As cmertb suggested, I'm posting here this idea.



I was here when downloads were taken off this site, so I know the stance MU has on that. I think there's still enough layers between this site and the releases themselves if you were to generically point to the manga reader. You wouldn't be doing something as risky as directly linking to downloads.

Groups can at that point link to their own reader on their site, Batoto, or any external reader of their choice.

Also, I'd suggest an AJAX popup when you hover on a group's name, with IRC-Site-Forum-Reader buttons. It would greatly increase the ease to reach our sites, as well as make MU much faster to use. It would even save some complex database JOINs since it would need only the row from the team to be fetched.



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Member of FoOlRulez and head coder of the FoOlSlide project.

Wouldn't that pretty much be the same as linking to a direct download?
MU is against that :\

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Everyday I'm tumblin'

It would actually be pretty much the same as linking to the blog. All groups have the latest releases straight in the homepage, and readers give a list of the latest releases too. There's at least 1/2 more clicks to reach anything, and that's the users' call.
People whom I ask why do they use other services instead of MangaUpdates complain that they are not willing to have to go for every release through different, complex sites. While there's the same number of clicks, there's much less frustration if you send them to the reader. They will probably find the release they are looking for much faster.

Direct linking to mediafire and similar like 2 years ago is on a completely different league. Back then one could say MU was a download site.

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Member of FoOlRulez and head coder of the FoOlSlide project.

Couldn't be further from the truth.

Couldn't be further.

MU already links to the site of the scanlators as well as their forums and irc channels. Often, after clicking any of those, you're only another click away from viewing the chapter online. However, to see these links, you need to get into the group's page (which is another click from the manga's page). What the guy is saying is to add the group's manga reader closer to the initial click (could be on the manga's page or on the group's page).

There is no difference between linking to the reader's page or to the scanlator's page or irc channel, legally. There's a world of difference between that and linking to the download of the chapter. On the latter, MU affiliates itself with the actual scanlated chapter. The former is totally safe.

Hey, I'm just stating what I thought was plain and simple :\



I guess we won't know for sure until we get a word from an admin.



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Everyday I'm tumblin'

No, we will not be changing how releases are linked. Sorry, but I'm locking this because this is not a negotiable issue

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A just ruler amongst tyrants