Serious talk: the forum needs improvements

[bulgariansumo]

I know you didn't ask me specifically, but to answer your question, yes. I don't think I've seen readers here at all, but I've seen them on the Discord. They mostly hang out in the recommendations section either to recommend things they like or to look for new stories.

In order to keep that channel from being overrun with self promo, creators are only allowed to recommend their own work if it fits what someone else is asking for. There is a self promo channel, but that's basically like your average promo thread here where people just drop links and leave.

[BellaTheCow]

Oh wow, thank you so much for this info, I’ll consider joining the discord. Once again, thank you ️

[VibrantFox]

i think the thing with main site promo issues is that tapas has to as mentioned by other prioritize what pays the bills but they do also look at community content but i imagine there's also probably the dilemma of sheer volume of works on the site overall versus whatever the number of staff members who are dedicated to looking through and finding community works to promote so it's likely a much higher barrier of labor than "just promoting more community works".

granted i'd love to see stuff from the community published we're part of what's helped to build up the site but i think it'd probably take a dedicated amount of laborers to perform the task especially to the amount it's demanded (at least by creators) which may not be guaranteed since youve got to take into account payroll (if it's even paid at all) and then screening those works to make sure it suits whatever tapas standards are for promoted works as i'm sure they've still got a metric that they go by

like it's definitely it's own beast that is connected to the forums thing but there's nuance and the issue seems to be finding a balance that sates tapas as a company and tapas' community (plus the whole reader demand and what they may be vocalizing so )

[Calculus_Homework]

Now that you say that, it actually may be time to put the forums to rest--or at least, not say the forums advertise or help with promotion. It really is just a chat space at best. And that's cool! But yeah... perhaps reformation of this type of thing isn't what is needed. Rather, we just need to know there are other better means for getting what we want out of the tapas forums.
Change is good though, especially in this case. And I think creators need to understand that there is no singular place to properly advertise your projects and gain an audience through. Variety and proactiveness is key. And the tapas forums are not that. (not sure if they ever were?? i'm not a veteran here.)

[VibrantFox]

I think there may have been a time where people were finding new comics to read from here on the forums but I feel like it was always definitely more a discussions and work-shopping (shop talking?) place from the jump than one for promo but somehow that got lost or confused as time passed

like i joined the site itself in late 2014 so any new comics i was finding was through the popular/whats new sections of the main site (before all the shuffling and renaming), spotlights that caught my eye or just checking out the works of people who i interacted with often or who's work was recommended to me.

once i hit up the forums in 2016 i was still mostly just popping into conversation threads so stuff i did read was either me peeping if anyone had their own work in their bio and we talked a lot/they seemed cool or if it was in a promo thread it was one that was like really specific (like fantasy stories with afro diaspora characters or like horror anthologies or something). Then there were threads where folks would share their favorite comics that they were reading and if a persons gushing about another story seemed interesting I'd check it out but I dont think people ever tried to suggest this place as being the "go to for promo"

like it's been a while but i feel like i'd seen more old threads talk about ways to make use of social media or tags on different platforms and if you had the coin to spare how to use stuff like topwebcomics or placed ads. it also kind of felt more collaborative with the advertising coz again there had been a dedicated cross-promo thread and then folks who had their own sites would sometimes offer advertising space on their sites to promo other creators (whether in a kind of cataloging format or just general cross promo). so i mean there was promo stuff but not like the dump and dash we see today and not nearly as bad when it did crop up

[vapidink]

Just speaking from my experience with other writing sites with forums, it's pretty much the norm to have forum users be mostly creators. It makes sense when you consider that creators would be the people who have a greater interest in the site and who have more to gain from interacting with other users. It was pretty much the same in the Wattpad forums back when they existed, with the promotion threads becoming spam just like they are here. Most of the people using the forums were creators exchanging tips, talking about writing, or just socializing.

Not sure what caused the decline in users here, since I've not been here too long, but other than it being quiet at times, the forums work pretty much as any other I've been in. Once you mute the promotions threads it's a lot easier to find interesting topics. I don't think giving an incentive to users would help since that would still likely result in spam, even with limits on posting being placed.

Tbh, there's not any real solution other than for the creators who use the forums to get the word out. Readers are largely more interested in just that, reading, so it's not a surprise they don't come over. Does it suck? Yeah, a little. Would be nice to have things be more lively, but I think there's still some value to the forums as they are now so long as you temper your expectations.

Still like this better than discord, though. Things get a little too chaotic there and I don't like the quick pace of conversations.

[NickRowler]

I am not the best person to ask about this. Despite being part of the Tapas Discord, I am not active on it.

I have a tendency to get overstimulated by social media in general, which causes me to be a very passive user. The idea of checking 20+ tabs a day and scrolling through hundreds of message backlogs is not something I find enjoyable.

[abigaillmartin]

Same here I get overstimulated by social media too.

[Tubacabra]

It really sucks trying to promote with zero social media presence. ‍ I'm the kind of person who hides in the background, but that doesn't really work if you want subs. I think my biggest concern is that even though Tapas is currently running a writing tournament, they're not actually doing anything to promote it, other than the small clickable rectangle in the event section. And even then, it still takes about five clicks to find a list of all those series in one place. I feel like there should be a category for it on the homepage...

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[stiatent]

@axelruler interesting topic hope the Tapas creators see and are inspired by these suggestions
@ThunderChicken yep totally agree lol @ “I seduced the female lead’s baby” yep so tired of clearing those terrible notifications and titles and you're right they could have suggestions be made on our personal taste, like how youtube does it with a video similar to what you just seen. Or simply have the user select from a checkbox of genres (including the option for none).

@BreeBaxter your ideas sound cool, i'm still a small guy here but always felt that author collabs is a great way. Always have fun coming up with promoting fellow Tapas creators in my own series, as a thanks for them supporting me but also imagined the same with the 'win win' scenario as you said

Don't have anything new to add but it's super relatable:
For me the forums and discord (back when they had art events) was how I connected with the readers i currently have so thankful for that. Meanwhile on other webcomic sites I've mirrored on, got some views but its an audience of crickets, 0 comments, because of no forums there.

But yep would be great if they gave some visibility on main page (only recently I learnt they removed the community series) or come up with systems to as many already said on this thread. Would change the dynamics of the Forums for sure, and small authors would feel less like they have to 'spam on promotions' as some would say in order to be seen. And everyone's right, as Forums is more a creator space than somewhere an average reader would go. True, the forums would have to include other functions for 'average reader' to even care to visit here. My experience with Discord everything gets buried quickly, as new posts emerge so it always felt topics on Forums were longer lasting.
My interactions on Forums and Discord were always with fellow creators. Never encountered 'just readers' before. Would surely require some incentive for readers to come to the discord, most of the events which I enjoyed participating in were creator based.

And to me, most of the featured series seem bland and same-ish: "The Villianess is the female lead's uncle's ear-waxer' XD They may even attract wider demographic of readers with the greater range of genres and art styles seen in forums (like an actual Webcomics/webnovel version of YouTube).

[Panpan]

Had to mute the promotion genre. There are a few authors (especially in the contest) who spam the heck out of the forums. It bothers people to constantly be pinged to sub4sub, sometimes my friends here get pinged 2-3 times by the same person to "help."

[Tubacabra]

@stiatent They do have an option to select the genres that interest you, but I have never once seen them actually use my selections.

Just tried it again: Apparently the favorite genres option is just another way to search. They should absolutely apply those filters to their homepage. Maybe then I won't get spammed with things I have never once expressed interest in.

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[itsforevermonday]

@Tubacabra Everyone here is having an honest conversation about things that can be improved, as well as fellow creators' concerns about the Forum and Tapas. And you're here dropping your link and tagging people to subscribe to your story, which is out of place in this thread since it is not a promotion. Please learn how to read the atmosphere and respect your fellow Tapas creators. This will not take you anywhere; you will just be looked at as a sore thump.

[MelancholicOtaku]

I’m trying to find that balance between promoting my novel but not spamming my novel in every promotional thread that I see.
Sub 4 sub seems like the easy choice but I want something better.

[Tubacabra]

@itsforevermonday Believe me, I have plenty of experience being looked at as a "sore thump". That was basically my social position in highschool. Thanks for bringing back some bad memories!

As for the "disrespect" that I'm showing to my fellow creators, it was purely meant to be a joke. I apologize if I offended you, but I also don't see anything wrong with me including a link to my story as a footnote. I never told the link to be that big...

[vfaqvrf]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[Vayvaction]

staff pick is most of the time the same popular series

[ThunderChicken]

Staff pick is almost identical every week. Rarely, a new one will show up.

[BellaTheCow]

Nevertheless, I thank you for your input, I need as much info as I can get. @NickRowler and @abigaillmartin

Wishing everyone here the best of luck! ️

[joannekwan]

I understand that. Thus I was surprised when a smaller novel showed up
So some evidence they are looking, even as mentioned before it's a herculean task to sift through all of the series on the site with new ones going up every day.