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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: November 3rd, 2023

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  • Alright, updates to my experience with Suwayomi for those that might stumble upon this in the future. Turns out a lot of my problems were solvable.

    The biggest fix I made was running it from SSD rather than straight from my HDD array. This fixed a lot of the slowness. My SSD cache drive on my NAS isn’t the biggest, so I was able to use docker volume mappings to stick the downloads folder onto the array while leaving the rest of the app files on the cache SSD. This has dramatically helped speed things up.

    The other main thing that helped was enabling websockets in my reverse proxy. It turns out that the main reason the web ui was so unresponsive is that it heavily uses websockets to do things like update progress bars and the like. I have to deal with CGNAT, so it is a bit involved to set up (some extra lines in a couple nginx config files), so it isn’t something I do by default for each of my services. It helps dramatically with Suwayomi.

    Since making these improvements, it has been much nicer to use.



  • TIL about suwayomi. I just set it up now and it is interesting. Basically, it is like a hosted version of mihon that lives on a server (it uses the same extensions and can even import a backup from mihon). It works exactly like mihon and many of the menus/settings are exactly the same. Chapters are downloaded and the library is periodically updated exactly like in mihon. You could basically put this on something like a NAS at home and use it like a web version of mihon. Optionally, you can figure out the hosting side of things and have it live at a domain you own, like manga.yourdomain.com behind basic auth.

    The most interesting part of hosting it on the web is that you can install a suwayomi extension in mihon on your mobile device. Then, your mobile device can browse your suwayomi library just like it does any other extension. Reading chapters on either your mobile device or on the suwayomi web ui will mark them as read. Additionally, it means that you can exclusively use the suwayomi extension on your mobile device and leave all the other extension management to the suwayomi install, migrating as needed when sources appear/disappear. All of that would be completely transparent to mihon because it is still just pointing to the same title on suwayomi.

    I am going to be messing around with this. There are some rough edges I have run into. The main issue I am having is that chapter downloads are really slow and the web ui isn’t the most responsive at updating things like download percentages or library updates. I also couldn’t get flaresolverr to work. Disabling that part of the docker compose file got downloads working again (just slow).




  • First things first, this whole situation sucks, and not just for us (users of MD). It is going to suck for these publishers as well. Without sites like MD spreading manga to international audiences, those audiences are simply going to stop reading it and consume some other form of entertainment. The official avenues to get this content largely don’t exist in many parts of the world, and where they do exist kinda (very much) suck. As readership drops, the value of their IP for licensing will also decrease.

    I have a lot more understanding for these companies issuing takedowns for IPs that have been licensed, but the vast swath of unlicensed content (that is almost guaranteed to never be licensed) makes this feel punitive to the community as a whole and vindictive.

    As for the future, I fear that scanlators are going to go a couple different routes:

    • Some scanlators will likely just stop.
    • Some will move to uploading to a different aggregator.
    • Some will only upload to their own site.
    • Some will probably only post on less public forums or chatrooms like a discord server.

    In any case, it is inevitably going to fragment the community.



  • Trying to catch up on things. I have managed to make a dent and get caught up with most of the shows I wanted to. Still to be caught up on are Gundam and Kowloon.

    • Apocalypse Hotel - This show is shaping up to be something truly special. This most recent episode was outstanding. It has blown my expectations out of the water.
    • Ninja and Assassin - Studio Shaft continue to deliver some really great and creative animation to one of this really dark comedy. This most recent episode was overflowing with bountiful jokes.
    • Apothecary Diaries - Has done a really great job of paying off a lot of things from earlier in the season when things felt a bit slow. Looking forward to the coming climax.
    • Evil Lord Isekai - This is just so dumb, but like, in a funny way. There is no substance, but I have had a couple chuckles.
    • Too-Perfect Saint - Overall, this continues to be a solid adaptation. I have liked the way the story was rearranged a bit and have really liked Mia’s side of the story.
    • Rock is a Lady’s Modesty - A bit of a less profanity-laced episode this week, but it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger.



  • Alright, reading between the lines, it looks like Mangadex is pretty much dead as a platform for scanlations. They seem to be now owned by NamiComi, a platform that allows creators to self-publish comics. Then, in this FAQ, the Mangadex staff write:

    We will continue working on the features that make MangaDex great, to make it an even better platform for content creators.

    Combine this with the recent updates to their uploading policies which require an uploader to be the legal rights holder, and it looks like the end of Mangadex scanlation uploads except in very particular circumstances (some twitter series have explicit author permission for example).

    As for this community, in the short term there are no changes other than that I slightly relaxed the rules in the sidebar. Previously I had a rule about preferring mangadex or scanlators’ home sites if possible. However, in light of these events, I suspect there are going to be a wider array of sources for reading.