Staff pick genre bias

[Zugaikotsu]

maybe because BL/GL readers don't want to stumble upon dozens of villainesses dressed as a frankenstein of roccocco/victorian/elisabethean style or some unemployed solo levelling dude... but this isn't against your point, it's just a bit of a bitter joke XD

[Ranty-cat]

Lmao. I understand.
Hey look, looks like someone is eavesdropping!

[Ranty-cat]

Oops the title cannot be seen due to the annoying captions...I went to the clip to take a screenshot. The title is "why is everything gay now"

Edit: It looks like I can see the title only when I click on the image. It’s not showing the full view.

[Caro]

I agree with @Kaydreamer on this one. I’m a relatively popular full time creator and I do not get the same type of interaction w my readers as i do on forums. I like talking about process stuff and ideas and most of my readers aren’t creators because that’s what happens when you reach a certain level of popularity.

[monotone_ink]

Of course there's a bias!

[DiegoPalacios]

"simping for a child" remeber that line? cus I did

i repressed that memory

[mlocik97]

Well I should better said "80% of Tapas content that is visible is BL".

It's good to see there is so much fantasy, but where? When I open my app, I don't see any on home screen.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Don't forget the BL series between a toddler who grows a wing and turning 18 overnight with his caretaker. I'd sure love high quality comics like that. Exquisite.

[DiegoPalacios]

Oooooof, that one was horrifying.......

[aqua03]

@DiegoPalacios @kaigaku @Freemints30

"simping for a child" remeber that line? cus I did

Don't forget the BL series between a toddler who grows a wing and turning 18 overnight with his caretaker. I'd sure love high quality comics like that. Exquisite.

Do I even want to know the details?

[DiegoPalacios]

for the sake of your sanity i recommend against it..........

[aqua03]

Okay, then I don't think I'll ask then. Those plot descriptions sound bad enough already...

[Llyrel]

What also annoys me is that they're always promoting premium comics. Like, would it kill you to shine a spotlight on the non-premium comics on your site as well?

^ This. It always cracks me up how about half of the "staff pick" section is actually made up of premium comics. Of course it's "staff picked", you guys already picked it when you chose to, y'know... publish it as a premium series :'D

Also, I totally agree with those saying that they're getting allergic to the word "villainess" that's my main gripe with the site right now: it's not even the fact that some genres appear to be more favored than others, it's just that it really does feel like there's only ONE VERY SPECIFIC TYPE OF PLOT that is allowed on the site.

Again, as mentioned many times already, I understand that Tapas is a company and that it needs the money, but I also agree with what @VibrantFox said here:

there does feel like there's a bit of bias or at the least a fault of constantly falling to the same genres, creators and so on, which isn't to say that any of these folks don't deserve the spotlight they're working hard on their series just as much as anyone else but these promos fail to show a more accurate picture of what's on the site as a whole which not only leads to creators suffering but the platform as a whole.

[domisotto]

Oh, totally. I am in the same place. I'm just saying the market is very consummer driven and super-oversaturated. So, even if 80% of writers want to wrote fantasy, but only 50% of readers want to read it online... yeah, it's unlikely that fantasy will be prromoted over a genre 90% of people wanna read.

[domisotto]

You are right. I just checked. But, 50% is definitely filled with romance. BL pretty much the same genre. Idk why BL and GL gets their separate sections from Romance...

That's because there was so much BL, the rest of the content was flooded out vs other sections that are sleepy (at least in novels). I mean, we are all benefitting from BL having its section. And a lot of it is starting to get labled as Romance, because you can't breathe iin BL it is so overpopulated.

[aqua03]

it's not even the fact that some genres appear to be more favored than others, it's just that it really does feel like there's only ONE VERY SPECIFIC TYPE OF PLOT that is allowed on the site.

And that right there is the main problem. It's not that there's too much of one genre being pushed, because even one genre can have a wide variety of different stories told in them (Lord of the Rings is not berserk is not Bionicle is not Kamen Rider Saber is not Legend of Zelda despite the fact that all of them can be lumped under some form of the "Fantasy" genre.) It's just that most of those stories on Tapastic that get pushed tend to be so samey in terms of art style, story, ideas and so much else. (For example: Most fantasy stories pushed seem to be some variation of the SAO/Solo Leveling inspired Isekai type story.) I get that Tapas is a business and they need to follow the money first and foremost, but it would be nice if there was a little bit more to help the smaller guys as well (even the ones who write in popular genres, but don't fall into the "Popular story type" of those genres) from time to time as well.

But that's just my thoughts on the subject anyways.

[Zugaikotsu]

You all (almost all) SO SENSITIVE to BL...but all good with hetero when is arranged/forced marriage romance or that edgy shonen inspired with overpowered babies groping tittiess.... when is gay, is uglyy, but when is hetero, 'boys gotta be boys'...

[Zugaikotsu]

I'm in this forum since 2016, I think... and every damn year, it's this same talk: "Oh daddy BL stole my success!! Those mean gays won't let me be the next big hit" and I'll say the same I say, every year... then they insert some obscure BL while for each of these I could listen at least 5 equal obscure hetero, and calls for witchunting the whole genre.

Most of these crying old people don't have a good productt. The art is terrible, a lot of unfocused 90's anime eyes and floating heads or awkward foreshortening and the writing needs refinement, at better, because if I read 10 chapters I still dont give a damn about the main character.

Think about this, children... maybe isn't BL's fault. Mayybe your story just sucks hard for a broad audience who doesn't give a single damn about the author's feelings and wants to have a good time. Maybe even if you got a banner in webtoons for a whole month everyday, you still wouldn't past 1000 subscribers, and perhaps this would backfiire at you and the business owner, because the average reader wants something well crafted.

And if I make jokes about the solo levelling boys and villainesse, it's just because of the tropes' titles. The art of them in general is amazing and they are well written enough to keep you interested for more than 5 episodes and purchase content. The same with most of the professional BL here that you think are your enemies.

No, your enemies are yourselves. Learn to do a damn good story and magick things will happen

[joannekwan]

[joannekwan]

Closing this because, due to past experience, these types of threads unfortunately turn toxic, hurtful and mean. And it seems like it's going that way.

Remember that trends cycle and it's more apparent on a smaller site like Tapas compared to WT.
First it was gag-a-days, then BL, and now villain/isekais. I know that the majority of the critique is for Tapas' curation of the front page, but understand that it can put larger creators who are featured on it in an awkward place when they see the critiques. It ultimately turns them off from interacting on this forum.
Not to mention those creators who make content in the category that is under scrutiny, threads like these can come off as attacks.