A virtual "scanlation currency" as an incentive to revive dead projects

[AB2000]

How about a virtual scanlation currency? Not a real one, of course, it would be mostly a cosmetics to show off.

For example, for every month of membership on MD and for every uploaded chapter, people and groups would earn 1 point of virtual currency.
And people could offer a reward in that fake currency for groups to revive the dead projects they like.

That could be an incentive for big groups to do other stuff than just competing for best-sellers.
Because no one needs to offer a reward to see the best-sellers scanlated.
Reviving small dead projects could thus bring more virtual currency, and thus more pride to groups.

 

[sterven]

so a fake currency with no tangible benefits. Why would anybody care?

 

[AB2000]

People would care because they could show off.
And we could make use of that shallow pride to revive cool projects.

 

[sterven]

while i can get behind the sentiment i'm not naive enough to believe this would incentivise enough people to actually work. Fake internet points are just not enough these days.

 

[konzolmester]

For future supporters when the donation claim works again, it would be no problem.
But as mentioned above those grps have no use for it.
If you read mangas you know a lot of "grps" need the money badly, some of them for medical reasons and support family.

 

[solstice258]

If every uploaded chapter rewarded points, I think the type of people who care about fake internet points would translate easy short chapter titles and wouldn't put in too much effort.
I'm not a scanlator but imo the best reward for scanlators _{(after donations I guess)} is nice comments and people's gratitude.

 

[AB2000]

@sterven @konzolmester Some groups want real money indeed.

But other groups want just fame, by having the most readers and being the first to release the latest chapter for some best-seller. That reader counter is also kind of "fake internet points".

That's why you can find 5Toubun scanlated in a lot of languages, including double releases in English, whereas a ot of small projects are just dead because they don't bring many readers.

I suggest taking advantage of the lust for fame that make groups compete, to divert the efforts towards different series. That fake money could be used for that.

It's stupid to have 10 groups competing for the same best-seller that'll get scanlated anyway, while cool small series get nothing.

@solstice258 Yes, but uploading 100 small chapters would bring only 100 points. If 40 readers offer a total of 200 points to scanlate a single chapter, they can compete.
Getting nice comments and gratitude is nice, but they don't help me find someone to scanlate some dead projects I like...

 

[sterven]

@AB2000

But other groups want just fame

You're absolutely correct on this man and i'm sure you could find some groups willing to participate but can you honestly tell me there are enough groups willing and able to set aside time and energy to scanlate random dead series for this to be viable? I don't think so because if that were the case then the dropped manga wish list would be a huge success and we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place. After all the groups can already sate their lust for fame and glory without tangible benefits there.

 

[AB2000]

@sterven

can you honestly tell me there are enough groups willing and able to set aside time and energy to scanlate random dead series for this to be viable?

No, I can't. However, we can't be sure whether I'm right or wrong if we don't try.

Moreover, adding a new kind of "fake internet points" could be an incentive for new scanlators.
For example, scanlating something and get 200 readers for an English-speaking release might not seem motivating enough.
But, if we add to this some virtual currency as a reward for the scanlation, then that new scanlator could motivate other groups to translate things he/she cannot handle otherwise (for example because they're in a language he/she can't translate and find a translator to help).
That could make scanlation attractive to new people.

 

[Richman]

I don't think this would work, it would just devolve into competition, and that's not why this site was created.

 

[sterven]

@AB2000

However, we can't be sure whether I'm right or wrong if we don't try.

You're right we won't know till we try however as a pragmatic person I don't see this succeeding as such i'm going to stand by my decision to oppose this. If the staff decide to implement this and
it works hats off to you man if not expect an I told you so (lol).

 

[MavB_Ver]

You mean like, you can use that currency to buy some flashy badges to show off in your profile or something right? I don't think just the number alone would be attractive enough...

 

[Holo]

We should call the virtual currency "mangoes"

 

[justforthelulz]

@Holo

 

[Richman]

I have 2 .txt files named "mangos" and "mangos2.0" that have the urls of different titles i was reading at the time lol.

 

[Halo]

for every uploaded chapter

@Lymus is going to be so fucking rich.

 

[Teddy]

Fun idea also @halo gifs are on point

 

[BzzBzz]

> If you read mangas you know a lot of "grps" need the money badly, some of them for medical reasons and support family.

Ahahahahahaha. Someone should stop being a naive 4-year-old kid and stop believing every bullshit on the internet.

 

[bigtiddyoneesan]

We should call the virtual currency "mangoes"

I was legit thinking the same thing as I was reading this thread, and was going to post it. But it looks like an admin beat me to it.

OP, I don't think that this is a bad suggestion. Finding a way to incentivize more translations, particularly of dropped manga, is a good thing. But taking the effort to introduce and implement a system like this without providing reasonable evidence or a valid analogy is simply not likely to happen.

If anyone has any evidence of a similarly structured 'virtual currency'/'point system' working in the realm of what is basically free work, feel free to share it here. As it stands, implementing this system based on just this thread (as it is now) alone would be taking far too big of a risk. I would also welcome an incentive for more dropped manga to be scanlated, but the current system does work just fine imo, so introducing a game changer such as this should not be taken lightly.

If you read mangas you know a lot of "grps" need the money badly, some of them for medical reasons and support family.

Why type 'groups' as "grps"? Also, yea ^above^ post beat me to the second thing I was gonna say lol.

 

[ThinkPositive]

Now's the time to implement De-Fi Ethereum contracts into Mangadex, so we can place bids on certain manga we want translated.
Consider this:
"I want the Manga Drop-Dead Gummybear in english, but no one's scanlating it."
"I'll pay 1 dollar for every chapter released"
Now you get 5 people to do that, and BLAM! KABLAMO! KABLAM! You have Drop-Dead Gummybear released weekly.
But what if the release sucks?
How would you know? You don't know what the original text said anyways. And it's only 1 darrah, add a stop-limit based on time like 1 darrah every 7 days or w/e