Hmm.
This is gonna be a kick in the groin to some peeps in here, I'm sure of it, but it's been gnawing at my mind for the past like, hour and a half now, and I can't let it continue to do so. Anyone who thought I was a jerkwad before, hoooo boy lol I'LL BE AS GENTLE AS I CAN LOL
Webcomics are a form of entertainment. Like many other forms of creative entertainment - novels, movies, etc. - we do it because we have a story to tell, and because we want that story to be shared and seen.
However, another thing that these mediums share in common is the threat of ratings. Rather, instead of loving something for what it is, having the absolute gall to put a number that would define its value onto it. A number that, while purely subjective, almost serves a "what I say, goes" construct. We like numbers. We like knowing where things fall in the eyes of others. We like things to be organized, and we seek patterns where there may actually be none - that's just what being human is about.
Where am I going with this? My general response to the ratings system on Webtoons?
Tough shit.
It's easy and fulfilling to believe that our work deserves 10/10 all the time. We want to believe that if we care about something and put the work into it, it'll be received with open arms. We want to believe that our work is the best damn thing since sliced bread and anyone who doesn't think so either has bad taste or is an idiot.
But that's just not the way the world works.
How many movie directors do you think were going for a 10 rating among critics only to receive a 6.5 and were devastated by these results? Hell, how many times do you think Leo DiCaprio tried his goddamned hardest to win that stupid Oscar before he finally achieved it?
My point is, it's easy to point fingers at a platform like LINE when in reality, this is just how it works everywhere. I can almost guarantee you that if you posted your work anywhere else that had a ratings system, your ratings would probably look the same (hell, it could be better, it could be worse, sometimes it all boils down to the website's hivemind and genre preferences, that's just how the Internet works and you cannot control that; Tapastic loves slice-a-day's, Inkblazers loved BL, DeviantArt loves gross Sonic fanart). If Tapastic had a ratings system? We'd be here complaining about it, saying that our ratings our low, how in the world can that be, but that's just the way it is.
I'm not saying you should just go "oh if that's the case, nothing can be done, what's the point?" I'm just saying, instead of sitting around grovelling over your numbers and blaming others for them, if those numbers are that important to you (though it'll save you a lot of headache and annoyance to ignore them and not place your comic's entire value in said numbers) then do what you can to bring them up. Try updating more often, try improving at those hands you probably suck at drawing (considering I think almost 100% of us can admit that hands ARE ANNOYING TO DRAW LOL), work in the places where you feel you can improve, and always look for improvement (that being said, don't pander to the lowest common denominator for views either - just because Tapastic loves boy love comics doesn't mean you should sell your soul to draw one if you ordinarily wouldn't do it - it's not worth the time or energy you could be putting into something you actually enjoy).
The thing is with places like Tapastic, while they are great, because the community is generally so nice and comfortable with each other, we tend to fall into this trap believing that it works this way everywhere - that everyone will always be there to cushion you, tell you "your comic is great!" despite their own preferences and inner opinions, and you'll always have people who are going through the same thing as you (most of the time). But sometimes you just gotta grit your teeth and go "You know what? I suck at doing [insert thing here]. Let's see what I can do to fix this."
If the ratings type world isn't for you, then don't take part in it. But don't blame it on the platform - it's just not for you.
As an additional point on the more technical side of things, as I said already, ratings are based on averages.
If one person votes for a comic and gives it 10 stars, that comic will automatically be rated 10/10.
If a second person comes along and gives it 1 star, the rating for that comic will plummet, HOWEVER it will not become 1/10, it'll be more like 2/10 or something of the like.
A third person votes 6 stars, and the rating may be hovering around 4/10.
Do you see where I'm going with this?
Ratings are far more accurate with more votes. Don't assume a comic is better than yours just because you see a 10 star rating on it without seeing that they only got 2 views, and don't assume your comic is worse than others because you have an 8.0/10 after 5000 people voted on it. You know what the latter means? The latter means that 5000 people voted on your comic and the average of said votes was 8.0, meaning that most people voted around 8.0, with some going higher, and some going lower, but few going so low that it would cause the number to drop significantly (when it does drop significantly, wait for more votes to come in and see what happens - the number will start to balance itself out with time and you'll get a much more accurate representation of where your comic stands.).
There is nothing wrong with an 8.0. There is nothing wrong with a 7.0. There are plenty of blockbuster movies out there that are only rated 7.5/10, or 2.5/5. There are lots of webcomics that, while have a million followers, the general consensus may only give them a rating that averages out to 70-80%. Why in the world is this considered a low number? It's not that easy to find a comic that's rated a perfect 10/10 that has more than a few thousand votes, and this is for a good, mathematical, sensible reason - the comic may just not be for everyone, or rather, people enjoy it, but it's tough to warrant what actually deserves a perfect 10 because so few of us have seen an ACTUAL perfect 10 before.
As many of you have said already, "Do your work because you love it." So don't be getting angry at other people/platforms for not pandering to your expectations. Webcomics are a very competitive market and much like with romantic relationships, sometimes love isn't enough - commitment and work can make it so.
Yes, it can be tough to disconnect yourself from your work like a mother from her child. But the moment you do, the moment you start to look at your work more in an objective light and less of a "I love you because you're mine" point of view, is the moment you can really strive to do the best you can possibly do, and work on making it more. If you have to think on the mathematics side and play the ratings game to do this, then by all means, whatever floats your boat. And if you're more comfortable staying away from ratings and sticking to where you know you're comfortable, that's fine too. All in all, remember that you are releasing your comic out for the world to see, and the world is a very big place - not everyone is going to see the same thing you see in your work, and that's okay.
At the end of the day, they're just numbers. Numbers are just a construct of human perception.
