yeah, I personally don't think premium novels or comics should be in staff picks...even webtoons doesn't do that. I think staff should reserve those spots for the self publishers
What makes it weirder is they are four sections for trending on the front page. Premium novels and comics. And free novels and comics. But staff picks are mixed.
I feel like there's a plethora of ways to promote premium content on rotation without limiting free comics and novels.
I haven't used webtoon as a creator yet, but as a reader, Webtoon has the big name webcomics like Tower of God and UnOrdinary, plus a decent thriller section. Otherwise I prefer using Tapas.
2 months later
I feel the same about distinguishing free from paid stuff. I'll get a notification about a new comic, get really excited by the summary, and then find out that I have to pay to read past the first 5 updates. It's just frustrating and I'd rather not deal with the site altogether. I prefer Webtoons, because I know that most of what I click on will eventually be free to read. I used to constantly read on Tapas a couple years ago, but now I only keep up with is Fangs and Heartstopper. And I've just recently bought the hard copies for both so I don't need Tapas anymore. It's a shame, but I guess Tapas appeals to other people and that's fine.
I really don't like Webtoons for the following reasons.
Newcomers like myself have little chance of getting even remotely seen.
It seems to me they focus on their own popular strips.
No community spirit. No forum.
Hate the layout.
Hate that its mostly Anime look stuff front and centre (though Tapas is guilty also) There are other styles!
On Tapas I can tap fresh and get some new content by new creators.
Thus giving newbs a chance to at least have it be seen.
No such luck on Webtoons (unless im missing something)
Fine for established creators but bad for everyone else.
To be fair, the anime-styled comics show up more in Popular and similar places because they're, well, what get popular, most of Webtoons' audience are teenage girls (like... me) and would gravitate towards comics with that kind of style cuz that's what they're used to. Lots of them are weebs, people. A lot of them really like reading manga.
Still sucks though, but I can't entirely blame Webtoons for that. They're a company that needs to make money, so the algorithm kinda picks up on those anime-styled comics because a lot of people are reading them.
I'll be honest, I'm still not sure why Webtoons is so heavily linked to Tapas. Are they owned by the same people? Or is it because they're both popular sites for webcomics? (Sorry if this is a silly question!)
Anyways, I only use Tapas for my novel. I honestly have really enjoyed being on the site and have had great engagement. I think that's partially because of how active the forums are - which is awesome. I do wish though that the content being uploaded was... a bit more cognizant at times. I don't want to name anyone involved but a friend had an incident on the site recently that really hurt their feelings and I completely understood why. Basically, I wish comments and reviews could be moderated better (like the author can moderate their comments and reviews on their works before they go online).
I'm guessing because Webtoons and Tapas are the most popular comic hosting sites and many creators post on both. They also have similar audiences.
Also the fact Webtoons doesn't have a forum or anything, so many Webtoon creators come to the Tapas forums for tips, talk about comics, or just in general hang out.
From another point of view.
I think that tapas would have big troubles if WT had the same good stuff for the creators that Tapas have.
I only came here in the beginning because of how it works. Then I tried out WT because people said that's where the reader is.
And at that time, if WT was as awesome as Tapas from a creators view, I would have jumped.
But now, 2 years later I ONLY wish to stay at Tapas.
I don't know about Webtoon as either or a user so can't speak on that.
Tapas:
Reader::
Decent on navigation both on desktop and app; tags seem useless; search function works; not an endless scrolling to keep finding "new" content is sad; site openly advertises how many Likes a work has (not a good feature imho); easy to binge read the works and find more by the creator you like; hard to find "more works like this" because some are just so unique
Creator::
1. Dashboard stats front and center with a daily breakdown for all 3
2. Comments are not treated as a measurable stat (good thing)
3. Likes are featured as a thing to entice readers to read something (bad thing)
4. Iffy support on formatting for novels
5. Easy to upload text or images (novel or comic)
6. Schedule feature
7. Schedule into the future feature
8. Schedule and forget
9. Schedule and let life go sideways for a few weeks, no prob.
10. Site "attention" does not demand socializing from an introvert with no time
I know, me too. There's no good way to connect with people on Webtoons. There aren't even notifications to keep track of comments.
I did send an e-mail to the customer service about that and they answered something like this:
”Thank you for contacting us. Your feedback is important to us. We are glad to be in contact with our user”
Then I replied:
”This is what I’m talking about. I wish to Get in contact with my readers as you wish to be in contact with me”
Then:
Nothing....