Have you ever lost subs/unsubsribed after posting/reading a 'controversial' chapter?

[lerasycamore]

As the title says - have you ever lost subs after updating with a 'curious' chapter? Did you feel upset or happy? And, to the readers, have you ever unsubscribed after reading something and going "well, nope."

I recently had that experience as an author and, ngl, I felt both a bit sad and also a sense of happy relief. I lowkey pride myself on writing unconventional stuff (in this particular case, it was a smutty chapter with some dub-con and humiliation kink - very mild for my taste...) So some readers dropping out was like proof that, yay, it is truly unconventional.

What have you posted to lose subs? Did you kill off a character? Wrote questionable smut? And, readers, what made you unsubscribe? What was that final "nope"?

Share your experiences, I'm curious what the threshold of Tapas readers is!

As usual, we all have our own tastes and everyone's opinion is valid. Let's treat it as a research topic of sorts, methinks?

For anyone interested, this is the novel that went through said trials and tribulations:

Read The Scum Warlord Stabbed Me In The Back | Tapas Web Community

[jwabeasley]

I've never had mass unsubs... but I run a SFW comic, and my spiciness level is only slightly beyond "newspaper comic."

I have unsubscribed from other comics and novels before. The most common reason is realizing a story was written with AI. The second reason is the creator putting out frequent low-quality updates all the time and gumming up my notifications with their shoddy work. I usually don't sub to comics I think will be too spicy or ...specific for me in the first place.

I think if you've clearly communicated your content type to your audience at the outset, there shouldn't really be mass unsubs for content.

[bumblebeelz]

I write about mature subjects, and even have a chapter involving attempted assault. I wouldn't personally call it graphic, but that's subjective and is gonna vary from person to person. Still, I haven't noticed any drop off in readership. If anything, my mature chapters tend to get more views than my normal ones.

All that said... At first glance, your synopsis gives off a comedic vibe. People going into your story might think it's gonna be fluffy or humorous, but then get hit with dub-con. It could definitely be upsetting to certain readers.

Do you have content warnings anywhere, letting people know what kind of ride they're in for? Because if not, I definitely recommend adding some. I have content warnings listed in my story synopsis, and I slap them in the description section of chapters preceding my mature updates. It's just to make sure everyone knows what's coming in the next episode. Hell, I recently got a comment from someone thanking me for including those warnings. Like, it may seem like a little thing, but people really do appreciate it.

[justincarbunkle]

I had one person tell me they couldn't keep reading because an episode had sexual content. if anyone unsubbed for a particular episode, I'm unaware of it. I can think of a few episodes that could. A few that feature nudity, jokes about sex and race, ones that simply aren't well made, ect.

I've never read anything on this site long enough that I hit a point I wanted to subscribe. I haven't subscribed from anything tbh. I hand subs out to everything just to be nice. If I read the first 3 eps and didn't hate it, I'm not gonna unsub.

[smilingworg]

only times I've had anyone unsubscribe, I'm pretty sure it was someone hoping I would subscribe in return and then left when I didn't reciprocate

[remiquise]

yeah.

In an old comic on another site I was writing a comic about an executioner telling tales of the people he had, well, executed. I had some readers tell me they had to opt out of specific chapters. It was a historical horror, talking mostly about the injustice of "justice", and that tale was tied of an LGBTQ couple.

But I'm not a large enough artist to really have a "mass unsub" worth noticing, just a few folks who realize I wasn't joking with the content warning and dropping off when I really sink my teeth into meat of my stories... Specifically the horror ones. For my novel/novella... well. I don't pull punches when it comes to writing a creep, creeping on the leading lady through his thoughts. Think I wrote the SA scene from his POV too... The only serious review i got for the series as a whole was that it was gratuitous. But hey, horror isn't always meant to cause fear, disgust and shock are also part of that definition. But it did get too much for some folk.

[kyupol]

From my experience people come and go randomly. I gain and lose subs all the time.

[eunwei]

I have no idea actually lol. I do write mature stuff which includes non graphic SA or intimate moments (this is required to show the sufferings of the MC, it's not glorified in any way).
Even the first chapter is tagged M for this reason.

However, I'm not sure if I have "lost" any subs, I can say the views gradually decreased after certain M chapters - either because they couldn't read it being underaged or, they found it uncomfortable, I have no idea.

If I were to lose subs, it would be because of the MC's miserable luck and torture I would think.

[eunwei]

I agree!

Even if I select what M options the chapters are, I still give a decent content warning on my chapters because hell no, those tags aren't enough. You gotta know what you're in for
Whenever I end the warning with "Read with care, you have been warned," just know you have to brace yourself for this chapter loll

[bumblebeelz]

I feel like those basic warnings might be good for comics, but given that the rules around novels are different, and we can go into so much more detail... Yeah. Best to give additional heads up!

Although, to be fair to OP, I checked and they did have an extra warning on their chapter. So my theory kind of falls apart.

[feuersichel]

The reason I lose people, is because I upload irregular and take for ever to finish a page. My comic is otherwise pretty tame. I don't check my subscriber count often though, so I can't really tell.

[ShidoDraws]

I've had people subscribe to my story and then unsubscribe after they read the first chapter. My story is not for everyone but at least people know what they're getting into. However, I don't actually know what people think, so I'll never know why other than making assumptions.

Personally, when I unsubscribe to a story it's usually because I think the story is boring, never because a chapter is problematic. Even then I might not even unsubscribe and instead I just DNF it, only because I like to keep a catalog of what I've read. It's a bit of a habit for me. Like if I ever need to mention the thing I'm talking about I want to still be able to find the name and such.

[lerasycamore]

Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences!!

I got busy with work and finally managed to read carefully all the answers.

It's kinda inspiring how chill everyone is with people coming and going, that's the spirit!

Also, about tagging content. Maybe I'm alone in this, but does anyone else sometimes feels like tagging takes away from the story? I mean, if GOT had a huge warning "Main Character Death', the beheading of Ned Stark would just not work as it did. Of course, this example cannot cover everything, but you get what I mean. I tag things I consider heavily triggering but in all honesty, I'd rather have one large 'this is for adults' thing similar to AO3's 'Creator chose not to use archive warning' and I few tags for gore/sex/violence and just let readers explore the story. Though it may be a cultural difference or smth on my side.

If anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd be happy to read them!

[jwabeasley]

Also, about tagging content. Maybe I'm alone in this, but does anyone else sometimes feels like tagging takes away from the story? I mean, if GOT had a huge warning "Main Character Death', the beheading of Ned Stark would just not work as it did.

Like everything, there's a balance to be struck. GoT communicates that it is a brutal setting and won't put on kid gloves for named characters right from the outset - if you don't know anything about GoT besides the advertising, you'd know it's an M-rated fantasy series with a lot of sex, blood, and politics. I think chapter-level warnings might be overboard, but overall novel warnings are reasonable. "Graphic XYZ" could be a TW right on the dust jacket or prior to the story start, and then nobody will be offended when it shows up - they'll be waiting for it.