Time to fix this bad breakup

[Teddy]

The last time a bunch of pirates tried to get a couple back together; the male died, the female turned into a mountain of crabs and the East Indian Trading Company lost alot of good business

 

[Yatsuki]

@Shiggle Again, I'm asking what do you want MD to do now? There have been offers from MD's PR team and from your screenshot, obviously the scan groups don't want to come back because they still believe MD to be suspicious. Back when the whole fiasco started, it's been explained several times that the statement was a misunderstanding, and they still chose to believe their own interpretation and left. Doing anything like apologizing and reaching out again and again now is not needed, not to mention it WILL sound like MD is so desperate for some kind of benefits that they NEED those groups to come back, further reinforcing those groups' belief. There's only so much you can give before people start trampling over and spitting on you.

 

[Shiggle]

@Yatsuki don't think of this as some kind of negotiation between MD and the scanlation groups who pulled out. It's about getting back in touch with each other and slowly restoring the trust and relationship that once was. It's not something i want just MD to do, it's something i want all parties involved to do. This should happen at a leadership level, not with the PR-team.

 

[King_pin]

I want them to make up, but that doesn't mean that md has to beg them to come back. The scanalators left on their own accord and md has never stated that thay could not return, even the scanalators who left user accounts which exist have their dischord and websites links. I would love to have all the manga I follow on a single platform, but reality is not so simple. There are still options for scanalators to have release delays to increase their website traffic, which was used befor the great war(petty fight which was blown out of proportion). If the peps who left return I wouldn't mind it and gladly welcome it.

 

[4V29LN0n]

What a strange thread.

 

[Plykiya]

@Shiggle We went to every single group that left in that thread and asked them what their reasons for leaving were and what could we do to improve. Every single group said it was for "reasons" and none of them were able to state one specific detail that they had an issue with. Not a single one of them believed we were going to go legal, the person who made the post is just an idiot trying to make us look bad and none of the groups even agreed with the content of the post.

Addressing the legalization thing: Our opinion on legalization has always been open to the public. We're not shy when it comes to talking about anything really. People ask us things on Discord, we respond. There is no situation where MangaDex is ever going to choose to go legal in this world because the conditions for it are so ridiculously absurd. People who think we'll go legal have probably never talked to us before or haven't even begun to think it out. If we go legal, we would like to solve a problem. The "problem" being accessibility of content and lack of official translations such as what Crunchyroll did. This requires three things.

1. The complete cooperation of every major Japanese publisher (Korean + Chinese are a bonus)
2. Having enough people to actually translate all the content they put out
3. Having the money to even handle the licensing and distribution rights in the first place

Let's break this down.
Step 1 is a complete impossibility. Japanese publishers are notorious for not wanting to work with each other and we would never be able to convince any major one we provide anything of value. The only realistic scenario we manage to go legal is becoming a small-time English licensing company that pumps out translations of stuff that barely anybody wants to read, like the various BL translation companies out there. This doesn't solve the piracy problem, there's still the 99% of other shit people want to read. We could go legal, become irrelevant, and piracy would continue.

Step 2 is a complete impossibility. We can't even get enough people to translate the content on the site let alone translate everything the publishers are putting out. If we hire just the decent groups that are able to meet quality standards, we would only be able to handle like 5 to 10% of what publishers are pushing out every year. People will want to read the other 90%, piracy will continue, nothing is solved. Less than 5% of the stuff on MD is licensed in the first place. Another 5% doesn't help.

Step 3 is a complete impossibility. We're not rolling in venture capitalist funds. Hell, we can barely even pay for servers strong enough to handle the traffic we're receiving. We have no money to offer to publishers, we have no scanlator backing to handle the translation issue, and we have no user loyalty because pirates only care if you're able to offer everything for a fair value (see: people aggravated that everything is no longer on Netflix and having to subscribe to like 5 different sites and going back to pirating). There is nothing we can do and no problem we solve.

The idea of going legal is completely irrelevant and a pipe dream. But solving such an issue is nice to think about. As fun as it is, we provide WAY MORE VALUE just being a site for scanlators rather than becoming some irrelevant, mediocre English licensing company. If we wanted to "take advantage" of the situation we're in this site would be running ads when people are offering us 50k+ a month to do it. But that's not the case and we aren't even thinking about going legal. It's a non-issue.

The groups that left have their individual "reasons" and if they want us to change anything we would love to know what those "reasons" are.

 

[Teasday]

_{@Shiggle posted:}
This should happen at a leadership level, not with the PR-team.

Our organization is super shallow, it's pretty much just Holo owns the site and then there's the rest of the staff. "PR team" just means the people who are better than Holo at handling interpersonal relationships did the approaching.

All the handwringing concerning this situation has already been done, it's just not been public because that would be absolutely pointless drama that benefits nobody involved. All the groups involved are well aware that they're welcome back any time they want, if they ever do, for whatever personal reasons each of them may have to stay out currently. There's not really anything else we can do about it, since for obvious reasons it's not like we're going to give preferential treatment or anything for groups who would otherwise refuse to use MD. That would ridiculously easy to exploit.

 

[justforthelulz]

"PR team" just means the people who are better than Holo at handling interpersonal relationships did the approaching.

The Miku profile picture now makes even more sense than before.

 

[pandascepter]

@Plykiya is comment is make sense, since it's really hard to convice some company to work together, just saying that fact is actually enough and some Japan company didnt like "Lincese Holder" on public platform like this (like youtube).
If MD really want to "Legalize" first they need to think about the revenue; where does revenue will come from ? Merchandise ? Ads ? etc....?
Even if they did, will they be able to do the scanlating a ton of chapter ? will they be able to pay the translator team ? editing team ? etc....?

Lets take an example like Muse Asia, they're legal, but the content is only 2 or 3 new anime per season..... you cant watch SAO Underworld there, and you will still keep comig back to the Grey Zone to watch/download some anime that isnt on Muse Asia. You cant satisfied a millions human with just a little content.

MD's staff are a good guy, we're in the grey zone and we all know how is it to feel to lose something, i just hope they're coming back. Just hope for the best and wish a good health for our community, and be grateful.
The group that you hate, is the group that's willingly giving you some free content and sharing it with each other.

Spoiler

@Rapeman come back please. TwT

 

[Teddy]

"PR team" just means the people who are better than Holo at handling interpersonal relationships did the approaching.
The Miku profile picture now makes even more sense than before

Nah all of the staff is actually just Holo wearing different clothes and tying his hair in different ways.

 

[Yatsuki]

Nah all of the staff is actually just Holo wearing different clothes and tying his hair in different ways.

Eh and here I thought it was shadow clone technique. Darn the answer is much more simpler.

 

[justforthelulz]

Quints would have made for a very interesting psychological manga if the ending revealed that there was ever only one girl pretending to be multiple sisters in order to gaslight MC.

 

[ABCsOfLife]

So which option did you guys pick for the poll?

 

[bigtiddyoneesan]

So which option did you guys pick for the poll?

"I also want them to make up."

Because my opinion on who should and shouldn't get along with one another overrides the feelings of those involved!

*maniacal laughter*

 

[comeonnow]

So which option did you guys pick for the poll?

I didn't vote because it's not like MD nor the scanlation groups would have been obligated to follow the majority anyways.

 

[celestialSidonia]

Interesting thread. Thanks for tagging me @Shiggle , I only read this now 3 weeks later as I don't really come around here a lot these days >.< As for Ply's comment, I was never contacted in regards to this:

We went to every single group that left in that thread and asked them what their reasons for leaving were and what could we do to improve.

That, I'm certain of, since the group is basically a few translators and me and there's no conversation between me and Ply in private at all. Either way, the situation back then was handled very poorly by MD and by groups, and many people were very opinionated and separated in thoughts on both sides from what I could see. The main reason why I personally was pissed off then was that I felt very betrayed and disrespected. It could've gone better, from both sides. At this point and time, many things have changed for Meraki for sure, and for Mangadex as well I imagine. Honestly, I don't see how I could benefit mangadex or mangadex could benefit my group, as out of 25~ series I'm responsible for, 19 are legal works and I wouldn't post them here anyway no matter the situation. But, I am open to getting back into good relations even if there are no specific benefits to it as well, I used to have fun with chatting with some guys from the MD team. We shall see what happens.

 

[Shiggle]

Thanks for keeping an open mind and thinking progressively about this @celestialSidonia .

 

[Shiggle]

@Holo see above. This is why you don't just send the PR-goons. JB and Hatigarm also couldn't remember (or wouldn't talk about) any such contact.

 

[tattr]

I didn't vote cause the options didn't capture the main issue. Scantilators don't want a repeat of Fakku and Crunchyroll. Even a whiff of the monetization sentiment is enough to undermine trust. Describing the site in business terms also raises red flags. Monetization for self-sufficiency is a different issue though. I expect that if assurances are made, trust is rebuilt, and communications stay cordial then the relationship will mend. I appreciate you guys, good luck.

 

[Teddy]

Is this a necro or just a badly timed resuscitation? Feels sad that PR team is called goons. But I guess they should've just chosen to be introverted and socially inept instead so they didn't have to suffer.

Not every scanlator group has to be with MD. They can make their own decisions and we can respect their decisions. MD at its core is just a platform and independent groups should be able to use whatever medium they want to upload their translations (ay even if they aren't allowed too, we be pirates anyways).