Manga Traders

Posted by Yukimura on 07/14/2009 1:47 am

Mangatraders received a letter (by snail mail no less) requesting we remove all series written/ owned by mangaka Rumiko Takahashi (reportedly the wealthiest mangaka in Japan).  We have complied with this request and removed the following series from Mangatraders:

InuYasha
Maison Ikkoku
Mermaid Saga
One-Pound Gospel
Ranma 1/2
RIN-NE A.K.A Kyokai no Rinne
Rumic Theater A.KA.
Rumic World Trilogy
Urusei Yatsura

In other, slightly better news, after around 2 years and some 3000 new series all (well 99.7%) of the series on MT now have non zero MT ratings.  The reason this is only slightly good news is because I have decided that I hate statistics and don't want to work on them anymore so have implemented a different but still rather lame 'rating' system to replace the previous even more lame 'rating' system.  In case you didn't know the MT Ratings are really MT Rankings, since relative rankings between series and 'Top Ten' lists are all most people seem to care about anyway.  Personally I don't see how you would think stuff like Naruto and Haou Airen can be compared on the same scale in a meaningful way.  In any case, the rating system is confusing, shameful, and ultimately just boils down to a popularity contest.

I will let you in on one little secret though, most of the rankings are pretty much equal if you look closely enough.  To create the rankings each series was given an aggregate score on a 1-100 scale.  However only one series could possibly get 100 and to do that it would have to be the highest ranked across all the criteria measured.  Of course getting this is next to impossible so the way things worked out of the 4,879 active series at the time of calculation only 133 had values above the 20-30 range.  The difference between any two ranks below about 100 is significantly smaller than the differences between many of the series closer to the top.  Does this mean anything?  Frankly, I have no idea, as I said, I hate statistics and don't want to think about them anymore.

In other, even better news, there are some major (at least in terms of the amount of work I put in) upgrades and new features on the horizon.  Unfortunately every time I feel like I'm done working I or someone else comes up with a decent idea that could be rolled into the upgrade and I have to push the release date back to implement it.  Hopefully that'll calm down soon and I'll be able to actually get the upgrades up for public use within the next week or two, but I've been saying that to myself for at least 3 weeks now so yeah...

In closing, go buy Rumiko Takahashi's new manga Rin-ne (or read it online for free since there's apparently  a website where you can do that legit now).  With her being the richest mangaka in Japan she's probably been hit much harder by the global recession than any of us poor working folk and needs our support if she's going to continue to eek out an existence in the harsh and cruel world of millionaires.

Posted by zraith on 06/26/2009 7:43 am

This week, our manga spotlight has shined on Dengeki Daisy & Yotsubato!! If you are unfamiliar with these manga be sure to check them out!

Dengeki Daisy

Series Summary:
Teru, who lost her only remaining relative, her older brother, is cheered on by a mail from an enigmatic person, DAISY, who she can contact via the cellphone her brother gave her. One day, through an unexpected incident, Teru ends up working as a servant for the delinquent school janitor, Kurosaki. But this scoundrel, Kurosaki is really…!?



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Yotsubato!

Series Summary:
Yotsubato! is centered on Yotsuba Koiwai, a five-year-old adopted girl who is energetic, cheerful, curious, strange, and quirky—so strange and quirky, in fact, that even her own father calls her a weirdo. She is also initially ignorant about many things a child her age would be expected to know, among them doorbells, escalators, air conditioners, and even playground swings. This naiveté is the premise of humorous stories where she learns about, and frequently misunderstands, everyday things.

Posted by Yukimura on 04/02/2009 1:05 am

It has come to my attention that some of you had some trouble digesting my previous post which contained an atypical garnish of lies to add flavor to yet another hearty portion of my typical straight shooting.  To clarify what is or is not the case I am making this special post to explain the events of the last week or so with respect to Mangatraders.com without making up random facts meant to entertain and/or mislead unwary minds.

NOTE: It has also come to my attention that I wrote a bit of code to cut off these posts so they wouldn't show up as such long bricks of text on the front page, I kept forgetting to make use of it...until now!

Click the link to see the full post and have your mind cleansed of the bitter taste of falsehood.

Posted by Yukimura on 02/23/2009 10:58 am

It's a short month but costs are the same and donations are low once again as we enter the final week of the month.  As many of you should know by now I really hate having to make these sorts of posts.  I feel that those who can and wish to donate would have already done so.  If I have to keep reminding people it seems like a sign that the site isn't valuable enough to the community support itself.  In any case, I've gotten word from the top that if we don't meet our donation goal this month then everything will probably be shut down as it's a lot of hassle to keep MT running especially while taking care of a family.  If the community can't keep the site afloat then that's just the way it is.  It's mildly ironic that during the month of February we introduced several new and I believe useful features with even more planned yet this seems to be one of the worst months for donations in terms of % of goal reached / % of days left in month.  I have no evidence that these two events are related, but it's still worth a sad chuckle to know that the more we did the less people we able or willing to give.  I'll save the whole reflections on the site speech for if the site really does have to shut down but hopefully it won't come to that.  I haven't looked that hard into the status of the scanslation community recently but from what I have seen and heard post count requirements and other forms of scanslations for false friendship policies seem to be more prevalent now than they were a few years ago.  I guess I should be thankful I've spent so much time working on this site that I don't have time to read much manga.  But, there are still 6 days left till the end  of the month and you all have managed to save the site before, can you do it again?

tl;dr We need to make $330US in 6 days or the site shuts down!

EDIT: Apparently we received over $350 in about 5 hours.  Our thanks to all those who donated both before and after this post.  But please remember I'll be right back here with another alarmist posts near the end of next month if the same sort of behavior persists...

Posted by Deadfire on 09/21/2008 1:00 am

Some of you may have noticed that the theme of the forums have changed.(Some of you are also still on the front page mindlessly leaching and not caring what I typed here as well).

However in any case I'm going to hear about it. so I'm going to make this post telling you that it was done and so all the haters of this change have someone to target with their angry messages and movements that I can't see. I'll also have this topic up so that people can give feedback to the new theme.

With that being said flame away.

A secondary note is that if anyone would like to assist with the making of some images for the forum and prehaps the main page in the future I'll be welcome to you post so and/or give me a PM. I am asking for some experience for this venture, so your naruto fanart you made in MS paint isn't going to cut it.


That is all for me, I come back to F*** up your stuff, and insult you another time (said in a french accent all the while)