According to the
Interest Stack Guidelines, we should refrain from "including e-mail addresses and
other URLs". I see some stacks with YouTube links. So is it alright to add YouTube links after all? Only links from official YouTube channels similar to when submitting CMs, PVs and trailers to the anime DB? How about Spotify links for stacks about anime music? Are those allowed?
I suppose Wikipedia, ANN and AniDB are allowed as sources or citation since most anime and manga pages on MAL have them. And some of MAL’s official stacks also cite Wikipedia as a primary source but no direct link to Wiki articles are included; I think it would be nice if those citations link to the Wiki article cited. But how about links to official reading sites like BOOK☆WALKER, ComicWalker, Crunchyroll, INKR, Renta!, futekiya, Lezhin, Azuki, Manga Club, MangaPlaza and so on? MAL has streaming links on the sidebar of anime pages but none for manga pages; AniList has streaming links available on both their anime and manga pages. Will interest stacks with such links be unlisted? I'm thinking of adding official links to reading order guides I plan on making but I'm not sure if such links will be allowed. It'd be nice if MAL also has streaming links on manga pages.
Anime-Planet’s ‘Custom Lists’ have a comment section. Is it possible for MAL’s ‘Interest Stacks’ to have one as well? Maybe it can be similar to how the comment section is like for mangaka and seiyuu. It’d also be nice to see who restacked your stack. You’d be able to find more stacks similar to your taste that way (of course, you’d have to check their user profile).
The sort feature (Recently Added, Author Update, Most Restacked, Alphabetical) is available on the 'Interest Stacks' tabs on anime and manga pages. How about adding that to the 'Interest Stacks' main page as well? Could the sort feature and 'My Interest Stacks' button available on users' interest stack pages be added on the ‘
Interest Stacks’ main page as well? It'll make navigating interest stacks a lot easier if those features are carried over to the interest stacks main page. For example, a user wouldn't need to go back to their profiles to check their interest stacks page/restacks. Yes, there's a link to a user's interest stacks page found on the hamburger or menu button but having the 'My Interest Stacks' button beside the '+ New Interest Stack' button on the interest stacks main page just like on our profiles is much nicer. Also, I wish there are separate tabs for anime and manga stacks on the ‘Interest Stacks’ tab on our profiles similar to the ‘Interest Stacks’ main page. That would make finding and sorting stacks easier. I also want that feature for the ‘Recommendations’ tab (something like All, Anime, Manga). And a ‘Completed’ tab for stacks a user already completely watched/read would be an awesome addition.
I was also annoyed by the placement of the ‘Interest Stacks’ button on the ‘Community’ tab at first. I was used to seeing the ‘Forum’ button first. Now, I don’t mind it that much but having the ‘Forum’ button back on top would be good. But what’s still bugging me is the ‘My Interest Stacks’ page. The stacks and its contents are not clickable when making a draft. If I have to check something on a certain anime or manga page I’d have to open another tab and search for the anime or manga. So many steps. Please make the titles on drafts clickable so we don’t have to click ‘Go to Restacks’ again and be redirected to the ‘Interest Stacks’ tab on our profiles.
Please make the spoiler button applicable to all pages even when moving to the next page. Having to click it again and again is kinda annoying. I wish there’s also a search bar on the ‘Interest Stacks’ tab on our profiles so we could easily find something from the ones we already restacked. Or have a pin or sticky option for a stack (or two) a user would want to show on the very top of their stacks page.
Regarding badges for challenges on our profiles, they’re currently not clickable nor do they direct to the challenge pages. It'd be nice if badges direct to their specific challenge page/thread or interest stack and
show labels when you hover over them. Maybe even include all challenge stacks on the ‘Challenges’ tab and just gray out the old ones, separate into ’New/Current Challenges’ and ‘Past/[Closed] Challenges’. Sometimes you just want to see which challenges you participated in.
Right now, it only shows the current challenges. You’ll have to go to ‘MyAnimeList Stacks’ tab/button to search for past challenges (I know the total of challenges now is just 4 but those will be harder to find later on as there’ll be new challenges and more stacks made). Links to forum threads about the challenges by the MAL team should also be linked on a specific challenge stack page and a photo of its corresponding badge should be shown as well.
Oh, and tags please. Maybe even a ‘More’ feature for personal comments or ‘Notes’ similar to the one on ‘About Me’ so that users can add notes that they can only see for the stacks made by others that they restacked since there’s no way another user can edit or reorder a stack made by someone else to their liking.
I think the emoji reaction buttons implemented in the new review system is better suited to interest stacks. Maybe add a link to a user’s ‘Interest Stack’ page after someone restacks their stack similar to the ‘More reviews by [username]’ when liking a review.
Also, sometimes cover images have different dimensions. Hopefully, more cover images will get submitted and approved so we can swap to the cover we prefer for our stacks.
Some of the official stacks by MAL have more than 50 items. How about allowing users to add more than 50 items on their stacks too? Maybe offer that to MAL Supporters?
One more thing, the official threads by the MAL team regarding interest stacks should also be linked on the sidebar of the ‘Interest Stacks’ main page. So users wouldn’t have to search the forums or ask assistance from others via DMs. Threads get buried in the forums. And not everyone checks the ones with ’sticky’.
Anyhow, the “BBCode/Markup on descriptions” feature is something I’m looking forward to. The ‘Interest Stacks’ is by far my favorite update on the site.
I know we can change the covers for each entry by clicking 'Swap' and reorder each entry for the preview image, the first three entries will be included in the preview image. But I wish there's an option to choose the preview image from all the entries included in a stack instead of just reordering them every time.