I added a link to the FAQ in the email you get from WelcomeBot right after registering ...

not to be rude or anything....but i am not quite sure that will be very effective...

I didn't even open up the welcoming message from the bot...

...actually, i don't remember getting one...

but my point is, and i am sure you know this, that about 80% of the people don't really read what the welcome botz say when you join a site/forum.

So my guess would be that ultimately it comes down to if they actually wanna be a productive member of the site or not, and decide to read it...

It is possible that you registered before I actually started making the bot send welcome messages ... If you had gotten one, you would have known about it, because of the annoying red "1 new message(s)" at the top of the page ...

You're right, we still have some people that will register wanting to download manga ... I mean hey, log out and click the "sign up" button ... look at the red bold text there that says "WE ARE NOT A DOWNLOAD SITE" ... people still register looking for it anyway...

I opened my message from the welcome bot only last week, so I don't know how effective that will be...

No matter what is done people will still ignore the FAQ/Stickies and make stupid posts... sigh that is what I hate about the internet they will let just any idiot on it

You could always add a few of those check box's next to the red text.

That might help the number go down, that, or, start handing out warning/temp bans for people asking for it, or add something to when you make a thread warning people about it...

anyways, i am off topic, and spamming in this section is bad.

How about making a multiple choice question before registering?

Like there is a multiple choice question of

"What not to do here in Manga Updates?"
a.) Ask where or how to read/download manga?
b.)...
c.)...

or like
"What are you here for?"
a.) download manga (default choice so they don't just click away)
b.) ...

and if they get the wrong answer they get redirected somewhere else instead of the registration page...like where they get redirected to is the rules or something...at least they'll read or be able to get the idea once they get the right answer

far fetched, I know

Or do the same thing as one forum I registered for last time:
Remember those disclaimer text blah blah blah...where no one reads and just click the "I agree" button and sent to the registration page? The I agree button was actually linked to an empty page with text where it says "if you actually read the text you wouldn't be here" cause the instructions to get to the registration page and the link to it was actually hidden as in all that text forcing would be members to read it...

Last edited by blakraven66 at 11:00 am, Sep 1 2008

I like blakraven66 idea, a captcha system that catches idiots instead of bots xD

You might lose a few of casual people registering but the people who come to the site and use it properly would either get the small quiz right first time or go find the answers and in the process learn the rules...

That would piss me off and not want me to sign up, though I may not be a good example. I'm one of those people that don't need to read rules, simply cause I never break 'em. I lurk forums for a bit first before I sign up or post to get the general feeling and know whats expectable and not. Besides if you follow basic internet courtesy rules, you shouldn't have many problems.

You may add entries for the newcomers

- What is "Manga"?
- What is "Scanlation"?

Added

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

- What is a Bunko?

- What is a Tankoubon?

- Why is there different numbers of volumes under " Status in Country of Origin? "

- What if I see something offensive in the forum? / Where can I submit my complaint? (<== something along those lines...)

- Who approves the changes/releases/group/etc submitions?

Last edited by CatzCradle at 4:05 pm, Sep 19 2008

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Added


I don't understand the question


That's already in the FAQ


That's obvious, so no point in putting that up


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A just ruler amongst tyrants

I think I may have seen a question or two in the forums regarding this. For example, Boku no Chikyuu wo Mamotte lists different numbers of volumes under the "Status in Country of Origin." I think some people would be confused about this.



I was just joking. ;)

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Uhhh, that's basically asking what tank and bunko mean...So no, I'm not putting that in the FAQ. It's not a common question anyways

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

I have a couple of suggestions:

"I've noticed that some people have a special name under their avatar. How do I change mine?" Answer: It can be changed it the user CP, by choosing "edit profile" and entering text in the "forum title" field.
Call me stupid, but it took me quite a while to figure that one out. -_-"
(There is currently a point on the FAQ about "custom user titles," but that appears to be a different thing.)

"How should information be added for oneshots?"
That is, explain how oneshots should be listed, depending on the circumstances: oneshots by one author in a collection, oneshots by different authors in a collection, oneshots in a serial (ongiong) collection (such as is the case for Robot), stand-alone scanlated oneshots, oneshots than were previously published as stand-alone but that were later incorporated into a collection (if the single oneshots already have entries in the database, should they be deleted and listed under the collection?), etc. That is, explain whether the oneshots should be listed as individual entries (as with stand-alone scanlated ones), or (in the case of a collection) the collection should be listed as the entry and the constituent oneshots should be described within that one entry rather than being listed separately, etc. You can also reiterate here than unscanlated oneshots should preferably not be listed.
The site policy about some of these is clear, but about others is fuzzy (not explicitly stated), so I figure, might as well explain them all in one point.

"I found some incorrect information in a series/author/publisher/etc. and fixed it, but someone keeps changing it back. What should I do?" Answer: Talk to a staff member, see about possibly having the entry locked, etc.
This has never happened to me personally, but I figure it probably happens occasionally.

About getting people to read the FAQ, I think the quiz idea might work, possibly.

Edit: I thought of another one:
"How can I search for manga on a certain topic?" Answer: Do a search on the topic, and put the topic in quotation marks.

Edit again: This time I have a question, concerning the main titles of manga series:
Okay, so here's the background information: As an entry in the "series info," I prefer to have the titles in the original Japanese (assuming that the series is originally published in Japanese, of course), but in romaji. The only exception is when it is obvious that the romaji is of katakana that was meant to represent an English word (but, the Japanese words should be left in romaji). The reason for my preference is that I like the title to be as close to the original as is reasonable (it should be in the English alphabet, because this is an English site), without sounding and/or looking dumb (writing out the katakana for English words looks dumb, and besides, the word was taken from the English language to begin with.) So, for example, the manga with the original title コードネームは Ｃｈａｒｍｅｒ or コードネームは チャーマー should have Code Name wa Charmer as the main entry title, not "Koodo Neemu wa Chaamaa" nor "Koodo Neemu wa Charmer" nor "My Code Name is Charmer." These other ones can be added to the "alternate title" section if desired, but they should not be the main title. One other (possible) exception is if the English translation of the name is clearly more popular, it could be listed as the main title.
So the question: Do you concur? Or do you think that this is not a big deal and doesn't require any attention? (Please explain the site policy concerning each point.) If you do concur, is it worth changing the main titles of existing series to conform to this, or is it not worth the trouble and should only be set as a guideline now (in the FAQ, that is) and applied to series added in the future? (Because as you know, changing the main title of the series requires filling out a change request form, which I assume have to be individually evaluated and carried out by the staff, so this could amount to a lot of work. Of course, you could change this so that they could be edited by updaters to avoid having to go through the staff, but I assume that there are reasons for not doing that.)

Thank you for your time.

Last edited by lynira at 4:14 pm, Apr 1 2009

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Manga Cover Database