Have promotion threads lost their meaning?

[Leyelle]

I barely make promotion threads anymore and I only pop in here if I have an art topic/character topic to start or a game to create for people to play. the promotion topics get pretty redundant, and I'm tired of trying to come up with new ideas to switch things up tbh

[bumblebeelz]

I've been on Tapas for years, but only joined the forums a few days ago. The promotion spam was the first thing I noticed and it immediately put me off. If it stayed contained, it wouldn't be so bad, but... yeah. In my few hours of lurking, the number of people going off topic / spamming links was pretty high.

I'm glad to know you can mute categories, though. I just went and did that, and already the forum looks a lot better.

[Phoenix_fly]

Nope you are not being harsh or rude to anyone. That's a complete truth.
I am completely agree with you. There are many who just spam in every thread.

[Red_Dog]

I'm super new to the forums, but I've tried not to be too spam happy when it comes to that stuff.

I've tried to interact with the non-promotion type threads where people just share art and what-not and I did automatically assume that posting a link to my comic would be in bad taste.

It's all new to me so when I saw a new promotion thingy pop up I'd post a link and I'd try to have little teasers on some panels in a big collage here and there and was thinking about making a new one.

I wasn't aware that it was becoming a problem.

[MelancholicOtaku]

Nope you are not wrong about the decline of the promotion threads. Admittedly I do post in the chapter updates posts once a week but other than that I rarely post nowadays. About 90% of the promotion thread is sub4sub which I don’t partake in. Now if it’s a promotion that has a particular topic than I am willing to check that one out but even those slowly becoming a sub4sub. And as you guys pointed out it’s nothing but people spamming their links.

[annuskabriar]

oh damn thats annoying for the two truths and a lie. i thought that was a fun way to promote; promotional threads where you actually do something other than just spam your link

[Red_Dog]

If it helps I thought it was fun too.
I wanted to do something more creative with my post, but I was very tired. I haven't been sleeping much lately.

[Phantomobservant]

Honestly yeah I agree,it seems like copy paste mush with no true feeling.

[PapaDom]

The sad part in all of this is we tried to reduce the promotions but it never worked out. : /
When the mods were more active around here, they tried making a mega thread for keeping promos in one place: didn't work.
And we thought about possible solutions but that didn't work either.

-Getting rid of the promo category
That would just made another category the replacement for it.

-Telling people not to spam
Worked on a few people until a new member came with "Let me introduce myself 1 Billion times. "

-Trying more creative promo threads to interact with
It worked on a few core members and was actually fun until the numbers rose and the dumping started.

I don't understand their mindsets at all, like wtf dude? If I don't want to read your comic/novel on one post, doesn't make me want to check out the other 20.000 posts. Especially if you just post a link with "Pwease subswibe x3" instead of, idk, a actual fun qoute or something. But making the same thread over and over again, reusing really old threads or just straight up needing subs instead of introducing and being an active member right after the account was made is more doable for some reason.
"Sorry couldn't hear ya over my 1 Billion posts. Please check me out! Like and sub4sub and check out our kickstarter. "

Muting and flagging people for promo dumping seems the only reasonable solution right now. : /

[IndigoShirtProd]

I've been on the forums since 2019 and I can't recall a time when promotional threads didn't just devolve link dropping threads. It's always kind of been like this. The mods tried to put up a promotional mega thread to circumvent the problem and pinned it to the top of the forum. Unfortunately, people would still make new promotional threads anyway, and I think at some point the thread was unpinned.

It's hard to say something is rude when it's true. When I first got on here, I tried my hand at promotion a little bit. Didn't want to be too spammy or seem too desperate. But in doing that, you're overtaken by the noise of other creators who are, to put it nicely, less self-aware.

And, nothing against anyone else here, but I'm pretty against sub4sub threads. Past getting your first 15 subs, it doesn't really help your metrics. It can actually hurt in the long run since, apparently, having a lot of dead subs can result in worse placement in the algorhythm. Though, with the way technology works, that could have changed by now. Also, I just think sub4subs are annoying.

[Crusoe]

Yeah, it's unfortunate but I appreciate that you try to liven the place up! Honestly, for people who come here to casually chat/only promo in chats with a fun prompt it's best to mute the promo categories and try to lift up the fun ones.

Ive been on the forums for a long time and excessive promoing has always been an issue. The difference now is that it's gotten so bad it's hard to have a regular conversation.

[Phoenix_fly]

sub4subs are annoying

Yes, I am agree with it. If the work(Novel/Comics) is awesome or satisfying the readers then they will sub themselves.
Sub4sub is just annoying and nothing else.

[kyupol]

It's advertising. Like I'm driving and I see a billboard of Nike or Coca-Cola or anything political or religious... I just move on and forget it.

But it stays in the subconscious. The more you're bombarded with ads, the more likely you'll check something out.

The marketing rule of 7 is a marketing principle that states a potential customer must see a message at least 7 times before they'll be provoked to take an action.

Marketing Rule of 7's

[jwabeasley]

I'm with you. If it isn't appropriate to the conversation and it isn't in the promotions category, report it... but otherwise, I find it ridiculous that people repeatedly spam promotion and sub4sub, etc. I can only sub once! The same is true of everyone else here. During my 6 months here, it seems every couple of weeks some dummy comes on, does well with their first sub4sub thread, and then spams 100 more identical threads for a week or so and then gives up, to be replaced by a new dummy.

It's the same crowd today as it was yesterday, and there's only so much turnover month by month. The forum sub4sub can be a quick boost, but it's a one time thing! I'm not sure if there's a permanent solution other than not interacting with the dummies.

That said, the regulars here can give great conversation and feedback in other ways. I really enjoy the rest of this forum.

[yaziroburrows]

It can be very annoying.

I try to only promote in threads I've never posted in and Only post like a few times, but I often find if I want to find interesting topics, I have to just go to the individual categories, since so many people just span promotions threads. I honestly find promoting tedious and prefer to focus on writing, but when I see interesting concepts, like the 1 lie, 2 truth threads, they can just be fun and help me find new stories.

Even in some of the ones I've made, there are people who just post each chapter of their work back to back, without even doing the sub4sub, like4like or comment4comment. It gets really annoying and frustrating, since I am actively looking for more NEW stories to sub to, and its constantly the same people spamming.

[thepenmonster]

I'm pretty against sub4sub threads

Aye. Read my comic and do so because you like it. I'm not here to help you get your numbers up.

[Maxouco]

I think that people that starts their comic/novel tend to forget that they do it for themselves before all else when they enter the ''promospam'' mode.

[ButterflyEmpress]

I've been lurking around time to time and I realized that most creators here are looking to sell, not buy. Either because they're too busy on their own project or just simply don't care about others' works and want quick validation. Most readers aren't coming here for something to read, they're browsing the front page of Tapas and Webtoon for the professional stuff.

[Maxouco]

I agree, I I also think that if people want to promote their stuff here or sell, they should at least take the time to appreciate other people's work. We are a community not CEOs waiting for sell's pitch after all!

[Leyelle]

agreed, I still try to make some games now and then but I haven't bothered to mute the other threads because there are so many I was part of before lol