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I've seen several instances of new users posting links to scanalation sites for manga or full anime episodes. This is (as far as I can tell) not allowed here. The canonical reference for this is How do we deal with copyrighted material on our site?, which says that moderators aren't responsible for policing copyright violations (which I agree with).

However, it also says that links to fansub groups, scanalation sites, etc. for the purpose of sharing the illegal content are clearly out of bounds, and I would argue that they also make our site look less professional. This doesn't apply to embedded images, links to short video clips, or legal streaming sites. When a new user posts such a link in an otherwise good question/answer, I'll typically edit it out (possibly replacing it with an image or quote if there's a reason to do so) and leave a comment to the effect of "please don't post links to illegal sources for anime/manga here", which hasn't caused any problems so far.

However, it's also common for new users to leave such links in comments. A recent example is here. In these cases, I leave a comment telling them the same, but there's not anything I can do to get rid of the links. If the user deletes it themselves, we're all clear, but if that doesn't happen, there's no practical way that I can enforce our no-fansub policy, besides a custom flag for moderator intervention to delete it.

So, with regard to such comments (containing material which clearly violates our policy on fansubs and scanalations), which of these is the best course of action?

  • Leave a comment informing them of our policy, and if they don't delete the comment then do nothing.
  • Leave a comment, and wait some period of time. If they don't delete it, then flag it.
  • Leave a comment, and simultaneously flag the post.
  • Something else
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3 Answers 3

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Haven't we discussed this before? In the Fourth Chat-cast (there are two links there).

We've agreed, with the help of a community moderators, that we are not lawyers, and should not think much of it (unless it's something obviously dubious like a link to a warez site and the such).

If it's for the purpose of sharing the copyrighted content (and not as an appendix or assistive to the post), flag and remove it. If it's borderline, leave it.

Edit!

Now that us moderators have the ability to undelete comments deleted by moderators, I think it would be safer to remove bluntly (and even borderline-ish) offensive material from comments, we can always undelete them later if we require.

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I say either the second or the third options you wrote are the way to go.

  • Leave a comment, and wait some period of time. If they don't delete it, then flag it.
  • Leave a comment, and simultaneously flag the post.

However, the second has the problem that you (or whoever left the comment to inform the new user) may forget you left the comment and end up not flagging it. So maybe the third option may be the best.

With that said, I know I generally edit out anything like this that I catch, but I may not always catch it. So with or without the "waiting period" I think these things should definitely be flagged.

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I would say this option is best:

Leave a comment, and simultaneously flag the post.

Like JNat said, it's possible someone will forget to flag the post if we suggest a waiting period after leaving the comment.

Additionally, other new users may see the link before it's deleted and also think it's OK to post such links. They may simply not see the comment asking to remove the link, or they could even see the comment and think "well the post hasn't been deleted so I guess it's not THAT bad."

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