Naver Webtoon Blocked / Flagged me

[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.

[sourlemon0101]

Yeah it is out of the topic. lol
But if you want talk about compassion.... lets just be honest here and put all that compassion talk aside, how many people truly do this for free if they do not getting paid for it?
If it's not about the money, why having a Patreon?
Then again, these is not the reason why I'm making this post.

[jkloboy]

were these comics reshared on platforms such as mangafox or mangahere?

[kkitty]

Well if they're literally breaking the rules by posting exclusive content outside of Webtoons the best you can do is report them with a link to the place they're posting it on. Though I guess you can't really e-mail them anymore.

If Webtoons doesn't care then they're the ones losing money and that's that. I get it sucks to see that happening even when it doesn't directly affect you but sometimes there's nothing you can do.

[69Michi]

But if you want talk about compassion.... lets just be honest here and put all that compassion talk aside, how many people truly do this for free if they do not getting paid for it?

That isn't exactly compassion talk, I was being serious. I HONESTLY work on my comic as a hobby and never expect as many people investing their time into my creation as I currently have. I do this for free, money however is a nice bonus that I can get around. Even if I'm not making any money off of my comic right now, I would still be doing it. But earning money from making comic give me a legit reason to be more responsible and serious, and with that pushing out content faster on a regular schedule.

That is why I have Patreon in the first place. People can support me, that is entirely up to them, I'm not forcing anyone to put in a little tip for what I'm doing knowing I'm just doing this comic to satisfy my own need for storytelling and earning a good reaction from the readers.

I didn't start doing comic thinking I would be making money from it. I could stay on DA taking commission and making adoptable and I would make even more money than I can doing my comic.

But yeah, LINE's problem isn't worth beating yourself up over it.

[sourlemon0101]

When I see a featured artist do this, the only thing I'm going to do is to write an email and report it to Webtoon.
But I do not see why I should be flagged and block for reporting about something and this is the least that I can do.
I feel that this whole issue very poorly handled.

[UzukiCheverie]

If that's truly the root of the issue, then again, it sucks and was poorly handled, but we aren't LINE so there's really nothing we can do about it here :/ Just gotta hope they reply and if they don't, they've made their decision and you'll just have to move on.

[sourlemon0101]

This isn't something that happened in a day or two.
It's has been accumulated. It's something which happened simply because everyone like you and I have been overlooking on it in the past and we've decided to just - let's leave it to Line to work it out.
I too, shamefully admit that I have been ignoring what happened for the longest time and I choose to be ignorant about what happened.
But then again, we all have the responsibility to report what's happening so such issue would not have grown.
And if the issue continue to exist today, we too have no one but ourselves to blame.
Some of you may feel that this isn't that of a big deal, sure it happened but it doesn't effect me so I don't see this as part of my problem.

Like I've said, this doesn't effect everybody which is why when I started this post, I mentioned I knew it's going to be a subjective topic.
But it effects others in different ways and by choosing to ignore the issue and leave it up for Line does not fix the problem at all.
You're just as bad as to allowing the issue to continue to exist.
So you're telling me that if Line doesn't do anything about it and I shouldn't? Please.

As long as such practice exist, it will not solve any issues even if I've decided stopped supporting those artist or Line.
And will this problem will continue to exist and grow? Yes.
It won't be happening to me because I won't be there anymore, it will be towards someone else and then the list goes on.
And does it have to start happening to you THEN you start doing something about it?
I don't need to work for Line in order to warn others about a existing issue. This should be brought up ages ago.
If you're supporting those artist's action, please don't be here. It's negative enough.
I am not here to seek help or advise, neither I'm here to start any fight.
I am only here to share my experience.

Esp to those of you who've telling me to let it go, have you done anything about this? No?
Then don't sound so patriotic.

By starting this thread, I already knew this topic is going to be subjective.

Does Line does anything about it? Yes and no, unless you make a report.

In concluded, I personally feels how Line handles the issue is poorly done and unjust.
I will continue to write in to Line to express about the flagging issue and if they can remove that.
Also towards those artists who have been openly breaching the rules, it's a dirty move.
They've lost my respect, I will not continue to support them.