A little Inksgiving sadness

[ThunderChicken]

So I'm going through my "subbed" list on the main Tapas website, looking for places to squirt ink for my first Inksgiving, and I was shocked and saddened about how many series that I had really liked that appear to have been abandoned. Some of them haven't had an update for well over two years. No mentions of hiatus, no explanations, no "I'm done with Tapas but you can find me on xxxxx"... they just stopped.

I mean, I realize that people just lose the desire to work on their series, or they lose the ability, but still, I'm saddened.

Something else that surprised me was how many didn't have support unlocked for the event. I realize that this may be a side effect of my tendency to follow the "smaller" creators, but damn. And then I was hit with the double whammy of also realizing that a lot of those smaller creators have been silent for a while as well, and just went into a spiral of sadness.

And then my water heater blew up. Dammit.

To quote @skidiggy, I need carbs.

[ArtGremlin]

Yeah, that is kinda sad… If I were to drop a series I would definitely give some kind of warning. Sharing stories on here has just been such a big part of my life.
Sorry to hear about the water heater From what I know, those things are pretty dangerous when they explode! Were you in your house when it happened?

[skidiggy]

Sending ALL the CARBS!

In all seriousness though, that's gotta be so sad to discover. How many times to you interact with someone and lose track of them, I can only imagine. You wonder what happened to them, if they're doing okay, and if the stories still live on somewhere. For the smaller creators, Tapas offered to allow folks with fewer than 250 subscribers to apply for ink supporter access through Discord, but I don't think there was any other way to know about it.

Also, yikes on the water heater. I hope everyone's okay. I imagine that's a PITA and a big chunk o' change to fix, too. Always down to send carbs.

[wolflu66]

This kind of situation really makes one feel sad.
Many people you like, including creators, suddenly appear in your life and then suddenly disappear without a trace, leaving you wondering how they're doing now. Although I know this is normal online, it still makes me feel a little sad.

[yaziroburrows]

i had the same thing.

I managed to get ink unlocked for inksgiving, but a lot of the creators I wanted to support didn't. It was very sad and fustrating because as a small creator with under 100 subs, I really wanted to support fellow smaller creators.
I ended up scrolling through the discord and trying to find small creators who had managed to unlock ink

[Emalie]

Unfortunately, it's something all too common. Many creators don’t have their ink support and go unnoticed, or those who do eventually stop working on their projects. In the years I’ve been here on Tapas, half or even more than half of the creators I’ve known have simply stopped interacting on the platform. Their Discord accounts or other social media still exist, but it’s as if they just vanished.

There was one creator who used to be very friendly with many others, but over time, she stopped showing up, and no one has any idea what might have happened to her. I really hope she’s okay.

And your water heater ..... DAMN!!!

[feuersichel]

I feel you. I'm on Tapas since almost 10 years and there have been sooo many awesome stories, that suddenly never updated again but it kinda keeps me going with my own story... There is a chance, someone would be sad, if I just stopped

[AmysGames]

For sure, there's a bunch of series in my library that haven't been updated in months or even years. I tried to prioritize active creators for my ink donations, which made my list of targets a little shorter than I was expecting...

Also, yikes about the water heater. Hope you can get it fixed quickly!

[ThunderChicken]

Well, the good thing about the water heater is that when I renovated the basement ten years ago I built a closet around it to hide it. Thankfully that contained the damage, which is limited to some flooring, some drywall, and the water heater itself. Thankfully I can handle all the repairs including the water heater. Still gonna cost me about a grand, and it’ll be Friday before I can replace it so it’s “cold shower week” in the Thunder Chicken household, but it could have been much, much worse. The joys of an old house…

[GiveMeThatBread]

I understand the sentiment.

Some of my first creator friends haven't been around in years. I still see their names in my Discord server and Tapas server, but haven't been active since like, 2022.

A few stories I first followed have also stopped updating (one of them being because the creator had passed and that sent me spiraling for a while because I was such a big fan of her comic and it was a sad situation).

Even my first novel has been on hiatus for almost 3 years, but at least I left a note about it and update sometimes of its returning progress.

And of course, sometimes people just lose interest in their work, get writers block, life gets busy, etc. But there is lots of new creators who need support, too, so we can support them while trying to grow

[bulgariansumo]

Tell me about it. It didn't happen here, but on Wattpad, I'd found this really good adventure story that stopped updating, and every time I think about it, I feel like I'm mourning a lost love. When will it come back from the war?

There's another story on another site that I'd caught up with and found really interesting, but it's going through some restructuring, so the author deleted all of the chapters in order to rerelease them again. It hasn't updated in years...

I'd like to do Inksgiving someday, but I feel weird about promising bonuses when I can't promise a consistent update schedule. Though I have been trying to get two chapters out a month, starting last month.

I can offer chips if that suits your carb cravings.

[jwabeasley]

Let us raise a glass to all those who haven't made it this far!

It's an unfortunate truth that most webcomics fail before their tenth update. There will always be a few barriers of entry for webcomics - skills and perseverance. There's no replacing or avoiding those.

Many of my favorite comics, art-wise, died early and never continued. I hope I can see their creator's works in the future, though.

And sorry about your water heater. Hope the fix is fast and inexpensive.

[heyroxi]

I really felt this. I’ve gone through the same thing, scrolling through my own subbed list and wondering where so many amazing creators have gone. I still remember Bree because she was one of the loudest voices when I first joined Tapas, posting two or more stories... and then she suddenly vanished. It’s heartbreaking to see the silence not only her but from most of the creator, especially when you know how much passion and love they poured into their stories. Sometimes it feels like the platform becomes a graveyard of dreams that never got the support they deserved.

That’s actually one of the reasons I created the Active Thread—a space where I try to support as many active creators as I can find, those still posting and holding on, even just barely. I wanted to remind them that they’re seen, even if it’s just by a few. I actually discovered a lot of stories there and in Discord promotions. I try my best to send love or encouragement whenever I can… but life hasn’t been easy for me either, and I completely understand the struggle of trying to keep up.

Inksgiving really reminds us how fragile yet beautiful this community is. I know it can be hard sometimes to join conversations on Discord, but I encourage you to just go for it. I just did, and it's really nerve-wracking, but it's worth it. Most of them are active and willing to help. Interact if you want to—or not. No one is forcing you. But honestly? The people there are pretty awesome just don't be an ass

[RED-VELVET-CUPCAKE]

I remember reading some awesome webcomics years ago. (long before I started posting here) But one by one, they all stopped updating their comic, and to this day it's still incomplete. There are many reasons why someone might not be able to work on their comic anymore. Sometimes I wonder how they're doing and what kind of projects they're working on now.
Their stories really made me fall in love with comics.

[KevinReijnders]

I imagine a lot of those folks have gotten swept up in whatever life had to offer them.

Looking at myself, I realize more and more each day that I may become unable to finish all 5 planned books of Trespasser. Or at the very least it will end up updating extremely slowly. Just looking at the upcoming 3rd Chapter, I already felt the need to stretch it out over more episodes to prevent big hiatusses

So yeah, I get why some of these stories end up vanishing without a trace. It is after all just a hobby, and they can quickely get axed depending on life's circumstances.

As for ink, I personally don't bother with it. Tbh, it feels too much like monopoly money to me.

I'm also under 250, so I can't unlock support anyway haha.

[ThunderChicken]

I'm under 250 too, but they offer to unlock support for Inksgiving, and they usually just leave it unlocked afterward (fingers crossed). I have zero interest in "cashing out" on ink, I was hoping to use it to support other creators, but I just discovered today that you can't just re-gift gifted ink. I will have to jump through some hoops, but, dammit, I WILL give that ink away!

I certainly see your point about life getting in the way and stories progressing slower than you'd hoped (I've recently hit that wall myself thanks to family issues) but, in your case (and mine) at least we show our readers that we're still alive! I genuinely worry about some creators, and sometimes even for legitimate reasons: Some creators are trans and right now the USA is not a good or safe place for trans people. One creator of a BL comic I've been reading is Russian, and I don't need to tell you how that would be viewed in Russia (thankfully that particular writer has returned to regular updates). Sometimes a creator will make a post saying that they're going on hiatus due to mental issues... and then they disappear completely, leaving me to worry (I have lost several friends to suicide, so I worry about this a LOT).

I dunno... perhaps I worry too much...

[abigaillmartin]

I’m so sorry about your boiler @ThunderChicken I wish there was something I could do.

And by the way I greatly appreciate your reading of Elsie. I always look forward to seeing your comments whenever I upload an episode.

[allenT]

Yeah, agreed. So many high potential, beautiful comics stopped, or stopped posting on Tapas completely.