Looking for solutions, not rant. How to fix the overcrowded Tapas?

The platform might not be inclined to change things. As mentioned above, Youtube, Webtoons, Deviantart all follow the same format.

One way I can see this improving is to encourage a small chunk of the community be commentators/reviewers. That is, their content is focused on reviewing new comics. Not just in the forum, but in other platforms as well. That's what makes the indie game community a little bit better than comics. There are a lot of youtubers/columnists/bloggers willing to give indie games a try because it provides content. In this way, indie gamedevs can pitch games to these creators so they will promote them to an audience hungry for content

Maybe I'm wrong, but it's rare for me to see a content creator actively seek out indie comics to talk about them. If there are people out there doing this, they must be nurtured and encouraged. (Link people you know pls) They should also be featured heavily in the community. I am thinking of doing this, blogging/vlogging about indie comics that contain the genre I like, and recommending them every week or so. P.S. (edit) For this to work, I'd suggest that it is separate from cross promoting your comics with another. So not "I'll review your comic if you review mine" deal, but more of "I review comics because it's what I do, and people follow my content to discover new comics"

As for Tapas side, a relatively "easy" solution would be to promote community recommendations, collections, curations like Steam and Itch.io. That way, people will follow somebody who mostly reviews and recommends "Dark Fantasy" comics, for example. Readers stop being beholden to Tapas's impersonal recommendations and start following people who have the same taste as them.

It used to be so much more of a thing back when blogging was a thing! I used to follow people who would read indie books and they had great recommendations (like the book community is superb at working with the reader space and sharing the love). Kind of a shame we lost blogs!

I know there are people on youtube and podcasts who do this, but I don't know how much viewership they get from readers, but I managed to get my comic to one blog (which I don't think exists anymore) and they gave a lovely review and it x10'd my readership overnight. So I would LOVE to see these reviewer blogs come back.

Lately I've noticed that there's a bunch of comic discords where people share what they're reading--which isn't the same, but that can help. Problem with discord is that it's a lot of invite-only in order to be a part of the reading groups and the review groups...and sometimes they review literally everything positively and so you'll be stuck with comics that are...truly terrible. But, at least it's something.

There are some Webcomic "libraries" still around, as well, kind of like a masterlist of webcomics--I think the one on tumblr is still active. I've used it before two years ago and it also helped my numbers a bit.

https://webcomiclibrary.tumblr.com/3

Hmm.. How about we make another thread who have youtube/blog or whatever, who willing to trade promote? Maybe there is more kind people like @maddmoniart who want to review comic on their youtube channel too.
I'm newbie, only around for a month now, so does my blog. My first month only have 600-ish views in the blog, but I interested for trade promote. I'm sure this will help growing our other platform.

I feel like this thread has naturally divided into two kinds of users here, which is interesting.

Users like me, who want Tapas to primarily act like a platform and to just allow content that performs well to be seen organically through algorithms.

Then another set of users who want Tapas to act like a publisher and to directly intervene and to either tell them straight up: "we don't think you're a good fit, you're wasting your time on this platform, go to Webtoons or whatever" or to say "We think your work deserves boosting and we're going to directly intervene to make it more visible."

Let me explain why I don't like the idea of Tapas deciding what people should read instead of letting high-performing content rise to visibility naturally:

Here's what the top row of Free to Read Action comics looks like this morning:

toprowwww.jpg1875x1132 890 KB

Oh hey, it's me!
My comic is punching above its weight. It has pretty damn good engagement for its number of bookmarks . So for me, the ideal system is one where that natural performance is rewarded. "People who like action comics are reading this and it's generating buzz, you might like it too."

Wheras, if the publisher decides what Action comics people should see.... well, did you see Errant, which looking at the stats is one of the most popular Action comics with a Fantasy setting, featured for Action Fantasy month? (It wasn't. I'm still salty. I am so salty if you threw a live salmon at me it'd instantly turn into gravadlax ). And if you open the Action page on the default "All" rather than deliberately tabbing over to "Free to Read", I'm several rows down, mostly buried under newly licensed series that were bought in and heavily promoted on the front page. So even though I'm performing well, my growth is poorer than it was this time last year when I had what like 20% of the subs I have now, even though I've upped my marketing game, improved my rate of output and really should be performing better. I am now reliant on Tapas directly featuring me for visibility because it's the only way to compete in a system where by far the greatest visibility goes to whatever the platform has chosen to feature.

So you can hopefully already see the obvious downside here. If the publisher chooses what should be popular rather than the algorithms boosting whatever is trending and generating buzz, yes, sure maybe there are some comics which are actually very good but for whatever reason, users just aren't finding it (usually because the user doesn't market much or doesn't have an effective cover or blurb in most cases), but if they have the power to do that, they also have the power to look at a comic that's getting readers and to go "Ohhhh no, no no, the readers are wrong to be reading this, we don't want them to be interested in this. This is getting hidden away in the 'Baby comics not very good' rank so it doesn't outperform the things we want them to read." Which unless the work is like... I dunno, racist or something, is a terrible state of affairs. Yes, it can feel bad when somebody makes something really trashy and it does well, and there's an instinct to be like "UGH! Stop reading that rubbish! Read this good thing instead!" but... there's a limit to how much power a platform should have over what people choose to read, and stepping in to prescribe the content to ensure people read the "right" thing has a knock-on effect that often harms actually good works by maginalised independent creators.

Earlier, Skicoak used my comic, Errant, as an example of a comic that could hypothetically be boosted if Tapas deliberately hand-ranked every comic on the site... but this misses the potential reverse scenario: What if Tapas decided that they don't like Errant and decided that in spite of its very active userbase and growing readership, they were going to put it into a low category to deliberately stop it from succeeding? Because that is also a thing that could happen in a system where visibility is based on what the publisher wants people to read, not on what people pick to read. What if there was backlash from homophobic investors who didn't like how the content that gets popular organically tends to skew queer and the platform decided to put all the LGBTQ+ content into a lower rank while boosting heterosexual works to combat this? Or what if the staff decided they don't like me criticising the platform on the forums and blacklist me from getting featured? You'd end up with a scenario where succeeding on the platform would depend on your ability to make something that appealed to the taste of whoever chooses what to boost, or the company's mandate, and then never giving any kind of negative feedback for fear of them stripping away your livelihood. It would be awful!
I'd much prefer a system where if my work is performing, it maybe gets a little boost, or an offer to be made premium, but largely the performance is in my hands. If I'm not catching reader attention with a webcomic, it ought to be my own fault for not doing effective research, not presenting or marketing well etc.

For boosting those creators whose works are good, but are struggling to get visibility because... say their concept isn't the sort of "high concept explained in the first episode" that catches attention on Tapas, or their cover is a bit subdued or it's a bit niche, but it's genuinely high quality, curated lists made by creators and users are my preference. It would reward community engagement without being a burden on the staff as well as the risks of visibility being impacted by one or two people's preference, and allow creators to recommend works that'd appeal to their readers or to people who like certain themes.

Well I joined the site believing it was a platform. They've even described their goal as becoming like "the youtube of comics/novels". But if the site is going to start behaving like a publisher instead, I may as well go to a publisher where I know exactly what their mandate is, can make something suitable for that mandate and have my agent approach them with my full pitch and know within a month and with a synopsis and some sample pages if that project is going ahead or not.

My needs from a webcomic host and a publisher are different. I loved what Tapas was when I came to the platform about a year and a half ago. A platform where diverse creators could thrive by making good content. That's what I want.

Uh.. I thought with promo our comic in blog/YouTube will inderectly promo tapas itself?
Umm, I'm thinking, for example, make a new tab in my blog for "what I read today" section. There, where I told visitor what I read and where(in Tapas). I'll give nice comment. That's it. It promo, not insisting, like a reading blog some sort.
@jensrichard77 you want me start new thread for the idea? If what you mean to start trade, I can start next April. This 2 month I will be so busy, that I barely have time read things. My online time/life is not so much too. I don't want to read things from fellow creators that I need to comment in my blog with half hearted, unfocus & tired mindset.

I'm probably alone in this, but I sure would love a Recommended For You section where the algorithm might help my arse find the novels and comics that suit me. For example, I LOATHE Romance stories. I'm not into that, but the moment I want to dive into the sea of Horror stuff I just...gosh. So much to choose from you know?

Perhaps if the algorithm could nudge me a little by checking the tags of the stories I do read and find me something similar I sure could navigate a bit better. Or maybe there is a section like that, but I'm trying to pull a Youtube here as YT's algorithm is actually doing a fairly ok job at helping me find similar stuff.

Now I'm not saying to push the entire site into the algorithms or anything, just the Recommended For You section, so every creator can have a proper chance at being seen.

I'd prefer to see an improved search function or a recommended tab as @surenlicious said. Right now I have only found comics to read through the forums, because most things on the start page are not for me.

I don't want the staff to curate the content and decide who is "better". That feels like going back to the old days where you had to go through a publisher and be approved by them.

Yes! Honestly I think a simple "recommended for you"/"Who reads this work also reads..." system with tag matching would improve a lot organic growth and make everyone happy. Even as reader, it's very hard for me to find a story that I like. In manga sites, I use the hell out of the advanced search with tags!