So, I've been alive for a long time (not really) and I've barely used forum sites. Actually, I lied I've never used them at all 
So I was wondering if anyone can give me a quick summary of how to use Tapas Forums because I would love to not only promote my work but give advice to others and compliments cause a lot of you are really talented and have cool Webcomics.
Oct '24Oct '24
I wouldn't say a there is a right way. 80% of the content here is sub4sub which doesn't lead much to genuine interaction and getting to know writers and their work.
I tend to look for things with more unique twists for advertising, so at least you can be creative and what not.
For giving advice and such, I'd say to start you own thread. I have one where I do positivity reads and it's been a lot of fun! You can try to find places where people are looking for trade reads or feedback reads... they do pop up occasionally! 
Yeah when I first started using the forums I was very confused- now I practically live here. 
My advice is block the promotions threads cuz it’s all sub 4 sub, unless you want that ig- and interact with others.
If you're talking about convention and etiquette, there's not too much difference between here and other social media (except that longer posts are welcome). I guess I'd liken it to a YouTube comment section: You can start your own discussion, or you can reply to someone else's discussion, and @ people you specifically want to address.
As others have already stated, there are tons and tons of promotional threads being created on the hour every hour, so if you just want places to advertise you can totally just hop into one occasionally.
HOWEVER: I think you'll get better results if you just use the forum like a regular person and actually talk to people about art. You'll find plenty of opportunities to bring up your work and your characters and the kinds of stories you tell just by participating in real discussions...and since this forum is obviously 90% creators and 10% consumers (if that), I think that's the best way to use this forum for promotion.
Most of the people here aren't starving for content and just waiting for someone to advertise the right genre buzzwords at them; they're passionate storytellers themselves, and will respond to people who can show that they share that passion.
And honestly, I feel like this forum would be a much more interesting place if more people took the time to do that instead of just dropping links and leaving. There are actually still a lot of people here; this forum is VERY active, but it doesn't feel like it because most of the users don't talk outside of the Promotion category. Any discussions that AREN'T focused on advertising seem to live or die by the same 20 or so regulars...it's such a shame. You would think that a site with such a large percentage of creative people on it would feature an equally large percentage of discussions about...well, creation. Instead it feels like the opposite...
Even though the forums have always been mostly for creators, I recall even a few years ago, the discussions threads used to be more creative revolving around art-related topics in general with a few promotional threads here and there. However, a lot of the active users who posted on those discussions have seemed to left.
Yeah, a lot of people have come and gone...I've been here for over 6 years now; I've seen this forum go in a lot of different directions. But this is the first 'era' I've seen where no one seems to want to start fun discussions outside of promotion anymore...only a tiny handful of users (besides me) even bother trying.
And it's not that the promotion discussions are all worthless; there are some good prompts here and there that invite people to elaborate a little more on their usual sales pitches. But that's usually all it is, a thread full of slightly-longer sales pitches where no one actually talks to anyone or discusses anything...and still half-filled with the usual promotional spam from users who never bother reading the OP; they just see the word 'promote' and go into auto-pilot...
I fully back up this advice!
@Cucito
Please use the forum to make some pals. You're not alone in this! We are all here helping each other out and just being all-around supportive of projects. :}
Feel free to promote as you want, but fair warning, it is fairly incestual. Readers aren;'t really on here, so you'll mostly be advertising to other creators (like the people responding to you here. lol)
I rarely drop links anymore. Started doing it again recently, then kinda thought there wasn't much point to it. So I'm still on here to chat and share, like most others.
PS: When you make a topic, make sure it is in its respective place. You already did it, so you know how this forum works. I think that's the only pet peeve that people really have is when things get a bit disorganized or spammy. Like, your question has been asked before BUT this is solely asking as an individual in need of help. So this question can be asked many times by people.
Thanks I appreciate it. I've been noticing that a lot of it is just spam promotion so thanks for taking the time to respond ! :))
I appreciate you taking the time to respond! I somewhat have gotten an understanding on what to do and when I have time I'll def be spending time here
Thank you for everyone who responded to this thread 
I couldnt ask for better people to help me out Ive been reading all your advice and I wish I could change the theme of this thread cause it seems like all the people here are passionate about making this site more creator interactive than a quick pump and dump of everyones webcomics. I'll keep learning and interacting as well :))
This forum is almost at 100 views?! 
I am sorry for being clueless but also thankful for every person who responded and helped! I'm not going to promote my work here cause it's not the place for it but soon I will make a thread to promote art and your works cause I would be excited to read what you guys are cooking! If I have anymore questions I'll definitely come back! Thank you I appreciate you!!! 
