The Future of Tapastic

[NagashiKhan]

As a creator and artist myself, it makes no sense for me to devalue art. No, I never said art isn't an occupation. My own desire is to make comics for a living. No, I never said people don't put effort into their work. I know well the effort needed to make and run a comic series, I can hardly muster enough myself. That was not the point being made.

I ain't gonna defend myself though, that'd be too complicated and won't really fix anything. However, I will say that my man @ck_tapastic said right there that crowdfunding is important, they know that. @michaelson has said time and time again that the goal is for money earning to be widespread and available to everyone. What about this announcement dashes that ideal? Just because the TPS is discontinued does not in any way mean one will not be able to use Tapastic as a way of earning money, even as a main source of income.

As far as the "losing their marbles" comment, I think the attitude in which people are addressing the subject are... less than savory. Concern is one thing, judgement is another. But hey, if that's not how ya see it, maybe I'm just crazy. I've been known to be very wrong.

[Jrej]

I was looking forward to try the support program. I hope other ways to support our art will be set. I loved Tapastic for that.

[eweyer]

This is a question for me personally, but others may be just as curious
about this matter, what will happen to the money credit that has been
placed onto my account? I use that money only for the support program
because I want to steadily support creators and I personally don't agree
with buying something that exists only in a digital form like how the
premium comics are set up. And if the premium system is going away as
well because it also relies on the credits that are in the account like the support program, what
will happen to everyone's money that they can no longer use on the
website?

[noxfox]

In echo to @SeraphicMayin and because all this talk about the App brings another question to my mind:
Will ad revenue be the only way of monetization left to the Desktop site?
I'm part of those who can't afford a smartphone (and don't really want one), so I'm worried that the App might take over the Desktop site, and that it might become necessary to make content geared for the App in order to keep on making money. Problem would be that it's hard to make content without being able to preview what it will look like on the target device. I'd really like to know what's planned for the future of both the App and the Desktop site.

[swallowsofdoo]

If you are going to communicate like this please go away.

[swallowsofdoo]

Actually I'm as curious about what is the current business model is. I can't imagine ads are bringing in enough revenue to make the site profitable yet, and aside from the occasional paid promotion i.e. Kiyat Games I don't see any other revenue streams other than the support program.

[bonniepangart]

I'm happy for Tapastic to move to new frontiers, though I can't help to feel sad about the cancellation.

I'm having a good time using Tapastic SP, it createed a strong bonding between me and my fans. Right now I'm more worried about the status of their support and delivering their milestone rewards. After the SP ends, I think I'll change to sell prints/merch instead of having monthly support.

I have been thinking about using Patreon, but I need to accumulate much more fans to make fan support a bigger part of my income. I don't think it will be worth the work on Patreon if creators only have a few supporters.

All the best to the tapasic team and creators, looking forward to more news!

[cute2knowu]

Well that just sucks... But hey, I can't complain.
I just hope this website doesn't end up like other websites.
Anyway... I was just wondering if you guys where ever going to make a Windows App for Tapastic.

[egypturnash]

IIRC Patreon are now charging patrons the moment they sign up to support someone on the monthly payment, so they can't look at everything for free. I'm on the pay-per-work-unit so I don't keep too close track of that stuff.

[sakko]

I seriously think you're going to lose a lot of member if you're going to discontinue the Supporting Program. Since that is also one of the things that encourages the artists the most. I'm not saying trying out new things is bad, but the Support Program makes Tapastic special, and having to follow two different sites just to keep yourself updated on the same comic it's indeed inconvenient; I'm positive that almost all the community membes think the same.

[kimbergrey]

I find this post cynical, condescending, and unnecessary. Until I read this comment, the replies I've read in this thread have been civil and to the point, expressing reasonable concerns. Many of them have hopeful tones in spite of what could potentially be a detrimental change to artists' livelihoods. Anytime someone discusses their livelihood, you can expect trepidation, and insulting them for a rational reaction is childish at best. I feel as though you are guilty of the very thing you are accusing the other members of this forum of doing: overreacting and replying with unhelpful negativity.

Please try to sensor your cynicism in the future, it strangles your message, which I believe was meant to be one of support for Tapastic and encouragement to hold out for the final result. Unfortunately, it just read as hateful.

[MylCreates]

Yes please! The monitizing part was rather a questionable area . So now we just have to rely on Patreon for all of that? How does early access to episodes work then? Will Adsense continue to run?

[MylCreates]

Question:
If the support program is being discontinued, will the ad revenue continue to be an option? Or should I just get what revenue I've been adding up in there out asap?

How will rewards that were granted from the Tapastic program play out with Patreon supporters?

[getsuart]

I'm sorry, my only quesiton for now: when will the livestream about this announcement occur again?
I read Thursday somewhere but I must say all the pots went so fast I may have missed some. Most of the questions I'm asking are always being asked, so... well. Just wanna know.
Thanks!

[PotooGryphon]

I'm currently in the middle of organizing these questions to try and tackle as many of them as possible on Thursday.

Nope, no mention of a livestream, just posting some answers to concerns. I'm sure they'll plan out a livestream with more advance notice with a questionnaire to ask question like how they usually handle townhall meetings.

[getsuart]

Aw thank you <3
Okay, I'll just stay... here and wait, then

[brandysconfien]

Really! This is a ridiculously stupid move on the part of your company.

With these radical changes to our apps, we’ll have to make some compromises to the desktop version of Tapastic. Namely, we’re discontinuing the Tapastic Support Program. The program has been in beta for the better part of the past year with numerous revisions and updates.

Our decision to discontinue the program is due to providing our new business model with the best possible chance of success. Our Support Program relied predominantly on the current credit system, which conflicts with the new infrastructure required for future builds of the app. We want to begin utilizing Apple and Google’s in-app purchasing mechanics to improve overall user experience.

With that being said, we encourage all of our creators to use Patreon. The fine folks there are building a fantastic service that we believe can work in tandem with Tapastic. We’ll make it easy for creators to promote an external crowdfunding campaign right on their episode page. We still believe that crowdfunding and community building are foundational elements of any creator’s career.

Many of us readers and authors moved over to your site from inkbalzers after it's shutdown. Now you are telling us that we are going to have to find a new home all over again? Are you trying to run your company into the ground? Do you realize just how many creators had to go back through all their work and restructure it to fit with the formatting of your website? They did this hoping that their supporters would follow them and their work to a new site. How many do you think just gave up on trying? It took them months if not a whole year to get their fan base back and to get support for the work that they produce. Now you are telling them that you are going to take that support away and if they want to keep it they have to move their work elsewhere. This act on the part of your company is a gross betrayal of the trust that they have placed in your organization. To be quite frank with you this is just 'bad business' on your part. How can any creator even think about joining your site in the future when you treat those that you already have like they are meaningless?

[jim]

Is it possible that the credit system being discontinued means that the Support Program can't exist in its current form. And that the new marketplace would make the SP more or less redundant since they are exposing new ways for us to monetize our work anyway.

I'm pretty excited to see what the changes might be--tapastic has not let me down yet.

I do worry about being overwhelmed by a tsunami of fanfiction making it even harder to find exposure. But I imagine it will be addressed. I can't see how you could provide a marketplace where copyrighted characters aren't going to be a dangerous problem.

Fingers crossed.

[PotooGryphon]

Now you are telling us that we are going to have to find a new home all over again?

??? Patreon isn't a webhosting site. Just a micro-transaction funding site. Artists can still post on Tapastic and grow their fan base here with or without the Support Program. However, if Support Program ends Patreon would be a good alternative if artists want to continue building a patron style support program. The site is basically just a tip jar for artists.

[michaelson]

I'll be responding to as many replies as possible and if I skip over your question please feel free to tag me (@michaelson). However, there are certain questions that I just won't be able to really answer because there's a limitation to what I can and cannot talk about in regards to our future plans for Tapastic.

Can you describe what you men by "novels"? I assume these are literally text only stories of a minimum length, but I wanted to confirm.

Yup, you got it.

So if I want to continue doing early release for supporters, I'll have to mirror on Patreon?

Yes, unfortunately, we won't be able to integrate any of Patreon's paywall features to our platform for the foreseeable future.

Setting Patreon is a heck lot of work in order to make it decent and I firmly believe that most of my Supporters would not follow me there because people don't like migrating. The SP is really one of the BIG things that made Tapastic so appealing, and I've always mentioned it to other comic artists as an argument to come on Tapastic (I'm so eager about the site that I've often been asked if I was paid to promote you guys xD).

Sad about the support program! I've been really looking forward to getting involved in that. Just wanted to repeat @noxfox's question about whether other crowdfunding sources will be integrated - they're right about it being a pain to migrate! The support program really was one of the (many) great things about Tapastic.

This is also one of our concerns moving forward. We aim to work closely with all of our Support Creators in order to transition as many current supporters to other platforms. If it is within our means to help, we will do everything possible. We'll be optimizing the series page to help but also be providing one on one assistance. You can always e-mail me at michaelson@tapasmedia.co for any help regarding the transition.

The awesome thing with SP is that it's easy to set up and all in one place. You mention tandem with Patreon, but would that mean actual partnership with Patreon gateway built in Tapastic (and vice versa to invite other Patreon comic artist to publish here) or would it be like parallel bicycles driving in the same direction and waving at each other?I would be quite peeved to have to be on two platforms at the same time, unless there's a big benefit to it.

While we won't be focusing on recruiting Patreon creators to join our platform, we will be doing our best to optimize our creators to link to Patreon or any other crowd funding platform. So... parallel bicycles driving in the same direction and waving at each other. It's not ideal, but we'll try our best to make it work.

Will adding novels have chapter by chapter functionality for spaced out releases or will they have to be released all in one? Also are these like e-books that are purchased through you guys but readable on whatever e-book platform or will it only be through Tapastic?

We'll be releasing more information in regards to the structure of the novels section soon.

...And Patreon isn't geared toward comics. It's like dA. Have you tried putting prose on dA? Nobody gives a fuck about it because dA is all about visual art, really. No picture, no damn to give. From what I've heard, it's pretty much the same on Patreon. There are so many different types of content that you can't target a specific audience as easily as you can on Tapastic. Here everybody's in for the comics, we know what we get to find. Networking and marketing ourselves on Patreon would be much harder because we'd be lost among unrelated offers and entertainments media. The only way it can work is if Patreon were to create a dedicated service for comics.

There are a lot of comic creators that have found varying levels of success on Patreon. Much like the Support Program on Tapastic or any other crowdfunding platform or tool, marketing yourself is required - whether that be internally or externally to the site itself.

Of course, we will there every step along the way to try to help as much as we can.

And I personally find their graphic style to be really ugly, this orange and the fonts are so retro 70s and aggressive :/

I agree that their overall design and aesthetic doesn't match ours - can't compete with our design sensibilities BOOYAH but their site is pretty clean - I appreciate that. Maybe they just need to add some green to their site.

For now it's kinda scary to think we might be loosing our primary source of monetization without knowing what we may get to replace it (Patreon doesn't sound like a proper replacement because it implies effort, and if we wanted to be there, we could already be there --some of us yet have accounts on both Tapastic and Patreon, and will lose money by loosing SP).

We want to work closely with creators in order to mitigate any loss of income. While this change is very drastic we want to give creators ample time to make this transition in order to start learning what works and what doesn't work when transitioning supporters to other platforms.

This will be a community effort, for sure.

---

We name dropped Patreon in the parent post, but we want to make it clear that we'll be supporting all creators regardless of what platform they choose to gravitate towards whether that be launching a kickstarter, gofundme, paypal tip jar, etc.

I know that naming Patreon caused some confusion - so we apologize for that. We know their platform very well and were comfortable with suggesting them as we are all heavy users of their site. We hope to work together with all our creators to help outline the various pro's and con's of each platform to help everyone make more informed decisions.