New LGBTQ+ (there's almost no letters left) Genre!

[JRHoch]

I hope so! I wrote my comic as the comic I would have wanted to read when I was much younger.

[Rasp]

Oh yeah as angry as I am at that this whole mess should never have happened cant deny its going to be good for me as a GL creator.

[VibrantFox]

that's entirely up to you to decide but getting opinions from others including readers and community members is always an option

[Rasp]

No. I mean most of my stories are SEVERAL genres but due to the artificial limitation imposed on Non-premium works you have to pick only one.

[JRHoch]

Well, until they add the second option, you're stuck with one!

[Rasp]

Yeah it sucks I have an action crime novel that has some GL in it and I'm forced to choose.

The crime novel aspects are a larger part of the story but GL is going to bring in an audience that otherwise might not see it.

If I could make it Action / GL it would be ideal but they're still artificially capping us at one Genre.

[vothnthorvaldson]

I think this category (LGBT) is useful BECAUSE it's coming (eventually) with this extra tag.

I don't consider LGBT as a genre. It's just a modifier, but a meaningful one for the public of the tagged stories. If we have two tags, then we can use one for the genre, and one for the modifier.

[darthmongoose]

I'm really happy to see this implemented!
Since the queer characters and romance is a secondary angle in Errant that only turns up later, I won't be moving house from Action because... well, it's a small pond to begin with that makes it easier to get seen, and it probably describes the series best. I will be adding it as my secondary category when they're available for sure though!

[JRHoch]

It seems the LGBTQ+ category is not quite working yet. I added my comic but it didn't show up. Seems only very popular comics are currently listed. Sigh. Another flawed roll out. Another space grab for Premium/Popular. Hopefully this gets fixed soon.

@vothnthorvaldson Exactly! This is the point I've been trying to make, badly, for months.

[vothnthorvaldson]

I see your comic! I think it's just buggy beginnings as usual.

[JRHoch]

Yes, if you go into the category you can find it. However, if you click on the big banner you only see the Popular and Premium comics. I understand Tapas needing to promote the bread and butter that keeps them in business, but sometimes it's so...so,.,so...

[vothnthorvaldson]

Ah yes! It's annoying, but I'm so used to it by now, that it is something I expected.
I don't have enough background knowledge on this kind of business to know if it's a necessary action for Tapas to stay afloat, so I have no definitive opinion on their marketing strategy.
But yes, it's very annoying.

[therealbereth]

I was really happy initially when Michael sent out those mails, but now I'm left to wonder if I should change my fantasy novel to LGBTQ+ because pretty much all lead characters are queer or if I should wait until we can set subgenres to use it as such. Any suggestions?

Also, who should I @ to bemoan the lack of the I and A in the acronym? Inter and asexual people exist, Tapas. Why shorten the acronym like that?

[darthmongoose]

I think secondary categories are coming soon.

Yeah the lack of the A is quite annoying. It would be better if they used the full LGBTQIA+ title really. It's long, but if the current setup allows for "Science Fiction" not shortened to "Sci-fi", it can't be a length issue. The Aces really deserve not to be quietly pushed into the + considering they make up approximately 1% of the world's population.

[therealbereth]

Thanks for backing me up. Considering that even a lot of people within the community mock us aces, it would have been a nice sign to include us just ONCE. But alas. Sigh.

[vothnthorvaldson]

I don't have a strong opinion on letter usage, but I'd like to point out that not using all letters is really, really not necessarily ignoring or mocking anyone.
I use "LGBT" even if none of these letters correspond to my own situation. I'm neither ignoring nor mocking myself, I just use the form that most people know best, including outside of the community, and the form that is the shortest. Not everything has to be literal. LGBTQIA+ is also incomplete, unless we take in account the +, but then... LGBT+ works too! (I need to get into the habit to put the +, I'm not used to, but I see the point and it's not much longer).

Now in this case. LGBTQ+ is indeed not a good compromise in my opinion. The including of the Q may make people upset to not been included, in a way they may not have felt if the more classical LGBT+ was used (?)

[GabiWolf]

I didn’t get any mail about this, but I am happy to find out about it. I moved Grimoire Athenaeum over to that category. I will be happy when we have second categories, because I have just been switching between relevant genres ever couple of months or so, trying to get new eyes on my work.

[JRHoch]

Sometimes I really love your undefined self!

[craftymarten]

I moved Lycan over to LGBTQ+ from drama to see how it goes. I normally describe it as LGBT+ Mystery Drama but if people are only looking in LGBTQ+ for romance I'll move it back I think. I've not had any nasty comments on Tapas but on other sites I've had people say they stopped reading because there were gay MCs -_-

[JRHoch]

Everyone is at least 1% gay on Tapas--it's like secondhand smoke. But your point is why a category needed to be created. It's not perfect, but there are rarely perfect solutions in life. Kind of like affirmative action--it shouldn't be needed, tends to marginalize people, and creates resentment--but it's hard to address the insidiousness of discrimination and bias.