The Future of Tapastic

[noxfox]

I must say I would REALLY miss the Support Program. 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).

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.

[DaveStankoven]

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? Also Also SUPPORT PROGRAM NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

[whydocowsfall]

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.

[noxfox]

Also we really need to know what other monetizing opportunities you're thinking about, because that will clearly impact the way we have to adapt ourselves to this new business model. 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).

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

[Mikiko]

I have to say I too am quite sad about the support program being axed. Hopefully whatever comes after will help us creators in a similar way? I use Patreon, but it is a lot of hard work and effort, and takes up most of my time...they also take a prett ybig cut, something I was making up for with my tapastic support. : (
I also have a lot of locked episodes reserved for supporters (and Patreon) only. I will probably have to delete those....
the ad revenue is nice, but not nearly enough to make a difference sadly.
My favourite part about the tapastic support program was also, how automated it was. Patreon keeps having troubles with payments being denied or failing or errors etc, to a point, where I am missing a minimum of $100 per month on top of fees being taken out. I had to manually remove people who didn't pay for months, etc.
Here, I never had to worry.

Whatever you have planned, I am looking forward to seeing what it is at least. Been really enjoying my time here and hope it will still be worthwhile for me financially in the end...

[guilhermecahu]

And there is a strong difference between Patreon and Tapastic's SP. In SP, supporters earn rewards by accumulating support, while in Patreon people receive rewards by their monthly contribuition, so no matter if you support someone there with $1 for 10 months, you'll never receive the reward of someone that supports with $10 on the first month. I can even remember it being stated on Tapastic's site that you guys found the SP fairer than Patreon.

[Dranif]

Novels, eh?
I've had such terrible luck with my series Legend of John the Parakeet as a comic on here that I may as well wait until novels (if what I'm thinking is correct about them) become available to post here and revise the original novel version of it I wrote a long time ago and put that up instead.
Maybe I'd have better luck with it in a novel format instead of a comic.

[stevenwall30]

Well. I had actually applied to the support program just 2 days ago, so I'm glad I read this when I did. will we just have to resort to things like Patreon?

[joannekwan]

I have to say I too am disappointed to see the Support Program go. While I'm not making too much from it, and it accounts for probably 45% of what I make from this site, the other 55% from ad revenue, it was nice to have this extra bit of spending money in my bank account. But please keep ad revenue, it's wonderful!
As a freelance artist, relying on commissions that come and go is not easy, so every penny counts. To reiterate what others have said, the Support Program is super convenient having it all here on the main site. But since it's leaving, would it be possible to have a donate button on our profiles instead? So readers could give a one time donation instead of a monthly "subscription"? I know Paypal has a button you can add to your personal sites for that but it's so ugly.

[ck_tapastic]

Thanks for the input so far. Yeah I know you guys have a lot of concerns. First of all, consider this to be a "heads up" announcement; it will take at least some months for us to start seeing changes, so it's not like something is changing right tomorrow. Also, @michaelson and I are thinking about hosting a live stream event to address this plan in person and also take additional questions, please stay tuned for additional announcements.

[EnzoComics]

I am sad to see the support program go away, but I'm excited to see the direction Tapastic is heading in the coming months!

[ChocolateRevel]

But the support program was what I liked about Taptastic
I'm really glad about the novel feature coming soon, but please don't remove the option to support artists financially directly on this website. Now there doesn't seem much point to me posting my comics on here. The support option was so much easier for me than Patreon. What about the credit still yet to go out in the next month? Please tell me it still will because otherwise I want my money back so I can send it to the artists I want to support in another way instead.

[winglesscomic]

Sad, just earlier today even I was flirting with the possibility of finally joining the support program. A shame. With Patreon's clunkiness, security and payment issues I am crestfallen that the support program must leave.

I hope we still get to keep the ad revenue program, so I can pretend I make some semblance of money off of 8 hours worth of drawing a page.

I also hope the future of Tap is a good one.

[Jacen]

Shouldn't the support system be kept at least till something in site can replace it? And as Mikiko mentioned what would happen to the support episodes?

I know it doesn't affect me, but it affects a good 60+% of the site.

[jjfresh]

Mmm, professional-speak. Depends on the business what it sounds like but they fundamentally the same.

Oh, after finally getting 500 subscribers to start the Support Program and even getting one supporter, great. I feel bad that now his $1 is going to waste. I'm curious what the changes will be but now I'm screwed otherwise.
I understand being more interested in mobile app than desktop. I'd appreciate not getting an alert every day at 3pm then.

EDIT Actually I know it will be several months but should I tell my single supporter that he can stop? I'm not going to gain any money since it's way under $25 and I don't want him to waste is any longer. Since this is a "heads up" I could wait until they officially say they are stop Support

[joannekwan]

Pretty sure you can turn off notifications in your phone settings. ^^
I have to manually go into the app for it to refresh on mine.

[fanyart]

Support program was what kicked me to start my new series TT_TT

I've always been persuading people to support me through Tapastic SP than Patreon, now I have to persuade them otherwise?

When are you planning to stop the SP? I'm in the middle of making a new comic for my support page so should I just make it only for Patreon or is SP going to run a few more months? Are you going to notify the supporters is it up to us?

Will the novels be completely separated from comics or can people make something like "novel version" of their comic?

[carloswebcomic]

Don't mind me, I'm just trying to get up from the floor after having the rug pulled from under my feet....

Please tell me you're not touching the ad revenue.

[noxfox]

When are you planning to stop the SP? I'm in the middle of making a new comic for my support page so should I just make it only for Patreon or is SP going to run a few more months

it will take at least some months for us to start seeing changes, so it's not like something is changing right tomorrow.

Please tell me you're not touching the ad revenue.

I think it's supposed to stay, but I think the App doesn't generate ad revenue?

Talking with other creators, one of us brought up the image of Patreon:
I've usually seen patreon refered too as a 'site full of artists begging for money' a 'site for youtube creators' or 'a site for adult/porn artists', and the big one "that site full of greedy artists that think they should get paid for their work and lock all their stuff up that used to be free'

...And so we wonder if it wouldn't be a risk from Tapastic (after working so hard to build up a good reputation) to team up with a site that has such a different image. Patreon is a pretty big name that most everybody knows, but it's not been associated with very good things recently. Owners have been accused of carelessness and neglection of a known crack in their system until it got hacked. I hope they actually cared to fix it actively, but it's still pretty worrying, I guess. Plus all the aforementioned issues.

[Strontium]

I'm not usually one to comment on these things negatively because so far Tapastic has been a great hosting site for me. But I'm sadded by the discontinuation of the Support System and confused by the expansion into prose.
I was hoping to be able to set up a SP after I graduate college, so that I could justify working one less day in the week (hypothetically) to make one more comic page a week, and update three times a week instead of two. I keep hearing about Patron getting hacked and not having all of the resources the SP has, and I'm worried I wouldn't get the same traffic there as I could here.

Also, as a prose writer, I'm not sure novels will work. Strangely, I was just looking at a tumblr post I made about this topic - how people are more likely and readily to engage in art and less likely to engage with writing. I've been posting writing on my blog for years, but I barely get anyone reading it, and it's not because I'm a poor writer. Something about writing just isn't as engaging when it's online. It's why I prefer self pub e-books to online serials; reading a packaged book on my Kindle is fun and easy, but scrolling through a story on the web? Not so much.
What's great about comics is that people can read them quickly, can get drawn in with the art, and they're much more accessible and shareable online than prose. Reading a page of a comic is a snap, and might take me 40 seconds; reading a few pages of prose, which might be the narrative equivalent of a serial comic page, will take me longer and is less engaging.

Well, that's just my two cents being an artist, writer and comic creator.