Tapas front page is insanely cluttered

[Harajuku]

And alot of you are probably thinking, to yourself, "man, I'm used to this, It showcases a bunch of comics, including the free ones!" but, I think this is quite part of the problem, especially when you compare this layout to webtoons, or the obvious Lezhin influence. The problem here is that Tapas wants to be able to both show the community (free) comics and the premium (paid) ones at the same time, without much foresite on how a new reader will just stay on to top page and only pay attention to the top of the page, this is possibly why people outside the site aren't even aware that free-to-read comics/novels exist on this site! The fact that you even need a community tab is insane to me.
And heres the part where i show you the old layout for comparison:

it's a bit easier to digest, isn't it? Not to mention They're used to be "Spotlights" which where when tapas used to devote an entire front page to one comic (often community comics) which where vastly more useful than a community tab 7 tabs deep into the front page.

tapas's weird layout has effected the visibility of many comics here, I'll show another example, this time inside the comics tab, in the romance section (this is the automatic tab you see in the modern site)
New tab:

is it on purpose to push paid comics over the free ones? maybe, I understand how hard The staff works, and most of this is the direct result of being brought by company with an insane backlog of romance comics, and the contract prehaps makes tapas promote these comics first and foremost. but there is a clear solution to this, My opinion is that they should just have a "canvas" like tab in the top of the front page, it'll definitely improve user experience on both sides, because as it stands, it's making these free comics practically invisible. and making the front page, far too much to look through. lol

[conventurecomics]

I think these are from there studio comics. Webtoons does the same thing and webtoons are trying out contests to find their new origionals. I don't know if the webtoons contest thing will work. That might be why tapas does not run contests I'm ok with that.

[thepenmonster]

According to all of my blockers Tapas tried to send me 13 different trackers loading up the front page. The forums have at least one. I have no idea how bad it is on phones or in the app because phone screens are shit and I try to avoid using them for my entertainment whenever possible. But I doubt it's a good experience because it's always a terrible experience.

The reason Tapas and Webtoon still carry the free/non-studio comics is simply because they can earn more money from them than they spend on hosting them. Obviously via data-mining. However they can get a lot more out a paid comics they have more of a stake in, which is why they're prioritized. And since places like Netflix or SBS Korea or some anime company sees free content as low value they are less likely to make a nice high profile series out of them.

So...

is it on purpose to push paid comics over the free ones?

The answer to any question you may have about why a company does something is simply, "Hello! I like money!"

But this is the system we all agreed to. It all comes down to what you're willing to overlook in exchange for the stuff you want. And it seems most people don't mind a cluttered mess of a front page that ignores the long tail. So it goes.

[darthmongoose]

You know only like 10% of all Tapas users even use the browser page though, right? Mostly it's only used by creators, and the vast majority of users are on the app.

So the site is probably really low priority for them to change or update.

And there IS a "canvas like tab" on the front page of the app, called "community".

[Harajuku]

I should mention I'm strictly talking about the desktop version of the site, which is a bit different from the mobile site. in fact I think the mobile layout is fine, it's the desktop version that translates oddly.

[darthmongoose]

That's kind of my point though.

Why should Tapas spend resources updating a site that, while not perfect, works well enough, and that isn't even used by 90% of their users?

They have a lot more premium comics now (and a lot more comics in general), and a contract with Kakao that puts them under obligation to market them. If they were featuring just fewer works generally, it'd be way worse because no community works would ever get featured (because there are so many Kakao works they need to fill the quota on).

They're probably not that bothered that around 10% of users, most of them creators who will likely mostly find and follow community creators they find on social media or the forums, are being shown mostly premium comics and need to find the "free to read" switch if they want to browse for other free content.

A lot of creators don't even really read other people's comics and novels; as evidenced by all the promo threads where people drop their links and run ... so I think Tapas have probably feel like the site is a really low priority item compared to things that bring more users to the app and encouraging them to read more stuff on there.

[system]

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