Kineta said:
For many years, MAL's manga database has kept strict control over digital-only manga content, requiring webcomics to later be released in print or otherwise meet very specific conditions.
Today, we have updated the guidelines to relax these rules and include:
✔️
Series released on whitelisted webcomic/webtoon platforms by digital-only publishing companies
- Whitelist as of July 2022: Cycomics, GANMA!, KakaoPage, Lezhin Comics Webtoon, Naver Webtoon
- For now, only series that are translated in English and that begin exclusively on these platforms will be added.
- This will help us process high-priority entries that many members want to add to their lists.
- These restrictions will be removed and more platforms will be added in the future after internal review.
✔️ Official print publisher pages on other digital platforms
(e.g. Gene pixiv, Niconico Yuri Hime)
✔️ Digital magazines from print publishers, even without an official web domain
✔️ Ebook volumes distributed and sold through retail sites by print publishers, as long as they are of sufficient length
For the last 3 months, our Manga DB team has slowly been adding digital-only webtoons from the above platforms and will continue adding more!
We currently have 800+ titles which were not eligible previously, such as...:
We've also updated some other sections of the guidelines, the following of which may be of interest to some members:
✔️ Anthology recollections of one-shots are now allowed under certain conditions
(e.g. Shiver: Itou Junji Selected Stories)
✔️ Reprinted one-shots will be included in the chapter counts of all entries, not just the first
(e.g. Bus Hashiru, Nanairo Sekai)
✔️ Regular novels that are a prequel/sequel/spin-off/side story to an existing anime/manga will be added (only direct adaptations were allowed previously)
✔️ Doujinshi printed and sold through mail order via doujin retail sites are also eligible (expanded from only those sold in doujin events)
If you are interested in helping us add webtoons and have a pretty good grasp of our digital-only content rules, please keep in mind that we're also
recruiting Manga Moderators. If you know any Korean, be sure to include that on your application, too!
Full Manga DB Guidelines available here