Edoc

Spoiler

 

Accurate in that if something gets a 7-8 on MAL I have a consistent idea of what to expect quality wise.  Take Mahouka anime, it got in the high 7.  After reading that I knew exactly what to expect and I got exactly that.  My expectations were that it was a third rate anime which you will like if you can identify with one of its many niches.  I could identify with a couple of them so I was able to watch about 10 episodes.  Exactly what I expect from an anime with a rating of 7-8.  I would chalk this up to opinion if it was just one off time, but it's not.  I am consistently able to rely on myanimelist's ratings for what to expect from a series.  That's not subjective anymore if I can get consistent results out of it.  

 

 

 

It's more that ratings as they are used right now are useless as you can see by everyone's comments.  No one uses them.  They have zero credibility.  However, MAL has cracked the code, their ratings are useful.  So I am trying to implement that system here.  Here's how it works, everyone has certain series which they like, I like fantasy and supernatural series.  So I search by genre and then I order them by their ratings.  Then I read through the descriptions and pick out the ones near the top that interest me.  It works.  

 

100 point scale is actually fine, but 10 point isn't much better than 5 point.  MAL does 1000 point.  

 

 

You're missing the point.  Youtube has a half assed search mechanism targeted at the everyday viewers, batoto has a first rate search system targeted at the hardcore computer users.  The reason it matters here is because you can combine the rating with other criteria and get better results from it.  

 

Hey, if it works for you that's great. I've known/know plenty of people who won't touch a book that doesn't show up on the best-seller list and are perfectly happy limiting themselves like that. My opinion is that it's an exceedingly shortsighted method of evaluating whatever medium one's talking about (if indeed one is basing their choices to any degree on it.)

 

I'd think Gendalph's post of many many numbers probably epitomizes this discussion............you're just playing with numbers here man. You seem to think there's some "perfect", "scientific" method to tell you what to try rather than just evaluating what you can find and then giving it a try. 

You mean people actually look at those ratings to decide if they're going to read something? Of all the things I look at to decide if I'm going to give one a whirl, I can't say I've ever considered any type of rating system (on any site) even once.

 

But to each their own, though I've got to say using those ratings as some kind of litmus seems like it'd be really restrictive. People have different tastes, discounting something you'd otherwise try over some cooked up number seems pretty short-sighted.

I am the head proofreader at Death Toll Scans and I have had quite a few of my own little side comments and ridiculous little notes get into the final release version of chapters that I have worked on but I have yet to see any serious complaints about them.  I have composed fake plot summaries or fake character profiles at times where the translator or group that I have done proofs for have a tendency to ignore such things.

 

Here are a few examples:

http://vatoto.com/forums/topic/10665-ol-pervys-plot-summaries-and-selected-notes-from-his-proofs/

http://vatoto.com/read/_/108199/soukai-no-eve_v1_ch8_by_death-toll-scanlations

http://vatoto.com/read/_/199058/gringo-2061_ch03_by_kiss-scans/11

 

While most of my little jokes are meant only to bring a smile to the face of the other team members that work on series that I do the proofreading for and make their job a bit more enjoyable, some of my notes have indeed made it into the final release version.  But as I said, I have never had a serious complaint from any readers about them.  So my team mate Sitlo makes ONE comment that some overly sensitive, thin-skinned idiot finds offensive and that person decides to raise some Politically Correct ruckus about it. 

 

I wonder what that idiot would say if there were a hue and cry from any religious extremists that were highly offended by Batoto's inclusion of Yaoi or Yuri series?

 

To me personally, it is a matter of the right to free speech.  And while there are, on extremely rare occasions, posts or observations that I might find personally distasteful or offensive, I will still defend to the death that person's right to say those things.  So if you want to TALK or DEBATE about your being offended, I have NO problem with that.  But when you call for the ELIMINATION of such offensive material, I will oppose you to my dying breath!  I am adamantly AGAINST censorship in ANY form because all throughout history, censorship has ALWAYS been the major tool used by despots to begin their takeover and eventual control of the masses.  And they have ALWAYS used the feeble excuse of "It's for the good of our youth." or some other equally illogical reason when their true purpose is to CONTROL how other people think!

 

In my opinion, parents are the ONLY ones who should control what their children are exposed to, and they have that right ONLY for their OWN children, not anybody else' children.

 

As to the "destroy the experience of a manga" aspect of this topic, that previously mentioned, thin-skinned idiot should just wait for a LICENSED English publication to be released and then enjoy PAYING for the experience without seeing anything offensive to his delicate sensibilities.  But I feel that NO ONE has the right to bitch and moan about something that they are getting FOR FREE!!!  Those are the type of people who feel that they deserve to get something for nothing, that they are ENTITLED to get what they want without any effort or payment from themselves.  In short, they are greedy, selfish bastards who would rather take, take, take; without having any self-responsibility for earning what they take.

 

If you don't like what you see on this site, then either go elsewhere, or create what you want through your own damn effort!!!

 

But trying to get rid of what other people do simply because you don't agree with their viewpoint is the act of the extremely small and prejudiced mind of a bigot!!!  At least in my not-so-humble opinion.

Can we have language preferences saved to our accounts rather than to our cookies? I don't save cookies because I'd rather not have everything on the internet tracking my intertube adventures but it does mean that every time I log in, I have to set the language preferences for My Follows all over again. The older version of Batoto saved to account. Could we have that back?

mhh I hope you don't think I don't understand that. I'm merely stating how things probably look to the general user of this site. Whether you meant it to or not your post comes off as slightly condescending and it is not appreciated. People should be allowed to discuss issues such as this as long as they stay civil. Both sides of an issue should be presented for fairness and that is what I attempted to do.

 

The need for money doesn't mean the advertisers can't be talked to about their take down requests. The manga could be taken down to comply and then a discussion with them about it could be started with the attempt to allow the manga to be re-added to the site. It's not like I said the notice should be ignore and just tell them "it's not all that bad." Don't change the meaning of what I said like that. Also you're quoting of that line specifically seems to sugest that you think I would want that to be used as an excuse to leave it on the site. I simply meant that it was clearly allowed on the site at one time so someone must have deemed that its adult content was not bad enough to block its upload to the site. As such, its adult content shouldn't be bad enough to warrent a take down notice from the advetisers even though that is what has happened.

 

There are also other ad providers out there. I sure there are some who are less controlling of site content. To be clear I'm not advocating switching but that is an option that does exist.

 

The thing you said about ad providers not needing us is false though. They might not need batoto specifically but they do rely on websites to operate. They are digital billboards and batoto is a decently large one. No advertiser really wants to pull ads or leave a site because that is a loss of business for them. That's why when these requests come up they should be able to be discussed between the ad provider and the site staff/owner as I mentioned above.

 

I have seen people suggest reading the manga that have been taken down on other sites and while that works for the user a business/website that hopes to survive really shouldn't be sending its customers/users to a competitor. Altough this will be a poor and exaggerated example imagine if facebook started telling all its users they should all switch to google+ or something. The advetisers would leave the site and facebook wouldn't really survive. It would end up like myspace did.

Alas, the advertisers are more a slave to the people who pay to have their ads shown than to the sites that they are displayed on.

 

As for switching advertisers, Grumpy has. Several times, in fact, after Google Adsense dropped this site. And every single one of them was strict on the "no adult content" front. The ones who are less strict are also the ones who pay less money and let more adult and spam ads through.

 

Lastly, Batoto is not a business. It's merely a site that grumpy runs. He doesn't want a profit from it, he has a job. He just wants enough from ads to pay for the servers so that he doesn't have to.

 

Really, it's a lose-lose situation. Either he goes with the good ad companies that pay more, but are more strict on the adult content rules and people complain about manga not being hosted... or he goes with the less strict ad companies that are less strict on the adult content rules and people complain (more than they do now) about the adult, spam, virus-inducing, redirection, and flash ads.

What I don't understand with this policy, is that it seems really biased toward male demographic. Batoto hosts many Yaoi titles which are probably more explicit that whatever had happened in Gantz and nobody censors them.

See, coming from one of those smaller groups I have experienced many cases where people don't check the group's site and just assume something is dropped if a chapter hasn't been released in a while (even if there are reasons for it).

 

This would eventually be one of the reasons this system would probably fail: wrong information given.

My suggestion can be considered an addendum to the ongoing Language Filter suggestion.  Apologies if it has already been suggested.

 

The follow system in Batoto, both new and old, seems to be exclusively an opt-in system.  I.E: you select what comics to follow, and nothing else is followed.  By default, comics are not followed.  My suggestion is an opt-out filter for the Homepage/New Releases page - which would probably have to be implemented as another button next to the 'follow' button - to allow you to filter out releases of comics you do not want to read.

 

Perhaps called something like 'Hide Releases', 'Filter Out Releases', etc.  This would be an opt-out system in that currently, by default, all releases of all comics are displayed on the New Releases page - which this feature would allow you to change.

 

This works on a number of levels.  Less clicks to get to releases, as your preferred listing would now be the Homepage, rather than the follows page.  It doesn't preclude the user from seeing/trying out new comics as they are added to the site, which people merely checking their own follows page DOES do.  

 

And considerably less hassle all round - except for those who have to put the feature in obviously - since now people like me who regularly check out new comics can do so without having to trawl through many pages of releases that do not interest me/us.

 

As I said, I see this as easiest to implement as a 'filter out' button in the same general location as the follow button is now, and I see no reason both systems could not coexist perfectly well that way.  Another possible, but less effective way might be a button or checkbox next to releases on the homepage, but I really don't see that as viable.  My idea could also possibly be implemented as a new aspect to the follows system, whatever floats your boat really.

 

Thanks for reading.

Most people who doesn't know about mangaupdates would just automatically go to other aggregate sites, so It'd be useless to try and put scanlators' names.

On the other hand, if they're knowledgeable enough to know about scanlations, they would definitely know mangaupdates. So inevitably, it doesn't matter.

Should be fixed now.

Have you tried reading them that way before making such a comment ?
They are not supposed to be reading on a web browser in a first place so how can you say which way is right and which is wrong ? And if you want to be that close from the manga then you should inverse the left and right arrows. The good way is the one which make the reading easy and comfortable and to me it is certainly not the current page by page. Since the mode already exist for webtoon, i don't see why it is out of the question.
As for the zoom problem, Grumpy is talking about in the only post i have found on that subject, you don't need to resize the image. You just have to deactivate the left and right arrow so that they don't go to next chapter but allow you to navigate in the page

It also helps to format your posts in a way they are pleasant to read. This would make me at least far more sympathetic to your cause.

Well... just keeping up seems to be a lot of work now... >.>

I just put up another server in Europe to help out with the "archive". People reading old stuff from europe should have less of a hassle now. We don't really have that much more people than not long ago... but we do have that much more comics to store.

Additionally, I'll be taking down US East server (probably tomorrow or 2 days from now) for some serious maintenance. There's an issue with one of the two disks. And will likely have to reinstall OS and everything. The load will be temporarily shifted on the new server (albeit different continent) in the meanwhile so there's no heavy hindrance on anyone.


Lastly, few people have been asking me when the next update (outlined in the sneak peek) is going to be put out... I think I can give a dozen excuse to why it's late... including the visible one above... But I don't think people are too interested in that. Sorry it's late. But, my hands are kinda full. I'll do what I can when I can. Sorry, that's really all I can say conclusively at the moment. I can say what parts are done on development side. Major items, all but follows are done. IPB changed the backend of follow once again (TYVM IPB), so I need to alter that. And some minor visuals to go.