Merging Episodes? Need opinions

[tzuba12]

So my comic Glitch gets one page per episode updates and I planned on merging all of chapter 1 once I'm done with it, into one or 2 episodes. Does anyone suggest this? I know I'd be losing likes/comments, which isn't a HUGE deal I guess.

Anyone else done this? Are there any negatives to merging episodes?

[keii4ii]

If a comic I follow starts merging episodes, I will probably never comment on it because it bothers me THAT much. I have a serious fear of being forgotten as it is. It makes me feel like the creator doesn't care about my comments, even though I logically know that's not necessarily the case.

But I'm probably an unusual case :')

[scythe]

What are the positives to doing this?

[tzuba12]

Well I don't want new having to scroll through 30 pages is easier than loading a new page for every episode.

After I merge the episodes I was planning on making the next chapters much shorter and not uploading a page at a time anymore.

[Kayke]

I have all like 200ish pages of my comic as single posts and no one has ever complained. I frequently get new users binge reading all of the pages even though they are separated. I don't think you need to merge unless it's something that really bothers you personally and you want the old updates to be consistent in size with your new/planned longer updates.

[tzuba12]

Hmm.. Might have to ask my subscribers if their okay with it. Seems like there is no right or wrong answer.

Gonna have to think about it over the next few weeks.

[Rabbit]

I was also planning on merging the first 2 chapters of my webcomic together into 2 'episodes', as they are now separated every 3 pages. I was planning on screenshoting all of the comments I got and saving it to my computer, to look at from time to time ^u^
I figured the pros to this would be that new readers wouldn't be daunted by all of the 28 episodes on the side when they check out my comic, and also, since I'm not crazy proud of my art in the first few chapters, I thought that having each chapter in full as a update might help people skim past the bad art faster ><
Maybe if you're a really great comic with thousands of subscribers and great art people will bother scrolling all the way up to your first episode and binge all of them(because they trust your comic is probably good), but I feel like since most of my readers check out my comic and are critically thinking 'eh, what's this crap?' I should probably make it as easy for them as possible ;_;
Also IDK, I think I would like it, to see the thing on the side less cluttered. Then I wouldn't worry so much about it.
I had no idea some people had a negative opinion of this though!

[keii4ii]

I figured the pros to this would be that new readers wouldn't be daunted by all of the 28 episodes on the side when they check out my comic

I like the screencap idea! But also consider this: I've talked to quite a few people who said they get tired when scrolling through a super long episode. How long an episode can get without exhausting the viewer probably depends on how the comic is formatted, among other factors. Something to think about!

[Rabbit]

True - I can think of comics that I've read who had their first chapter as a full update, and I'd been really agitated with having to read it all at once XD But in those cases (I can think of 2) the chapters in question were pretty long, with a lot of text, too.
My first chapters only have 12-17 pages, so I don't really think that would be a problem for me, plus, if I was worried about it, I could separate it into a part 1 and part 2, and it would still be less 'episodes' than it is currently.
It is true that that's something that really depends on the comic - some are really heavy and have long chapters, so they wouldn't do very well condensed into one update, and some have short chapters and dialogue that can be flown through in one swoop.

[sarrowsmith10]

I think if you are looking to get ad revenue, merging episodes is probably a terrible mistake. Every time someone new reads through your comic you are getting ad revenue for every episode they scroll past. If you merge it into one episode, all those pages now only get one episodes worth of revenue and ad impressions, instead of 15-20 (however long your chapters are).

Just say'n.

Also, I personally like being able to stop at a particular page and then come back to it. Sometimes I get lost or confused if I have to scroll through a long episode to find where I left off...