Sayonara Mangadex, putting down our rose colored glasses.

[Algoinde]

I see a lot of feels in this thread, from both sides. The entire OP is built on assumptions and hurt feelings.
What I would like to see to at least try and understand what the hell is happening, as a reader, is the answer to these questions, from both sides:

[ul]How does it benefit scanlation groups, exactly?
How does it benefit readers, exactly?
How does it benefit MD, exactly?
How does it benefit shitty scan aggregators, exactly?
How does it hurt scanlation groups and how it is justified?
How does it hurt readers and how it is justified?
How does it hurt MD and how it is justified?
How does it hurt shitty scan aggregators and how it is justified?[/ul]

Right now, as I see, the answers to those are "it hurts our pride so it's OK". What I see here is just a lack of proper evaluation. Even if scanlation groups service is "free and selfless", this is not a reason to upset the entire scene. Seems like someone just lost their way in the process, or there's some third party sowing seeds of stupid conflict.

 

[rokxx]

lmao, put me in the screenshot of the cringe compilation

 

[Cae]

@MapleTrees

 

[neck]

Signed by: only beggar scum groups with mostly bad series.

ciao

 

[Kyte]

@Holo if you guys go legit what's the plan for licensing non-US territories? 99% of the time whenever manga is available legit there's a big fucking asterisk saying "for selected countries". For example anything held by Viz but not Manga Plus is locked out from me (Chile).

For me, a site going legit is equivalent to a site pulling their content.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

@ficulyus

Great post, I feel like you brought up a good point. This many scanlation groups would not be having a mass exodus suddenly if there was simply no reason.

These guys can't all just be idiots, obviously they know shitty manga-hosting websites take their stuff and host it without permission, duh, so this isn't some half-assed attempt to monopolize views on their own websites (note there are no links to their websites here despite the situation?).

Of course, we know the real people looking for drama are the ones bandwagoning with vitriolic comments and not actually trying to understand what's really happening here.

Patreon is THE way to get money for this sort of thing nowadays, using it to receive donations to keep your website running is completely reasonable. Using non-Patreon methods would actually deter people because it's quite possibly more of a hassle. (Though I must admit the fact that Patreon has this much of a monopoly on this scares me more than the scenario being discussed here.)

(EDIT: I should add: I have never been a part of any scanlation team ever, just saying what I'm seeing)

 

[Fuko]

Some of those groups hold the chapters hostage:
- indefinite delays
- pay to unlock
- release 2-3 chapters after someone else releases a new chapter

So forgive me if I have no sympathy for them

 

[Kanami-chan]

I'm surprised kusocake isn't joining this Mangadexit referendum.

 

[Whatever1337]

Can i be put on an email list or something, because I am mostly really using MD for noticing when those mangas that only release once a month gets an update. The only times I am reading mangas on MD is when the group does not have a reader on their own site as i am not a fan of downloading(i dont have a good manga reader program installed)

 

[JayBae]

@Kyte Use a vpn.

 

[Solistia]

@Clarinet nah, I know plenty of groups with more than 10 members and lots of series that don't run any ads, patreon, or donations. Heck, I'm up to 15.

 

[kuropo]

Never read anything from these groups except JB. I guess this doesn't concern me at all.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Interruptor]

good idea, let's just reinforce other bad aggregators that just steal your works without credits and compress the images adding a watermark most of the time.

You didn't even say why you didn't want to upload on Mangadex in the first place. What was the reason? Loss of income from patreon? You are just greedy and want to get paid for doing illegal scanlations.

Mangadex going legit is probably the best hope this community should have, and trying to sabotage it because of your own greed it's just plain bad.

 

[Steamroll]

I get my updates for all my series bar 3 from /r/manga and the dedicated subreddit fan pages. All of those link to the scans' readers instead of here. Thanks to this announcement and the past history of poor community moderation I decided to look up alternate methods to read those 3 series.

Have fun Mangadex, it's been real.

 

[Solistia]

@bushwhacker2k You say the mass exodus wouldn't be happening without reason, well there's one thing in common with all these groups: Ads, Patreons, Donations. Take that as you will.

 

[Kaboodle]

@kyte That's kind of the point, "going legit" is a long-term dream, not "happening soon" kinda thing. they DON'T have that kind of stuff "worked out" because it's not relevant yet since it's a long-term goal that's not even obtainable in the current scope.

 

[Xant]

Here's me wondering why people can't just admit they want more money.

It's not shameful to ask to be paid for work, but don't try to play it off like your goal is purely altruistic.

Who cares if someone asks for donations? Rally against paywalls like the novel community Qidian die in a fire has to deal with.

 

[LowSanity]

'nother hurt feeling and drama. I don't see any issues other then hurt feelings, wallets and paranoia.

 

[Atsuro]

@Xant They need to play "heroes" for the kids giving them money in their discords.

 

[Ashi]

@MapleTrees Not sure if you're aware, but scanlation costs money. Scanlators cannot just download comics off the internet for free (mostly) and let's not forget about hosting fees. At least they don't have ads on their websites and funding them on patreon is voluntary.