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Jan 1, 2021 11:48 PM
#1
Lead Admin
Faerie Queen

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Aug 2007
6391

2020 Yearly Wrap-Up...

...in Code
MAL's business and development team were hard at work over the last year, even with all the mess and complications of pandemics and lockdowns, to continue improving the site for our community. Here are some of the major changes and events we saw over the last year:
  • Carole & Tuesday 3rd Live Free Global Stream—We kicked off this year with a free global stream of the 3rd Carole & Tuesday Live event on the newly introduced MAL Live Streaming Platform.
  • Duplicate Account Scoring Correction System—As promised at the end of 2019, we rolled out our system to correct for rating troll scoring votes in February and recalculated all DB scores site-wide. Despite some concerned PMs I've received recently regarding Shingeki no Kyojin, the system is continuing to work well at combating duplicate account scoring.
    New Public API—After extensive beta testing by a group of trusted 3rd party developers and the creation of a new API area in your account settings, MAL's API v2 was made public for all users. The next version is currently being beta tested and we hope to see more development on the API in the next year.
  • Official Android & iOS Apps (Phase 1)—We launched brand new, made from scratch, apps for MAL on both Android and iOS systems! The apps are still in the first phase so include only basic anime features for now, but new features have been in development for the last weeks and you can expect to see more updates on these early in 2021.
  • Two-Factor Authentication—For users looking to add an additional layer of security to their account, we implemented 2FA near the end of the year. This can be turned on (or off) via your account settings.
  • Performance & Security Upgrades—Our development team has put a lot of time and effort into upgrading MAL's backend code over the last year, to keep the site both secure and functioning optimally. Since the site is a mix of new and very old code, sometimes the delicate balance can be thrown off, and developers and users alike were tearing out their hair during various periods of frequent downtimes in 2020. As MAL's community continues to grow, these upgrades become more and more important, even though they're development efforts we can't really "see" (unless something goes wrong...) A big thanks to our development engineering team for their constant dedication to keeping MAL up and running.

...in Community
Come hell or high water, MAL's recurring community events continue on. If you haven't done so yet, make a New Year's resolution to try at least one in 2021!
  • 2020 Anime Watching & Manga Reading Challenges—Want to increase your anime/manga power levels and diversify your list(s)? Our yearly challenges are a great way to do this. Watch for our 2021 challenges opening within the next week!
  • My MALentine Story: 2nd Edition—This year, we brought back a previous Valentine's event where users emptied text bubbles on manga panels and put their own text to create their own story. MALentine's event changes up each year, so keep an eye out for our 2021 plans.
  • Scoring System Update: Express yourself with emoji 💯 💩—We "updated" MAL's scoring system to be hip and popular with the young folk by taking out scores and implementing emoji for our yearly April Fool's prank. Some people always forget every year~ >:]
  • Easter Bunny's Beach Episode!—MAL's Easter Bunny got tired of pandemic spring and decided to race towards summer instead, before being stopped by 538 MAL detectives! Our participation stayed high this year and we hope to get even more participants in 2021 as well! MAL's yearly Easter event involves a site-wide treasure hunt (including riddles!) to save Easter, and is a favourite of many community members.
  • Fantasy Anime League 2020: Spring & Fall Editions—FAL continues to be a popular event for many users. The goal of the event is to guess which new anime will be the most watched and talked about show that season. Fall 2020 is wrapping up next week, but the event should return for the Spring 2021 season.
  • MALoween✟Mansion: Kimitachi no Naku Koro ni 7 -When You Cry-—Our spooky mansion returned for its seventh year, filled with challenges and quests. Only 281 users attempted the event, so we'll be hoping to see an increase in that number next year. Still it's super fun for the staff to see many returning users and new faces each year.
  • Secret Santa—Final user count still to come, but Santa's Workshop shipped out a record-breaking 1,665 gifts this year! If you missed it this year, be sure to sign up in the first week of December 2021.

...in Contributions & Crew
A very big thank you to all our active users who participate in our community, are committed to improving our databases, write reviews and recommendations to help fellow users, and who make up MAL. We are now 9.1 million registered users!

Special shout-outs to:
  • MAL Discord—A big thanks to all our Discord staff for moderating our server which continues to grow since we opened it in April 2017. Feel free to join and chat about anime, manga, and more.
  • MAL Rewrite—Our DB synopses rewrite project marked its 5th year anniversary since reboot, and the club is still going strong~
Last but never least, a very big thank you to the ever-growing and dedicated staff. In 2020, we did massive recruitments across almost all teams and half of the members you see on the staff page weren't staff at this time last year. I am constantly grateful for the time and energy they give to our site and community to continue to grow it further. Innumerable database additions, edits, requests, reports, sns posts, and problems are processed each and every day of the year (even on Christmas!). MAL wouldn't be MAL without this amazing group of people.

If you would like to join this team and give back to MAL, are well-versed in the guidelines and requirements of your position of interest, and have the motivation to work independently, please consider checking out our Open Applications thread.

Current Statistics—taken on Dec 29th
  • Anime: 17,407 (↑2,397)
  • Manga: 52,769 (↑4,275)
  • Characters: 123,880 (↑6,915)
  • People: 40,044 (↑3,100)
  • News: 10,680 (↑704)
  • Forum: 951,78 (↑27,823)
  • Reviews: 179,210 (↑10,192)
  • Recommendations: 204,820 (↑---)
  • Facebook followers: 616,856 (↑201,079)
  • Twitter followers: 285,400 (↑87,782)

Happy New Year! May 2021 be better than 2020 for all of us...
Jan 2, 2021 12:00 AM
#2
Community Admin
sunny moment

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May 2010
2744
Happy new year everyone! Here's to another year better than the last! :blobdance:
Jan 2, 2021 12:06 AM
#3

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Mar 2015
47081
still waiting for more manga DB mods.
"If taking responsibility for a mistake that cannot be undone means death, it's not that hard to die. At least, not as hard as to live on."
Jan 2, 2021 12:09 AM
#4
(=^・ェ・^=)

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Nov 2013
891
Lots of exciting news for MAL this year with the API and the new mobile app! Hope this effort towards development continues into the new year :D

Cheers, and here's to a happy new year ヾ(@゜▽゜@)ノ

Jan 2, 2021 12:09 AM
#5
lagom
Offline
Jan 2009
105045
>Performance & Security Upgrades—Our development team has put a lot of time and effort into upgrading MAL's backend code over the last year, to keep the site both secure and functioning optimally. Since the site is a mix of new and very old code, sometimes the delicate balance can be thrown off, and developers and users alike were tearing out their hair during various periods of frequent downtimes in 2020. As MAL's community continues to grow, these upgrades become more and more important, even though they're development efforts we can't really "see" (unless something goes wrong...) A big thanks to our development engineering team for their constant dedication to keeping MAL up and running.

might be better for a complete MAL rewrite instead of balancing old code and new code thats like a worse spaghetti code i imagine, balancing those codes will take a lot and a lot of time too instead of the faster time of making a new code from scratch

but Happy New Year MAL!
Jan 2, 2021 12:23 AM
#6
#FreeWatermelon

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Feb 2020
9471
Happy new year!

Hope this year i can participate more refreshing events than i do previously!
Hide and seek is the best offline games on this fatamorgana-called-world-thing. Please comment nicely. I am newbie here.

I'm level on mal-badges. View my badges
Jan 2, 2021 12:24 AM
#7
Review Moderator
Life is strange.

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Jun 2017
1213
As time passes, MAL will only become better and better! Looking forward to see more improvements in the future and how it'll surprise everyone!

あけましておめでとうございます
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Jan 2, 2021 12:31 AM
#8

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Feb 2012
6801
Happy New Year, another great one here at MAL, thanks for all the hard work to everybody, and here's to another even better 2021.
Jan 2, 2021 12:33 AM
#9

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Mar 2018
966
MAL Facebook and Twitter got a nice influx of followers and it was a good year to see API coming back, 2FA being introduced and welcomed the phone app! Can't wait for what happens in 2021 and hope it'll be a better year real-life wise!

Happy New Year :D



☆  PlayStation: KoitoTV
☆  Discord: Koito
☆  Twitch Koito
☆  @Koito91
Jan 2, 2021 12:40 AM
The memelord

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Feb 2020
153
Hoping this year'll be lots of fun

My Candies:

Bonus:
Jan 2, 2021 12:44 AM
Anime Moderator
Grammar Queen

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Jun 2008
3887
Happy new year everyone! Looking forward to a better 2021. Stay safe!
p r o f i l e 👀
Jan 2, 2021 2:11 AM
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Jul 2018
562029
Happy New Year. I joined MAL last year and had a lot of fun!!!

Stay safe and looking forward to see new events like secret Santa!!!!!

Happy New year, stay safe, stay at home healthy! Watch more anime and read more manga than before!
Jan 2, 2021 2:59 AM
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May 2018
21
happy new year and everyone stay safe

I'm level on mal-badges. View my badges.

Jan 2, 2021 3:40 AM
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Oct 2020
20
Hope this year will be good for anime industry, because many anime got delay and were releasing in this year .And also
Jan 2, 2021 3:47 AM
Community Mod
+ Manga DB Staff

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Feb 2017
2399
Happy new year everyone! I can't wait to see what 2021 has in store for MAL. Hopefully, things are only going to get better from now on! I wish everyone to have an amazing year, and may it be better than the last!

Jan 2, 2021 4:02 AM
孔真・コウマコト

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Jun 2017
8060
Happy New Year to everybody and thank you mods for all your hard work!

Pleasing to see to see the Facebook and Twitter followers rising, I hope we’ll be seeing more of the same this year too.

May 2021 be a better year for all. Stay safe and cheers!
#Anime4Life be my Life Motto! #PrayForKyoAni


Jan 2, 2021 4:19 AM

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Sep 2009
3960
Happy New year to everyone and a massive thanks to all of the MAL and Discord staff, you guys are amazing, working so hard during all the events and on a daily basis! Thank You so much for everything you do <3


We're all golden
Sunflwers
on the inside :>
Jan 2, 2021 6:17 AM
Ready to Ruffle

Offline
Oct 2014
576
We may be at the bottom of the staff list and operate mostly off-site, but our effort and achievements as a small group of volunteers is no less significant.

Thanks to a new coordinated team and strategy/visual overhaul in 2020, we now go toe-to-toe with the big boys in the industry, reaching well over a million people with our content every week.

I highly recommend following on Facebook—you'll get to see a lot of cool stuff you won't find anywhere else ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ
Jan 2, 2021 6:57 AM

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Oct 2017
28997
Happy new year ya all! Have fun this year.
Jan 2, 2021 7:20 AM

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May 2009
5817
Happy new year everyone! Damn, 2020 was a weird year and a lot of things happened on MAL! I only realize once I see the wrap-up.
To even more improvements and fun events in 2021!

We need more people to participate in MALoween~ I need more people to read my cringy visual novel. :P

Jan 2, 2021 7:59 AM

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Mar 2016
883
Happy New Year, 2021!

I hope this year will be good for all of us. :D
Jan 2, 2021 8:14 AM

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Mar 2010
56241
Happy new year.

Behold of my awesomeness~
controversial and/or sensitive topics likely devolve into the same repetitive, derogatory, abusive, and harassing comments can no longer be posted.
But my feels.
Jan 2, 2021 8:41 AM

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Jan 2020
7303
Happy new year, everyone! I hope this year is going to be great for all.
Jan 2, 2021 8:51 AM
Manga DB Admin
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Jun 2010
422
I don't like getting caught up in the numbers, but 4275 manga approved is a good sign. That's more than double the number of manga approved in 2019, and nearly five times that of 2018. The total queue didn't go down all that much because users are submitting more manga too, but it gives me hope that the manga DB will eventually return to a more functional state. This wouldn't have been possible without all of the manga mods recruited last year, so huge shout-out to them.
Jan 2, 2021 12:45 PM
ᴛʜʀᴇᴀᴅ★ʀᴇᴀᴘᴇʀ

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Dec 2018
8616
❅ I hope everyone on MyAnimeList had a great New Year's Day!! ❅

Jan 2, 2021 12:53 PM
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Dec 2017
27745
expect the worse hope for the fucking best thats how i'm approaching this year. I don't really do believe in resolutions as i am who i am at the end of the day.

Jan 2, 2021 1:43 PM

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Oct 2018
412
Happy new year, Minna-san! Let's do our best for this year 2021! XD
Forum set made by Nate
Jan 2, 2021 1:47 PM

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Mar 2010
13709
Happy new years!!
Jan 2, 2021 2:25 PM

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Dec 2020
27
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! From your local myanimelist noob
Jan 2, 2021 3:21 PM

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Aug 2010
2649
Happy new years!! Thank you mods for all the hard work in 2020! I only joined one event, but excited for other events coming up in 2021
Jan 2, 2021 3:55 PM

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May 2020
190
Happy new years!! Excited for more events in 2021!
                                              
Jan 2, 2021 6:26 PM

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Aug 2010
3423
Happy New Year 2021 to both the MAL Team and Community!

It will be great if MAL can set-up some kind of public-accessible Issue Tracker and/or Kanban Board for Agile Development.

Opening up the development floor to voluntary contributors can also help speed up the improvement of MAL.
Profile
Post Office
Collection
Hall of Fame
Jan 2, 2021 6:30 PM
lagom
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Jan 2009
105045
only first few days and MAL seems to have a new problem with a new exploit

#SpaghettiCodeStrikesAgain
Jan 3, 2021 12:58 AM

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Nov 2008
1021
And not a single word about making participation in Google's survelliance platform mandatory for communicating on MAL, unless you really consider it a 'security upgrade'. From my point of view - not so much, given the amount of spam messages from a newly created accounts i've witnessed since the implementation of Recaptcha, and i don't even browse forums that much nowadays. So if it doesn't make that much of a difference, why keep (and, presumably, pay for) it?
AnimeThemes.moe <- the largest collection of anime Openings & Endings on the Web
AnimeMusicQuiz.com <- guess an anime from your list by it's Opening/Ending music browser game
Jan 3, 2021 1:35 AM

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Jun 2017
748
I am happy for all the changes that were implemented. Hopefully we get the anti-bot system to eventually prevent favorites and review botting too.
Jan 3, 2021 3:33 AM
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Oct 2020
17
Happy new years!!
thank you very much
Jan 3, 2021 5:10 AM

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Jan 2012
6
Happy new year everyone!
And thanks for the wrap up post
Wandering lost hippie, invested in anime for 18 years. Been watching since the good times, lover of the old times, was dragged through the weird early stages of 2000's, through the depths of hell in the 2010s and came out into the now. Lel. PUMPED FOR ALL THESE 2021 RELEASES
Jan 3, 2021 12:16 PM
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Jul 2011
230
Happy new year everyone!
I can't wait to participate in the 2021 anime challenge this year, my first time ever!
Jan 3, 2021 6:11 PM

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Jan 2010
1675
Happy New Year to everyone on MAL. I hope 2021 will be a bit better for the anime/manga fandom.
Jan 3, 2021 7:50 PM
Mob Character C

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Oct 2009
5399
Happy New Year!!
Good luck with 2021, MAL! Have a nice one!

Enjoy your anime! | Witch Cafe Wisteria
Jan 3, 2021 9:59 PM

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Jun 2017
26
Had a lot of fun doing the anime challenge last year, can’t wait to see what this years challenge looks like
Jan 4, 2021 1:44 PM

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Aug 2020
8845
Happy New Year to all of you. Hope there will be lots of anime releases.

Jan 4, 2021 3:48 PM
Ero Ojisan

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Jun 2019
5446
Happy New Year and thank you for all your hard work.
Jan 5, 2021 8:33 PM
Case is closed!

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Jan 2019
192
Happy new year everyone!!
I hope this year will be great for MAL users (and enjoy anime and manga).

Also, I'm happy to see MAL's progress last year.
Thank you, MAL moderators. I appreciate you guys' contribution to MAL <3
Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines.
Jan 6, 2021 1:47 PM

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Nov 2017
672
Happy New Year!
Jan 7, 2021 11:15 AM
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Dec 2020
11
HAPPY NEWYEAR EVERYONE, HAVE A GREAT DAY AHEAD. A NEWYEAR FOR A NEW ANIME+MANGA.
Mar 23, 2021 10:10 AM

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Mar 2021
117
I'm having a great month, and I wish everyone to have a happy year too.
Apr 20, 2021 8:43 PM

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Sep 2020
17
Can me get a gift card wwww

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