So I've been here for quite a long time. It's been ten months since I started publishing comics and almost a year since I made an account. And while I really enjoy how the site works and how the site helps comic creators, there are a lot of flaws in its core ideals that have detracted and even alienated potential readers and creators.
First off, I would like to praise Tapastic for what it has accomplished. An easy way to publish comics, a way to creators to interact, and through trial and error, a great place for creating a sort of community. Another thing I've noticed is that this is one of the most polite and supportive sites on the internet. Of course, the site is still small, so there aren't millions of account holders ready to leap at anything.
But aside from the nice look and nice people involved, there are a more than a couple qualms that often grind my gears when dealing with this site.
Of course, I should start out by saying that I'm no professional. That I've only started drawing digitally ten months ago, and I still have a long ways to go when it comes to creating comics. So in many ways, I don't know the industry inside and out, but I would like to give my opinion on how the site works, and how some of those features can be helpful, but oftentimes hurtful.
My first point that I would like to point out is the vertical format with Tapastic. This has been talked about a lot on the forums before, but maybe not completely. Tapastic pushes for infinite scrolling all the time, as a main focus, but not always. Thankfully it has recently moved forward to promoting long-form comics as well, which is a plus. But there is still one more side that has been alienated - the horizontal.
Granted, from the get go it's not hard to convert a horizontal comic to a vertical one. There are plenty of comics here that have gone through the conversion. But for new creators that like the horizontal form, they are basically told that they either have to change or go away. It may not be Tapastic's intention to do that, but believe me, it basically limits the comic form choices one can make to be here, while there should never be any.
Next is the promotion system. This one hits me more than the last, so I might be a bit biased about it. I have a lot to say about it, so I'll do my best to remain neutral. The promotion system, according to the Tapastic's guide, is that if you are vertical, easy to read, and colorful, you will be more likely to be promoted on the site. If you update regularly, you can also get featured. Plus, if you promote yourself on the forums, you might also get noticed by the site. While that is all fine and dandy for the most part, this system does not work because it is up to the Staff. Of course, allow me to break it down a bit more.
Because site is based on popularity, not by related searches and subject matter like YouTube, there's an obvious flaw to how the popular system works. While at first glance the site seems pretty good, with Popular having to do with the whole day, trending by the hour, and Fresh by the actual moment you upload, there's a lot of chances to get featured... at least, if you are already popular.
The way the site works, while contrary to the belief, is that the popular are popular because they are popular. But how do comics get popular in the first place? First is being picked by the Tapastic Staff as a Staff Pick. Now this has improved since the beginning, concerning it has promoted a lot of different comics here and there (A lot of them have very similar tones to them, but I digress). This method doesn't always lead to massive amounts of popularity, but sometimes it does.
Second is the Daily Snack. This method is much more promising because readers get to see the comics past the thumbnail and have more of a quick and easy reason to subscribe to something they haven't seen before. More often than most, comics promoted through the daily snack get much more publicity than usual, often leading to at least one thousand subscribers. The biggest problem with this is that, again, it has been up to the Tapastic Staff to pick these out, so in all likelihood, and no offense to them, the only comics that will appear there will be "safe" comics, rather, comics that have the same sense of humor as most of the other popular comics available or comics that are already popular by their own standards.
Finally, the only other method for anyone to get popular on the site is time. Gradual, very slow, very consistent, without the influence of the Staff. However, this is the most frustrating way to go since it is up to the creator alone to get publicity, and for creators who don't know how, it can be a hard taste to swallow. So far, I'm in this latter category, among many others who update regularly, but have only gotten to where we are through sheer determination.
My next point is the availability of comics. The site has plenty of them, but to me, there are certainly not enough ways to find new stuff that one would like based on what is available to the reader. The categories are a nice start, but now that we are limited to just one, we have to dominate that category to get noticed. Only if a random reader wants something very specific would they end up finding my comic through that system. Of course, that has to do with self promotion, but otherwise they are not going to find it, especially since the tags of the comic are just for show and are often just a hint to the audience of something funny about the comic or the thoughts of the author.
Now if there were subclasses underneath the main genres, that might help creators find their exact audience. Of course, they would have to pick things that would help them be found, but it would be a decent improvement on the current system.
Also, the comic collection section is severely underused. It is only home to the popular, again, and it is up to the Staff to put them there. If there was a way to, after a certain number of subscribers perhaps, request to be put under one, then there would be a chance for further promotion.
The sad thing is that Tapastic has not found its potential by reaching further than it might be comfortable with. I'd like to see several different ways to find new stuff, even if it's not on the front page. Maybe by adding a random element, say a "random comic" chooser, one could find different things that might not have been thought about or interested in. There are so many ways that this comic site could be improved, and of course, I know that the Staff are working hard at making this place as awesome as it is. But this place needs to be more like a YMCA, not a country club. More random and searchable elements, something that could push this site to its fullest potential, and even help the reach of comics in general.
In the end, I've just started rambling. I know that if I post this, I'm not gonna find a lot of understanding from everyone, but I've been here for a long time, posting regularly, doing my best. But I'm not blaming the site or the staff. I'm just picking out the bad effects of how the site has compositioned itself.
Sincerely,
Vincent Prendick