I needed to read this. Thank you!
I agree with this sentiment as well because it's absolutely true that engaging with material is what helps to keep it going but i also believe tha external validation cant be an only motivator. with regards to things like monetization and publishing and other big stuff engagement will absolutely be necessary but it's a matter of striking the balance with other things overall i think
like in some places it genuinely does feel difficult to engage and so for those reasons i stay quiet but i try to make up for it in other ways like sharing online or via word of mouth. if it's an instance where i feel capable of interacting then i will but also i worry about the mindset that people ought to feel obligated to engage because yes it's very good for creators and creatives but some folks really struggle and those things have to be taken into consideration, hence balance
That's something I honestly don't get tbh ... If feeling like no-one loves your work is the reason why you wanted to quit, then wouldn't realizing that your work is loved make you no longer want to quit? There must be something else there that makes you still want to quit. Maybe you were hoping for more consistent engagement. Maybe you actually don't want to quit now, but feel the need to commit to your decision so that people don't accuse you of threatening to quit for attention (that sucks, please don't ever accuse anyone of threatening to quit for attention). Maybe it's something else entirely.
Simple and cheap perhaps, but it's most definitely not the easiest way to make an impact, at least if you want your comment to be the kind that the author remembers, the kind that isn't just a glorified like. Even if you 'absolutely adore' something, it doesn't mean it's easy to explain why.
I do agree though that it absolutely is insensitive if it's framed as 'oh, but people can love your work but never tell you, so stop complaining about how people aren't showing you enough love'. You're allowed to want recognition for your hard work.
(Replying to both you and @DokiDokiTsuna )
I get both sides of the argument, and you both bring up great points.
This post wasn't meant to come off as 'don't complain about lack of engagement,' because it's completely valid to feel frustrated that people aren't commenting or visibly interacting with you work.
I feel there needs to be a balance of your own drive to make your comic, as well as being excited to share it to other people. It can be pretty hard to spend hours working on something only to get little attention. I've been through it on social media, as it's hard to build a following.
However, if I focused on that, I wouldn't have continued making art. For me knowing that there are people who appreciate my work even if they're not always directly saying so is a positive thing, but I get why people don't see it that way.
I think these people become more vocal because they feel like saying something will stop the project they like from ending. Yes, it sucks that they don't always interact, but that's just the way some people consume content they love.
I advocate for letting smaller creators know that their work is appreciated, which is why I'm much more likely to comment on a comic with a smaller following as I know the comment could mean a lot to the creator. With larger comics, I'm much more likely to get drowned out by other comments.
This post was really just supposed to remind people that there are likely more people who like their work then they think (whether this is helpful or not depends)
I was mainly speaking from personal experience, as few people who I rarely see commenting have told me they've kept up with work for years, which caught me by surprise. Ofc not everyone will let you know, but they exist.
I don't know what the conclusion to all this is, but it's complicated, I guess.
Sometimes I just don’t know what to comment, but I do usually like an episode (to let the creator know I read and enjoyed it).
I read the other comments posted too, and someone’s usually said/asked what I would have written anyway. 
I was hooked by a canvas webtoon that was made in august '21 the concept was really nice and the characters are charismatic the creator was one of my followers and she'd DM me to review her comic, sadly she's really busy with her own life problems and stopped publishing.
Never commented on her webtoon page but I did let her know that I support her and that I've got crazy over her characters
Hope this helps someone
That's a good question, and the reasoning you brought up definitely applies in a lot of cases...but I think one that you overlooked is that, for everyone to come in and tell you they like your work at the last possible second just feels...insincere.
Like, you had all these chances to say something. There were probably instances where I asked for your opinions and feedback, or tried to do things based on what you wanted; you, the audience that I genuinely wanted to entertain at one point or another. In the context of a story, there were probably big important events and shocking twists and revelations that I thought you might have some reaction to.
And I got...crickets. For all I knew, you just didn't care.
But NOW that all of a sudden your art-machine is leaving, the content stream is about to be cut off, NOW you care. None of my decisions were worth your commentary EXCEPT my decision to stop entertaining you.
The situation itself is almost dehumanizing, and after all the hurt you felt working on your art and feeling like no one actually wanted it, for many it could be the last straw. Like, it'd probably be healthier to put the whole thing behind you and move on, whether these people mean what they're saying or not.
To give a real-life example: I still remember that thread I made where I said I wasn't going to post novels on Tapas anymore. I was all depressed and I vented all my frustrations...and as if by magic, people started searching out my most recent novel and giving it likes and subs. As in, I never gave them any links: they went to Tapas and looked it up of their own free will, just to support me in my hour of sadness. Not even previously-silent fans, people I didn't even know, who had probably never read any of my work before!
And at the time I just...laughed (and deleted the novel anyway). ^^ If I were younger, I would have thought this was a sign I shouldn't quit; that maybe I could use these pity subs to build a 'real' audience. But I'm old, I've been through it before, and I know it wouldn't have been worth it.
I'd always know why they were there. And they'd probably always know why they came: because I was sad and they wanted me to not be sad. That's not the same as liking someone's work...no one wants to follow someone out of guilt or obligation; even if you genuinely want to like what they're doing, there's always this pressure that you HAVE to, or else you'll be letting them down.
Is that what you want, as an artist? An audience who stays only because they feel it would be rude to leave...? I think it's just as bad, if not worse, than having no audience...which you'll eventually end up with, as these people mature and realize they don't owe someone their continued attention just because they were sad one time. It's just a bad deal for everyone involved.
I get that: sometimes it's hard to construct a comment that says what you really want it to say. But if you think it's important, you can always...work at it. A little? Plan out what you want to say, look at other nice comments that you think were written well? Something...?
Like, if it's worth doing, it's worth the effort....and in all honesty, this shouldn't take much effort. Writing a comment isn't like writing a book; it doesn't have to be amazing to make the recipient feel good about reading it. It can be something as simple as telling them one thing you liked about what they did, or how much you've been looking forward to it.
If anyone wants advice, I could start a thread about writing comments. ^^; I'm not trying to be mean, but...it ain't rocket science, dudes. With a few pointers and some practice, there's no reason you should be incapable of saying something nice to an artist when you want to.
Ah, gotcha. Yeah, in that situation I would probably also feel like I'm only getting 'pity subs' and that they're not genuinely interested in my work. I think I was confused because you've described two very different situations here, which is clear now that you've spelled it out but seemed to be kind of lumped together in your previous comment:
- the people who see you as an 'art-machine', and only decide to interact with you when they're about to lose their source of entertainment. I can understand feeling like these people are jerks and finding their behaviour dehumanising, but I don't understand finding their behaviour insincere; interacting with you so you keep producing more work to me is a surefire sign that someone wants you to keep producing your work, which means they're interested in it, and if anything their lack of engagement beforehand kind of tells me they aren't the kind of people to engage with creators just to make them feel better
- the people who rush to your support and give you pity subs in your hour of sadness. I can understand feeling that they're insincere, and are only trying to make you not sad and following you out of guilt and obligation, but I don't understand feeling like they see you as an 'art-machine', because deep down, they don't really care about your work and therefore wouldn't care if you stopped producing it.
I wouldn't want the second kind of last minute attention either; I don't want 'an audience who stays only because they feel it would be rude to leave'. But the first kind, I honestly don't mind. I don't mind being seen as some abstract entity that churns out content, and that works for me because I've set a precedent for having inconsistent uploads from the very start so people won't feel entitled to a certain level of output. If people like my stuff, I'm happy, even if they don't care about me as a person. But I guess I may have been a little insensitive to people who do care, and dismissive of their feelings of being dehumanized, which are very valid.
I guess I was being a bit hyperbolic; I didn't mean to say that writing comments is an incredibly difficult thing that takes herculean effort. What I meant was that I think you were also being a little hyperbolic; I don't think leaving a comment is 'the easiest way to make a real positive impact on an artist and support them on their journey'. It's does take some work, like you said. It's certainly harder than a rich person getting their computer to throw a couple of bucks at you every month.
As for a thread about writing comments, I won't deny that I'll probably find it helpful, but I might not end up commenting on it ... so ... uhhhhh .... XD
.. I comment very few times. BUT I almost always leave likes 
How hard is it to write 3-word novels such as:
"I loved this."
"Best episode yet."
"More please, thanks!"
"Broke my heart."
"I'm not crying."
"Feels so real."
Sure, they're not much but they're comments. On a platform like this, it's never 100% that "a view" is actually "a read" or that "a read" means they enjoyed it. But a comment is pretty sure evidence its writer was engaged.
Those are basically glorified likes. A like is also equally evident of an engaged reader.
I guess these at least specify the kind of emotion the comic evoked in you. But now I'm imagining myself commenting these word for word on every comic that makes me feel this way (because there are only so many ways you can write "Broke my heart" in 3 words), and then the authors realise I'm commenting the same things on other comics and feel like I'm being ingenuine. That's admittedly an unlikely scenario though; maybe I just need to be less paranoid :'D
I don't think authors are going around stalking what their readers comment on other series 'xD Many of mine subscribe to over 100 series and I don't know about you, but I've got better things to do than to check their commenting habits on all of them ;p
Haha yeah. I guess it's also an internal sense of 'shame' though, for lack of a better word. I see everyone accusing society/people/each other of being insincere on a regular basis, and I kind of worry that everything I do is insincere. Maybe it's just me though
Of course those are only examples of minimal things that can be written quickly but convey connection. I wouldn't recommend pasting the same thing everywhere, either. And I agree that a Like is some form of engagement, somewhere in between nothing & a short comment, and a short comment is not quite as great as a long comment. It seems like many writers/artists also are disappointed by how seldom folks remember just to tap the Like button.
Yeah, but there are only so many sensical and fitting short comments that it's effectively the same thing. I just want everyone to stop accusing people of being insincere so I wouldn't feel weird saying stuff :'D
I try to comment more, cause if i remember right the sites algorithm relies on comments
I just worry about saying something wrong so I usually just 
