Doujinshi text-only pages / colophon / artist remarks

I originally didn't want to ask here, but since it was asked again in post #1265813:
What are our rules again on the uploading of these images?
My assumption was - and I think that this is how we always did it - to only upload pages "if they meet the quality criterion" and that we don't care about completion.

Examples of unapproved ones:
post #1255086
post #1155304
post #1115400
post #1088408

I recently flagged post #1260934 and post #1261325 for this reason and they wer reapproved. See the discussion in post #1261325. I asked dean_exia about this:

dean_exia said:

S1eth said:
Paste the clarification for me, please.
I get leaving a "text-only page" within a doujinshi if it is needed for the story, but a colophon adds nothing to the plot or art and they've been mostly deleted / not approved in the past as approving them is against our terms of service.

"Text-only is usually okay for the sake of completeness if it's part of a pool."
It's not found in either wiki or terms of service. I got it from PM exchanges with user​ #1309 instead (including post #1235073 as example).

You can ask the admin about this stuff yourself.

I doubt that jxh meant those kind of text-only pages.

edit: And what about afterword pages?

I thought jxh was against uploading entire doujinshi anyway (since they're against the ToS and everything) so I doubt he'd really care for text-only pages.

Danbooru is not a doujinshi repository (at least in theory) and it doesn't seem like anything of value will be lost without those pages.

Text only pages should not be on danbooru. I suggest to keep those that contain information needed to understand what's going on in a story, though.

Fred1515 said:
... (since they're against the ToS and everything) ...

The situation is kinda vague here. Commercial manga is indeed prohibited, but doujins are sometimes accepted, even non freeware ones. I'm not saying that it should be that way, but that's how it is now.
Personally, I would be fine if we didn't allow uploading of full non-free doujins as well.

But in general, doujins and webcomics have long become a natural part of this site and IMO they should stay. Related text-only pages are a part of a continuous work, so if a doujin was accepted, then they should stay too.

I feel they should be added for completion sake and to give due credits where it's due.

I agree that if a comic is going to be on danbooru, then the artist's afterword, thanks, credits, dedications, etc should be on the site too.

We usually offer artist's commentary from pixiv pages, and the only difference between that and this issue is that an uploader is not likely able to transcribe the Japanese text into a comment below the final page, so needs to upload the image.

I've often wondered if making a habit of tacking text-only pages onto the next or previous illustrated page couldn't help here.

i also like to raise the issue regarding textless/imageless posts which seems to be related to "completion sake".

is "part of the pool" enough justification? how about enforcing the danbooru quality? or is this another special case?

i'm asking this for consistency because these can be viewed objectively 100% without glossing over something like "artistic merit".

the posts in question are those under blank_page but something like post #1028999 was not approved. how come? what is the difference?

what is exactly our stand regarding these? thanks.

I'm not entirely sold on allowing these for contrib+ users that bypass the queue (though I suppose I'm willing to allow it as the "ability to bend the rules" that we usually do for those users). So long as the privilege isn't being abused, I wouldn't go out of my way to flag such ancillary pages.

On the other hand for basic members that push things through the queue, I'd say it should be an "at your own risk" sort of upload. If there is a Janitor that you can trust to approve these sorts of images, then maybe it's worth the risk. But I know I won't approve them when I see them (though I tend to to not approve manga, doujin, or comics anyway).

They don't stand on their own as they are supposed to to be acceptable, and they will almost never fit the mod queues' direction of "approve only things you like". I doubt too many people actively like an ancillary page to a doujin. Perhaps a translated afterward may have some value if it finishes a story, but again that's a risk you'd have to take and hope someone in the mod queue sees value in it. In no way should these get a free pass or be a valid reason to expect a deletion be overturned.

That's my opinion on the matter anwyay.

If there is important text, it should be kept, and ideally translated by the uploader.

Completely blank pages that contain absolutely nothing of relevance, however, shouldn't be uploaded, even if they are a physical page in the product.

ghostrigger said:
the posts in question are those under blank_page but something like post #1028999 was not approved. how come? what is the difference?

It's true that none of these meet the quality criterion as individual pages, but the difference is that blank pages like post #696467 are part of the story and were intentionally used by the artists to help set the mood and pace, unlike doujinshi text-only or blank pages like post #1028999 that are not part of the actual story and are not related in any way to the posts that come before and after them.

ghostrigger said:
i also like to raise the issue regarding textless/imageless posts which seems to be related to "completion sake".

is "part of the pool" enough justification? how about enforcing the danbooru quality? or is this another special case?

i'm asking this for consistency because these can be viewed objectively 100% without glossing over something like "artistic merit".

the posts in question are those under blank_page but something like post #1028999 was not approved. how come? what is the difference?

what is exactly our stand regarding these? thanks.

I will dig up the discussion on the subject where jhx addressed blank pages.

http://danbooru.donmai.us/forum/show/63133 about half way down.

Anelaid said:
IIRC, if one post of a sequential post is approved, the entirety of the comic has to be approved. That includes things like blank pages and the like.

Not has to, but certainly the bar is much lower, and yes a mostly blank cover or middle page would be accepted most of the time.

We stress the "each page should stand on its own" not as an ironclad policy but as a deterrent to inexperienced uploaders who might think uploading 30 doujins is a great way to get started.

Take that for what you will.

As for doujins, we don't have a hard and fast rule on it. We're not and should not be a doujin repository, however it's unrealistic to ban every single one. This is one of those gray areas that I don't think we will or even should solidify completely (although commercial manga is a straight ban, as noted, because there's less ambiguity about what that is).

And if we are allowing a given doujin, I think we should err on the side of allowing all pages. But there too, some discretion should be used. If there's three blank pages in a row, skip them. If there's one blank page immediately after someone dramatically turns out the light - well, ok that's fine.

As for credits, as long as they're not excessive (like 6 pages or minimal text) and are from the original version (not the scanslator's credits) that's usually ok too.