I didn't want to cause offense or vitriol. I don't know where that came from. offensm not meaning to say people don't enjoy interacting with artists. I'm just one of those personalities that is easily overwhelmed by a sheer amount of interaction, and was wondering how many others have similar feelings as I about such things.
ah be a sport, he's just voicing his opinion sometimes creators just spam the wall thing sometimes.
its a double edge sword for me, on the plus side. i do like seeing updates from artists i like (and sometimes interact with them, if they're interested... :v ) i myself like it when they post art since im an artist myself~ but yeah sometimes its just spam and random ramblings you might not fancy.
but maybe its just because i don't follow enough peeps that it becomes annoying. i dunno.
i treat it like an fb wall post or twitter update
It really depends on the artist. There are some that I am more interested in than others, since they have a history of posting interesting things to their wall. When I know there is a good chance of them posting something cool, I will go check it out.
The rest I might skip if I am busy, or check out if I am bored. Since I am not subscribed to too many artists yet (and since I am on this website ALL the time...), I find it very easy to handle the notifications.
I have a short reading list. I read everything people post on their walls, either comics, notifications or simple announcements. This usually leads me to think how come people manage those enormous reading lists (talking bout 300+), I mean, how do you keep track of all those stories, I usually have to reread everytime someone updates a comic.
Well, I might've been a bit harsh, but just yesterday me and another artist were discussing how wall updates on Tapastic bring no social interaction whatsoever comparing to other social media, so this kind of resonated. Obviously, I wouldn't want random ramblings that have nothing to do with art or comic stuff, but I guess so far I've been lucky in avoiding artists that do that. I try to keep my reading list short, too.
I unsubbed from some fellows who kept spamming me with 'here's a side drawing!' posts, or post questions like "Who's your favourite character?" etc.
I don't give a shit about that stuff, therefore it's my decision to unsub from them. If it's a once in a while, "I reached X subscribers milestone, thanks!" Then I'm cool with it, I'll say congrats and move on. But when people constantly post side drawings - I don't care. I'd rather have those things on your deviantArt, not on a comic site. When I see a notification, I want to read a comic or see something important, not a picture you could've thrown on your dA account.
"S.A., you're such a bitter angry old asshole!" you say. Yes, I am.
It depends on the artist for me.
When I first follow someone I give them the benefit of a doubt and will go, after a while if it's all just constant messages of what feels like spam (it's a feed related to your comic. Not a twitter wall) then I will skip them over depending on the artist.
But most of the time I don't mind checking them out. I like a side drawing (related to their comics) here and there, I like seeing a creator get excited about subscribers, I also like when authors put an effort to communicate with their fans (it's even something that is encouraged when you are making a web comic) but ONLY if it's on topic so to speak, as in, I don't appreciate the "WHO SAW THE NEW AVENGERS MOVIE?????" quote unquote 'announcement ' or a "I drew a fanart look." or "I felt like drawing random guys making out look" as even though still art from the artist, these are kinds of pictures I kinda see as spam, because they have nothing to do with any of the comic series that I am watching them for, and if I see an announcement I want to be something related to the comic I am reading at least.
The issue with the wall system is that is is extremely poor when it comes to management and what you can do on it. So literally everything gets melded together and pushed down by other things because there is absolutely no way to organize or prioritize posts other then the 'notify subscribers' button. It's why I don't like the 'Thank you for Subscribing' wall posts, because I seem to get the majority of them after I do an announcement post like "I'll be on hiatus for a bit because I'm in the hospital" or "Thank you for helping me read ____ number of subscribers here is a gift illustration to celebrate" and then people miss it because it will so quickly be pushed down by 'thank you' posts and depending on your update schedule, your own updates. The best option is 'notify subscribers'. You can't even pick which fans you send it to if you work on multiple comics, because sometimes your announcement (extra drawing especially) does not relate to ALL your series.
It's not a good system. At all.
It also depends of the artist for me too.
I check everything usually, but sometimes, when it's about "hey I ate a pancake and it was good", err... okay ? It's cool, sure, but Twitter is already like this, so I'm not fond of those posts on the wall section.
Side drawings are nice, I don't have problems with it. It's still comic related. Maybe getting a side serie with "doodles" for the comic is a good thing, so you just have to put everything in there.
I try to only post when it's about something new (like reaching x numbers of subscribers), livestreams, sometimes finished drawings, and if I have questions that I can't answer myself. My most recent post was about spanish language. I don't know anything at spanish, and I really needed help for the script of the chapter. Also, I try to have not only a post with only one image, but it contains an image (the first subject, like a finished drawing) + a question that will help me in the future.
But like @kurapikasuki said, the system for now isn't the best. as it is not the first time those problems were pointing out, I'm sure a new management of the wall will be done : )
yeah, the problem seems to be the barebones nature of the wall system, it works just like the comics: they make a post, you get a note. I would hate them to implement something like facebook's ranking system into it, as that would imply that some artists' posts have more 'importance' than others, and I don't believe we're that kind of community. it might just come down to us as a community being more aware of when a post might bore people, and to save posts like 'I did a thing!' or 'here's a picture of my life!' for more suitable social networks.
I'm starting to get the idea that I am not normal. I do all of my reading through Comic Rocket, so I never get those notifications. The only real downside is that it doesn't show up on creator's subscription statistics, but the site views do show up. The key part to me, however, is that it allows me to see all of my comics in one place, without having to hit bookmarks and go to multiple sites.
Eagle
(I never thought I was normal, but how strange am I?)
I don't think I've ever had the problem of someone spamming their walls with junk. There are some people who do show up a lot in my notifications but it's usually for real comic updates and livestreams, so I've never felt annoyed by it. I've started posting more on my wall since I've started an extras series to let my readers know about it. But if I ever become annoying I want someone to tell me. I feel people sometimes don't realize they write too much and it shouldn't be an issue to let them know. You're a reader and you should help these creators grow as people. Just don't be a dick about it.
I don't like it when creators announce that they've updated their comic. I already get notifications for that in the other feed. I don't need to be notified twice for the same update.
I agree. I see a need for at least four different categories: private messages, like notifications, "art" notifications (this would cover non-comic art and stream announcements) and "miscellaneous" notifications. Possibly a fifth category for "events" which would cover con appearance announcements, kickstarters, giveaways, etc.
For me, it's because there's currently NO way of opting out of receiving notifications once I've posted a response to somebody's wall post. Every time someone else says something, I have to be notified, and I just avoid commenting on wall posts altogether because of this. I'm pretty sure Tapastic is working on the opt out feature, and can't wait for that to be implemented.
Yeah for me it's an issue where I only have the time to get on my computer once a week at most (but I'm more likely to go 2weeks+ with no time) so when I get on to check notifications there are generally at least 30.
I got tired quick of seeing 10 livestream announcements long ended, so generally I just check comments and replies, along with any posts from the comics I'm more invested in.
(And if someone who posts rarely posts a notification, I generally check it out.)
If I only had the time to check daily and only got a few, I would look at them all. For me the thing is I'm just really tired of livestream notifications that I have no way of participating in. (Especially when I see something from an artist I would have loved to watch! Curse my busyness and unyielding timezone)
Yes, I read them. But then again, my reading-list isn't huge, so there's rarely a lot of notifications to go through.
As for my own wall-posts.... I haven't made many of them. I post thank-you pictures when I cross big subscriber-numbers (100+ subs and 200+ subs) and I might do an announcement this week regarding the con I'm going to this weekend, but I tend not to do chat-posts. People can talk to me in the comments of my comic!
I'd appreciate the option do choose which notifications I got, though. That would clear out the clutter, especially if I build up a bigger reading list.