Ascension writes: Hello, Ascension is officially closing down. So i'd like to give away my remaining projects to other groups that are willing to pick up new projects. I've got a lot of raws/translations and stuff like that.
We know some of you have been following the recent events, and we have a statement we would like to make regarding aggregators. For your reference, aggregators are websites where you can read manga online.
As a result of several new instances brought to our attention, and his continued actions contrary to the will of scanlators, we have removed matias067 from the MU staff. We thank matias for his service of reporting several thousand releases during his service here.
While this action would seem to be appeasing the community, that is not our intent. Even though we disagreed with what was occurring, we could not unfairly move against one of our members at the time because we didn't have a concrete policy regulating those actions. Our rules were about respecting release delays here on this site. We never considered the scenario that one of our updaters would not be respecting delays on some other website. As a result we have again modified our policy, and as such will no longer tolerate relationships between our release mods and aggregators.
Some of you may see this as the justice denied you weeks ago when we adamantly opposed the public crucifixion of one of our staff. While we cannot speak to the effectiveness of eliminating one of our moderators, we ask that you consider the bigger picture. MU has one voice in a large community. Just as we cannot control what others do in this community, we also cannot defeat the aggregators. The Internet is a vast environment of anarchy where new groups and organizations pop up and drown out into non-existence on a daily basis. How can we possibly control this? Only one reader need know about a release from a particular scanlator, and update an aggregator on a regular basis. The problem with release delays is compounded by the fact that in such a platform, they are virtually impossible to enforce and violations (by any particular entity) are difficult to detect. Such attempts would simply be thwarted by using different usernames or email addresses.
At the end of the day, all we can do as a website is state our position. We do not support and try to actively spread the word against profiteering off the backs of scanlators. At the same time, while we encourage you to go and buy Manga you like, we continue to have no official position on aggregators in general. You must make your own decisions about your associations with the community and these sites.
Thank you for your time,
Manick & Lamb
This week's poll is from our member smarts. It's pretty simple (except for the fact that your exact reason of why/why not may not be there), so no explanation required~
You can discuss this poll on our forums here (and feel free to tell us your experience if you've gone!):
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=29017
You can submit poll ideas here (and try to keep them manga/anime-related):
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903
Previous Poll Results:
Question: How do you prefer your manga plots?
Choices:
Episodic - votes: 905 (7.5%)
Continuous - votes: 7057 (58.3%)
Doesn't matter - votes: 4140 (34.2%)
There were 12102 total votes.
The poll ended: September 24th 2011
Of the ones who care, continuous wins by a large margin. And I agree with them! My feeling is that it is better to have an overarching story that is heading in a certain direction in order to drive the series forward.
This poll from achyif is about the type of plot you like: episodic vs. continuous. Episodic is where chapters (tied together by a common goal) are self-contained and contain their own independent story. Continuous is where plot flows from chapter to chapter, and you'd need to read previous chapters to understand where they are now.
You can discuss this poll on our forums here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=28898
You can submit poll ideas here (and try to keep them manga/anime-related):
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903
Previous Poll Results:
Question: Scanlation groups and their projects / series...
Choices:
Having lots of projects brings more variety to all - votes: 487 (4.2%)
A group should have 1-2 projects and finish them before getting new ones - votes: 1816 (15.6%)
As long as the group isn't too overwhelmed, why not multitask? - votes: 6850 (58.9%)
As long as it doesn't slow down the only project I care about - votes: 2477 (21.3%)
There were 11630 total votes.
The poll ended: September 17th 2011
Of course, the poll itself is leecher-centric and not scanlator-centric...
I feel this poll from our member MoJo is a pretty interesting one (although it could use better choices, but I'm kinda brain-dead and tired right now, so too bad: it's almost 2 AM). The option you're thinking of probably isn't there, but just choose the one that fits best.
There's so much variation in situations that you can discuss, so feel free to do so on our forums here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=28763
You can submit poll ideas here (and try to keep them manga/anime-related):
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903
Previous Poll Results:
Question: General opinion of non-manga (e.g., manhua, manhwa, OEL, etc)
Choices:
They're just as good as manga - votes: 5536 (42.1%)
I like them, but manga's still the best - votes: 4162 (31.7%)
I like them more than manga - votes: 332 (2.5%)
Don't think they're any good - votes: 790 (6%)
Never read any - votes: 861 (6.6%)
No preference - votes: 1461 (11.1%)
There were 13142 total votes.
The poll ended: September 10th 2011
In the end, there are series you like and series you don't like, and it doesn't matter if it's manga, manhua, manhwa, OEL, etc. Type doesn't matter too much, as there's some good everywhere.
About a month ago, I was alerted to the dealings of one of our release mods, matias067 (you can read this or this). As far as we can see, his problem is that he is not honoring the requests of scanlators to not upload their releases to online manga readers (whether that be a delay in _ number of days or not uploading at all).
Many of you are wondering what we are doing about it, and we have talked to him and requested that he honor the policies of scanlators. He has said he will do this (in his words "I'll take note of it."). If he breaks these policies, we will release him from his MangaUpdates duties (in effect "kick him out").
However, we need your help in policing his actions. It is up to you to keep track of his actions and report to us any wrongdoings. On first offense, we do ask that you talk to him and tell him your policies (in case he hasn't seen them), but repeated offenses should be reported to me, and then we will deal with him.
PS: Sorry for the delay (could've done it 3 weeks ago) in announcing this, but to be honest, I kinda forgot. I didn't remember until I read this this morning.
This week's poll comes from the head of our member BurningFish. In general, how do you like non-manga? (Yes, I realize that you may like/dislike certain series, but let's try to answer this "in general").
You can discuss this poll on our forums here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=28629
You can submit poll ideas here (and try to keep them manga/anime-related):
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903
Previous Poll Results:
Question: Opinion on scanlation recruitment pages in releases
Choices:
Like them - votes: 2997 (25.5%)
Ignore them - votes: 3930 (33.4%)
Hate them - votes: 332 (2.8%)
No opinion - votes: 4495 (38.2%)
There were 11754 total votes.
The poll ended: September 3rd 2011
Edit: Forgot to write a comment on the results. It's good to see that a lot of people like them, but yet lots of people ignore them. In my opinion, they're necessary for a scanlation group to get new staff, and they're a good way to let some creativity shine.
This new poll for this week is from our member alicerose. Many scanlation releases have a page for recruitment (tends to be for translators...), so what's your opinion on them? (And yes, you can like/hate them for different reasons)
You can discuss this poll on our forums here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=28471
You can submit poll ideas here (and try to keep them manga/anime-related):
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903
Previous Poll Results:
Question: Do you read spoilers?
Choices:
All the time! - votes: 2161 (15.1%)
Sometimes - votes: 6899 (48.1%)
Only by accident - votes: 3755 (26.2%)
Never - votes: 1540 (10.7%)
There were 14355 total votes.
The poll ended: August 27th 2011
For those of you that avoid spoilers like the plague, you guys are really hardcore. By the way, if you find spoilers without the spoiler tag in the forum or series comments, do feel free to report it to us
Our member drunkguy suggested this one. We've had a fairly similar poll before, but this one's slightly different, so I decided to choose it. If you're interested in an interesting study on how people react to spoilers: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/08/spoilers-dont-spoil-anything.ars
You can discuss this poll on our forums here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=28323
You can submit poll ideas here (and try to keep them manga/anime-related):
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903
Previous Poll Results
Question: Do you read manga titles that aren't directed to your demographic?
Choices:
Yes, I read a lot of shounen/seinen and I'm female - votes: 2459 (16.9%)
Yes, I read a lot of shoujo/josei and I'm a male - votes: 994 (6.9%)
No, I sticking to manga directed towards me - votes: 2176 (15%)
I read all sorts of demographics without preference - votes: 8881 (61.2%)
There were 14510 total votes.
The poll ended: August 20th 2011
Most people tend to read anything they look (not necessarily targeted to them), but it seems more females are willing to read action than males reading romance
This week's poll is from Masae. Do you commonly read series that are not your target demographic? Specifically, it doesn't include any 18+ demographics, so don't complain about that.
You can discuss this among yourselves on our forum here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=28178
You can submit poll ideas here (and try to keep them manga/anime-related):
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903
Previous Poll Results:
Question: Would you drop a manga if you didn't like the art?
Choices:
Yes! It must look good if I'm gonna read it - votes: 5115 (38.1%)
Nah, art doesn't matter too much - votes: 4849 (36.1%)
I never even start a series unless it looks good - votes: 3465 (25.8%)
There were 13429 total votes.
The poll ended: August 13th 2011
