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

[irresponsiblepics]

But if you just want a good time and have some people look at your stuff, we need to work together.

I have a stick figure comic. That's all I can do. But someone can do funny characters and another is great at laying colors and another can do background. Together we can make a comic that feels like a success and we are not fighting each other over a spit on the front page but we are all helping to promote the same product.

Maybe we just need to lay down the self pride and start to just enjoy creating in teams.

That what I really want to do and what I believe in.

Just need to find the right members and avoid internally drama.

Sounds like you want/need to do is form a studio to achieve this.
That's the only way that will be achieved.

Tapas is a platform (I call it Comic Facebook personally) and much like all other platform its full of all kinds of views.
Its also a vacuum.

[jensrichard77]

Sounds like you want need to do is form a studio to achieve this.

Watch me!
Join me?
Remember me!

[Utamee]

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.

[domisotto]

I think I share your views, only for novels. Obviously, I want to do well, but I like the idea of it happening organically, as in I finally manage The Book and it just explodes out of the gates. I dunno if I want it any other way at the moment, tbh. I know that I can write diligently, I know that I can write well, but I haven't yet seen myself write popularily.

[thedude3445]

Each creator has very little use, but the whole community has. Otherwise we would not be welcome anymore. We are free filling. We promote. Each a very little bit, but again it has to add up to something, otherwise we would not be able to be here.

Ya know, I think we're being a little bit down on community stories here in this thread. Yeah, internet ad revenue is way down from where it was ten years ago, but it's still real money; I'm sure Tapas generate a large percent of its revenue from ads on community work, even if premium series are the much larger generator. I'm not that interested in the debate about Tapas as a platform or publisher and what it "should" be (I'm mostly interested in practical changes that would improve the site for readers and creators alike), but I will certainly say that Tapas is very glad to have community work and I very much agree that they aren't "doing us a favor" by providing hosting; it's almost the opposite.

[surenlicious]

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.

[jensrichard77]

I have a stick figure comic. That's all I can do. But someone can do funny characters and another is great at laying colors and another can do background. Together we can make a comic that feels like a success and we are not fighting each other over a spit on the front page but we are all helping to promote the same product.

Oh BTW!

It has begun.
Here is my team. And even that the lead artist got himself banned from tapas and left with burning bridges and a huge unnecessary drama.
The show must go on!

We have a proud product that we stand together with.
(just need to find a new character artist)

https://m.tapas.io/series/Dungeon-Fail/info

Watch me!Join me?Remember me!

[cookieroach]

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.

[GloamingCat]

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!

[droidmonkey1]

I don't think that tapas is overcrowded. It needs better categorization system.
there are a lot of similar content but they have small differences that can effect if a person become a reader or not.
why need sub categories, like in manga you've got Isekai but it can by battle manga, gourmet, comedy or a combination of it all.
we need more categories and sub categorize that will allow you to pin point or at least get closer to what your looking.

[sushy00]

I usually browse the most recent category, but it goes fast indeed.
I guess a better search system would be nice.

[uglygirlnextdoor]

work to be intimately familiar enough with thousands of series to not only tier them but also keep track of what goals they need t

I did start a project called (Tapas)bits in order to "unlock" certain authors from anonimate and oblige we know each other's work. More projects like that one could arise.

[Rhonder]

'm probably alone in this,

I would guess that the opposite is the case, I think you'd be harder pressed to find people that don't want a feature like that than people who do xD

Agree so much that a slightly "smarter" algorithm like that, on paper at least, would be super cool! That's the other half of why youtube is compelling as a platform- Not only is it generally a "search first" platform where most people find content initially by throwing a search query in, but then it also does a great job generally of recommending you relevant similar content, whether it be by the same channel or in a similar topic, to keep viewers on the site.

Something like that should be what Tapas wants too: keep people on the site/app as long as possible to collect the maximum amount of ad revenue. One sensible way to do that is to recommend people series that they might actually want to read next rather than just pushing the same handful of genres and stories

This is also not a public access analytic, but one thing that I've found interesting in my time on Twitch is that on the Creator Dashboard, there's a little section that shows you other channels that share a significant percentage of viewership with yours. For me personally, it comes as no surprise that most of the channels listed there are part of my networking/support group, but even looking at comic/novel series in that way might be helpful. "hey, of the 100 subscribers on this series, 30 of them also read these 3 other series. Check them out!" kinda thing.

[Mallory]

I am in soft agreement with the people saying that Tapas is providing the service as advertised and I don't think that community comic performance is their concern. I like them as a platform, not a publisher.

However, that doesn't mean they can't make the experience better for their readers and authors bringing in the readers. For example, I am pretty strictly a sci-fi reader (occasional action and fantasy) and my comic is sci-fi... I read a few BL comics on the site, but only if the premise of the story caught my attention (usually because it's a cool sci-fi/fantasy premise). What does Tapas recommend under my comic pages? Contemporary BL. You know, the thing I don't read, and the thing that has nothing in common with my comic.

I think curated lists are a great idea that could easily fix this issue. Or, Comicfury for example has an algorithm that selects comics that the other readers are reading - and from what I've seen, it's fairly accurate in terms of maintaining the genre and the feel.

And a more in-depth search function as well - for example, I would RATHER read page format than scrolling format, because scroll format is inaccessible to people like me, who have hand pain (I read on an iPad, and page format allows me to click through the pages rather than having to scroll). I brave the scroll format for a good premise, but it's not an enjoyable experience, so if I could filter for pages only, AS A PAYING READER, I would. There's also styles I prefer vs. want to avoid, so being able to limit my search to "page format sci-fi with these styles" would be great (again... this a feature that Comicfury, a non-profit website, has already implemented). And, both of these would benefit the creators.

[skicoak]

For Tapas to do it for free for hundreds/thousands of comics is asking too much.

Tapas isn't doing anything for "free". This platform is built on that concept that every level of creator is bringing in outside readers that Tapas then can market too. The individual creator's social media efforts to push their own projects are the basis of Tapas's piggy back marketing.

There can be a debate about the value of content hosting in relation to how much value that advertising we all bring in is worth but the math I'm focusing on is how many readers could Tapas expose a project to with it's in house resources that we're not getting access to because we're just a big glob of thousands of creators.

When I head over to Free-to-read or Canvas to find a new series, I'm way more interested in whether a comic matches the genre(s) that I like than if it's more or less polished (and I can make some judgment at least about art based on the cover or thumbnail myself). I just can't see someone saying "hmmm let's go read a tier 2 comic today."

The other tools don't go away in the tiered system...I firmly believe they need more of them and more functionality. So you can still choose to search by genre for your next read...but it would also have the additional benefits of tier ranking. You just substitute looking at subscribers counts for the Tapas curated tier to help your search for quality entertainment.

This means you actually have the burden of effort here, not them.

I would agree with you in principle and suggest most of us are already doing that (with Tapas piggybacking on those efforts). The problem is Tapas is hyper aggressive at in-house advertising, which is the tool all us creators are handing them by bringing people her to see our individual series.
Tapas being able to bombard ever person I brought here has a tangible value. Wanting return on that value isn't asking for a "favor" from a corporate entity.

As interesting as it would be to see a juried competition of like 10,000+ original comics and novels, I cannot fathom how tapas would do that.

Lol, oh yeah... It'd be crazytown lol. But honestly, aren't we all a little tired of hearing the community based excuse that they don't have the manpower to do things. They figured out how to get the work done during the Apple purge.

You have good intentions, but, at the end of the day, people posting suggestions on a forum won't change anything.

100% agree. I'm personally just treating this as a brainstorming exercise...I.E. I'm suggesting the improbable not the practical. We have experience to know even practical isn't going to get their attention.

I'm still salty. I am so salty if you threw a live salmon at me it'd instantly turn into gravadlax

You made me spit Dr.Pepper onto my workstation! High marks!

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?

Then in a tiered system, you OPENLY know the platform has no interest in using it's internal tools/resources to promote you as a creator. Maybe you, and probably a lot of others in this conversation don't, but Tapas has on a quite a few occasions said they can override the algorithms and "curate" any lists/rankings they want. All of your scenarios under the protection of a platform COULD be occurring now...there's no obligation or mechanism to tell us if/when they choose to do it.

[Leverance]

From a novel creator's point of view is increasingly difficult to get seen, and I advertise my stories outside Tapas as well with little result. Even though I've almost 2K followers on Wattpad, the audience isn't the type to move sites. Although I write in popular genres like BL unless I drastically begin promoting I don't think I will see much response. Because of mental health reasons, I can't push myself too harshly.

I feel comics have it somewhat easier because it's what mostly the site promotes and novels being fairly new. Also, the fact it's easier to read a comic than a book (but it's a discussion for another time which one is 'easier' to produce).

What I've seen other novel sites do well is having a proper algorithm that actually works. Make tags have weight when it comes to stories. It will also be easier for readers if they were able to make their own readings lists (tell me, who wouldn't want to make their own Recommended list for their subscribers to find similar stories and help friends?). Tapas is doing surprisingly well compared to what I've seen elsewhere but there is room for improvements.

What I really disagree with is having a rantings system on here -- on another site called Scribble Hub some people constantly give me 1 star out of 5 and I think is out of jealousy and hate. Doesn't help is anonymous, I don't wish that kind of environment on Tapas.

[UrMom]

I can't add much more than what's already been said. I can't say I would benefit much on the creator side since my comic is blacklisted from the app, but I agree with a better recommendation system, and better customized searches. Although I very much disagree with any kind of rating system since it fosters unnecessary competitiveness, and bias readers would 100% take advantage of that to keep stories they like at the top.

This is just me, because it seems every other creator passionately hates this kind of stuff, but I think it would be cool if Tapas implemented a reader review thing similar to DA. (Or at least what DA used to do, I haven't been on there in literally years.) Like add a separate tab on a comic/novel info landing page where you can see a rating/review section. If they wanted to a reader could rate the story and leave a review, if they give low ratings it would be mandatory for them to give a review of at least a paragraph. Then Tapas can add a search option that allows people to read the latest reviews, and find comics/novels like that.

Of course, it would be a option you can turn on/off in the settings, so it wouldn't be mandatory. Also it wouldn't affect the comic/novel in the algorithm, and the rating wouldn't show up anywhere on the comic outside of the review tab, it would just be an extra feature for more advertisement. But again, that would just be a me thing, I loved reading through that stuff back when I actually used DA, and it did sometimes make me more interested in that artist's work.

Edit: I mean this as an alternative to the traditional rating system, that might work better.

[domisotto]

People barely even bother to press a 'like' button that takes a split second, they are not going to write reviews unless you pay for them. That's what all the self-published guys endlessly do on SM... It's 2021, heh

[UrMom]

Well, that's a somewhat passive aggressive response, I wasn't aware you knew every Tapas user.

I said "any reader who wanted to" for a reason, contrary to your belief there are some people who like expressing their opinions on the content they're reading/viewing just to express their opinions. If there weren't people of that nature there wouldn't have been a free review feature like that on DA, there wouldn't be the small handful of sites and Youtube channels that do free webcomic reviews either. Yeah, you wouldn't get a lot, maybe none if you barely have a following or your comic is too young, but it's not improbable. I'm certainly one of those people who would like to give my views on a comic once it's finished, or I've read a good chunk of it.

I was just talking about something I thought would be fun, and an better alternative to just a rating system, but apparently that was out of line. My apologies for offending you, Domisotto.

[domisotto]

I am not offended, it's just a feature that wouldn't really see much use. You already can comment, so reviews could go there.