This week's poll was suggested by feral claws. Should we or should we not pay translators? Obviously it's not a white and black matter, but it's hard to quantify the shades of gray into a poll, so I just left them out.

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Other than synopsis, summary, or plot, what is the main factor that determines which new series to read?
Choices:
The cover (or first page) - votes: 466 (9.6%)
Art and character design - votes: 1434 (29.4%)
Mangaka (author and artist) - votes: 299 (6.1%)
General popularity - votes: 85 (1.7%)
Genres and categories - votes: 1421 (29.1%)
Ratings, reviews, or recommendations from others - votes: 513 (10.5%)
Whether the series is complete or not - votes: 294 (6%)
The scanlation group - votes: 41 (0.8%)
I come to MU and see a new series on the release page, so I decide to try it - votes: 98 (2%)
I just read random series - votes: 227 (4.7%)
There were 4878 total votes.
The poll ended: September 22nd 2017

Art and genres almost tied! That was pretty close!

Registration for new accounts has been temporarily closed due to the high amount of spam accounts in the last 2 days. We invite you to give suggestions on how to deal with this by commenting in this thread:
https://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=60366

This week's poll was suggested by Karonhioktha. It's very similar to an old poll back in March 2008, but I incorporated some feedback from way back then (always good to read the old forum posts!). The main difference is that you cannot choose summary/plot as a choice.

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Have you ever donated money to a scanlation group?
Choices:
Yes, recently (within last year) - votes: 168 (4.4%)
Yes, but not recently - votes: 242 (6.4%)
Does donating my time count? - votes: 524 (13.8%)
No, but I would if I could - votes: 1893 (49.9%)
No, and I never will - votes: 965 (25.4%)
There were 3792 total votes.
The poll ended: September 15th 2017

Now I'm curious how many of you actually have jobs

Our member kayue suggested the natural follow-up question for last week's poll, so I decided to just roll with it.

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Should scanlators ask for donations?
Choices:
Yes, since they work so hard to bring us manga - votes: 2181 (47.4%)
Yes, but only to pay for raws and server bandwidth or hosting - votes: 2028 (44.1%)
No, since it's all volunteer work anyways - votes: 393 (8.5%)
There were 4602 total votes.
The poll ended: September 9th 2017

Wow, that was more lopsided than I expected. Most people think donations are warranted for one reason or another.

The last poll was a very heated debate. Here's the natural follow-up poll. Should scanlators even ask for donations in the first place?

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Do you donate money to scanlation groups?
Choices:
Yes, regularly - votes: 62 (1.3%)
Yes, several times now - votes: 186 (4%)
I've done it once - votes: 290 (6.3%)
No, I don't have money to donate - votes: 2580 (55.8%)
No, I'd rather purchase manga or other merchandise - votes: 842 (18.2%)
No, I just don't want to - votes: 665 (14.4%)
There were 4625 total votes.
The poll ended: September 1st 2017

I've never donated and I've also never paid or been paid for any of the scanlations I've worked on or read

This week's poll is from deadphoenix. Have you ever donated money to a scanlation group? I think a couple of groups use Patreon. Although the question is specifically for scanlation groups, you could expand it to include groups/people that translate novels.

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: What is your main goal in life?
Choices:
Fortune (money, property, etc.) - votes: 817 (14.9%)
Health (well-being, strength, long life, etc.) - votes: 384 (7%)
Spirituality (religion, enlightenment, etc.) - votes: 268 (4.9%)
Knowledge (academic, technical, etc.) - votes: 632 (11.5%)
Power (leader, politician, etc.) - votes: 75 (1.4%)
Fame (celebrity, hero, etc.) - votes: 32 (0.6%)
Beauty (fashion, body, etc.) - votes: 28 (0.5%)
Infamy (crime, etc.) - votes: 39 (0.7%)
Relationships (marriage, children, friends, etc.) - votes: 642 (11.7%)
Career (desired job, high position, etc.) - votes: 441 (8.1%)
I am content - votes: 448 (8.2%)
I am unsure - votes: 1137 (20.8%)
Other - votes: 529 (9.7%)
There were 5472 total votes.
The poll ended: August 26th 2017

Lots of people who are unsure. Reminds me of a statistic that something like 80% of students will change their college major at least once, while the average college student switches majors 3 times.

We don't normally post this kind of stuff, but a member asked me to talk about this so that more people know about this Kickstarter. The anime adaptation of Aria, known as Aria the Animation, is going to have an English dub. It will be done by Nozomi Entertainment, an imprint of Right Stuf Inc. Of course, many of you probably aren't interested in dubs... but this is for those of you who can afford to support the spread of niche series!

The good news is that Kickstarter is already funded! And with a reputable company, I feel there's little risk that you won't get your money's worth. (I've gotten shafted with previous Kickstarters...)

If you want a preview of the series, you can watch the first episode with Japanese audio and English subtitles on Youtube.

Many of you complain about seeing so many novel releases (about half of the listed releases every day are from novels). In case you didn't know, you could hide all those novels by going to edit your user profile and look at the "Types to Hide" field.

Anyways, if you fall in that camp, you'll be happy to know that a lot less novel releases will be listed on MangaUpdates. This isn't due to a policy change though. It's actually because almost every novel release for the last 1.5 months has been added by me, and quite frankly, I'm tired. I won't be adding any more novels now, as it took up way too much of my time.

Like I said, there's been no policy change. We'll still approve any novel releases you add as long as they follow our other content policies such as belonging to a group listed on MU, we can verify the release, etc. Please give the correct release date if it was a date in the past.

Reminder that we don't have restrictions on who can add what releases. You don't need to belong to the scanlation group in order to add a release by them.

• lambchopsil

This week's poll is from our member ZeroAngels. It as actually originally suggested over 9 years ago, so long time coming! You can interpret it as long term goals or short term goals. It's your choice.

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Do you have a topic that is an immediate deal breaker if a manga series you were already reading suddenly featured that topic, such that you would stop reading the series (even if it was "tastefully" done)? For example: religion, rape, etc.
Choices:
No topics offend me on principle - votes: 1987 (40.6%)
I used to have one, but not anymore - votes: 286 (5.8%)
I can think of one deal breaker - votes: 1584 (32.3%)
There's many topics that would stop me from continuing a series - votes: 1040 (21.2%)
There were 4897 total votes.
The poll ended: August 19th 2017

Many people who commented said they're fine with any topic as long as it was done well, so they're basically fine with anything

This week's poll is from residentgrigo. It's a bit long-winded, but the scenario we're talking about is a series you are already reading (and hopefully like), then suddenly it brings up a topic out of left field that makes you wanna drop the series. Does this happen to you?

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Your favorite manga is being adapted into an anime. What are you most worried about concerning the upcoming anime?
Choices:
Poor animation - votes: 374 (6%)
Art style won't transfer well to animation - votes: 240 (3.8%)
Poor voice acting decisions - votes: 207 (3.3%)
Storyline or character changes - votes: 1484 (23.8%)
Filler content - votes: 238 (3.8%)
Censorship - votes: 250 (4%)
Rushed story and/or skipping chapters - votes: 1779 (28.5%)
Bad quality in general - votes: 1469 (23.5%)
It's not the "original," so it's automatically worse - votes: 200 (3.2%)
There were 6241 total votes.
The poll ended: August 11th 2017

Wow, 3 choices got most of the votes