Maybe we could have a subforum that will focus more on Updaters and their tasks? It could include general guidelines for people to follow when they are inputting a title (such as: do not relay on publishing date listed on amazon and various other shops, it's usually not the date it was first published; don't list imprints as magazines; when available, post covers in image field and not random images, etc) and people could voice various suggestions that would make their life easier, share sources, etc. There are already couple threads that could be moved in such subforum. I think it would help to make MU more accurate. Maybe a trial period to see how it goes? What do you think?

Problem is, most updaters don't use the forums

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Seriously? That's a pity, maybe make an announcement to lure some?

I've brought this suggestion after seeing many things that are added incorrectly, then corrected, then reversed to incorrect again. I know that you said to pm and it will be locked, but it's not one or two things, it's way too much to keep track of, can you handle being notified about every little thing? If so, you are a brave man. Many can't even agree on how to spell things, same magazine end up being spelled several different ways, magazines end up listed under wrong publishers, the dates are all over the place; things like that. And it's not like it's the updater fault either if he/she is not aware that the data he/she used is incorrect, sometimes it's really hard to know what is the correct and what is not. So I was thinking maybe setting some guidelines and making people aware of them, would help.

Yes, that is a shame. I wonder just how many Manga-Updates users don't post on the forums...

I like Candyloop's idea, but as Lambchopsil mentioned, there wouldn't be enough active posters there.

Drastically shrinking the number of updaters would likely be the most effective way to lessen all the inaccurate information being updated.
People don't read the FAQ much less the little instructions when they update the series fields, alas I have no doubt they won't read the forum either.


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(NOTE: I ignore pms regarding rejected unscanalted oneshots/doujinshis. Far too many people don't bother reading the FAQ, hence I won't bother replying anymore.)

Hmm... that's an idea, faye, but how you will determinate who to keep? Another idea would be to massively lock the fields: cover, year, publisher, magazine, since those are the ones that suffer the most in my experience. That way at least one will be able to keep track of why a change is made and refuse allow any change with no/poor reason for it. I think something like this was suggested before?

It would be useful. I only asked for a change because I wanted to edit a series, but that's pretty much all I know how to do, edit a series/title/summary. I've seen many errors in a lot series that have been added but had no idea how to edit them, or how to edit them correctly as to not make it worst. So if there was something like a general guideline for updating, then it really would be useful.

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Well, having a subforum for updaters would make me feel all special and warm and fuzzy and all that. Plus, on top of the benefits that others mentioned above, it would be a place for me to ask my questions about things not covered in the FAQ--in reply to LunaMay, there is a section of the FAQ for that, but not all your questions may be answered there (but since you're a person who cares about doing things properly, your judgment is probably pretty reliable ^_^). A lot of mine are more specific, having to do with small details, like the ones I was asking here: http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?page=2&tid= 511, but I feel like I might be annoying, bothering the staff with my long-winded questions. (That's why I put them in there as an FAQ suggestion as opposed to making a separate topic of my own...) I would feel much more comfortable asking other updaters what they thought about it, and hoping that a staff member would just happen to comment also and clear things up. Or, for things that the staff doesn't really care about (like my question about oneshots ), then at least we updaters may reach some sort of concensus about the matter and thus set an implicit guideline to follow. There's not really a place to do that right now.
But, unfortunately, if most updaters don't use the forums much, the potential usefulness of an updaters subforum is going to be limited.
Then again, the creation of a specific place just for updaters is alluring (well, I think so anyway), 'cause one of the reasons why updaters don't use the forums is probably because they don't see the point in doing so (meaning, they don't care to talk about the typical stuff); so if there was a place just to talk about updating-related things, they might be interested. So, that may draw some more to the forums.

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I would actually say that most updaters suck and have no clue what they're doing. That includes people who add releases

(Well, they *think* they know what they're doing, but they really don't)

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Perhaps because there's no "proper" guideline on what being an updater entails?
I second the suggestion for a trial period and for an updaters subforum.
As to shrinking down the number of updaters, maybe we can start with those who keep adding wrong information and those who keep changing 'correct' information with a wrong one.

True words.

Still... an Updaters Subforum would come in handy. I would be certainly interested in it. At least there we can be educated and educate other would-be updaters.

There could be guidelines which are pinned in that subforum. I've seen image-uploading sites where they discuss "tags" as well and all that in their forum. Handy, I tell you!

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Don't most updaters become updaters just because they wanted to fix/add one little thing?
Then they go on from there~
I also doubt people would bother with a forum.
Then again, who knows...
"Random questions for updaters" ? lol


A thing, that at least I would find useful is a better clarification for genres.
Like for example, a oneshot collection with different themes.
Should I add all the genres that are gathered in it, or just the general ones? And so on...

Since the FAQ is less than often regarded to, there should be some way to make rules regarding releases and adding series more visibale?



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this strongly reminds me of wikipedia's editors' strategy...my suggestion has nothing to do with the updater's subforum, but i think that it's possible to decrease the number of ignorant updaters & their faulty updates by setting up somekind of system like wikipedia's editors system

maybe like a tracking system only viewable to admins & mods, where each user/updater is monitored by a history that records all the false releases that they've submitted...i don't see how this can be applied to updating manga's profiles in general, but for the releases, i think that this would help admins/mods to judge whether if a submission of a release is true or not by looking at the updater's past records

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The Deviant