How do you guys interact with other creators and readers?

[Zak]

Honestly, I have agoraphobia in IRL, so Ive been practicing with online interactions so it being hard is REAL.

I just probably have tough luck when it comes to interacting with folks I'm interested in interacting with. Locally its such a small scene that there's not much going on TO interact with. As well as the fact the content they make I don't really agree with such as nudity and stuff.

I don't see much messages until 20 hours have passed unfortunately. Which sucks a lot!

I am the same with one particular person who doesn't miss a beat with commenting on my pages but man, when I try to interact with others and those who read it. Its just radio silence. Its insane.

Thanks for your comment!

[Zak]

Id love to do a discord server for my webcomic and just generally hang out with people and talk and chat and be actual human beings. But I feel like it'll die out once I'm asleep and people will move on.

Plusssssss, I feel like everyone and their mother has 100+ servers already to juggle. I surely do. ^^;

Thank you so much for commenting!

[Zak]

I try not to do business stuff when it comes to my webcomic, it feels so fake and forced. Plus too, it annoys alot of people and has gotten me banned from many circles unfortunately. I just can't get it right.

I try and be a person first and foremost just it doesn't lend itself when people don't give back?

Thanks for your comment!

[Zak]

Ive done that but it seems I'm usually late to the punch by 20 hours when I see it on any form of social media. Like art shares, challenges and so on that it doesn't get seen when I do interact.

I try and catch tweets early if I can but it screwed up my health so bad I needed surgery that I'm still waiting on so Ive been cutting back. Forums were easier back in the day for sure. Discord is easy too with getting notified and using a telephone to use it but man, Most ones I'm in 100% are just dead until they all wake up when I'm awake and then during the night my telephone just blows up. lol

Id LOVE to organize small drawing sessions and such just to talk and chat and what not but I can't ever seem to catch anyone on or anything. I do comment on artworks and stuff but I think it doesn't get seen at all too. Its really frustrating.

Thank you so much for your comment!

[Zak]

Values, not interests?

Ill keep trying but it seems very very difficult. lol, Just seems like reaching out doesn't amount to anything because most folks will see your work, cringe at it and then not bother to interact with you as if you're of "not higher status" or follower count is another factor or something. Its so... what's the word? Class defined?

[Lensing]

I made some online friends on facebook in comic groups.
Some because I loved their art, some because they gave me advice and some because
I gave them advice. Facebook is better for that than i.e. Twitter, Instagram etc.

I started jam comics on the tapas forum, that was a great way to interact with
people and I upload sketches every day in the sketch a day topic. I love sketching
and look at other people´s sketches and to interact with them. There are some people
who regularly upload sketches. You are welcome to join

[darthmongoose]

Are you in a place where going to in-person events is viable? Whether it's comic conventions, or smaller things like zine fairs, or even local "Drink and Draw" meetups, print workshops and similar?

I've found it much easier to connect with people and really make or deepen friendships that mostly persist online by meeting people in-person. Online communication can be very.... lacking in nuance, and if you're a quiet person, you can't benefit so much from just being there in somebody's company or listening. There are a lot of people out there who'd probably like to hang out with somebody who's just chill and easy to be around, but who would kind of be invisible on a discord server, and a lot of people who are stars of the discord server or similar would be exhausting to be around in real life.

Making friends online, I tend to find that directly reaching out to people, like if they made a really good post or piece of art, or comic that you liked, with a sincere compliment about what you liked about it, can be a good start. Most people are looking to connect with others, and to feel like somebody "gets them", and this can be a good way to initiate the initial chatting and getting to know each other part of a friendship.

[Lensing]

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Are you in a place where going to in-person events is viable? Whether it's comic conventions, or smaller things like zine fairs, or even local "Drink and Draw" meetups, print workshops and similar?

good advice, I always did that and made a lot of friends and I think you can find people everywhere
who are interested in drawing, art, illustration. I used to live in Berlin and it was easy there to go
to comic jams, 24 hours comic days, comic artist meetings etc but I also had no problem finding
people in the small town where I´m living now. I live in a village near a small town now and I
have an illustrator / drawing group I meet regularly for drink & draws and stuff like that

[cherrystark]

Making friends will always be hard. I still struggle with it myself. Be your own best friend first. If you are nice and polite, eventually you will find your people.

[thepenmonster]

How do you guys interact with other creators and readers?

With as much patience as possible.

[Nugtown]

Yeah, values. Interests are things you enjoy, but your values are your philosophies and beliefs. A person who believes in the value of hard work gets along well with other people of a similar nature, similar vibes, even if they're totally interested in different things, or even live different lifestyles.
Interests are a good avenue for paving the way to more relationships, but they can't be the end all be all.

[Zak]

Unfortunately no. Australian bushland isn't a good place for getting to and from places specially with no job I can't pay to maintain a vehicle let alone pay for a P's learners test.

That and events are all 4 hours away specially comic shops so those aren't doable either. When I DID try and do local stuff it was very long distance while doing publishing if you want to call it that. But that experience blacklisted me from a specific group because of them not liking what I was creating.

Im pretty chill and have been trying to reach out to those who I think ill get along with. It's just people I suppose are too preoccupied?

Figured making genuine connections will be easier than trying to find readers since I don't tend to shove that in peoples faces as often as I should but man its doing the exact same thing as my readers being the most quietest group in the world lol

[Zak]

Very lucky! Wish I had that lol

[Zak]

I might try that out actually lol

[vapidink]

This is probably my biggest struggle because I'm an awkward potato and discord scares me. Readers are easier to interact with because they usually begin the interaction so I just go along with it. Creators are trickier to me for some reason. I'm in a discord with other writers and have found it's hard to communicate with them since we write very different things and have very different ideas on the process. They're very focused on the technical things like structure and I'm not. Mostly, I've sorta accepted writing is a lonely thing, haha.

[Emalie]

I write a BL novel, not many people in the community read them, but the following happened to me, I began to read many series of topics that I liked: action, science fiction, horror, romance. Similar genres and not so much to a BL story and from there I met people.

I joined a discord group and little by little we became friends, that was over a year ago, I left the group for personal reasons and other guys too. I tried to keep in touch with most of them, and to my surprise, many of them currently read my novel and comment even though they don't like BL.

I have always admired the work of these people, and never sought their approval, much less their "pity". I have a hard time talking to them because of my time zone, but when we can, they are interested in listening to me and obviously I do the same.

[RedLenai]

Personally, I don't engage much with the art community in general (Besides replying to these threads, or answering art / commission questions when someone asks) but I can tell I made friends when

• I see someone who seems to be talkative, I like their stuff genuinely, I don't expect anything in return, and somehow we end up engaging more by just exchanging doubts, commentary, ideas, etc.
• I went to Anime Conventions, Artists Alley or just Artists gatherings around the area where I lived. Most of the time, I just were curious about what people were making on their stands, buy something, get their cards to follow them, and back in the day I also tagged them when I posted my hauls or similar, also ended up following them and continuing checking their stuff and we just... vibed?

I'm not a person that seeks validation, to fit-in, or have a bunch of friends. I don't feel solitude or that I miss someone if I don't see them or chat with them either. Most of the time I ended up noticing I made friends after a while of me engaging with others.

I wonder if the reason is that the more someone searches for something like love or friendship, the less likely it is to find it. That's at least what I've seen and felt the most.
People who desperately want friends they don't realize they don't look chill or genuine, or well, most of the time they come off as pushy, other times as people with low self-steem that tries to validate them by the number of people they think they surround themselves with, or that by having those that would dedicate time and attention to them. I don't know but, a lot of people would kind of have that feeling when someone has an ulterior motive, regardless if it's actually harmless or not.

[XiuLyn_12]

No, I understand! It isn't easy to make connections with fellow creators, especially befriending them!

Like, I understand my work isn't well known. But for them to blatantly ignore me because I'm not a "fellow famous" artist hurts sometimes. I only assume they're too busy to talk to me, or perhaps I can provide 0 benefits to them if we become friends.

(I'm not talking about anyone in this forum. Everyone here is very kind!)

[SereinChoo]

I truly relate with this. Reaching out in a big platform is hard,, it's better to create a small group, add some friends who has the same interest so that you connect better

[Lensing]

95% of the things that I had in my life were started by me.
There are artists everywhere in the world, you can be the one who
starts a new movement