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

A just ruler amongst tyrants

Genres and categories - just one look is often enough to reject a potential new series, and I also frequently select random stories based on a tag I found interesting.

Proven mangaka are about the only sure bet you can have that you will get a good product in the end. These are thus the only manga i look forward to before a manga even releases.
I just read random series is still correct as i ran out of backlog for anime and manga years ago.

I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

For me it's a mix of the cover (which is also kind of art and character design), genres and categories and ratings. Whether a series is complete is a nice bonus, but not really a deal breaker (unless it's a sequel to something I already read, the manga is completed and the scanlation is almost done translating the manga).

Anyways, the cover of a manga or a book pick my interest and at least with manga, it sort of tells you what kind of manga it is. Then the synopsis tells you if your stereotype of that kind of cover is correct or not and the tags and genres put the last nails on the coffin. Even then I sometimes try the manga anyways, skim through the first chapter and usually drop it.

If a series has a really bad rating, I may not read it, but then again, I may read it just to see why it has such a bad rating, or I find the story to be interesting so I just ignore the rating. If the manga has a typical plot, lackluster synopsis, genres I don't particularly like and a really bad rating, then I doubt I'll ever read it (maybe if someone says it's actually quite good I may give it a try, otherwise I'll forget about it and move on.)

Definitely genre and categories.

I don't care at all about the rest, least of all ratings, recommendations and popularity, considering I like barely any of the current most-liked and top-rated series. And while some of the other options (like mangaka and status of serialisation/length of the series) can help push me in either direction if I'm on the fence, they're never major deciding factors.

I'm pretty sure either art or genre is going to win this poll. Really, I must be one of the tiny minority who never ditches a series because of art. And thank heavens I don't, because most series with pretty art have awful stories, I've found. The majority of my favs have average art and some of the best stories are those with weird/ugly styles, like Fukumoto Nobuyuki's works.

Cover art used to be a big decided for me, but now I just care about synopsis, reviews and recommendations. The rating does not really matter because some of the manga I read might be unrated or just have like two ratings. The reviews are definitely the tipping point for me in deciding the manga or not.

Internet Lurker At Heart

I choose Genres and categories. But, actually depending on my mood and time, most of the other options are applicable as well.

Quote from lambchopsil

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

Well, just do a poll of it next time. For one I'm still a student, and wouldn't be counting all the miscellaneous odd jobs at times.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/ERg8slD.gif[/img
[img]https://i.imgur.com/HphHlPh.gif[/img]
Tv Tokyo - Anime & Manga ~ [color=red]MinatoAce[/color]

I went with rating, reviews, recommendations since after looking at the summary I look at comments to see if it's actually worth it. If there are no comments I then look at category tags.

Quote from lambchopsil

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

Well, having a job doesn't necessarily mean one has the means to donate, or that it's a priority compared to everything else.

Must Read Webcomic:
Unsounded

Lists:
Reading
Complete
Western Webcomics

I typically stick to completed series, so the first thing I do is scan the releases page for series that have just ended. Having the series be completed is generally the most important factor for me because a lot of manga end up going unfinished. After that, I choose based on a combination of genre, categories, artwork and synopsis. If I like the genre and the artwork, I'll read it without even looking at the summary. If I'm not sure if I want to read it based on artwork, genre, and summary then I'll look at the ratings.

And I guess our next poll question should be how many people have jobs.

It's always the genres and categories for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed manga where others found the art bad, so it's not an issue for me. I tried getting interested in manga that had huge followings as well, but just didn't get the hype, so I don't go based on that as well.

Quote from lambchopsil

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

Didn't you do something like this before? In Feb. 2016, the question was " Your current main occupation status". Heh, but you're the boss here, so do what you like.

For me it's a mix of various things with varying importance, but I voted mangaka because its most likely to make me just say yes or no outright without looking at other factors. But then again, there are mangakas like Ema Tooyama, whose mangas were a mixed bag for me.

Other things I care about are(in no particular order): genres, categories, art(as in "can I read it without cringing", I don't mind if it's not perfect), recommendations, release status(completed or releases consistently and at least monthly) and scanlation status(same as release). And sometimes I just try very popular series with varying results.

Most of the readers are voting for art and genres but for me that's not the case. If I would have based myself on the genres, I would have never read some of my current favourite manga. I used to read only shoujo but at a certain point I felt the need to read something different, a manga with a different storyline, art and themes, and so I tried many other genres. Now I never base myself on genres because I've learnt that what makes a manga a masterpiece is not the genre but how the story is told, the characters, the ability of the author to bewitch you and many other little things that have nothing to do with genres and category alone. It's basically the same for art. I used to avoid manga with "bad" or uncommon art but I've learnt that art is not important, especially if the storyline, characters and themes are wonderfully developed. Plus, while reading the manga you get used to the art and you don't notice it anymore, so it's just a matter of "first impact" and habit.

**I chose ratings, reviews and recommendations ** because most of the times I trust what other readers have experienced by reading a certain manga. Almost all of the high-ranked manga I've read were really awesome and those that were low-ranked were really bad. What I think is that if everyone says that the manga isn't worth reading, there must really be something bad about it. I always evaluate the reviews and critiques and decide if a manga is worth reading by myself, but in the end the reviews and recommendations are the thing that influences me the most.

I agree with you on what you said about art.

I noticed that a very important choice to me is missing, namely the magazine a manga is published in. It´s hardly a sure sign of quality but it can quickly reveals trash and vapid filler. I can easily name magazines/sites that are incapable of putting out anything truly good.

I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

It's primarily about ratings, reviews, and recs for me, within the demographics I'm interested in. I might be overlooking some hidden gems this way, but at least I'm protected from disappointing garbage that would waste my time.

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