Hi everyone!
With this forum hitting its 7th anniversary this month after being established in 2013, we’ve gone through many amazing changes on the main website as well as here! Tapas has grown dramatically, now being the home to over 50k creators, many of which have been able to find success, be it financially or by finding a supportive readership.
On the forums, we’ve seen similar changes. Starting with a hand full of users, we’re now over 20k accounts - we are still a small forum, but with a dedicated userbase, who’ve found support, help and even friends over the years.
After many years of me being the only active community forum moderator, I am super excited to announce that our team’s numbers have tripled (It sounds great when I say it like that)! Two members of the community have kindly agreed to support as moderators moving forward!
@joannekwan is a community member many of you likely already know. Joanne is an amazing writer and comic artist, with many successful series like Heavy Horns and Secunda. On the forums, Joanne is also known to support new members and help find answers to questions, which will be a great skill to have for her role as moderator.
[Second moderator spot to be filled]
Please warmly welcome our new moderators! Joanne has many more amazing stories on her account and makes me feel lazy on a consistent basis, so please head over to Tapas and check out her work!
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As some of you may have already noticed, we are also introducing the @tapascommunityteam account, which will be used by all moderators. If you have any issues that need to be discussed urgently, please contact this account, and the next available moderator will take a look as quickly as possible.
Larger issues will be discussed as a team, so should you not hear back right away, please be patient and know that we will respond as soon as we can.
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Finally, I would like to thank you all personally. Moderating these forums for the last 4 or so years, while challenging at times, has been a lot of fun and you’ve allowed me to learn a lot about how to handle difficult conversations.
I also recognize that over the years, the wish for a more active moderation team has grown. I’ve always operated under a more hands-off approach and let the community decide which topics you enjoy and which ones you had a problem with. Unfortunately, this kind of approach made many users feel like they had to fend for themselves and had little backing, especially users that are part of minorities.
With a larger team, we are now able to actively enforce our forum guidelines on a consistent basis, to make sure you don’t have to deal with some of the usual annoyances like spam, lacking collaboration posts, as well as topics that are hurtful to part of our userbase. I understand that restrictions can be frustrating, but they are necessary to ensure that our community can continue to have a fun, safe space to discuss novels, comics and creating.
Thank you again to Joanne to be part of the moderator team, and thank you to all you guys for being a fun and welcoming community.
Isabell / AKA Ratique
Creator Happiness Manager