Can we stop with the promotion threads?!

[BobbyjoeX]

LISTEN. yes since the mods all moved to the discord. this rule is nolonger enforced. but the rule was to avoid making promotion threads at all cost.

I come on here hoping to find actual interesting things to talk about but i get "promote here, Promote there"

"dead subs here, dead subs there"

yes DEAD SUBS. the thing that kills a comic or novel is no interaction. you can have thousands of subs but the algorithm only cares about the likes and comments you get on them. the subs are nothing unless they are actually active with your comic. I have around 300 subs and only a handful of them actually reads my comic.

point is that these promotion theads cause users to sub to works they will never find interest in but are afraid to unsub cause they are afraid that if they unsub to this person's work. that person will unsub to theirs but neither of you are actually reading eachothers' comics.

its a beginner's trap cause of Tapas' stupid milestones. they make it sound like subs are everything but in reality that number means nothing if theres no one there to appreciate your hard work.

[Aeneas1]

No, we cannot. In fact we shouldn’t. Take me for example. When I started out on Tapas, I had no views. I promoted my work through those promotion threads and Facebook. At any rate, I wouldn’t have reached 2K views without those threads. Besides, you HAVE people talking about certain topics. You just need to look harder for them.

[BobbyjoeX]

but we dont need FIFTY OF THEM in a row on the thread page.

[aqua03]

Also Sub 4 Sub helps literally no one beyond inflating numbers to look better but actually hurt you in the long run with dead subs.

[DualDragons]

Now I think promo threads on the forums are kinda bogus anyways since most of us are also creators, but anyways-

I think the reason people keep making them is that promo threads have a 'expiration length.' People only dive so far in promotion threads to look so really only the top posts get clicks.

Threads like the official milestone mega thread are link graveyards at this point because nobody checks out the later ones, and I think people realise this hence why they constantly make new ones.

However, I think milestone threads are really pointless. What would I care if a comic or novel has 30 or 300 subs? And why people have to do hyper specific ones like 40 subs or so? I get 100 subs but still, check existing threads please.

I think if you are going to make a promo thread, then atleast make it an interesting topic like genre, or something other specific people would actually look for. Like if people are looking for action comics for example, that's where a promo thread could be used for.

[BobbyjoeX]

yeah. like the one asking to see your villain or when i asked to see how characters looked at the beginning or now.

those ones are much better cause you are having a convo. not so much a "post your link and Eff off :D"

[Scarlet_Cryptid]

I think if you are going to make a promo thread, then atleast make it an interesting topic like genre, or something other specific people would actually look for. Like if people are looking for action comics for example, that's where a promo thread could be used for.

THIS. I'm both a creator and a reader, and sometimes I DO find comics I'd like to read in those promo threads. HOWEVER. I would love to have promo threads sorted by GENRE, because I'm not looking for BL/GL/Romance, and maybe someone else is looking for sci-fi, or fantasy, or action, or horror, or whatever. This would be so much more useful.

Also I would really like fewer 'Just updated? Post your link here!' threads. Because there are at least half a dozen of them, and anyone who updates tends to dump their link into ALL of them. I tend to post my updates in whatever the 'Your latest page in January' (or whatever month), and maybe one other, but spamming all of them does nothing for anyone.

[PapaDom]

Well, the problem lies more with the small dopamine rushes new users get when joining sub4sub threads.
I get it that users jump in here, hoping to boost their numbers for views, milestones, etc.
And sub4sub requires the least amount of work to do so. But after reaching a certain amount of subs, it stagnates. And because of said dopamine, they desperately need to get back into this vicious circle again. But that's just my opinion, man. : P

And before I left:
A. I agree with Duals opinion and
B. If anybody wants to convince me otherwise or tells me their part of the story, save it.
I'm not really interested in continuing this.

[Fafnir]

Totally agree. But i will admit, posting in those thread gives you feeling you are actually doing something to promote your comic, which you should 100% be doing. And there just aren't that many avenues to do that for free. So people will do what they can. unfortunately alot of places artist try to get followers are also filled with other artists instead of an audience. =/

[migxmeg]

You can mute the promotions category and for you, they will stop :).

[BobbyjoeX]

yeeah the "latest page for {insert month here}" ones are good. thats how it should really be. have one thread that is closed and a new one opens each month like that one. but yeah the other major issue is that if you post your link in one. its the same people looking at these threads so if you didnt catch their interest by the first thread. they are still not interested in the 20th one you spammed

[BobbyjoeX]

yeah but like i said before. some of these ones that are to start a convo are usually thrown in promotion.

[migxmeg]

So few compared with just straight out promotions. Even if you mute it you can go scroll through that category and see if there's anything you want to contribute to (and as soon as you're on a thread it gets pulled back into your feed). Maybe it's just me but forum feels a lot saner/more focused/fun without that category filling the page .

[feuersichel]

The problem with muting is, I actually am interested in those topics as I found a lot of interesting comics in them. But now there are just too many of them :,D

Also I don't think, they are even helping. Whenever I check one of those out, almost none have a heart or show that a series got clicked. So they are basically just link drops, noone cares about. On the other hand, threads with themes or challeges are way better visitet.

[Shady_Kuronachi]

Hello, random fellow creator here. I was reading these and they made me think.
1. I would like a thread where a person can post ONE link and 100 people don't try to promote themselves. Like, can we take some attention away from ourselves and appreciate someone else's hard work?! I just saw some ask for feedback, nothing more. 10 people posted links to their stories. Like, seriously?!
2. I wish Tapas would give the small people like us a chance to be showcased. Maybe once a week, pick novels and comics that are not well known or popular, and tell people to go check them out. Even just a couple small ones from each genre. Literally ANYTHING.
3. Y'all are some cool people. This conversation was not only fun and respectful, but it showed me different angles of them same situation.

[RedLenai]

I believe one thing are promotion threads and another thing "promotion" threads.

People sharing in promotion threads related to the art of a series, latest chapter, latest sentence, and other dynamics that don't actually require for the meaningless sub x sub activity are ok. After all people are having actual conversations or just simply promoting they are being active regarding their comic. Sub x Sub is meaningless because it's not often someone will read your comic because they liked it, is phantom subscriber, it's there but does nothing important.

There are other threads as well which are not in the promotion Category and still allow promotion, it cost nothing to select said category or to scroll down a bit more to find them, as well, if conversation is what some are looking for, I believe the discord Server is ideal for that as well, since everything is separated in categories and the only place you get to promote something is in the promotion channel, so I believe in there you'll find a more satisfying experience and to talk about diverse themes with other people, as well for advice, asset recommendation, tips and other things.

[AureliusSnow]

I feel like they shouldn't completely stop and instead there should be like one person that posts them. Just so it isn't bombarded at all. Also I prefer this place over the Discord ngl...

[BobbyjoeX]

yeah agree on the discord thing. and yeah like my op wasnt saying to stop them all together. i more meant im scrolling through and a majority of the threads are self promo. like once you post your link in one or 2 of these threads. everyone that is usually on the forums have seen it already so posting in 50 of them at once is pointless. then the Sub for Sub ones are the ones i meant more-so gives people dead subs.

[BLTX]

Even NOT doing sub-for-sub has given me quite a few dead ones. From my experience it's pretty inevitable that you're gonna collect dead subs. Even my first subscriber who seemed VERY interested my comic, leaving a like, and a detailed comment, quickly, was never seen again after the first episode, and recently he unsubscribed all together. And that was NOT a sub-for-sub.

[BobbyjoeX]

yeah yeah but i more mean that the subs you get from sub for sub are most likely gonna turn into dead subs.