hi! i'm no programmer and i imagine this would be difficult to implement, but if you'll hear me out:

as someone who reads a lot of one-shots, i've felt for a long time that one of the biggest weaknesses of the mangaupdates database is that one-shots are often counted both as entries in their own right and as part of collected tankoubon volumes. so when new one-shots appear and are translated, as per site rules they can be added as a separate entry, even though these stories are likely (though, of course, not always) going to be eventually included in a tankoubon volume.

my problem with this is that more than anything, it just feels messy, and makes mangaka pages look a little unseemly since you sometimes get one, two, or even more entries for one story, and those individual stories end up looking just like they're entire books/series.

if there were some way to separate chapters/one-shots into a separate tier of manga entry, so that they could appear as soon as a scanlator translates them without necessitating another entry upon that story's inclusion in a later volume, the site would (in my opinion) feel a little smoother, and the total on my completed list wouldn't be so misleading.

for example, if the site could (like MAL) count series, volumes, and chapters separately, my experience would be more satisfying. i could also imagine (like recent developments of rateyourmusic with regard to songs vs. albums) that this could help the organization of information on creators like junji itou, for example, whose careers have produced hundreds of one-shots that are included in a variety of volumes which are on this site listed as separate entries, despite all the overlap.

even if this never changes, i'm forever grateful for this site, and use it nearly every day. thanks!!

Hi,

Can you please post some examples from our database?

Thank you!

sure!

i was noticing it recently with a few of suehiro maruo's works.

Paraiso

3 of the 5 stories in Paraiso have their own entries

Olanda-san Diabolic Sensai Vagabond

There's also stories like his "Planet of the Jap", which appears separately in Paranoia Star, Comics` Underground Japan, New National Kid, and Ultra Gash Inferno

Similarly, the one-shot Nonresistance City is included in both the Japanese book Tsukiteki Aijin and the American book Ultra Gash Inferno. Because Ultra Gash Inferno was a later English-language release, all the stories in it appeared in Japanese volumes first.

This is also the case for the more prolific Shintarou Kago; for example, The Desperate Sadness of a Cross-Section is featured in Kenkou no Sekkei; Everything's Peaceful is in Banji Kaichou, etc.

having one story within multiple tankoubon volumes, of course, tends to happen with very famous mangaka who've had long careers; I've also noticed it with Junji Ito, Moto Hagio, Hideo Azuma, Tsuge Yoshiharu, etc.

It's definitely something I've considered in the past. I think this site's origin as a release tracker biased us toward the data model we currently have.

Thank you for the examples. We'll discuss it and see what we want to do.