Fighting agains tapas - episode I don't know at this point (series hidden again)

[BlairFujin]

Quick note, I've already created a ticket over on discord about this, I'm just venting out my frustration with tapas as a platform

So, I came over to tapas because of some mature BL comics (I came across some cool artist on tumblr pre-purge and found out they were posting their comics on tapas), got inspired by them to get back to drawing comics after years long break (I stopped in late highschool and focused on illustrations and started posting here after finishing university), everything was fine, looking by their works I figured out how much censorship was required here. Then apple happened. Ok, at this point two of my comics already haven't been on the app, just on the browser version, no big deal. But, everyone's saying that most of the readers are on the app (I hate mobile app-focused internet... how can you kids keep typing on phones? it feels so wrong without a proper keyboard... and browsing web without an adblock? dreadful) so I've decided to make an "app friendly" version of my main comic. Tried using the more censored webtoon version - it wasn't censored enough. Ok, I censored it more and it got approved, everything's fine...
Just my series have been randomly getting shadowbanned from time to time, disappearing from comics list, I found out that two of them are unsearchable because there are too nsfw words in their titles (please, tapas, add some kind of notification when naming a series if you're trying to use one of the banned words), one of them got temporarily completely removed from the site over two scheduled, not yet released pages not being pixelated enough and now the app-friendly version is not appearing when browsing comics and since it's unsearchable it can pretty much only reach people who already are my readers and... I'm just tired.
I want to play by the rules but it's hard where the rules aren't clear and you get randomly punished without any explanation what you did wrong (sometimes without even acknowledging that you're being punished and being told that everything is fine when you can clearly see that your series is missing)

end of rant

if anyone knows how to persuade your readers to move to a less headache inducing platform, please, let me know

[joannekwan]

Have you tried GlobalComix? I don't know how they handle sexual themes, but I've seen some creators using them.

Then again, I don't know how they'll change in the future if they want an app store presence.

[BlairFujin]

I'm already there and even have been featured a few times
So far, I've been using the non-app tapas version and have been fine though I do admit, I am worried about the mobile app
I've tried multiple sites and am actively posting on several of them, issue is tapas is where most of my readers are (otherwise I wouldn't care this much)

[candiedcotton]

I plan to post any NSFW content on Global Comix, but they have a very tiny reader base, so for me it's only currently useful for redirecting readers on Tapas/Webtoon there from my main sources.

I feel your pain, big time. Part of the issue as well is that if you get reported by readers it can result in some sort of autoban, (though I'm still unclear to what extent) until a mod bothers to review it.

There are literal active homophobic groups on discord and some facebook communities dedicated to mass-reporting/rate-bombing/review-bombing BL content on Tapas. Something I unfortunately discovered after dealing with it myself and doing some looking into it. I think this is partly why BL work gets hit very hard and suddenly while there's outright full nude scenes of hetero work that nobody complains about.

I'm also really confused about it all, to be honest. I wish there was a decent source we could go to where we can just ask if something is or is not allowed, show our panels or whatever, and get a solid answer. That'd be the appropriate and professional thing for Tapas (and Webtoon) to do.

I have an episode coming out next week that has suggestive scenes, and I'm at my wits end trying to understand if they're appropriate to post or not. The worst of it is some underwear showing.

[BlairFujin]

Oh, had no idea about the mass reporting but that would explain the random disappearances. Wish tapas could at least send out some kind of automated message when that autoban happens so that we could at least contact staff right away.

[candiedcotton]

I don't know how allowed it'd be here, but maybe we could put together a thread or something where we can ask the rest of the members of the community here to go over our content that we feel might be NSFW, but aren't sure. Or to get suggestions on how to get around it, like censoring things. I had really thought to make such a thread, but I didn't want to get in trouble if the content is also considered too mature for the forums.

But yeah, I get you. I'm really nervous about my next episode. It's been stressing me out.

[joannekwan]

Don't really have to worry about maturity for the forums so long as it's not hateful in nature. If you do want to play it safe you can hide the images under a spoiler.

[candiedcotton]

Oh for real? Well that could help a lot.

[joannekwan]

Yeah go ahead!

[candiedcotton]

I did the thing.

Since a lot of people, including myself, have had a heck of a time understanding if certain episodes/scenes/content that we post may be skirting the lines of what is allowed on Tapas (or outright not permitted), I wanted to put together a thread where we can use our experiences and knowledge as a community to help each other out. Sometimes it can be really hard to understand what is and is not permitted. The purpose of this thread is for people to post episodes or images which they plan to pu…

[BlairFujin]

Update

it's back, got a response on discord that they're gonna check if it was a bug (an explanation I suggested in my ticket) and when I checked, the series got restored both on website and app

[candiedcotton]

[Katzalcoatl]

Yup. It happens in all platforms actually. It is rare to become a victim since many new BL comics come out (and those are fine). But when you become a victim watch out. It is not so much of a group it is more like different groups and trolls. They even use bots to bomb review you. But it happens on all platforms just that it is rarer to happen in less known platforms.

I must mention it doesn't only happen to BL it happens to random people of random genres for no reason at all. Having said that BL is still the main victim so they do go out of their way to target BL.

[Katzalcoatl]

Congrats. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt to see if it really was a bug. You never know. At any rate it is a good thing you got an answer from support.

[candiedcotton]

Yeah, I got hit twice and it was genuinely awful. I almost quit the first time, but my partner pushed me not to. It was mostly the comments. Out of nowhere, I suddenly got like fifteen random comments that were incredibly nasty and homophobic. And then got rate bombed for about two days straight. I'm lucky I had really awesome subscribers who countered it.

[Katzalcoatl]

I am not a subscriber, but I have seen your art. Haven't read your work (busy preparing for my 2 novels debut). But all I can say is, do not give up ever!! Especially if it is hate for no reason. Instead report all those comments that break the tos agreement of tapas.

If the comments are genuine criticism do listen to it but don't let it completely dictate how to do your work. No natter how much of an expert you are at something sometimes fresh eyes help us see something we missed (again this only applies to legit criticism not to trolls or people with homophobic/discriminatory tendencies).

Also remember that people who hate for no reason are a minority (they do exist) but most people are good and nice. So instead of focusing on those few negative comments always focus on the postive comments (I know you did since those positive comments helped you move forward).

At any rate, if you are ever on a dark place remember who you are writing your story for and who are the people who support you. As an author I have to say that if I can help at least one person with my story then I will keep writing for them.

[candiedcotton]

Haha, you're right, and thank you, I appreciate it. I'm always down for feedback (and often practically begging for it, lol), but these comments were more like, "ew gays" and calling my subscribers really awful names for reading the genre. I did report it all and the mods were really fast at getting rid of the comments, which was nice.

[system]

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