Sayonara Mangadex, putting down our rose colored glasses.

[JayBae]

The "going legit" thing is a dream, it may never even happen.

 

[Solistia]

I feel like all the people complaining about MD are the same people who get their panties in a wad when a popular manga/light novel is officially licensed and the free groups formerly TLing them are DMCAed to take their shit down so that the actual official licensor can make the money off the product they paid for (which they will inevitably pirate anyway).

@threeflappp thumbs up for you my friend.

 

[ku4eto]

@Istvan90623 Before Meraki removed their Solo Leveling chapters, they had several chapters with 200k views. And a lot of 100k+ views. While 40% maybe is exagarrated, i still think those groups provide a good amount of the MD traffic.

 

[Atsuro]

Anyway, I don't think this drama is gonna get anywhere. It'll be more namecalling and stomping feet and accusing people of being greedy. There's no point getting upset over this all, right?

What I'm interested in now, is which series are we losing from this. And what we, the Mangadex community, can do about it.
I would gladly get into translating/typesetting 1-2 of them, I did some doujins in the past. Maybe pitch a few bucks to buy raws.

If we can't pick them back up on our own, then maybe JB has all the right to laugh at us in their circlejerk discord? I'd very much like to scrub the smiles off their faces.

 

[Fuko]

So when will they really leave?
IIRC they left before but they keep leaving and leaving

 

[dummyaccount12345]

Putting my two cents in (even though I'm completely unrelated; I just want to join in the drama)...

Honestly... people have been complaining about Holo's comment on how it's "irrational", but...

I do think it's irrational. I mean, if they don't publish their chapters here, those same chapters will still pop up in those dozens of other websites that use bots to get chapters. Sites, mind you, that don't credit the scanlators. Not only does Mangadex offers links to the scanlator's original websites, it also allows scanlators to set up chapter-delays, encouraging readers to read the chapters in the original websites (it also provides links to those original sites) (on top of that, Mangadex also provides link to the original raws and to the official english version, if there's any). By removing your chapters on here, really, the only thing you're doing is decreasing MD's visit count (very slightly) and nothing more; if you go through the comments, those dissatisfied are saying that they'll go back to other aggregator sites anyways, which, in fact, actually HARMS the scanlators that are pulling away, because those sites REALLY don't give a damn about you. So, even though it does seem like it's for a monetary reason, I'm pretty sure it won't make much of a difference (and it even has a possibility of backfiring, lol).

As for why people are getting mad at scanlators for refusing to publish chapters here... of course they would! This is literally the ONLY website where you can read manga ad-free. By refusing to upload your chapters here, you're basically forcing the reader to either use your own site or to start using another aggregator site. And, considering most readers read stories from SEVERAL different scanlator teams, it's very cumbersome to have to visit a different site all the time, which is why, I believe, the vast majority will opt to use that other aggregator site, which has all of the manga they need.

Long story short, people are complaining that Mangadex doesn't care about scanlators... but, really, compare it to KissManga, Mangakalot, MangaRock and all those others ones, and you'll realize that it's literally the site that currently CARES the MOST (Batoto is no more, so don't even bother bringing it up; emphasis on "currently").

So, yeah, I do agree it's a irrational choice not to upload your chapters here, and I also agree the fans are in their reason to be mad at the scanlators for opting that.

Now, I haven't actually thoroughly researched this subject, so I may be wrong. I don't think I am, though, considering what I've seen so far, but if anyone has a different opinion I'd love to hear it.

 

[Maala]

@kn1000a According to you, Scanlators dont even own their own translations, unless you were asked to move that 1200 mangas.

"I manually moved 1200 manga from other aggregator sites to MD because I thought groups deserve all the credits they can"
"can you all calm down and stop being selfish"
"In the end, you guys don’t even own shit besides the literal translation on the pages"

Nice contradiction of yourself.

@Holo @Zephyrus This whole thing is about MD not giving a single frak about Scanlators when it comes to "Community" vs Scanlators or even Scanlators vs Scanlators. So far, MD is/was not neutral (not really following MD since that leading trash questionnare of announcement, srsly, that was so obviously a leading question my hungarian government would put it into our constitution), MD is/was *impartial* (short term practical definition, because after a while, one party will just quit. "Grow up", heh, kn1?). What neutrality means if you want a long-term practical definiton is eg. declining the possibility of being passive-aggressive in Scanlators vs Scanlators relationship. (Not talking about sniping, as that is purely quality and speed dilemma, depending purely on Scanlator dedication/skill, Git gud or git out, scrub). What I'm talking about this "end of chapter bs" thats polarizing the readers and making them shittalk. More unwanted frustration to the "opposite" Scanlators. Not only making useless toxic biases (real or putative(is this still a legit word?)), but more work for the mods too. We are humans, we work like this.

And now the shit is storming as the Scanlators are fed up with MD not even being able to put a "Scanlator harrassment" option into it's Report repertoire. (Meaning scanlators are just harrassed without any valid arguments, which could be sorted out EASILY by the lurkers with a simple click). Oh, you say you can make your report if you explicitly write it down instead of a 1click button? Sure that sounds easier... A healthy Community is more important to you than your Scanlators, right, MD?

Also, vocal minority? What about the weight of that vocal minority? When there are 8250 groups on the site and out of 44,5m views one group (in the last 6 months) is generating 1m (more than 2%), are you still calling it a vocal minority? You think that "minority" will not pull it's "weight"? :-D As to replying to kn's advice: The one who needs to grow up is MD with it's communication skills and their priorities.

Lately, I have seen less and less chapters of stuff I followed here, I wonder why... Minority, huh.

I do think this is only putting MD behind their goal of going legit by just a short amount of time. If that's their only goal, then fine, go ahead, you will reach it eventually. If they want to maintain a healthier and closer relationship between Scanlators and the Readers/Community, hell, that's a fraking long way to go.

Also, pardon me for asking, but aren't these "power uploader" accounts MD's staffs' accounts to upload manga? Or what @kn1000a was using for his 1200 mangas?

I'm just ignorant about these day 1 accounts.

 

[Ironclad]

 

[Acolytus]

It's really fucking hard to not backtrack on my "freedom to translators must be the priority" views when you people act like drama queens and fuck readers over like this on a whim.

I want to believe giving power to the translators is a good thing, I really want to, but with each new stupid drama I start to believe that those aggregator sites that steal your shit without a care in the world might be the ones who are right after all and that their only flaw is being a shithole with annoying ads and God knows what other hidden bullshit. At least in those shitholes I can read a series whenever I want and continuing doing so without fearing that the translator might choose to remove all his chapters and not upload any more as part of some coercive moves to force the admins to bown down to them (because we all know that's what this really is).

Goodbye and never return. I'll read whatever you aren't translating here and should I be interested in one of your series, Kissmanga and its similarly shitty brothers and sisters will always be there.

 

[Istvan90623]

@ku4eto Ever since JB took over Solo Leveling, the numbers for it was from those who anyway don't give a care about the series, or if they do, they were re-readers, since with the long delay they could read it anywhere else much sooner. If you look at the current numbers of the top reads in 7 days, you'll see that the traffic is will barely feel the hurt with these groups pulling out. If there were a mass group migration, that would be a different case.

 

[kn1000a]

@boont it IS about the money. A lot of us do scanlation as a hobby and to promote manga. We don’t give a shit if people donate or not.

These groups on the other hand, are known for putting delays on chapters and advertising their websites/Patreon/whatnot. We all know what they’re doing it for. Now that they can’t get duh money and fame they “deserved”, they signed this so-called petition. Really show how passionate they are about scanlation huh.

Efforts of course deserve recognition. But if you expect money and fame as a form of reward, then it’s time to retire and get a real irl job.

 

[Intervencion]

Ah yes, another day in the "Mangadex is hurting our profits so we're pulling off".

Scanlation is a crime and making profit is even worse.

 

[ku4eto]

@Istvan90623 Dude, you obviously did not read my comment. That was at the time, when Meraki Scans website was not capable of handling the traffic. So they did MangaDex uploads only. Right now, Solo Leveling was still in the top most read for the week, with only 50k views. I read it on JB website, since i am in their Discord server.

 

[OtakuKun]

Well here we have different ideologies and beliefs clashing.
I feel amused by all the rage because it's so childish.

I collect everything I read on Mangadex because it's convent.
No ads, fast site and respecting Scanlatior terms.
Because of MD I found sites like lhtranslation.net and I'm a patreon supporter of it.
I like that I get the scanlation faster than on MD.
And I go there to read it but I don't think that all the Scanlator reader sites could manage huge loads of people using the readers.

There are always pros and cons to everything.

 

[kn1000a]

@Malaa I don’t mean uploading, but as a reader with 1200 bookmarks. Being a scanlator doesn’t mean being MD staff, lol.

I really wish my name can be green, but I’m too busy with other things to care about uploading manga here.

I also don’t get what you’re getting at. What contradiction? Groups do deserve all of the credits to their effort; that is, if they are in it for the hobby and to better the community. I did it for a while because I was an ignorant reader and I feel like I wanna help people read more manga. Never once did I feel like I should earn any money.

 

[MapleTrees]

So I looked into what all of these scanlation groups had in common... and it turns out they all have Patreon where you can donate!

As always, it's about money mostly.

 

[Istvan90623]

@Maala I know Hungarian education went downhill in recent years (as a fellow countrymen myself), but 2% out of a 100 is what you can consider a minority. Tho I have to agree about that questionarie, that was simply MD pushing the decision onto the userbase instead of making on their own.

 

[rh75]

For me personally, nothing of value was lost.

3 or 4 series at most that can be found on other sites.

 

[Itsn]

Hi I don't give a shit about drama, can OP explain in simple terms how any of that actually is a bad thing?

I really don't see how any of this amounts to much other than "boy, some other group scanlating Kaguya and putting it on MD would be rad as hell."

 

[Clarinet]

Any group that has more than 10 staff is in it for the profit. Consider me an anti signatory.

I also find it hilarious that you accuse mangadex of selling out while praising batoto considering batoto was for profit.

Your ulterior motives are clear as day.