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

[JRHoch]

As long as it isn't Gender, Romantic, Minority Sexuals because GRMS would be offensive.

[ratscout]

shrug I dunno, it just seems a little redundant to have BL and GL categories when LGBTQ already covers those. Just another reason to invent sub categories.

• LGBTQ
• Subgenre: BL

[skicoak]

What are your thoughts about the new category? I for one would like to also see a straight white male category too.

Lol! You're killing me!

I'm gonna go on a limb and suggest it DOES represent a minority of viewers on this site though. I think the last stat I saw had females slightly ahead of males in total viewship. You start breaking that down by race and sexuality, it's probable that it's maybe a 30 to 25% share of the site.

Wonder how we could reach that under-served demographic ?

[JRHoch]

I'm always looking out for you.

[TAMAnnoying]

See I don’t know if I can agree with this statement completely because- while I understand your reasoning as a fellow creator- as an audience member it wouldn’t go over very well

BL is 100% established to audience members that it’s gonna be hot boys doing hot things and maybe f***ing if your lucky (or go to the Patreon)

So removing BL and GL tags would be awful for us as creators and tapas as a hub for comics- as bl is established to be “romance but with two boys” By the populous. not only that but it’s made it’s way into being very popular and having a very large fan base- you also have multiple different BL stories within the genre itself just as the Superhero genre has really grown and aspired to be more then just by the number “get your power have adventures.” It would be honestly more far at this point for BL to be the genre and LGTB to be the sub genre in the sense of “gay boys doing gay shit but we also have transgender co stars”

At least in the eyes of most audience members-

[skicoak]

shrug I dunno, it just seems a little redundant to have BL and GL categories when LGBTQ already covers those. Just another reason to invent sub categories.

LGBTQ
Subgenre: BL

So removing BL and GL tags would be awful for us as creators and tapas as a hub for comics- as bl is established to be “romance but with two boys” By the populous. not only that but it’s made it’s way into being very popular and having a very large fan base- you also have multiple different BL stories within the genre itself just as the Superhero genre has really grown and aspired to be more then just by the number “get your power have adventures.” It would be honestly more far at this point for BL to be the genre and LGTB to be the sub genre in the sense of “gay boys doing gay shit but we also have transgender co stars”

This is where Tapas not having multiple genre tags has tramped all over anything logical.

It SHOULD be...

Romance
Sub genre: BL

[KRWright]

I think as well that this is a point where webcomics and novels are gonna diverge. I know loads of novelists who are putting their works on other platforms and not on Tapas because they didn’t want to use “BL” or because they didn’t see a place for them here. Every other major platform has an LGBTQ section and Tapas has BL because it’s an established webcomic genre but it really isn’t for novels.

Also... no one is forcing anyone to use any genres so like... if it makes a certain community happier what’s the problem?

[fnflgbtcomics]

This is really exciting to me, but it really makes me wish that us non-premium creators could have at least two categories. It would be extremely useful to us, who promote our content as LGBT+, but who have stories that focus on things other than that (but with LGBT+ mains that generally end in romance)

[unicornfield]

This is great news! I personally don't mind the BL or GL genre as well because it helps people who are specifically looking for gay romance. Keep in mind that not all LGBT+ comics are necessarily romance and not everyone who searches for LGBT+ comics wants to read romance. I hope they would add more genres in the future too, I've always wanted to see a psychological or thriller category.

[JRHoch]

I think the problem with so many genres is that the menu becomes too crowded. I think a genre/sub genre interface would be better. But that might be too much work for Tapas.

[skicoak]

But that might be too much work for Tapas.

Can I at least get an anthology category before they just throw in the towel?!?

[JRHoch]

No one reads anthologies. Not even the parents of people in the anthologies.

[skicoak]

No one reads anthologies. Not even the parents of people in the anthologies.

Hey!!! That's just because my Mom had her internet privileges revoked in prison!!

[therealbereth]

This is where Tapas not having multiple genre tags has tramped all over anything logical.

It SHOULD be...

Romance Sub genre: BL

Eeeeh, can't say I agree with that. BL does seem to have developed into its very own category. Sure, if I were to write specifically a romance btwn two men (not one intertwined with fantasy plot), I'd go for Romance -> BL, BUT I think since BL has its own tropes that deviate from "traditional" romance, it warrants a different genre altogether.

If anything, BL tropes are finding their way into "traditional" romances now. Rich CEO etc., these things were there in m/f romance (Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant been there lol), but not as a pronounced trope per se. So I think BL and GL deserve their own genre categories.

[skicoak]

BUT I think since BL has its own tropes that deviate from "traditional" romance, it warrants a different genre altogether.

Obviously, you're entitled to your own opinion, but if you're going to raise a debate for breaking the concept of genre classification...I'd like to see a stronger argument than it "has it's own tropes".

Genres are supposed to be the broad umbrellas in which we group things of similar subject matter. Sub genres composed the breadth of styles/forms that rest underneath.

In a world/system where steampunk, alien invasion, time travel and cyberpunk are still firmly filed under Science Fiction you're gonna have to make a hellava argument to explain how BL has escaped the gravitational pull of Romance.

I doubt even the paper pushers at Tapas believe that BL has reached a point it's so distinguishable artistically from Romance that it defied traditional categorization. They made a BUSINESS decision...and we're seeing the progression from that business decision.

[therealbereth]

I know what you mean, but I think that applies mostly to traditional publishing really. I'm not a big fan of its restrictions and many of its rules if I'm being honest. I know that, from an industry's standard, they make sense. But I'm also glad that we can define some things in the webspace how they apply to readers' interests—and tropes, for that matter. ^^

[skicoak]

But I'm also glad that we can define some things in the webspace how they apply to readers' interests

Remember, we're not at this point because of a movement to create greater agency for readers to easily reach their top interests.

Adding the ability for creators to add sub-genre tagging and creating stronger sub-genre lists would of served the community, as a whole, much better than isolating works into a "genre" based on Identity content/tropes. Tapas now has almost a fourth of it's "genres" tied into specific sexual identities.

Sure, it seems mainly all good while riding this current wave of popularity and crop of invested readers...but when that shifts, you've just segregated a bulk of series from the rest of the population.

Remember... Slice of life gag strips use to roam this place like mighty dinosaurs.

[vothnthorvaldson]

I'm not ok with all your analysis, but I'm ok that the whole issue started with this weird decision of having both a Romance and BL tag.
BL obviously a type of romance, that's undebatable. What is very debatable is that it can stand for m/m romance, rather than, only, a subgenre of m/m romance. But this would not matter much if we had tags for subgenre, as these tags could be much more numerous and precise, without altering the readability of the main genre categorization.

[skicoak]

I'm not ok with all your analysis

Some people won't be... because they think it comes from a place of "phobia" but it's not.

I know from experience some of the pitfalls of categorization based on Identity. I worked for Gateway Books (before/during Bookland acquired it) a primarily Southern based store and let's just say their policies towards isolating African -American literature in it's own section were NOT progressive.

[vothnthorvaldson]

People may interpret it like that (phobia, even if in any case I think that would be too strong a term in this case), but personally that is absolutely not what I meant!
I presumed our different views were rather coming from the fact one of us is part of the public for this kind of material, and the other is not, so you see only the theory, while I'm interested in getting a system that works for me practically.

Which, actually, is very significant if we think of your last paragraph: I do totally understand your concerns, and share them. Now, there is a paradox that is not easy to fix: categorizing is unpleasant and possibly counterproductive, but not categorizing can make the material unreachable. Having the material reachable but not categorized on here would be doable with working tags though. I'm not sure why not more effort was put in making the tags work. I don't know of it's deliberate, or a bad design difficult to fix?