Hide groups or prioritize groups :planned:

[acs87]

There’s many titles that at some point we’re translated by more than one group. Some titles have duplicate entries of the same chapter but by different scanlation groups. I think it would be cool if followed groups are prioritized and the reader shows you chapters by that group and not another one. Or if you can hide groups which you think just aren’t very good.

Just a thought.

 

[Plykiya]

@acs87 Blacklisting groups is something we're definitely considering. Prioritizing could be possible as well.

 

[Majestic_Canary]

I'd also like to drop my two cents on this as well, seeing as I seem to be running across more groups whose whole shtick is sniping the ends of series and/or garbage quality speed scans a chapter ahead of the group who is has been doing the series.

It might be a bit off-topic, but it could utilize this system as well: maybe something like a karma-esque system to change the group name appearance if they receive large numbers of blacklists? (Potentially something similar to how the usernames are altered based on roles on the site?)

 

[Oeconomist]

Allowing users to blacklist groups may be worth implementing, but it will only work against those who are sincerely trying to upload worthwhile, non-spoiling scanlations. Those who are trying to cause difficulties will just replace their accounts and group-designations.

And let's imagine a group that is sincere but incompetent, which thereby finds itself widely blacklisted and perhaps given a changed appearance (as per the suggestion of @dpmynig). If they get better with time, how do they recover from the blacklisting and from the changed appearance except by migrating to new accounts and creating a new group, just as would the malevolent uploaders?

 

[acs87]

@Oeconomist Then I guess it sucks to be them for being incompetent once, or sucks to be me cause now I won’t know that they do good scanlations now.

 

[Oeconomist]

@acs87—

Okay, but the bottom line is that [ol]malevolent agents will evade blacklisting, and
not all of those seeking to evade blacklisting will be malevolent.[/ol]

 

[Majestic_Canary]

@Oeconomist
You do bring up a good point on my suggestion, maybe a weighted system for the name change idea?
Something along the lines of total upload views against blacklists before a visual change is implemented? That would at least stop a crusade against some of the more big name groups covering the popular series, as well as repair reputations if a honest group gets better over time. The suggestion also doesn't really hurt the group it makes readers aware that something (be it bad translations, sniping, etc.) has made enough people (whatever that arbitrary number ends up being) blacklist them.

At the end of the day, without a screening system to check every upload before it hits the public view there is a chance there will be snipers and low-effort scan groups. Even if there are groups that are popular for those reasons, if someone doesn't want to see that they should be able to blacklist that just like how they can do it to a tag they don't like. At some point creating new accounts and uploading is too much effort to be worth the trouble.

 

[crazybars]

@acs87
@dpmynig
@Plykiya

Guys. . . . . think about what you guys are saying? Do you really want to give someone the ability to censor and control which chapter release of a manga series you read?


Blacklisting bad scanslators sounds like a great idea, except that the cost is too high. You are essentially handing authority to someone or an algorithmn to censor content. You guys are essentially proposing a solution in which the end result will be to create an Officer or Agent whose duty and responsibility is to curate and censoring scanslation content. My question again is why? That's dangerous. . . . .


Who the hell can you trust to be incorruptible enough for a decade or two to tirelessly go through, search and prioritize scanslation groups? What criteria is used to judge a scanslation group? Quality? Or politics? Because I've seen positions of power almost always eventually be subverted for Politics, especially since post 2016. I've seen it happen too many times in the recent decade to not be concerned when it's planned indirectly here.


Why give someone authority to do the reader's own job? Why not instead give the user the ability to blacklist a scanslation group instead. Same result, no one has authority etc. We will be good, no one has to do any more work than necessary. Logical and no risk.

Once you delegate authority to someone to censor content and prioritize groups etc, you open yourself to corruption and various loophole abuses. Trust me, I've seen it happen in pretty much everywhere, when you delegate responsibilities to someone,

 

[acs87]

@crazybars

Why not instead give the user the ability to blacklist a scanslation group instead.

This is the feature that we’re talking about. I wasn’t talking about anyone moderating groups or anything.

 

[crazybars]

@acs87

The individual user blocking or blacklisting is good. That's not what I meant.

Plikyia earlier indicated Prioritizing groups is planned, that indicates moderation of some kind.
That is. . . . . not welcome or comforting to hear because who will decide the criteria to prioritize the group?


Who or what could we trust to be incorruptible to judge etc for the group prioritizations. . . . . . that's dangerous.


*edit: 4/13/19. Yeah I better change this response to make it more clear. . . . .

 

[acs87]

@crazybars

That's also something controlled by the user and not by someone else. Prioritizing, as in, showing one group before another one. In the reader, for example, prioritize a group of your choice if there's multiple scanlations.

 

[crazybars]

@acs87

Ah, okay. I see. That makes more sense. . . . . .


Derp, that just means I wasted everyone's time. . . . . my bad.

 

[Majestic_Canary]

@crazybars

It looks like we're all on the same page now but just to alleviate any confusion I might have made:

Boiled down my idea is just like the rating on a series that everyone can contribute to and see the overall score but for groups; heavily blacklisted groups (like bad series) are easy to see via the indicator (i.e. the score or the text changes if that's what we're sticking with for the idea).

I'm definitely not saying if they hit that point to bar them from uploading, just flag it to users so they can look the group up for themselves if it's worth their time to read that group.