Serious talk: the forum needs improvements

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

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

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.

Same here I get overstimulated by social media too.

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...

Don't forget to like and subscribe!

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 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.

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.

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

I don't think there are many readers at all anymore i see like one or two accounts that are dedicated to reading but everyone else is a creator. I generally think the forums themselves need to be advertised more on the tapas apps and webpage. You can find it if you press more but there's not anything in place to actually encourage readers to find new stories on it.

I think the main problem though is that forums are going out of style completely. As much as I don't want to admit it as a person that stays clear from most forms of social media but outlets like tik tok, twitter, Instagram and even reddit have grow vastly more popular than forums like this. Because of this its more beneficial to promote on those platforms but some people don't like to go near them or don't have to time to make the promotional material that some of these platforms need.

There's an interesting discussion going on right now on similar topics on the Tapas Discord, in the #general channel. Discussion starts yesterday afternoon and goes through this morning.

I thought this was really interesting because it has some insights from long-time creators who used to be contracted with Tapas about how the site has been failing its community creators over the past few years and why. And probably I am just slow on the uptake, but I learned a lot about how Tapas is actually run from this discussion.

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I am aware that most people here are creators, but I am not sure if "The problem" actually is a problem.

I am pretty much of an extrovert-artist and I like to talk to other people about my art. Soooo... I used to get into contact to other artists on Deviantart the same way as I did here. Forums on Deviantart basically work the same way and I went there to promote my stuff, get to know a bubble of really nice other artists and talk to them, to have company on my way. - Do I expect to find COSTUMERS here? No way! But I did actually find artist whos writing style matches mine and with whom I can totally develop alongside.

Some day I will have a healthy bubble of supporters (whom I support aswell), so I do not get bored and frustrated posting into an empty void and then I will maybe not be seen in the forums as much to be completely honest, but I do not think this is a problem. This is just what I am using the forums for.

Especially because as far as I see it there are special places here to post and share your stories and others that are just for talking about other stuff. So it's not necessarily the way that "spamming own stuff" must disturb the others.

As a kind of miscellaneous aside for posters here who are frustrated by the community feature (or lack thereof) diversity—I just found a section in the Tapas Discord where they ask for submission for community pieces to feature in events. I think it’s titled #readingchallengesubmissions or something to that effect, but might be a good thing to keep tabs on for creators who are looking for that. Not a forum improvement suggestion, just something I wish I’d known existed before yesterday. But alas, twas not meant to be.

Tales of a young Stepah

I've been eying this thread for a while so I think it's finally time I share my thoughts. As a person whose recently joined these forums and barely started uploading on Tapas maybe my opinion doesn't hold as much weight but forums isn't what I expected. I knew coming in that most people here weren't going to be readers so I mainly had the intention to build a name in a community of artist and share art rather than spam promoting like it seems like other people spend a lot of time doing here.

Even in this thread it seems like a lot of people didn't get the message and started promoting here.

My Experience Today

I opened forums hoping to share an experience or share some art but the first 15 threads were all "like for like" or "sub for sub". I enjoy using these forums and looking over what people share, its a less toxic reddit/twitter space so as a new user it is kind of unfortunate that I came in when this all became essentially a spam promotion slop, it probably won't get fixed and from reading comments the discord is kind of the same.

Solution

My one and only solution (its not a good one) is if Tapas deletes the promotion category and blocks off any links that lead to your webcomic/novel or any other webcomic sites. Now, say you try to promote on the off topic threads or art threads, then your post won't go through (I know people will try to find other ways to promote but it's a small solution).

Now, if people truly want to promote their work, there should be channels divided in genres for every story theme and there's two different sections (1 for Comics/ 1 for novels). Action will have their channel, fantasy will have their own, etc. You're only allowed to post there about once a week on a Sunday and everyday throughout the week peoples stories get rotated that way no one person "is at the top"(it will still be user friendly and people can still leave things like comments).

After the end of the week the channel gets wiped and new stories will be able to be promoted. (You would only be able to post on the channel 1-2 times a month) I really think that they should make it so if you do want to promote in these channels you need to have some sort of activity on the forums site (Maybe add leveled roles like in discord where every time you level up it unlocks a new feature) that way it stays alive and active amongst creators and people don't flood here to just spam promote and leave.

Final thoughts

I'm thankful to @axelruler for bringing this up and starting this discussion. I really do hope things change or I find the small circles of people who really care about this space and use it for community purposes. I work and draw a lot so I'm not able to be here long and it seems like there are a lot of awesome and supportive people here who have a lot of talent. I hope everyone has a good stay and stay blessed!

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I found out about this entire forum by accident during the "True Love on Tapas" contest. If I hadn't read someone else comment on a posted chapter about the forum, I might never have found it on my own. Maybe they can do desktop/mobile promotions for it, but I'd love to see more awareness for the forums too.

It's 2024, not 2004. Forums are a relic of an earlier internet that was monitor and keyboard based. It's dying because that version of the internet is dying. Nothing can be done about it.

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The day they rolled out New Reddit was the beginning of the end. The AI Training was the zombie virus waking up the corpse.

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