Promo threads with prompts helped me get where I am, so can't really say the solution is to take them all out. Moderation tried to limit them before and keep raw promo to the stickied thread, but not only we have someone there constantly replying to every new post with their comics instead of just one and done, every new user that shows up sees a promo thread and goes "neat, I want to do that too!" since they don't know it doesn't work if it's just links and nothing else.
Concerning threads with prompts it'd be neat to see something like one or two new prompts a week or so, that way there's a couple different topics for folks to choose from depending on their personal preference or area of interest and enough time for people to interact, engage and keep things interesting overall.
Not to sure how to test such a thing out but it could serve as a decent starting point?
The problem with promotion threads is that for anyone who's been hanging around here a while, you've already checked out most of the other works and either subbed or know it's not your sort of thing. I think getting rid of the prompt-based threads, however, would remove a lot of interaction between authors - I made one the other day and I really enjoyed reading all the responses to it. Perhaps there should be some kind of avoidance of the 'drop your link and run' ones, and promotion of ones that involve community interaction.
I am guilty of dropping my link in the non-prompt based ones, but I do try not to spam them.
Agree with everything here. The interactions in the prompt-based threads are the most enjoyable part of them.
I think there should just be a thread per medium and genre, and you basically get to post your work in each of it's subgenres once. Then once every quarter the threads are refreshed and you can post again. That way every three months those threads would be cleared out, people could find a comic or novel they wanted by genre, and there wouldn't be as much spam.
Other than that, if you're going to link your work it should probably be in relation to the discussion that's being had (to provide an example or to respond to someone directly asking for it).
Honestly that's the only way I could imagine cleaning it up, making it servicable and keeping it managable.
When I first started my comic I got a decent chunk up and then made a post saying "I've got a scifan comic about giant robots, who's got some similarly niche scifan for me to check out" and that got me some subs who are still wit me and helped me find some comics I'm still following. It worked. I've even been trending a few times. I also got a few recommendations.
I'd say I'm more of a fan of recommendation threads, and I am in theory, but the problem then comes like with the front page that people will just recommend the same few more popular creators over and over unless you're very specific about what you want.
But honestly, with things like post your latest update threads and plenty of other appropriate places to link your comic during your average conversation, there's no need for these dozens of bog standard share you comic self promo with no limits threads. I think the more specific these threads can be the more likely you can get the readers who are genuinely interested and the more likely you won't just get swept up in a wave of newcomers spamming their comic in every self promo thread around, not that specifics always stop them just not reading and spamming it anyway. I think some of the nicest balance can be you can promo yourself as long as you also promo someone in the same genre or a smaller creator as well, but forcing restrictions on people can definitely be unpopular.
In my experience on Wattpad, I agree that promotion threads should be more engaging than "drop your novel/comic below!" stuff. It took me a while to realize that the weekly share your story threads barely got people to check out my story on there. Though Wattpad used to have something where you can request a specific type of story. Like someone would say, "I want a sci-fi story with horror" and sometimes they were more effective at getting reads.
Not sure if the forums has this already, but maybe we can create feedback for feedback/critique for critique threads. I know that's not a guarantee to get genuine readers but it could help.
@KRWright That is 100% what I hated about the Wattpad forums. No matter what you do there isn't a fair way to make sure that each genre is properly represented. Categories like Fantasy and Romance are always going to have a flood of link dumps that people can't actually sort through no matter how often they refresh the category. They're useless and it limits self promotion too much.
@everyoneelse I like the idea of self promotion threads. When done cleverly and sparingly they've been the most successful means for me to gain subscribers who actually read my work (especially the themed/prompt threads.) I think its a great start for newer authors and artists.
I think the problem is that I also keep seeing the same authors with the same work over and over again on the generic post your link threads. Like @sxxaint said.
I also would like the idea weekly prompts and some of the other limitations @VibrantFox proposed.
The whole point is to limit self-promotion.
But I mean, if you really want to self-promote I'd say the best advice is to actually get away from promoting on the forums all together. I'm pretty sure only a handful of my readers are from here and all the others came from my update schedule, promotion on social media, networking, shout outs by other creators I knew from Discord, etc.
Exact opposite experience here. Had very few followers on Wattpad. The sites where I self promote I have ten times that, and it isn't a lot but they actually read my work because they liked something they saw in the prompts/ they write the same themes. As I said, the generic post your link threads don't really work.
There's also still the matter that there's no fair way to make genre catagories when some genres are more populated than others.
Honestly, this isn't just specifically towards you btw, but this is something I was really afraid of when a lot of Wattpad users joined. I didn't want the structures of their forums to be encouraged here because they don't work.
I've definitely posted on the generic self promotion threads. Being able to see the number of times a link is clicked let's you know how effective that method is.
I've gotten more engagements with interactive threads and those are more fun anyway.
New users are typically going to post in self promotion post or make a new one. Maybe there's a way to tie in how many link drops vs clicks. I'm not sure if it's possibly but the trust level on the forum apparently limits the amount of likes you can give st a time. I wonder if it could limit the amount of times you link the same work. Vs how many times you've actually clicked someone else's work. Sadly the simple work around would be just to click links.
@KJWhitten there's currently a feedback thread opening let me know if you'd like me to link it here.
I'm talking about Tapas, not about Wattpad. Wattpad's system is so broken that it's nigh on impossible to get anywhere on it without a marketing strategy at this point anyway - promotion didn't work on there. But it also doesn't really work on the Tapas forums either. While it's good for getting maybe your first 5 subs, the strategies that see you skyrocketing the rankings really have nothing to do with self-promotion here in this space. Genre categories or other style threads - it really won't matter that much.
Readers aren't in this forum. If they are, they're usually creators who are looking for works by tropes or genres they like. They won't find that in fancy themed threads or 'post your last page/sentence' ones. The readerbase of Tapas is mostly on the app or social media.
So I mean, if people want less spam, probably the solution is to just stop self-promo here (or limit it to a few spaces) and actually develop better marketing campaigns and networks between creators to actually cross-promote using social media.
This! The self promo and engagement threads will only get us so far as far as subs. It's great that we can engage and bounce ideas and get feedback from each other but, come on, the way to get better stats for our works is to tap into the general audience on Tapas. This is basically the back curtain of the site for us. The real grind to increase our engagement is through some form of social media promo. If we take some of the energy we put here into Twitter, Instagram, etc. even something like Discord, to promote ourselves and the works we like, then it will be beneficial to us in the long run. And it makes you reachable off site for your readers to get to know you better.
I also liked the thread @chronicidalluatic did the other day what promoting a story we love then our own. I don't know about yall, but I'd be more inclined to read something my favorite author likes. Casting a wider net on social media is a good way to do that.
Yeah, I'm surprised something wasn't done sooner tbh
If anything, I say there should be a limit on links being shared here just to get rid of that kind of spammy behavior. Five times a day for sharing the same link should be enough to promo in different threads, I feel
Yeah not gonna lie, if this place starts mirroring Wattpad with their share your story heavily restricted threads and stuff, I’m leaving this site too because the only time I actually got any notice anywhere was through self promo threads. Once it’s categorized, almost no one opens them, not many people post in them, and fantasy/romance stuff rises while everything else sinks to the bottom. It’s just sad. Like no offense to everyone who thinks differently, but that’s just me.
This ones a big maybe but what would concern me about a limitation like this is not being able to share non comic links (stuff that directs to an online resource, reference collection, article etc.) I'm not sure the "thing" the forums run on could be that specific in what type of links are being shared and restricting based on that criteria
One thing though that I think ought to be taught to newcomers to the forums is adding links to series, shops and so on to the forum bio. Not everyone is guaranteed to click the little icon/name of a person posting/replying to a thread but it's another way to share links. This is why I really think it'd be helpful to give some basic forum netiquette in a pinned thread someplace.
It's just like the collab threads, offers were going up with little to no info or were just sketchy in general so we got a guideline put together. the same can (and honestly should) be done for promo. nothing too restrictive but a way to allow newcomers feel welcome, give them a sense of how things work and then set them on their way. Adding too many limitations or having things come of as incredibly strict runs the risk of scaring people not only away from the forums but the platform in general and as much as people talk i don't think that's what anyone wants.
