Have any of you ever experienced bullying/harassment on Tapas or the Tapas forums?

Apart from some small bouts of tension here and there, I really like the community

I’ve never experienced full on bullying from a tapas user, but I’ve experienced stalking and harassment from another author from Webnovel who followed me over to Tapas earlier this year, created an account, and used it to message all my subs and their walls, as well as comment my chapters with vicious messages. It was a mess, and thankfully tapas looked into it. It all stopped after I threatened to sue for slander.

Hahaha yeah... it buys me occasional treats like takeaway food and Warhammer minis, but people think that once you have 1000+ subs you're diving into a pool of money like Scrooge McDuck. I'm like... I know people with 10,000 subs, and all of them need to have some kind of other job outside of their webcomic. The 1k-30k subs region is usually just "solid side hustle" territory, not "at last, I can quit my job!" territory.

I don't know if it's still an issue because I haven't been here in quite a long while (hi to those who remember me), I don't think I have seen harassment of one person, usually when there was harassment it seemed to be unintentional and aimed at certain types of creators like people have mentioned. I know a LOT of people moved away from the forums here because every other day would be a new thread hating on BL comics. That's part of the reason why I stopped posting here as well. That and it's a time sink like most social media. lol

Oh my, I read all the replies here and it makes me thankful I didn't comment much (if at all) back when I joined, I joined around 2014 so I imagine it was probably a mess back then xD

I'm actually super awkward when it comes to internet friends or socializing so the forum always intimidated me, thinking people would attack me for anything I said or just ignore me completely lol I was younger so I was more sensitive to that xD besides the fact I've tried talking to people and it's always been short responses that die out the conversation or people talking to me saying 'Hi, how are you?' and nothing else. Like, I didn't know what they wanted to do by just saying those lines loool

Even on discord, when I attempted to give an opinion that wasn't about the characters romance or shipping, I got ignored really bad XD So I just gave up. I'm actually trying this time to hang around in the forum and see if I can comment on something, it's been a positive experience so I'm telling myself it's okay to comment.

Someone said something about people being intolerant when they weren't from the US, but the awkward experiences I've had were US people or maybe it was US teen talk that I didn't get? Has anyone experienced going into a chat and people like talking in a roleplaying way and saying nonsense as a way to socialize? With nonsense I mean as in people just saying animeish things to each other and writing things like "throws a cookie and explodes" to give an example lol (and any attempt to talk normally will just be ignored xD)

But I'm finding people here in the forum to be friendly and with interesting opinions, so yeah x'D I'm a friendly person and I love to talk but I turn into an awkward/shy person in the internet so I just end up reading opinions lol

Hm, as for the 'too much BL' thing, it's funny cause I always complain that there's not enough hahah xD You see, I have a thing for reading stories about girls reincarnating into "villains" in other worlds, they are always redeemed cause they're not the villan, but the point is that... there's not even stories about guys experimenting the same and it being a BL >_>

Or hey, even BL stories that are not about the couple. Like, how many stories with complex plotlines have a boy x boy main? I have nothing against cute-romantic BL couples (which are indeed abundant) but I have yet to see shonen or seinen storylines that have a main boy x boy main couple in it u_u or the main simply being gay. It's always guys with harems XD So yeah, I just wanted to comment on that. It may be abundant in one specific area, but there's little to none BL stories that aren't focused in the couple in a kind of slice of life way. (If you know any manwhas or stories that aren't slice of life and have a gay character (man) main do recommend me some pls xD)

And wow, I understand envy exists but like... Aren't people thinking that that's what they'll go through once they get there? I understand the discomfort of seeing people with more subs recommending but, at least to me, them recommending it is alright, them having 1000+ subs won't translate into anything harmful for me, on the contrary, it's discouraging to think that if I get to 1000 I won't be able to promote anymore cause people will look at me badly :S

I think people should stop thinking about pulling others down with them and instead focus on their own stories to reach the subscribers they want, it's just as useless as envying what your neighbor has Like, if you want something work for it, the person with 1000+ subscribed worked hard for it and it's your turn to do it as well.

Also, it's like just one thread, if the forum was full of 1000+ threads promoting then I wouldn't feel ok with it, because Tapas already promotes popular stories on the front page and it would be taking away the opportunity of newcomers to be seen... But yeah, one thread or a few of 1000+ promoting shouldn't be frowned upon, unless you're okay with being treated like that in the future :S

In any case, I just wanted to share this, but as I said, I understand the discomfort but would like to encourage people to focus on the bigger picture and realize this discomfort is going to be redirected to them when they ever pass the 500-1000 subscriber count.

I have like 100 subscribers and from the 100 I rarely get a comment xD I can imagine this being a problem even for larger counts, like having 500 and people not saying much either, so, I don't see what's bad for people wanting to promote themselves (?)

But who knows, since you all are saying the forum is more like mature and cool with people, those threads could be a thing now? I dunno, it would be cool the forum turned into a place where people uplift each other no matter how many subs they have

As a reader, I never care about subscribers, I only care about the story being good, the art style and maybe reviews. There's stories with millions of subscribes with really bad reviews on anime-planet for example xD so yeah, it's better to just focus on making a story you can be proud of and show others that can appreciate it for what it is ^^

As others have said here, people still need another job and having 500-1000 subs won't do much for you, so the envy is way more useless in this scenario. Be proud of your story and focus your all on it so others can see how much love it has!

Of course, promote it, but always remember there's an audience for everyone! You never know when your story has that specific plot a reader is looking for

I'm really happy to read the forum is nicer now and apparently with more mature people around!

Oh and I've gotten bullied not here but on the forum on Deviantart >_> for expressing an opinion that wasn't well received, I had to ask the staff to close the thread and it did scare me off of ever trying again to comment there.

I'm still a bit apprehensive about commenting on the forum but anyways, hope no one got offended from this x'D Just wanted to share my opinion!

Welp for Bl's with senine/shonen plots.

I got plenty in the back pocket some novels some comics. I can dm the recs

But yeah yes to all of this.

I kinda got sick of the envy people had. I will rember the day some guy blamed novels being added and romance for why his comic was no longer popular... even thou is comic although was not bad was kinda bland for a gag a day comic.

Its was very annoying and was very rampant.

I'll say compared to most places. It's pretty chill

Yess, would love the recs! Thanks a lot

And yesss, it's like, that guy should just work on his stuff and stop blaming others.

If the site needs something, it'd be something like webtoon canvas, in which recently updated comics show on the top of the genre page, that would help newcomers a lot. I'd say the lack of exposure is the problem not other people with their own stories

So one needs to do the job of promoting wherever possible and wish for a site update someday lol but yeah envy is just useless and does the person dirty since they're dealing with inferiority issues. Love your story first, pour your all on it, promote it as you can and the effort will surely pay off

Besides, it's cool to think of large numbers but I believe people are not thinking on the fact that large numbers translate to people having more expectations and giving you lots of pressure >_>U So, you need the right frame of mind for that... Having lots of subscribes sound cool but hey, I've read stories of people that went viral for example on instagram and the pressure drove them crazy.

Kind of reminds me of the 'be careful what you're asking for', that's why I encourage people to enjoy the process. You need another job to support yourself, as long as you treat your comic as the hobby you're passionate about, people having more subscribers than you won't bother you.

Besides, people need to realize that subscribers from other people are into different genres too. Those subscribers are specifically attracted to those stories so even if the person lost the subscribers, those readers wouldn't follow you... It just means the person lost the subscribers and you'd be rejoicing over someone else's suffering

So likeee, people, comic subscribers aren't the same as preferring mcdonalds over wendy's! Comics are widely different! So stop treating it as a competition of fast food franchises xDD

Oh btw, all of this is like for everyone that reads this xD Kinda felt like speaking on a podium lol

Ahh, alright, thanks for explaining, yes that's understandable.

And I see, it does seem like it changed a lot! I did read about the mature thing in another thread I believe, though I think it's a little more forgiving than webtoon for example (it really likes deleting pages and it's really annoying)

Gee, I hope that just updated section comes back sooner or later u_u but well, it might not see the light of day again.

And indeed, the forum over on deviantart is like entering a room full of people wanting to disagree with you XD

Hmm, I'm still on deviantart but the most I do is just upload artworks and my comic pages, since there's people that have followed me for some years, but it does feel like a desert nowadays ú_ù

Ho yeah! Tapas is much more relaxed with their rules. Even though it's been banned on the app they're fine with my comic being on the desktop site, or at least they were when I informed them about it, and that has nudity and a ton of profanity. Lol
Webtoons on the other hand, I had to censor some stuff.

Due to how things have shifted I doubt they'll return that section, the free comics that will be shown won't make they much money so there's not point in having it. That's the one nice thing I have to say about Webtoons, at least they still promote their canvas comics on the front page. Although they don't technically have a mandatory pay-to-read thing like Tapas does, so all their comics are basically free.

I can see that, DA is way too oversaturated. Last time I was there you had to post to groups to get seen because art posts would update so quickly, your work would immediately get buried. I couldn't bother with it so I just abandoned my profile. xD

Yeahh at least webtoons shows its canvas segment and they don't discard it like on Tapas xD

As for DA, hmm, I do send to groups but nowadays I don't expect any new watchers, I'm cool with just uploading stuff and the watchers I have liking or commenting on it haha. Mostly like, since I have a lot of content there I just keep posting out of habit perhaps.

But I can see how it would be discouraging to anyone that just starts there. (I've been there like 10+ years so yeah, at this point is just for maintaining my personal artworks organized haha)

I've never had any issues or anything, but I rarely post in the forums. I do linger a lot and read stuff a lot, and have for about a year now.

The bigger issue for me is that there's a real lack of solid conversation, it feels. There's a crap ton of threads circling around showing off, trading views/likes/subs/etc., some critique threads... but rarely more. I also have a lot of issues with the critique threads... I've seen some stuff where someone posts asking for critique and it just gets a ton of compliments or pointers so gentle that you can't really figure out what the critique actually is. And it'll be stuff where the anatomy or whatever is just severely in need of work and education.

There is a lot of fluff here, but at the expense of genuine discourse and support, I feel.

Tapas forums are very chill--especially when you compare it to Tumblr, or Twitter, or Discord type of fury where you basically can't ever share an opinion (for anything. hell you could just say "use reference" and start a war). In the years I've been here I've seen some very juicy threads that were entertaining to read through. Especially when the site changed it's entire layout and format without telling any of it's users beforehand that it was going to do it. It was rad. But since we no longer really have a way to talk/yell directly to the staff through forums it doesn't seem as valuable. They'll announce their activities on twitter/discord nowadays.

As for envy and follower count, I am somewhat blessed that my larger numbers are elsewhere, like my comic here with a few hundred subs does have 4K on WT but no one seems to care (also 4K on WT is like absolutely a vanity number, I can't even unlock ad revenue with it lolol). It does mean that if I share my opinion sometimes it will get completely disregarded because I'm perceived as an inexperienced artist--but I'm used to that on every social media I'm on.

There are issues that have evolved over time, which did draw artists away from Tapas in general, like with how advertising of community comics work, and the pivot towards translated imports, and with a focus on long scroll format updates with a lot of panel counts that are very dismissive of the intense physical burden that would place on disabled artists. Personally I think it's good to be able to talk about those very important business decisions that make some of us wonder if it will be worth it to continue posting here in the years to come, but those conversations can't seem to happen without people thinking it's about dogging on Premium or on whatever the trending genre of the week is. So a lot of those more serious conversations that must and need happen are more on twitter/discords.

The thing is that nearly all of those are just sort of self-serving. And self-serving isn't inherently a bad thing, it's a necessary part of personal development and incredibly important, but notice that most of the discussion threads start with something like "I'm working on x for my story, what do you think about that subject?"

And it isn't to say those conversations aren't interesting, they're just much more lacking than the swath of people fishing for views, subs, and so forth. None of these things are necessarily bad, it just makes it more difficult for genuine discourse.

Hm, I guess it just feels like the most natural thing in the world to me that people take an interest in Topic X when they're thinking of addressing Topic X in their own work. Like, your attention span is finite and if you're writing about X, then X is currently occupying a large part of your brain ... in fact it would be weird if you're like 'oh, but I'm actually super interested in this completely unrelated topic Y right now'! 'Cos as a writer, if you're interested in Topic Y, you'll kind of start thinking about incorporating it into your work in some way, right? XD

(And I think half of the threads I linked didn't actually mention 'I'm working on x for my story', which was completely by coincidence. Maybe I just got lucky XD But that's besides the point, because I will die on the hill of 'there's absolutely nothing wrong with being self-serving, and open self-interest is one of the most genuine forms of human communication there is' :P)

I guess you're right though that just looking at numbers, discussion threads are a minority - I guess I just didn't notice because I've gotten used to skimming past and tuning out stuff I'm not interested in XD