Mangaupdates'voting system isn't at pair with Anidb's. Here are my main suggestions :
- separate temp/complete vote (voting after reading first chapter is of little interest)
- keep a list of own votes (might make people vote more if they can keep track of it)
- comments are quite useless. Asking for (detailed) reviews would be better.

My two cents...

Temp/Complete isn't very possible because a ton of the popular manga is still ongoing. And remember that in most cases, scanlation teams works slower than fansub teams, so "complete" could take a while...

Currently, you can keep track of all your votes if you have the series on one of your lists. As for listing all votes, I guess that's a viable suggestion.

Reviews instead of comments would just mean less comments and no more reviews. No one really wants to spend that much time writing a review. Anyways, it's up to you to read the comments. We're not forcing you to read them. Speaking of reviews, why don't you write some?

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

We're trying to solve the rating problem. Having a list of series you rated is an interesting suggestion, and I'll put it on my list as a possibility. I honestly think comments are quite useful, and often read them before picking up a series.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Temp/Complete
I do know that scanlating isn't as fast as fansubbing, but there are still hundreds of fully scanlated series. Even if I must have forgotten to count a few, I do own 127 myself. So it's possible to make votes based on a complete reading of the series count more.

Reviews/comments
I usually read the comments, but I hardly find them useful. I was just suggesting to ASK for reviews. For instance, ask for comments on art, story, characters. Ask for not posting unless you have read at least one volume for long series. Yes that would mean less comments, but that might make them more interesting.

Anyway, I was just suggesting, you decide.
And I might post some reviews, but for instance posting something on the manga "Living game" and coming with 7th rank after comments like "..." or "wow" is a bit disapointing. If reviews aren't valorized, they won't appear.

That sounds interesting to me but that sounds complicated to program(?), not that I've done anything like Manick's done (I've done basic HTML stuff).


Well there are about 18,000 registered users of Manga-Updates (well actually Baka-Updates Manga...but that name's longer... I don't know if there is much difference if I change the name a bit, but Manga Updates is the URL...) from when I looked up a recent user's number (if there aren't "extra" numbers in it) so to ask for long reviews might be asking a lot. (I'm thinking in terms that a good amount of those users are just "lurking" for the most part.)

EDIT:
Actually, according to a new person that announced his/herself in Introductions, there are about 30,000 registered users.

For a large database like IMDB, how often does one person write a review of something they watched (which could range from one episode, a one- to 3-hour movie, or hours on a series)? I don't know if Manick wants to a put a "was this comment/review helpful? Yes/No" button so that users can push the more in-depth review to the front (instead of potentially getting pushed to the back, especially if it was the earliest one).

But yeah I usually push aside the "wow" or "this manga is great" comments. But even though they don't help much, I consider it better than nothing. Sometimes with rating, I can't tell if the votes or some of them at least, ended up that way because the manga because of the art, but in truth the story wasn't that great. But people (myself included) can be too lazy to comment at a certain time and then don't even comment at all, which is why Manick decided to allowing rating without commenting.


I'm not certain if I know for sure what you're saying, but are you saying that maybe reviews aren't getting enough credit? If so, maybe. When I look at a manga series' page, I sort of notice there is a review. I think I'm more likely to notice it when it's put on the front page. Or did you mean comments that did sort of "reviews" in the comment sections of manga series' pages?

Last edited by Takiko at 3:15 pm, Mar 27 2007

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My avatar was Yves Saint Laurent's The Black Evening Dress (with big bow) first shown in 1983, photographed from his 2002 retrospective and final show. [color=#CC0066]Check out some of his collections for free (pre-2008) HERE[/color] courtesy of FirstView.

You are correct on a few notes:

1. The reviews do not yet get enough credit.
2. I did attempt once to put in a vote up and down on the comments but I got lazy and decided to keep that until another time. (it was when comments were anonymous... it's still on my list of things to do. >_>)
3. I do have a plan to have votes for series on someone's completed list rated more (and a whole lot of other things too)
4. Please report retarded comments like "wow", etc. I'll delete them. We sometimes miss comments like that when we're in a hurry. We're mostly looking for spoilers.

We're trying! It's just right now we're in kinda a stall because I'm 5 weeks from graduating, so I don't have time to improve the site.

Graduation is important... I'm surprised, you're even checking the site this often.

But by "report" do you mean that we should copy the URL, name and PM it to you?


Admittedly offtopic, but when Manick is finished at the end we'll have to congradulate him (provided there's no summer school ;)). I guess he'll be finishing university or college? ;)


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My avatar was Yves Saint Laurent's The Black Evening Dress (with big bow) first shown in 1983, photographed from his 2002 retrospective and final show. [color=#CC0066]Check out some of his collections for free (pre-2008) HERE[/color] courtesy of FirstView.

Maybe it's because along with being admin, the site has that "addictive" quality to it.

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My avatar was Yves Saint Laurent's The Black Evening Dress (with big bow) first shown in 1983, photographed from his 2002 retrospective and final show. [color=#CC0066]Check out some of his collections for free (pre-2008) HERE[/color] courtesy of FirstView.

Yea, just tell us the series (or series id) & the username of the submitter.

And by reporting, please use the "Request Change" page in the User CP or the pm system and pm manick or me.

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Regarding voting. I don't find user ratings, in their current form, very useful. Perhaps it would be better to offer fewer choices, and collapse all ratings into three categories, good, mediocre, and bad. In the current system, 8's, 9's, and 10's all mean the same thing to me (I also lump all the 4's, 5's 6's and 7's together.) I mean that a majority of users will put as much thought into rating a series an 8 as they will a 10.

If users want to differentiate their opinion from the generic "good, mediocre, and bad" and point out the finer parts of the series, they can write a review (or even a comment). As for reviews themselves, the rating system of averaging all five categories doesn't work very well. Manga series are works of art and the whole is more than a sum of its parts.

I would suggest that only the overall rating given by the reviewer be advertised. Perhaps this way, reviewer can be more candid on art, story, characters, and enjoyment without having to worry about what its effect will be on the rating of the series.

All valid suggestions. Thanks for your input. The rating system will be improved in time.