How do you cope with so many great comics in your reading list?

[Diabolo]

I've got 60 comics in my reading list, among which:
- 47 that I have read or that I am currently reading
- 13 that I haven't read yet, but that I'm planning to

Of course among the 60 comics, some are finished, some are updated only once in a while, some seem to suffer from undefined hiatus... but I was wondering:

How many comics can one person follow at the same time?
Do you feel there is a threshold at which you just get confused and cannot digest anything more?

Of course, it realy depends on the comic: a humor strip or a daily-updated romance comic are much easier to follow than an adventure comic updating once a week. But do you sometimes feel lost or discouraged when you see your notifications? How do you manage your reading list?

I must admit sometimes I'm feeling a little bit lost and overwhelmed, especially since I always like to discover new series (and Tapastic is full of very good stuff), so I am very curious about your thought on the subject, especially when I stumble upon people which such a huge reading list.
( @ametueraspirant, really, what's you secret??)

[ghostnxs]

I had well over 100 comics, but I cut that down to 18 that I truly liked. When I had a bunch I found out that some comics I wouldn't read when they updated. Getting 20+ notifications a day is kind of annoying especially if you don't love that series. I'd unsubscribe from comics that weren't at a certain quality.

[ashriott]

I follow about 40+, inclusive of ongoing comics, completed one shots, and series on hiatus. I don't feel discouraged from my piling notifications, nor should we feel pressured constantly having to keep up with series really... It's best to take your time and enjoy them slowly hehe. I'm the reader that likes to wait a bit longer for more updates before continuing the series again, and I don't mind going back several pages/chapters just to refresh my memory on what previously happened(though I have a pretty bad memory ><). Granted this doesn't happen all the time. I'm pretty random with what I read and when.

[mjmassey]

I think once you catch up wit ha series, it's easy to keep up with many different comics at once, since they only release a little at a time. Honestly, if I didn't follow so many comics, I'd probably never know what day of the week it was haha. I don't feel discouraged in the sense that "I'll never catch up with all these" so much as "Why can't I update as fast?" or "Look at all these comics that have more subscribers than me haha."

[KSlinger]

I follow over 100 comics on here but only a handful of them update regularly. The most I've had to read at any one time is 12, but then I pop on all times of the day, every day, so my list never has a chance to clog up.

I think your threshold is whatever number you can reach before you stop absorbing what's going on in each story, and that's a personal thing for you to decide. It's hard to appreciate something (or give the artist your honest feedback) if you can't retain the information they're giving you, and you'd probably enjoy it more if you could go back and take your time reading it through rather than feeling pressured.

[Doubtcent]

I have 565 at the moment, and it'll get bigger as I find more interesting series.

I was gone for a week once. Had more than 100+ comics updated on my reading list.

As for "coping", a lot of the series I read are not so much long-form, but gag-a-days. As for the long-forms, I just take my time with them. If I'm not doing anything, I just sit and read. It may take up some time, but I like to keep my notifications clean.

What can I say? I just love reading comics.

Of course, if a comic just becomes droll, I unsubscribe. I don't need uninventive comics on my reading list.

[winglesscomic]

I don't hahahaha

I haven't read pretty much any comics in three weeks so far and my comic notifications is just ticking up and up and up.

At this point I kinda don't even want to read comics. I'm so busy with my own I'm just tired of all comics right now? It's a weird feeling.

[infectedbloodcomics]

I don't! I only read up to 5 comics, make sure to catch up on them, and subscribe only to those that really strike me, while watching silently no more than another 3 or so. I'm just too busy with my own comics and my job and my busy life

[joannekwan]

Let's see I got 157 on my list currently. I do look forward to updates, gives me something to look at during the day. I love notifications, since I have Tap open in a tab most of the day. But of course I look forward to the updates of some series more than others. Sometimes though I do find that I don't really care about a series' updates anymore and at that point I unsub.

[kazukitakamura126]

I only follow 11 comics at the moments. I don't want the list to get too big or I might not end up reading them. Doing that seems to make me feel guilty because I broke my promise to read their work. Maybe I am thinking to much into it. =/

[joannekwan]

Haha, you can read someone's work but you don't have to subscribe! The last thing I'd want for a reader is to sub to my comic because they feel obligated to. I'd rather them sub out of sincere interest and enjoyment.

[jessiepolfliet]

I have a 200+ reading list, and about 15 updates a day, but hey I like reading comics so it isn't a chore. I am just glad these talented people offer their amazing work for free to us to read. Also some are completed, are one-shots or haven't updated in a while.

[ametueraspirant]

well since you asked so politely
I visit the site about twice daily and dedicate about 20 minutes each time to clear up my updates.
also I read REALLY fast, I can put it on auto scroll and get through a small page in 4-5 seconds, a text heavy page never takes longer than a minute.
then I like,
comment,
sub if not already,
the real time waster is the loading of the pages, so I tend to open 15-20 updates at once and blaze through them, then redo as necessary.
this also makes my computer yell at me a lot.
though I haven't even reached the end of my backlog, I just checked and it took a good minute or so to scroll through my bookmarked list of comics I've yet to read.

[AnnaLandin]

I have 36 comics on my reading list here on Tapastic, and it has been growing very slowly over the months I've been here.

I tend to subscribe to only a few comics because a.) I'm very busy, b.) I'm very picky, and c.) I rarely go browsing with the intent of finding somehting new. I tend to stumble on stuff here on the forums, or be linked to stuff by friends, etc. Also, due to point b.), I sometimes go back and read a comic more than once before I decide to subscribe or not.

Also, I don't subscribe to a comic until I've read the existing content. This is to keep from adding comics to my list that I will later have to drop - either because I don't like the way the plot is going, or because the creator decides not to finish it, or whatever.

As for managing to keep up with the comics that are there... It helps to have as few as I have. It also helps that I've got a lot of practise reading stuff in parallell. When reading novels, for example, I usually have 2 or 3 going at the same time, and switch between them, without getting lost. It's an acquired skill, and it works well with webcomics - especially since webcomics tend to update slowly.

[Diabolo]

@ametueraspirant haha sorry, I was not really polite, I realize that now x)
Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm alaways amazed by the number of comics in your reading list, by the number of comments you make that show you are actually following the story and are interested in it.
I must admit even after your explanation that still sounds like you are a super human being.

Thanks everybody for sharing your point of view! ___
So from what I've read there seems to be several categories of people when it comes to reading comics here on Tapastic:
- those who pick only a few comics to be dedicated to
- those with a big reading list who are connected several times in a day and can cope with a lot of notifications
- those who don't get stressed by notifications, who read the series they want among their reading list and who don't hesitate to let the new pages accumulate before they come back to the comic.

I tend to feel guilty when I'm not reading a new comic page straight away, but I guess @ashriott is right, it is best to take my time if need be. I can always clear my notifications and read a bigger chuck at once next time there's an update.

[Stellamari]

I just let the notifications pile up and go through it once a day or two, or three since I visit Tapastic so often!

[Waterdrain]

I really not sure, I'm guessing just enough to keep track of it all. I have 36 comics that I'm following and some of them I don't keep track of them.

[purrlpankras]

Theres one I read everytime it updates, because its that good.

Others I wait a bit till they have enough for me to get into it.

..but when they do have enough...
I go into my dark cave and read them alone

[igneriss]

I have 110 series on my reading list, and it's usually quite easy for me to follow as they don't update at once Cx Usually I can manage to comment on some of those series as well. I enjoy reading them, want to know what happens next, so yeah, it's a pleasure having a lot of comics to read ( :
Though when I miss a week online it can be a bit overwhelming, seeing those notifications. But hey, I don't have to read everything in one day, right? Few series today, few tomorrow, and it goes somehow c;
Also, I sometimes feel a bit lost/discouraged if the serie is updated less often than once a week. I just don't remember what happened last time, and I don't really like going back to previous pages with every update ; v;

Oh, and I add a serie to reading list only after catching up with it. When I'm still reading or just planning to read, it waits patiently in bookmarks c:

[ametueraspirant]

my mistake, I must have sounded derisive.
you did not offend me in any way, and I in fact enjoyed reading this post quite a bit.
my apologies if you felt so.