It depends on what your goals are.
Readers will take what you give them. It's a free comic and they have no choice anyway. You can only work at your pace.
If your goal is just the comic: to finish the story and put it out there, then the short term of long/short eps doesn't matter so much cause when the comic is finished it's finished.
As long as you're consistent, that beats out everything else.
Readers just want to know that you won't drop a good story. Tapas readers especially are patient and polite folk if you're open and honest about delays and your schedule.
That point aside, what I do personally is meant to maximize exposure on the site without doing outside promotions because I have no time to do anything but make the dang comic for Patreon and Tapas.
My strategy: 3 short updates a week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I'm on hiatus rn to replan and rebuild my buffer, but the goal is 10 panel episodes 3x a week because it builds a good rhythm for the readers. I've done this for a year and half so far with decent results.
This does the following for me:
*increases time on the Fresh page to 12 times a month, thus increasing the probability that readers notice it updates often and consistently
* increases views, comments, and likes due to high episode count,
* builds a reading habit cause my readers know when eps land,
* forces me to write well so something happens to move the story forward every 10 panels (it's a romantic crime thriller)
* In turn, I also feel good replying and interacting with readers through the week to keep my own mental energy up.
This works for me because I can produce 30 panels per week minimum.
My goals were to cultivate discipline, speed, focus, quality and momentum. I do this as a job full time with my other contracted work with Studio Tapas. So I'm very motivated to max out my chances to rise above other comics. It's my livelihood.
Also readers need to be reminded the story exists like tens or hundreds of times before they may click on it. That's why ads and pop songs on the radio work, you see something enough times and it tends to stick in the brain. Best bet to do this for free and without outside promotional help is to post good stories as often as you can and maintain consistency above all.
Once you decide on a game plan, just stick to it best you can. And if you find it's hard to keep up, let the readers know and slow down the schedule to give yourself time. You can always change your mind and strategy.
