Oh man, I was thinking about signing up for the support program too since I have a patreon for my other comic. It really is ashamed, but if it's all in the sake for making tapastic even better then that's good with me ^^
When the 'Novels' section gets added, theres a chance that the comics section might drop in views and newer artists might have trouble when it comes to being 'seen'.
Well, I don't read 300+ pages on a physical book in a sitting either, that would be very tiring and like @thorbjornlyk I don't like to read on mobile unless it has a big screen, so i prefer on desktop since i found it pleasing and comforting to read.
I'm glad you brought this up @noxfox, it was something I was curious about, as well. (Also the additional support for colorblind persons. :3)
Not only would it be good for helping out with feedback, but similar to comments on comic pages now, it would be interesting for readers to be able to select a passage or sentence, whatever, and say, "Wow, that was really powerful wording! I craied a bit, very emotional!" or, "This was hilarious! You really hit the humor here, it was perfect!" Like leaving comments on Word documents, is what I'm kind of picturing. Or, like nox said, forget commenting, I want to like a 'page' or 'section' of this! That was so moving, I want to <3 that so the author knows they really got to my emotions!
It's hard to do something like that for books and you want to talk about it with others--you have to remember where it was, what was said, bookmark if necessary... Having this ability would be a neat feature, and I think super helpful for writers, as well. As someone who loves to write, I would love to have a feature like this for my work!
As for actually selecting it on mobile devices... Eh, I don't know about others, but I sometimes have trouble getting my phone or tablet to cooperate with me when it comes to selecting. But I still feel like this would be an awesome tool, I'm just not completely savvy when it comes to app features.
One thing I feel I should respond to is that a lot of people keep mentioning Patreon's security issues. Not knowing much about Patreon I can't comment much on the security of the system, but likewise no one on this forum has the ability to judge the security of Tapastic's support program beyond the current dev team. Patreon is a big lucrative target for black hat hackers. Tapastic is not nearly as profitable a target and has very likely seen considerably less attention. Just because the support program hasn't been hit yet doesn't mean it isn't vulnerable.
unpinned Oct 22, '15
http://forums.tapastic.com/t/more-updates-on-the-tapastic-support-program/857531
We'll be continuing the discussion in a new topic. We have updates to the timeline of the Support Program and additional information here.
I hadn't fathomed there were people who could even try to read on something that isn't a tablet...
Nah, they're not the same audience because the experience is different, and if one must suffer, it will be the novels. Just as you can see with the success of gag a day series over narrative series, a lot of the users seek for a short experience, and visual arts provides them with just that: something they can enjoy in a single glance. Novels are much more time-consuming to get into, and while it's rather easy to appeal to those who don't casually read comics with a quick medium like gag a days, it's often harder to convince those who don't casually read novels to start reading one. The challenge is more difficult there, I think.
That's what I had in mind 
* big fan of Google Docs' comment system*
Among the things I had imagined for a writing platform was the possibility to indeed bookmark quotes and have a gallery of them like this. Authors could also be able to not only get access to those quotes in way to showcase them (to show what the readers liked most) but also bookmark comments and showcase them as well on their profiles in a "what readers say" widget.
"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."
o.o
"With that being said, we encourage all of our creators to use Patreon"
Hehehe, is it a consolation prize?... okey, I'm thinking about leaving the Tapastic site... bye, bye...If other authors abandon tapastic, you lose.
um... about the support program being discontinued... will the money earned be saved in my account? or I have to immediately transfer it to Paypal (since it will be removed along with the program)?
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1FISpircjgreiS_tRbnBCRQfZYIcVsXWFg68CcttkJdk/viewform10
We'll be hosting a livestream this Thursday (10/29) at 4:00 PM PDT. If you have any questions for us regarding the changes, please feel free to let us know by filling out the form above!
''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.''
I don't see how that could possibly be more important than the support program.
I am very disappointed.
Bumping this. The livestream is today. Tapastic Community, Please take a moment to submit the questions that have been bugging you since the announcement.
good reminder @CyndiFoster! and this will be my debut for livestream. i will be wearing a vintage Tapastic Tshirt 
see you all soon
1 month later
This is old news by now, but no, not everyone is contented with ad revenue. Since ad rev. relies on people reading/liking your comic, it varies a lot, and is subject to change depending on what else is popular that given day, whether or not you're ill and can't update regularly, whether a scheduled hiatus falls in one month or the next, etc., etc. It also depends on the individual circumstances of your readers - some months, they might have time to read your comic a whole bunch, and some months they might not have any time at all, which impacts the number of views.
Also, the number of views does not equal the number of ad-impressions, as not everyone who browses Tapastic comics have ad-block turned off.
Support pledges are a more reliable form of income, as the Supporter commits to pay a certain amount per month, and it also allows them to give money to their favourite artists without having to turn off ad-block, which most people want to keep turned on to avoid ads and possible malware.
But the Support Program is going away, so we'll have to make do without it, and hope our Supporters migrate over to Patreon.
I don't think ad revenue is THE solution for webcomic creators, nor do I think crowd funding is either - I believe that these are parts of a solution to a greater problem of monetizing digital content.
Our role as a platform is to provide various different ways for creators to explore these options either by building tools or allowing for third parties to integrate seamlessly (or as seamlessly as these third parties allow). At our best, we allow creators to spend more time exploring these options as we take care of the upkeep costs of providing a clean user interface, free hosting, community building infrastructure, and analytic tools (we are fixing these @AnnaLandin <3).
Should creators be content with ad revenue?
I'd argue no.
We have to think about it this way: In the next couple of years, will ad revenue make or break the webcomic industry? The answer is probably no. Will crowd funding? Possibly. It behooves us to explore something beyond that - or at least try.
Thanks for generating the discussion
1 year later
War of Neytives Returns for Arc II