"Thanks for the subs!" drawings posted on other's walls

[SpavVy]

It is neat that you do that for your subscribers but there will come a time when it will be harder for you to do that which is why many of us stick to just one image and for me that alone is still hard to keep up with now @_@ I at least try to type a different message but ugh sometimes it's just hard to show your appreciation when you get a sudden boom in readers, not to mention pressure to work on more pages.

[LokeHansen]

I really hope that I too will reach that point where popularity and attention make it hard for me to keep up with custom thank you messages. I know this is how things got for a huge amount of comics - just really hoping it will do so for me as well hehe

[tarableart]

Personally? I hate it.
It feels like passive-aggressive advertisement. Since coming to Tapastic and creating my own comic series I have wanted to support fellow artists by subscribing to their series as well. I don't mind messages of gratitude. I mind the fact that my wall is entirely comprised of other people's artwork. That is MY space to let my readers know information, not other artist's space to put their gallery. It irritates me every time I see a new message update and find a new picture advertising to my readers this awesome OTHER comic series. -_-

I refuse to do this to other artists.

[scottwuming]

LOL Wow, those are what I didn't like about Inkblazers too, the rampant shameless plugging and the race for popularity. I'm also glad that Tapastic doesn't have that feature and recognize that as unpleasant. They do, however, encourage self-plugging here on the forums, which is fine.

As for my views on the "thanks for subs!", generally, I am fine with it. Though copy pasted, the author at least dedicated their effort and time to post it on my page. What I cannot tolerate would be obvious spamming (like posting "thanks for liking..." over on my page). For a creator, this is just another tactic to advertise their works, of course, while acknowledging people for subscribing to them. I can understand that. We do need to put ourselves out there. I personally don't do it though, since I would rather create a single thank you post for each milestone.

[winglesscomic]

Hmm.. this is a long thread, my 2c is probably worth nothing by now, but I might as well say it.

I love thanks messages. I made an image specifically for subscribers because I want them to know that I really, truly appreciate the their readership and I am very grateful that they are giving me a reason to continue working. I know people don't like copy pasting. I try to make it personable by including their name and if they have something interesting in their profile, maybe I incorporate a little blurb about their description or comment on their avatar. But the bottom line is, no matter how I am posting the message, I am thankful for that person's readership.

I also like them because they're a way for me to find other comics. I would say 30-40% of the comics in my list are there because I have seen other people post their thanks messages on other's walls. I would have never found some of the comics I truly enjoy if I did not see them on other people's walls - why should promoting be a bad thing?

When those same people post their thanks on MY walls, it just means that anyone else who visits my wall also has the opportunity to enjoy that same comic that I like, and help get that author that I like more readership too. I like to help out other creators, and I think they deserve fans, so having a showcase of thanks messages on my wall of comics that I like is a way to help fellow creators get more readers. That's why I post mine in public rather than private, because I want my comic to be seen too!

Finally, I like them because sometimes if the person I'm thanking comments back, I start a small conversation with them and make a new friend. If someone posts on my wall, I try to say what I like about the comic so they can keep doing the good thing that they're doing.

I will be considerate if I see a message in someone's profile that says "don't post thanks messages" or something like that, then I will just move on and not post anything. And if someone doesn't have such a statement, or doesn't like them, then they can just delete them, simply, it doesn't matter to me. All I am doing is conveying my gratitude for liking my story.

I understand people do not like them cluttering their creator message walls, that is a legitimate problem I agree. I thought Tapastic had a separate tab for creator messages only with the new update, but I guess they do not. All messages that I post have pictures in them, so if anyone needs to see old messages they can just go into the image tab to see stuff, so it doesn't affect me much.

TL;DR: I like thanks messages because I like letting readers know that I'm grateful for them, it helps me find other comics, I like to help promote other creators and it sometimes gets me new friends. It would be nice to have a tab for creator-only messages.

[nobody]

Very interesting topic! When I first started posting on tapastic I felt like I should make these thank you images, because it seemed like a great way to show subscribers how much I appreciate their support and how much it means to me. Then I worried that some people might not want their walls filled with my artwork instead of their own - like some have expressed here - so I posted a thank you image on my own wall and notified subscribers about it instead - but then new subscribers who came after that post don't really get a thank you note...

But now it seems like a lot of people do enjoy getting thank you images on their walls (except for those who hate it immensely :P). Perhaps I should try the private messaging...I haven't been on tapastic that much, I didn't know there was a way to send images in PMs...

Self-promotion is crucial to a comic creator of course, and there's no doubt that these thank you images can serve both the purpose of showing your subscribers gratitude while also possibly drawing in new readers. Anyway, I don't really mind thank you images from other creators on my own wall, I think it's nice to know they appreciate my interest in their hard work, and I hope they will get more readers!

Although I do understand that it's frustrating for some to see their personal wall filled with other people's artwork while their own messages just sort of drown under all the "thank you"s. It might be a good idea, as mentioned by others, to have these images show up separately from the creator's personal feed.

[lastpizzaslice1]

well, I just made one of those pictures recently for my series. The point is that i feel thankful for every single person who subscribes to my series but at the same time i dont have time to draw a different picture for every single subscriber.Besides i find those thanking pictures cute ^u^ here is my picture

the picture is cute enough to me xD
here is my a link to my series too http://tapastic.com/series/The-Last-Pizza-Slice

[Drawnicula]

I love these pics, they show me that someone actually took the time to go to my profile, and every creator has their own unique ideas for them - I even got animated ones with my username in them!
However, I don't mind if someone doesn't make them, I rather see it as a nice little extra.

What I don't like is when they are so big that they fill the whole screen. There's a difference between a picture and a landmark^^

[apocryphagraphics]

If someone takes even thirty seconds out of their busy day to thank me for subscribing I'm grateful for it. I don't judge them for how they do it. I like the pictures and I send one myself. It never even occurred to me someone on a comics site would be upset by receiving a drawing on their wall. I don't mind if there's a little element of self promotion. We're all struggling to get our stuff out there. I'm not going to begrudge another creator for promoting the art they love. If I don't want it on my wall I erase it.

[muhdreams]

When I first started making comics here, I would send a thank you message to everyone that subscribed, mainly cause my drawing is pretty darn bad, so I thought I made a thank you image it would cause people to unsubscribe or something D:

That said, I haven't had time to everyone personally cause a huge wave of people subscribed to me and I forgot who the last person I sent a thank you message for. So now usually at the very least I would make time to go through my subscribers and read their series.

[RiverKai]

Ah I remember this forum thread. It originally scared me out of doing a thank-you illustration for my first comic, but I regretted it!
I posted thank you messages on people's walls, which pretty much no one responded to in the same way as the thank you illustrations I started posting for my second new comic this month. Plenty of people not only replied, but started commenting more, really appreciated it, and wanted to talk to me.
As an author who loves talking to readers, I would suggest that you try it out if you feel the same!

It seemed to boost my subs at first as well? I had to stop posting individually and start doing thank you illustrations after 400 because it took me an hour for every 75-100 thank you's once my subs boosted in that week. People love the separated thank you's posted for everyone (every 200-500 subs or so) too!

People say "don't reply to everyone" or "don't comment too much in response" but I honestly do not get that, unless it's a comment that is impossible to reply to or random, and here's why -- every single social media platform I've been on says they LOVE that I have actually replied to them, like it was some foreign thing. By replying to comments, people not only return to comment, but they become more interested in the story and plot, more interested in you, and more interested in seeing what others have to say, which is definitely more than most of us hope for after posting our pages and letting the comic live on it's own. It's a benefit, not a hindrance for people, and that includes the thank yous

[joannekwan]

When I first started on Tap, making thank you drawings didn't even cross my mind until I got a few on my own wall. I then thought maybe I should do the same, but by then I already have over 100 subs to my series and was like "welp." I just hope my subscribers know how much their readership means to me...

[elixiadragmire]

and the topic .... RISES FROM ITS FRESHLY DUG GRAVE!!!!

I know a few folks here have said their piece on how much they hate it, mainly other creators to be fair, but I've found that readers super appriecate them. @winglesscomic hits all the nails on the head in her post.

Being insular will cut down everyones readership and cause isolation, sharing and thanking and networking will open the door to lots of new readers, Now .... I still have over 200 more thank yous to do ..... my poor hands

[apocryphagraphics]

200 @elixiadragmire?! Wow! I hope to have that problem one day! Nice work!

[apocryphagraphics]

I just went back through my wall and I have to say again that I really love the thank you drawings! I got this one from @scythe and it puts a smile on my face every time I see it!

[elixiadragmire]

hehehe yeah, I still think its important to thank my readers, I dont want to stop. And yeah, I like my thank you drawing too .. they're like little badges of readership pride

[Kecreed]

---

Read through the whole thing since I'm really hesitant on starting my own thank you cards. I have to admit I found cool comics from looking at profiles too and I also love seeing it as a collection of images that will eventually be rare once that creator reaches a certain amount of readers.

I am feeling torn though because I don't wanna mess with anyone's private pages and I really wish there was a separate page like a Steam Achievement page. Seeing the images are great and all just wish I had a clean page for announcements.

[ComicKitty]

Did not think that people would have a problem with that practice. : /

I am happy over every new subscriber and want to show that I am happy and care about everyone of them.
Of course you also hope that the pic can bring new people to your profile as well.

[KSlinger]

I do this religiously and love getting thank you images back when I follow other comics. It's not just shameless plugging-- though I can understand why you feel that way-- it's a fantastic way of opening up dialogue between readers and creators. I get dozens of messages back after leaving a thank you images on peoples walls, ranging from gratefulness for having been acknowledged to genuine, interesting discussions about my comic or theirs, or other unrelated things altogether. I've even sent other artists links to tools I use, or tutorials I found helpful. I keep no secrets!

The copy and pasted message (which I do to save time, unless I recognise the person or they have a comic of their own I can comment on) is literally just an opening line. Or it is for me. If people want to ignore it they're more than welcome, but if it makes them feel they can talk to me I'd love to hear what they have to say.

There've also been many times I've got a comment from a reader saying they only found me because of a thank you image I left on someone else's wall and that they're really glad they saw it. How nice is that??

It's a real shame when users see this gesture as a selfish act on behalf of the artist-- though I don't blame them for that or expect all of us are of the same mind when we do it-- because from what I know of the creators on this site they adore their fans and are always trying to give something back.

We're not trying to worm our way into success, we're just trying to be polite and friendly.

[starlightcityentert]

I thank every subscriber...I don't see anything wrong with it. The creator could be a uppity jerk and just not say anything at all, instead they take the time to thank each person...that says more about how appreciative the creator is. I also check each subscriber's page if they have a series of their own and more times than not I find some really cool stuff to subscribe to and read through when I have time. I don't understand complaining about a gesture of gratitude?

Plus I've found many cool series by seeing a thank you note on another person's wall. But hey, each to his own.