You can just post pages on Patreon and lock it for Patrons only. That's what I was doing when my Patrons were suppose to get whole episodes earlier. As far as I know there will be no integration like that, it was SP feature and all this is going away.
hey, thanks for the answer 
Boomer. I'd really like to keep readers inside Tapastic, but this will work exactly in the opposite way, right?
Well yes, you will have to re-direct them to your Patreon site. It wasn't easy since people didn't really wanted to move from Tapastic, now it should be easier. I think in previous topic "Future of Tapastic" there was an update announcement where you can put link behind your comic banner, so when people click on it, they will be re-directed to your Patreon site or Kickstarter or whatever other site you use.
Not sure if anyone saw my question above- is there going to be a written summary or something about things that were discussed in the livestream video? I'm deaf and would like to know. :3
I hate to be the guy saying you need to do more work, as I honestly understand that your guys' workload is MASSIVE right now. It's something I've been telling people behind the scenes for over a year, that these types of things require massive amounts of work, and that you guys are a small team, so the speed and load you guys can handle isn't Microsoft or Apple or Google in size. But, I do feel the need to stress something.
The banner links.
I'm not saying you need to do this right away, but I do need to stress that eventually you need to bring in a spiritual successor of sorts to the Support button, one that only appears when they have a link that would appear in the banner to bring you to another site to support them. The reason I'm saying this, is because you NEED to have something that you guys have stressed many times before, and that's a nice, consistent user experience.
Now how does this and the banner play a role together? Let me explain with a little bit of history.
Many years ago, the Android operating system had a navigation button called the "Menu" button, which served the exact purpose you would first imagine, open the menu for the screen you were on in the app you were currently using. The issue with this button, is that it was not contextual, meaning that it did not change or inform the user if pressing the button would do anything or not. So if a user pressed the menu button, yet nothing happened, they had no way of knowing if their phone was messing up or being slow, if the app was messing up, or if their simply was no menu for the screen they were on. The user was left completely in the dark, and it was a very frustrating experience. Eventually, this issue was solved by them removing the menu navigation button entirely, and put it onto the app developers to implement a menu button for when one was needed, which made the entire user experience better, as the users now had context as to whether or not the screen they were on had a menu.
So how does this relate to the banner links and a spiritual successor to the support button? Well, it's that same frustrating user experience of not knowing what the issue of no feedback is. With banner links, when you click on them and nothing happens, you will have no idea if there is simply no link, or if the site did not load correctly, if their computer is lagging, or maybe the page simply had not loaded fully. This will lead to an extremely unpleasant experience, especially to users like me who commonly have to deal with an unstable internet connection, which can render parts of tapastic unusable due to certain elements failing to load. The best way to resolve this issue, would be to have a button that only appeared if they had a link to an external site, similar to how the support button only appears on comics that you can actually support. This would give context to the readers, and allow them to KNOW that they can do something, instead of simply wondering if they can or not.
And lastly, like I said at the top, this does not have to be implemented right away, it is just something I feel you need to think about, as it is a pitfall that I do not feel you want yourself stuck in.
Thanks for reading! Can't wait to see what you guys bring in! And hope what I've said can help you in at least a small way~
I have to agree on that. Don't know about other thing, Android is black magic for me.
I know I did write this in the previous Topic but here's the issue: Advertising my Patreon for two months I didn't get anyone, if not my previous supporters I would have 0 right now. I have no idea what it is. I already made special banner to call for action and even shared a special Patreon Leflet I made, you know: COOL STUFF YOU GET! It may sound greedy, but I had 10 supporters on Tapastic and probably would have more if I wouldn't quit for Patreon. I share links, I re-vamp the site, trying to improve it, because maybe my site isn't appealing? I don't know. Maybe people are scared of Patreon? Maybe don't want to create another account, I don't know. I'm just scared I will be stuck with my 10$ till the rest of my life, even if I know Patreon need a bit more time.
I believe you will figure something out guys, maybe not now, but in the future.
This is a loose transcription of what was said during the livestream. Sorry, I wish I could spend more time and type out what was said word for word! So these aren't direct quotes, but hopefully, I'll capture the key points.
In the first part of the video, Chang summarizes all the information presented in this topic as well as our previous topic.
Chang: Why are you sunsetting the support program? The support program was more of a community feature than our business model in regards to our company becoming profitable. However, it was more of an engineering and product reasons because there was a direct clash with the business model and the support program. Our engineering teams wants to accommodate as best as possible, but this was just one of those things that we couldn't make it work.
Michael: Is ad revenue going away? No, in fact we might be seeing an improvement.
Michael: We want to make a manageable way to monetize off of content and allow creators to concentrate more on their work.
Chang: A question that I saw in the forums is 'will I be participating in this new business model?' So if we build this new business model, will that be open to everyone on day one? Not likely. It's not because we don't want to do that, but it's because we don't have a lot of resources. We have to take baby steps and scale it out to more and more creators.
Q: For the novels section, will fan fiction be forbidden?
A: We're not against it as a concept, we're really just looking for good content. But currently, we can't definitely say if we are or are not allowing fan fiction.
Q: Will you support ePub?
A: Yes, the current plan is to support ePub.
-we are interrupted by our office neighbors because they wanted a pen-
Q: Will you open an online store akin to Inkblazers?
A: Chang said "that'd be cool." But we really need to focus on digital first and get that right before we start thinking about physical products.
Q: With support sunsetting, how can we get some tapastic t-shirts and mugs?
A: We are running low on them but we'll raffle them out or something (I guess). Nervous laughter.
Q: Will you be hosting more livestreams in the future?
A: Yes, we like the casual atmosphere. So yeah, we will!
Q:Is Tapastic trying to become a publishing company?
A: We could explore creating some content in the future, but the biggest goal is to showcase what we can do with our platform. But creating all the content and the platform doesn't really work out. Kind of like how when XBOX releases a new console, sometimes they create games in-house to showcase what their console can really do.
Q: What happens when we don't have the $25 minimum to withdraw cash?
A: The plan is to collect all the money and go to Las Vegas. Just kidding, we'll do everything in our power to get you your money. Whatever credit remains on your account will be refunded.
Q: Will Tapastic only be focusing on developing their mobile apps from now on?
A: No, but in terms of our resources and priorities, the mobile app does take up a lot of our focus. But we will continually update the desktop because all of the publishing aspects will be done on the desktop version of the site.
Q: How do you feel about children uploading to Tapastic?
A: It's totally fine, but we have to abide to US laws and regulations in terms of pay outs with ad revenue.
Q: Do we have to withdraw money before the Support Program ends?
A: No. It will be fully refunded, but will remain on your dashboard after the Support Program discontinues.
Q: Will novels make its way to the desktop?
A: Novels will be mobile first.
-Random aside: Up and Out can sleep on Michael's couch-
Q: What will the disparity be like between the desktop and the site?
A: The mobile contribution to our traffic has been growing like crazy. So more than 50% of our traffic is from our apps.
Q: Will there be ad revenue opportunity on the app?
A: Yes! In the future.
Q: Will you add new and noteworthy back to the front page?
A: It's been replaced with Tapastic Pick's section.
Q: Is Tapastic moving to a cheaper city and are you hiring?
A: We love San Francisco (but it is getting pretty crazy in terms of pricing). Are we hiring? Kind of. I guess.
Q: Will it possible for creators to backup comics?
A: awkward mumbling Depends on how many people want that feature request. But we do get a lot of feature requests externally and internally, so we have prioritize.
Q: Can you define what bitesized content means?
A: It's a general term and direction we want to head in. The atomic unit of content is getting smaller and smaller, shorter and shorter. Instead of buying a CD, we want to focus on selling each individual song. But even we cannot define the term that well - it's not a one size fit all definition. In general, it's meant to be consumed in one sitting.
Q: Is comic panda coming back?
A: Nah, son.
Q: So would bite sized content be more like Cynide and Happiness?
A: It's not really just a six panel thing. We're also talking about taking long form content and turning it into bitesized chunks.
-Random aside: Did you know Peter stole my old Tapastic shirt?-
Chang also touched upon possibilities of hybrid versions of novels and comics. One key example being the Japanese form of light novels.
Michael talked a little bit about his adventures in BL.
Daron, the handsome, came up because Michael got lonely. Hilarity sort of ensued.
I have a question.... Why Can't everyone and anyone be able to use the support program even if the have less than 500+ Subs?
Man I wish this was emailed I only found this out from another creator who I followed and she made a post on it!
There were two e-mails that went out to all creators as well as two creator notifications.
Can you search your e-mail and/or trash/spam folder for e-mails from community@tapastic.com?
I checked and no I haven't received it at all. A few months ago I stopped getting notifications about my support income too.
I just checked my profile settings and all my notifications have been switched off so that was weird (slapped them all back on now).
if u right click it and a menu comes up with options to open it in any way then u immediately know that it'll lead to the outside crowdfunding website, if the popup when u click it just says stuff abt inspecting the element then it obviously doesnt go anywhere! this is generally how i avoid being rickrolled, that and, it's convenient to open up links in new page especially when ur in the middle of stuff right? lol
