Naver Webtoon Blocked / Flagged me

[sourlemon0101]

Alright, before I start I know this will be a subjective topic and by all means I do not wish to offend anyone out there, I will not list the names. Neither am I tolerant enough to deal with rude, hostile, bias or troll response.
Any above replies would be gladly ignored and not be taken.

Alright, so I have been thinking about this subject for the longest time and yet I've never decided to really voice
it out because of all reasons.
It's one of these problem that had already existed for a long time and no one talks or does anything about it.
This issue have always been rotting slowly inside my heart and I still see it happening, OFTEN.
Now everyone's doing it. And its too bloody obvious but no one ever does anything about it, and WHY?

Let me just start off, this is about Line Webtoon.
Don't worry, I'm not going to try and advertise you to come to some XYZ page to support, sub, view / patreon the comic.
I am here to write about the bias, unfair treatment and rules set by the webtoon staff and together with the rotten practices has been going around ESP among their popular featured artists.
We all understood that in order to become a feature artist in Line webtoon, we're only allowed to exclusively post our
contents on their platform. And that is what EXCLUSIVE means right?
It makes sense to me why webtoon has this rule because they're paying their featured artist to create contents only on their website and not to others. I am writing this with my concern about:
"Is it fair for the featured artist to be actively, openly uploading their content to other websites?"

Mind you, I understand the differences between:
1. That if they uploaded it on other websites previously before they got featured and if they stopped updating for a long time or even just recent. That is fine by me.
2. Personal website. That's fine either.
3. Patreon. That's fine too.
4. If you're still on Discover and putting out your comic on different platforms. That's fine.

What I meant are those websites that is generally built as a reading platform specially for audiences who likes reading comics, manhwas and mangas. You should know the websites I am talking about.
And by becoming a featured paid webtoon artist, you have already gained the access to additional exposure and frame.
If you are a existing featured artist and you're only posting on the above websites I have mentioned or any individual platforms that I don't know of. And respecting the existing rules, kudos to you.
But if you are one of those featured artist and you're breaking the rules and openly whoring your contents out on other platforms.
You disgusted me, you lost my respect and fucking shame on you.
These artist is already representing the website and some of them even have a solid base readers there to support them.
Everyday, they're gaining double, triple, quadruple or even more the audience and webtoon is already actively promoting their work on their front page. Yet, they are still NOT satisfied with the audience they are getting??
I am referring to ESP those artist who came out of the blue, suddenly become a feature artist and was never even under the Discover section. Does that give you a even more clearer picture now?
And when they're actively doing this, it makes it even more difficult for Discover struggling artist to move on as they have to complete over the audiences in other platforms. Isn't it extremely unfair esp when popular artist is doing this, how is that a fair run for other artists out there?

I am not going to throw in the names in here.
It's too damn obvious and it makes me sick to the stomach just to see it happening.
You guys should be able to pick out the artist that has been doing this and by all means, it is not just clattering to one specific person.
It's a whole group and they're practicing it.
It doesn't even need to take a lot of effort to find all their alternate websites, it's all over google and it have been there since ages.

I have written a email to webtoon about my concern, webtoon responded back in a auto reply format and they do not seem to care at all.
So when I tried to send another email, then I realized that webtoon has block / flag my email address and I wasn't be able to send anything back to them. I'm shocked, literally speechless.
There's no discussion in this, it is clear to me. This is also extremely unprofessional of how webtoon decided to handle the issue.
I do not understand why now we should be following their fixated rule and they're the one who's clearly overshadowing the problem and allowing such shady practice to go on.

I understand that not every one will care or understand my frustration.
As the reader, they wouldn't care which platform the content comes from as long as they get their updates every week.
But I am writing this to reach out to the rest of the creators out there, esp the artist that's still struggling.
I want to hear your voice and what do you all think about this?

Regardless,
xxoxx

[joannekwan]

Is it possible too though that some of those manga/manwha aggregate sites are ripping these from Webtoons without permission?

[sourlemon0101]

No, the contents posted there is by the artist themselves and I have a ton screenshots to prove it.

[sourlemon0101]

I will definitely write in another email and address the matter to them again until they respond back to me.

[scythe]

I read your whole post and I'm still at a bit of a loss, what's your gripe here? In a sentence or two if you could please summerise.

[eleoza]

he/she is frustrated that artists who are on webtoon and featured, thus recieving quite some payment still publish their work on other hosting sites to gain even more viewers, which also is against webtoon's rules. He/she pointed this out to webtoon and apparantly revieved a block and is unable to further contact webtoon.

From what I understand the block he/she recieved is unjust. Not to mention quite odd. Like why would they block someone for that O.o
I hope this gets sorted out for you Sourlemon.

[Kayke]

Hmmm, I'm not really sure I've ever seen this happen. What I have seen is people get featured on Line Webtoon and then keep the same comic on different websites (like Tapastic) but post different content so that the stuff on Line was still exclusive to Line. I'm mainly talking about gag comics/comic strips, so I doubt those people are posting to manga sites.

[sourlemon0101]

Thanks Lucazu. And yes that pretty sums just about up what I'm trying to say here.

[PotooGryphon]

I'm a bit lost as well at what the topic of frustration is. The original post was a bit hard to follow.

Um, I mean I have seen featured artists announce on Tapastic that they're getting featured on Webtoons and they have to stop posting but then instead do unique updates for Tapastic/other sites while creating exclusive content for Webtoons and both are under the same comic title. Is this part of the frustration being discussed?

I don't mind that use of it, because a lot of artists here are torn and sad to leave their Tapastic audience that helped them grow as a creator. I sort of admire their tenacity to create content for both platforms.

I don't think I've seen for myself a featured artist from Webtoons posting exclusive webtoons strips on their other platforms profiles, however if Webtoons doesn't mind it happening then it's really up to them as a company. Perhaps they even encourage it inorder to help draw in more readers from other sites. Who knows. :shrug:

I do agree though that blocking your email is a bit uncalled for and they could of handled that better.

[sourlemon0101]

I also understood there's artist who have been featured and posting their work in a different content on here and thus I did my fair share of research. The easily way to find out who is breaking the rules, is just google Kaykedrawsthings, you'd be surprised on what you find.

[shazzbaa]

So I'm understanding this as:

"LINE Webtoons has a rule that once an artist becomes Featured, their content is supposed to only be updating on Webtoons. I've seen artists breaking the rule, and when I messages Webtoon about it, I got an auto-reply in response. When I messaged them again, I found out my emails weren't going through anymore, as if they'd blocked my email address."

I'm going to be honest, I'd find it frustrating to see others breaking the rules, but it doesn't seem worth taking personal offense to the point of making you sick! I don't think there's anything wrong with alerting Webtoon to the fact that people seem to be breaking the rules, but if they don't want to deal with it then...... that's up to them? Maybe they don't care, maybe it's an unwinnable fight and they're picking their battles..... who knows.

Unless you are also a featured artist, I honestly don't know why it would be anything more than kinda frustrating. It's Webtoons' battle, not ours.

The email blocking, though, seems like such a weird move... I'm not very tech-savvy, but I have to wonder if it wasn't an intentional block. Like if an email client automatically and incorrectly labelled your account as spam or compromised with malware or something. It doesn't make a lot of sense to block someone who sent only one email?

[sourlemon0101]

Idk which artist you are talking here but when I do look up on a certain featured artist and compare their contents side by side on separate window, they're the same content, same title. What's the difference in there?
No to mention that they're paid and guaranteed to have their work to be publicized by webtoon but these artist is still putting out their work against the rules in other to gain even more viewers.
If webtoon doesn't mind about that, they would not have implemented such rules in the beginning. Just imagine you're paying someone to draw and put out content just on your platform and they're posting the same shit on other websites to gain extra attention, fair?
The artist which I've talked to webtoon about took down the content ONLY on that website I have mentioned in my email but he still have another alternate source where he throws up his comic there. Thus, this confirmed to me that it IS against the rules.

[sourlemon0101]

I personally feel like, it is not about [ lets leave the fighting to webtoon because its none of our business here ].
As a artist, I do care about the ways and how I am going to reach out to my audiences and I do not feel it is fair that for someone who is paid exclusively yet trying to squeeze out whatever supporters they can still gain from other websites.
Still don't think this whole entire thing will not effect the artist with a smaller audience?
Here's a example, You're a small company and have been getting by all these years, out of blue a well established company starts to set up their business next to yours. Do you get my point here?
In a long term run, how would that NOT effect other artists out there?

[UzukiCheverie]

Okay but why is it a problem you have to solve? Do you work for LINE? Are you a featured artist there? If Webtoons is looking the other way, then that's their choice. Plus, if you're messaging the artist yourself, that's just flat out harassment IMO

I just don't see why this is such a big deal for you. It really shouldn't be, unless there are other details you aren't letting us in on (what you've told us already is pretty vague information, and honestly, I don't think ANY of us know who you're talking about despite you saying "You know who I'm talking about" every time you post.)

If this is a problem, this is a LINE Webtoons problem. Not a Tapastic problem or a you problem - unless you make it a you problem, but that's pretty unnecessary if you don't have any personal association with the artist.

[sourlemon0101]

I don't see why I should be messaging the other artist and address this issue to them.
And yes it is outright harassment which I don't bother to.
This is something I should be addressing to webtoon and I don't think you get my point here.
I have the right to write in and tell webtoon about the problem by I don't see why should I get flagged or blocked by the staff.
If webtoon doesn't care about this, they would not have set such rules in the first place so why aren't they taking the rules off?
This may not be a bigggg deal to some of you out here, what about artist with a smaller audience and trying to get by even with a 100 subs? I have wrote everything down and I don't have to explain twice about my post.
And as a artist we should care about how we reach out to our audiences, not you or anyone to tell me its not my problem here.

[69Michi]

As a Discover creator, I sort of get what you mean (I think?). But at the same time when I see the way LINE replied to your email and seemingly not wanted to discuss further on the subject... I think that is where you lost me with your frustration. If LINE doesn't want to deal with it, then so be it. It IS their problem how they want to manage their "exclusive" content. They are the one who paid the creator, it is their lost if they let the creator break the rule, not yours. Is it reasonable that they block you? No, that is not nice of them, but they have their own reason I guess.

All I can get from reading your replies is just that you are frustrated that bigger comic that are making money from Webtoon are setting their establish next to you and drawing your audience away. This is pretty much an assumption but that is how I feel about this whole topic. It shouldn't be that big of a deal, if people like certain comic, then they like certain comic, no matter how big or small that comic is. Is your comic not doing good because another bigger kid is drawing all the audience away? No, that shouldn't be the problem, in my honest opinion.

Internet is a smaller place than you think, and webcomic is even a smaller niche. If a big comic exists, it exists, no matter on what platform they are posting on. You would be surprised how many of my subscribers on Tapastic are overlapping with Webtoon's.

[sourlemon0101]

I do agree with most of the things you have said and I understood the [ if people like your comic, it doesn't matter who they support ].
And if you have ever had loyal patrons who have been supporting your comic for years and suddenly stopped supporting just because they can't afford and now they're supporting the bigger kids, how do you feel?

[69Michi]

And if you have ever had loyal patrons who have been supporting your comic for years and suddenly stopped supporting just because they can't afford and now they're supporting the bigger kids, how do you feel?

Uhm......... I wouldn't feel anything? I'm grateful that they have been supporting me for as long as they have done, and if they want to put that support in another comic that they truly love, then they can do it. I'm not the one who is in charge of them and how or where they should spend their money on. I'm grateful that they even supported me in the first place. It's not my right to even feel remotely angry at them for stop supporting me. It is their choice, I'm not doing comic for them, I'm doing it for myself. They are just throwing in the little support they have to encourage me going. My reader and supporter owe me nothing. I owe them for the love they have for my creation.

I feel like this is a little out of the blue comparision to the origional topic LMFAO

[shazzbaa]

I do not feel it is fair that for someone who is paid exclusively yet trying to squeeze out whatever supporters they can still gain from other websites.

I mean, I think the thing that's unfair here isn't "they're getting paid but they're still on other platforms" -- that concept in and of itself isn't wrong. It's the fact that LINE webtoons said "if we pay you for this, then in exchange, you give us exclusive access to this content" and they're breeching that contract. That sucks for LINE -- they're paying for something they're not getting.

And if you're a featured artist who's following the rules, sure, that's frustrating, because it feels like you're following a restriction that nobody else cares about.

But how on earth does that affect other, non-featured LINE webtoons creators? if you're not a featured artist, you don't have to keep your content exclusive, so you can be doing the exact same things these other creators are doing without breaking any rules. It's not an unfair practice to put your content out in as many places as possible. The only person they're hurting is LINE.
Making their content available in other places doesn't seem like it'd increase their webtoons viewership anyway. If people are able to see that content in other places, that'd be more likely to make their Webtoons audience SMALLER, because suddenly folks don't have to follow them on Webtoons to read their comic. That doesn't seem like it'd hurt other Webtoons creators.

So, yeah, they're breaking their contract and that's not fair to Webtoon. But it doesn't seem worth taking personally!! I'm sure if I were following an artist and saw them doing that, I'd think to myself "well that's pretty crappy of you to do" and I might not follow their comic anymore. But I don't think you gotta wear yourself out trying to make Webtoon care about an arbitrary restriction that doesn't apply to you!

[UzukiCheverie]

Man, no one's out to get you or ruin your time as a comic artist. This shit just happens in the comic world. If this is the whole reason why you're upset, then this isn't anything we or LINE can help you with. How about instead of worrying about how other creators affect you and how you stack up next to them, just work on making your comic better and catching up to and succeeding these creators? So long as it's friendly competition. Either way, you can only control what you do, and if you decide to just hate every other artist who happens to have it better than you (this goes for a LOT of people, not just you - there are artists better off than me, and even the greatest have people they are envious of) you're gonna end up just getting stuck and not getting anywhere. I don't think this is an ideal situation for you or your readers who undoubtedly love your work. Sorry if it's harsh but I feel it needs to be said after seeing your last reply.

Let it go.