yea i do sometimes, mostly cus i feel more distanced with some of my tap friends lately, and my sub count has only been going down lately which can be discouraging but the best i can do is ignore it and press on.
I don't know man. I've been in this industry, and personal friends with a great number of other professional creators, for ten plus years now. You're an HS student and there is a lot of naivety coming from you. And that's okay. However, what I've mentioned is the reality of the industry/niche. There are no two-ways around it except for accepting what is and doing your best and hoping for the best results possible.
Research, quality content, consistent updates, and proper networking/marketing will help you along the way. Again, there are no two-ways around it. And since you're asking "what's the difference between them"? There is plenty of difference. As I've mentioned before, it's about your audience/niche you create the content for. It's a question of why should anyone care for your content.
I think the hardest part about being a content creator is not comparing yourself to others. A lot of people here are young and young folk like instant results (I was young once, so please don't yell at me for saying this). 
I can feel for everyone in this thread. It's so hard to leverage your own success when others are doing seemingly very well in terms of views/subs/whatever. I can tell you, these 'quick rides', are not quick. They are usually people with a high following elsewhere or they work extremely hard to deliver content, improve their art, engage, market themselves... Maybe like 1% will get popular due to sheer luck, but again, you just can't compare yourself to them. It just brings you down and it's not a realistic way to gauge your own success.
It's hard to believe, but to someone, you are not invisible. Though they might not sub and may not comment, but there is someone out there that thinks your stuff is great and visits it often. But most importantly, you should be making the comic for yourself. I know people here want to make money with their work or just get validation that their stuff is great because of views/subs, but if you feel like you're making your comic for 'no one', not even yourself, then you should stop. If you're not making the comic for you, then why bother? If you don't like your own work, it's going to get tiring very fast and burn you out because your mindset isn't in the right place.
Be patient and keep posting. 
Others will notice and are already noticing.
It's true that there's no such thing as an overnight success, and I think it's a good practise not to compare yourself with others.
However, going off my experience, when I compare where I am today with regards to views and interactions, it's night and day from what was happening during my first year on the site. The drop off has been brutal (probably ~10-15% of where it was).
Again, I have no idea if the change has anything to do with Tapastic at all, or if it's purely the result of my own failings mixed with an increase in competition, but either way, I'm not sure how long I'd be able to continue like this if Tapastic were the only place I was uploading to.
This is also a good point. Measuring your own success based on your past results is really what OP and others /should/ be doing... but just overall in the thread, to others that spoke up, they complain about not being popular and the popularity section in general. My main point was not to look at the popular comic - because it's not really an accurate measure of exposure to oneself.
I think people also overlook the fact of just how overly saturated the online art/novel/creative world. Back in the day when I first started an amateur comic (like 8 years ago), SmackJeeves was like the go-to for amateur comics. Now if you Google 'webcomic hosts', there are a good 20 sites that host comics for free. It was the same with DeviantArt. It's not Tapas - it's just the internet culture has boomed so much in the last 10 years. 
Sure, everything can be taken the wrong way but especially negative stuff.
I'm not sure you can ask viewers not to take venting / complaining the wrong way. Their opinion of an artist is going to be pretty automatic. Most people are too lazy to look deeper.
If I need to vent, I go to an outside party. For example, I don't complain about work to colleagues, I go to another friend. It means my work colleagues' opinion of me is safe, I get a more neutral perspective and we're much less likely to get carried away.
Me me meee! XD but comparing myself to the success of others isn't really helpful. I see how great and creative their stories and arts are, and how hard they work to advertise. I'm just a slug on a leaf, really. It's my own fault I suck so bad XD
I believe less known creator are never in the spotlight on Tapas. You always see the Same trending comics on the frontpage. I'm pretty satisfied with the views I get within a month since I do advertising everywhere. I've got around 30 subs for years now. Not going up or down.
But Yes it's hard to get by with the (premium) creator who get so easy views and subs.
I wish Tapas would pay more attention to new and unknown creator who provide Just as good content as populair ones. Even less talented people deserve credit. Not everyone can draw amazingly but bring out a amazing story and content as Well.
Oh no I think it totally relates because people are worried about invisibility and I think what we're trying to say is that they should be careful about these kinds of threads because it might be unhelpful in promoting their comics.
Sorry if I put words in your mouth.
I feel ya, I've been here a year and still have under 100 subs. T_T. As long as your doing it for the joy of it, then it will be ok
Ah no I didn't feel you're putting words in my mouth at all haha, I just saw it as you expressing your opinion which is entirely fine xD
Personally, my two cents on the matter OP mentioned is that you have to realize that there are going to be things people like and don't like. You may have the juiciest peach, but there will be people out there who don't like peaches. Plain and simple. Sure it sucks that you spent so much time growing the peach, and there will be people that admire it and think it's pretty, but when it comes down to it, you can't make people eat the peach.
I think what matters most is finding people who genuinely enjoy your content for what it's worth and really appreciating them. Ask your followers to promo your comic for you if you're able to. Some comics take a while to really gain traction, some don't. That's just how it is. But there are people out there who will enjoy what you create. You may just have to alter how you view that success.
Realistically, I currently only have 7 subscribers, but I'd rather have people follow me who I know will enjoy my story and who are there because they genuinely do care about the plot, characters, and everything else that comes with it. If you measure success by the amount of subscribers you get, you're always going to find some way to be displeased by the results you find, no matter how much work you do to market yourself.
This isn't discrediting the fact that most creators do put in their fair share and that there's things that Tapas could probably do a bit better. But ultimately, what will affect your comic the most is doing it because you enjoy it.
I think basically you've got to do stuff because you want to. If not, the slow speed and the negative feedback that everybody gets will grind you down.
Also I think some people might be surprised at how much people will expect you to do for free. Just today, I got an email saying (not asking) that I should email this dude to arrange a time to do a free session. I'd never met them before and had not advertised myself as free.
And I'm a teacher.
Definitely feel you on this one... It's painful when you work really hard on something, and then see it gets little appreciation in return.
Reading through all of these comments is really helpful though! Gives a lot to think about... Thanks for making this post!
7 months later
so true... though i can't draw and don't do comics.... i get that the same applies for novels... on that note, it reminds me i have a sucky icon for mine so i definitely gotta work on that... lol..
I agree with you that it seems like it's getting harder to get views. I've noticed a major change too since they started doing more promotion on the main page, and reorganized the page to make it harder to find the links that bring you to "Fresh" and discover new comics. I think what would help is if they added a link in the top of the main page to recently updated or randomly selected comics.
When I first started posting I was really excited my the prospect of getting views and subscriptions, but when I didn't see the results I expected I became unmotivated really quickly. Now, I'm just focused on using Tapas as a medium to keep me motivated to write and hopefully get some input along the way so I can improve. It's been much easier for me to just focus on the writing the story and improving it.
Keep your head up!