Zephyrus OP

Forum Moderator

Zephyrus OP 2 years ago



Most all of staff wanted to say something to everyone. Holo wanted to give some insight into the current state of MD and give a glimpse of the future! The rest of us followed up with a few words on what MD has meant to us. We'll also be announcing the winner of the Mega Contest. This is going to be a super long post so I hope everyone will bear with us.



Next, we'd like to take a moment to announce the winner of the



Click the spoiler to check out the winning image!



Spoiler



Several staff members complained that they could only cast one vote! I will be contacting the winner within a couple of days to award them their prizes which include:



$40 in Amazon gift cards, courtesy of @

A mousepad courtesy of @

A t-shirt with the winning design on it, courtesy of @

A triple A game title courtesy of @



I'd like to thank everyone who participated and put in time and effort in this contest. We appreciate each and every one of you! It means a lot to staff that so many of you enjoy the community enough to take time out of your busy schedules to participate in these contests. And don't worry, I've already got something great cooked up for February. =)



On a related note, the response to



Next, let's hear a few words from our staff members:



@





On this day, exactly 1 year ago, I launched MangaDex v1 to the public. Remember those days? The explosion of users meant that the server could never keep up. You would have to load a chapter, go and make a coffee, then come back for it to finish loading. v2 was rolled out in March, with a more powerful server, which meant that you didn't have to wait 10 seconds to load a chapter at peak times. Our userbase continued growing though, and sure enough, the server was upgraded once again with the roll out of v3 in August. Growth has been steady since then, but another massive increase in users occurred over the Christmas holidays (a 20% increase, see stats below), resulting in yet another server upgrade.







As you can see, we currently have 2.2 million monthly visitors. Right now, Google Analytics reports over 4,000 users online at peak times, sometimes as high as 4,500. But these numbers do not take into account people who use adblock (about 70% of our users do use adblock), so the real number is probably closer to 14,000 users online at peak times, and 7.5 million users monthly visitors.



More powerful servers correspond to a higher running cost for MangaDex. Luckily, thanks to our generous userbase, this has not been a problem, and I have been able to keep my initial promise of not using ads. In the coming year, we may explore additional methods of fundraising, like selling merchandise. Based on the other thread to gauge interest, it looks feasible!



So anyway, a year later, we're still alive and kicking. What do we have planned for v4?

- The limited API that the site currently uses will be rewritten into a proper API.

- This will allow the development of an app for Android and iOS, which is one of the most requested features that we currently do not have.

- Allowing users to download a limited number of chapters a day (without relying on third party scripts).

- More integration with mangadex.com - a custom reader plugin for group blogs which would use the MD image servers.

- The site will be comprehensively translated into all the languages that we support (there's a lot more room for growth in non-English territories).

- Reviews and recommendations



One last thing: as we rely more on social media for growth (our google links have mostly been removed), please support us by following us on



Enjoy your mangoes! On January 7th 2018, Grumpy announced that Batoto was going to be closing permanently on January 18th 2018. Ixlone told me that I should make a replacement, and on January 11th, I started working on MangaDex, using AniDex's code as starting point.On this day, exactly 1 year ago, I launched MangaDex v1 to the public. Remember those days? The explosion of users meant that the server could never keep up. You would have to load a chapter, go and make a coffee, then come back for it to finish loading. v2 was rolled out in March, with a more powerful server, which meant that you didn't have to wait 10 seconds to load a chapter at peak times. Our userbase continued growing though, and sure enough, the server was upgraded once again with the roll out of v3 in August. Growth has been steady since then, but another massive increase in users occurred over the Christmas holidays (a 20% increase, see stats below), resulting in yet another server upgrade.As you can see, we currently have 2.2 million monthly visitors. Right now, Google Analytics reports over 4,000 users online at peak times, sometimes as high as 4,500. But these numbers do not take into account people who use adblock (about 70% of our users do use adblock), so the real number is probably closer to 14,000 users online at peak times, and 7.5 million users monthly visitors.More powerful servers correspond to a higher running cost for MangaDex. Luckily, thanks to our generous userbase, this has not been a problem, and I have been able to keep my initial promise of not using ads. In the coming year, we may explore additional methods of fundraising, like selling merchandise. Based on the other thread to gauge interest, it looks feasible!So anyway, a year later, we're still alive and kicking. What do we have planned for v4?- The limited API that the site currently uses will be rewritten into a proper API.- This will allow the development of an app for Android and iOS, which is one of the most requested features that we currently do not have.- Allowing users to download a limited number of chapters a day (without relying on third party scripts).- More integration with mangadex.com - a custom reader plugin for group blogs which would use the MD image servers.- The site will be comprehensively translated into all the languages that we support (there's a lot more room for growth in non-English territories).- Reviews and recommendationsOne last thing: as we rely more on social media for growth (our google links have mostly been removed), please support us by following us on Twitter and liking us on our Facebook Enjoy your mangoes!



@

I'll just add thanks to everyone who has helped out - staff and non-staff - over the past year. With a special mention for the initial surge of Power Uploaders who spent countless hours uploading literally hundreds of thousands of chapters to get the site populated.



And for all the groups who choose to upload here and make the site somewhere worth visiting.



@



Busy as ever improving MD and breaking things, in this exact order. Many great things are to come , so stay tuned.



Bonus meme:

Spoiler Came for the mango, stayed for the memes.Busy as ever improving MD and breaking things, in this exact order. Many great things are to come, so stay tuned.Bonus meme:



@



The best web-based reader software in the whole business as well as various other features and improvements coming as always! Some of it maybe even this year! :^) I think it was not even a week later from when I decided to start doing a bit of scanlation as a hobby to Batoto announcing they were going to close down. To make sure I had a future place to post my stuff on, I started helping out with MangaDex in whatever ways I could. Somehow I'm now working on the site instead of uploading for it, lol. Thanks for all the critique, help and support you've given us.The best web-based reader software in the whole business as well as various other features and improvements comingas always! Some of it maybe even this year! :^)



@

After batoto's passing i was searching for a new reader and found mangadex. Seeing how promising it looked and wanting to help out i dumped my small manga collection on here. I thought that be all. But no, ixlone had to rope me in to become a moderator. So now i help others find the right way and fix their (tiny) mistakes.

I hope we can bring our readers the best manga reading experience on the net, and to the scanlators the best place to put their scans for fans to enjoy.

We managed to do quite a lot in our first year, so cheers to YOU our dear readers and scanlators! And hopefully we'll keep each other company for many more years.



@

I never visited batoto and used to read on various aggregators, but happened to catch a post on r/manga that led me here. I am glad to be part of a manga reading site with no ads and no aggregator bullshit, and am very grateful to the wonderful people here at Mangadex that helped get me into scanlation.





@

I'm very proud to be a part of the MD team and a part of this community. I think we've done good work in engaging the readers and scanlators by running monthly contests and doing bi-monthly group interviews. My goal is to make sure that everyone knows that MD isn't *just* a reader. We're here to engage readers and scanlators alike into forming a closely knit community where we can all share the same love of manga. I look forward to working with my fellow staff members and our readers in 2019 to make MD the most vibrant fan community anywhere!



@

Having been an early reader of manga on batoto and a long time staff member since back in 2012 I was saddened greatly when it shut down early last year. However, in the void it left behind I am happy to see how much MangaDex and its community has grown over the past year. I look forward to the next year and how much it will continue to improve and add more great features for both scanlators and readers alike.



@

I used to read manga without giving a second thought to what site I used or the fact that there were actual people working to translate it. MangaDex brought me into the world of scanlation and I'm grateful to all the people who were patient enough to help and teach me. Helping out readers who are in the same position I was in before is all I can do to show my thanks. I hope MangaDex will become popular enough that I'll find people using it in real life, if you ever visit DisneyWorld let me know and I'll come say hi!



@

I was saddened to see Batoto die, yet excited to see MangaDex quickly rise from the ashes. While having hopes that MangaDex could be "more," I thought about how most scanlation sites don't utilize social media too much, so I sought to join the team and have been working our social since. MangaDex itself, social media, Discord, a blogging site just for scanlators, community contests, etc. I love that we keep working to do more.



It's really great to be a part of helping scanlators and those that enjoy their work.



(Shoutout to my Twitter friends that help me find great content to share through the MangaDex Twitter account!)



Lastly, I'd like to take a moment and once again stress how thankful the MD team is to you, our audience. Whether you be a scanlator, a site supporter, or a reader, your participation and support is what makes us great and propels us to new heights of popularity! 2019 is going to be our year. Count on it! It's been a wild ride, folks! It's a bit hard to believe that MangaDex has been around for a whole year but we're still here and still growing! Despite the many challenges we've seen that comes with a site that is exploding in popularity, we've always been able to rise to the occasion. It's all thanks to our readers and supporters that we've come this far. We hope you'll take care of us this upcoming year as well.Most all of staff wanted to say something to everyone. Holo wanted to give some insight into the current state of MD and give a glimpse of the future! The rest of us followed up with a few words on what MD has meant to us. We'll also be announcing the winner of the Mega Contest. This is going to be a super long post so I hope everyone will bear with us.Next, we'd like to take a moment to announce the winner of the Mega Contest , @ NobunagaOda ! It was pretty hard to choose between designs as it was a pretty crowded field of winners. Ultimately, My Neighbor MangaDex (as staff has so named it) won!Click the spoiler to check out the winning image!Several staff members complained that they could only cast one vote! I will be contacting the winner within a couple of days to award them their prizes which include:$40 in Amazon gift cards, courtesy of @ Zephyrus and @ Holo A mousepad courtesy of @ Holo A t-shirt with the winning design on it, courtesy of @ Holo A triple A game title courtesy of @ Lymus I'd like to thank everyone who participated and put in time and effort in this contest. We appreciate each and every one of you! It means a lot to staff that so many of you enjoy the community enough to take time out of your busy schedules to participate in these contests. And don't worry, I've already got something great cooked up for February. =)On a related note, the response to our poll regarding whether or not MD should sell merch has been much more positive than we expected. We will be contacting artists at some point in the future to discuss featuring their work in our merchandise. Unfortunately, I can't say when that might be as we are still discussing details. Just keep a look out!Next, let's hear a few words from our staff members: Holo - Overlord Ixlone - Admin rdn - Developer Teasday - Developer Lymus - Moderator Robo - Moderator Zephyrus - Moderator Electromaster - Moderator Plykiya - Public Relations Henny - Public RelationsLastly, I'd like to take a moment and once again stress how thankful the MD team is to you, our audience. Whether you be a scanlator, a site supporter, or a reader, your participation and support is what makes us great and propels us to new heights of popularity! 2019 is going to be our year. Count on it! ago by Last edited 2 yearsby Robo