Serious talk: the forum needs improvements

[Calculus_Homework]

Agree with the issues on promotional ventures in the forums here. lol We are mostly creators who are active in this space. Promoting on here doesn't feel right, or that it's getting us anywhere. I always suggest to other creators that promoting on their other socials, as well as spreading the news offline, is the best way to go.

In that case, maybe a forum or part of this forum could be a space dedicated to connecting us to other sources? Offering opportunities for growth and being a part of other things in the world off tapas? Could be really great for a lot of people to have accessibility to all that in one single spot. Like topic categories for offsite collabs, anthologies, expos, contests, challenges, etc.... If that sounds appealing to creators, I would love to help curate it. I'm in a few creative spaces irl that are very friendly and welcoming to all kinds of artists.

I suggest that there be a readers' space. Like this one, but fancier and more heavily moderated (For clarity, readers aren't a community, they're a response to the creators' community. A general audience should have more moderation happening for their forum space to keep it friendly and welcoming.)

I think that kind of space would help readers find works that they wouldn't have otherwise browsing Tapas. Which, let's be honest, how many people just browse tapas for things to read?? I feel like that's not a huge thing. They need a friendly fandom forum space that allows creators to go onto the promotional/updates bulletin board. I don't know... lol That's not a clear cut solution at all, but it's just a thought.

(Edit: Adding to the first thought I had with a creator connection space, it'd be GREAT to have a category of available independent publishers currently interested in novels and/or comics. Heck, even just mentioning there's a book signing somewhere could help someone get in touch with a published individual or even a publisher and start their network from there.)

[AmysGames]

I've muted both the promotions and the collaborations categories, and it makes for a much better viewing experience.

Unfortunately, I don't think incentivizing readers to come to the forums is going to change anything. Your solution of offering free ink for posting on the forums will just result in a bunch of "I'm just here for free ink" posts. By and large, readers don't care about interacting with creators, and they don't want to be advertised to—they just want to be entertained. They are perfectly content with reading whatever premium series is thrown in front of their eyeballs rather than bothering with us small fry.

[Calculus_Homework]

Yeah, I can see the game of "get ink for interaction" getting waaaay out of line... and insulting at some point for creators if readers get tactless about it. :T
Do you think a separate readers' forum would be worth something? And then just having a recently updated or promotions bulletin board for creators to post on it? Maybe that could bring things directly to readers, instead of having them feel like they need to browse tapas for new stuff.

[Leyelle]

I don't pretend to understand how the forum operating system works. But I think adding things like story-related games (written games, like @TheSingularitySeed, made "guess the main character,") character profiles, and quizzes for readers could also be a way to draw more readers and avoid spam. Again, idk if that can be done or not. Also, just in general, more content that promotes Tapas in general on websites other than Tapas, like youtube trailers for series and such (idk if tapas has a YT channel?) could bring more readers to Tapas itself in general, and thus, to writers. Just an idea

[king-goldfish]

I definitely hear your frustration.

Offering ink to readers to participate in the forums is an interesting theory, but I think it misses something crucial: Tapas isn't interested in promoting series that aren't monetized. The site redesign that shunted non-premium novels/comics off to only be displayed in the "community" category shows that. Tapas has no real incentive to incentivize (lol) people to interact with non-premium novels/comics on the site. It's a lot harder for a casual reader to find new, smaller series than it used to be. Your best recourse is really looking elsewhere to promote—you'll have to be able to attract a large following on social media. If you figure out a surefire way to do that successfully, let me know lol.

[BlairFujin]

sad truth is this forum got kinda abandoned in favour of tapas official discord - that's why it's easier to find through the main tapas page, all the official contest got moved there and you have to go there to report any issues

[joannekwan]

I think the main thing here is that forums are driven mostly by the people who post day to day. And the loudest most active crowd are those simply promoting.
Years ago, it was still very much a creator's space, but most of those creators made threads talking shop or discussing the creative process. Some of these threads pop up every so often now, but don't get nearly as many responses as the old days as the bulk of users on this forum are just here to promote and not deeply interact with a creator community. More seasoned creators have gone into closed discord servers or elsewhere to get their creator community.

Readers have never had much of a presence on the forums for as long as I've been on Tapas (since late 2015 before I was even a mod). You'll get readers occasionally posting threads asking for help finding a series, a couple of threads gushing over a series they like, however those threads never get many responses.
Even with the current Tapas Discord, it is very much a creator's space. I've seen a few readers go on there to ask when some premium series will be updated or ask where the free series are in general, but that's pretty much it.
I'm sure there are some readers who do lurk the forum and discord, but they are very much less prone to posting and making their presence known.

In the past Tapas has directed readers to the forum during reading events on the main site. However, those users will just post in the dedicated event thread and not stick around to check out other threads.

Even in a reader space like a series itself, new creators are always asking how to get interaction with the followers they do have or get comments under the episode. (Usually the answer is to prompt a question in the episode description.) So I think overall, most readers will be very quiet. If they have a presence online, they will most likely talk to other readers in places like reddit or post on social media to share reviews, fan theories etc, places where there are other topics of interest to them other than strictly webcomics/novels.

I agree that the forum is not what it used to be, but really I don't know if there are many practical solutions that can realistically change its landscape without a serious effort from the userbase. And I'm not banking on readers to flock here even if there is an overhaul.

[incoMan]

yeah I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees the serious flaws about this forum, I always make sure not to spam to often I only try to post my work here every two or three times a month, but sadly this forum has seen better days I've seen too much of the same people post CONSTANTLY begging for their follows and ink and the serious divide between tapas and the community is insane like when you walk in a pretty side of town just to go around the block to end up in skid row makes it really hard for beginners to get their footing in or at all

[joannekwan]

Yep, it's definitely harder to break out as a new creator now than 10 years ago. The app launch did increase the number of users/readers, making Tapas as a whole accessible to new swaths of readers. But apps are costly to maintain and so Tapas had to shift focus and promote premium and imported series. The increased accessibility and technology advancements in the past several years has led to an influx of new creators but it seems to be outpacing the growth in readership. It's not a unique thing to Tapas either with WT experiencing the same.

It's just like the growth of a city. When it starts as a small town, the playing field is fairly equal. But as more people move in, the disparity starts to show and then it becomes glaring when it becomes a city.

[KevinReijnders]

I don't mind the promo threads as much as most I feel. Though I do really hate it when a single person suddenly decides to spam the exact same promo post in 100+ threads (I've counted them, this is not an exaggeration) clogging up the entire site with - quite frankly - useless noise, drowning out any ongoing interesting conversation

[vfaqvrf]

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[KevinReijnders]

Problem is that Tapas, as a business, has no incentive to boost the free stuff over the premium paid stuff. It would take away resource and potential revenue to give more attention to free works.

[vfaqvrf]

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[incoMan]

i was just about to say the same thing.... @KevinReijnders

[king-goldfish]

Yet another example of how capitalism and art are fundamentally incompatible. Whomp whomp.

[Vayvaction]

tapas has trailers/promo vids for premium only and compared to webtoon tiktok page and stuff tapas one doesn't really appeal to readers

[incoMan]

[kyupol]

Maybe offer paid ads? Drunkduck seems to do that
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1y2i4ddEfya9q1uZ_yf6GFLizfSj-1oQt_I339-d-GDk/htmlview?pli=1#gid=846509850

[vfaqvrf]

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[Calculus_Homework]

LMAO
oh man, sign me up.

You made some good ideas for solutions... but yeah, I think promotion in the forums is purely incestual at this point. No more people will talk about our work we share here than the 10 people who already do.

Not to sound cynical--because I do like the idea of better discovery tools--but I feel like it's going to have some sort of formula to it where so many stories will still be pushed under the waves in no time.

I think there is value in the author boosts you mentioned. That'd be a very nice communal thing to have on each other's profiles. Something like: "Here are 5 comics/novels I follow and enjoy and why." Or have a truce thing where, if you're in the mystery genre, and so is another author--you both could essentially opt in to have each other always listed on each other's comic/novel as a way to suggest to a reader that these projects are both the same quality, similar aesthetic, similar humor, etc. Or does that sound neurotic?