Reader confused about Tapas coin unlocking

[GesuGesu]

I just finished drawing an episode last night and was sharing a few panels in a discord server when some people asked me "oh, I want to read your webtoon!"

I sent them my Tapas profile to let 'em have it.

"Oh, it's on Tapas.."

What's wrong with Tapas?

"Don't you have to pay coins to unlock episodes?"

Uh, only for premium comics. The regular ones by people like me are free-to-read.

"Oh. I see! I'll read it later. The search function is harder to use than Webtoons. If you post it on Webtoons, I'll find it easier!"

...........

Apparently some readers are turned off because they thought ALL comics required coins to unlock? I guess it's difficult for people to find regular comics to the point that they thought everything requires unlocking. I didn't know we were losing some readers literally due to a misunderstanding on coins and locked episodes.

We may want to make it clearer for readers that they do not have to pay to most of the comics on Tapas. Should staff consider rearranging the layout of the app or website so that it's clearer?

[VibrantFox]

I had no idea that there was this kind of confusion happening with readers about comics on tapas?! But I suppose a layout change could help. I wonder if it will come to creators having to include in their series descriptions that their works are free to read

[Kura]

Whats worse is that when you finish explaining this, and they they come back later with

"Yeah I just tried using the ap and literally EVERY comic I clicked on required coins. How do you even find comics that don't need coins? Why are there hardly any comics on that website that don't need coins?????"

[joannekwan]

@STAFF
I think it would be a nice feature if users could filter comics by premium and non-premium. Call them the non-premie freebies or something.
But I haven't had any reader complaints personally.

[GesuGesu]

I hadn't realized this little issue until I tried talking to more people about what I draw. I don't mind losing out on 2 or 10 readers from this, but it may not be good for Tapas as a site if some traffic is going elsewhere because they think every comic is a premium comic.

[Penni]

Yes! I had this problem when I first joined the sight. It took some poking around to discover the non-premium comics and novels

[NovaSapien]

I personally found it pretty easy to find non-premium comics and novels.

[GoldenPlume]

I guess it's difficult for people to find regular comics

Outside of the homepage, it IS hard to find comics that are relevant to a reader. The search function is largely useless and needs a major overhaul.

We can see how some readers would be thinking that everything is coin locked by how the homepage of the desktop and app are heavily focused upon premium series. It wasn't always the case, but since Popular is now being dominated by Tapas Incubator Program, you have to scroll half way down the homepage to find free series in significant quantities.

[nekhcore]

It might be helpful to at least have a little icon on the comic description that indicates whether or not there are locked episodes.

[MinNCompany]

I believe such an icon used to exist on locked comics (at least on the mobile app) but tapas might've removed it because it discourages readers from beginning to read

[unicornfield]

I started using Tapas on desktop before I got the app and before coins were introduced to desktop, and it was hard to find premium comics back then. I agree that it's harder to find non-premium comics on the app since I use desktop to find new comics and I usually use the app to read what I have in my library. I get why people are turned away from Tapas.

But yeah they need to improve their tag system and make searching for things easier.

I also wish that they'd move the new and noteworthy stuff to the top too, since they're there for a week anyway, but premium is up forever. It'll also be nice if they kept the lock symbol on locked episodes to make it clear that they are locked. They should also put a little symbol on premium comics too, especially on desktop, because you can't tell if it's premium until you click on it.

They introduced a feed thing into the app recently to help you 'discover' new comics. The problem is that I've already seen most of those recommended, and over half of them are premium.

I swear they used to give out bonus coins, not just for subscribing to comics. What happened to them?

[GoldenPlume]

I swear they used to give out bonus coins, not just for subscribing to comics. What happened to them?

Staff probably ran the numbers and didn't like the losses it generated. For example if they gave a weekend bonus of 300 coins that's approximately $.25. Readers then took that $.25 and purchased premium comics, of which $.125 went to the creator and the other $.125 went to Tapas. That's a $.125 loss per reader. If 75,000 readers used their coins that's a $9,000 loss.

Staff was likely banking on readers wanting to buy a 400 coin key and only having 300 coins so they had to open their wallets and buy the other 100 coins. Or buy the next 300 coin key because the last "free key" got them hooked on the series. However this didn't materialize so they discontinued offering the bonus coins.