Site Update - 14th of May 2025

[SuzuPazuzu]

You should be worried about what's scanlator-friendly. That's the main reason MangaDex is what it is. Online manga is anything, everything because of scanlators. Mangadex is the only place for us currently.

This is true, yes. The million garbage sites will always scrape uploads, but there's not many sites that scanlators actually like uploading to. MD is basically a paradise compared to the majority of locations. Finding another site with active forums, chapter editing, and good group-release navigation is a tall order.

Issue being any site that has good usability and an active community is gonna end up going the same way eventually. We're lucky MD has lasted as long as it has frankly.

 

[T-sama]

The only good news is that only mangadex is affected for now, other places might stay safe so there's that

But the community always adapts. I have a feeling scanlators will learn how to fracture their work into "stuff that's safe to upload to MD" and "stuff that's safe to upload to another website", a website that will probably arise due to this very situation.

I'll be honest, situations like this make me wish people would go "fuck it" and made a new site to not only upload fan translation, but also official one, there is already a few that do that, but having more is never bad

What really annoys me is with the rare stuff like pixiv, Twitter, fanbox and so on, that we wouldn't see in a volume release, some or those translated extras can easily get lost forever

 

[Diraldir]

To be honest, the companies doing this aren't technically in the wrong, it's piracy, and it's their content.


On the other hand, i support piracy for manga because it does make things available that never would be in english, along with helping you figure out what you want to buy physically. It's a tough spot to be, and this site (along with others) are going to be ripped apart soon.


Any platform that comes out of this will likely be a hassle to use for most readers.

 

[Bireus]

Not on this scale though, a  lot of stuff just got removed at once

Err, you sure? You're only referencing this site and the fact that it just happened all at once, now when initially requested the DMCA. As for scale:

• https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240430/p2a/00m/0et/026000c
• https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ne...amura-pirate-site-for-1.9-billion-yen/.188131
• https://torrentfreak.com/japans-2-t...racy-war-gets-fresh-hollywood-backing-240408/

 

[T-sama]

This is true, yes. The million garbage sites will always scrape uploads, but there's not many sites that scanlators actually like uploading to. MD is basically a paradise compared to the majority of locations. Finding another site with active forums, chapter editing, and good group-release navigation is a tall order.

Issue being any site that has good usability and an active community is gonna end up going the same way eventually. We're lucky MD has lasted as long as it has frankly.

Maybe that's part of the issue? As it was mentioned more than once, mangadex is too centralized, perhaps we should stop having everything in a single place.

Like, mangadex can still be a hub for scanlation groups, but maybe it's time chapters are uploaded in a separate site, hell, ideal would be mangadex have mirrors, or at least a separate site where it can continue uploading stuff that isn't allowed in main one.

But then comes the problem with such things, who would pay for it?

I admit, I wouldn't mind seeing ads if it paid for a version of mangadex that basically ignored dmca, after all theorically it might make enough money that it can just change domains to avoid problems lol

Maybe shitty manga sites full of ads do have the right idea :v

 

[TimeForPizza]

The only good news is that only mangadex is affected for now, other places might stay safe so there's that

I'll be honest, situations like this make me wish people would go "fuck it" and made a new site to not only upload fan translation, but also official one, there is already a few that do that, but having more is never bad

What really annoys me is with the rare stuff like pixiv, Twitter, fanbox and so on, that we wouldn't see in a volume release, some or those translated extras can easily get lost forever

Those sites do exist. They're absolutely horrible, and I can't emphasize that enough.

The usability of Mangadex is entirely because they aren't those kinds of websites. You can't usually have one trait without the other. The better a website is for the community, scanlators, the fandom, and ultimately for the success and profit of popular series as a whole, the more likely it is to have to abide by DMCA requests because they tend to offer under more legitimate circumstances.

 

[T-sama]

Those sites do exist. They're absolutely horrible, and I can't emphasize that enough.

The usability of Mangadex is entirely because they aren't those kinds of websites. You can't usually have one trait without the other. The better a website is for the community, scanlators, the fandom, and ultimately for the success and profit of popular series as a whole, the more likely it is to have to abide by DMCA requests because they tend to offer under more legitimate circumstances.

Well you can't have everything, it's how we ended on this situation lol

If those sites are so horrible then the solution is we make our own that isn't horrible lol

 

[wotta57]

At this point I'm just gonna learn Japanese and read raws directly

 

[Tinker_OwO]

190 people viewing the thread. This shit woke everyone the fuck up lmaooo

 

[Liar]

I hope the staff creates a tool that let us export our follow library just in case.

 

[maelstroon]

At this point I'm just gonna learn Japanese and read raws directly

I tried to do exactly that a few years back, but kanjis obliterated my will to learn, guess its time to try again

 

[Chronigan]

Could md move to using magnet links and bit torrent?

 

[T-sama]

I tried to do exactly that a few years back, but kanjis obliterated my will to learn, guess its time to try again

I'm too old to even try :v

 

[TheBigMonk]

Oh no, time to break out my Neko android app and backup my follows list again like the last time the site got blasted.
It's not perfect but it at least keeps something. I've been doing it through an android virtual machine.

 

[Dratos]

From a banger announcement to this... I don't want to doompost but to say it's concerning would be an understatement

 

[ZaxaPac]

That (partially) explains why when I went to read the new chap of a manga earlier there were only the three latest chaps available. The big issue is going through my Library and seeing what's been hit and what hasn't (yet). I don't know how massive an undertaking that is for everyone else, but my current Reading tab has 320 titles, Plan To Read has 49, and On Hold has 87 (Completed and Dropped can kind of be ignored). Not to mention another 45 in random MDLists. That's a whole lot of investigating.

I've already been shifting some stuff over to another site I use (which I shall not name, because now I'm kind of paranoid) through Tachiyomi on an android emulator. Of course, they've started screaming at you if your list to update is too big, so I'll have to figure out how to use categories and update differently if I go that way with too many series.

Suffice to say, it looks like I might be spending a lot more time on MangaDex in the near future NOT reading manga at all, but slowly working through all those titles.

 

[TimeForPizza]

Could md move to using magnet links and bit torrent?

No. Mangadex operates as legitimately and respectfully as they can for the kind of site that they are.

If those sites are so horrible then the solution is we make our own that isn't horrible lol

That's just not how it works though if you know anything about how manga scanlation websites have been operating for like 20 years. When you make one that isn't horrible, it's because you're operating ethically. When you're operating ethically, you're probably located somewhere that is susceptible to law and DMCA takedowns if pressure hits.

If you have a horrible website, you're probably something like Batoto, which operates under genuine theft while also spamming you with predatory ads for p0rn and constant scam and virus site popups.

"Just don't make it horrible" doesn't work that way.

 

[Nyaako]

Guess we can say this is an end of an era.

 

[wotta57]

That (partially) explains why when I went to read the new chap of a manga earlier there were only the three latest chaps available. The big issue is going through my Library and seeing what's been hit and what hasn't (yet). I don't know how massive an undertaking that is for everyone else, but my current Reading tab has 320 titles, Plan To Read has 49, and On Hold has 87 (Completed and Dropped can kind of be ignored). Not to mention another 45 in random MDLists. That's a whole lot of investigating.

I've already been shifting some stuff over to another site I use (which I shall not name, because now I'm kind of paranoid) through Tachiyomi on an android emulator. Of course, they've started screaming at you if your list to update is too big, so I'll have to figure out how to use categories and update differently if I go that way with too many series.

Suffice to say, it looks like I might be spending a lot more time on MangaDex in the near future NOT reading manga at all, but slowly working through all those titles.

Weebcentral mod just said he doesn't give a shit about DMCAs
So there's that

 

[T-sama]

That (partially) explains why when I went to read the new chap of a manga earlier there were only the three latest chaps available. The big issue is going through my Library and seeing what's been hit and what hasn't (yet). I don't know how massive an undertaking that is for everyone else, but my current Reading tab has 320 titles, Plan To Read has 49, and On Hold has 87 (Completed and Dropped can kind of be ignored). Not to mention another 45 in random MDLists. That's a whole lot of investigating.

I've already been shifting some stuff over to another site I use (which I shall not name, because now I'm kind of paranoid) through Tachiyomi on an android emulator. Of course, they've started screaming at you if your list to update is too big, so I'll have to figure out how to use categories and update differently if I go that way with too many series.

Suffice to say, it looks like I might be spending a lot more time on MangaDex in the near future NOT reading manga at all, but slowly working through all those titles.

I have almost 3.5k mangas on my library, never got around organizing them, guess when I do I'll find a bunch got nuked lol

Worst part will get to the series I can't find anywhere else, example, Suito-to!, which I'm not sure is anywhere else

No. Mangadex operates as legitimately and respectfully as they can for the kind of site that they are.

That's just not how it works though if you know anything about how manga scanlation websites have been operating for like 20 years. When you make one that isn't horrible, it's because you're operating ethically. When you're operating ethically, you're probably located somewhere that is susceptible to law and DMCA takedowns if pressure hits.

If you have a horrible website, you're probably something like Batoto, which operates under genuine theft while also spamming you with predatory ads for p0rn and constant scam and virus site popups.

"Just don't make it horrible" doesn't work that way.

Sorry but that's bullshit, one can always try find balance, also, operating "ethically" got us here lol

We're by definition already acting unethical by pirating manga, might as well go all the way so we don't get kicked down like we got today