I recently started uploading a comic here and being active on the website instead of mobile app, and I noticed that many (mostly unknown) creators post "thank you for subscribing" graphics on other people's walls. I wonder if it's a normal thing to do to make more people see your work or is it seen as annoying and desperate?
May '18
Jun '18
I've always seen them as a "thank you" to subscribers, but I can see the argument that these posts also double as advertisement. I wouldn't think people are that wily.
What I do is thank them with a private message.
I mostly do it to acknowledge the person that subscribe (wouldn't think of it advertisement). If it was going to random people's pages and asking to check your comic that for me is a big no-no O_O Now if person post the link to their comic while thanking you for subscribing...then yeah that seems weird.
You know, this might be a good suggestion for Tapas as in been able to put in an option to opt-out of 'thank you for sub' post if people don't really want to receive them. Say when someone is about to post in your wall a message pop up (if you opt to the 'no thank you for sub necessary' option) which will let the person know that you don't want or don't need to receive a 'thank you for subbing' message.
I know is common and we do it for simple action of being thankful, but for some readers it might be annoying and that part is understandable.
Or be able to pin a top message stating you don't need a 'Thank you for subbing' message.
That's not entirely fair? While there are lots of suggestions I wish Tapas would prioritize, they do make an effort to listen to their users. They're a small team of people, so what they can get done in a timely manner will vary, and they're also people with their own opinions and priorities.
I am sure they listen to suggestion, but is got to be a group of people suggesting the same thing over a period of time. Is hard to react to every single suggestion unless is by a large number of people. Doesn't hurt to suggest either
I don't feel here nor there about thank-you posts. The majority of users are on the app, which means they neither see the thank-you, not do other app only users. That said, I think it's both a nice way of showing appreciation and a useful way for people to glimpse your art. I've looked at comics because I liked the thank-you picture on someone else's profile. But I'm nosy like that?
I think the only thing that bugs me about it is that app-users have no idea either way about it, which means they're not in a position to delete the thank-you's if that so desire. Most of them probably don't know they have a profile page, so anything could be posted to it without their knowledge.
However thank-you messages are pretty harmless, and I assume they do it because they see other people doing it, and it seems like "a thing" and if it happens to also have an advertising bonus, why not? Again, harmless. ((but everyone has the right to delete whatever off their pages))
Most people I've seen are neutral about them or like them. I've only ever seen a few who dislike them.
If you're unsure about posting them, check the user's wall to see if they've gotten any before and how they react to them (could also PM them asking about it).
But like others have said, many readers now are on the app and are unlikely to ever see their own profile wall.
EDIT: ALSO, if I recall correctly, Tap only has 2 full-time devs, so this is a lot of site for just 2 people to handle, profile walls are on a lower rung of the priority ladder.
Only TWO full-time devs?
Is Tapas not bringing in enough revenue for more full-time employees? Because that seems grossly understaffed.
Not sure if they are planning on hiring another dev anytime soon.
On their About page2 it lists 2 devs and a couple more engineers, which seems enough to handle day-to-day issues concerning bugs and stuff like that.
But yeah, 16 people. That's Tap's full time core group.
I write a personal one usually. Mostly because I only have 52 subs on my comic. A new sub is an event for me.
I personally love them? I feel like it shows that the creator cares about their subscribers and I also really like snooping around other people's pages and seeing the thank you posts on their walls to find new comics~
I do send them myself but if I notice that the subscriber has reacted negatively to them before or something like that, I try to avoid posting them.
I have never thought about them as being "desperate". To me is like collecting posters or stickers of the music bands you like. Also is an acknowledgement by the author. Is an extra piece of art asides the comic. In this case I really fail to see why would I consider that annoying. As Daknight said, randomly posting images and messages asking for subs is tasteless. Yes those a despearte and annoying.
I believe users have a way to disable people from posting on their walls. I do post "Thank you" notes because I genuinely appreciate someone going out of their way to subscribe. I've noticed that on some users when I click on them to post a 'thank you' that there isn't an option to message them. I'm not sure if it's when they choose to 'hide library' or if it's another setting.
I always thought was a nice gesture and never as a desperate one.
But I've never done it, because I'm super awkward with this details and I knew about it too late :_)
When someone subscribes to my comic, I check their wall. If there are thank you-messages there from a while back, I figure they probably don't mind, or they would have deleted those.
I've been doing thank you posts for awhile, they're pretty helpful when you're just starting out because it helps you make a more direct connection with your readers, early on I got into some friendly one-on-one chats with some of my readers because of the thank you posts, I even got some good feedback sometimes. The other thing that's helpful is, if another creator follows you posting on their wall can be a little bit of a signal boost for you, I would also use it as an opportunity to thank those creators directly for their support and comment on how much I liked their work. Later on I was able to go back to some of those creators who I had started a dialogue with (many of which I had continued to chat with outside of the thank you post) and ask for guest comics (I ended up getting 9 of them!!!).
So yeah, thank you posts are great. They may not be the most effective way to grow an audience, but they're useful for connecting with your readers directly and building up a little bit of a community.
All of that said I'm going to stop doing them once I hit 500 subscribers and start doing something else, because I feel like I've outgrown them, and when I post I tend to get a decent number of new subscribers so it's much more time consuming than it was when I first started and I only had to make 2-6 posts in a week.
I've always seen the " Thank you for subscribing " posts as a way of people advertising themselves??? XDD I usually send people private messages saying thank you hahaha. Not that everyone does it for advertising, of course. I used to make " thanks for subs " post because I really felt happy about my first subs xDDD. Now I only do it in private hahaha.
Speaking as a programmer I seriously don't think this is easily achievable, because for a system to opt out thank you posts it has to 'learn' in a way what is a thank you post and what is not. And for that a machine learning specialist will be needed and also there is no way a filter like this would have a 100% accuracy on catching all thank you posts. (I mean if they just post an image, oh boy is it gonna be hard to be categorized as unwanted ...)
It's a lovely idea though, and if computer science advances further it will be possible to implement 
Ps. I dont mean to sound rude, and sorry if I do
Ps. ps. If someone finds an easier way of doing that , that'd be great 
Also I think there is an option where you can deny posts on your profile (dunno for sure tho)
Honestly I like getting 'thank you posts' , even if it is meant as advertising it's a nice gesture
I've also been doing thank you posts as a creator and naive as I am, I only realized they can be advertising a while back XD
Thanks for all replies! It's good to see that most people see these posts as nice gestures. I will definitely consider sending them in private or uploading on the wall. I've got one more dilemma: should I send 'thank you' to the people who are already subscribing my story or to the new ones only?
(oh god I'm so awkward in these things haha)
I made my thank you image recently and went back and said "Sorry this is so late! Thank you for subscribing! :D" or the like. But I only had maybe a dozen subscribers at the time. If you have a lot of subscribers, might want to just start anew.
I do thank you posts just to show a new subscriber that I appreciate them, however I don't post them on profiles that have their messages deleted since I know that would only annoy them. when people post them on my wall I honestly don't see them as advertisement, and I like getting them tbh
Nah is not rude, I know is impossible to do via actual stopping someone from posting cause it would need a lot of 'what if he post this' kind of rules.
The idea I had was a simple pop-up that appear to the one that will post to alert them that the person rather not receive a thank you for subbing message. This of course can be bypass since is just a notification, but is something I think most creators will probably honor this message or people will complain about them ignoring it which is pretty bad way to get a reputation xP
I dislike them because they are on my wall, and when I got flooded with them the most was ALWAYS when I was on break and posted a message saying so, resulting in quickly pushing down my hiatus / my family member died / my pet died announcements, which resulted in more people than normal harassing me for updates even though I announced I was taking a break because they couldn't find the announcement on the wall (downtime you would THINK would be a great time to catch up on other webcomics... guess those authors proved me wrong)
Honestly, the only ones I truly hate. Is when I get the "thanks for subscribing" posts when I NEVER ACTUALLY SUBBED TO THE COMIC. As apparently, there are certain individuals that will disguise their attempts to advertise on other peoples walls with FAKE 'thxs for sub' messages. After that I just started deleting them from my wall as soon as I see them unless I personally know the artist (before I would leave them up for a few days if I didn't have an important message I needed to stay visible on my wall)
I do the same thing (usually when I'm in the process of posting a thank you banner). It's usually a bigger/nicer image than just an icon, and since it's on the wall of someone following me, there's a decent chance of it being something I'll like, too.
I always try to leave a thank you for subs because I think it's fun and cute, and it helps me recognize subs better if I've been to their wall. The only time I don't is if the person has their reading list hidden, because if they don't want my icon on their page, they certainly don't need my banner.
I've honestly never found them to be annoying. Is it advertising? Absolutely, but it's with a purpose. All my work (comics) are hosted on pages that are entirely separate, so my profile is freed up for people thanking for subscribing. I don't care if it's the same image they send to everyone, they still took the time to draw it up in order to show appreciation regardless. I also found a lot of other cool series this way.
(realizes i don`t have a "thanks for subscribing" post) Now i feel like some sort of webcomic "rebel".....not sure if that is good or bad.
Oh I see :> yeah that could totally work~! I know for sure that I would respect a message like this if I saw one
I think it's a good way to start communication with my subs... I think if they feel shy to comment or engage in any way sending them a little wall message encourages them. I like to talk to my readers as much as possible. I'm an attention seeker lol
As someone with multiple series, I use the thank you posts as a way to a) say Hi to new subscribers and thank them for their support, and b) let them know I have other comics that they might enjoy.
Every time I do this I'm fighting my instincts that I'm being annoying! But people have only ever been positive, and more often than not it results in the person taking a look at my other comics and perhaps even subscribing.
100% true. x3x It's hard to rack up subs and I feel so thankful that I just want to give them a little gift.
I feel like I'm missing something. Are people honestly saying that getting a "Thank You" message is...wrong? Mind you, I've stopped myself because it gets real tiring to post such a message, only for said person to unsub later. Which could be for any number of reasons but the reason I'm giving my "thanks" is because of the support given and if that support is lacking, than I honestly don't want to thank you. There's a reason I'm thanking the person.
With that said though, what's the problem? There's a big difference between "Thanking for subs" and "Asking for subs."
It would be like getting your cup of coffee from Starbucks, saying thanks, and the person at the cashier looking you dead in the eyes an going.
"I don't want your self pity, asshole."
And even in terms of asking for subs I don't blame. It is massively difficult to get attention here on Tapas without extra help such as getting spotlighted. Trying to get other people to notice your series is a good thing and if nothing else, you should be able to offer something in return. You might sub to their work an then ask if they'd be willing to check your work out.
Either way, unless I've missed something has the concept of compliments become negativity now?
