Thoughts on the new Webtoon Contest?

[outsiderice]

This is outside of the contest. Whether or not someone continues their comic after the contest is over isn't what is being discussed. That's "after the fact". We're talking about "during the fact"

My point was more about people who might be stopping now, after they've already uploaded something and are discouraged by the contest. They've already surpassed bigger hurdles against themselves, and to be stopped by something outside their control which may or might not turn out to be true would suck.

First-round is from June 11 to September 13. Eight winners are picked September 21. Which means the threshold between Sept. 13 and Sept. 21 are the main days for judging. From June - Sept -- you're just entering the contest and trying to get your work in. And this is where no judges or hosts are supposed to be involved yet.

Well, they didn't specify that time frame was going to be the only judging. And considering the amount of entries there already are and that still have to enter I wouldn't be surprised if they read them preliminarily as they're entered. (tbh I wouldn't be surprised if they already had a backlog)

To me those days between the end of the 1rst round and the announcement of the winners would be more for checking requirements of their good entries who cut it closer to the deadline and making a final choice.

Now, what would be fair is if Webtoons promoted ALL of the contest entries. Each day, or parts of the day, the website promotes a handful of the comic entries until they get through all of them (or until September 13)

That would be fairer (if discover and the contest were separated).

And it wouldn't make sense, it does say recommend, a certain quality is expected, those recommended look pretty sleek, or at least their thumbnails do, and there're entries which are not to that point quality wise.

Anyway I'm looking at the recommended titles and 8 out of 15 are contest entries (I hope it stays with that half and half ratio, if not it would suck for those not in the contest).

How long does it stay the same? And I think it's interesting to note that loads of those overlap in the same category, they won't all be able to win (4 from most laughs)

So they might actually go through a fair bit of entries by the time this is done ???

Anyway, whatever Webtoon is doing or not doing, there's not much you can do about it, maybe contact them with these worries? (they could definitely stand be clearer on loads of stuff)

[fleohr]

I think most of the entries are not for the contest, it's possible that people get too excited to publish their webtoons without reading the bottom where the "submit for contest(...)" check box is always checked

[beta1042]

definitely agree with you here. Seeing how many of the entries published don't meet the basic panel requirements.

[beta1042]

I really do feel like a lot of people could stop mid contest. And don't misunderstand what I'm saying here, I'm not speaking for all people, I'm not even speaking for myself. I'm simply expressing what I think is highly likely to happen among a variety of creators. Yeah publishing the first ep is the hardest, but it's no walk in the park to continue producing the comic. If you already feel like you lost then many will ask "why should bother investing more hours into making another ~200panels when this contest feels so rigged?".

Like I said not everyone will think this way. And to my other points in my other comment, hopefully not everything thinks that way either. But are there handfuls of people thinking this way? Probably. And that's the problem. It doesn't take a lot of people to have those negative thoughts for problems to arise. It doesn't take many people to question the validity of something before it can attract more like-minded people. And angry people usually speak the loudest. So webtoon would be smart to consider how to fairly promote contest entries, or not promote them at all...

Or who knows, maybe they don't care because they'll do what they want. To each their own I guess XD

[Hodge]

I think the series y'all were talking about just got removed from Recommended. I wonder if they're here . . . watching us . . .

[seru]

OMFG, they did!

I think it's all about algorithm. If a series reaches a certain number of subs, they go away. Don't quote me on that.

TBH, they should just remove reader engagement as part of the judging criteria all together or lower it to like 10% or something.

Then again, it's their contest. They can do whatever they want with it. And we're just out here competing for crumbs.

[eyewater]

please delete everything

[AllisonGal]

Although that serie was removed from recommended, there's another serie which they favor heavily after this one that's still on there.

Anyway if the judges are the same panel of webtoon staff that picks all the series everyday for their section then we pretty much know who will be the winners, very obvious. It would've been great if they could've chosen some other judges that isn't part of the webtoon staff. For example I saw in some contest online that the author of Naruto was a judge in a comic competition. At least have people with experience be judge that they will really look fairly at the content instead of the webtoon staff being so biased and having favorite already based on the author they like no matter if their comic has what they claim they look for (plot, strong characters, cliffhangers).I'm not saying they should call famous comic authors to judge but at least people with some type of experience who isn't from webtoon. That way we know it's fair cause right now it's just the same old favoritism from the same everyday team.

[Meraky]

Series are removed from the Recommended Titles when they've reached a certain amount of subs. Only one contest entry got removed from the recommended titles. All the others are still up there. Nothing changed.

[Samuraiflame]

This is the first time I've seen a Recommended title replaced in the middle of the day. They usually reshuffle them every 2 weeks-Month regardless of sub count, and hardly ever just 1. (Unless you're me, you get replaced after 10 minutes :') )

[Meraky]

Then why was it the only one removed?

[Samuraiflame]

They're watching us.

Jokes aside, I wouldn't mind if more contest entries were promoted equally, like via a randomized section for them somewhere on the Discover or main page.

[Hodge]

https://www.webtoons.com/en/notice/detail?noticeNo=790&page=1 Also, this is a thing now

[baka_reader]

with this strikt nudity policy of adwords many popular comics right now aren't really suitable for revenue..

[MK_Wizard]

I think it's a great opportunity to get new readers at least. I didn't join it expecting or even praying for gold or even silver. I am just hoping it's an open door of opportunity to get noticed.

[blackmangaofficial]

The contest is really frustrating to the new comers

[scythe]

I'm with you. I mean, sure I want to win some of that sweet sweet cash, but I'm not letting myself really think about that. For me, it's a perfect chance to make some small but very meaningful improvements to my comic, get it seen by some new faces and reset the 'algorithm' simply by starting fresh. My contest entry has only been up for two days and it's about to crack 100 subs, has a MUCH better rating, and looks like it's catching up to my existing Webtoon in the popularity rankings. For those reasons alone, I'm totally pumped for this event.

[MK_Wizard]

I noticed and I'm sorry that it is.

[jarzebiny]

Scythe, your comic looks amazing! I have a feeling it'll do well. The dialogue is beautiful. I subbed!

I'm getting ready to submit mine in the next few days, but I've never published a web comic or entered a contest before. Does anyone know if you have to meet the minimum episode/panel requirement right away when starting the series, or do we have until September to reach the required limit?

I have a few chapters ready but I don't really want to publish all at once. Seems like a quick way to lose people if I suddenly go MIA without updates while I'm working on catching up.

Don't really have any high hopes for any prizes but just want to gain some kind of audience.

[scythe]

Thanks so much for the sub, you're too kind!

Good luck with the comp too. No, you don't need to make the panel requirement in every episode, just as long as 4 episodes have the requisite number by the end of round 1.

And yeah, I suggest making sure you can maintain a steady update schedule. Taking breaks and inconsistency over the years has hurt me pretty bad in terms of maintaining views and engagement, and that's a key part of the contest.