

Crypto is a good shot right now.

I cant give you money myself because:
1. I dont have a lot of money
2. That drama with Meraki and friends last year really showed me the character of the people that run this place.

I will spread the word though that Mangadex is in the dregs and needing money.

 

[Survivor454]

Gonna second what alot of other people have said and say that if ads are added, give an option for donators to not have them. Plus most people here probably use ad-block so i'm not sure how profitable ads would be anyways.

 

[spaark]

Happy anniversary.
I would be happy to donate every now and then. The idea of having an ad-free perk for donators is better than having no perk at all, but I wonder if it would give this site a bad look.

Somebody mentioned tax return hassles with cryptocurrencies. Isn't this only an issue if you receive coins or exchange the coins for fiat currency?

P.S. Right now, you need to actively seek out the donate page. I think people would be more inclined to donate if there was a little progress bar at the top whenever donations are most needed. I personally didn't even think to donate until I saw this thread. Visibility aside, just the progress bar itself would be helpful.

 

[vigorousjammer]

I know some scanlators feel like it's unjust for a manga reading site to run ads, as they say it's "profiting off of the work of scanlation groups," but as someone in the scanlation scene, who makes scanlations, I feel like there's a difference between simply sustaining a website and profiteering.

The big manga aggregation sites out there have a load of ads, where every sidebar and header and footer is covered in ads, along with ads in the middle of the page as you scroll down, and popup ads, and not only are they grossly profiting off of the work of others, but it absolutely ruins the site experience and they have to be blocked for me to even viably use those sites.

As long as the ads are just small, maybe a banner ad here and there, and not pop-up or audio ads, I'm fine with it. User experience is key, and I trust that if ads are introduced they won't be for profit and simply for sustainability. I've already got Mangadex whitelisted in my Adblocker, so I'm all prepped and ready to see those ads.

 

[Poklamez]

Weird to think batoto has been gone for years now.

 

[Holo]

If we went down the server route, we're only talking about image servers, not the database.

But as it stands, we will be trying the crypto route first.

 

[hollyguild]

I appreciate your rejection of the ad-based ecosystem, we all want scanlation to stay as pure as piracy can be, but I also understand the dollars and cents of server costs. It's honestly a miracle it has lasted this long while being so popular. I will whitelist your ads if they are unobtrusive although I would like a non-ad option for donors or subscribers. My VPN provider uses bitpay & coinpayment to make it easier to pay them with cryptocoin, seems like it would be a good thing to look into? A lot of people are intimidated by the black magic of it all, but if it was the same interface as paypal they could do it.

 

[cervidae]

big question: won't ads give publishers a reason to sue to the site for making profts off of other people's creations?

@Holo that's good to hear

 

[Holo]

@cervidae

Even if we went down that route, and it would appear we don't have to, infosec would be top priority. We would only receive crypto from ad networks, which are anonymous.

 

[Bladestone]

I just wanted to chime in

I don't mind ads really, but I really have no choice but to run an ad-blocker. Whitelisting is useless because it isn't the site that can't be trusted, it's the ad companies that don't vet the ads they push out. I don't know the solution, but I don't see many people turning off their ad-blockers.

 

[Arcverson]

@littleoni
I'm not really sure but I think since paypal is a USA based company it could be forced by the law to give information about any user they want to jail

 

[N0Mi0]

Hm, honestly, guys, I never ever had any real beef with ads, and, speaking more candidly, I think the whole idea about ads being bad and fighting them is kind of outdated, I can hear the buzzing of early 2000s whenever you remind us that you don't want ads. Why? Why, it's very, quite-quite simple: anyone who actually really dislikes ads uses ad blockers like AdBlock uBlock or something like this. You can always give users an ability to pay like $5-10 to turn off ads. It's a meager sum for an average adult.

You don't want to profit from the website? Why? You've created a much needed service at the right time at the right place, and thanks to your work it not only became the new that manga site, but even became, in my opinion, better than the site which death provoked this whole thing. Reap what you sow for all I care, people should get paid for their hard work.

Then again, I understand what you, or at least those more practical of you, actually mean by not having ads, but, let's face it: with how large the site has become, and with how public it is, being completely in your bubble in a vacuum is a pipe dream. Sooner or later some companies will start to interact with you, obviously either trying to make you stop or profiting from you, because why not, it's just business. They actually already started, did they not?
And then trying to make your own source of income to support the site would be too late. You say you only need ~$600 for the site? Get out of here, have you thought of the future? Of what happens when or if pure enthusiasm ends, and when you would need someone to actually moderate the site professionally and consistently? Maybe you guys don't want the site to grow so big it'll stop being a side projects for fans, but at this point it'll just grow, provided you won't intentionally try to prevent it, and even then it would be hard to stop this snow ball. What can I say, the demand was there and you've met it, good job and thank you.

Just some thoughts. Let us all just be a little bit more practical and think more of the future, not just today. And, when the shit hits the fan, you'd like to have some capital, no doubts here. If you think that all the money can only go to the owners' pockets after paying the expenses, well, you still think of MangaDex as a pet project instead of an actual organization. And, say, isn't it is the high time to finally start treating it as one? You dominate the online manga reading scene, globally, for Pete's sake! What fan site are you even thinking about. It's not one anymore. And that is good.

 

[Alraisen]

If you try Crypto, I will donate.

 

[littleoni]

@N0Mi0
The idea that ads are evil has been around for some time. I have explained why ads are evil from a customer's perspective: ads mean longer load times and more data traffic, more traceable url's if you are browsing in an environment where you could be being traced (at work). And if they are autoplay videos or have sound it becomes a nightmare. I trust MD will be wise enough to stay the hell away from those, but you never know when the provider may go insane. I have heard of cases when it's the provider who suddenly decides to send porn ads without notifying the clients in time.
From an admin's perspective you are growing dependant on an external organism. If the provider suddenly decides that they won't send you any ads because they have no content you want to advertise on your site, there goes your stream of income. If your provider is google and they decide your political alignment is wrong, you are gone. And google holds over 40% of ad market right now, Facebook holding 40% more, you can pretty much guess you will en up in a tyrant's hands.
About the profit thing, it's a legal issue. If they are making profit, if they state they are making profit actually, they are making a profit of works they don't hold copyright over. And that's the condition you must meet for appealing for Fair Use or CC: you are not making profit off of someone's work; you are either producing content based of, but different in nature to the copyrighted one, or you are not making a profit at all. A translation is not different in nature from the original work. It's actually much more complicated: the author might just not want someone spreading an altered version of their work that may, or may not, make it justice; they may feel you are biting into their market even if they are not directly operating in that language; there are many things. But most lawsuits can be avoided by heeding a cease and dessist letter and claiming you are not making any profit.

 

[Sola]

If you must resort to ads, then so be it. But with that said, if you use animated ads and/or ads with sound, I'll do everything in my power to block them. Animated ads are obnoxious and distracting to the point of odiousness. I'll only accept static ads with pictures and text. Ads with animations (or really, any kind of movement) will be blocked by me. Seeing stuff moving or hearing unwanted noises is a distraction that I do NOT need when I am trying to read.

I'd prefer the donation route, but...

Spoiler

Ever since I've joined the site, I've been bothered by having to display the flag of the UK on my profile, and even if it's a petty reason, it's been one of the biggest hangups for me that has prevented me from donating up to now. If you give me (and other users) the option of displaying the flag of one's country of choice for user interface language, I'd be much more amenable to donating with an initial $20 donation in the short term, and in the long term, subsequent repeated donations of $20.

If not country of choice, I could be mollified by simply being given the option to use the American flag.

It seems like such a small, trifling thing, but I love my country's flag, and I resent having to use the flag of the country against which my country fought a war of independence in the past.

So long as I'm forced to continue using the union jack, you won't see one red cent donated from this American.

Continuing on this topic, in the first place, I don't agree with having the flag of the United Kingdom represent the English language. Scottish, Welsh, and Irish are also languages of the constituent nations within the UK. At least use the flag of England if one is going to have a flag represent the English language.

In addition, Brazilians aren't forced to use the flag of Portugal and Mexicans don't have to use the flag of Spain. Why aren't they forced to use the flag of a European nation?

/rant

@Zephyrus

Edit: I'll acknowledge your viewpoint while continuing to respectfully disagree and stand behind my own. It's great that you don't mind using that flag, but I guess I'm just more nitpicky about this sort of stuff than you. I can't see it taking them much work to add additional flags seeing how they could add two each for Portuguese and Spanish.

In any case, since I'd prefer not to debate it, I'll just leave it at that. Part of why I put it into spoilers was the expectation that most people would ignore my rant and move along and I wouldn't have to discuss it. The whole purpose of the rant was just me explaining why I, personally, don't wish to donate. But I'm just one person and they can find other people to donate instead of catering to my whims. I'm okay with that.

 

[judge2020]

If you go with ads, it can be successful assuming it's done right. From experience with other sites (fimfiction) you'd need to disable ads on any pages with explicit content for most 'safe' ad networks. I also think it would be best if donating meant removing the ads, this could possibly be done via patreon if you want regular donations since paypal is off the table.

 

[Zephyrus]

@Sola
Just to address the flag thing: Some sites use the US flag to denote English, some use the United Kingdom's flag. I support using the US flag wherever possible but I'd like to point out that MD's founding staff members are English. It certainly wasn't done out of malicious intent but I'm sure they picked the Union Jack out of habit. Ultimately, it doesn't harm anything and I respect the decision to use the Union Jack considering the founders' origin.

As an American myself, I don't think it makes one less of a patriot to use the Union Jack to denote the English language instead of the American flag.

 

[Bladestone]

@N0Mi0

There isn't a problem with ads per say, it's the third party delivery of them and the lack of vetting that is the problem. You see this isn't the case of companies contacting a website directly and negotiating a deal to advertise their business on said site (that would be okay as long as both parties are honest). What happens is "ad companies" sell what amounts to free money to high traffic sites. All the site has to do is run the ad companies code on their web site and collect the money for the most part. The problem is, many of these ad companies don't care what code "ads" they are given to them to pump out, they will send out anything as long as they are getting paid. So what happens is you get people who are looking to plant malware on your computer use this avenue to get it onto your computer.

So for example shady manga sites only care about money, so they just rip the manga from other sites and run ads from any company that is willing to pay them and collect a paycheck. The ad companies who are putting their stuff on said sites also don't care so they accept and distribute anything from anyone as long as they get paid. The less "legal" the site, the worse it is. Yet even companies like Google let bad ads through.

No one cares if your computer gets fried or your identity stolen because how are you going to prove it was because of a specific site you went to? Even if you did good luck finding them and making them pay.