More Updates on the Tapastic Support Program

[ck_tapastic]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the thoughtful comments on our last announcement. We've been reading all the comments, and your feedback has been really, really helpful. Our team has been discussing the next steps for the Tapastic Support Program, and here are some more updates.

1. We now have a timeline for the Tapastic Support Program: TSP will be discontinued on November 30, 2015 (PST). Why that date? We're planning to start testing the backend infrastructure for the new business model in December, and doing so without any possible conflicts or model clashes on the live Tapastic service requires discontinuing the Support Program before that. After November 30, the Tapastic Support feature will no longer exist on Tapastic.com.

2. As a way to help creators promote their crowdfunding/patronage programs, such as Patreon (or Kickstarter or Indiegogo or any other site), we launched a new feature that allows creators to link the top series banner to an external site (see the screen capture at the bottom of this post). This feature is available right now, and of course you can link to any site, not just crowdfunding ones, if you want.

3. After the Support program ends, all Supporter-only comics and posts will be changed to "public" (i.e. unlocked). Please make sure and see if there are any Supporter-only comics or posts that you don't want to become public, and delete or edit those posts before November 30.

4. Any unused credits remaining in someone's Tapastic Wallet after the Support program ends will be refunded in full.

5. We will let individual creators make their own decisions on how to handle remaining milestone rewards for their supporters. For example, if a supporter has $x remaining to unlock the next milestone, the creator could encourage the supporter to adjust her support amount in order to successfully reach the desired reward following her November payment. If you're interested in pursuing this approach, monthly support amounts should be changed before November 1, as each supporter's individual payment is processed on a different day of the month (depending on when they first became a supporter).

6. We will not add any new creators to the Support Program, given that the Program will soon be discontinued.

7. When we discontinue the Support Program, we will export supporter data and send that data to creators via email, to help creators manage and track their previous supporters more easily (to fulfill rewards or carry over status, for example).

8. We will soon make an announcement related to the Support Program to supporters (we've only made announcements to the "creators" so far), via email and Tapastic notification .

Please feel free to use this thread to post your questions, and we'll do our best to address them as quickly as possible.

While we make our best effort to be as transparent and communicative as possible, it's simply impossible to share everything going on our office with you - our internal discussions and debates, our thought processes, our hallway chats, our conversations with advisors and investors, etc. We wish we could take a long walk with all 9,000 creators! But because that's not possible, we'll try our best to keep you in the loop in other ways, this post being one of them. Please stay tuned.

Figure: the new "series cover banner link" feature

[swallowsofdoo]

Thank for the info and the new features but it still doesn't answer the basic question.
Why is the support program being dropped? (It is all well and fine that it doesn't fit the future business model but that's a vague answer.)

For me it is of minimal impact, I never put the proper effort into promoting myself, but I am curious as to the reasoning behind the decision. I could speculate, there's plenty of perfectly valid reasons to drop it, but I'd be more interested in a concrete answer.

[PotooGryphon]

It was explained in the previous post.

Our Support Program relied predominantly on the current credit system, which conflicts with the new infrastructure required for future builds of the app. We want to begin utilizing Apple and Google’s in-app purchasing mechanics to improve overall user experience.

[lira]

Thanks for the info! It's all clear now, I think.

[AffectedMind]

As a way to help creators promote their crowdfunding/patronage programs, such as Patreon (or Kickstarter or Indiegogo or any other sites), we launched a new feature that allows creators to link the top series banner to external sites.

Cool cool, but if someone will not know about this or simply forget, who would actually click on banner? I mean it's just a picture, people just scroll down to see the episode. Banner is just decorative... It's not a button or anything, there's no link below, so people actually know where they will be re-directed. Hope it's temporary solution to be honest... It needs to be more visible.

[michaelson]

Cool cool, but if someone will not know about this or simply forget, who would actually click on banner? I mean it's just a picture, people just scroll down to see the episode. Banner is just decorative... It's not a button or anything, there's no link below, so people actually know where they will be re-directed. Hope it's temporary solution to be honest... It needs to be more visible.

You can include a call to action in the banner itself. We've already been testing this periodically with Summoners War (http://tapastic.com/series/SummonersWar) and Dave Rapoza's Steve Lichman (http://tapastic.com/series/SteveLichman)

[lira]

Cool cool, but if someone will not know about this or simply forget, who would actually click on banner? I mean it's just a picture, people just scroll down to see the episode. Banner is just decorative... It's not a button or anything, there's no link below, so people actually know where they will be re-directed. Hope it's temporary solution to be honest... It needs to be more visible.

You can include a call to action in the banner itself. We've already been testing this periodically with Summoners War (http://tapastic.com/series/SummonersWar) and Dave Rapoza's Steve Lichman (http://tapastic.com/series/SteveLichman)

Can't we keep those tiny 'support me' buttons we have now next to the comments section under each episode? That would be helpful : )

[daronakira]

Can't we keep those tiny 'support me' buttons we have now next to the comments section under each episode? That would be helpful : )

We originally discussed keeping the small banners and support buttons to allow you to link them to something else, but unfortunately the code for those features was thoroughly integrated with the rest of the Support Program and could not readily be separated.

[AffectedMind]

You can include a call to action in the banner itself.

Okay, but banner doesn't show up on mobile versions. Is this going to be upgraded? And will you able to see notifications as well?

[lira]

We originally discussed keeping the small banners and support buttons to allow you to link them to something else, but unfortunately the code for those features was thoroughly integrated with the rest of the Support Program and could not readily be separated.

Too bad :/. Thanks anyway for considering it.

The problem with messages in header images is that they look different on every screen, and sometimes this happens:

(It's not a matter of scrolling, I see it like this always because of my screen resolution. Which is quite a standard resolution for newer desktop computers).

Maybe writing a recommended 'safe' area on the upload banner section would help.

[AffectedMind]

That's why I will stick for now with my little banner I upload under every update.

[PotooGryphon]

There are ways to design your ad around that. In this thread, some very helpful guides are given that show safe zones. It's mostly for designing the banner to show well on the app, however same thought can apply. Just move important text more towards the center than the bottom.

App screenshot requested to improve banners!

[daronakira]

Okay, but banner doesn't show up on mobile versions. Is this going to be upgraded? And will you able to see notifications as well?

The mobile apps are changing significantly to accommodate the new business model and additional content types, so the Support Program will not be emphasized there in the near future. On the bright side, the vast majority of support comes from people on desktops (i.e. Windows, Mac, etc.) and not mobile users on the web or apps.

Notifications will not be included immediately, but will be added in the future when we are able!

(It's not a matter of scrolling, I see it like this always because of my screen resolution. Which is quite a standard resolution for newer desktop computers).

We considered this too and realize it's less than ideal. The top cover banners were really intended as background images to introduce a bit of personalized color, style, etc., not really as a place to include detailed text or messages. However, without building a new feature or making other significant changes, adding a link to the top was the most available and visible option.

There's not really a "safe" area, as the image keeps zooming/cropping as the window size increases (i.e. if you stretch the window enough or go full screen on a large monitor, the image will continue to stretch to fit). In general the guideline is to make any important content stay within the width of the content area below... in other words, within the 940px in the center of the banner. Likewise, content is safest near the vertical center.

That's why I will stick for now with my little banner I upload under every update.

These will unfortunately be going away at the end of November (along with the Support buttons and other TSP features) as CK mentioned above.

However, you can of course add additional links in your series and episode descriptions if you like.

[AffectedMind]

Notifications will not be included immediately, but will be added in the future when we are able!

That's a hella good news.

These will unfortunately be going away at the end of November (along with the Support buttons and other TSP features) as CK mentioned above.

I wasn't talking about the banner you put when you are in support program, I created my own banner about my Patreon I put under pages, so people will notice it for sure : ) (That's a good solution too btw)

[daronakira]

I wasn't talking about the banner you put when you are in support program, I created my own banner about my Patreon I put under pages, so people will notice it for sure : ) (That's a good solution too btw)

Ah, sorry I misunderstood! That's a good solution (either to encourage people to Like and Share your episodes, or visit your support site, merch page, etc.). People can't click on the image to link to it directly, of course, but it's definitely a visible way to ask your readers to take action.

[keii4ii]

Instead of unlocking all locked content, would it be feasible to give each creator the option to either mass-unlock all, or mass-delete all locked content? This wouldn't affect me, but I know there are others who keep forever-locked episodes. Maybe they would prefer to repost the locked content on Patreon as backer-only content, in which case delete-all would be helpful.

[noxfox]

We now have a timeline for the Tapastic Support Program: TSP will be discontinued on November 30, 2015 (PST).

I was seriously expecting it would be sometime next year. * sweats * Well. I guess I gotta speed up the research of new platform for moneys and business plan redesign...

We considered this too and realize it's less than ideal. The top cover banners were really intended as background images to introduce a bit of personalized color, style, etc., not really as a place to include detailed text or messages. However, without building a new feature or making other significant changes, adding a link to the top was the most available and visible option.

I'm not a webdesigner or expect in the technical aspect of those things, but while I understand the big issue with the Support button being too much tied to SP, is it possible to replace it when SP will be deactivated by a similar button that would link to a page in which creators could put text and images? It should of course certainly contain a "report" button in case of inappropriate use/content, but that would probably be the most comfortable solution on our end, even if we may have wait past Nov 30 to get to use this feature.

These will unfortunately be going away at the end of November (along with the Support buttons and other TSP features) as CK mentioned above.

Awwwnoooo ; n ;
I liked them.
Are you sure they can't come back after? It was so cute and nice... ; u ;

Still, thank you guys for the headsup and efforts!

[ck_tapastic]

I'm not a webdesigner or expect in the technical aspect of those things, but while I understand the big issue with the Support button being too much tied to SP, is it possible to replace it when SP will be deactivated by a similar button that would link to a page in which creators could put text and images?

I can't say the exact amount of work involved because I'm no @isyoon. But it's not as simple as that - our team is really small, and our small team is focusing on building a new thing. Everyone is pulling more weight than they can comfortably, and often that "one more thing" can be that proverbial "straw that broke camel's back". We'll discuss this more internally, but regardless of what we end up doing (or not doing) I wanted to give a little more context to it.

[fanyart]

@michaelson So do we add a "support button" into the banner like this to let people know it's clickable?

...... I can't help it, it feels somewhat wrong... ಠ_ಠ

But thanks for at least adding that

[michaelson]

...... I can't help it, it feels somewhat wrong... ಠ_ಠ

Yeah, it feels dirty doesn't it? Haha, I think it'll take readers some time to adjust to it. The more creators who adopt this, the faster readers will be able to get accustomed to it. So it'll be a community effort - of course, we'll make an announcement about it to readers to let them know to explore more