Search Engine Issues

[Retrosofa]

Hey all,

I've had my comic on Tapas since about 2017 and I've noticed recently it doesn't show up anywhere in the search engines. Not under the Mature section. Not under BL. Nothing. It's like it doesn't exist. Is there a reason for this? I know mature content wasn't allowed on the app but the issue I have now is with the web browser. It's just a shame my readership has gone down drastically since the pandemic and I feel like the lack of the coverage on the site is a big part of it. Granted, I know it's a pretty informal series but I used to get 1.k+ views and my last few chapters have only gotten a few hundred.

I'd really love some advice. Thanks.

[joannekwan]

What's the name of your comic? I'll see if I can't find it

[Retrosofa]

It’s called “No More Mermaids.”

Thanks!

[joannekwan]

Ah gotcha! I follow your comic (and love it btw) so I'm aware of its contents. Recently Tapas is revamping its search to comply with app policies and thus shadowbanning some mature series from the search. Since there are some more sensual scenes in your comic, they most likely have led to this result.

I too have a comic that's hidden from search, however I found a way around this was to include its title as a tag in the main series so that it can show up under the tags category. Like so:

As I'm not official staff, I'm not privy to whether any new search functions will come to help the visibility for mature comics, but at least this work around is here in the mean time.

[river121693]

urg, shadow banning is terrible. The site should at least notify creators so they know what's going on and try to make changes to their comic.

[Retrosofa]

Oh hey! I didn't even notice your username! LOL

Thank you! Unfortunately the tag trick didn't work for me. Also my username doesn't even show up in search results either. I'd gladly edit the chapters if it meant I could get more visibility on here.

[BlairFujin]

Sadly, around month ago tapas decided to quietly shadowban all the series that were too mature for the app. I only found out about it by contacting their support about my series getting hidden.
https://forums.tapas.io/t/to-all-web-only-series-creators/76049

so, yeah, if you want to reach anyone on tapas who isn't already subscribed to you, you need to censor your stuff to meet apple's standards

[Retrosofa]

Ugh. That sucks.

Did you end up censoring your series? I print physical copies of No More Mermaids so I would be fine with the online version being censored.

(TBH -- I have been censoring the last few chapters.)

[BlairFujin]

I've got separate versions that are uber censored for apple as I didn't want to ruin what I already published

censoring new episodes isn't enough, you have to go back and censor everything

[Retrosofa]

I figured as much. x___x

One more question: What exactly needs to get censored? I'm assuming genitalia is a no-no but what about nudity in general? I've literally seen other comics on here (which show up in the search results) that also feature sex scenes so I'm confused what the guidelines are.

Thanks again!

[BlairFujin]

genitalia need to be fully obscured, as well as anything gentalia-like,

I had a scene when tips of this guys "hair" are wet and kissed and that needed to be removed
and if you're depicting an oral act, head of the character doing the act needs to be fully obscured as well

I've also been consoring nipples, while I wasn't notified about them by staff, some creators of comics I read were told to hide them to stay on the app (though one of them recently got told that now they're ok, but I don't know...)

Your best bet in general is to contact tapas staff and ask what needs to be changed in your series to be allowed on the app, as there are no clear, set in stone guidelines.

[Retrosofa]

Oh jeez. Thanks so much! You've been a huge help!

I guess that'll be my project this weekend...

[Retrosofa]

Update:

The Mods sent me a very lengthy, detailed list of the necessary edits I need to make. One can't help but wonder what's the point of having a "mature section" when you can't even show bare butts.

[BlairFujin]

sadly that section is not for us free to read folks but for their premium (mostly imported) series... I can't help feeling like that change was partially to redirect even more readers looking for mature comics to their paid stuff... but let's not get into conspiracy theories...