Serious talk: the forum needs improvements

[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?

[Calculus_Homework]

When you're right, you're right.

[axelruler]

Listen, if you, like me, think that spam is a problem, I have a simpler and cheaper suggestion than the one in the main thread:

We have a large volume of topics every day, always publishing the same works...

... My suggestion would be to create a new category, where authors could summarize the episodes of their stories; that way, they would post well-made summaries of the current episodes and would only publish their work again after releasing a new episode to summarize on the forum.

I have a thread that simulates exactly this, take a look please:
https://forums.tapas.io/t/summarize-the-first-chapter-of-your-story/84872

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My idea is that everyone posts a summary of their story and puts a very catchy headline in the title space.

In the body, there will be relevant information, such as the type (novel or comic) and genres of the story, and, below, a summary of the episode in question, with the link to access the work.

Something crucial:

All responses in a summary post must be about the work being summarized; This will force other authors to make their own thread summarizing episodes.

I believe that this way, anyone who reads the summary and has been genuinely interested in reading the story will read it, and there will no longer be that flood of spam, as authors will only be able to promote their stories through summaries, and this will only be possible when new episodes come out, resulting in a cleaner and more objective forum.

I believe that just saying "read my story" does not generate interest, but giving details about it is very objective and, therefore, can arouse interest in the reader.

But of course, for this to work, it would be necessary to remove the promotion category, and then I don't know if you would agree with that :v

Well, I hope you will at least take this suggestion to your superiors, as I believe this tactic will reduce spam and bring objective promotions, as it explains what the story is about and, consequently, will arouse much more interest than promotional topics being spammed around.

[king-goldfish]

We must seize the servers.

Honestly, it would be nice to have something like AO3 for original fiction. It's my understanding that got started around (among other things) legal concerns when the fanfic sites of the time were plotting some shady stuff with monetization. (Disclaimer: I only half remember what I'm talking about.)

But I would venture even most community writers here eventually WOULD like to monetize their works (it would be nice to at least like, pay for my private health insurance with writing money or something), so I doubt there would be a ton of interest in starting a nonprofit archive lol. Of course, an archive itself could be nonprofit without the individual creators on it being nonprofit.

But it all sounds very complicated, so probably I will just keep spamming the forums like there's no tomorrow.

[joannekwan]

It's essentially just promotion then but under a new name. Sure there are more guidelines put in place like how the Collaborations category is set up currently on the forum, but I doubt everyone will adhere to the rules and inevitably spam will crop up. Lots of users would just dump their info and run, as it is now.

It doesn't solve the issue of how to get readers into this space or promote genuine interaction between creators again.

[axelruler]

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[axelruler]

Listen

The difference between the summaries category and the promotions category is that in the promotions category, each person makes as many posts as they want and they do it anyway, causing spam and not generating as much interest in potential readers; The summary category obliges you to make a detailed and well-done post, and would restrict the number of posts by the number of episodes of each work, and of course, in the responses there would be people commenting on the work itself, and not responding to their own works, thus reducing the absurd amount of identical posts, which have the sole intention of making sub4sub.

The objective of both categories would be the same, to promote the works, but with different dynamics, and it is the dynamics of the summary category that will make the difference. And well, about you saying that eventually people would start spamming again, rules are rules, and mods have all the means necessary to make people behave, if they just want to.

I really hope you will at least take my suggestion to your superiors.

[NickRowler]

It hard to really make suggestions to improve the forums because from the years I have been on here, the number of people who use it is quite small. I think even Tapas notices this, which is why they prioritize the Discord. It appeals more to younger creators/readers.

The Forums however is just a relic of the past that Tapas just keeps around. I personally prefer it over Discord, but I am someone who is older who grew up on the pre-Twitter internet.

[vfaqvrf]

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[NickRowler]

It appears under the "More" tab on the site.

But here is a link

Join the Tapas Discord Server!

[VibrantFox]

3️⃣ Or, dare I say, author collabs where we can promo each other’s stories in-app. (Imagine: I boost you, you boost me—win-win, babes.)

i can definitely recall a time when cross promotion had been pretty common, not super huge but still present. I can't vouch for how successful it was but if you dig far enough you can probably find some of the older threads that organized these kinds of practices so it's not like it hasnt existed it just hasnt come back in a while (unless someone want to prove otherwise coz i'm totes here for it)

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speaking more broadly this isnt the first and definitely not the last time anyone's brought up gripes with the way things are or have been on the forums. folks who've been here a long time have taken to muting certain categories or just frequenting the place less often and there's pretty obvious discrepancy between the volume of promo threads versus discussion threads and even in those boxes a heavy lean towards creator conversation than ones that readers may feel inclined to jump into. plus there's just whatever biases and opinions that bounce around that people may or may not want to engage with so i dont doubt it sometimes feels...prickly? if that makes sense

attempts have been made to try to guide user habits but not everything sticks and while it'd be nice to see the forums return to their "glory days" there's the inescapable reality that those days are just kinda gone. plus at the end of the day tapas staff and mods can make a million tries at setting certain guidelines or enforcing rules but it still falls on the users to truly put to practice whats being taught and sharing that knowledge/info with one another and when you've got massive influxes of new users it becomes harder and harder especially if there's only so many folks doing the teaching. like i'm pretty sure there's rules about spam or types of promo and other "bad habits" that keep showing up but again it's up to users to even bother reading and following those rules

as an old time user i've been in the camp of pop in engage if i feel the need (and sometimes when i should probably just drop it ) or muting/un-following stuff that doesnt catch my fancy or i'm not really interested in seeing (or straight up dunno how to interact with it), plus i just dont frequent the place as often as i used to since i'm more active on other sites and i think thats kind of the natural flow of things where some may find (or try to find) a permanent home here on the forums while some move onto other places that better suit what they're looking for. it does suck to see how things have changed but thats how things go on an internet thats constantly changing with it's user demographics changing along with it. you do what you can but all things change eventually

[ThunderChicken]

Tapas has done a few things to punish “community” creators in the relatively short time that I’ve been here.

First and foremost was their decision to hide “community” works. Yes, we all know that our stuff is still there, and it’s only a few extra clicks away, but those few extra clicks are everything. A new visitor to the site is not going to notice the community tab. They’re going to have the so-called “premium” stuff crammed down their throats.

And that is another biggie that shows exactly how little we matter to Tapas: the spamming of our notifications with those so-called “premium” things. Every day I clear at least a half dozen out without even looking at them. And who can blame me? It’s always “I was the female lead’s arch duke’s second cousin’s villain baby” or such. Tapas, if you’re going to spam me, at least spam me with things that are aligned with what is in my current library! If literally every other social media platform on Earth can show me adverts for truck tires after I did a search for truck tires, surely Tapas can figure out that a person with a library full of comedy, action, and LGBTQ stories is not interested in “I seduced the female lead’s baby”.

Better yet, throw some community series in there as well! And I mean some new stuff! We’ve all seen Heartstopper! Yes, it’s a very nice comic! But give others a chance to be seen!

And yes, I realize that my rant is more toward Tapas as a whole than it is to this forum, but it is Tapas’ utter indifference to community series that don’t get 250k views per day that drives people to spam the promotions section here. And it is that indifference that will guarantee that no matter how good a story may be, it will never get those 250k daily views.

[king-goldfish]

lol I didn't even remember that, but you're right. That's how I found the forums, too. We're just following orders!

[joannekwan]

Eh, for what it's worth, I just saw this in my inbox on the main site and there's a novel in there with only 30 subs! So staff are looking through smaller series to spotlight. They just have to curate a list that balances ones that draw big crowds while also introducing new promising series to readers. https://tapas.io/collection/community-staff-picks

[vfaqvrf]

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[vfaqvrf]

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[bulgariansumo]

I've noticed that they have been putting staff picks in the inbox on the main site. Also, if that's the novel I'm thinking of, it's one that I'm currently reading, and I highly recommend it! Didn't discover it through staff picks, but I'm glad some people might be able to. Go Mall Ghosts! However, the last time they advertised staff picks in the inbox, I did find something that I'm interested in checking out.
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As far as the forums go, I don't really have anything insightful to say. Most forums that I've seen on sites like this steer heavily towards creators, though I think Tapas might have the most unbalanced ratio I've encountered so far. I'd recommend a recommendations section, but the Discord already has that covered (and tbh, I feel like that and some of the contests are the only reason readers are there either).

[vfaqvrf]

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[BellaTheCow]

So would you say that there are more readers that have joined the discord or no? In other words are there more actual readers who are looking for new stories on the discord of tapas versus this forum? @NickRowler just asking.